IWA Waterways Magazine - Autumn 2018

Issue 261 • Autumn 2018

waterways www.waterways.org.uk

EASY AS BCN

Silver Propeller destinations on Birmingham’s canals

RIVER CAM

BY CANOE

Paddling with author Matt Gaw

'OUSE' COMING TO ST NEOTS? Previewing IWA’s Festival of Water

PLUS

GAP TRACKER

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Autumn 2018 Contents Issue 261 • Autumn 2018

waterways www.waterways.org.uk

EASY AS BCN

Silver Propeller destinations on Birmingham’s canals

RIVER CAM

BY CANOE

Paddling with author Matt Gaw

'OUSE' COMING TO ST NEOTS?

5. Overview

Column of the National Chairman

17

6. News

Previewing IWA’s Festival of Water

The latest from within IWA and beyond

14. Campaigns Update

Including a spotlight on Gap Tracker PLUS

GAP TRACKER

17. Easy as BCN

The campaign for better boaters' facilities 001 Cover.indd 14

24/07/2018 10:54

COVER PICTURE: Hermitage Lock on the River Great Ouse

Silver Propeller Challenge destinations on Birmingham’s canals

22. Love Your Waterways

IWA members volunteering and collaborating on our canals and rivers

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29. I Cam, I Saw, I Canoed

Author and naturalist Matt Gaw paddles Cambridgeshire’s rivers WATERWAYS EDITOR: Amelia Hamson Tel: 01283 742962 E-mail: a.hamson@wwonline.co.uk FEATURES EDITOR: Sarah Henshaw E-mail: s.henshaw@wwonline.co.uk ART EDITOR: Claire Davis ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER: Laura Smith Tel: 01283 742956 E-mail: l.smith@wwonline.co.uk ADVERTISING DESIGN: Jo Ward ADVERTISING PRODUCTION: Samantha Furniss E-mail: s.furniss@wwonline.co.uk REPROGRAPHICS: Waterways World Ltd, 151 Station Street, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, DE14 1BG. Printed in England by Warners (Midlands) PLC, Bourne, Lincs Articles may be reproduced provided permission is obtained and acknowledgement made.

ISSN 0969-0654 A non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee (612245), Registered as a Charity (No. 212342) Founded: 1946, Incorporated 1958 Registered Office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, HP5 1WA Tel: 01494 783453 E-mail: iwa@waterways.org.uk Web site: www.waterways.org.uk Chief Executive – Neil Edwards Company Secretary – Andrew Overy National Chairman – Ivor Caplan For press inquiries please contact: pressoffice@waterways.org.uk For all other contact details, including trustees and branch officers, visit: www.waterways.org.uk/about/ meet_team Nothing printed in Waterways may be construed as policy or an official announcement unless stated, otherwise IWA accepts no liability for any matter in the magazine. Although every care is taken with advertising matters no responsibility whatsoever can be accepted for any matter advertised. Where a photo credit includes a note such as CC-BY-SA, the image is made available under that Creative Commons licence; full details at www.creativecommons.org

Spring 2018 003 contents.indd 3

37. Restoration Hub

An update on Tony Harrison’s legacy projects, tackling the roads blocking restorations and WRG’s summer training

43. See y'Ouse in St Neots

Everything you need to know about IWA’s Festival of Water – including what to bring

37

46. Then & Now

Grantham Canal Lock 15

50. Inbox

Your comments and queries

Seven reasons why your membership contribution is vital 1. IWA Canal Clean-ups led by our branches keep many waterways clear of debris 2. Restoration is kept high priority through funding for the Waterway Recovery Group

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3. Over 10,000 days of volunteering each year will be supported with the right training, tools and materials 4. IWA can defend the waterways from unwelcome development 5. We can pass on traditional skills and workbased experience for volunteering young people 6. We can lobby the Government and work with other organisations to repair, improve and protect our waterways heritage 7. Your voice is counted when IWA speaks up for all those who enjoy the country’s canals and rivers

IWA ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATE £36 More details are available from IWA Head Office.

Join IWA at www.waterways.org.uk

IWA Waterways |

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Autumn 2018 24/07/2018 10:15

overview

The Column of the National Chairman

A

t several recent waterways events I have had the opportunity to see IWA's newly branded eyecatching stands, which do a great job of helping to promote our achievements, current campaigns and restoration activity. The stands feature a full-wall waterways map, which is always attractive and interesting for visitors.

The map draws attention to the extent of waterways that IWA covers: the full 6,500 miles in England, Scotland and Wales with many different stakeholder and navigation authorities. All these have one thing in common: a real concern about their future funding and the sustainability of their activities. Whatever the future holds, I believe that we will have to fight for the inland waterways to be given their due recognition and financial support.

The message has to be that without this they will easily slip back into neglect and fail to deliver all their potential benefits.

I have had several meetings with senior managers in the Environment Agency, on the one hand offering our experience and support in what will inevitably be difficult times ahead, but on the other urging action on several closures, some of which have precluded navigation for a considerable time.

We have wished Canal & River Trust well with its new vision. We are well aware that changes to visual identity can be

subjective and even controversial but, like ourselves, CRT must move on and ensure that its new vision delivers real benefits for the waterways. I fully understand its need to engage with major agendas, such as well-being, as it approaches 2022 when it will have to start renegotiating its government grant. IWA will continue to support CRT in its efforts to obtain the best possible outcome, but we will also carefully monitor the condition of the waterways to ensure that they are maintained and improved and raise our voices when we feel this is not the case.

In the meantime, I can see real potential benefits in the new focus on well-being.

For instance, there are many deteriorating heritage buildings that currently concern us, and the increasing number of people on the towpaths could encourage their restoration and a sustainable future as visitor centres.

As I write this, the long-awaited CRT Mooring Strategy for London has just been published and while we welcome any initiatives towards addressing the problem, I do question whether this will be sufficient and in time. Along with the proposals to improve boaters’ facilities and encourage more permanent moorings to be developed, I believe that CRT must somehow address the escalating number of boats in London. The report indicates a figure of 4,098 in March of this year – an increase of approaching 2,000 over the

previous six years, which I suggest is not sustainable. I believe that we must encourage a reduction in the influx of boats coming into London for the benefit of those boaters already living there.

Alongside this we will be developing a longer-term policy looking at the entire issue of how our urban waterways, in London and elsewhere, should change in the future to meet challenges such as the demand for moorings balanced against other uses.

One of my pleasures over the last two months has been reading the many letters from those who received their plaques to commemorate 50 years of IWA membership. All have played an important part in the early days of the Association and without their many years of volunteering we would not have achieved so much. In order to continue this success it is vital that we attract the volunteers of the future. If you are able, please play your part by supporting your Branch at events or in other ways, and by helping our efforts to build up our membership.

Ivor Caplan

RUPERT SMEDLEY

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IWA Waterways |

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Waterways News

WRAPPER RECYCLING

AGM VENUE CONFIRMED

IWA’s 59th Annual General Meeting will take place on 29th September at 11.30am at Maidenhill School, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire. The school is just 1 mile from the M5 and close to the home of Stroud District Council at Ebley Mill.

We hope that meeting attendees will be able to spare a full day as in the afternoon, due to IWA’s excellent relationship with Cotswold Canals Trust, our members have been offered tours of Ebley Mill and a guided walk to Wallbridge Lock, which was opened earlier this year by HRH Prince Charles. There may even be a chance to attend a work party day on Sunday 30th September, organised by CCT in conjunction with Waterway Recovery Group. More information will be in our Bulletin email newsletter at the end of August.

The morning meeting will include a presentation by WRG chair and IWA trustee Mike Palmer on the launch of a new report which hails the value of Waterways in Progress. Ebley Mill is one of the several case studies detailed in the report, an area transformed as part of £115m of investment to excavate the canal, build 550 new houses and create over 770 jobs. Two presentations from our branch and region volunteer teams will centre on our more locally focused campaigns, and there will be updates on our successes across the year as well as news highlighting our plans and objectives for 2019.

Lunch is free and should be booked in advance. There is some car parking at the school for those with limited mobility, which should also be booked, and there is plenty of on-street parking in the area.

Stroud is a beautiful location with lots of excellent attractions and we may have a surprise in store for those who come along to the meeting. See you in the Cotswolds.

To reserve your seat and lunch and to view a copy of IWA’s Annual Report and Financial Statements for 2017 go to waterways.org.uk/ agm2018.

CCT

Plastic packaging has been the target of environmental campaigners in recent months but did you know that the wrapper used to post your copy of Waterways in is recyclable?

IWA’s magazine is printed by a company called Warners which sources the plastic used for the wrapper from Polyprint. This is what Polyprint says about the material used: “The polythene used for the mailing of Waterways magazine is fully recyclable and we encourage recipients to return wrappers to us, preferably along with other household polythene waste.

“We believe that the use of polythene is the best and most viable option for packing heavy postal items and many types of food. As long as we are cracking and distilling crude oil into petrol, diesel and other fuels, we are effectively producing the raw materials for the manufacture of polythene.

Either we use these products or we have to dispose of them. Polythene usage within the world saves cutting down millions if not billions of trees and, unlike paper, the plastic can be recycled continuously.”

Plastic wrappers (with paper labels removed) can either be recycled at supermarkets along with other plastic bags, or returned directly to Polyprint at Earl Road, Rackheath Industrial Estate, Rackheath, Norwich NR13 6NT. Any queries can be sent to recycling@polyprint.co.uk.

This year’s AGM in Stroud includes an optional visit to Ebley Mill.

mike gallagher

INSET: The recently opened Wallbridge Lock on the Cotswold Canals is also on the agenda for the afternoon activities.

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24/07/2018 10:15

Waterways News Funding from Historic England is helping IWA’s Restoration Hub with practical support and guidance.

Historic England sees value of waterways restoration

IWA’s Restoration Hub, set up to support the ongoing development of a robust and vibrant waterway restoration sector, has been awarded a grant by Historic England under its National Capacity Building Programme. The grants offered under this programme provide funding for activities and projects which are national in coverage and which promote the understanding, management and conservation of the historic environment.

The amount awarded to IWA totals £161,000 over two years and represents 50% of total costs of the Restoration Hub in the first year and 45% in the second year. With this money the Hub will provide a centralised service for advice and resources, plus practical, hands-on support to enable waterway restoration groups to manage their projects successfully. Specific support includes training for restoration volunteers, site-based advice from subject matter experts, volunteer camps for projects that need or want short-term practical assistance, and help in raising awareness among legislators and funders of the value delivered by waterways restorations.

We still need to match-fund the grant value, so if you would like to support IWA’s Restoration Hub too go to waterways.org. uk/restorationhub.

CRT'S LONDON MOORING STRATEGY Canal & River Trust has launched its long-awaited strategy about London moorings, which outlines proposed improvements to moorings and facilities in the capital.

The strategy reports that there are now over 4,000 boats on London’s waterways, with a year-on-year increase likely to be in the region of between 35% and 52% by 2022. This follows an increase of 76% over the last six years, which is putting tremendous pressure on the few existing facilities and visitor moorings.

The proposed (but subject to planning permission) 1,800m of new offside residential moorings would cater for approximately 150 boats (assuming an average length of 12m), which perhaps equates to the number of boats that may arrive in London over the next six months.

CRT’s full report, with a detailed breakdown of the proposed improvements, can be found on CRT’s website canalrivertrust.org.uk (search London mooring strategy).

CRT announces its plans for London’s overcrowded waterways.

EA registration fee increases We will be responding to the Environment Agency’s latest consultation on registration fee increases on its navigations by asking it to reconsider the impact on boat-owners of the proposed rises. The changes would see some boat-owners paying over 30% more for their licence over three years.

The proposals will hit less well-off boat-owners in particular, and the timing of the consultation to coincide with the six-week school holiday, when families will be out on their boats enjoying the waterways, seems unfortunate.

In the consultation EA propose increasing its registration fees by the same amount in both 2019-20 and 2020-21 as it did for 2018-19, stating that

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the increases “reflect the significant gap between existing levels of income from boat registration charges on each waterway and the cost of providing the services which these charges pay for.”

