Meridian Cuttings Summer 2017

Issue 16

The newsletter of South and North & East London Branches

Summer 2017

Princess Anne Visits London Canal Museum

In this issue: • • • • • • • • • • •

Local Campaigning Chairman's Reports Canal Museum Future Events London Socials London Walks Boater’s Licences Carpenters Road Lock East London Waterways London Liveaboards Committee Members and Contact Details

Cover: London Canal Museum

Photo – Princess Anne Arrives at the Canal Museum

HRH The Princess Royal celebrates 25 years of the London Canal Museum The London Canal Museum is celebrating its opening 25 years ago by launching its largest ever development programme. Major new exhibitions on Boats and Cargoes and London’s Living Waterways have been opened today by HRH Princess Anne. The museum also boasts a major facilities upgrade.

The museum was first opened on the 9th March 1992 by HRH The Princess Royal as Patron of the museum. Martin Sach, Chair of the Canal Museum Trust said “We are delighted that HRH Princess Anne has continued her interest and support of the museum with her eighth visit over a quarter of a century and seen how the museum has developed strongly since its early days. We are also grateful to the original Trustees who purchased our Victorian ice warehouse building which has given us such a wonderful place to use as a museum, and opportunity to tell the story of the Ice Trade.”

The Boats and Cargoes exhibition is the result of painstaking research into the craft and cargoes that operated on London’s canals and the River Thames from earliest times. “We think visitors will be surprised to see the huge range of boats that have plied their trade” says Celia Halsey, Project Manager. “The museum commissioned seven new model boats including the famous steam tug that operated through the Islington Tunnel and was called ‘the ugliest boat on England’s canals’”. The exhibition also shows visitors the cargoes that were carried. “Visitors may expect coal and grain to have been carried, but perhaps don’t know about esparto grass, arsenic and the aptly named ‘nightsoil’” says Celia.

The museum has also been investing in its facilities to ensure that visitors – both to the museum and to its thriving use for functions are well catered for. The toilets have been fully refurbished and the number increased, and have a unique canal themed artwork on the wall. Trish Parrott, a well-known canal artist and one of the museum’s longstanding volunteers has produced an original ‘roses and castles’ painting that has been scanned and printed onto tiles. The museum has also installed air conditioning throughout.

Finally, there are new additions to the London’s Living Waterways exhibition where the museum’s team of researchers explore the human interest stories of the waterways which still shape and influence the capital today.

The new exhibition and facilities opened on Friday March 10th. The museum is one of London’s most accessible museums with facilities including lifts, accessible displays, accessible toilet and an audio tour for blind and visually impaired visitors.

The exhibitions can be seen during museum opening hours. The Canal Museum’s normal opening hours are 1000 to 1630, Tuesday to Sunday, and also on Bank Holiday Mondays. Closed on other Mondays.

Admission prices are £4 adults, £3 concessions and £2 children. A family ticket is £10. Prices from 1 April are £5 adults, £4 concessions and £2.50 children. A family ticket will be £12.

Children aged 4 and under are free.

Full details of the museum including full event listings can be found at www.canalmuseum.org.uk

Above: Charlie Forman with the princess Left: Tim Lewis (with Roger Squires and Mike Gee) presented to the royal visitor

To Find London Canal Museum From King's Cross Square, at the front of King's Cross mainline station, walk alongside the station, down York Way. This is the opposite side of the station to the concourse. You need to walk away from the station to York Way, then turn left onto York Way. Carry on until you see a traffic island in the middle of the road with a right turn, this is Wharfdale Road.

Follow Wharfdale Road until you see New Wharf Road which is the second turning on the left.

Storm Damage Canal and River Trust’s John Dodwell reports that one of the key challenges in 2016 was dealing with the effects of the 2015 Boxing Day floods in the Calder valley in Yorkshire and the enormous damage done to the part of the Rochdale Canal and the Calder & Hebble Navigation. He has provided photographs to show how destructive the force of the water was.

The effect on the road surface of a bridge

and a boat washed into the trees below:

See overleaf how the side of a cutting just collapsed right into the Canal – trees and all!

John is pleased to report that the canal was reopened last October. The works involved stabilising the hillside – made more important by the fact there was a house and garden at the top. Not made easier by the fact their garden had slid into the Canal! But you can see below how steel piling has been driven in and all is now well.

Some of the flood repairs could be left for later but the major work couldn’t. Fortunately, the local Calderdale District Council recognised the value of the Canal to their local economy – they were given some figures about the money boating brings in – and they and others were able to get from the Government about £8.5m which was contributed to the costs of £10.3m.

The good news is that the Trust was able to get the waterways re-opened.

Boat Licence Fees Increase The Canal & River Trust has announced that private and business boat licence fees will rise by 2.5% from 1st April 2017. Licence fees have been capped to inflation for the past three years.

