navvies volunteers restoring waterways
Here’s one eleven we made earlier:
STOP PRESS: Cotswold Canals ÂŁ9m Lottery win means
Boats to Stroud!
looking at the waterways under restoration when WRG started... ...and looking forward too:
Montgomery, Wey & Arun, Cromford issue 303 october-november 2 0 20
Intro
11 we made earlier...
STOP PRESS: Big Lottery success for Cotswold Canals Just as this issue was going to press we heard the fantastic news that Stroud District Council and Cotswold Canals Trust have had final confirmation of £9m from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Together with grants from CCT, CRT, and local authorities bringing the total to £16m and a huge amount of volunteer labour, this means the four miles from Saul Junction to Stonehouse will be restored by the end of 2023. That means boats from the canal network will be able to continue along the restored length to Stroud, Bowbridge and beyond - and through to Brimscombe Port before too long. It also means our volunteers (along with those of CCT) will have plenty to do in the meantime! We’ll include an article next time showing just how much! See you at the opening in 2024!
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In this issue Contents For latest news on our activities visit our website wrg.org.uk See facebook group: WRG Follow us on Twitter: @wrg_navvies Production Editor: Martin Ludgate, 35 Silvester Road, East Dulwich London SE22 9PB 020-8693 3266 martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk Subscriptions: WRG, Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA Printing and assembly: John Hawkins, 4 Links Way, Croxley Green WD3 3RQ 01923 448559 john.hawkins@wrg.org.uk Navvies is published by Waterway Recovery Group, Island House, Moor Rd., Chesham HP5 1WA and is available to all interested in promoting the restoration and conservation of inland waterways by voluntary effort in Great Britain. Articles may be reproduced in allied magazines provided that the source is acknowledged. WRG may not agree with opinions expressed in this magazine, but encourages publication as a matter of interest. Nothing printed may be construed as policy or an official announcement unless so stated - otherwise WRG and IWA accept no liability for any matter in this magazine. Waterway Recovery Group is part of The Inland Waterways Association, (registered office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA), a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee, registered in England no 612245, and registered as a charity no 212342. VAT registration no 342 0715 89. Directors of WRG: Rick Barnes, John Baylis, George Eycott, Emma Greenall, Helen Gardner, John Hawkins, Dave Hearnden, Nigel Lee, Mike Palmer, George Rogers, Jonathan Smith, Harry Watts. ISSN: 0953-6655
© 2020 WRG
PLEASE NOTE: subs renewal cheques MUST be made out to The Inland Waterways Association NOTE new subs address below Contents Editorial Martin’s still being upbeat! How? 4-7 Chairman MKP describes first moves on a possible way forward for WRG 8-9 Restoration feature: detailed look at the Cromford Canal 10-16 Dig report LWRG on the Buckingham 17-19 Off the wall: new funding sources 20-24 Diary, what diary? What’s on, what’s off 25 Monty update School House Bridge 26-27 Progress news roundup 28-35 Dig report WRG NW on the Montgomery 34 50 years ago WRG’s ‘soft launch’ 38-41 Thoughts on canal trust organisation 42-43 Overseas news from mainland Europe 44-45 Infill Which canal engineer are you? 46
Contributions... ...are welcome, whether by email or post. Photos welcome: digital (as email attachments, or if you have a lot of large files please send them on CD / DVD or contact the editor first), or old-school slides / prints. Contributions by post to the editor Martin Ludgate, 35, Silvester Road, London SE22 9PB, or by email to martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk. Press date for issue 304: 1 November.
Subscriptions A year's subscription (6 issues) is a minimum of £3.00 (cheques to The Inland Waterways Association) to WRG, Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA. Please add a donation if you can.
Cover pics Scenes today on 11 waterways listed in Navvies 26, the first to mention WRG by name in 1970 (see p6-7, p34-7). Front to back, top to bottom, left to right: Kennet & Avon Canal, Bath; Peak Forest Canal, Marple; Montgomery Canal, Welshpool; Soho Loop, Birmingham; Caldon Canal below Cheddleton; Peak Forest Canal, Bugsworth; Dudley Canal, Park Head; Upper Avon, Stratford; Pocklington Canal near Melbourne; Basingstoke Canal, Deepcut; Stratford Canal, Bearley
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editorial The wider view As the return to work falters in the face of rising Covid infection rates and shortening days, is there anything to be positive about? Yes, there’s lots... Editorial An admission: when I started trying to write this editorial a week or two ago I began by typing out the opening line “It’s all a bit shit at the moment.” And then left it untouched for a week, because I couldn’t think of anything else any more inspiring to follow it up with. Having filled issues 300 and 301 (the first two issues of Navvies after the start of lockdown in March) with reports from the working parties that had already happened, plus a selection of ‘taking the wider view’ restoration features looking at the back-stories and longer-term future of projects (not to mention a lot of pictures of WRG 50th anniversary cakes), we made issue 302 the first ‘back to work’ issue. While (hopefully) making it clear that we weren’t trying to play down the dangers of Covid-19 which were still ever-present, and that most features of WRG’s way of working (sharing minibuses, food, tools, sleeping space on village hall floors and various other things) meant we were still nowhere near ready to re-start work parties of that kind, we covered the cautious return of the local canal society volunteer teams with their different methods of working, their new approaches and precautions, and their shared knowledge following these careful steps back to work. This issue, we hoped, would continue the ‘back to work’ theme as WRG and the other mobile groups made their first cautious moves towards a very different kind of working party from what they were used to. London WRG would lead the way with a report from the first post national lockdown WRG working party, supporting the Buckingham; other groups including North West and BITM were set to follow. It would still, as ever, be with the proviso that we were no way trying to suggest that we were entering the post-Covid era or anything like it, but we were at least hoping to show that WRG (and the other mobile teams) were up-and-running again, albeit in a very different form. As Helena puts it in her report from the London WRG weekend (see page 15), “Although camping is not really feasible over the winter, maybe if a site has cheap enough local accommodation, or enough volunteers living locally enough to travel each day, more digs can follow if the rate of coronavirus transmission stays low.” Unfortunately that last “if”, as we all know, is a very big one. As she also says, less optimistically, “I realise how well timed our dig on the Buckingham Arm was. If we had left it just a week later I don’t think it would have hapWRG cakes (1): the aim of 50 birthday cakes this year pened as the coronavirus rules tightis still on track with this effort by George Rogers... ened up again, and now as autumn
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descends it’s unlikely that camping is going to appeal to anyone even if the rules allow it.” London WRG have currently shelved their plans for further working parties, and at least two of the other groups have decided against proceeding with plans for working weekends for the moment, while the rest will no doubt be looking at the currently rising infection rates and reconsidering their options (although a couple of weekends were still in the offing as we went to press). Meanwhile there certainly won’t be a WRG Reunion / bonfire bash or a WRG Christmas camp, and we really can’t say what the prognosis is for 2021’s canal camps. Sure, as far as Navvies is concerned we’ve got the first two WRG dig reports for six months, there are plenty more restoration projects for us to feature with longer articles, the local societies are still working and sending in progress updates, and there’s the 50 years ago archive series. But six months on from when it all ground to a halt, with quite possibly not a lot happening WRG-wise for another six months to come, it’s all fallen a bit flat. All in all, I was coming to the conclusion that my original summary of the situtation wasn’t too wide of the mark: it is indeed all a bit shit at the moment. But then an odd thing happened: a copy of World Wide Waterways (published by Inland Waterways International, an assocition bringing together canal groups and enthusiasts from all over the world) dropped through the letterbox. And skimming through it, I was delighted to find that in Finland they’ve opened the first new canal for decades; in the Netherlands they’ve just finished removing a 1970s urban motorway in order to put back the historic city ring canal that was filled in to make way for the road; in France they’re carrying out long-overdue repairs to reopen two canals shut for years, and in Serbia two historic locks have been restored and reopened, allowing boats onto more of the curiously-named Danube-Tisza-Danube system. I’m not trying to suggest that it’s all rosy once you cross the Channel: the attitude of the French authorities in letting these routes fall into disrepair in the first place smacks of Britain’s worst years of long-term stoppages and maintenance backlogs - and not that long ago there was a threat to permanently close a significant part of the French system. And I was disappointed to see that the restoration of the historic canals of Milan has stalled. No, but my point is that there’s plenty of good stuff, interesting stuff and important stuff happening - especially if we expand on the ‘take the wider view’ theme that we’ve been following with the restoration features. And a couple of developments that I’ve picked up on (thanks to our parent body the Inland Waterways Association’s Restoration Hub and the All Party Parliamentary Group for Waterways) have suggested that this theme can cover not only a wider geographical spread, but also a wider range of ways that restoration might get supported in the future. So in this issue we’re trying to look ‘wider’ in at least four ways:
. . . .
