December 2015 West Riding Branch
Contents Chairman’s Thoughts Peter's Autumnal Thoughts Robert Aickman 1914-1981 Future of Yorkshire’s Historic Waterways Leeds and Liverpool Canal Barnsley, Dearne and Dove Canal How To Sign a Commercial Navigation Closure Visit to Knostrop Weir DEFRA Budget Cuts CRT Open Days Afloat Without Buying A Cruising Licence Are you (or do you know) a Bell Ringer? Press Release on Plastic Bags Travelling on the Tidal Trent More on Branch Matters Our Branch People who help run the Branch 2014 / 2015 Programme of Open Meetings
3 4 7 8 10 12 14 15 16 17 18 20 21 22 25 26 27 28
Please make sure we have your contact details If you don't get an email notification of the meetings, we haven’t got your details. Please let Tracy at IWA head office the correct details. Do you shop on line? If so, try out the easyfundraising scheme. It’s absolutely free to you and IWA can gain donations from the participating retailers of up to 2.5% or more of the value of your shopping when you use it. Simply register on the Easy Fundraising website, easyfundraising.org.uk, and then select The Inland Waterways Association as your chosen charity and carry on shopping online as normal using this site as your portal. Participating stores include; John Lewis, Tesco, Sainsburys, Amazon etc. Front Cover
David Lowe
and his Richard Bird Medal ( from the IWA 2
Chairman’s Thoughts Greetings everyone I hope you all have had a happy and successful summer season with lots of waterway-related activities. We have. I am writing this aboard Copperkins II on the Soho Loop off the BCN Main Line. This is our last canal trip of any length this year and the first one with any wintery weather and even then I am sitting outside in the sun; we have been lucky. Our canal trips and (our other interest) church bell ringing events have kept us occupied, and contributed to this edition being December rather than earlier. On a happy note, our congratulations go to David Lowe on receiving the Richard Bird Medal at IWA’s national AGM for his work on the retention and promotion of the northern waterway network, and of course, his work promoting freight on the waterways. Our Committee members have been to lots of meetings taking IWA’s policy and members’ views to the outside world; hopefully we show that the IWA, on behalf of our local users, are interested in waterway issues. There are reports of a couple of meeting which Peter and I have attended on pages 8, 12 and 15. Attending meetings can be fun. 2016 will be the year in which the Leeds and Liverpool canal celebrates its 200th birthday. There are celebratory events planned throughout the year across the length of the canal. See page 10 for more details. If you are thinking about how to bring a boat to the festivities via the Tidal Trent there is an initiative from the East Midlands CRT Partnership to encourage you, and article on page 22 It would be good to have as many boats as possible travelling the full length of the waterway, so some armchair planning during the festive season is a good place to start. Last time, I covered the declining resources our Branch now has, and invited more volunteers. A couple of people explained convincingly why they couldn’t do more to help out, and I had no further response. So we are no better off than we were, and running to the end of my final year as Chairman. The committee is open to your suggestions see page 25. Similarly we need your input into Milepost if it is to continue. And after all that, I hope you enjoy this edition of Milepost, have a good festive season and that I will see you at the bring and share event in January—please bring some pictures to share. Happy Christmas, Elaine Scott, Branch Chairman 3
Peter's Autumnal Thoughts Our two thousand miles afloat this year had just a few lock-queues to jointly-solve the problems of the boating world while setting the lock for the next boat. And then there's the next couple of hours at the tiller composing a better response to that Grumpy Boater who had thought through a long list of grumbles. My best attempt goes something like this, and I'm sure the editor will find some space for any additions or improvements which members may contribute! Dear Grumpy Boater, We'll all have our own Golden Age: you said yours was around 2001 when Things Were Looking Up. We were opening all the Millennium projects Huddersfield Narrow, Rochdale, Lancaster Link, Anderton Lift, Falkirk Wheel; we had a newly re-elected Government with a large majority and a waterwayssympathetic Secretary Of State, who had published a forward-looking "Waterways For Tomorrow" document. The UK economy was solid, gently expanding, and waterways funding was going up. Backlogs of maintenance were being sorted out and BW were the lead in the Cotswold restoration Partnership and enthusiastic to take even more restorations under their wing, to add to the Kiveton to Norwood Tunnel part of the Chesterfield Canal. You highlighted the ups and downs since then: "the network has suffered badly and we are reduced to a just-about-getting-by. But when there is more money, we accept the new lower standard we have got-by-with and have to stamp our feet to return to anything closer to an acceptable standard. The new money is spent on frippery rather than applied consistently and logically to the backlogs of reduced standards. We have more office staff, we have more marquees and towpath-chuggers recruiting waterway Friends; we have frippery of poems on lock beams, we have new signs saying "Grrr Grrr" to dogs and we spend all that money on surveys of newts. "And still the bottom is too near the top; the offside tress impede safe navigation; towingpath vegetation cuts off the towing path from the 4