The Trust say that the 2017 increase anticipates next year’s prevailing inflation rate. The licence increase is 1.5% above the current rate of inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), and 0.5% above the Retail Price Index (RPI).

The Trust say that the increase is necessary to raise the income it needs to sustain the increased spend on waterway maintenance over recent years. This, they say, has seen an improvement in the structural condition of the waterways and a significant reduction in the amount of disruption experienced by boaters (with almost 300 days fewer of unplanned navigation closures compared with 2014/15).

Mike Grimes, head of boating at Canal & River Trust, said: “Although the cost of a licence will be increasing slightly, I’m pleased to say that overall proportion of the Trust’s income coming directly from boaters is decreasing as we generate more income from other sources.”

Over the past three years the Trust has spent considerably more on the waterways, with the amount spent on maintenance and repair in 2015/16 rising to £128 million, over 15% higher than 2013/14. In the same period the proportion of income from boaters has reduced from 19.9% to 18.3% of total income.

Mike continued: “The income from boat licences continues to make an important contribution to the work we do: looking after a 200-year old network is a never-ending task. I hope that boaters can see that we are investing in areas that make a difference to them. We’ve put extra cash into dredging and cutting back off-side trees over the past few years, as well as the massive and growing programme of major works we carry out every year to keep our canals and rivers safe and navigable.”

Licences Review The Trust also announced that, following feedback from boating customers and the boating volunteers who sit on its Navigation Advisory Group (Licensing and Mooring), it will be carrying out a wide-ranging review of the structure of boat licensing fees from April 2018. There will be an extended period of engagement and consultation with boating organisations, boat clubs and societies and individual boaters. The Trust say they wish to ensure that any proposals are based on a full understanding of the range of views across the range of boating customers. They will announce more information and timelines for the consultation process in due course.

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of The Inland Waterways Association or of the London Region or its branches. They are, however, published as being of interest to our members and readers.

The IWA accepts no liability for any matter within this publication.

Editor: Chris Bushill, 52, Brycedale Crescent, Southgate, London, N14 7EU. chris.bushill@waterways.org.uk Published by the IWA, North & East and South London Branches at: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, Bucks, HP 1WA. Tel 01494 783453

Region Chairperson's Column With spring coming, it is time to start planning the waterway events you wish to attend. In London, most branches are involved in at least one waterway event. Please keep an eye on this magazine for details of your local event and come along and support it. I’m certain you will have a great day out and it is a chance to get involved with supporting the waterways.

This year is going to a busy one for IWA. We are launching several new initiatives and will continue our existing lobbying of parliament and navigation authorities.

Firstly, can I thank all of you who sent me their ideas on how CRT could re-structure boat licensing from April 2018. I passed all these on to our Navigation Committee and they were taken into account in forming our national position. This is being sent to CRT and should be available on the website by the time you read this. We will be continuing to work with CRT to develop a fairer fee charging system for all boat owners. Whichever option is chosen as a result of CRT’s review, existing boat owners may find themselves facing large increases in licence fees. We will be pushing CRT to minimise the impact on individuals of any significant changes. Phasing in of higher charges could be one way of achieving this. We see this review as a way for CRT to balance the use of the system without constraining access by all. It could further differentiate licence cost of smaller craft from bigger craft and could (over time) increase CRT income if customer demand is there.

The first of our new initiatives is the “Love Your Waterways” campaign, which will be formally launched in a few weeks. Its aim is to encourage local communities to appreciate their local waterways, particularly where there are high levels of vandalism/dumping and litter. To achieve this, we need to get communities to recognise the importance of waterways for boosting health, well-being, leisure activities, and the local economy. The campaign will allow us to celebrate a lot of the activities that already take place and unite them under a simple campaign message and build on the great work that your local branch already does to look after their waterways.

Another initiative that is likely to be launching later this year is a re-branding of IWA. We have two problems with our existing image which trustees believe needs addressing. Our corporate colour, blue, is also used by CRT. It is difficult for members of the public to distinguish our volunteers when they are working on CRT waterways. The second problem is that people have difficulty in identifying the association from the logo, you have to know that the letters I W and A means “The Inland Waterways Association”. The International Water Association also has a similar logo. At the time of writing this letter Trustees are still considering our options and how best to make changes.

If you would like to know more about national campaigns, or think you would like to get more involved, please get in touch with your chairman or with me.