Looking ahead to a few projects that we’re almost certainly going to see a lot of WRG and other volunteer work in the next couple of years: the Montgomery (page 26) the Wey & Arun (page 28) and the Cromford (page 10) Looking further afield to projects making progress elsewhere in Europe (page 44) Looking ‘outside of the box’ to a couple of interesting recent developments, either of which might just turn out to be the kind major new funding source which propels a few restorations forward quite dramatically (in the way that the National Lottery, the European Regional Development Fund and Derelict Land Grants have done in the past) - highways remediation money and water transfer schemes (page 20). Looking back to where WRG’s volunteers were working in 1970, the year the organisation was founded - and looking at those waterways today (see overleaf, and the inside and outside cover pictures). And perhaps in that kind of a timescale, a year’s gap in WRG activities isn’t quite the “end of the world as we know it” that it might seem.
Just the ticket... If you’re one of the subscribers that still receive Navvies by post (and for reasons to do with Covid-19 and our usual printing / assembly / distribution methods, that’s temporarily only the minority of you that we don’t have email addresses for), inside this issue you’ll find a set of IWA raffle tickets, and a form for a Wey & Arun Canal calendar. And if you don’t get Navvies by post, a quick look at these organisations’ websites will tell you how to support them by buying tickets, calendars, or making a donation. You’ll also (and we always try to make sure this is the case) find an article in this issue
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describing the Wey & Arun Canal Trust’s latest plans - so we aren’t just using Navvies as a way of appealing for you to donate your money, we’re showing you the ambitious plans they’re working on, and the reasons why they therefore really need the money. And they aren’t the only ones... One factor appeared in a number of the canal society responses to the IWA ‘back to work’ survey which we covered in the last issue, when it came to asking the groups what they found to be the biggest threat from the pandemic. And that factor was money. WRG cakes 2: a three-parter by Anne Liliiman Reading the responses again, we see “Loss of funding opportunities which are essential to keep the momentum going”, “The difficulty of getting funding for restoration work”, “Lack of income”, “Our major fundraising activities have been cancelled, so huge financial threat” and more along the same lines. Normally all these groups would be running (or taking their fundraising stalls to) rallies, festivals, local carnivals, boat shows, sponsored events, trip-boat operations and so on - almost all of which have been cancelled or curtailed. And now consider how many of them were part way through a big fundraising exercise when the pandemic struck. For example, in addition to the Wey & Arun which we’ve already mentioned:
Here’s eleven we made earlier... On pages 34-37 our article looking back at issue 30 of this magazine, the first edition published after Waterway Recovery Group was founded in summer 1970, lists the canals the early mobile volunteers were supporting at the time, as listed in the Navvies dates list. Our outside and inside front and back pictures show what’s become of those waterways since then...
Basingstoke Canal: official restoration work by Surrey&Hants Canal Society was launched by the big dig in 1977, canal reopened in 1991, more work carried out since then towards giving it a reliable water supply and overcoming a maintenance backlog
Upper Avon Navigation: the major work by the Upper Avon Navigation Trust involving building completely new locks was completed and the navigation reopened in 1974 Kennet & Avon Canal: reopened in sections through the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in completion of the Canal Trust’s goal of full reopening in 1990 Dudley Canal: Park Head Locks and Dudley Tunnel were reopened in 1973 – and since then further excavations allow the boat trips to run via new tunnels into the Singing Cavern
Montgomery Canal: over half of the canal is now open, the Welshpool length now extends to over 12 miles of continuous navigation from Ardleen to Refail, there are another seven miles open from the English end at Frankton to Gronwen, this is on the way to being extended by another couple of miles to Crickheath, and as you can read elsewhere in this issue the next target of rebuilding School House Bridge and getting to the Welsh border is within sight.
Peak Forest Canal (Marple): both this and the Ashton Canal were reopened in 1974, and the nine Rochdale Canal locks through central Manchester were reopened two years later,
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. . . . .
The Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust, who need £1m to pay for a bridge to get the canal under the Lichfield to Birmingham railway. The Chesterfield Canal Trust, hoping to back up its 2027 completion target with a major funding appeal. The Friends of the Montgomery Canal’s ‘Restore the Montgomery Canal!’ appeal, raising the money for its School House Bridge rebuilding project - and with the aim of reopening through to the Welsh border before too long. The Ashby Canal Association, whose ‘buy a brick’ appeal aims to extend the navigable length by building a new aqueduct over the Gilwiskaw Brook The Pocklington Canal Amenity Society whose urgent crowdfunding appeal just managed to fill a £5000 hole left by the lack of the usual trip-boat income which could otherwise have stymied their next lock restoration project at Sandhills Lock
And those are, quite literally, just the ones I found when I did an internet search on ‘canal restoration appeal’. There will be lots more equally deserving ones all over the country. We in WRG realise that it can sometimes seem a bit much (especially to the active volunteers who’ve already dedicated a great deal of your time and effort to helping the waterways cause) that we appear to want all your money off you too. And yes, we’ll almost certainly have another set of raffle tickets in the next issue too. But (and I do realise that not everyone by any means will be in this happy situation, I totally understand that some will be far worse off) if you find you aren’t spending as much cash as you used to before the lockdown (I’ve certainly saved on the cost of beer and pizzas if nothing else!) then please do consider making a donation to these groups. Among other things, their ability to keep their funding on track will ensure that as and when WRG canal camps and working weekends finally get going again, there will be plenty of good wellfunded projects for us to work on - and in the longer term, help to achieve some of the ‘wider’ aims described in the first part of this editorial. Until that happy day, stay safe! Martin Ludgate completing the Cheshire Ring
Stratford Canal: this had already been restored and reopened back in 1964, but Stratford on Avon Canal Society and supporters helped its custodians the National Trust with its limited resources to keep it navigable until it could be transferred to British Waterways in 1988
Peak Forest Canal (Bugsworth Basin): this great historic complex of basins, wharves and arms, where lime was transhipped from tramways to canal boats, was completely restored and – despite repeated problems keeping it watertight where it had been built on treacherous made-up ground – was finally reopened in 2005
Caldon Canal: the unnavigable Hazlehurst to Froghall length of the canal was reopened in 1974. Three decades on, the Caldon Canal Society restored the first lock and basin of the former Uttoxeter Canal at Froghall, as a new terminus for the Caldon. Having completed this in 2005, the Society (now the Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust) aims to restore the rest of the Uttoxeter.
Pocklington Canal: following the latest reopening of two locks in 2018, over half of the canal is now navigable, and two of the locks on the remaining unnavigable length from Bielby to Pocklington Canal Head are already restored, leaving just three locks to go.
Soho Loop: not only is this formerly impassable loop of the Birmingham Canal Navigations (a bypassed fragment of the original main line) now fully navigable, but the proposal in Navvies 26 that the former Lodge Road railway interchange basins could make “magnificent moorings” has come true, and this is now the Hockley Port mooring basins. ...and the one that got away...
River Derwent: sadly a legal action between those supporting and opposing restoration to navigation eventually decided in favour of the latter, and the upper river remains unnavigable.