canal; water and time is wasted in locks that have signs demanding they be kept empty; too many wide locks have to be limited to single boats; one tunnel is closed four days each week when it was opened for all seven days in 2001; locks which traditionally had gate paddles no longer have them; too many only-one-paddleworking locks are left to the winter to fix properly; where we have had sanitary stations too many are closed or not working; the pump-out card-reading machines are a complete lottery; visitor mooring are blocked by boats ignoring the time-limits; new marinas put up unfriendly signs telling passing boaters to go elsewhere to turn around; a towingpath stroll is ruined by speeding cyclists; graffiti is tolerated too long and discourages casual visitors; and when there is a problem to report on a summer weekend there's an emergencies-only phone service, ..." I'm sure you would have had more issues if the lock-queue had been longer. Lots of them will take time to solve: generally Canal and River Trust have a genuinely different culture from BW, and have recognised from their beginning in 2012 that funding would improve over time but that the backlogs would build up even more for the first year or so. There is a balance of investment in different long-term projects such as increasing the support from the public as a whole, from handson volunteers and from all types of waterway users. People giving money regularly, however expensive it is to get started, will create a year-on-year increasing level of support and will eventually give more money than it costs to recruit these regular givers. As to this balance of using money on office-based people rather than dredging, and between long and short-term projects: it's what we ask the trustees and the management to decide. At a higher level, government supports the waterways as well as having less-than-enough for schools, health, and adult-care services (among other things): it's a best-judgement which balances competing demands. Richard Parry, Chief Executive, has made an extensive personal effort to listen to boaters and every other customer in all parts of the network: one outcome has been a specific programme of dredging in the Winter Works programme to improve that backlog. On the shared use of our towing paths, there has been a CRT-consultation and a report was published with all user groups identifying problems. Users mentioned 5
conflicts between cyclists and boaters, between fishermen and cyclists, cyclists and dogs, and under narrow bridges, cyclists with cyclists: meetings around the country had a clear idea of the common theme but the report itself wasn't so sure!. Proper sharing needs the path to be a proper part of the canal: in some places vast trees and bushes prevent boats and walkers seeing one another. The maintenance is all contracted out and it needs lots of effort to check that's it's being done properly. In some places the path is brilliant: the contractors do very well, for example, around Milton Keynes: by happenstance that's where the CRT Head Office is.
Good and Bad towingpaths
It was the tall chap with the green boat who bemoaned his ten thousand pounds on new shiny paint that was soon gouged on the offside by an overhanging stub-of-branch that looked like some soft leaves. With all those CRT-inspections from the towingpath, it's just not possible to understand where the sightlines are so eroded by offside trees. It needs CRT to get themselves afloat more, and there is a boatingbuddy scheme to do some of that: it needs boaters to offer to host CRT-staff. And I did my best to answer the other issues too, and then we came upon one of those closed sanitary stations. It is a challenge to all of us waterways volunteers and professionals pointing in the same direction. Last year (Milepost Sept2014) I complained of some oddities on the Huddersfield canals: a lack of weir-warning sign above Cooper Bridge weir, the contradictory set of bridge numbers on the Broad and a strange new water-level signage system in a short pound around lock 9W. Sometimes I'm told they will be sorted out shortly. So our 2015 trip across the Huddersfield has to be a disappointment to find nowt has happened. No doubt other priorities intervened! As they did to the stream of issues that disappointed Grumpy Boater. It will all soon mist-over with Christmas Cheer, the armchair-planning of whereto-go in 2016, and then another toast to another year. Here's to a brilliant Waterways 2016. 6
Robert Aickman 1914-1981 A blue plaque commemorating the life and work of its co-founder and first chairman, Robert Aickman, has been installed at his home and workplace at 11 Gower Street, London. Leading actor and TV presenter David Suchet CBE, much loved for his portrayal of Agatha Christie’s iconic detective Hercule Poirot, revealed the plaque in a ceremony at the central London location. Mr Suchet, himself an avid waterways campaigner, said: “Without Robert Aickman we wouldn’t have the waterways we so enjoy today. His efforts, and those of the organisation he founded, are an inspiration to us all and demonstrate what can be achieved through ingenuity, commitment and tenacity.”