The proposed increases are: • River Thames: 5% • Anglian Waterways: 7.5% • Upper Medway: 10% • Unpowered boats and ‘Gold’ joint CRT/EA licences: 7.7% (an average of the three individual percentages for each waterway area because they are nationally consistent charges) It is IWA’s view that these increases place an unreasonable burden on boatowners, are inconsistent across EA’s different navigation areas, and are likely

to disengage boaters at a time when EA is looking for their support through its new Navigating Forward strategy. This strategy, which IWA heard about at its meeting with EA senior management a few weeks ago, will include investigating new income streams. IWA has offered its support and help with projects that will allow EA’s navigation team to increase its income without disenfranchising boat-owners and pricing them off the waterways.

The consultation, which IWA encourages readers of Waterways to respond to, closes on 30th August and can be found at gov.uk/government/ consultations/consultation-onproposals-for-navigation-boatregistration-charges-2019-to-2021.

Autumn 2018 24/07/2018 10:58

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Keeping the rich history and heritage of the waterways alive ✦ A beautifully presented, high-quality magazine to build into a collection you will treasure ✦ Very little advertising and packed with engaging content ✦ Fascinating personal stories and photograph collections from the working days of the waterways ✦ Presenting new historical research and discoveries ✦ Plus discounts on books and merchandise

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Waterways News

Lochrin Basin on the Union Canal in Scotland is one of three recent additions to the Silver Propeller Challenge.

Silver Propeller updates Since the launch of the Silver Propeller Challenge earlier this year, IWA has been continually assessing the list of more than 40 locations scattered across the UK. Three new destinations linked to our campaigns have recently been added in Scotland and Wales: Berriew on the Montgomery Canal, Port Dundas on the Glasgow Arm of the Forth & Clyde Canal, and Lochrin Basin at the end of the Union Canal in Edinburgh.

The Silver Propeller location on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal Springs Branch

has been moved to Mill Bridge due to a blockage caused by rockfall. IWA is encouraging as many people as possible to use the section of the branch that is still accessible and to petition Canal & River Trust to remove the rockfall, which is just below Skipton Castle.

You can find a list of all Silver Propeller Challenge locations online at waterways.org.uk/silverpropeller. An online map showing each destination is also available to assist with plotting your adventures.

IWA supports british canoeing charter British Canoeing has announced it is working on a new charter and campaign “championing the case for fair, shared, sustainable access on and along English waterways”. Due to be launched in September this year, British Canoeing will be using the charter as the basis for asking government to put in place legislation to regulate access to waterways, in a similar way to that already seen in Scotland.

Feedback on the charter was sought from the public and partner organisations earlier in the year, which will be collated in the final document to be presented at Westminster in the autumn.

IWA has supported the charter with the following statement: “The Inland Waterways Association believes that canoes and other small unpowered craft are a great and affordable way to get afloat, and offer excellent opportunities to introduce more people, including children and young people, to inland waterways and the great outdoors. We welcome the charter published by British Canoeing and believe that if Government would introduce modern, comprehensive legislation for England, as has been done in Scotland and is currently being considered in Wales, then that would bring welcome clarity to the law.”

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IWA AT THE WORLD CANALS CONFERENCE Should the theme ‘Restore, Regenerate, Reimagine’ capture your interest, this year’s World Canals Conference could be the destination for you. Taking place between 10th and 12th September in Athlone, Ireland, the conference will showcase Ireland’s many restoration and re-imagining projects in a threeday event where delegates can update their knowledge of innovative waterways management experiences and techniques from all over the world.

And this year, IWA’s Mike Palmer MBE, IWA trustee and chair of Waterway Recovery Group, has been named a keynote speaker. As a dedicated waterways restoration volunteer who has spent the last 25 years using his enthusiasm and passion to help restore many derelict locks and sections of canal across England and Wales, from Aston Locks on the Montgomery Canal to the Droitwich Barge Lock in the Midlands, Mike is uniquely placed to enthuse audiences around the conference’s key themes.

To find out more and to book a place, visit wccireland2018.com.

IWA Waterways |

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24/07/2018 10:58

John Revell and Alison Smedley aboard Olive Emily at Welches Dam in July.

MIKE DAINES

Olive Emily passing through Welney Sluice.

Trial run for Old Bedford River campaign cruise

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ALISON SMEDLEY

Lily May arrives in the entrance channel below the Old Bedford Sluice.

Olive Emily at Welney.

ALISON SMEDLEY

Ahead of a campaign cruise planned for 19th-22nd August on the Old Bedford River, two boats belonging to IWA Peterborough Branch members took part in a trial run over the weekend of 8th9th July.

The two narrowboats, Olive Emily and Lily May, became the first craft through the Old Bedford Sluice this year. Only Olive Emily made it as far as the current limit of navigation at Welches Dam, as Lily May experienced engine problems, exacerbated by the weed and lack of dredging in one particular area. The team organising the August cruise has raised this issue, along with excessive vegetation and reeds at Welches Dam, with the Environment Agency in the hope that the situation can be improved before the larger group of boats cruises this statutory navigation in August.

The boaters and their crew were grateful to the two lock-keepers from EA and the Middle Level Commissioners, for their assistance in getting through the Old Bedford Sluice. The boats moored overnight in the vicinity of Welney, where their crews enjoyed a convivial evening in the Lamb & Flag pub before returning to Salter’s Lode the next day.

The main aim of the August campaign cruise is to get a flotilla of boats into and out of the Old Bedford River and up to Welches Dam ahead of IWA’s Festival of Water at St Neots, which takes place on 25th-27th August. The focus for the cruise will be a group photograph of as many boats and people as possible at Welches Dam Lock on the Monday lunchtime to highlight the fact that the lock has now been closed (and that route on to the Middle Level Navigations has been unavailable) for a staggering 12 years, and to support the campaign for its reopening.

Anyone interested in taking part in the campaign cruise, or supporting the event in other ways, is asked to register their interest by emailing alison.smedley@waterways.org.uk. Further information is available on waterways.org.uk/campaigncruise.

PETER COX

Waterways News

Autumn 2018 24/07/2018 10:58

Waterways News

Hottest IWA Canalway Cavalcade

steph pay

on record

Biking the waterways – Dhruv Boruah.

Crowds gathered in Little Venice.

The hottest May Day bank holiday weekend since 1978 brought the crowds out in droves in Little Venice, where the 36th annual IWA Canalway Cavalcade took place. Lined up along the Grand Union and Regent’s Canals and moored by their sterns in Brownings Pool were 140 boats. With bunting gently bouncing in the breeze and their paint- and brass-work gleaming, they presented a colourful spectacle, alongside marquees and gazebos selling a multitude of items.

The Noyze Boyz played in the Pool, and soul bands, flamenco dancing and the nationally acclaimed Rock Choir performed in the Amphitheatre to huge crowds, who waved and joined in with the singing and dancing.

At the opening ceremony, the Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Ian Adams, welcomed everyone to the City of Westminster and thanked IWA for putting on the event. Speeches were followed by the pageant, which this year proposed the theme of ‘canal builders’. Boats and crews accessorised with picks and shovels, boots and wheelbarrows. One boat was covered in ‘bricks’ to resemble a canal tunnel, another had models of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Falkirk Wheel on the roof, and another went right back in history to 500BC with crew dressed in costume to commemorate the Grand Canal of China.

On Sunday evening the procession of illuminated boats attracted large crowds, and boaters covered their craft with as many lights as would fit along the roofs and sides, powered entirely by their batteries. Awards were presented

by Mrs Laura Radley, widow of the late Arthur Farrand Radley, who initiated Canalway Cavalcade in 1983.

The Boat Handling Competition.

Autumn 2018 013 cavalcade News.indd 13

Rocking out to the Rock Choir.

Waterside food fair.

Boats bedecked with bunting.

IWA Waterways |

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CAMPAIGNING WITH YOU The restoration of Bridgwater Docks and the closure of Scotland’s Lowland Canals are among the issues we’re campaigning on with your help. Here’s how we’ve been doing on these and other affairs…

Position statement on Scottish Canals Notwithstanding the additional allocation of £1.6m from the Scottish Government announced on 28th June, IWA fears that there is a very real danger of Scottish Canals implementing the closure of its Lowland Canals, and is extremely concerned at suggestions that these waterways could be downgraded in status. Proposals that sections of the Lowland Canals could face closure are outlined in an Asset Management Strategy published on 21st June by Scottish Canals.

The Forth & Clyde and Union canals were restored as a millennium project, with funding from the Millennium Commission, European Regional

Development Fund, Scottish Enterprise and local authorities. Some of the grant funding included conditions that the canals must be maintained to cruising standard for up to 25 years. The canals were reopened just 17 years ago.

The canals were upgraded from ‘remainder’ to ‘cruising’ waterways in 2011, and this placed a statutory duty on Scottish Canals to maintain them for cruising vessels. This change was put in place in order to protect the investment made in restoring the canals and it would seem very short-sighted to reverse that decision just seven years on.

Given the importance of the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies to Scotland’s

tourism it seems ludicrous that Scottish Canals should even be considering closing the through route that helps to keep these tourist attractions alive with boats.

Scottish Canals argues that the coast-to-coast route is not being used sufficiently to justify it being kept open, but a lack of dredging and poor maintenance – together with recent closures and restrictions – will have contributed to a reduction in use. In IWA’s view, the level of use should not be a significant factor in whether or not a waterway is kept open. A vibrant waterway is kept alive by boats using it, and this in turn brings benefits in terms of improved health and wellbeing for the local population, as well as income through recreation, tourism and regeneration.

IWA considers that Scottish Canals should be doing everything it can to keep the Lowland Canals fully open, and suggests that this should include using some of the revenue raised from its property and tourism investments, which is currently not being spent on the core function of maintaining the waterways, despite an expectation from the Scottish Government that it should do so.

Marshall Locks on the Forth & Clyde. Scottish Canals has earmarked the waterway for closure due to lack of use.

Why campaign with IWA? We strive to make the waterways better for all.

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Campaigns Update

Working with the Environment Agency

Bridgwater Docks Regeneration IWA West Country Branch is this year increasing its campaign for the regeneration of Bridgwater Docks and, in particular, for the restoration of the Barge Lock and the bascule bridge. This is in order that navigation can once again take place from the River Parrett to Bridgwater Docks and thus also to the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal.

Bridgwater Docks, but not the bascule bridge, is leased by Canal & River Trust from Somerset County Council under a 21-year lease which expires in July 2020.

The lease includes, inter alia, obligations for CRT to maintain the Docks including its lock gates, fixtures and fittings in a fully useable condition. IWA is campaigning for the future of the Docks to be addressed and for CRT to fulfil its obligations under the lease, including restoration of both the Barge Lock and Newtown Lock.

IWA is also campaigning for the regeneration of the bascule bridge, a unique heritage asset within Somerset that was opened in 1841 in conjunction with the Docks. The Association has drawn the attention of Somerset County Council to the damaging effect that heavy goods vehicles are having The historic bascule bridge at Bridgwater Docks in 1952.

to support navigation. IWA welcomes this new approach and has offered assistance in various ways.

The IWA representatives raised concerns about a number of ongoing closures preventing navigation and which are in breach of EA’s statutory obligations. IWA’s current campaign about boaters’ facilities was explained, and EA confirmed that it would welcome the findings of the Gap Tracker survey later in the year. EA mentioned proposed registration fee increases and IWA stressed the importance of keeping the cost of licensing smaller craft affordable in order to encourage new people on to the waterways. The impact of EA’s stringent requirements relating to abstraction licences and flood defence consents on waterway restoration societies was also discussed, and EA offered to provide central points of contact for waterway organisations through IWA’s Restoration Hub.

Help keep our waterways alive

on the spans of the bridge and on its stone and brick supports (there is a 3-tonne weight limit). The council is arranging for a specialist engineering inspection of the bridge, as a first step in determining what remedial works are required. IWA has requested that the inspection also covers the work that may be needed to fully reinstate the operation of the spans of the bridge, which it is understood were last raised some 15 years ago.

A report on the campaign is available from IWA West Country chair Ray Alexander at ray.alexander@waterways.org.uk.