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chairman A way forward? “we have formed a sub-group to push around all the ideas/opinions/ experiences and see what an alternative offering might look like...” Chairman’s Comment I’ve been chairman of WRG for many years and, because there is a seasonality to our activities, it naturally follows there is a seasonality to my comments in Navvies. Pretty much every year this edition of Navvies has featured an appreciation of a great summer and a promise that we are planning some great work for the next year. This time however it will not follow the traditional pattern, because although we have looked for positive examples of progress (and indeed many people have been working hard on all those “other tasks” we have talked about), almost none of us have had the pleasure of walking off site at the end of the day with the warm, wonderful feeling that we achieved something. We shouldn’t ignore this loss no matter how stoical we think we should be. No matter how positive our outlook it would be foolish to ignore the fact that this summer, volunteers both new and old did not discover they could lay bricks or operate dumpers. Some people didn’t discover they had the confidence to lead a team of people or the skills to construct some clever concrete shuttering. Possibly worst of all some people didn’t have that feeling of looking round a table in a village hall one evening and realising they had found a place they could genuinely call home. Because to ignore that loss is to ignore what our activities mean to us. In the next few pages Martin’s editorial seeks to reassure that: “…[given a timescale of WRG’s 50 years], a year’s gap in WRG activities isn’t quite the ‘end of the world as we know it’ that it might seem.” He is of course correct: we have faced bumps along the road before and no doubt will again. But in all those times we have all been able to keep doing what we enjoy and this time we haven’t. A lot of people have missed out recently on their ‘WRGie playtime’, and the opportunity to get back to it seems a long way away. Whilst we don’t know the ‘first timers’ we have not met up with over this summer, we do know which ‘regulars’ we would have met and spent time with. Please take some time to keep in contact, drop them a line or a text. If you are missing that mud and laughter, then the chances are so are they. Just as the ‘looking back’ part of this comment is different this year, so it will be for the ‘promise of things to come’. WRG has, generally speaking, always been an optimistic bunch of people and I think it’s true to say that our current hope is that: Whilst it’s going to be tricky to get our traditional Canal Camps offering up and running before next summer, surely by then the whole world must have sorted things out and everything will be back to normal. If that’s the case then we will probably be able to spring right back into action as the planning and preparation was already in place and our vans and trailers are ready to go at pretty much a few days notice. Some camps might not fill up completely but they can still run. We will have lost a whole year of work but we will be back up and running doing what we do best. If, by some happy chance, the pandemic is halted earlier then again - we are ready to go. But right now (a) this looks a little risky as a policy anyway and (b) WRG have always been pretty good at seeing opportunities for change and, at the very least, giving them a good talking about. The WRG committee met a few weeks ago and it seems many people are genuinely
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interested in working through an alternative offering that assumes the risks of Covid are still there. Depending on how successful this alternative is we could either offer it until ‘normal’ Canal Camps are viable or perhaps just keep it going alongside our Canal Camps. So we have formed a sub-group of the WRG committee to push around all the ideas/ opinions/experiences and see what an alternative offering might look like. If we manage to stick to the timetable then there should be a thought-provoking article in the next Navvies followed by a Navvies-wide survey to see what you liked/disliked about the ideas we had come up with. The sub-group will no doubt be also flashing out various social media discussions along the way as well. If you have any contribution to make, even if it’s just an information sign you saw and took a photo of then please send comments into the team at Head Office (enquiries@wrg.org.uk). With things like this every contribution is helpful – whether overly optimistic/pessimistic or anywhere in between. It’s a similar process to Accident Reporting – every little nugget helps, whether it’s a really big philosophical point or a tiny point of detail. (As an aside for only the very long term readers of Navvies: yes, I too am just a little bit alarmed that our answer to one of the biggest threats to our work is “let’s form a subcommittee”.) The one thing about this 2020 version of the October comment that will resemble all the other years is that it usually features some thanks and appreciation from me to those who have helped me during the year. So firstly congratulations to all our friends who were mentioned in the IWA awards at this years AGM, especially long term navvies Athina Beckett and Adrian Sturgess (someone who I definitely missed spending time with on-site this summer). Finally I really should record my thanks to our Navvies editor Mr Ludgate. Putting together this magazine is never an easy task but the care and dedication that Martin has shown over the last year to make sure that Navvies is both positive and responsible in its outlook but still an entertaining and informative read is second to none. That’s the thing about WRG – it doesn’t matter whether it’s a van, a shovel, a project plan or an apple crumble. Somebody cared about it and looked after it to the best of their ability because they knew you would appreciate it. Navvies is no different – just read the next few pages. Hugs and kisses Mike Palmer
RIP Sadie Heritage We have lost one of life’s characters. Sadie was always up to something, travelling with narrowboat Straw Bear; historic working boat Lynx or her camper. I remember being in a pub on the Middle Level with some of Peterborough IWA. It was after hours and the Police arrived as Sadie was doing a handstand. On another occasion we were at a WRG Boat Club gathering when we were woken in the early hours. Sadie and Peter Thompson were doing a clog dance on the towpath. They had managed to find a sheet of timber to dance on, which enhanced the effect. Sadie was always accompanied by a small dog. I remember Doglet, Lill and Butler. The Butler was responsible for looking after her recently when she came home from hospital... or that is what she told the nurses? Sadie was a founder member of WRG Boat Club and secretary until the club’s demise last year. Her enthusiasm and ideas kept us entering and joining in events at National Waterway Festivals. Who can forget her washing line of bloomers flying from the roof of Straw Bear at Chester? Club members all looked forward to her clever original and hand drawn Christmas cards every year. Meeting and marrying Fred brought her much happiness for she loved working boats and quiet Fred was her perfect companion. They travelled on Lynx which they kept in immaculate authentic traditional working boat condition. Boating along the Basingstoke canal (the first canal my husband Roger and I had worked on) with Sadie and Fred was a revelation. Sadie joined me at NABO being my secretary. Meetings were always fun. I will miss her. Sue Burchett (plus contributions from Lynn Cater)
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Restoration feature As we once again use the reduction in WRG work to take a wider look at projects, Restoration Feature: Cromford Canal When we featured the Buckingham Canal in the last issue, I remarked on what a pleasant change it was to be able to report on a restoration where for once we will be able to ‘start at the beginning’ with a reopening in the not too distant future at the very start of the canal, where it connects to the navigable network. And this time we’re looking at another of those rare cases: the next major project on the Cromford Canal should see boats from the national network heading up a newly built pair of staircase locks within the next few years. But let’s go back to the start...
Great Northern Basin at Langley Mill, restored by the Erewash Canal Preservation & Development Association and reopened in 1973 to create a new terminus for the Erewash Canal (its own terminal basin having been filled in), was historically the very first part of the Cromford Canal, which met the Erewash (and also, to further confuse things, the former Nottingham Canal) at this point. Over the years, that initial short length
The restoration back-story: From the above, the Cromford may sound like the sort of ‘start at the beginning’ project that canal restorers dream of (not to mention those of us boaters who are itching to navigate some new water!) but it hasn’t always been that way. Over the last half century it’s often been the familiar story of working on dead-end sections apparently in the middle of nowhere, simply because that was seen as the most practicable option for making progress with the resources available at the time. Having said that, in fact the very first reopening of a section of the Cromford was actually a case of ‘start from the beginning’ too. It’s not generally seen as a part of the Cromford Canal at all, but Langley Bridge Lock and
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The Cromford Canal was authorised in 1789 and built to connect the textile mills in Cromford, the ironworks around Butterley and the coal mines in the Pinxton area to the Erewash Canal (opened in 1779) at Langley Mill - and thereby to the Trent and to Nottingham. It was an expensive canal to build, with four tunnels including the 3083 yard Butterley Tunnel and sizeable aqueducts, and cost double the orginal estimate. However once it was open in 1794 it was an immediate success, helped by the Nottingham Canal and Derby Canal providing links to those cities. Proposals to link it to the Peak Forest Canal via a new canal crossing the Peak District proved impracticable, but instead an unusual early railway using horse haulage and rope-worked inclines, the Cromford & High Peak Railway, was opened in 1831 to provide this link. However by the 1840s the canal was feeling the effect of competition from more conventional railways, freight tolls were reduced in a bid to retain trade, and in 1852 the canal sold out to a local railway. In 1889 mining subsidence temporarily dosed Butterley Tunnel, then a second tunnel collapse in 1900 was not repaired. Some local traffic continued for some years on both sides of the tunnel, but in 1944 the then owners the LMS Railway officially abandoned it The southern length was subsequently filled in; the rest left to decay.
Cromford
Canal
we feature a restoration that’s about to take a step forward - from Langley Mill has been gradually extended to create the mooring basin, boating centre and focus for ECPDA that it is today. But at the same time the restoration was happening elsewhere. In the 1970s the Cromford Canal Society, formed with the aim of restoring the canal, began work at the far end at Cromford Wharf, where the canal had survived in better condition than some of the lengths further south, and restored a section
from there to Leawood Aqueduct over the River Derwent. They also took on the restoration of the Leawood steam pumping station, and set up a trip-boat operation on this mile and half length, based at Cromford Wharf. Restoration continued on the next section from Leawood to Gregory Tunnel and beyond, but practical problems of overtopping of the bank where the canal runs along the Derwent valley side following
Cromford Canal Length: 14½ miles plus Pinxton Arm 3 miles Locks: 14 Date closed: between 1900 (end of through traffic over full length, Butterley Tunnel blocked) and 1944 (canal officially abandoned)
Beggarlee Project Site
e
Map by Friends of the Cromford Canal
Sawmills narrows work site
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Pictures by Martin Ludgate unless credited
heavy rain, coupled with disagreements within the group, led to the ending of work and later to the demise of the society. The trip boat subsequently ceased operation, but the rewatered length was retained as a nature reserve. A few years later there was a further attempt to get restoration work going, this time concentrating on the length where the canal climbs to its summit at Codnor Park Locks then runs alongside Trip boat Birdswood at its home mooring at Cromford Wharf Codnor Park Reservoir - but flood relief work involving removing the top lock Dudley No 2 Canal: a series of collapses and lowering the water level in the lake put caused by mining subsidence, eventually paid to these plans. resulting in attempts to keep it open being Finally the present active restoration abandoned and through navigation ceasing group, the Friends of the Cromford Canal, around the year 1900. Beyond the tunnel, a was launched in 2002. To understand what length in mostly fair condition led westward they were up against, let’s quickly look at the to Sawmills, beyond which the Bulls Bridge state that the canal had got into by then. At embankment and series of aqueducts crossthe south end, it had been blocked not far ing the Amber Valley had suffered from the beyond the end of the basin at Langley Mill demolition of the main road and railway by the new A610 main road built in the early spans. As the canal turned west again, an1980s to bypass Langley Mill. Most of the other short length had partly disappeared section from there to Ironville including locks under a chemical works; however from there 13 to 8 (we’re counting downwards - Langley northwards all the way to Cromford Wharf Bridge Lock was No 14) had been largely the canal was in water and in good condiobliterated by opencast mining and would tion, maintained by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust need to be rebuilt from scratch, but at least - albeit with an outlook on the future of their the line was unobstructed and the towpath length of canal which wasn’t seen as likely to survived. Codnor Park Locks 7 to 2 were be terribly positive about the idea of reopengenerally in fair condition considering how ing to powered boats. long they had been shut, but the top one, Feeling that there was no point in takLock 1 had been removed. The length from ing a confrontational attitude with wildlife the top of the locks alongside the reservoir to organisations that had preserved the northButterley Tunnel survived although silted and ern part of the canal since the demise of the overgrown, as did much of the Pinxton Arm original restoration group, but at the same which branched off north and eastwards time not seeing much hope of practical along the dam of the reservoir (although progress on the largely obliterated southern parts of the arm have since been lost to end, FCC started in the middle. Supported by opencast mining - see below). WRG volunteers (including a couple of Butterley Tunnel was in poor condition, Christmas camps), there was scrub clearance having suffered the same fate as Norwood on the length between Butterley Tunnel and Canal on the Chesterfield and Lapal on the Codnor Park. A summer camp and several
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visiting weekend working parties rebuilt one side of the Sawmills Narrows, a stone-sided narrowing of the canal built as a gauging point where boats were checked for tonnage (by measuring their displacement) and tolls were calculated. Some initial work took place at Codnor Park Locks - again supported by Canal Camps. And meanwhile on the northern length, the Friends carried out work on the Derwentside side weir between Gregory’s Tunnel & High Peak Junction, while the entire section was dredged in support of its nature conservation value by the County Council. But with the latest project, as you’ll see below, we’re finally back to where we started: extending navigation northwards from the Erewash Canal at Langley Mill.