David Suchet unveils the plaque © Tim Lewis
Robert Aickman and his colleagues, who founded IWA in protest in 1946, fought a determined battle to reverse this policy and win over political and public opinion with an assertive campaign to recover and restore the waterways network. Robert Aickman was born and brought up in London, the son of an architect and grandson of Richard Marsh, a popular Edwardian novelist. After setting up a literary agency at his flat in Bloomsbury, Aickman’s interest in the theatre took him in 1945 to Stratford-on-Avon where, during a walk, he discovered the neglected state of the local canal. At this time he was reading LTC Rolt’s recently published book Narrow Boat. Aickman visited Rolt on his narrow boat Cressy at Tardebigge and the two decided that a body should be formed to promote the regeneration of the canals. In 1946 the first meeting of the new campaigning organisation was held at Aickman’s office and home in Gower Street. Robert Aickman became chairman and Tom Rolt the honorary secretary of The Inland Waterways Association. The direction and leadership of the Association were to absorb most of Aickman’s energy and time over the next eighteen years. IWA went on to fight numerous battles to prevent the destruction of Britain’s canals and in the formative years of the Association this victorious campaign was largely masterminded by Aickman. Robert Aickman lived and worked at 11 Gower Street between 1943 and 1973. The inaugural meeting of The Inland Waterways Association was held in February 1946 in the large living room of Aickman’s two-floor apartment. Over the following five years this room, which became known as the ‘Waterways Room’, was the office of the new campaigning organisation. 7
FUTURE OF YORKSHIRE’S HISTORIC WATERWAYS UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT CRT said that “The Annual Public Meeting of the Trust’s North East Waterway Partnership was held in Castlefield in November to discuss how, more than 200 years after they were built, the region’s canals and rivers can contribute to all areas of day-to-day life. The Canal & River Trust begins a £3.5 million restoration and repair programme this winter on historic canals across Yorkshire and the North East, “ David Lowe said that part of the plan is an exciting proposal to use Yorkshire’s historic waterways as an important freight route. The plan would see the creation of inland ports, including one at Leeds, bringing investment to the area and boosting communities along the region’s waterways. The partnership detailed some of their other ideas for improving waterways and encouraging more people on to their nearest canal or river including: • Improving boaters’ facilities at Leeds encouraging more people to moor and to explore the city. • Developing a sustainable approach to staging the Leeds Waterfront Festival The successful 2015 event attracted around 15,000 people. • Getting communities in Mirfield and Dewsbury more closely involved in their local waterways through events and volunteering opportunities. • Working closely with the University of Leeds on a range of initiatives to inspire a new generation of engineers, to improve understanding of the hydrology of local waterways, and to develop events and opportunities for more people to get on the water through rowing and canoeing. The meeting also covered details of the latest maintenance and restoration programme for the region’s waterways Members of the Partnership had been involved in a range of initiatives during the year. Local communities are more actively involved in helping to maintain their local canal or river through youth projects and adoption schemes. Hilary Brooke explained the practical work that had been improving the waterside in Mirfield. This is part of the 8
work with councils, local businesses, boaters and other users to maximise the contribution that canals and rivers can make to local economies and tourism at key locations. The canals are also promoted as a free gymnasium that can benefit people’s health, and by improving towpath routes and links between key destinations. Mark Penny, Chairman of the Partnership, had been invited to provide ideas for the Northern Powerhouse, a concept that has infrastructure and transport as important elements; maybe, then, a ship canal should join the commercial waterways across the Pennines, linking the ports of Hull and Liverpool. Ambitious concepts deserve ambitious ideas! On a slightly smaller scale, work has already started no the Desmond Family Canoe Trail, which will work with nearly 2,000 young people from some of England's most deprived communities to create the country's first ever coast to coast canoe trail. The trail, the longest of its kind in the UK, will stretch for 150 miles connecting Liverpool to Goole along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and Aire & Calder Navigation. Travelling through Wigan, Blackburn, Burnley, Leeds and Skipton it will take the average paddler between five and seven days to complete. The project is being developed with a generous £1.3 million donation from The Desmond Foundation and also has the support of British Canoeing and Canoe England. Trevor Roberts introduced plans for future Leeds Waterfront Festivals to make it the culmination of a year’s cultural and social events across the whole of the Leeds Waterfront, particularly seeking artistic and creative people to use their talents to involve the water and the people around it. Some of it will challenge our perceptions of the Waterway—maybe as only navigating a raft-built-of-rubbish can! We hope to welcome Armley Mills Industrial Museum as a new partner, itself welcoming more interaction with the canal on its boundary. With the L&L200 celebrations (see next page) 2016 can be the a best-ever Waterfront Festival year, particularly if the weather is kind to us again. Paul Waddington, from Pocklington Canal Amenity Society expanded on the work to further extend the Pocklington Canal, the support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the additional navigation work being done by the Society. Peter and Elaine Scott 9