Rod Fitzhugh

Funding, facilities, licensing and restoration were on the agenda for a meeting with senior management at the Environment Agency on 30th May, where IWA representatives Ivor Caplan, Neil Edwards and Alison Smedley met Harvey Bradshaw (executive director for environment & business), Gillian Pratt (deputy director of future regulation) and Irven Forbes (waterway manager, Anglian Waterways).

Following the announcement from DEFRA earlier in the year that the potential transfer of EA navigations to Canal & River Trust would not proceed at the current time, Harvey Bradshaw explained that EA had decided that while it would continue to work with CRT to share understanding (and it would always be open and ready for the transfer should it happen), a fresh approach at how it looked at navigation was required. Badged as ‘navigating forward’, the new strategy will see EA focus on delivering good service to users and look at different ways of raising income

Latest on HS2 Phase 2A IWA’s main concerns about the effects on HS2 Phase 2A (West Midlands to Crewe) are surrounding the impact of noise on waterways users where the railway crosses or runs close to canals and rivers.

Since the second reading of the Bill on 30th January and the subsequent petitioning period, progress has been made on the Kings Bromley Viaduct.

Submitted on 26th February, the Association’s petition included the following request: “The height of the route across the Trent and Bourne Brook valley, including the Kings Bromley Viaduct, Bourne embankment and River Trent viaduct, should be reduced to the minimum necessary for the road and river crossings to limit noise propagation over a wide area which includes the canal, and to reduce visual impact and construction costs.”

A similar request was made by both Staffordshire County Council and Lichfield District Council in their petitions.

On 19th April, HS2 Ltd published an evidence paper for the Select Committee on the River Trent & Kings Bromley Viaducts Lowering Alternative. This conceded that, with minor changes to the drainage channels on the viaducts, the heights of the viaducts could be lowered by up to 3.5m with landscape and visual benefits and a cost reduction of £3.3m.

Further discussions ensued on 23rd April, and reports are that HS2 has agreed to further revisions. While the details of the assurance are yet to be published, it has been made clear that the request has been agreed.

IWA welcomes this change, which will enable us to concentrate our evidence to the committee on the other changes we have requested to improve noise mitigation for canal users at Fradley Junction and Great Haywood.

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Alison Smedley

IWA is campaigning for basic boaters’ facilities to be no more than five hours apart.

Spotlight on...

GAP TRACKER IWA turns its campaigning for better boaters’ facilities across the network up a gear with the launch of a new online reporting system This isn’t the first time that the problem of inadequate or absent boaters’ facilities has been raised on the pages of Waterways – in the Winter 2017 issue, IWA identified the minimum standards that should be maintained on every canal and river, and asked for feedback from members. Lots of you made contact to let the Association know about your experiences with the lack of facilities on the waterways, so IWA has taken its ongoing campaign to tackle the problem to the next level by launching Gap Tracker.

Campaign aims The purpose of Gap Tracker is to collect data that will then be presented to navigation authorities across the country to

encourage them to improve their provision of services in the right locations nationwide. IWA maintains that basic facilities such as water points and rubbish and sewage disposal should be available at least every five hours of cruising time, and pumpouts at least every ten hours. Recycling points should also be provided, or installed where none already exists.

IWA will be gathering evidence over the summer months to build up an accurate picture of facilities across the whole waterways network, and is asking for help from boaters to identify areas on the UK’s canals and rivers where services are missing, damaged or not fit for purpose.

Steve Warwicker, chair of IWA’s Navigation Committee, explained: “It’s important this campaign is as wide-reaching as possible and we’re asking for boaters’ help to cover all navigable waterways, including those not connected to the main system.

“We’re also aware of the difficulties that boaters face in some parts of the country in trying to recycle their waste, so we will be pressing navigation authorities to provide more recycling points. In the meantime, it’s great if all boaters can use existing recycling facilities whenever possible, so navigation authorities can see that there is a demand for this service from responsible waterways users.”

How to help Boaters are being asked to supplement IWA’s research by reporting significant gaps in current facilities or where a site is in need of major refurbishment at waterways.org.uk/gaptracker.

The website has a link to an online form where details, including waterway, location and the problem, can be recorded.

Initial responses to the Gap Tracker online form have been good, with over 180 issues reported already. Feedback received so far suggests a lot of dissatisfaction about the number of portable chemical toilet disposal points currently out of use on Canal & River Trust’s waterways, some of them long-term closures. This is an issue that IWA has raised urgently with CRT ahead of reporting the overall findings for its 2,000 miles of waterways to it in the autumn.

The Environment Agency has also said that it will welcome the findings of the survey, and IWA will be contacting any other navigation authorities where it receives relevant information about the lack of facilities.

More information about IWA’s Gap Tracker campaign, including how to report a problem with boaters’ facilities, can be found at waterways.org.uk/gaptracker.

Gap Tracker will help identify areas where rubbish disposal and recycling points are inadequate.

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Silver Propeller Challenge – the BCN

SILVER PROPELLER CHALLENGE

EASY AS BCN

Exploring the far-flung reaches of the network just got even more rewarding

Sue O’Hare continues her Silver Propeller explorations by taking on the Birmingham Canal Navigations

A

t the heart of the waterways network, the Birmingham Canal Navigations are made up of many miles of both busy inner-city and surprisingly bucolic passages. The central areas of Birmingham and the through-routes of the BCN are well known, but the Silver Propeller Challenge includes six lesser-used locations. Visiting these would make a substantial dent in the target of 20 sites and also provide a huge amount of historic, architectural and scenic interest in both urban and rural surroundings.

Four of the locations are clustered in the south of the system around the Stourbridge and Dudley No 1 and No 2 Canals and the Old Main Line. The other two are further north and are connected by the Wyrley & Essington Canal.

The rural Cannock Extension Canal.

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Walsall Town Basin The Walsall Canal runs south for 8 miles from Birchills Junction on the Wyrley & Essington Canal to Ryders Green Junction on the Wednesbury Old Canal, which in turn joins the New Main Line of the BCN at Pudding Green Junction. It is also connected to the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal at Salford Junction by the Tame Valley Canal. Commercial traffic to Walsall Gasworks survived until 1966 and the canal is still industrial and relatively little used by boats, but urban regeneration has rapidly changed the environment.

The short Walsall Town Arm leading to the Town Wharf has been comprehensively redeveloped and provides moorings by the New Art Gallery.

Also close by is Walsall Arboretum, home until 2008 of the annual Walsall Illuminations which was once the biggest lights show after Blackpool and attracted 250,000 people from across the Midlands.

The Leather Museum marks Walsall’s importance as a centre for leather goods, especially saddle making. A statue of an Anglican nun called Sister Dora remembers her success in reducing the local death rate from industrial accidents. The museum dedicated to Three Men in a Boat author and former resident Jerome K. Jerome has closed, but his birthplace in Bradford Street is now owned by a firm of solicitors keen to maintain the connection.

Walsall’s art gallery overlooks the Town Wharf.

Pelsall Junction.

Northern Locations

The Wyrley & Essington Canal linked the Birmingham Canal at Horseley Fields, Wolverhampton, to the Coventry Canal at Huddlesford near Lichfield. It was primarily a contour canal (hence its modern nickname ‘Curly Wyrley’) but the final 7 miles to Huddlesford had 30 locks. It developed into an important northern route through the BCN with a comprehensive system of branches.

Today it is relatively little used and most of the branches have gone, including the link to the Coventry Canal – although this is being actively restored by the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust as part of a through-route between the Staffs & Worcs and Coventry canals.

The Cannock Extension Canal joins the Wyrley & Essington at Pelsall Junction.

It was probably the last narrow canal of a significant length to be built, opened in 1863 and running northwards for 5 miles without locks to Hednesford at the foot of Cannock Chase. A junction at Bridgtown led to the Hatherton branch of the Staffs & Worcs through 13 locks, again now under restoration.

The Cannock Extension was known for the ‘Black Country Tide’, a small bore caused by the simultaneous movement of convoys of narrowboats converging on Pelsall Junction from east and west and turning up the Extension. Now, only the first 1½ miles are navigable; it’s completely rural until the terminus at the historic boat-building centre at Norton Canes Docks, just before the crossings of the A5 Watling Street and the M6 Toll. The canal has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is home to one of the country’s largest populations of the protected floating water plantain.

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Wallsall Town Basin.

Angela Acott

Norton Canes

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Silver Propeller Challenge – the BCN

alison smedley

Descending the Stourbridge Flight.

Blowers Green Pumphouse.

Looking down the Stourbridge Extension from the Fens Branch at Brockmoor Junction.

Southern Locations

Three of the Silver Propeller Challenge locations can be accessed from the Stourbridge or Dudley canals, while the fourth at Titford Pools is geographically close but requires a diversion onto the Old Main Line.

The Stourbridge and Dudley canals, part of the Stourport Ring cruising route, are the result of a long-standing desire to exploit the mineral resources in the area. After an early attempt at making the River Stour navigable, two canals were built to link the coal mines at Dudley with the glass works at Stourbridge and onwards to the Staffs & Worcs Canal. The Stourbridge Canal joined the Staffs & Worcs at Stourton Junction with Stourbridge and Black Delph, where it met the Dudley Canal. The first short section of the Dudley Canal was initially linked to the Birmingham Canal through Dudley Tunnel and then to the Worcester & Birmingham Canal through Lapal Tunnel.

The Stourbridge Canal remained independent and profitable right up to nationalisation in 1948, while the Dudley canals became part of the BCN and were developed further, particularly through the building of Netherton Tunnel on a parallel line to the Dudley Tunnel and with a much higher capacity.

Going down Delph Locks.

Fens Branch Taking the attractive and rural Stourbridge Canal from Stourton Junction, the first Silver Propeller Challenge location to be reached is the Fens Branch.

There is much of interest on the way, including a possible detour along the Stourbridge Town Arm to the restored Bonded Warehouse, the venue for the 1962 IWA National Rally and the start of restoration work, and now the headquarters of the Stourbridge Navigation Trust. Continuing up the Stourbridge Sixteen locks, landmarks include Dadford’s Shed (a timber warehouse formerly used for transhipment) and Red House Cone, one of only a few glass-making cones left in the world and open to visitors.

The Fens Branch leaves at Leys Junction at the top of the flight and was built as a navigable feeder to the reservoirs in Pensnett known as the Fens Pools.

As collieries and ironworks grew the Stourbridge Extension Canal was built from the branch at Brockmoor Junction towards coal and ironstone deposits.

The junction is now effectively the head of navigation on the Fens Branch and there are visitor moorings. Walking further along the branch leads to the Wide Waters section and the three pools, now a local nature reserve on the site of tramways which connected the canal with collieries and main railway lines.

Southern portal of the Dudley Tunnel (above Park Head Locks) Continuing from Leys Junction, the Stourbridge Canal makes an end-on junction with the Dudley No 1 Canal at the bottom of Delph Locks. This is a spectacular flight of eight locks (originally nine), with overflow weirs on the offside creating cascading waterfalls when the water level is high.

In complete contrast the canal next passes through the Merry Hill shopping centre on the site of the former Round Oak Steelworks, with plenty of mooring Autumn 2018 017 Silver Propeller BCN.indd 19

space. Next comes Blowers Green Lock, the deepest on the BCN at 12ft and overlooked by Blowers Green Pumphouse. The Pumphouse was built in the early 1890s to raise the water levels between Birmingham and Wolverhampton and now provides services for boaters. It was recently offered for sale by Canal & River Trust but a successful campaign was mounted

by IWA and others to have the sale withdrawn.

Immediately above the lock is Park Head Junction with the Dudley No 2 Canal, followed by the three Park Head Locks which climb to the southern portal of Dudley Tunnel and the now-unnavigable Pensnett Canal and Grazebrook Arm. Dudley Tunnel is 3,154 yards long, with an additional system of underground waterways running into basins and natural caverns in the limestone. It leads to Tipton Junction on the Birmingham Canal Old Main Line. It is low and narrow and engines are not permitted, but passage is possible for boats which fit within the restricted gauge through the Dudley Canal & Tunnel Trust, which will supervise legging or provide a free towing service. Alternatively the trust runs underground boat trips from the Black Country Museum at the far end.

