Camp report Uttoxeter family camp

family camp Uttoxeter

Last year WRG held an initial Family Camp for accompanied 8-14 year olds. This year there are three: the volunteers report from the first one...

After the success of last year’s initial Family Camp for volunteers aged 8-14 (accompanied by their responsible adults), WRG is holding three more of these weekend events in 2018. The first of these took place on the Uttoxeter Canal in June: two of the young volunteers report back...

Balsam, bird boxes and bollards Uttoxeter Canal family camp 8-10 June

On Friday evening, we all gathered at Denstone pre-prep school in Uttoxeter for the first WRG family camp of the year. The accommodation was the top floor of the old stables, fully equipped with new beds and freshly painted (we were the first to use it). Outside, we had a great mass of land in which we could roam, this included: a basketball court, tennis courts, a zip wire, playground structures and a wide-open space. Seeing everyone on the first day was great, we also learnt that basketball is a great way to make friends. So, we slept on the first day

with excitement and anticipation running through us. Saturday morning was an easy wakeup, that was until the fire alarm was set off by our bacon cooking (there was no fire!). Also, all through the night, we were wondering how we would get out of the accommodation tomorrow morning as the Iron Man 70.3 was going past the front of the drive and the road was closed. After a hearty breakfast of cereal and a bacon sandwich, we jumped in the vans and set off for site. When at site we set it up and then put on our PPE. After a quick site safety talk, we set off to do the morning’s tasks: taking shoots off old stumps and digging holes for the bollards. It was the adults who dug while the children – with the support of some adults – lopped off the shoots. Finding the stumps that we were chopping the shoots off was hard due to the amount of Himalayan balsam that was around, so we destroyed that too. At break, the holes for some of the bollards were nearly finished. Break came and went without a fuss, afterwards, we set fact file Uttoxeter Canal

Length: 13 miles Locks: 17 Date closed: 1849

The Canal Camp project: building and installing bird boxes, clearing vegetation, carrying out a nature survey, removing invasive species, and installing bollards, all on a site in the Crumpwood area.

Why? As part of plans for a ‘showpiece’ restored length and visitor site.

The wider picture: The canal having closed 180 years ago with parts of its route used for building a railway line, restoration isn’t going to be a quick or easy job. The first section at Froghall, which might seem the obvious place to start reopening the canal (so that boats from the Caldon Canal can access it) is going to be very tricky and expensive to open, thanks to several missing locks, a blockage where a main road crosses, and the need to share space with the Churnet Valley Steam Railway. So the Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust looked around for a more practical place to start, and hit on the Alton to Crumpwood length - bypassed by the (disused) railway, with surviving locks, the last remaining bridge, and an unusual ‘level crossing’ of the River Churnet. This could be a restored ‘showpiece’ length, with a public tripboat to raise funds and support for more canal restoration.

Caldon Canal to Etruria Froghall: 1st lock and basin restored 2005

Oakamoor

Alton Crumpwood

Denstone

Proposed diversion ending in converted quarrry

Canal Camp site: Crumpwood Uttoxeter

off for our next jobs: more hole digging and balsam pulling. The pulled balsam was put into piles and left, the flies loved it! At lunch some of the holes were finished and some had just been started.

Lunch came and went with no real problems, so it was time for the afternoon jobs, more digging and a nature hunt (completed by the children). On the nature hunt we found many different things, a nesting bird which we couldn’t work out what species it was, some sort of larvae, and many different types of bugs and plants. After the nature hunt, the children completed the creation of some birdboxes. Once created, they were painted a darkish green (the base colour) and then put on a plastic sheet. At the end of the day, the plastic sheet was moved into the toilet (yes, the toilet!) to keep them dry overnight. Then, after packing away site, we left for the day.

When we got back, we were all very hungry after our day’s work, so Rob (our cook) set up the barbecue and cooked many things: sausages, corn on the cob, halloumi, kebabs and aubergines. We enjoyed all of this with some ice cream and brownie knocked up by Amber, our leader. After the barbecue, we had a campfire and toasted marshmallows over it – yum! After all that, no wonder we dropped off with the click of a finger!

In the morning, we were woken early by the fire alarm, set off by the pancakes which we had for breakfast. After the prompt start, we left the camp quickly due to IronManUK – a massive triathlon held that day. When we arrived, we set up site for the last time. We retrieved the bird boxes from the toilet (they were all dry by this time), and added extra decorations with brighter colours. We then pulled and collected piles and piles of Himalayan balsam and had a competition to see who could make the best sculpture out of it. Our builds included a nest, a barbecue, a bed and a tepee: the nest got the most votes. Then we had a lunch of sandwiches, crisps, maltesers, haribos and fruit.

Next to the canal was the river, and right by our base was a weir and lock –which was old and disused. We went to explore this and found out many interesting things about the canal. Once we’d explored, we went to do much more Himalayan balsam. Due to the fact that it was our last day, we left site at 2.30pm, so we didn’t get home in the dead of night. We had to leave the camp the way we found it – as much as we could. Jenny, the other camp leader, almost lost her nail after getting her finger trapped in the van door – ouch! We then all said our goodbyes and left our wonderful camp, but knowing that we were going to try and go back next year.

Jonathan & Georgina

As we went to press there were still places available on this year’s third family camp on the Chelmer & Blackwater on 31 August - 2 September. See diary pages or wrg.org.uk.

Alison Smedley