Leeds and Liverpool Canal 1816—2016 The Leeds and Liverpool Canal was completely opened on 15 October 1815 when a flotilla of boats left Leeds Road Bridge at 11 am. According to the local press there were bells rung and guns fired to celebrate the convoy as it traversed the Pennines. 2016 will be a very exciting year on the Leeds & Liverpool canal with events and festivals throughout the twelve months, planned by the ‘Leeds and Liverpool Canal Society, the IWA Cheshire Branch and many others. Canal and River Trust are providing support from a project officer who will help with coordination and publication. CRT have also provided a logo for the year and have plaques to sell to commemorate the event. The L&L society have published a desk top calendar , priced at £2.50 Which is available from their web site or ourselves. Part of the aim of the celebrations is to get more people interested in canals, so events are taking place all year to publicise the waterways. Leeds & Liverpool Canal Society’s Short boat Kennet will be attending as many events as possible. There will be opportunities to turn out to see her on the way , or join her in your boat Events proposed so far April April May June June June June
June June July
16/17 30 1/2 2
Saltaire World Heritage Weekend Skipton Canal Festival Skipton Canal Festival FestivalRiver Mersey Convoy - Elesmere Port to Liverpool (weather permitting)* 4/5 Liverpool Mersey River Festival ( Tall ships and canal boats) * 6 Sefton Canal Festival Week * 10/11 Eldonian Canal Festival This is the local Bi-centennial celebration, 120 canal boats, trip boats, stalls, get afloat activities etc. etc.) * 13 onwards Trans Pennine convoy starting from Eldonian Village* 25/26 Leeds Waterfront Festival 23/24 Backburn Canal Festival
*promoted by IWA Chester & Merseyside
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Bi centennial Celebrations 2016 To round off the year of celebrations the Kennet will be travelling from Leeds (15 October) to Liverpool (23 October) following in the wake of the first passage in 1816.
Join In with the 2016 Celebrations In order to fully create the atmosphere of the day we are looking for communities and organisations all along the Canal (not just those mentioned above) to welcome involved by celebrating the event in keeping with the first passage and raising the profile of the canal corridor by simulating the original atmosphere. We are also calling on Heritage Boats, Boat Clubs & Boaters to create an increasing flotilla of decorated boats following Kennet along the way to Liverpool. We will however be asking all boats to give priority to Kennet and any other Heritage Leeds & Liverpool Boats. If you are interested in joining us in this event whether land or water based and want to know more about the passage or Kennet’s summer timetable please email friendsofkennet@gmail.com The up to date list should be available on the CRT web page http://tinyurl.com/mp201512d
Pictures from the Kennet Society webpage
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Following on froma brief mention at the Partnership APM ( page 8 ), at the end of November there was a meeting between the BDDT and IWA to discuss the way forward for this restoration and what volunteer help the IWA could give our members the chance to offer. It’s a restoration project that’s already supported by Local Authorities, and has the potential for a brilliant, probably wide, canal link. It’s the missing link, as the Trust describes it, The Trust, as with almost all restoration across the country, is an independent charity with its own (modest) funds and its own trustees and its own membership. It’s all within our North East IWA Region and the northern part is in the West Riding and the Southern part within South Yorkshire and the Dukeries Branch. So our collective brainpower was Trust Chairman, George Cooper Director, Engineering, Mike Silk and for IWA Peter Scott, Region Chairman and David Dawson and Elaine Scott, for the two branches. It’s always been a long-term project, and we need more people to involve themselves with small steps that build into greater progress and a bigger vision. There is an engineering study done by professional engineers a few years ago for which the Trust raised funds from the local authorities, IWA and other sources. So there is ‘a line’ to aim for, and for which we need local people to appreciate the potential and help with the campaigning. We are not alone in having grand plans: with the Bedford to Milton Keynes link and the Environment Agency’s aspirations around the Wash, there would be a proper wide inland link between London and York. With a restored Barnsley Dearne and Dove canal we have a brilliant ring through Doncaster and Wakefield. And using the proposals for the Rother Link to the Chesterfield, we have another brilliant connection from the Peak District and the Chesterfield to the Yorkshire Dales.