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Vic smith

Titford Pools

Coombeswood Basin at the terminus of the Dudley No 2 Canal.

Coombeswood Basin Coombeswood, or Hawne, Basin is the current limit of navigation at the eastern end of the Dudley No 2 Canal, which originally connected with the Worcester & Birmingham Canal at Selly Oak. From Park Head Junction the canal skirts the 600ft Netherton Hill. There are views over the southern parts of the Black Country towards the Clent Hills, and an anchor on the wharf at Primrose Bridge marks Netherton’s tradition of anchor and chain making.

At Windmill End Junction a branch leads through Netherton Tunnel to the New Main Line of the BCN, while local colour is added by the remains of Cobb’s Engine House and the evocatively named Bumblehole Branch and Boshboil Arm. The narrow, low 577-yard Gosty Hill Tunnel leads to the site of the huge Coombeswood Tube Works, which remarkably was served by commercial traffic until 1969. The canal terminates in the former railway interchange basin at Hawne, now run by the Coombeswood Canal Trust with a thriving residential community and facilities for visiting boaters.

The canal used to continue through the even more notorious Lapal Tunnel, narrow and rocky and the longest on the BCN at 3,795 yards. An innovative system of pumping was developed to create a current to help boats pass, halving the transit time to two hours, but the tunnel was closed in 1917 after subsidence. The Lapal Canal Trust is working to restore the link to Selly Oak, intending to bypass the tunnel with a new route through the Woodgate Valley. #SILVERPROPELLER We’d love to hear from you while you’re on the way to meeting the challenge. You can post your pictures to our UK waterways Flickr group, or tag your images on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook with #silverpropeller.

• Twitter: @IWA_UK • Instagram: @iwa_uk • Facebook: facebook.com/ inlandwaterwaysassociation

The Titford Canal leaves the Old Main Line at Oldbury Junction beneath the M5. At the top of six locks, often known as the Crow (after a local industrialist and benefactor), is the restored Titford Pumphouse, the headquarters of the BCN Society and with moorings and facilities. This summit level at 511ft is now the highest navigable part of the BCN. The canal passes the Wolverhampton & Dudley Brewery’s Langley Maltings, a large and handsome complex which sadly has been badly damaged by fire, as well as the distinctive Langley Forge. It terminates in the wide expanse of Titford Pools, built by James Brindley as a reservoir for the Birmingham Canal.

The later history of the pools includes the reputed presence of the Titford Monster as a stunt for the 1938 Oldbury Carnival, use as a pleasure park up to World War II and then as a venue for early boat rallies, and the recently installed statue of a miner reminding us of the local coal mines that were served by the canal.

Today an elevated section of the M5 strides across the pools on concrete columns, but they are still a haven for wildlife and a worthwhile challenge for boaters.

right: Titford Pumphouse and Top Lock.

Below: Boating through Titford Pools.

Further information

• BCN Silver Propeller locations, plus all other destinations included in the challenge, in a handy map format – waterways.org.uk/ silverpropeller • BCN Society, offering guidance on moorings and facilities and plaques for reaching Titford Pools – bcnsociety.com • Dudley Canal & Tunnel Trust, including information on boat trips and passage through Dudley Tunnel – dudleycanaltrust.org.uk • IWA Birmingham, Black Country & Worcestershire Branch – waterways.org.uk/birmingham

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Autumn 2018 24/07/2018 11:03

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HOWDY PARTNER! Working collaboratively can be a great way to give extra weight to our campaigns. We meet three members who, on an individual level, have been especially proactive about building partnerships to promote IWA’s vision and share their love of the waterways…

Malcolm Grey-Smart

Longtime IWA member who’s recently joined the Waterways Chaplaincy

Malcolm explains: “A common thread through IWA and the Chaplaincy is a mission to make a positive difference on our waterways.”

I live with my wife, Steph, in a little cottage by the moorings at Market Drayton. The boat is virtually outside the house.

It’s absolutely super.

It’s a 50ft narrowboat which we’ve owned for 16 years. We mostly cruise in the Midlands, because it only has a small engine and it’s 35 years old.

In 1976 we had our first daughter and decided to take her on holiday on the Llangollen Canal.

We thoroughly enjoyed it. We didn’t do any more boating on the canals until a friend offered to lend us his narrowboat for another holiday. We went up the Staffs & Worcs that time and really got a taste for it. We borrowed the boat regularly from him for the next few years. As our family grew up – and moved out – we decided to downsize and bought our boat. We’ve been IWA members ever since. It’s through the association that we’ve met so many people on the network, and we obviously try to go to IWA events whenever we can. It’s a really important part of boating for us.

A real strength of IWA is how many strands of waterways life it encompasses. The achievements of its Waterway Recovery Group are really inspiring – we see it first hand when we cruise down the Montgomery. And then there are all the festivals, and the tremendous volunteer work that goes on in the local branches.

senior chaplain, came to speak at a BCF AGM. Hearing about their work, I knew God was calling me to do it too. My wife felt the same, so we signed all the forms, sent them off and started the training. It’s a very comprehensive process and covers all sorts of things, from Universal Credit to familiarising yourself with the local banks, doctors, etc so we can signpost people. It takes about 12 months in total.

As chaplains we support people who live on or use the waterways. We’re largely volunteers from local churches and provide companionship and a listening ear to both individuals and businesses. It doesn’t matter if they’re boaters, cyclists, walkers, anglers or canal workers. We support and encourage people of any religion, orientation or race through good times and bad. We’re here to offer practical and spiritual help. We support people who have been evicted from boats, or who need advice filling in forms, or simply liaise between boaters and Canal & River Trust. Sometimes cases are referred onto us by CRT’s welfare officer.

At the moment there are just under 80 chaplains, but our aim is to have over 200 on the waterways.

It’s been in existence for ten years now. In fact, we recently had a celebratory service to mark the anniversary in the Tower of London. All of our chaplains are hugely committed to the task. Just ask my wife: on her birthday this year I took her to a symposium on Universal Credit!

In terms of time commitment, if we're wearing our Chaplaincy gilets, we're ‘on duty. We also walk up and down the towpath in Market Drayton once a week, talking to people, getting to know them and offering assistance wherever and however necessary. For instance, we recently met a couple who were new to boating, and came down the locks with them.

As we did so, their boat started to get mechanically worse. We Chaplains offer practical as well as spiritual help.

We've been doing chaplaincy work for 16 years, but it’s only since last year that we’ve done it in a more formal capacity for the Waterways Chaplaincy. The Boaters Christian Fellowship (of which we are members) is also a part of the Chaplaincy and our involvement started when Mark Chester,

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Love Your Waterways

Like Malcolm, a large percentage of waterway chaplains are boat-owners.

ended up giving them a lift back to Market Drayton. Fortunately one of our friends is also a River Canal Rescue engineer, so he was able to fix their boat and get them back on track. That’s the thing about chaplaincy work – you never know what’s going to happen next. Every day is an adventure. You help people out, share with them and do the best that you can. It’s a very practical ministry. Very hands on. It’s basically about loving people for who they are.

A funny story: last year we cruised up the Llangollen Canal. We’d just reached the narrow stretch and my wife went ahead to look for oncoming traffic. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and I spotted a couple of a similar age to me walking up the towpath and very obviously in love. I shouted out: “It’s grand to see the days of romance aren’t over yet.” He, on spotting my Chaplaincy clothes, replied: “You’re a Waterways Chaplain! Could you marry us?” We all had a good laugh together. Later, after we’d moored up, we spotted the same couple approaching on their boat. This time they’d obviously had a row and the man surreptitiously leant off the back of his craft and joked: “You don’t offer instant divorces, do you?” That’s what it’s all about for me: enjoying life in all its ups and downs.

The Waterways Chaplaincy doesn't take anything away from my IWA membership. I often think that all these organisations intermingle, to an extent. We started with IWA, then became involved with BCF and then Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal Society. Now the Chaplaincy work. They’re all pulling together in lots of different ways. They’ve all got something slightly different to offer to people, but the common thread is a mission to make a positive difference on our waterways.

Chaplaincy in action at an IWA event.

Find out more: A talk by senior chaplain Mark Chester inspired Malcolm to make his canal ministry more ‘official’.

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waterwayschaplaincy.org.uk

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Roger Ireland

Stalwart IWA Northampton Branch volunteer, who also helps the Environment Agency at Northampton Marina

Roger believes: “It doesn’t always matter whether it has the IWA tag on it or not, it’s making a difference to the waterways.”

I became an IWA member when we bought our boat, four years ago, to become more involved with the boating community. I’m a great believer in IWA’s really important campaigns, especially joining up the waterways – the Bedford & Milton Keynes Link, the Fens Waterways Link, the Lichfield & Hatherton canals. It’s all about looking at how we can make the current network even better for the future.

It was by chance, having joined IWA, that I realised the local branch organises work parties on the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union. We moor our boat in Northampton Marina so it seemed sensible to get stuck in and do something that gives a little back. The tasks are varied: we’ve done pretty much

Before and after: The sprucedup lock bywashes that IWA Northampton Branch cleared.

anything you can do on a canal apart from replacing locks. We paint, we weed, we grease the locks… Two years ago we hacked our way into the by-washes with machetes and now we keep them brilliantly clean with just a strimmer. This week we’ve been re-laying a section of towpath.

People might assume it's all hard graft, but they’d be wrong. It’s brilliant fun, and there are a number of reasons for that. Firstly, everybody who turns up is a volunteer, so they actually want to be there. Half the time you don’t need to ask what needs doing, you just take a look around and get on with it. The other thing is that while we’re out there, we’re often interacting with local residents. It’s been very noticeable in the two-and-a-half years I’ve been involved that, after we clean up an area, locals will invariably come along and continue that work. Initiatives like our mosaic trail have also helped, especially in terms of boosting the number of children enjoying the canal. As volunteers, we’re constantly encouraging people to walk the canal path and get involved. In my view, getting the community on board is definitely part of the remit of being an IWA volunteer. Even little things can help – keeping the canal clean, or cutting back branches over the towpath so that cyclists don’t get their helmets knocked off.

The inauguration of the new mosaic trail on the Northampton Arm, devised and run

by IWA Northampton Branch.

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Love Your Waterways

Roger hopes to one day help EA as a volunteer lock-keeper.

Roger (far left) battling by-weir vegetation on the Northampton Arm.

There are lots of other waterways projects I could support, but I’m particularly involved with the Northampton Arm so limit my volunteering to this area alone.

When the Environment Agency appealed for volunteers at Northampton Marina last year, I thought: “Why not? I’ll get stuck into that as well.” To be fair, IWA work parties are only two days a month, so it’s easy enough to fit in.

The EA role involves volunteering within the marina, helping management complete all the tasks that need doing. Recently I’ve been tightening nuts on the miles of pontoons there, doing general weeding and hacking back undergrowth, helping with the rubbish collection and laying paving slabs. There’s a lot of variety.

In future I hope to be trained as a volunteer lock-keeper. Denver Sluice already has volunteer lockkeepers, but EA is looking to place people at the other two locks on the Great Ouse, and Town Lock in Northampton as well. Basically, I’d be meeting and greeting the boaters, making sure they have the correct key for the Nene, and so on. Not necessarily working the locks for them – that’s entirely up to the boaters themselves if they want help – but making sure they have everything they need.

I do as much work for EA as I want to do. As an example, I did ten hours in September, six in October, thirteen in November, four in December. It really varies. I expect in the run-up to IWA’s Festival of Water in St Neots that things will get a little busier, however. If you’re not already on the Great Ouse or the Nene, the only way through for boats is via Northampton.

EA has been quite helpful with preparations for the event, particularly in supporting the publication of a cruising guide to the Nene, Great Ouse and Middle Levels – what to expect, where the moorings are etc. It’s a really useful resource for festival visitors.

I definitely think my EA work complements the IWA volunteering. There’s a view among some members of the canal world that the various boating organisations don’t talk or cooperate much with each other. Nothing could be further from the truth, in my experience. I recently gave a talk on volunteering at an Anglian Waterways meeting. All the major Autumn 2018 022 LYW_SH AH SH.indd 25

waterways players were there and, while not unreasonably IWA asked why Welches Dam and the Old Bedford River aren’t being looked after, by and large everyone was concerned that the waterways were working for all the communities they served, from canoeists to canal boaters.