This is the year when you have a chance to elect a new Region Chairperson. Look out for the announcements in the next few weeks if you would like to replace me. We also have vacancies on the Regional Committee. We meet 5 or 6 times a year in the Canal Museum near Kings Cross. If you would like to be involved in the work we do for the canals in London, why not drop me a line and I can give you some more information Paul Strudwick Chair Person London Region The Inland Waterways Association Twitter Paul@greenboater

East London Waterway Festival A major new waterway event, the East London Waterway Festival, is due to take place on Monday, 28th August this year in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Last Year’s Olympic Park Cruise Set up by CRT it is being run with IWA, the London Legacy Development Corporation and St Pancras Cruising Club. There will be a special focus on Carpenters Road Lock which, as reported in Meridian, is near completion of a £1.8 million restoration. The festival aims to cement the regeneration of the Bow Back Rivers. The completed lock site will form the centrepiece of the festival, which will include a boat flotilla, dragon boat racing, canoeing taster sessions, free boat trips and pedalos. There will also be live music and dance performances, activities for children, food stalls and more.

The Carpenters Road Lock project led by CRT has received £680,000 funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £100,000 from London Legacy Development Corporation and £4,500 from the Inland Waterways Association.

Joanna Steele, CRT heritage activities officer, said: "The waterways that weave through this part of London have been given a new lease of life in recent years. It will be fantastic to celebrate everything they have to offer, alongside so many local community groups, boaters, artists and more. We’re delighted to be coinciding the festival with the completion of our project to restore Carpenters Road Lock. It’s a one of a kind, and will help open up the water space in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in ways that haven’t been possible previously. I’d encourage everyone to put the event in their diaries, and to get in touch if you need more information about anything."

Carpenters Road Lock is significant from an engineering point of view, as it had the only ‘double radial lock gates’ in the country. Built in the 1930s, this design included two convex-shaped gates that lifted up vertically to enable boats to pass through. In the second half of the 20th-century, the Bow Back Rivers fell out of use and the lock became unusable, with the last passage by boat through the lock recorded in the 1960s. The advent of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games saw major works bringing new life to the waterways in what is now Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

If you would like any more information about the East London Waterway Festival, including how to volunteer or contribute to one of the many activities, contact joanna.steele@canalrivertrust.org.uk Any boaters keen to take part in the festival are encouraged to get in touch with waterways@queenelizabetholympicpark.co.uk

From North & East London Chairman, Tim Lewis As usual your committee is working hard to monitor happenings within the Branch area. Concerns as to the overcrowding of our waterways especially in the Central London area have led to pressure on the boaters facilities and we are actively campaigning for additional ones to be provided and the existing ones improved. As the reported overcrowding appears to be putting off boaters visiting the Capital we welcome the increase in bookable moorings being provided in Kings Cross and on the Lower Lea. We continue to monitor planning applications and, although there would appear to be a dropping off in the total, some of the proposed schemes still give concern. We were particularly concerned that the infilling of the end of Paddington Basin with a Floating Garden went through planning with what appeared to be very little consultation.

Planning permission has been awarded to a major 20 storey scheme at Tottenham Hale by the Mayor of London despite being refused permission by the Local Authority.

It’s not just the big items we comment on. We recently had cause to complain about signs being erected on the towpath giving cyclists times to reach points along the canal which we consider to encourage speeding.

In Paddington Basin CRT have announced the provision of new trading boats, including a cafĂŠ, electric selfoperated trip boats and a trial of a water taxi service.

Visitors to the St Pancras lock open weekend in February will have noticed construction work in progress on the new footbridge below the lock. The structure has now been lifted into place and the bridge should be open in the near future.

On the navigation front we welcome news that the Bow Back River loop is set to reopen in June. Trial operation of the restored Carpenters Road lock is also being planned for June ahead of a Festival to celebrate its completion to be held over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

We have expressed our concerns over plans by British Waterways Marinas Ltd to amend the visitor mooring provision in Limehouse Basin to what we believe is the detriment of visiting boats. We also note newspaper reports that CRT has granted permission for a floating classroom to be permanently moored on what appears to be the Camden Visitor moorings.

We noted the permission recently granted for the reconstruction of Edmonton Incinerator and have written to suggest that previous plans to bring in waste by water are investigated.

We continue to attend consultation meetings held by both the Canal and River Trust and by the Port of London Authority. We are also contributing to the Greater London Authority review of the Blue Ribbon Network which covers all waterways within the London area.

A number of Branch members were present for the event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the opening of the London Canal Museum at which the Princess Royal opened the new Boats and Cargoes exhibition. The event also showed off the refurbished toilet area and new air conditioning works. The museum has also just installed a major new temporary exhibition on the life of James Brindley. All in all, good reasons to visit the museum even if you have been before.

In late March I attended the launch event at Cody dock, which is the old Gas Works dock on Bow Creek where it is intended to a form a creative industries quarter with new workspace, visitor facilities and public space. There are also plans to create moorings within the basin. Details can be found at http://www.gasworksdock.org.uk All this work is carried out by a small committee who I would like to thank for all their work. We are always looking for additional help with our activities and would welcome anyone who feels that they can help.