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Haw Bridge, Barnsley Canal
We need the concept to appeal to more people, and those extra local people to engage their friends. For example, a walking and cycling route, the ‘Keel Way’, mostly following the canals or their proposed diversions could start and end at the Chapels-on- the-Bridges and deserves to capture public imagination. Wakefield’s Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin is the oldest such structure , situated on the nine arch bridge over the River Calder with a history dating back to at least 1465, while the Chapel of Our Lady at Rotherham dates from 1483 and is situated on the original four-arched bridge over the River Don. It all needs some more research and design, and then to encourage more people to use the towing paths and old routes of the canals, and then to support those diversions and effectively new canal routes where we need them. In parallel with this, the trailboat and canoeing communities may be enthused by a prospect of a new piece of water for a weekend rally; some possible sites have already been looked at. It needs some further thought and encouragement of sponsors and Local Authorities to make it a reality. We need to bring some movement and animation to a deserving canal that hasn’t seen any movement for far-too-long. With some boating objective in mind, there would be possible restoration activities available around vegetation clearing along the towpaths. Physical restoration of the line has not been attempted since some excellent WRGies sat in baths and sold passers-by and others jars of mud from Elsecar Basin. That was a fun plan, and it’s of course possible to walk a short way along that Branch from Elsecar Basin to see the work done in the early1990s. Elaine will be pleased to hear all your ideas and projects you’d volunteer to help with. Peter and Elaine Scott 13
How To Sign a Commercial Navigation Closure I’ve agreed with CRT that the contractors for the Leeds Flood Alleviation scheme seem to need some help and advice on how to safely close our (Commercial) Navigation. They had the fourth of six winter closures around Crown Point Bridge Leeds on the Aire and Calder Main Line, in order to build a scaffolding bridge across to the lock island. The pedestrian towpath access has already been closed for a full year, with pedestrians diverted to the main road crossing. For the canal, the contractors just slung a bit of blue string, with a few A4 'Closed' notices hanging off it, across the lockcut entrance above Leeds Lock. They didn't consider the decapitation of a boat steerer or their boat being swept on to the weir or its protective boom. There were no warnings of any of this upstream at River Lock, and a downstream narrowboat from there had some discomforting bother with it all. It was fortunate that the river levels were lower than they had been earlier in the week. It was Wednesday 25th November, while Elaine was at the engineers' arranged visit to the works at KnostropWeir described opposite; I was doing the chauffeuring, and walking between Fearns Wharf and River Lock to occupy a couple of hours. I took some photos and annotated them with some comments. Try this link (best from a PC) http://tinyurl.com/mp201512b As there are two other winter stoppages - Monday 4 January until Sunday 24 January 2016 and Tuesday 1 March until T ues da y 1 5 Mar c h 2016 Peter Scott
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Visit to Knostrop Weir Not all meetings involve sitting round and talking. I was lucky enough to get to a visit to the works at Knostrop Weir run by the contactors, BAM Nuttal. They have completed several lengths of heightened wall in the city centre, and worked hard to make the new work match the old. If you are walking the waterfront in Leeds see what you can spot. The new walls have all been built with the intention of giving protection from a 1-in-100 year flooding event, but with sufficient foundations to allow for increasing to a 1-in-200 year protection, if required. After a presentation in the Wool House at Thwaite Mills we were taken along the nowclosed towpath to see the work on the weir. This had been delayed for several weeks to fill a large hole under the railway abutment on the north side of the river, which is still in use by trains as a siding. The Environment Agency will allow only one third of the river to be obstructed at a time, so the weir is being built in three stages. For each stage a sheet-pile cofferdam is constructed and the water pumped out. This temporary structure has been built to cope with a 1-in-10 year flooding event. Unluckily, earlier in November there had been a 1-in-20 year event causing flooding over the site! However at our visit two weeks later, all was back to normal and the river was in the green level for navigation. This was a fascinating visit, designed for and open only to engineering professionals rather than to the general public. When work starts on Crown Point weir, scheduled for spring 2016, the site should be visible from the surrounding bridges. I recommend going to have a look.
Removing Knostrop Island Š Leeds City Council
ElaineScott
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DEFRA BUDGET CUTS SPARK NAVIGATION CLOSURE FEARS TRANSFER EA WATERWAYS TO THIRD SECTOR, We issued a press release about this on 26 November 2015 The Inland Waterways Association has responded to the much-anticipated cut to Defra’s budget that was announced in the Chancellor’s Spending Review on 25 November, and is urging the Government to transfer the navigable waterways managed by the Environment Agency to Canal & River Trust without further delay. Defra faces budget cuts of at least 15 percent over the next four years to be "delivered through efficiencies within the department and across its network”. IWA campaigners fear that a lack of maintenance funding for the EA waterways will exacerbate an already perilous situation in many parts of the country, turning periodic restrictions on boats into permanent closures to navigation, with consequent economic and amenity damage to local communities. The Association is pointing out that it has been an agreed national policy since 2012 for the EA navigations to be transferred, with an appropriate funding package, to the third sector, as was done successfully with British Waterways’ assets to Canal & River Trust. This gave much-needed certainty for 15 years to the funding available for the majority of the country’s canal and river navigations and IWA has been campaigning hard for the EA navigations to follow suit.