I would encourage other IWA members to reach out to waterways groups in their areas. Why do IWA members do what they do? Because they care about the waterways. Well, so do all the other groups! Okay, you’re going to get areas of conflict occasionally but actually, if you go and help out the Buckingham Arm, for example, or the Wendover Arm, or any one of the countless other groups trying to improve the network, then you’re basically fulfilling what you joined IWA for in the first place. It doesn’t always matter whether it has the IWA tag on it or not, it’s making a difference to the waterways. And of course, if you participate as an IWA member (“Well, I’m here today because I heard about it through the IWA network…”), then you’re effectively advertising what a great job IWA does to people who might not necessarily have heard of the organisation.

I also wave at trains… Should I be admitting this?! When I’m out boating or volunteering along a canal I always greet passing trains. Think about it. If you’re on that train, bored, looking out of the window, and you see some idiot on a boat waving, your curiosity is bound to be a little piqued. You might log into the free wifi aboard, find out what waterway it was, and suddenly, someone who knew nothing about canals, has got a link in. Later, they might even tell their friends in the pub: “I was on the train the other day and this mad person waved from their boat on such-and-such a canal.” It gets the conversation started. It might be a bit off the wall, and maybe in my whole life only two people will be interested enough to find out more, but two people are still better than none.

Find out more:

gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency

IWA Waterways |

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Helen Brice

London liveaboard boater who combines IWA membership with active campaigning on behalf of the National Bargee Travellers Association I continuously cruise in London and the GU aboard my boat The Wife of Bath. I’m a Chaucer fan and she’s my favourite character, hence the name! The boat is a 60ft wide-beam and was built to our specification.

I had a flat in Soho and put most of the money from its sale into building the boat. We originally planned to have a home mooring in Croxley Green, but Helen says: “Where we can unfortunately that fell through – see common causes we we were conned. The happy ending should keep talking.” is that as soon as we pulled out onto the Grand Union we realised that we were completely free to go wherever we wanted. It was quite liberating, even though our batteries were drained and we had no electricity. We just embraced it, and have never looked back.

Our favourite mooring is always the next one. The nice thing about being itinerant boaters, especially having done this for nine years now, is getting to know spots, and then looking forward to revisiting them. If pushed, though, I’d say my favourite mooring is Southall for the sari shops and the curries. However, tying up in central London for a few days is also lovely. It always feels a bit cheeky! You can essentially bring your home right into the middle of the capital, into the thick of it, or moor in quite privileged areas like Primrose Hill.

My husband Tim and I became joint IWA members even before our boat was built. We were quite green, so visited the London Boat Show to find out more about associations we could join that would help. We discovered IWA on a stand there, and were especially impressed by all the work they do on restoration. When we became itinerant boaters we joined other relevant organisations as well, which is how I got involved with the National Bargee Travellers Association. We meet every month but the time commitment is really as much as you want to put into it. My areas of interest include safety, especially keeping safe in central London, and making sure CRT keeps to its word about improving boater facilities. We negotiated with them to reopen the loo at Old Ford Lock on the Regents Canal a couple of years ago.

I've been quite active in trying to bring IWA and NBTA closer together where there are priorities in common or campaigns that overlap. After a few years of cruising it became obvious that more water points, refuse areas etc were sorely needed and this is something NBTA has in common with IWA’s Gap Tracker campaign. We’re all part of the same tribe and I wanted to get a discussion going among us all. As a joint force we have more clout and a greater chance of galvanising boaters to press CRT for action.

There are obviously areas where IWA and NBTA are in conflict. One of these was the distance travelled by continuous cruisers each year – how far is far enough?

Personally I think there should be a place for all of us: boaters who move gradually and slowly through the city, abiding by the 14-day rule and prepared to move out of it (onto the River Lea or up towards Milton Keynes, for example) from time to time; and boaters who want to visit London on their holidays, or who are retired and want to spend a few months here. That’s why I want to keep communications open and the conversation going. There

Collaborating with towpath and waterway users in October 2017 to form a human chain as part of a safety initiative.

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Autumn 2018 24/07/2018 11:19

Love Your Waterways

is space for everyone, as long as we can be respectful, talk to each other, and celebrate our differences.

Granted, it can be very busy on London’s waterways, but then central London is a busy place full stop. I work in Piccadilly Circus so I see the worst! We need to accept that lots of people want to visit and move through the city.

Campaigning on behalf of NBTA. For people coming from out of town, as tourists during the boating ‘season’, it’s becoming more difficult to find the mooring spots they’d perhaps prefer, but it’s not so jammed that you can’t moor here at all. While NBTA opposes the idea that visitor/casual moorings be taken away, or reduced from 14 days, I and other NBTA London members urged CRT to only have short-stay or pre-bookable moorings on the off-side, if at all, so as not to eradicate existing towpath moorings. Sadly, this has fallen on deaf ears.

The collaborative project I'm most proud of achieving is a human chain on the towpath to promote safety. It happened last October. We wanted to involve lots of different towpath users in an area on the River Lea where there had been several safety issues. We organised residential and itinerant boaters, rowers, IWA members, local residents and even the head of the Shomrin [local Jewish community safety patrol]. We had about 150 people joining hands in a chain along the towpath making a stand to say: ‘We’re not going to be frightened off this waterway.’ It received national radio and

Helen lives aboard with her husband, Tim, and their two cats.

TV coverage and really got communication going with lots of different agencies, from the Metropolitan Police to various borough councils.

We formed a London Canal Watch off the back of it and organise boater patrols once or twice every night.

These comprise at least four people and generally last a couple of hours. At the moment they’re based along the Hertford Union and Victoria Park as it’s not very well lit around there. If we see anything suspicious we can be put straight through to an incident room to report it.

Canal boaters aren't really a ‘community, more of a 'tribe'. Some people just want to keep their head down, and that’s fine. As boating has become more popular, however, especially in London, it seems to pay to stay in communication and to be actively kind and considerate. That’s why I’d encourage other IWA members to form partnerships with related organisations where possible. It’s a good idea to be inclusive and all these associations form part of our tribe.

There’s a different priority for NBTA as there is for IWA and that’s absolutely fine: we need both associations. And where we can see common causes we should keep talking to one another.

Find out more:

bargee-traveller.org.uk / canalwatchlondon@gmail.com

Autumn 2018 022 LYW_SH AH SH.indd 27

IWA Waterways |

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rentable DIY bays complete with liiing gear & moveable plaaorms Autumn 2018 24/07/2018 10:20

Canoeing on the River Cam

I CAM, I SAW, I CANOED As IWA’s Festival of Water comes to Cambridgeshire, author and naturalist Matt Gaw gives a compelling reason to explore the county’s other waterway gems, recounting a memorable canoe voyage on the Granta and Cam. MARTIN POPE

Autumn 2018 029 Matt Gaw.indd 29

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Martin Pope

The Granta’s course takes in lush water meadows.

The trip is of the best possible kind: completely unplanned. My wife is off visiting family with the children and my friend James is at a loose end. With forecasts promising spring sunshine, the pull of being on the water is simply too great. It’s an opportunity to spend a couple of days messing about in the canoe. The Granta, less than an hour’s drive away, fits the bill. It has a reputation for fun. It overflows with the stuff. For decades, if not centuries, artists, writers, deep-thinkers and atom-splitters have rowed, punted, bathed and swam in its soft, lazy waters, lolled and picnicked on its banks. After the labour and intensity of a recent trip on the Thames, it also feels we need a bit of a break. This river will be, if not a holiday, an adventure of the Famous Five kind, albeit with a bit more rum in our ginger beer.

We have no idea how far we’ll go. There is no end point, no destination.

Ours is a map-less, watery wander, with little more than a canoe and a hammock. We will simply follow the river until we tire.

Matt (r) with his paddling partner James Treadaway.

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Two names We put in on the mill cut, underneath a brick bridge topped with iron railings. The bank is butter-yellow with lesser celandine, drifts of petalled stars that slope gently to the water. On the opposite bank, behind a thick privet hedge, is a white house, its roof covered in wobbling red tiles. A sculpture of a horse, stark black against the soft greens, stands staring towards Cambridge, some two miles away.

When the city’s name developed in Middle English, changing from the Anglo-Saxon Grantebrycge, the river’s name was altered to fit, becoming the Cam. But here, at least until Silver Bridge, it is still known as the Granta. A river draped with willows and catkins, its slow waters racing-green and powdered with pollen.

Our paddle strokes are glacier-paced and ponderous, the river rolls along next to lush water meadows. A path – the Grantchester Grind – skirts the bank, disappearing behind trees. Two runners, their lycra-skinned bottoms at our eye level, easily outpace our boat. Their progress down the river is marked by the metallic clink of kissing gates slamming shut.

I don’t bother ruddering to avoid the trees, instead gliding under willow fronds and ghosting round corners. A sunbather, as still as a corpse, lies by the bank, a towel covering his face and half of his chest. We pass within touching distance and James threatens to poke him with a paddle to check for signs of life.

Autumn 2018 24/07/2018 11:08

Canoeing on the River Cam

The Cam in Brief The navigable river Cam runs for 14.5 miles from Cambridge to the junction with the Great Ouse at Pope’s Corner.

Upstream from Cambridge, the river is used by canoeists as far as Guilden Moor (Cam) and Audley End (River Granta). There are three locks.

A series of navigable man-made channels (lodes) feed into the river.

Reach Lode (2.1 miles) and Wicken Lode (1.5 miles) feed into Burwell Lode (3.7 miles), which joins the Cam at Upware, about 3 miles upstream of Pope’s Corner. These are open and maintained by the Environment Agency. Swaffham Bulbeck Lode (cut-off by an inoperable lock) is semi-navigable, and Bottisham Lode is currently unnavigable. These lodes are not maintained for navigation but, along with others, are proposed for restoration.

The maximum size of boat that can navigate throughout the river Cam is: length: 100ft (30.5m) beam: 14ft (4.3m) height: 9ft (2.7m) draught: 4ft (1.2m)

'Drift and coo' A tight meander leads into woods, bringing relief from the high spring sun that has strobed the surface of the water. The river here smells sweet, perhaps from the grass and trees, the soft rot of vegetation or simply the water itself. I lie back and trail my fingers along the surface, watching them change colour as I plunge my hand in deeper. The water had felt thick and slow against the paddle, but against my skin it is light and silky; a soft, chilling balm. The light, filtered through the green lens of the tree branches and scrub, gives a sense of elvish twilight, even though it’s barely noon.

We drift and coo, lulled almost to sleep, to be startled awake by the sudden glare of sun on water or the froggy call of a moorhen, clattering away in fright.

“It’s hard not to get swept up in the sheer loveliness of it all” It’s hard not to get swept up in the sheer loveliness of it all. To get carried away. The poet Rupert Brooke, who lodged at Orchard House in Grantchester in 1909, never got over his time with the Granta. He kept the river with him, wound round his heart.

Brooke’s poem ‘The Old Vicarage, Grantchester’, written during his time in Berlin, is both satirical and Autumn 2018 029 Matt Gaw.indd 31

deliriously nostalgic: a memory of ‘flower-lulled’ hours with water as ‘green as a dream and deep as death’. More than a hundred years on, new happy memories are still being formed on the Granta. In among trees dripping with blossom, old branches have been lassoed with fraying rope swings that hang out over cool, dark pools, full of fish and fun. Our own laughter, our splashes and jokes, bounce from the banks, causing blackbirds to tut and scold.

Into the city The river straightens, becomes canalised as it runs into the city, a sluice draining the water down towards Silver Street Bridge. A concrete slipway, fitted with rollers, leads back down to the river, its flow looping round a willow-shaded green and the first colleges of Cambridge University.

We lug the canoe up over the path, heaving with conga trains of tourists and then down the slope to the water. James hops in while I decide to give us a push-off. The water, though, is deeper than I was expecting. I step off the concrete and disappear with a startled shout, bobbing to the surface, still unable to touch the bottom. James takes the canoe back to the side, his shoulders shaking with laughter while I cling on grimly to the gunwales.