South London Chairman’s Report Welcome to our April edition of Meridian Cuttings with all the news of what is happening over the summer. We held our Branch AGM last month and I am pleased to say the committee has been joined by Simon Dyer from Streatham. All other committee members have agreed to continue in their current roles for which much thanks.

We are currently reviewing our publicity material and have been working on this ready for this year’s events. I am coordinating information about the river Thames which will include progress on the ‘Thames Vision Goals and Priorities for the next 20 years’. Lesley Pryde-Coales is going to collect further information on the Croydon Canal and its history and Shea Richardson on the Wandle Valley. Dorothy Robbie is collecting pictures and information about events where we have taken the branch stand so if you have anything to contribute to any of these themes please let us know.

We are currently taking the branch stand to IWA Canalway Cavalcade, Rickmansworth Festival, Angel Canal Festival and, hopefully, Slough Canal festival and are looking at options for more local events in the summer.

Our next event will be IWA Canalway Cavalcade at Little Venice over the weekend of 29th April – 1st May and any offers of help with the branch stand would be gratefully received. Please contact Eric Garland if you can help on 07940 830252.

This year’s socials started in January with a talk by Lester Hillman `Cutting Edge-The Dark Side of the Regents Canal’ which will be repeated at the Region Social in May. In February we had a talk on Working Boats by Kirk Martin which will be repeated at the Region Social in October. If you missed either of these talks come to Paddington! – see list of Region Socials elsewhere in this edition. At our AGM on 8th March our national Chairman, Les Etheridge was our guest speaker and we enjoyed hearing about what enticed him to the waterways and current IWA plans. We wished Les well as he stands down as National Chairman later in the year. Our Annual Dinner took place in January at the Caprini Restaurant, Waterloo, where we were also joined by Les and his wife, Anne. A good time was had by all and our thanks go to Judith Hunter for organising the evening.

I reported last time the half tide weir at the mouth of the River Wandle was being removed after 25 years. This work is now completed and we will be planning celebrations soon. Please see article elsewhere in this edition for full details. Wandle Valley Regional Park Trust published its 5 year strategy in December and we will be following developments and attending relevant consultations on this. http://wandlevalleypark.co.uk/wandlevalley-regional-park/strategy/ Totally Thames is a month long festival in September which grew out of the Thames Festival which used to be over one weekend in September. We intend to follow this event more closely this year and get involved as and how we can. The three themes from this year are River Littering through Plastic Pollution, an environmental issue that affects the Thames, waterways and oceans. 300th Anniversary of Handel's Water Music that was premiered on a royal barge travelling from Whitehall Palace to Chelsea in 1717 and Stories of the River from the Thames as a working river to its rich heritage and history to communities and cultures.

South London Branch members will be joining in the celebrations at the East End Waterways Festival over the August Bank Holiday for the opening of the restored Carpenters Road Lock. Panacea will be flying the flag for the IWA with guests on board. North and East London Branch are part of the organising team for this event and more details on this event can be found elsewhere in this edition. Simon Dyer, our new committee member, is to be a lock keeper at Carpenters Road Lock. More details on the overall project may be found at https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/about-us/our-regions/london-waterways/carpenters-road-lock Just a reminder, as mentioned last time - we currently have email addresses for some South London members and the head office database only has a proportion of members’ (email) addresses. We know many more of you are on email and would be able to send you updates of activities and events between editions of Meridian Cuttings if we had these. Please contact Lesley Pryde – Coales, at lesleypryde@hotmail.com to be added to our email circulation.

I hope you all have a good summer and I look forward to seeing you at events Libby Bradshaw, Branch Chairman

IWA TOWPATH WALKS SOCIETY, London Programme of Towpath Walks up to August 2017 Date 30 April Sunday Start 2:30pm 7 May Sunday Start 2:30pm 21 May Sunday Start 2:30pm 23 May Tuesday Start 2:30pm 28 May Sunday Start 2:30pm 4 June Sunday Start 2:30pm 18 June Sunday Start 2:30pm 2 July Sunday Start 2:30pm 16 July Sunday Start 2:30pm 6 August Sunday Start 2:30pm 20 August Sunday Start 2:30pm 28Aug Mon Start 2:30pm 03 Sept Sun Start 2:30pm 17 Sept Sun Start 2:30pm 01 Oct Sun Start 2:30pm 15 Oct Sun Start 2:30pm 5 Nov Sun Start 2:30pm

Route Start (Tube Station) Baker Street (Baker St North/ Lords exit) Regent’s Canal: River Tyburn – Little Venice Grand Union Canal: Uxbridge - Denham Uxbridge (High Street exit) Limehouse – Thames - Docklands

Westferry DLR (by Cycle Hire Point)