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CRT Open Days Event details 31 January
Barrowford Lock 47 Leeds & Liverpool Canal 10:00am - 3:00pm
5th March
Bingley Three Rise Leeds & Liverpool Canal 10:00am - 3:30pm
6th March
Fall Ing Lock Calder & Hebble Navigation 10:00am - 4:00pm
You get a (free) guided tour of the site and see the locks as you have never seen it before. There is no need to book, just turn up. With your friends and family. Parking at Bingley is in short supply—best to use public transport if possible. It can be wet—wellies recommended
Address
Bingley five-rise open weekend in 2012 17
Afloat Without Buying A Cruising Licence I'll admit that to be an attention-seeking headline. Of course those who own boats on the waterways network do, normally, need a cruising licence. Just-inpassing, there are some exceptions: there's litigation currently about boats in some River Thames marinas that never use the main river; boats on the Middle Level Navigations do not need licences, and nor do boats on the ground in the back garden or on the occasional tidal creek... It is possible to be afloat without worrying about quirks in the rules: a good plan is to lockwheel for someone else who has paid their licence, in exchange for an occasional cup of tea; or to hire a boat for an hour, or a day or a week or a month or for all summer. But being afloat doesn't always need a tiller or wheel in the hand: there are lots of trips available for paying passengers with an additional interest of watchingthe-world-go-by on waterways that are inaccessible or difficult-to-reach on your own boat. We have tried all these since October 2014, and Part Two will have a few more that must be on the agenda for some spare days in the future. So let's spend all your money first:.The Lord of the Glens is a cruise ship that plies the Caledoinian Canal and the tidal waters of the Inner Hebredies. Two people can be pampered for five nights for ÂŁ790 each. Phone 0207 372 2077 or see http://lordoftheglens.co.uk/
And if you still have ÂŁ16 each left over, you can travel the full length of the currently isolated and restored section of the Chesterfield Canal on John Varley Phone 01629 533020 or see http://tinyurl.com/mp201512e
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Connected to the system only by the tidal river Ouse and the Derwent (for the intrepid boater), is the delightful Pocklington Canal, on which the Canal Society runs New Horizons based at Melbourne basin. Longer Saturday trips of up to six hours can be booked in advance. They will tell you how much other people have donated, and they will probably let you steer for a while, too! Phone 07514 978645 or see http://www.pocklingtoncanalsociety.org/boattrips For another isolated waterway, the River Wear encircling Durham has one hour trips with brilliant views looking up to the Cathedral, from £10 each on the Prince Bishop Phone 0191 3869525 or see http://www.princebishoprc.co.uk/
And there is a surprisingly similar encirclement and isolation by the upper River Severn of Shrewsbury, where, beginning again in March 2016, Sabrina will take you from the English Bridge to the Welsh Bridge and back again in 45minutes for £7.50 each Phone 01743 369 741 or see http://www.sabrinaboat.co.uk/ Less surprising, but much f-a-s-t-e-r and turnup-and-go all the year, are the Thames' catamarans: the Clippers operating variously for the sixteen miles of the Tidal Thames between Putney and Woolwich. For the full extent of the trips you need to peruse the timetables and join the commuters at the beginning and end of the working day. With an Oyster card £21 each should see you back to where you started. Clippers don't have a direct phone number but 0343 222 1234 is the Transport for London enquiry number. http://www.thamesclippers.com/ 19
Peter
Scott
Are you (or do you know) a Bell Ringer? As part of the opening celebrations of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal the local press report the ringing of bells. This bi centenary year offers a chance to ring bells both along the canal and away from the canal to draw peoples attention to the waterways. It also , like the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee, gives a chance to introduce people to ringing. We hope to have bells rung for all the events taking place during the year, not just along the canal, but it would be good if we can get a lot of bells ringing on Saturday 15 October at 11 o’clock when the flotilla is starting out. There will be a certificate for all towers who have rung for any event during the year and a record will be kept of all ringing for reference for future celebrations. A model bell at Thwaite Mills
If your tower is along the route of the canal, near an event, or you just like waterways and would like to ring for the occasion, please let me know. I will produce a notice to display to explain why we are ringing. Ringing does not have to be a formal performance, though peals and quarters with appropriate footnotes would be good.