Where are we at now? The northern
So what next? Although it would be good to rebuild the second wall at Sawmills Narrows, and indeed to start serious lock rebuilding work at Codnor Park, there’s
Darren Shepherd
length now once again has a regular tripboat operation (horse-drawn on special occasions), run by FCC and operating between Cromford and Leawood. The section from there to Ambergate , while not maintained to full original level, is also in water as a nature reserve and has been dredged. The
Chemical works which straddled the route at Ambergate has now gone, but there are the two missing aqueducts (and reinstating the railway span is made more complicated by on-off plans to electrify the section of the Midland Main Line from Kettering to Sheffield, which this forms part of. One wall of the Sawmills narrows is rebuilt, and a minicamp by WRG NorthWest diverted the towpath around the offside to facilitate rebuilding the second wall in the future. Butterley Tunnel is still as wrecked as ever, the lengths east of the tunnel are less overgrown than they were, sadly a promise to reinstate part of the Pinxton Arm as remediation work following the opencast mining hasn’t been kept, but the flight of locks appear in decent condition with initial work carried out. As we said earlier, the last few miles and locks are missing but unobstructed. And they lead to the A610 blockage - but that no longer seems the obstacle that it once was...
Sawmills narrows: 2013 camp rebuilding wall... ... and WRG NW temporarily diverting towpath
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Starting point: looking north from the current limit of navigation at Langley Mill another project that looks set to take priority - and as hinted at above, it’s the A610 crossing north of Langley Mill. Christened the Beggarlee Project, this is set to be FCC’s main focus of work in the coming years - and has just gained planning permission after considerable delays. And getting under the canal under the A610 is going to be an interesting job... Although the main road embankment blocked the route of the canal, it did include a bridge for a railway siding leading from the Midland Main Line eastwards to a nearby coal mine. Both pit and railway siding closed not long after the road was opened in 1983, leaving a nearly new but unused concrete span. It’s plenty big enough to fit a restored canal through it, but it’s at a slightly awkward angle and a completely different level - plus its foundations aren’t designed to support a canal channel. But even so, designing a canal diversion to use the former railway bridge will still be a lot easier, cheaper and quicker to achieve than trying to get a new canal bridge put in under the main road. So that’s been the idea for some time, the plans have been developed and submitted, and the latest news is that they’ve been approved and the work can go ahead. The first part is straightforward: a 100 metre length of channel was built some years ago by ECPDA volunteers and awaits removal of the dam separating it from the limit
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of navigation at the north end of the Langley Mill basin complex. Beyond there the channel ends, trees and vegetation take over the route, and an embankment encraches from the right - this is a former slip-road now unused, and will need to be dug out to make way for the new canal. In addition to the old channel having disappeared, two original locks have been lost: Lock 12 lies buried under what is now the A610 embankment, while Lock 11 was half a mile further north. So at this point a new pair of staircase locks will be built, to replace both of these locks , and also to bring the canal to a suitable height to pass under the A610 using the bridge which carried the former railway siding. As we mentioned above, it’s a bit of an awkward angle (the canal is heading northwards while the railway had more of an east-west route, so there will be a sharp right hand bend between the new locks and the bridge, then a sharp left-hander when the canal emerges from the bridge), and as we also mentioned its foundations weren’t designed to carry the weight of a canal filled with water, so the structure will actually be more akin to the canal being carried through the former railway span on a new aqueduct, supported from new foundations situated beyond the profile of the road embankment. From there, the new channel will continue for another 500m to Stoney Lane,
Cromford Canal: The Beggarlee Project
The above graphic, reproduced from the Friends of the Cromford Canal, shows the plan for the Beggarlee Project, looking north from the existing limit of navigation on the Erewash Canal at Langley Mill, towards the new staircase locks, the dog-leg to the east to pass through the old railway bridge under the A610, and the canal continuing to the new winding hole at Stoney Lane
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where the initial section will terminate at a new winding hole (turning point). OK, so it’s only about 1km in total, but this is a very significant length as the Friends’ first major construction project, it’s an actual extension of the national navigable network, and it hopefully it will be seen as a real statement of intent to reopen the canal. And as far as WRG is concerned (as and when we get back on track following the current difficulties), it could be an important worksite for our volunTwo views of the old railway bridge that is set to be conteers. The locks are likely to be at least largely contractor- verted into a canal bridge as part of the Beggarlee Project built and designed as an unashamedly modern concrete construction (so no brick facings for us to add to the basic structure, as has been the case on some), and the railway bridge (being quite technically complex, as explained above) will probably also be a professional job. But creating the lengths of channel linking it all together looks much like our sort of work, as does the initial site clearance and earthworks. For this reason, the job is likely to be split into three phases: (1) the channel as far as the locks, chosen. It seems more likely that FCC will (2) the northernmost section of channel look first to a project in the Ironville area, beyond the A610, and (3) the locks and perhaps the first length of the Pinxton Arm – bridge. Doing the work in this sequence a relatively simple scheme but one in the means the volunteers can get on with the heart of the community, to build local supcheaper parts while fund-raising continues port and demonstrate a positive approach to for the more expensive later stages. So look environmental conservation. Sorry to all of out for details in Navvies of volunteer work you waiting at Langley Mill with your boats beginning in the not-too-distant... but canal restorations rarely get anywhere without gaining local support. And then what? It might seem obvious Ultimately, however, the aim is for full to simply carry on north, but the next length restoration through from Langley Mill to isn’t easy. Not only has the original channel Cromford and Pinxton - and the Beggarlee (and locks) disappeared as a result of openProject will be a big step forward on the way. cast mining, but a new crossing for Stoney Martin Ludgate Lane is needed, and not far north of there a with assistance from George Rogers new crossing of the valley - and there’s a nature reserve, so there will need to be To find out more or to join the Friends of careful discussions about whatever route is the Cromford Canal see cromfordcanal.info
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dig report London WRG In the first WRG working party since the lockdown, London WRG visited the Buckingham. Helena reports on how the socially distanced dig went... London WRG on the Buckingham ming pool. As others slowly started gather-
ing, Terry got us to sign in and constantly sprayed the pen and anything else that looked like it may have been touched by someone recently. Once we were all gathered, with a careful two metre gap tested by sticking our arms out and doing a pirouette or two, Martin ensured everyone had the right PPE. Most had arrived as requested with their own to keep the Covid risk low, but others like me needed to borrow the hardhats and hi-vis Martin had kindly washed before bringing. As they hadn’t been used since before the pandemic, this was unlikely to impact the Covid risk but did mean that everything was shiny. We had the most comprehensive site talk I have ever had. Whilst some of this
Pictures by Martin Ludgate
As I sit here thinking how to start this report, the rain is hammering down and I realise how well timed London WRG’s dig on the Buckingham Arm was. If we had left it just a week later I don’t think it would have happened as the coronavirus rules tightened up again, and now as autumn descends it’s unlikely that camping is going to appeal to anyone even if the rules allow it. As it was, one sunny weekend in September an intrepid bunch of WRGies who live relatively near Milton Keynes was supplemented by those who lived just a bit too far away to go home every night for a lovely, if socially distant, dig with camping. My own journey started Friday afternoon, frantically trying to remember where all my dig clothes were kept and making some crucial decision around layers of clothes versus weight of my bag as I needed to get from Fareham to Wolverton on the train. This included crossing London on the tube (which was empty at rush hour, and a quite surreal experience), then walking to Cosgrove marina. Once at Wolverton, I hefted the bag once more and trudged my way through Ouse Valley Park, past many signs saying not to feed the ponies, but no ponies, and onto the canal bank at the Iron Trunk Aqueduct. This is a structure designed to induce vertigo! Once at the marina I realised a minor error, in that I knew that a piece of grassland had been designated for camping on, but I didn’t know which - and I didn’t have Terry the local’s phone number. A quick call to Martin sorted me out and I pitched my tent for a very socially isolated night under the stars. During this I realised that I should have brought my sleeping bag liner as I ended up wearing every item of clothing I had brought with me... In the morning I was woken by the dulcet tones of Paul chatting to Terry about the volumes of wild rhubarb antibacterial spray he had bought – enough to fill a swim-
Building side walls of the bridge approach ramp