Grand Union Canal: Uxbridge - Denham Uxbridge (High Street exit) Regent’s Canal: Mile End - Limehouse

Mile End

Regent’s Canal: Little Venice – Camden Warwick Avenue East India Docks –Thames - Docklands

East India DLR (by zebra crossing)

The Olympics – Three Mills – Bow Back Rivers Grand Union Canal: Kensal Green – Little Venice Regent’s Canal: King’s Cross – Granary Square - Camden Regent’s Canal: Islington – Mile End

Bromley-by-Bow

The Olympics, Bow Back Rivers & Carpenters Road Lock Little Venice – Camden

Stratford (by “Newham London” sign)

Limehouse – Thames – Docklands

Westferry DLR (by Cycle Hire Point)

Kensal Green King’s Cross (taxi rank) Angel

Warwick Avenue

Regent’s Canal: King’s Cross – Granary King’s Cross (taxi rank) Square - Camden Grand Union Canal: Little Venice, Paddington, Bakerloo, Praed Street exit Paddington Green 400 Years of the New River Manor House (Finsbury Park exit)

To go on a Towpath Walk, simply turn up.

No advance booking is needed. The Walks are normally on Sundays, starting at 2.30 pm. Regular charge is £10; concessionary rate is £8. For further details, look on the IWA website www.waterways.org.uk, or contact Roger Wilkinson at 020 3612 9624.

Tow Path Walks’ Roger Wilkinson on a walk last year

Roger writes: If you would like to become a Guide for the Towpath Walks, you would be very welcome. We have a vacancy for a guide, and we would be very pleased to hear from you. If you're not sure about it - don't worry, we will brief you well. Just ring us, or email us, and the rest is plain sailing.

Carpenters Road Lock

Compare the photos above of Carpenters Road Lock taken by John Dodwell about 10 years ago with the photos below from Tim Lewis a few months ago.

Evening Standard Article Encourages Live Aboard Boats in London An article in the Evening Standard recently extolled the virtues of life afloat perhaps influenced by the advertisers reported in the article as selling boats. The worrying thing for your local committee was the reported comments of the spokeswoman for the Canal & Rivers Trust.

The article said that, ‘Up to a third of those who live on water in London have a nomadic existence. Their licence requires that they pull up anchor and move from one mooring to the next every two weeks’. It then reported Fran Read, a spokeswoman for the Trust, as saying, ‘If you don’t pay for your permanent mooring then it is definitely a cheaper option because you only need a boat licence, which costs between about £500 and £1000 a year depending on the length of your boat’.

The article pictures a narrowboat described as, ‘now moored at Andrews Road E8’. Also under the picture it says, ‘a £1000 licence requires the owner to move every two weeks and travel at least 20-30 miles a year’.

The spokeswoman for CRT is also quoted as saying, ‘It was once a very alternative thing to do but now it has become a lot more acceptable. We have bankers, teachers, a lot of students, a real cross section of people living on boats’.

The N&E London Committee finds this very worrying. London is already at bursting point with boats and a spokeswoman for CRT appears to be encouraging more continuous cruisers who, no doubt, will abuse the conditions of their licence as some do.

Chris Bushill

Moored Boats near Kings Cross. Some of the over 4000 ‘Continuous Cruisers’ now in the capital?

Latest IWA Response to HS2 Consultation IWA has responded to HS2’s consultation on design refinements to the Secretary of State for Transport’s preferred route for the HS2 Phase 2b route. IWA has serious concerns over the impact on inland waterways as HS2 is developed in the west from Crewe to Manchester and the West Coast Main Line, and in the east from near Curdworth to Leeds and the East Coast Main Line.

IWA has objected to a number of the proposed changes to the previous (2013) route, in particular the proposals: •

to move a rolling stock depot at Golborne to a site at Wimboldsley, north of Crewe, where it will impact the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal with a wider crossing, and noise and visual impact for a 1km stretch alongside on popular moorings;

•

to move the route in the Middlewich - Northwich area in Cheshire up to 800 metres westwards, impacting the Trent & Mersey Canal where a single crossing now becomes 3 crossings on very high (20 metres) viaducts and embankment; and the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal where a single crossing has now become a much wider crossing with 3 lines approaching the New Crofton Rolling Stock depot north of Crewe;

•

to increase the vertical height of the preferred route as it passes into Long Eaton and the ‘East Midlands Hub Station’, so increasing noise and visual impact on local residents and the Erewash Canal, which may also be impacted by a realignment of the M1 requiring a section of the canal to be diverted, which IWA believes is unnecessary.

IWA has also recorded reservations about a number of other proposals which could affect canals and rivers in Leicestershire, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire, including on the Ashby Canal near Measham, and the Chesterfield Canal at Staveley and Norwood.

