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Jubilee Lake Tea Rooms

Outdoor Tables

30th April 2020:

Some months ago (before Christmas 2019) The RWB Shed chairman, Albi Richardson, was approached by the proprietor of the Jubilee Lake Cafe, Maxine Wrathall, here in Royal Wootton Bassett.

The cafe has four outdoor 8 seater picnic tables in need of some TLC. The Shed was asked whether it was within our remit & scope. Three Shed members, Albi, Tony Hutchings and Phil Howell, visited the site to review what was required.

After some general discussion it was agreed that The Shed could handle the work but that there were two problems. The biggest problem was going to be where to store the benches. This was because the timber was so wet they were going to take some time to dry out before they could be worked on. The second problem was with the Spring & summer season approaching, we couldn't deprive the cafe of most of its outdoor seating.

The Royal Wootton Bassett grounds maintenance team came to our assistance & offered to pick up two of the four benches and store them in their storage location until dry. This actually solved both problems, leaving the cafe with some seating.

It took some considerable time to get the tables dry enough to dismantle, but in March of this year Phil & another Shed member Steve Hares, started dismantling the two table sets. It was very quickly realised that the amount of work required was slightly more than just a quick sand and paint, so all the components were relocated to Phil's workshop where the items could be given some serious refurbishment.

A number of shedders agreed they would come along to the workshop and help, however Covid-19 conspired to screw everything up. Phil therefore decided to continue the work on his own and keep him busy and out of mischief!

As the cafe has now been forced to close, the Royal Wootton Bassett grounds maintenance team have very kindly agreed to pick up and store the other two table sets, so that they too can begin to dry out.

The first two tables have now been completed and are ready for return so that they are available for use as soon as the cafe is allowed to reopen for business.

Attached are before and after photographs of the tables.

26th March 2020:

The refurbishment has started!

The first two of four, eight seater picnic benches belonging to Royal Wootton Bassett Jubilee Lakes Tea Room, disassembled and stripped back to bare wood, nearly ready for reassembly and refinishing.

It's taken around six weeks to dry out the timber & it's only now that we can see the timber that's beyond redemption.

An ideal project whilst the tea rooms are closed and with the project being done behind self distancing & self isolating closed doors in Phil Howell's home workshop.

It's just unfortunate that it's going to be sometime later this summer before we can get these back into service.

 

Tea Room Benches

3rd July 2020:

As most of you already know we have carried out a lot of renovation works on table benches at Jubilee Lake Tea Rooms and whilst there we were asked to make six benches to go with and to fit under the existing tables.

Phil did a design for the tops of the benches and I created what I thought would be a good design for the legs.

We took one top and one of the legs for Maxine to look at, I also asked about painting the legs which had many components as I wanted to make them very colourful, which she was delighted with and said the brighter the better.

On returning to Phil’s we looked at timbers and found that some pieces of the good timber had knot holes in which gave Phil the idea and the opportunity to dabble and hone his skill in the use of resins.

The first attempt was shall I say disastrous, but after some perseverance the final result was fantastic. (Be good to have a demo when we return to normal duties)

So with haste Phil produced all of the tops and made an excellent job whilst I cut, sanded, painted and varnished some 90 pieces of timber for the legs which were duly fitted together with threaded bar and allen key nuts, leaving no issues with people catching their legs on protruding nuts and bolts.

Maxine was delighted with the end results and has taken delivery of them all.

Tea Room Signage

25th June 2020

Whilst chatting with the owner of the Jubilee Lakes Tea Rooms, it became clear that there was a requirement to update the signage for the tea rooms at the car park.

Without saying anything to the owner, Phil decided to have a look at the signage and see what might be able to be done.

Wanting to try pyrography for some time, it was decided that this might be an ideal time 'to experiment' and if it didn't look suitable, then something else would be done.

The letters to be burned on the signage were drawn in by hand and then the outline burned in.

The original idea was to then fully burn-in the letters, however the pyrography kit had interchangeable patterned heads. So it was decide to try those & if they didn't look suitable, then the body of the letters could be burnt in.

The result actually turned out quite well and when presented to the owner it was quite clear that it 'hit the mark'.

The signage was made so that it shows the tea rooms as closed, but when open, the sign can be added to by using the two hooks. The sign has been left in its natural state, but treated to protect it.