On the path, two men, who appear to be dressed in Pikachu onesies, take pictures while shouting something in what sounds like Japanese. I give them a half-hearted wave, my teeth gritted. It’s hard to keep hold of your sense of humour when you’re being openly mocked by Pokémon.

I dry off while we eat lunch on the green, looking towards the putty-white Portland stone of the Silver Street Bridge, the marker of where the Granta becomes the Cam. Either side of the bridge is an armada of punts, their hardwood tills polished smooth by shuffling feet. Once used for fowling and trade, these are now crafts purely for pleasure: a means to transport tourists through the Backs – the famous stretch of the river where several colleges back onto the water. A few people are giving them a go, pricking nervously towards the bridge, while lunchtime drinkers, sitting in the gardens of the two riverside pubs, silently will them to fall in.

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Martin Pope

Matt paddles past King’s College.

Hogwarts In the canoe again, we ease onto the Backs proper, a Hogwarts world of stone, brick and wood, dripping with history and stories. We slow down to watch some of the punts in action, their guides lowering wooden or aluminium poles into the river, pushing against the silty bed and then feeding them back through hand over hand. They talk as they go, a script learnt by heart and delivered in time with the rhythmic thrusts of the boat: the tales of a wooden bridge built by Newton (it wasn’t); of disgruntled architects and controversial builds.

But there is fun to be had here too. More japes.

Twice students have, for reasons known only to them, suspended cars from the Bridge of Sighs. In 1963, an Austin Seven was carried down the Cam on four punts before being strung up by ropes under the bridge. Five years later a Reliant Regal was left dangling from the bridge’s structure, only to be removed the following morning by the long-suffering fire service. At King’s College, students scaled the walls of the limestone chapel to place traffic cones – those luminous totems of student high jinks – on its spires. The college is said to have hired a scaffolding company the next morning to remove them but the job wasn’t completed before nightfall. The climbers returned under cover of darkness, moving the cones to the back of the building and rendering the scaffolding pointless. Other items to have decorated the chapel spires include a toilet seat in 2002 and four Santa hats in 2009, all of which were retrieved at great expense (and I imagine little humour) by a professional steeplejack.

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“Twice students have, for reasons known only to them, suspended cars from the Bridge of Sighs” Hard work We drift slowly, the banks low and grass trimmed. It feels a bit like being on a fairground ride; a slow drift on a watery conveyor belt. By Midsummer Common, the punts make way for houseboats and we pass a parade of shuttered rowing clubs.

The sun has now dipped behind thickening, porridge-coloured clouds and the wind has got up. A kayaker going upstream passes with a whir of blades, shouting out that ‘It’s easier this way.’ The river is so straight it is numbing. We have the same view for what feels like hours, distant bridges and church towers not getting any closer no matter how hard we toil. The act of paddling is often soothing, the mind being lulled by the rhythm, but now it’s hard work and with little to see I concentrate too much on my stroke. As soon as I think about it, I can’t do it. I scrape my knuckles on the side, splash James’s back or angle the blade so it gets little traction.

We break the tedium by tumbling from the canoe, floating like puffed-up starfish in our drysuits along the side of the bank, hooting and splashing at each other while cyclists and walkers do their best to ignore us. What was it Brooke said? ‘For Cambridge people rarely smile, / Being urban, squat, and packed with guile.’

Bolt-hole The day is drawing to a close. We’re almost giving up on finding somewhere to camp when the river curves slightly to the east. On the right bank, nestling in the inner curve of the meander is a rough patch of land; a clump of old trees. A Autumn 2018 24/07/2018 11:08

Martin Pope

Canoeing on the River Cam

Martin Pope

Upstream from Cambridge, the river is best explored by canoe.

stream or an old drainage ditch runs horizontal to the river, circling the thicket like a moat, creating if not an island, then a woody peninsular.

We paddle up it, away from the river’s main flow, digging into silt that kicks up a rich, boggy, vegetable funk. The undergrowth is thick, scented with the peppery, pissy smell of nettle. Now only ankle-high, in a month or so they will make this place impenetrable – a fortress of spiked leaves and stinging hairs. The ground, though, is flat and dry.

I’m not sure of the time – it must be mid- to lateevening – but the sun has returned for a final hurrah.

After seeming so grey, straight and . . . well, dull, on the last leg, the river is transformed. Everything trills and quivers in the sun. The water glows like iron fresh from the fire, solid yet malleable, soon to harden in the evening’s cool. Even the mosquitoes and midges look beautiful: a living fog that rises and falls in the windless air towards water that has been smoothed to silk.

A barn owl crosses the river and heads on silent wings for the neighbouring pasture, following the trees along the bank. I can feel the same calm and lightness I experienced this morning, a sighing peace that comes with the change of the land and the delicious, gradual slide of day into night. We are on the edge. Forgotten and close. In a bolt-hole that offers a thorny resistance to the pressures of agriculture. A place where the naiads can still hide, biding their time, before slipping back into the sparkling waters when the old magic of the evening returns – that between times on a river that is always between places.

Autumn 2018 029 Matt Gaw.indd 33

“It feels a bit like being on a fairground ride; a slow drift on a watery conveyor belt”

Read more This is an extract from Matt Gaw’s book, The Pull of the River: A Journey into the Wild and Watery Heart of Britain, which was published earlier this year (Elliott & Thompson, £14.99).

Matt also recommends the River Stour to canoeists, which rises in eastern Cambridgeshire.

IWA Waterways |

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restoration HUB: Your round-up of IWA-led restoration activity, including how legacy money is unlocking more miles of waterways, and how we’re helping to navigate the complex challenges of clashing road infrastructure projects

Volunteers at work on Thornton Lock on the Pocklington Canal – one of the projects funded in part by the Tony Harrison legacy.

PCAS

Autumn 2018 037 HUB Tony Harrison legacy.indd 37

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restoration HUB: Tony Harrison legacy projects In 2016, waterways projects across the network were invited to bid for a portion of a £200,000 bequest left by former IWA honorary consultant engineer and trustee, Tony Harrison. Tony, who was an expert in hydraulics and hydrology in his professional life, supported IWA’s restoration activities for over 20 years.

The money was split four ways across works that IWA felt best reflected Tony’s personal and professional interests. We return to three of the projects that have been completed and see how the funds have been used to open up nearly 4 miles of waterway.

Thanks to Tony Harrison's legacy, so far IWA has been able to help • open up nearly 4 miles of waterway • rebuild three locks • improve the reliabili‫ ﬚‬of two trip-boats, bringing in more income for further restoration work • propel positive momentum on three projects across the country

Montgomery Canal Partnership

Rebuilding of Schoolhouse Bridge Although construction work has not yet started on this project, which is to restore the infilled Schoolhouse Bridge on the Montgomery Canal, extensive preparatory work is in hand covering structural, environmental, highway and planning issues, as well as negotiations with neighbouring owners. £70,000 has been awarded to the complex project, which when complete will be a major boost to restoring a 2-mile length of the canal through to Llanymynech, and ultimately to reconnecting Welshpool to the national canal network.

Pocklington Canal Amenity Society

Bicentenary project to restore Thornton and Walbut locks The most recent project to be completed is the restoration of Thornton and Walbut locks on the Pocklington Canal, returning 2 miles of the waterway to navigation for the first time in nearly a century.

Massive lock gates were replaced on the Grade II-listed structures, complete with a distinctive six-spoked paddle gear wheel, a distinctive feature of the Pocklington Canal. Boats can now travel as far as the Bielby Arm, where there is a winding point.

The project received £106,400 from the legacy and forms part of a larger restoration of all 9½ miles of the Pocklington Canal by the Pocklington Canal Amenity Society, in partnership with Canal & River Trust.

The opening of the locks, which forms part of the waterways’ 200th anniversary celebrations, is a key milestone in the restoration. Neil Edwards, IWA chief executive, and Mary Harrison, Tony’s widow, attended the formal celebrations for the two locks on 25th July.

MALCOLM SLATER

The restored Walbut Lock.

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River Stour Trust

Matched funding for new lock gates at Stratford St Mary Lock

Boats emerge from the restored St Mary Lock.

Work has also been completed on St Mary’s Lock on the River Stour, and the opening ceremony on 12th May, led by the River Stour Trust’s vice-president Griff Rhys Jones, was attended by Mary Harrison and Chris Howes, IWA Eastern Region chair. Mary also unveiled a wooden plaque on the side of the lock, which has been re-named the Roger Brown Lock after the RST member who led the project.

The restoration of the River Stour was one of three projects highlighted by IWA founders in 1946 and the newly named Roger Brown Lock is the last remaining lock on the navigation that could be restored for the present. It received £8,600 from the Tony Harrison legacy.

The reopening of the lock extends the currently navigable section of the river by a further 1.75 miles. It forms the culmination of 12 years’ work and is the fourth such structure to have been restored on the River Stour.

LEFT: Mary Harrison unveils a plaque on the lockside.

RIGHT: Before restoration – the unuseable St Mary Lock.

Cromford Canal (Friends of the Cromford Canal)

Installation of a water gate for water supply At the head of the Cromford Canal, a water gate has now been replaced to permit a more reliable and regulated water supply. The canal is fed from Bonsall Brook and during periods of heavy rain water was diverted away to minimise flooding risk, causing the level to drop so far that the Friends of the Cromford Canal’s passenger trip-boat, Birdswood, was sometimes unable to run as scheduled.

A new barrier with control gear constructed to a traditional design was installed – such a gate is believed to have been in place when the feeder channel to the canal was first built. A grant of £15,000 from the Tony Harrison legacy helped fund the work, and money raised from the boat trips will support the further restoration of the canal.

Work begins on the installation of the water gate on the Cromford.

Autumn 2018 037 HUB Tony Harrison legacy.indd 39

FCC

FCC

FCC will benefit from improved water levels and a more reliable trip-boat thanks to the newly fitted water gate.

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restoration HUB: On the Road IWA has a wealth of experience supporting restoration projects threatened by road developments.

We take a closer look at how the Hub is helping one particular society try to beat the jam...

The Bedford-Milton Keynes link has long been the ‘great wide hope’ for canal boaters, the only realistic chance of broad-beam boats reaching the north by inland waters. First proposed when the Grand Union Canal opened around 1811 (and many times thereafter), the concept was finally resurrected in 1996 when the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust was launched.

The canal is now envisioned as running from the Grand Union at Campbell Park in Milton Keynes, alongside the M1 motorway to south of Junction 13, over Brogborough Hill and through Marston Vale, connecting with the Great Ouse at Kempston – 16 miles in total. Over the years the project has evolved from a simple waterway link,

and is now called the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Park, and it has acquired an unusual status.

It’s not a restoration, as such, but a brand-new waterway. And not a simple canal link either, but a complete development that would include new villages, parkland, commercial land, a forest and leisure facilities.

The route of the proposed new waterway appeared to be protected in all the relevant Local Plans, until an announcement in March that the Government had found £22.5m to turn a stretch of road between Milton Keynes and Junction 13 of the M1 into a dual carriageway, with no provision for the proposed waterway to pass under.

Permission is already in place for a culvert, and the trust had been reminding transport planners of this over the last two years.

Following a vigorous campaign by the trust, the road-building consortium, led by Central Bedfordshire Council, recognised

the importance of the waterway and offered to make provision for it – but only at a cost. BMKWT would have to pay for the culvert themselves, estimated at an eye-watering £3m. In addition, the council asked the trust to pay £150,000 within three weeks to fund the design costs for the culvert, which wasn’t included in their original plans.

And that’s where IWA stepped in… The association appealed to members and supporters, particularly those living in the constituencies which the new waterway would pass through, to write to their MP demanding full support for the provision of a crossing to be included in the scheme.

All the local MPs have since expressed their support. Sadly, the Department for Transport put the matter of funding a culvert squarely back in the hands of Milton Keynes and Central Bedfordshire councils who are responsible for the road project. The response from the two local authorities was that, given wider financial pressures, there is simply no funding.