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was Covid-19 related, I really appreciated the full induction into the weekends work – including a copy of the task list for everyone that detailed how many people and what skills were needed for each job. I opted for the nice and skill-free job of clearing the stones from a collapsed dry stone wall so that the wall (part of the south approach ramp to Bridge 1, whose rebuilding is Buckingham Canal Society’s current main project) could be rebuilt. Penny and I set to with this, starting with clearing the nettles and brambles away as “a tidy site is a safe site”, whilst Steve M and Geoff started rebuilding the wall. This was a great job for maintaining a 2m distance as we simply spread ourselves out along the wall length. I was more worried at one stage that I might end up less than 2m from a badger as we discovered the reason the wall had collapsed was it had been undermined by an impressive array of tunnels. Happily careful investigation showed no signs of recent use. Penny and I were demolishing the wall faster than Steve and Geoff could rebuild it – so we were soon even more distanced than at the start. Ours was the least technical job, while they had to rebuild the wall with a solid brick and mortar back face (for strength where it would be holding back the dirt ramp up to the canal bridge, soon to be used as a farm crossing for the combine harvester), and a dry stone front face (for traditional appearance). At tea break I discovered that Tim, in delivering mortar to the wall builders, had also managed to deliver mortar to my lunch bag. So before I could have a brew my mug, brought from home so that we didn’t risk sharing, needed a good clean. With no running water on site this involved a 2 litre bottle of Evian Spring Water! Brew made, I collapsed in the shade – even before lockdown my dig attendance had been infrequent due to family commitments and my body was telling me that I need to get fitter in no uncertain terms. Whilst I recovered I found out a bit more about what some of the others had been up to. Adrian had been playing with the dumper (once they had managed to jump start it), moving various materials from one place to another. Martin, Moose and Maria had meanwhile being moving different materials from another place to somewhere else using the Buckingham Canal Society’s van. This, it turned out, was former WRG
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van ‘RFB the Second’ so we introduced it to ‘RFB the Third’ which is currently used by London WRG when not needed by WRG camps. Paul I, Pete, Fran and others were meanwhile playing on the dam across the end of the canal, clearing off the vegetation ready for when the dam is removed ready for opening the canal under the bridge. This proved trickier than anticipated as one sapling had grown its roots into the relatively newly built canal wall and needed removing. Happily the Covid-19 rules lend themselves well to the usual mix of one person working whilst four others supervise from a distance. It did however make the equally traditional pastime of staring into a hole and going “Hmmm” harder to do as a group, so they had to resign themselves to taking it in turns to look thoughtfully down the hole they had dug at the offending root. These tasks took us through the rest of the day, including a socially distant lunch break where we all ate packed lunches like we were on a school trip, and Fran had a nap. Adrian brought the dumper back in the middle of it and was yelled at until he moved it further away – he didn’t want to turn it off in case it needed another jump start. Throughout Terry continued to spray everything in sight with wild rhubarb antibac to counter the risk of the automatic request of “pass the hammer” leading to cross contamination if anyone did happen to be asymptomatic. At the end of the day we trudged back down the Arm to Cosgrove Marina, tired but happy to have been on site. It felt a successful day in that we had managed to get a lot of work done, whilst following all the safety rules due to Terry’s careful planning. At this stage many of us dispersed home for the night, or to local hotels, whilst a hardy group of six who had travelled the greatest distances (I think David M from Devon was the furthest with me in 2nd place) set up tents and ordered pizza. After setting up our camp chairs in a circle of a size that would usually have accommodated about 20 people, we opened beers and chomped down the pizza whilst the sun set, until the only light was the glow from Northampton in the far distance. Tim had had the sense to bring a lantern, but that had the unintended effect of meaning I couldn’t see anyone past him so Paul quickly became a disembodied voice in the dark.
Since I couldn’t see anyone anyway, as it got darker and colder I decamped into my tent to warm up whilst still chatting through the walls. On Sunday morning Alan told us all how lovely his hotel had been, whilst I again rued the lack of sleeping bag liner and ate my breakfast bars. Tim didn’t appear to have brought any food so scrounged any individually wrapped items going spare off the rest of us. Back on site we did more of the same, but with a slightly different crew, gaining Marion and losing others, as several people were attending just one of the two days due to The author wrestles with a giant bale of straw the distances involved. In the morning a group of the more technically minded installed a solar panel reeds prevented us getting it into the water. on the roof of the site huts, and at lunchtime Penny and Martin threw lumps as far as they one of the locals arrived with lots of advertising could, but it wasn’t enough. Lucky for us materials to provide to passing walkers who Paul wandered along to see what we were up were fascinated by what we were up to. In to at this point and Penny managed to say with the afternoon Tim decamped to Cosgrove a totally straight face, “Oh Paul, could you just Lock where there was sufficient wifi signal push that a bit further into the canal for us”. for him to zoom into his niece’s wedding. Which he did! One dip later, the hay was well Throughout it all, David M riddled dirt with the and truly in the canal and somehow it had digger, which I imagine as being a calming and become my fault that Paul was sopping wet! peaceful task separating the soil from the spoil, We decided to call it quits then and but was probably boring as hell. headed off site whilst Terry gave all the tools At about 4pm we had finished most of one last spray down. All in all, an excellent the tasks, but the last on the list was unweekend that proved socially distant camps are touched. We needed to unroll two bales of viable. Although camping is not really feasible hay, split them in two and re-roll. Then put over the winter, maybe if a site has cheap them in the canal in various locations. Havenough local accommodation, or enough ing never unrolled a hay bale before I did volunteers living locally enough to travel each not quite realise what we were getting ourday, more digs can follow – albeit only if the selves into and how complex doing this whilst rate of coronavirus transmission is low. still trying to maintain 2m (or 1m with precauIn the meantime I was happy to be out, tions) would be, nor how utterly impossible it and as I have been able to zoom into socials, is to re-roll a hay bale once its unrolled. How- no one had forgotten who I was. Unlike the ever, we managed it due to Pete F’s knot last dig I attended where John H whispered to tying skills, and even got one lump into a very amused Nigel L: “Who is the new girl?” position in the canal. There it will rot away, Thank you to all of London WRG and releasing natural chemicals that kill the reeds the Buckingham Canal Society attending for choking the canal whilst not harming the fish staying safe, Martin L for organising and or other wildlife – very clever really. Terry C for having us! Hope to see you again This placement was quite tricky, having soon! got it to the right position on the bank, the Helena Rosiecka
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feature Outside of the box Where might restoration groups look for the big funding they need in the future? We look at three unlikely-seeming sources: roads, rails and water... mile of the Cotswold Canals missing between Eastington and Whitminster, meaning that a ...or off the wall. Or blue sky thinking. Or new length will be needed including new left-field. Or whatever this week’s buzzcrossings of the M5 and A38, is because it phrase is for something that seems to have was destroyed in the early 1970s when the come from nowhere but might just turn out M5 was built. to be the next big thing. In our case, someSo a bid was put in, and duly attracted thing which could be the next big source of a £4m grant which is paying for the twin waterway restoration funding (like, for exam- bridges being built to take the canal under ple, the Millennium Fund turned out to be, the A38 roundabout. This is actually one of some 20-plus years ago, or more recently the more expensive bits of the restoration the National Lottery Heritage Fund). the M5 crossing itself will involve diverting Or on the other hand, it might turn out the canal under an existing river bridge. It’s to be more like a damp squib. But certainly also all tied up with the Phase 1b bid for not entirely, at least in the case of the first of £10m from the Heritage Lottery Fund to the three possible funding sources we’re lookcomplete the rest of this length - which we’re ing at, because it’s already produced £4m for waiting for the final decision on right now. canal restoration which is being spent, even But that’s by the by. The point is, they as I type this, on putting the Stroudwater asked for £4m and got it. And meanwhile in Navigation near Whitminster (part of the next the Black Country, a second bid for a canal phase of the Cotswold Canals restoration) has been successful: at Titford Pools, where back under the A38 main road. the elevated M5 crosses the canal on concrete stilts, and the rainwater run-off from the motorway has been gradually silting the On the road to restoration... canal basin up for years, a grant from the And that first possible source is road consame fund is paying to clear it and to carry struction mitigation measures. You may recall that we’ve already mentioned it a couple of times in Navvies in connection with the A38 / Cotswold Canals crossing mentioned above. Basically, as part of its RIS 1 Road Investment Strategy, a multi-billion pound investment plan for the years 2015-20, a sizeable pot of money was established to provide grants for work to mitigate or remediate damage to the environment by road-building in the past. And as it happens, the reason that there’s a Paid for by Highways England, the A38/Stroudwater bridge takes shape
Restoration outside of the box...
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out environmental / nature conservation improvements too. There will be a further RIS 2 roads programme for the forthcoming years, and a further pot of money for mitigation of past damage. Are there many more canals which could benefit? There are limitations. It’s an Englandonly thing (a shame, it would have been nice to reinstate the six miles of the Monkland Canal through Glasgow which were destroyed by the M8), and it’s specific to the ‘strategic road network’, which limits it to motorways and major roads. But there could be some suitable candidates. It’s something that our parent body the Inland Waterways Association has picked up on through its Restoration Hub, which is looking at how it might work with canal societies to support the process, engage with Highways England, and continue to demonstrate to the authorities that canal restoration can deliver the benefits to justify the larger sums of money which could be available. As the first stage of this, the IWA Restoration Hub has carried out an initial exercise in identifying some possible sites which might qualify. A first draft includes:
. . . . . . . . .