IWA’s full response to the consultations, which closed on 9th March 2017, can be found through https://www.waterways.org.uk/news_campaigns/campaigns/consultation_responses/consultation_responses The planned route for HST will cross the Grand Union Canal just above Uxbridge on a viaduct

by Harefield Marina, pictured below.

IWA Canalway Cavalcade 29th April – 1st May 2017 IWA Canalway Cavalcade 2017 is nearly on us and will have as its theme, ‘Waterway Tales’. The event will be opened on Saturday 29th April at 2pm by The Right Hon Lord German OBE, a keen waterway enthusiast and President of the Monmouth, Brecon and Abergavenny Canals Trust.

He recently received the IWA award ‘Parliamentarian of the Year’, presented by our National Chairman, Les Etheridge.

There will be the usual range of activities for boaters and for the public with plenty for the children to do. Boat pageants and competitions will feature on each day and on Sunday evening we are open for the Illuminated Boat procession. There will be a variety of entertainments in the amphitheatre, Rembrandt Gardens and the Stone Wharf, including performances from the Alarum theatre group recreating the journey of the ‘Idle Women’ featured elsewhere in this magazine. We are pleased to welcome Linda O’Hare from Middlesex branch who has taken on the role of Entertainments Manager and Mike Moore, who is also in London Region as new Waterspace Manager.

We are keen to recruit further volunteers both for this weekend and to prepare for the following year. These include an Assistant Site Manager, a Catering Manager and a Sponsorship and Promotions Manager. We also need further volunteers to help over the weekend itself with meeting and greeting, collecting donations and various other tasks. The following link will take you to IWA Canalway Cavalcade website and the volunteer registration form. https://www.waterways.org.uk/events_festivals/canalway_cavalcade/iwa_canalway_cavalcade Any queries or offers of help may be passed through Libby Bradshaw (South London Branch) or Roger Squires (North and East London Branch). Contact details are at the back of this magazine.

See you there!

The Idle Women: Recreating the Journey – Kate Saffin During both World Wars, the canals, which had been in decline ever since someone had come up with the bright idea of railways, had a brief resurgence. A narrowboat could carry about 25 tons of cargo and didn’t need as much fuel as several lorries and the trains were busy moving troops. However, during the Second World War, whilst there was plenty of work and plenty of boats there weren’t enough good crews. Boating was a reserved occupation but for many of the young men born to the boats the forces offered a more exciting life. And that’s where the Women’s Training Scheme came in – young women most of whom had never heard of a canal, never mind thought of working on one, took on a pair of 72’ boats and 50 tons of cargo. Their regular journey was from London to Birmingham with war supplies then on to the Coventry coalfields to collect fuel to bring back to London. Their training was two round trips taking three weeks each at the end of which, if they passed the test, they were awarded their national service badge – with the letters IW for Inland Waterways on it which, after the war, led to the nickname the Idle Women.

Kate Saffin recounts that The Idle Women: Recreating the Journey started just about exactly a year ago. She says, ‘I’ve been on a boat since 1999 and first heard of the wartime women trainees then. I read Susan Woolfit, Eily Gayford and Margaret Cornish and started mulling over the idea of a solo play about them. I wrote Isobel’s War in 2009; she had a goodly number of outings at Oxford Fringe, pub gardens on the Oxford and boating events but at 50 minutes doesn’t really make for a whole evening’s entertainment so she had been languishing on a shelf for some time’.

In February 2016 Kate came across Heather Wastie and her audio piece Idle Women and Judies. After a conversation on Twitter, Kate sent Heather her script and they put it together with Kate’s as a double bill and took it on tour, starting with a London Preview at the Barge House on the Regents Canal in Haggerston which sold out and gave a good start for a summer of 11 shows over five weeks between Worcester and Audlem.

Followed by further shows in September.

Kate says, ‘we had our great idea for this year, one so obvious I cannot work out why we hadn’t thought of it before, namely to recreate the regular journey that the trainees made. We discovered that it was in 1942 that Eily Gayford first worked on the GU with the Sibleys as preparation to be a trainer so we decided to celebrate the 75th anniversary of that.’

‘The historic boat, NB Tench is a very important part of the journey as is her crew that will accompany us. We’re delighted to report that the Northants branch of the IWA has contributed £500 towards the journey. Tench is owned by a woman and we hope that she will be crewed entirely by women (although the trainees did recruit the odd brother and boyfriend to help out at times). So, if you’d like some experience of a big old, heavy, and thoroughly awkward working boat – or you’d just like to join me on Morning Mist and make the tea – please sign up to our mailing list. You’ll find a link on the website. We will feed and water you and pay your travel expenses.’

‘Looking forward to meeting many new people at IWA Canalway Cavalcade where we will be performing.’