Ringing at Ranmoor, Sheffield
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Press Release on Plastic Bags “Retailers in England are being urged by The Inland Waterways Association, as a leading waterways charity, to help improve local communities by allocating substantial amounts from a windfall levy on plastic shopping bags towards cleaning up canal and river amenities, which are blighted by plastic and other waste. Thousands of volunteer hours are spent each year removing tonnes of waste from the country’s inland waterways, and the charity that undertakes much of this work is calling on retailers, who from early October will introduce a new five pence charge for disposable plastic shopping bags, to help the environment where many of these bags end up. The Inland Waterways Association has revealed that in 2014 its volunteers dedicated 7,000 hours to canal cleanup work parties across the country, up 45% on 2013. Along with some unexpected finds are considerable quantities of “the usual suspects”, the charity said, including supermarket trollies, plastic bags, bottles and other packaging waste. Les Etheridge, IWA’s chairman, appealed to medium and larger retailers, who will be required to collect the charge from customers under the Single Use Carrier Bags Charges (England) Order 2015, to use some of this levy to support efforts to enhance the waterways environment. “The new law allows them to decide what ‘good causes’ they will support with what promises to be substantial sums of money,” Les Etheridge said. “Donating some of this levy to support IWA’s year-on-year cleanup efforts will deliver long-term benefits to marine habitats and, of course, to the communities which surround them,” IWA campaigns officer Alison Smedley said: “Plastic and packaging waste in particular is terrible for the waterways habitat and for marine life, as well as for the wider enjoyment of the waterways’ millions of annual visitors. These are hugely popular places for leisure and well-being, so this levy is a massive opportunity for both retailers and waterways bodies such as ourselves to make a real difference.” According to government (DEFRA) figures, in 2013 supermarkets gave out over 8 billion single-use carrier bags across the UK – nearly 130 bags per person – equating to about 57,000 tonnes of single-use carrier bags in total over the year.” Perhaps we should have s survey—how many fewer bags did you collect round the prop this year compared to last year? It would be more interesting than most government statistics! 21
Travelling on the Tidal Trent - more boats could enjoy the trip The East Midlands CRT Partnership, ably spurred by IWA East Midlands Region Chairman David Pullen, presented at its Annual Public Meeting an initiative to encourage more boaters to try the tidal River Trent, maybe with a buddying scheme to avoid being on the river with a single boat, and mutual exchange of information and experiences. This year we had one trip on an early tide from Keadby to Cromwell, and another from Cromwell to Torksey and back. Using experience of earlier trips in 2010, 2009, 1991 and 1978, this is the outcome of discussions with SeanMcGinley the CRT East Midlands Waterways manager. There are some useful 'SunkenIsland' warning signs on the banks, but the words to 'keep left' or 'keep right' need binoculars or a good camera, to know which course to steer. I think they ought to be reinforced with a large arrow to be seen from the greatest distance, and Sean said he would hope to make some improvements in 2016. As a general observation, I contend Sunken Island sign that CRT doesn't understand the need of planning a boating trip: there will always be constraints, however leisurely the crew may be. From hireboats to all-season cruisers, everyone needs to be back to a point by a particular time, maybe the hirebase or a station for some crew to go home, or weekend in Bournemouth with Auntie Mabel. All disturbance to our turn-up-and-go Waterways culture is disruptive, and tides are an unavoidable example of the length of the contingency needed to meet any single need-to-be-there-then. I first wrote this on the Shropshire Union northbound on a Sunday morning, and ten days' hence we had to be at the NorthEast portal of Standedge Tunnel, and had a whole day in hand for contingencies. The next possible passages would be two or five days later, but with no guarantee of a vacancy in the three-boat maximum on either day. We have met boaters who have turned around having missed their slot, and those thinking that possibility so awful as to abandon their whole trip are unknown to the booking system as potential users. Many tidal Trent trips may well be disappearing this way in the winter-planning armchair, so anything to reduce the restrictions and uncertainties could increase use of the river. Sean will aim to improve the notices and the publication of lock keeping times as CRT's contribution to this. 22
All the lockkeepers were, as usual, helpful and willing to share their experience of the river. At Torksey, the conventional wisdom needs some (flood) tide, to be sure of clearing the bottom cill in both directions; on our trip up the lock we were persuaded to moor and await the next tide to be sure of clearing it, as "boaters aren't always sure of their own draft". This cautionary view can extend a trip to Lincoln or Boston by a whole day, and this may deter potential navigators. We need to emphasise the importance of knowing a boat's draft, and then extend the tide-height marker on the Torksey tidal moorings downwards by a metre to more accurately show all depths over, say 30"; this would allow most modern narrowboats to know when they can safely pass through the lock. Sean agreed to look into extending this marker. Above Torksey lock, the visitor moorings are so far upstream that a decision with the lockkeeper to bring a boat forward to lock through takes twenty minutes to implement if the crew has to walk back to the boat and then bring it forward. So the 'no overnight mooring' signs immediately above the lock are ignored by lockkeepers and regular users, so would be better phrased as 'mooring for next tide only'. Boaters moored at Torksey bemaoned the uncertainty of setting off for Stockwith without knowing the likely wait-in-the-tide for the lock. Depth gauge Torksey Bottom Some floating mooring pontoons would improve navigation safety, and that needs both debate and money. The combination of Cromwell, Torksey, Stockwith and Keadby needs to be a co-ordinated service-tonavigators, keeping track of all moving boats and offering VHF and mobile advice before and during passages. As to VHF, it can be a daunting prospect to the inland navigator and we don't seem to be consistent in our application of the rules: we could seek to abandon the need of VHF below Torksey Moorings Gainsborough, or we could seek greater integration of VHF communication with hand-held mobiles (a long technical discussion is possible here) or we could seek further progress in ease23
of-training to become a VHF operator. As to understanding of the tidal pattern, I like the diagram from the June 1975 Waterways World article (p16) by John Liley http://www.homescott.free-online.co.uk/OS/tidaltrent.jpg which shows the 'cone' of the tide and allows prospective downriver navigators to plot their probable times and predict where they will meet the turning tide Heading downriver from Nottingham, lockkeepers were happy to estimate "You'll get through X tonight" meaning X would still be operated by a lockkeeper. One interpretation is that X is the limit of tonight's boating, while all the locks above Cromwell can be self-penned (in the local parlance) through up-to-five extra hours of light after lockkeepers go home. That's not clear from the website, which Sean said he'd review and encourage the shouted advice to be "You'll need to work yourself through, after lock X" It's a boater's accident at Holme Lock which, we were told, has reduced the ability of the lockkeepers to use all the paddles in filling that lock: it now takes half an hour to fill, either from the cabin or the pedestals: compare this with Aire and Calder locks which have greater filling ability from the lockkeepers' cabin. Not only is the lock slower than it once was, but this slowness causes greater tolerance of waiting-for-an-approaching-boat because of the extra hour they would have to wait if they just missed a pen. The Trent is an enjoyable boating experience, which we can encourage even more boaters to try.