The Ashby Canal northern reaches, crossed by the A42 north of Measham The Buckingham Canal, blocked by the A5 east of Old Stratford The Chesterfield Canal, whose Norwood Tunnel was plugged with concrete when the M1 crossed it The Cromford Canal, crossed by the A38 west of Butterley Tunnel The Derby Canal, blocked by the M1 near its east end, by the A50 at Swarkestone and by the A52 at Spondon The Grantham Canal, blocked by the A1 embankment on the edge of Grantham, by the A46 just outside Nottingham, and by the A52 and other roads near Nottingham - meaning a diversion is likely The Ipswich & Stowmarket Navigation, whose Claydon Lock was lost in the construction of the new A14 The Lancaster Canal, blocked by the M6 at the top of Tewitfield Locks and again further north, as well as by the A6070. The Lapal Canal, where the M5 cuts through the original Lapal Tunnel
. . . .
(which is proposed for replacement on a new route) The Lichfield Canal, crossed by the A5 with a diversion proposed, and by the A38 in Lichfield (with another diversion, already partly excavated) The Manchester, Bury & Bolton Canal, crossed by the M60 The Shrewsbury & Newport Canals, cut twice by the A5 either side of Berwick Tunnel The Wilts & Berks Canal, blocked by the M4 between Swindon and Royal Wootton Bassett, and by the A419 east of Swindon
Please note that I’m not offering that as an exhaustive list - just a selection based on a first draft (so don’t think that IWA is ignoring you if your example isn’t listed), concentrating on those projects that Navvies readers will be familiar with. But when looked at in the light of the £4m already agreed for the Stroudwater, if gives an idea of what might just be possible regarding dealing with some of the trickiest and most expensive obstacles to restoration on a lot of the projects that we in WRG have been involved in.
On the gravy train? Having looked at how road-building, which in the past has resulted in so many challenges for canal restorers, might (rather unexpectedly) help the canal restoration movement, it might be natural to ask if the railways (the bane of many waterways rather longer ago) might also help. Well, I’m afraid that this will be the shortest part of this article because it’s not looking great at the moment. The obvious possibility might involve HS2. In the early stages it looked set to destroy large chunks of the sections of the Chesterfield Canal between Killamarsh and Staveley which were already under restoration, already restored, or set to make progress in the short-to-medium term - and the associated planning blight may well have resulted in the loss of a significant Lottery grant (we’ll never know if the bid would have succeeded, as the threat from the railway meant it had to be withdrawn). And other schemes including the Ashby Northern Reaches and the Lichfield were also threatened by new rail crossings at difficult levels, making restoration more complex.
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CRT
But more recently, the eastern branch restore the rest of the length of canal in the of the railway’s second phase (which is likely Chesterfield Council area (including this site). to be the last part to be built, and still might But George Rogers (Chesterfield Canal Trust’s not happen at all - unlike the first phase from full-time Development Manager - and wellLondon to the Midlands where the main known WRGie) tells me that the Trust beconstruction has started) has seen a re-think lieves there’s a workable solution, that HS2’s about how it would serve Sheffield, resulting response to the planning application clearly in a change of route which means its main states they support the overall aims of the line misses the Staveley-Killamarsh section of Canal Trust, that there have been political the Chesterfield completely. So (other than assurances that HS2 won’t prevent the restothe National Lottery Heritage Fund no longer ration – and that basically this is just a minor having the cash available that it might have skirmish while they argue over the detail. given the canal in the past) we’re almost But no, all-in-all, new railways aren’t back to where we were in 2012. looking like the saviours of canal restoration Actually in theory it could be rather right now (although that could change). On better than that, because HS2 too has a the other hand, water supply routes... budget for mitigation of damage - and the sort of projects it could support might just Testing the water... include canal restoration. Not to mention that where it crosses the Lichfield, contruction of Using canals to move domestic drinking the first phase of the railway will now involve water supplies around the country from creation of a length of canal, to replace a where they’ve got plenty of it to where it’s section which will be destroyed. This rather needed is an idea that’s been around for a unfortunately includes the demolition of the long time. And in fact it’s actually been done new Cappers Lane Bridge, only built within in one or two places: a fair amount of Bristhe last 15 years, which will never see a tol’s drinking water comes down the Gloucesboat. And it looked like the A42 / Ashby ter & Sharpness Canal, while the use of the Canal crossing mentioned in the list above Llangollen Canal to bring water from the might also have benefited, as HS2 will run upper reaches of the River Dee to quite a bit through this area too - so if it’s being rebuilt of Cheshire is one of the reasons why the for the railway, might that provide an oppor- canal stayed (just about) open to navigation tunity to put the canal back at the same in the 1950s, even though it had been legally time? But at the same time, HS2 has also put abandoned along with the Montgomery, the the dampers on a housing development at Shrewsbury & Newport, the Huddersfield and Measham which was due to reinstate an isolated three quarter mile length of canal. Oh, and the latest from Chesterfield, where the main remaining issue (since the HS2 route change) is that a railway maintenance depot at the end of a siding off the main line is planned to be built on or close to the canal at Staveley, unfortunately HS2 Ltd has just objected to the Canal Trust’s planRight now, HS2 isn’t widely seen as hugely beneficial to the waterways ning application to
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Martin Ludgate
various other railway-opened canals by the 1944 LMS Act. It’s also why novice (and some notquite-so-novice) narrowboat steerers can find the Llangollen’s locks a bit tricky - the water supply function means there’s a stiff current coming down the enlarged bywashes (lock overflow channels), which can knock you off course just as you’ve got your boat lined up nicely for the notoriously narrow locks. And if your boat’s close to the depth limit for the canal, you’ll find it slow going when you’re heading upstream into the current in narrow sections, especially in the tunnels and the four miles of navigable The Llangollen Canal: note the oversize bywash on the feeder leading up to Llangollen. right - if not well-designed these can push boats off course And that sums up two of the issues. On the plus side, having water find favour, and it was dropped - although transfer as a secondary function could make more recently a scheme to use the southern the case for keeping a canal open - and, as Grand Union Canal has also been mooted. we shall see, for restoring a derelict canal to Another concern might be that if boatnavigation. But on the minus side, it can also ers are in effect sharing their canal water make the canal more difficult to navigate. supplies with domestic customers, there’s the (And as any real boater will tell you, there’s potential for disagreements about who gets nothing like a bit of navigational or other priority at times of drought. And if it came boating difficulty to liven up a late evening down to it, you’d struggle to argue the case canalside pub conversation... and put other for keeping the canals open for leisure boatpeople off cruising (*) that canal for the next ers ahead of supplying the country with couple of decades... “You’re planning on drinking water - even if the canal authority taking this boat up the Thames Berks & had carefully conserved its supplies, while Andover Canal?” - sharp intake of the water supply company had let its water breath...) run to waste through leaky old pipes. But That might seem a flippant comment perhaps that’s getting a bit hypothetical. (largely because it is), but a suggestion Anyway, using existing canals for water about 30 years ago that some of the midland transfer might seem a bit of a ‘can of worms’ canals might be used as a water transfer led - but what if it were the best (or only) chance to some serious concerns about the impact of getting the sort of really large amount of on the North Oxford and Coventry canals. cash that could complete one of our major Boating readers will be aware that where canal restoration schemes within a reasonthese two canals meet at Hawkesbury there able timespan? is a stop-lock (a shallow lock built to sepaI’m thinking of the Cotswold Canals rate different canal companies’ water suphere. The South East is seen as short of plies) raising the level by a few inches from domestic water supplies, there’s a surplus in the Coventry to the Oxford. The water trans- the South West, and restoring the canals fer plan would have involved another two or might just be a better way of shifting up to three similar locks built at intervals of a few 300 million litres of water a day than pipes miles on what is now a long level canal, each and pumps. lock accompanied by a pump, to maintain This isn’t exactly a new idea either - it’s the gradient necessary to keep the water been around for a few years. There have flowing. Whether these would have been been calculations which indicate that pumpseen as an inconvenience or an extra bit of ing the water up a conventional pipeline interest, they would have implied quite a from the Severn to Sapperton Tunnel, but current flowing in the canal, the idea didn’t then letting it run through a rebuilt tunnel (*) They’re not real boaters. They’re allowed to call it ‘cruising’. Pages 34-37 refer.