Left: Heather Wastie and Right: Kate Saffin

Performances in and around London, April and May Mon Apr 24th

7.30pm

The Cruising Association, Limehouse

E14 8BT

Tue Apr 25th

4pm

The Ragged School Museum, 46-50 Copperfield Rd Please note: this is an old building – there are three flights of stairs to the performance space and no lift

E3 4RR

Wed April 26th

7.30pm

London Canal Museum, King’s Cross

N1 9RT

Sat 29th

6pm

The Beer Tent, Stone Wharf, Cavalcade at Little Venice.

Isobel's War (Kate Saffin)

W2 6ND

Sun 30th

6pm

The Beer Tent, Stone wharf, Cavalcade at Little Venice.

Idle Women and Judies (Heather Wastie)

W2 6ND

Sat 29th/Sun 30th

11am12noon

Cavalcade: A rolling programme of short pieces in the marquee on Rembrandt Gardens. Drop in, take the weight off your feet for ten minutes and enjoy 1943!

W2 6ND

Wed May 3rd

7.30pm

Horsendon Hill Farm, Perivale Bring a chair or rug to sit on (or even both)

UB6 7PB

Fri May 5th

7.30pm

Sun May 7th

7.15pm

King’s Head, Hunton Bridge

WD4 8RE

Sat May 6th

5pm

Batchworth Canal Centre, Rickmansworth

WD3 1JD

Thurs May 11th

7.30pm

Globe Leighton Buzzard

LU7 2TA

Hillingdon Canal Club, Uxbridge

Map of the Route

UB8 2QX

New Bridge Below St Pancras Lock

Photo: Roger Squires

A new bridge named by the council as Somers Town Bridge has been installed to link Camley Street to the King’s Cross development known as Gasholder Gardens. At its slimmest point, the bridge is only 15mm thick and yet the entire 38 metre crossing is spanned without any intermediate support. The bridge is expected to be opened for pedestrians and cyclists in the near future.

Narrowboat Sinks on the River Lea A narrowboat, Midnight Diamond, sank on the River Lea just south of Tottenham Lock early this April. The boat had been rented by a student who was on the boat at the time and described the incident as, ‘petrifying watching all your possessions go down in under five minutes’.

Our regional chairman has written to CRT asking for reports that the owner of the vessel has possibly seven boats rented out, in contravention of licence terms, to be investigated.

River Wandle Mouth – Eco-project now completed, April 2017 New Nature Reserve Being Created in Mouth of Wandle Work started in September 2016 on a new eco-project designed to support aquatic life in the River Wandle. The council contracted ‘Land & Water’ to remove the tidal weir in the mouth of the Wandle along with layers of contaminated sediment that have built up in the delta over the past quarter of a century. The work has now been completed and, earlier this month, a ceremony was held to mark the completion of this important eco-project.

This tidal weir has been removed

This stretch of the Wandle will be restored as a thriving wildlife habitat

Improving water flows and removing sludge and silt to expose the gravel river bed will help restore a wildlife habitat measuring roughly a hectare in size that has the potential to become a spawning area and nursery for young fish. The council’s environment spokesman Cllr Jonathan Cook said: “This project is being carried out in partnership with Thames Water and aims to breathe new life into the Wandle.

“Removing the sludge and silt that has built up over the years and allowing the water to flow much more freely will hopefully restore a thriving habitat for fish and other aquatic wildlife. It will also encourage a much wider range of plant life to flourish in the river again.

Amar Qureshi, major projects director at Thames Water, said: “Improving the habitat in the Wandle will be of great benefit to not only aquatic life in the river, but also the local community. Work on the Thames Tideway Tunnel will only add to the benefit for this important water course as it cleans up the quality of the water to standards not seen for centuries.

“Whilst construction of the tunnel will mean some loss of habitat, by offsetting this with the removal of the weir, we will be able to give the Wandle the protection it deserves.”

The project is being funded by Thames Water as part of its work to improve water quality, restore lost wildlife habitats and offset the impact of its Thames Tideway Tunnel. It is backed by The Environment Agency, the Marine Management Organisation and the Port of London Authority.

South London Branch will continue to follow progress on this project. As reported in my Chairman’s report in the last edition of Meridian cuttings, the barge beds will remain and it is intended there should be moorings available, the details of which I am discussing with the project team. I have requested there is a safe haven for boaters as part of this plan and these are not just residential moorings. I have offered to co-ordinate a flotilla of boats to go up the creek and back when it is re-opened. This would be a South London branch event, hopefully with the support of IWA London Region and St Pancras Cruising Club of which I am a member. Now the contractors work is completed I will be liaising with the team to plan the opening celebrations. The Wandsworth Society is also keen to be involved in these opening celebrations.