Peter Scott 24
More on Branch Matters During the year the committee have discussed and decided on a number of issues, which if we were politicians we would have said was hard to take but necessary to meet the reduces resources available, or something like that We have reduced the number of Open meetings. That’s sad, but no-one is available to arrange and run them. We will take the gazebo to events when we have someone available to be there for our visitors We will continue to attend meetings when we can to help promote the waterways and represent boaters views with relevant authorities. Some of the meetings attended during the year : Annual CRT Partnership Meetings • North West • North East • East Midlands • Manchester and Pennine CRT User groups for NE, NE, Manchester and Pennines Leeds Environmental Forum Calderdale Rochdale Canal Linear Park Group Meeting Leeds & Liverpool Canal Bicentenary Brighouse Riverside Path Canal & River Trust, Trustees’ Evening Reception
This work will be done by the committee and the handful of people who help at the moment. Without more volunteers that is the best we can do for you, our members. If you fell able to volunteer any further help we will be grateful. Elaine Scott
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Our Branch Waterways
Restoration potential
Aire & Calder Barnsley Canal Calder & Hebble - Wakefield to Royston Huddersfield Broad Canal Bradford Canal Huddersfield Narrow Canal tp Standedge Halifax Canal Leeds & Liverpool Canal to Greenberfield Rochdale Canal Selby Canal
Branch boundaries on the waterways
West Riding Branch 26
Our (declining list of) people who help run the Branch 2015/ 2016 Chairman *
Secretary *
Treasurer *
Elaine Scott 3 Moorbank Drive Sheffield S10 5TH 0114 230 1870 07980 953880 elaine.scott@ waterways.org.uk
Ian Moore 2 Eric Street, Bramley Leeds LS13 1ET 07989 112581 westriding@ waterways.org.uk
William Jowitt 35, Lowfield Crescent Silsden BD20 0QE 01535 657256
Membership Secretary * NE&Yorks Region * Volunteer needed
Committee Member* Mike Tucknott 4 Royds Avenue Birkenshaw Bradford BD11 2LD 07885 951099 Speaker Finder Volunteer needed
Minutes Secretary*
Peter Scott 3 Moorbank Drive Sheffield S10 5TH 0114 230 1870 peter.scott@ waterways.org.uk
Peter Scott (temporarily)
Committee Member*
Telephone Contact
Volunteer needed
Volunteer needed
Badges, Stamps & Raffle
Website
Ellen & Ailsa Sayles
David MackDavid.Mack@sdgworld.net
Committee member indicated by *
If only all meetings were as well attendedE. 27
Programme of Open Meetings for early 2016 Meetings take place in the clubhouse of the South Pennine Boat Club, Wood Lane, Mirfield WF14 0ED.
Friday 8 January 2016 Bring and Share Social Members pictures Friday 8 April 2016 AGM Please let me know by email or text if you are able to help arrange any events or meetings. elaine.scott@waterways.org.uk
07980 953880
Details of any future meetings will be published in the next edition of Milepost All the meetings organised by the West Riding Branch are Open and everyone is invited. We are delighted to welcome any member of the general public and members are encouraged to bring their friends. To find out more about the waterways or the IWA come and join us at one of our meetings or visit the website http://www.waterways.org.uk
Closing date for contributions for the next issue 31 January 2016 Contributions can be hand written, typed or in electronic format.
The views expressed in this publication are published as being of interest to our members and readers and are not necessarily those of The Inland Waterways Association or of its West Riding Branch. The Inland Waterways Association Registered in England no 612245 Registered as a Charity No 212342 Registered Office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, HP5 1WA 28 783453 Tel: 01494