65. Lord Mayors Show – Preparing the Float

Following many months of design, construction and endless detailed organization, the final building of our float for the Lord Mayors Show was undertaken on Thursday 10th and Friday 11th November.

The low loader and two drivers were kindly provided by Kevin Clancy of ClancyDocwra, and our first task was to cut and fix artificial grass to the bed of the trailer unit (see photograph). With arrival of the tank and tap (beautifully built by Dylan Barker and his team at Precolor) they were loaded by a fork lift truck onto the trailer (see photograph featuring David Richards and Dylan Barker) and the tank filled with 500 gallons of water. After connecting the pump (kindly donated by Stuart Herritty) and fixing the Clancy Docwra diesel generator, we were ready for a successful trial run.

After fixing of the siderails, storage boxes/seating and signage we were nearly ready to go (see photograph). Once the sound system, kindly loaned by Andy Williamson had been fitted, the vehicle headed off for Central London (see photograph of tractor unit) and the excitement of the Lord Mayors Show on the following day.

Many thanks to all our sponsors (not forgetting Thames Tideway, Roger Hewitt, Barry Dennis, Ivor Richards, Ken Marsh and Peter Hall) for making this all possible. Special thanks to those who physically helped put the whole thing together under the ever watchful eye of our Clerk, Ralph Riley.