After exiting B&MKW’s proposed culvert, the waterway would follow the newly dualled A421 out of Milton Keynes, to Junction 13 of the M1 motorway. It would then make use of an old ‘cattle creep’, or farmer’s access underpass, to go under the motorway.

INSET: The existing culvert under the A421. Lack of another threatens the project.

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'Overwhelmed' by support “IWA has played a critical role in our campaign to try to secure a culvert for the B&MK Waterway as part of a proposed upgrade of the A421 south of Milton Keynes.

“Unfortunately, we have still not secured the much needed culvert.

However, the lobbying instigated

by IWA has led to the two local authorities involved, the Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling and local MPS being bombarded with emails and letters about the issue. The issue was raised in a number of public forums and across the Oxford/Milton Keynes/Cambridge corridor. We featured in local and specialist papers and magazines, on local TV and radio and in online media.

“The outcome is a much higher profile for the waterway, which is going to help us enormously as we move forward. We are being taken more seriously and are now in a position to keep MPs and others updated regularly to maintain interest in the project.

“The other very positive outcome is a renewed and much closer relationship with IWA such that we are going to have IWA representation on our board. We have been overwhelmed by the support and advice we have received and there is a lot we can now build on.”

Jane Hamilton, director and chair of BMKWT

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Elsewhere on the network…

IWA has been firing off letters to Swindon Council and the Transport Minister on behalf of the Wilts & Berks Canal restoration. A road is planned to link a new housing development in Swindon (Wichelstowe) to J16 of the M4. This road will need to go under the motorway and, because it is adjacent to the designated crossing of the M4 of the Wilts & Berks Canal route, a practical solution would be a combined canal and road tunnel.

However, because the road scheme is financed by Department for Transport on a fixed timescale, the promoter (Swindon Borough Council) does not wish to jeopardise the funding by adding the perceived ‘complication’ and extra cost of the canal tunnel. IWA continues to work with Wilts & Berks Canal Trust, Wiltshire Swindon & Oxfordshire Canal Partnership, Canal & River Trust and others to get a meaningful discussion at a senior level at DfT. IWA has also been lending its support to the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust’s current capital works campaign. Last year it hosted an appearance by David Suchet, vice president of the trust, on the IWA stand at the London Boat Show. Suchet and trustees outlined their ‘Tunnel Vision’ initiative, endorsed and supported by IWA, to raise £1m before 2019 to install a tunnel beneath the main Birmingham-Lichfield railway line and so secure the restoration of the Lichfield Canal.

It follows plans by County Highways to extend the Lichfield Southern Bypass by building a tunnel for the new road under the same railway line. Given that it will be immensely more difficult, and substantially more expensive, to build the canal tunnel after the road is completed, LHCRT is pressing to build its tunnel at the same time.

RIGHT: IWA correspondence on behalf of the Wilts & Berks Canal.

BELOW: Lichfield Canal’s aqueduct over the M6 Toll – the culmination of years of joint campaigning by LHCRT and IWA’s Lichfield Branch. Along the way, IWA initiated several meetings with Ministers, led by the late Tony Harrison, resulting in a fundamental change in Government policy with support for waterways restoration.

‘Waterways for Tomorrow’ (2000) promised the revised Planning Policy Guidance Transport PPG13 would “protect disused waterways” and “ensure the sites and routes are not severed by other uses”.

PAUL MARSHALL

The trust, with IWA’s support, is continuing to press for a solution. It may well be possible to make provision in the future but at a much greater cost and with significant traffic management impacts on the upgraded A421.

In the meantime, the issue has provided opportunities to promote the waterway to a much wider audience, particularly in the context of the Oxford/Milton Keynes/Cambridge corridor. A new Oxford to Cambridge Expressway is proposed as part of the new infrastructure for the corridor. The broad route for this road is due to be announced later this year and may have implications for the upgraded A421 such that further work may be required. This could present a chance to find a way forward, ensuring the waterway route is fully integrated into local and strategic infrastructure.

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restoration HUB: WRG’s summer of learning The Waterway Recovery Group’s summer Canal Camps are in full swing with volunteers busy building lock walls, refurbishing bridges and revamping towpaths at locations up and down the country. The success of these camps is due in large part to good preparation. We take at look at some of the training and courses provided by WRG.

Annual training weekend Every year WRG runs a training weekend offering volunteers a unique opportunity to acquire new and practical skills. Volunteers are invited from among the WRG base as well as anyone who offers their time to restoration groups across the country.

This year more than 50 volunteers descended on Brimscombe Port near Stroud to learn the practical skills needed to undertake largescale construction projects. Training included excavator and dumper operation, scaffolding, bricklaying, site tool handling and more.

One of the many benefits of being a WRG volunteer is the chance to learn something new which provides you with skills for restoration projects as well as other areas of life. One volunteer revealed at the training that he now feels that he has sufficient experience to set about upgrading his house in the Cotswolds – success!

Bricklaying with Ty Mawr Following a highly rated event last year, WRG re-ran the Introduction to Lime with Brickwork Course providing volunteers with the chance to improve their heritage bricklaying skills during a two-day bespoke beginners event.

Eighteen volunteers attended the course run by Ty Mawr, which has been delivering specialist trainings in traditional and ecological building since 1996. Everyone had the chance to spend time getting to grips with the theory in the classroom followed by practical training on site where they could get their hands dirty and apply their new found knowledge in a practise environment.

WRG Sarah Lewis masters bricklaying basics.

Gordon Pavey learns to dig canals with Harry Watts.

Leader's training day Our volunteer leaders are the engines that keep WRG moving and every year we look to pass on the lessons learned from the previous summer and highlight best practice guidelines. The theme for this year’s day was ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ Not wanting to spend too much time on the answer to that question, the trainers instead focused on reviewing our health and safety procedures, refining our approach to producing project plans, and discussing construction design management and industry best practice guidelines.

The relaxed and informal day allows volunteers to talk openly about topics that otherwise might not be raised.

Highlights included a guest speaker discussing what it takes to lead people, and a dust mask fit test which involved spraying participants with a foul tasting (but harmless!) chemical to see if the mask was fitted correctly.

starting them young Family camps returned for a second year running on the Uttoxeter Canal where five families, including seven children aged eight to thirteen, helped improve the waterway environment around the Crumpwood area near Denstone.

The tasks included making an uncovered lock safe, going on a nature hunt where they found a nesting bird, larvae and different types of bugs and plants, building bird boxes, and clearing vegetation.

After a hard day’s work the team was rewarded with a barbecue followed by a campfire and plenty of toasted marshmallows – what could be better?

Keep your eye out for future Family Canal Camps by visiting wrg.org.uk.

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Back to school for the WRG leaders.

Building bird boxes at the Family Canal Camp.

Autumn 2018 24/07/2018 11:14

The coun tdown is on for t he IWA Festival o f Water on

See y'Ouse in St Neots

A

weekend of music, good food and great company is always going to appeal, and IWA’s Festival of Water, taking place in St Neots over the August bank holiday weekend, promises to offer the perfect quantity of each. Over 100 boats are already making their way to the Great Ouse market town, and for anyone looking to spend the weekend on land, campsite spaces are available on the beautiful Regatta Meadow. The prices for moorings and campsite pitches include wristbands for evening entertainment across the whole weekend.

The Great Ouse is known for its beauty and the best way to appreciate it is from the water. Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterways Trust is bringing its trip-boat John Bunyan to the event, offering cruises to all festival-goers on Sunday and Monday. Action 4 Youth will get visitors afloat in canoes or on paddleboards – anyone wanting to give this fast-growing sport a go should make a beeline for the riverbank. The team at the Environment Agency know how popular its patrol vessels are and if you would like to take a closer look then there will be two open for visitors.

For showgoers who prefer to watch the river-based action from the banks, there are plenty of activities designed to delight and entertain. Boat-handling skills will be on display across the weekend, with competition prizes given out on Monday afternoon. One of the festival highlights will take place on Sunday evening: the parade. Attending boats will don their Sunday best to light up the river and cruise the length of the

25th-27th August

Regatta Meadow in a wonderful and colourful show of moving illuminations. The parade will be rounded off by a spectacular family firework display provided by St Neots Town Council.

Grab a beer and a riverside spot for the best views.

The Festival of Water has built a little bit of a reputation for attracting vintage vehicles and this year is no exception. There will be a selection of buses and cars on site over the weekend – perfect for your social media selfie! A new addition to the event this year is a novelty dog show. We’re expecting lots of entries and there’s a top-quality judge, so bring your pooch along and see who’s best in show.

For a full list of crafts, entertainment and food, as well as attractions such as birds of prey and children’s rides, take a look at the festival website waterways.org.uk/festivalofwater.

Make your weekend even better by preparing yourself with our festival essentials.

Turn the page to find out more.

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FESTIVAL ESSENTIALS Must-have items and ideas to help you make the most of your St Neots experience

Hounds of love You don’t have to leave the pets behind: bring your pooch along for its chance to shine in Sunday’s fun dog show. There are six classes to contest – cutest, scruffiest, best trick, best veteran, best junior handler and judges’ choice. Rosettes will be awarded for first, second and third places, and there’s also a highly commended award up for grabs.

Booking in is from 11am, with judging starting at 1.30pm.

Entry is £2 per dog per class.

Every dog will have its day at St Neots.

Volunteering opportunities

IWA’s all-weather wardrobe Dress to impress over the weekend with IWA’s new range of branded clothing.

Comprising everything from poly-cotton polo shirts to fleeces made in breathable, pill-resistant fabric, you’ll be ready to face whatever conditions our British summer cares to throw at us.

Worst case: the waterproof jacket with concealed, adjustable hood should come in handy if the heavens open.

All garments bear an embroidered version of IWA’s new logo on the left breast and come in a choice of three colours: blue, red and green. You’ll find more product information in IWA’s online shop – waterways. org.uk/shop – where you can also place your order.

Great O

Little Ouse M PE38 0PR - m Littleport B

863763 Ely Marine moorings 013 Bridge Boa

663726 Fish & Duc short term m

Lazy Otte residentia Twenty P short term moorings 251118 Westvie Marina Earith PE 3PN gas, mooring chandler 840089

IWA clothing: on brand and all beautiful.

Festival volunteering puts you in the thick of the action.

If you’re looking to really get stuck in to the IWA festival experience there’s no better way than by joining the event’s volunteer team.

Opportunities currently exist for general event volunteers to help with directing car park traffic, litter picking, erecting marquees, distributing programmes, making PA announcements, and assisting with site information points and activities.

For more information about volunteering at the festival, contact Pat Barton by emailing pat.barton@waterways.org.uk. You’ll find a list of available tasks on IWA’s website, which is worth perusing beforehand (waterways.org.uk/festivalofwater) to help match you to your preferred job.

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Middle Level Facilities -1-

Before you enter the Middle Level from Stanground

Last overnight moorings - Peterbo rough Embankment Last Pump Out - Peterborough Embankment Last Water - Peterborough Emban kment Last Elsan Disposal - Peterborough Embankment Last Diesel - Peterborough Boating Centre (Stanground Arm - may need to phone for service 01733 566688)

Downloadable cruising guides It’s the journey that counts, and in this case your trip will be made considerably easier by downloading one of our free cruising guides to the local waterways.

Written by Chris Howes, IWA trustee and chair of IWA’s Eastern Region, the guides contain essential information such as water points, moorings, where to find diesel and gas, pubs for drinks and food as well as nearby shops.

The Upper and Lower Nene, Middle Level and, of course, the Great Ouse are all covered. Plus, you’ll find a list of slipways on the non-tidal Great Ouse from Bedford traveling downstream. This includes public slipways (may require EA Abloy key), cruising clubs and private slipways.

Middle Level overnight moorings

Benwick - Old River Nene, Whittlesey - King’s Dyke, Ramsey - High Lode, off Old River Nene, Three Holes - Sixteen Foot drain, Salter’s Lode - Well Creek, Outwell Basin - - Well Creek, Upwell - outside St Peter’s Church , Well Creek, Nene Parade, March - Old River Nene, March Town Moorings - Old River Nene,

Middle Level Locks

Stanground Sluice - Passage on to the Middle Level should be booked 24 hours in advance (07825 600470) Ashline Lock (Whittlesey) - a special windlass is required Marmont Priory Lock - a special windlass is required. The lock keeper, Maureen, appreciates a couple of hours notice if you intend to use the lock - 01945 773959 Salter’s Lode Sluice - Passage off the Middle Level is tidal and restricted to specific times. Phone the lock keeper at Salters Lode (Paul) or Denver Sluice (Dan) 01366 382340/38201 3 for advice, and to book a crossing.