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and via a restored canal downhill to the simply lowest cost. So even if Thames water Thames at Inglesham, would be much continue to produce figures (which CCT cheaper than the alternative of a pipeline all dispute) that favour its pipeline ideas, when the way. A decade ago Cotswold Canal Trust you consider the public value as compared to put the costs at £1bn for a piped scheme, 20 miles of glorious restored Cotswold Cacompared to £250m for the canal - and that nals, it would be a bit of a philistine who includes restoring the tunnel and eastern would plump for a buried pipe. sections of the canal to navigation. And in To conclude: I’m not holding my breath combination with the restored and (fingers waiting for anything in this canter through crossed) soon-to-be-restored sections at the some off-the-wall ideas to make it into the west end, that reopens over three quarters of real world in the form of new sources of big the total length of the canals. lumps of cash for canal reopenings. But I’m The water supply industry hasn’t so far not betting against any of them happening seen it quite that way. It disagrees with those either. And that’s before we’ve considered figures: two years ago it was still considering restored canals as flood attenuation storage the options, and didn’t even include the canal resources, restoration works as post-Covid idea in its consultation. CCT commented that recovery employment sources, and whether “The costings, and other assumptions, used the Montgomery with its Welsh / borders by Thames Water for the various water relocation stands to get more from the Mid source options appear biased towards the Wales Growth Fund putting money into solutions they want to promote. The key Welsh projects or from a UK Government costing figures have not been made available apparently “keen to emphasise the Union”. and are redacted in the reports. It is entirely Interesting times ahead... possible that the Cotswold Canals Scheme is Oh, and just remember: not a single more cost effective than those included in the one of these restoration schemes which preferred programme.” might be in the running for the large dollops But that’s water under the bridge of dosh that could be sloshing around would (sorry). The decision still hasn’t been made, ever have got to that point, if a bunch of all options including the canal are back in the enthusiastic canal society volunteers hadn’t mix for the water companies to develop, kicked-off the restoration work years ago. Government regulatory body Ofwat is makMartin Ludgate ing all the right noises about encouraging “innovative solutions”, getting folks to “look more broadly”, bringing in “third parties” besides water companies and so on. And some results from the options development process are promised in 2021. And crucially, Ofwat is moving to a position where “better public value” is a more important consideration when choosing which option to Sapperton Tunnel: could a water transfer scheme get it rebuilt and opened? take, rather than
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diary... still no diary? In the light of the Covid-19 situation, WRG’s practical restoration activities remain largely curtailed although some groups have re-started work. Where’s the Diary? You’ll be used to turning to the centre-spread of Navvies for the start of six pages detailing all the forthcoming WRG, IWA, canal society, CRT and other working parties around the waterways network. For obvious reasons, we didn’t include one in the last three issues: initially pretty much everything apart from the odd bit of essential safety-related work had been stopped, and then even though the easing of the lockdown had led some local societies to re-start work, WRG and the other mobile groups still weren’t up and running yet...
So what’s happening then? The short answer for WRG is currently ‘not a great deal’. But the long answer is rather more complicated. We realise that even with the shorter lead times possible with electronic distribution of this magazine for most readers, the changing situation may mean this is out of date by the time you read it. But see below for a roundup of what’s been cancelled, and what could (depending on how bad the currently worsening Covid infection levels and/or increasing restrictions get) still be happening.
Canal Camps: WRG had already not only cancelled the entire summer programme of week-long canal camps, but also reluctantly taken the decision to cancel the autumn camps, on the grounds that accommodation, travel to / from site and catering were areas which could not be organised in way that we were happy was safe, practicable and in line with Government rules / guidance. Unfortunately with the situation getting worse rather than better, this has also now put paid to the WRG Bonfire Bash / reunion weekend and the Christmas camp. Incidentally for anyone who had booked on, if camps are cancelled, anyone who has booked will be offered a full refund. WRG has been looking to pretty much transfer the entire summer 2020 summer Canal Camps programme en bloc to 2021 - but obviously that depends on a reversal of the currently deteriorating situation, and/or some new ways of organising our camps. We’ve just started a discussion on the latter, and hope to report in the next Navvies - see also Mike Palmer’s Chairman’s Comment on Pages 8-9.
Mobile groups’ weekend working parties: The mobile groups had also up to late summer been cancelling working parties on an eight week rolling programme, for similar reasons. However although the groups’ usual mode of operation is still impracticable as regards accommodation thanks to the ‘rule of six’ (not to mention issues of transport and catering), our London WRG, WRG NorthWest and WRG BITM regional groups have successfully run ‘socially distanced’ weekend work parties. You can read reports of the first two of these elsewhere in this issue. Unfortunately London WRG have now decided to hold fire on having any more digs as a result of worsening national Covid-19 infection rates, increasing restrictions and doubts about the suitability of tents for winter dig accommodation, while Kescrg and WRG Forestry have decided against a return to working parties for now. BITM and NorthWest still have one weekend each planned, but please contact their organisers to check.
IWA and canal societies: Many societies have begun one-day working parties with precautions in line with guidance, and will welcome new volunteers. See their websites / Facebook pages.
CRT working parties: The Canal & River Trust has begun to re-start its own volunteer work, initially with individual volunteers such as lock keepers and litter picking. See canalrivertrust.org.uk for details
See wrg.org.uk for the latest on what’s on, what’s off and what’s postponed
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montgomery
Update
John Dodwell updates us on plans to rebuild School HouseBridge, the last blockage on the Montgomery before the Welsh border, next year Montgomery Update
you know, it’s vital we get the work done as we can’t keep the lane closed for ever. One of the more encouraging things to us is the strength of the local support we’re getting. The owners of the fields have let us have the use of their land without any charge. A leading local builders’ merchants has offered to supply at cost – did it help that, in his younger days, the chairman helped with restoring the nearby Aston Locks? The Leader of Shropshire Council is
Waterways Images
Waterways Images
Last issue, we told you about the plans to rebuild Schoolhouse Bridge, the last road bridge obstacle in the Shropshire part of the Montgomery Canal before it reaches the Welsh border at Llanymynech – have a look at Navvies 302 if you can’t remember as I don’t want to bore those who’ve heard it all before! Writing for Navvies press dates can be challenging, due to the gap between writing and publication date! In this case, I can tell you that by the time you read this, we should have completed fencing off the two fields we need for the temporary trackway. We should have completed fencing off the works compound area in another field. We should have built the trackway with crushed stone etc, ready for the closure of the lane next March. And we should have taken delivery of our portacabin type accommodation unit; we’ve bought that “One we made earlier”: Frankton Locks at the pre-restoration off those guys on the Pockinspection in 1971,and restored with flyboat Saturn in 2014 lington as they had a spare and we wanted to keep it in the WRG family. So, we shall be ready for WRGies to come and help next year. WRGNW are already helping and by the time you read this, they should have cleared the scrub etc in the dry Canal bed [They have ...Ed]. We’ve applied to WRG Control for three consecutive weeks next July/August. We shan’t need lots of people. It’s not that kind of worksite. Nine maximum will do… so there may be fierce competition to come and help us! And, as
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Montgomery Canal Length: 35 miles Locks: 27 Date closed: 1936 (breach south of Frankton), 1944 (legally abandoned) To Llangollen
To Hurleston
Frankton Former Weston Arm Aston Locks
EnCrickheath Gronwen Bridge W glanPant (navigable limit) ale d s Llanymynech Carreghofa School House Locks Bridge (to be (restored) reinstated) Arddleen Burgedin Locks 4 road blockages
SUCS
between Llanymynech and Arddleen
Initial clearance south of Crickheath by SUCS
Welshpool
SUCS
12 mile isolated restored part of their new Project Board which, with navigable length from us and CRT, will look for future funding. Arddleen through We’re looking for future funding as we Welshpool to Refail Berriew are already planning ahead. When the ShropRefail shire Union Canal Society volunteers finish Garthmyl 3 locks restored but the current relining work, they will move several road blockages south of Crickheath Bridge. They’ve already remain south of Refail started scrub bashing so the engineers can have a look at what’s needed (see Final length into Newtown obstructed by photo). sewer in canal bed, terminus basin built Of course, WRG have been on, possibility of diversion to new terminus to the Montgomery before. See Newtown the photos about another WRG triumph. “Before” and “after” at Frankton Locks at the junction with the Llangollen Canal. That’s what happens when you add a dose of volunteers…. Oh – and does anyone recognise any of this quartet coping with coping stones at Frankton during the restoration by volunteers? Interested in helping us? We hope so. Contact Ken Jackson at kgjackson@btinternet.com or 07778 417 315 or 01584 823401 John Dodwell Chair Montgomery Canal Partnership Recognise these four from the early days at Frankton?