Libby Bradshaw

BRANCH Committee Members Role

North & East London

Chairman

Tim Lewis Tel: 02085300425 / 07802518094 tim.lewis@waterways.org.uk

Secretary

Roger Squires Tel: 02072320987 roger.squires@waterways.org.uk

Minutes Secretary

Vacancy

Treasurer

Ian Israel Tel: 020 84461823 ian.israel@waterways.org.uk

Social Secretary

Vacancy

Newsletter Editor

South London Libby Bradshaw Tel: 02088742787 / 07956 655037 libby.bradshaw@waterways.org.uk Allan Scott Tel: 02086428104 / 07985728844 allan.scott@waterways.org.uk Vacancy Dorothy Robbie Tel: 02088576367 dorothy.robbie@waterways.org.uk Shea Richardson, Tel: 02086770196 / 07803904803 shea.richardson@homecall.co.uk

Chris Bushill Tel: 02082457063; chris.bushill@waterways.org.uk Dorothy Robbie Tel: 02088576367 dorothy.robbie@waterways.org.uk

Membership Secretary

Liz Rayner liz.rayner@waterways.org.uk

Publicity Officer

Vacancy

Lesley Pryde-Coales Tel: 07787 372408 lesley.pryde@waterways.org.uk

Sales Officer

Vacancy

Vacancy

Events Officer

Vacancy

Vacancy

Planning Officer

Rod Gray rodgray125@aol.com

Vacancy

Work Party Officer

Vacancy

Vacancy

Committee Members

Roger Wilkinson – London Walks Rep. Tel: 02036129624 / 07896801930 roger.wilkinson@waterways.org.uk

Simon Dyer Tel: 020 8769 2981/ 07857 978111 simondyer@outlook.com

Ex-Officio as Region Chairman South London Representatives

Paul Strudwick Tel: 01245358342 / 07885240291 paul.strudwick@waterways.org.uk Planning & Navigation Matters Wandle Valley developments: Deptford Creek developments:

Eric Garland Shea Richardson Eric Garland

If you feel you could help with any of the vacancies above we would love to hear from you!

South London Branch Social Calendar 2017 Wednesday 12th April: The Canals of Venice by Dr. Roger Squires Wednesday 10th May: A talk on the Waterways Recovery Group by Tim Lewis Wednesday 14th June: The Wey and Arun Canal by Alan Thomas All are welcome, IWA members or non-members at our meetings There is no admission charge for talks, film shows or presentations but we do ask that you donate a minimum of £2 per person to offset room hire charges and speakers’ expenses, thank you.

Unless otherwise indicated, the following South London Branch Social Events will take place at 7.30 for 8.00 p.m. at: The Primary Room The United Reformed Church Hall Addiscombe Grove, Croydon CR0 5LP There is good parking adjacent to the hall and excellent transport links via East Croydon train and tram stations. For more information please contact the Social Secretary: Shea Richardson Tel: 07803 904803 or e-mail: shea.richardson@homecall.co,uk

London Region Socials Combined with North and East London Branch Our socials are held on the third Tuesday evening of each month except in July and August at PaddingtonCentral Management office, 1a Sheldon Square, W2 6PY. Refreshments are available from 7pm and the talks start at 7.30pm. All are welcome whether IWA members or not and it is good that we have people attending from across most of the London Region Branches. One point to be aware of - there are steps up to the room so if anyone has mobility problems they would need to contact us first.

We started 2017 with a talk from Tim Lewis on the trip down to West India Dock and the London Boat show. This was followed in February by a useful ‘Update on Olympic Park Waterways and Carpenters Road Lock’ by Steven Wilding, Project Manager at London Legacy Development Corporation and Canal & River Trust. In March North and East London Branch held their AGM at 7.30 and the social meeting started at 8pm with a talk by Dr Roger Squires taking us along the Caledonian Canal, much enjoyed by all present.

We have the following programme for the rest of the year: 18th April – ‘30+ years of IWA Canalway Cavalcade’ - Libby Bradshaw, illustrated by Tim Lewis 16th May – ‘Cutting Edge-The Dark Side of the Regents Canal’ – Lester Hillman 20th June – ‘The River Lee from Old Ford to the Thames’ - Richard Thomas Break in July and August 19th September – ‘Idle Women – recreating the Journey’ – Kate Saffin 17th October – ‘Working Boats’ – Kirk Martin 21st November – ‘Restoration Round-up – Digging with London WRG 2017’ – Tim Lewis 19th December – Christmas Quiz and Auction with Mulled Wine and Mince Pies

Come and join us whenever you can!

Meeting Locations

IWA South London Branch, United Reformed Church, Croydon

IWA meet here

Paddington Station.

Hammersmith & City Line exit

IWA North & East London Branch, London Central, Paddington

Liveaboard Boats in Islington this April

The Inland Waterways Association is a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee. Registered in England no. 612245.

Registered as a charity no. 212342. Registered Office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA Tel: 01494 783 453 k