The Humpty Dumpty story

Our engineers working on an intricate water mains diversion in Colchester were surprised to find themselves working on stuff made of legends.

A job at Balkerne Gardens, Colchester; we were working on a section of the oldest surviving Roman gateway in England and reputedly the setting for the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.

During the English Civil War (1642-49) a cannon was mounted on the top of the wall at St Mary''s on the church wall. Enemy fire hit the church tower and the cannon known as Humpty Dumpty fell to the ground. All the Kings horses and all the Kings men (Royalist cavalry and infantry)ran and tried in vain to restore it to working order or "put it back together again".

In a unique joint venture, the water contract teamed up with our gas contract to install both utilities at the same time.The water boys commissioned their main in and backfilled it (on behalf of Anglian Water) and the gas gang followed and laced their gas main on top before reinstatement.This was an excellent demonstration for partnership working, combining costs with tangible benefits and savings.