Upper Nene Facilities -1 Northampton to Thrapston Bridge (Islip) Upper Nene Locks

Great Ouse Facilities

-1-

Earith, PE28 3PR - moorings Hermitage Marina, 840994 and marine services, 01487 Pike & Eel, St Ives, Riverside Marine Services, 01480 diesel, gas, pump out, PE27 4TW, moorings, 468666

Lower Nene Facilitie

There are 17 CRT locks between Gayton Marina and the River Nene at Northampton. A BW key is required. There are a further 21E.A. locks to Thrapston Bridge, all require the E.A. Abloy key. 6 are double mitre gate locks, one has a radial lower gate, and there are 15 guillotine locks, 3 of which are manually operated !

Thrapston Bridge (Islip)

Bluebell Fisheries (down stream Perio Lock) Fotheringhay Pay Above Elton Lock Public Yarwell Mill Wansford Haycock Hotel use Pub Wansford between bridges Wansford Station (Sibson) neglected Public Public Alwalton F.o.t.R.N. Ferry Meadow Country Park Public Peterborough Town Quay Public F.o.t.R.N. = Friends of the River Nene

Upper Nene Moorings

(with moorings) Great Ouse Marinas s, (1 mile up Little Ouse) Little Ouse Mooring diesel & gas, 07713 465791 PE38 0PR - moorings, CB6 1QG moorings, 01353 Littleport Boat Haven 863763 CB7 4AU most services, Ely Marine Ltd, Ely moorings 01353 664622 CB7 4DY boat hire 01353 Bridge Boatyard Ely, 663726 - CB6 3HR most services, Fish & Duck Marina 649580 short term moorings 01353

& Ives, PE27 5ET, petrol Jones Boatyard, St workshop, 01480 diesel, moorings, chandlery, 494040 n, PE28 2AA petrol Hartford Marina,, Huntingdo - 01480 454677 & diesel, pump out, moorings PE28 2AA Wyton Services, Daylock Marine moorings, chandlery, petrol & diesel, elsan disposal, workshop, 01480 455898 PE19 5BH, petrol, Buckden Marina, Buckden, moorings, workshop,diesel, gas, elsan disposal, 01480 812660 St Neots PE19 7GE moorings, Crosshall Marina,, 01480 472763 chandleryworkshop, elsan disposal, 2BW, moorings - 01480 St Neots Marina,, PE19

Upper Nene Marinas with moorings

Northampton Marina - Becket’s Park, Victoria Promenade, Northampton NN1 5NL . (01604 604344) Secure short term moorings, water, pump out, elsan disposal. No parking.

Billing Marina - Billing Aquadrome Ltd, Crow Lane, Great Billing, NN3 9DA · (07762 905145) Secure short term moorings, diesel, water, pump out, elsan disposal. Secure on site parking.

White Mills Marina - 344 Grendon Rd, Northampton NN6 0RB - (01604 812057) Secure short term moorings, diesel, water, pump out, elsan disposal. Secure on site parking.

Chandlery.

Blackthorn Lake Marina / Willy Watt Marina Station Road, Ringstead NN14 4TU - (01933 622038). Secure short term moorings, water, pump out, elsan disposal. Secure on site parking.

Outside Morrisons Public Northampton Marina E.A. (pay) Lower Nene locks Outside Northampton Marina.

Public There are 16 guillotine gate locks between Midsummer Meadow Public Thrapston Bridge and the Middle Level. All require Below Rush Mills Lock the special E.A. Abloy key. Ashton, Perio and Below Western Favell Lock.

Public Warmington locks are not electrically operated.

Billing Marina Private (pay) Cogenhoe Mill Earls Barton Lock Between Earls Barton & Doddington Locks Great Doddington F.o.t.R.N. Wellingborough Town Centre Public Below Ditchford Lock Public

By Rushden & Diamonds FC Public Woodford F.o.t.R.N. Willy Watt Marina Private (pay) Lower Ringstead Lock Public Denford Lock Public Islip F.o.t.R.N. Thrapston (by old bridge) Public F.o.t.R.N. = Friends of the River Nene

Lower

Nene marinas with moorings Woodford Riverside Marina Addington Rd, Woodford , Kettering NN14 4ES - (07740 169403) short term moorings Oundle Marina Village Barnwell Rd, Oundle, Peterborough (PE8 5PA - 01832 272762) Secure short term moorings, diesel, petrol, water, elsan disposal. Chandlery .

Lilford Marina Peterborough PE8 5SA - (01832 272230) Secure short term moorings, diesel, water, pump out, elsan disposal

472411

Stretham - CB6 3LU Lazy Otter Marina residential marina - CB6 3PX gas, no diesel, Twenty Pence Marina short term moorings 01954 251118 Westview Marina Earith PE28 3PN gas, diesel,

moorings, chandlery 01487 840089

Upper Nene diesel & gas

Great Ouse, public water

after lock) Denver Sluice (to right Sluice,) Denver (by AG Wright Silt Fen Farm, nr Denver Rd Bridge 10 Mile Bank, by Hilgay Swan PH opposite t Littlepor

points

Alan Buckle Fuel Boat - 07856 686363 Billing Marina, 07762 905145 White Mills Marina, 01604 812057 Willy Watt Marina, 01933 622038

s -1to Peterborough

Middle Level Marinas

Floods Ferry PE15 0YP, moorin gs 01354 677303 Fox Narrowboats, PE15 0AU, moorings, diesel, gas, pump out, workshop, chandle ry, 01354 652770, Bill Fen Marina, Ramsey PE26 2RD, moorings, diesel, gas, pump out, chandlery, 01487 813621

Lower Nene overnigh

t moorings

Thrapston (outside sailing club) Public Below Titchmarsh lock Public Aldwincle F.o.t.R.N. Wadenoe (above weir) Public Kings Head, Wadenhoe use Pub Oundle Marina Pay Above Ashton Lock on mill Oundle (by A427 bridge) stream unofficial unofficial

Middle Level water, pump out & elsan disposal

Lower Nene shoppin

g

Thrapston - range of shops including Co-op Oundle - range of shops including Co-op, Tesco Extra & Waitrose

Warmington - post office & stores Wansford - post office & stores Alwalton - - post office & stores Peterborough - range of shops including Asda, Tesco Extra & Waitrose

Middle Level diesel

Fox Narrowboats - 01354 652770 Bill Fen Marina - 01487 813621

Public pump out and water, March Sanitary Station requires same token as E.A. pump-outs.

Available from Fenland District Counci l One Stop Shop (8 Broad St, March PE15 8TP).

Marina pump outs at Fox Narrowboats and Bill Fen Marina Water point Upwell - outside St Peter’s Church

Packed full of useful boating information, these IWA guides should prove invaluable cruising companions.

Camping with benefits If you would like to make a weekend of it why not bring your tent and join in the evening as well as the daytime fun. You will receive two wristbands per tent – more can be purchased for larger groups – giving you access to the entertainment marquee for quiz nights, live music and more between Friday and Monday.

The beautiful River Great Ouse.

Autumn 2018 044 st neots.indd 45

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Then and Now: celebrating restoration success stories

GRANTHAM CANAL LOCK 15

back in water after 60 years

Above: WRG volunteers rebuilding the lock walls.

Left: Lock 15 in 2015, before restoration began.

Opposite page above:The gates being craned into place on the lock. below: Inside Lock 15 with the brand-new gates installed.

Restoration in numbers What did it take to rebuild Lock 15?

• 196 volunteers spending 9,408 hours, the equivalent of 1,176 man days, since 2015 • 22,000 bricks • 4,500 concrete blocks • 400m3 ready-mixed concrete

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Autumn 2018 046 then and now.indd 47

CRT

A formerly dilapidated lock on the Grantham Canal has received its first lock gates for nearly 60 years after volunteers spent three years painstakingly bringing it back to life.

Waterway Recovery Group, Canal & River Trust and Grantham Canal Society joined forces to restore Lock 15 near Stenwith, and in late June craned four new oak lock gates into position. Each of the bottom gates weighs 1.5 tonnes, and the top gates 3.4 tonnes.

The lock, which was designed and built by renowned canal engineer William Jessop over two centuries ago, is being restored after falling into near dereliction. Funding was needed to bring Locks 14 and 15 back into use; a grant application highlighting IWA’s skills, along with those of key partners, secured £830,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The canal was opened in 1797, ran 33 miles from the River Trent in Nottingham to Grantham and included 18 locks. It proved a cheap and prosperous way of transporting coal until the opening of the Grantham to Nottingham railway in 1850. Unable to compete with the tracks, the canal eventually closed to boats in 1929.

By the 1960s most of the locks on the canal were in a state of disrepair and their lock gates replaced with concrete weirs to control the water levels.

Since summer 2015, the volunteers have been taking Lock 15 apart, piece by piece, after its walls moved and crumbled causing the whole structure to lean inwards.

The volunteers have laid new foundations, completely rebuilt the lock walls and created new lock moorings.

Now the team has finished off the job by lifting the giant gates, which were made by hand at CRT’s workshop at Stanley Ferry near Wakefield, into position.

Attention now turns to Lock 14.

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Do you have something to say about IWA or Waterways?

It’s your magazine so please write and tell us your views. We will aim to publish responses to letters that ask questions about any aspect of IWA policy or decision-making. Please write to The Editor, Waterways, c/o IWA, Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA, or email a.hamson@wwonline.co.uk.

Bank holiday thanks Could I, via your letters page, thank all the Inland Waterways Association volunteers and Canal & River Trust staff who did so much work on the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal before our visit? I’d also like to give a special thank you to those who helped us through the locks over the hot bank holiday weekend in early May. Having been boating for over 50 years I felt we were really being very soft in accepting their offer to work locks and swing-bridges, but oh, how grateful we were. The top paddles were so stiff/heavy only the strongest volunteer could lift them alone, most Lois and Roy Parker’s cruiser Marie II in Firepool Lock.

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needed two people on a windlass, and swing-bridges needed a minimum of two people, often four, to move. CRT, you have work to do.

We were all very disappointed that CRT had allowed contractors to implement stoppage intended for 8th May on the 5th at Bridge 9. CRT were unable to contact the contractors to remove the stoppage because of the bank holiday. This prevented us cruising through the historic Albert cutting and into Bridgwater Dock.

Thank you, everyone – volunteers, CRT staff, and our group organisers.

Lois and Roy Parker, Marie II

Moorings at Bosley Locks on the Cheshire Ring.

RING ROOTS

I read your ‘Cheshire Ease’ article in the Summer issue of Waterways and noted the reference to the origin of the term. While IWA Manchester Branch was indeed very involved in the campaign, the Ring was actually the product of the Peak Forest Canal Society and was coined by my wife Margaret for our campaign document of that name. We sent a draft copy to Robert Aickman for comment prior to publication but he had reservations over the proposed basis, which I did not share and there was, I fear, some acrimony when we chose not to follow his advice. The document as published proved a very effective campaign tool, particularly with indifferent or semi-hostile local authorities, and the name was generally adopted thereafter.

It was precisely because we were seeking a means to integrate several apparently unconnected waterways, particularly the Rochdale Canal which was under considerable threat, to show that they were all essential, that the Ring idea originated.

Otherwise BWB and others could simply have ‘picked off’ individual canals for closure, thereby condemning all of them to eventual closure, which was, of course, their objective.

The second half of our book Narrow Boat to the Cheshire Ring contains all the details of the early campaign from contemporary PFCS records in our possession and I think it makes clear the considerable contributions of several bodies to this ultimately successful campaign.

As IWA members for well over 50 years we do not seek to diminish in any way the major part played by the Association but creation of the Cheshire Ring concept does in fact lie elsewhere.

Ted Hill

Autumn 2018 24/07/2018 11:17

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