Awards Tour: Capernwray

January 12th, 2022
Author: Mark Gray
Posted In: Latest news

James Wightman, whose team dug in the entire Capernwray project.

Our fourth stop on the B4RN ‘Awards Tour’ was Capernwray.

The trophies for the INCA and ISPA prizes are visiting the communities, champions and volunteers from the last decade who’ve got the job done digging in the gigabit broadband network.

James Wightman met us at his Old Hall Caravan Park to reminisce.

He said: “We just got on with the job. Just got all the materials, then went to it! We talked to a few people that had gone before us with a bit of knowledge. We did all of Capernwray, but the main thing [from our perspective] was to get it up to the caravan site.

“It ended up being a nice project because we went round the community and met those we hadn’t been in contact with before. We ended up talking to them – I felt like I got to know the people in Capernwray better than I did before.”

James expanded on the dig itself: “We did it as a company and didn’t really get anyone from the community to volunteer.

“We had our 13-tonne digger chained to our tractor, which had the moleplough on. It pulled it nicely over winter, when it was a bit wet,
worked really well did that.

“Blowing in the fibre was the tense part. Whether you’d put the ducting in right or not. It went fairly smoothly all the way round, I think.”

James added he went on to help others: “My parents live in Borwick. That project brought the community together to do a bit of digging. I went across there to lend a bit of knowledge.”

Iain Robertson working in a chamber in Capernwray in 2014.

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