Dad’s Army

I took on my second community mission of the day at a new task in the south of the city in Stirchley. I met Steve, who is leading the project to bring the old Dads Lane Community Association building back into a fit state to be used by the local community again. They have ambitious plans to create a community garden, a courtyard area outside; while inside they had already knocked walls through to make more open space for community use.

The task I was given was to continue stripping the walls of multiple layers of wallpaper. Steve showed me a rather alarming tool that he had used to put holes in the plasterboard in order to get steam into the wall and make the stripping easier. It looked more like an implement of torture from a dungeon, but I took his word for it. Armed with a scraper and a steamer I tackled a wall in the corner of the main room, with up to a dozen local volunteers safely distancing themselves at various tasks in the room and in various parts of the building. He set us all up with a happy music mix and soon there was some heartfelt karaoke to Spandau Ballet’s Gold and we were all working away at a furious pace.

Before I knew it, Steve was reminding me of the time as I said I would be leaving at 3, but I spent a bit longer as I wanted to finish off the wall I had started.

After I left I ran down the River Rea Cycle Route to Cannon Hill Park, managing to dodge the rain showers again today.

Our Stirchley crew should enjoy this great task and I look forward to seeing what the volunteers have managed to achieve by the time I return next weekend.