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progress Wey & Arun Our round-up of progress on waterway restoration projects begins on the Wey & Arun, with early stages of the next big project at Tickner’s Heath Wey & Arun Canal
Pictures by WACT
You all know that volunteers don’t need asking twice when there’s an exciting and large-scale project to get our teeth into, and it so it was when the green light was finally given to begin work on the Wey & Arun Canal Trust’s latest major restoration project near the canal’s summit. A combination of the NWPG mobile group’s volunteers and the Trust’s own volunteers have been working together on the third Saturday of the month for some time at various sites along the canal, but with such a big project to tackle we’ve now extended this to every Thursday as well. The project involves building a road bridge, pedestrian bridge and eventually digging out 200m of new canal at Tickner’s Heath, near Dunsfold, where the route of the
canal is blocked by the causeway which carries Dunsfold Road. The site won’t be new to Navvies readers: last October WRG Forestry worked their magic on some trees that needed to be cut back here as part of a week-long camp. WRG BITM have held a weekend on the site in very muddy conditions installing drainage and stripping topsoil. A team from Southern Water also sent its staff along to plant a new 120m long hedge comprising some 720 mixed native shrubs along the boundary fencing (back before lockdown when these things could be done). In January some 120 8x4ft fence panels were painted a fetching forest green by NWPG and other northern team volunteers which will form the hoarding fence for the site works compound The details: the new road bridge will be built within the footprint of the existing
The restored channel at Tickner’s Heath, seen from the existing road blockage
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highway so a short length of temporary road will be constructed to divert traffic around the bridge site during the duration of the construction works. With the bridge in place and the road reopened to traffic, a new canal cut some 200yards long will be excavated below the bridge and will then curve around to rejoin the original canal to the west of the old crossing. Genius. The first task for us on the ground was surfacing for an access track and laying car parking on the agricultural field where the construction compound will be housed. In early September, WACT northern team volunteers assisted by the trust’s Mid Week Working Party have been carrying out ecology management and tree felling works in preparation. There’s lots of prep needed before the heavy work can begin in earnest in spring 2021, contractors will be brought in for specialist operations where needed, but there’s no shortage of work before then for both the trusts volunteers and WRG. Of the jobs completed so far by the team, the highlights have been two culverts that needed to be installed – volunteers using the excavator cut the channels while another sub-team filled 120 sand bags with concrete and laid the pipework. All’s well
until the pipework is too long for the hole dug… cue the disc cutter! The other – and strangest job - was for a barrier to be erected around the huge mound of topsoil taken when the site was first cleared. The soil’s earmarked for reuse on site as topsoil for the landscaping in three years’ time and so won’t be there for ever. For newts, however, it’s apparently a very ‘des res’ and if there were any of the little fellas lurking around they would happily set up home there. Because the newts are sensitive souls (or something like that) we could only use pickaxes and spades to dig out the trench around the mound and set up the green plastic newt fencing. We weren’t all so thankful for the long hot summer then, as the ground was dry as a bone and hard as nails to dig. Thankfully the temperature had dropped from the highs of the previous weeks. With autumn round the corner, the matting bought for last year’s Birtley Bridge work then came out and was relaid, for when the heavy clay turns from rock hard to claggy. This Tickner’s Road Crossing isn’t going to be a quick job, however – two to three years is the current estimate, giving us navvies plenty to keep us occupied.
Digging the trench for the barrier to keep newts from moving into the mound of spoil
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progress Wendover Arm Meanwhile on the Wendover Arm they’ve been getting back to work after lockdown and getting their Whitehouses and Bridge 4 projects on track Grand Union Wendover Arm Wendover Arm Trust’s July working party was the first for several months due to Covid-19 lockdown and restrictions. July working party: A return to site started on 16 July with plant machines being delivered. Volunteers arrived the next day. The Covid-19 arrangements arising from our risk assessment had worked well enough to go beyond the trial period. However, there were some more tasks that needed to be taken on to improve our arrangements for the August work party. The first part of the week was spent moving materials down to the work sites using the newly modified trailer towed behind a dumper truck. After clearing a stack of old reclaimed bricks and pumping water out, it was found that machines could run along the bed back to the area known as Whitehouses. This was important for us because we needed to be able travel back on the section that has been finished to complete the brick work on the walls and the former manhole in the canal bed (see below). This could not be achieved earlier in the year due to the bed being
saturated from the heavy rain at the start of the year. The focus of transport was changed to getting the required materials to Whitehouses and starting work on clearing the vegetation. Over several days concrete blocks and bricks were transported to both Bridge 4 and Whitehouses work areas. After a consultation with our farmer next door the fence materials for the Whitehouse tip area were moved from where stored on his farm to our site, and work on the fencing progressed through the work party. The fence would be finished next month to allow sheep netting to be added and handed over to the sheep! To keep the work groups separated several tasks were performed simultaneously. We had one person building the hollow block wall at bridge 4, a team on the fencing and others moving the materials. Although the vegetation growth during our absence had been dramatic it did not affect the work tasks. We had a good response for volunteer numbers, and they were particularly good at following the C-19 avoidance rules. August working party: Once again, building on the experience from July, the work
Whitehouses former pumping station site showing wing wall foundations and blockwork. The mixer is on the pipe capping extension. Alongside are the beams covering the manhole
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Pictures by Wendover Arm Trust
party was organised to meet the requirements of our own Covid-19 risk assessment outcomes. One of the ways this was achieved was that the work areas were well spaced out to avoid crowding. The work party ran over two weeks, which contained the most variable summer weather we have seen for a long time. It started dry and warmish, became extremely hot and sunny then the thunderstorms and heavy showers began. Even with the amount of rain we had, the excavators and dumpers were still able to reach Whitehouses. On the second Wednesday the weather was so bad the work party was suspended for a day. Many days started with water being pumped out at Bridge 4. The work party was a success and there were some big strides forward. The detail of the various jobs and tasks has been condensed because a lot happened over the two weeks and there is only space for the headlines! Over two weeks there were a large amount of detailed jobs and materials delivery. With access to Whitehouses now possi- New ble, materials were moved local to the work site. New walls at Bridge 4: The block work was completed and each of the hollow block “holes” had a reinforcing rod inserted then filled with concrete. A layer of waterproofing was added to the block surfaces. The brick work on the offside was started (this incorporates the stop plank channels) and is now around two-thirds built. At Whitehouses (site of a former pumping station - see pic opposite) the existing pipe capping (a protective covering being laid over the top of the pipe laid in the canal bed to continue its function as a water feeder to the Grand Union Main Line when the canal was allowed to run dry) was extended with reinforced ready-mix concrete to reach the manhole (which is also in the canal bed, and needs to be dismantled / capped to allow the canal to be reinstated above it). Each end of the capping has a step down to accommodate the concrete beams that go across the manhole. The area for the new wing wall foundations was excavated, levelled, had form work made up and the concreting was completed by using ready mixed concrete. (in pouring rain!) Following on from that, form work was built up to enable the “front apron” support concreting to be completed.
Brickwork around Bridge 4 stop plank grooves Following on from the wing wall foundations being laid, the block work was started and completed over the course of the work party. The manhole was uncovered, and the top layers of the chamber bricks removed to the required height. Concrete floor beams and solid concrete blocks were used to cover the manhole. More concrete was applied on both sides to limit the beams’ sideways movement. It will be possible to lift the beams for access to the manhole until the Bentomat (waterproof bentonite matting used to line the channel) is laid over the whole area. Longer term it will be possible to identify the manhole position and get access for any maintenance that may be required. Whitehouses Fencing The fence at Whitehouses land reclamation was completed. We had a short handover ceremony to Keith Slade, the tenant farmer who will now use the land for sheep grazing. We have now informed Herts CC that the land is no longer being used by WAT and is now being used by their tenant farmer. Car park hut: A small flat pack hut was delivered, a base was laid, and the hut assembled in a position next to the car park entrance. This now contains the equipment and materials to deal with C19. It is also
page 31
used to store some pieces of equipment. All signing in and H and S information is within this hut so that volunteers can be briefed daily on the current situation as they come on to the work site. Brick cleaning: Over the course of the work party a backup (but important) job was to clean up the old bricks that came from the old swingbridge walls. A large stack has now been cleaned ready for when we start on the wall restoration. Environmental Group: Having recognised that a large part of restoration concerns Environmental issues, a new subgroup has been initiated. They will look after and advise us on all things environmental, ranging from butterflies to beetles, Ash trees to reeds and make sure we improve the environment local to the canal whenever we can. Full Contractor Appraisal: We were recently informed by CRT that our application had been signed off. We are now an Approved Contractor to CRT! Conclusion: It was amazing just how much we got done despite the weather and C19. We now have two more very capable Team Leaders and both of those together with
Wendover Arm
Vice-chair Leanda tries out the new fence the volunteers should be congratulated for working in the weather conditions we had. We also had 3 new volunteers and a CRT Apprentice join us this month, we must be doing something right? Tony Bardwell Operations Director, Wendover Arm Trust tony.bardwell@wendoverarmtrust.co.uk
Length: 6 miles Locks: 0 (1 stop-lock added) Date closed: 1904 Grand Union Main Line to Birmingham
A4
The Wendover Arm has the dubious distinction of having Marsworth been built as a navigable feeder to provide a water supply Aylesbury to the Grand Junction (now the Arm Grand Union) Canal, but ending Infilled section: Tringford up leaking so much that it was solution needed actually costing the canal water. for contaminated To London Attempts to waterproof it infill problem (including lining a section of it with bitumen) proved unsuccessful. Little Tring In 1904 the canal company gave up, closed it to navigation, drained the length (and carried Bulbourne to the water in a pipe laid in the former canal Aston Clinton Little Tring: bed) from Little Tring to Aston Clinton, always and maintained the canal from Aston navigable Clinton to Wendover at a reduced Phase 2 Little level as an unnavigable water Tring to Aston Phase 1 at Little Halton Clinton: supply channel. The Wendover Tring: Arm Trust aims to reopen under restoration reopened 2005 it, and in 2005 opened the Phase 3 Aston first length (including a new Bridge 4 Clinton to Wendover: winding hole) at Little Tring. work site in water at reduced The current work is to cap the level, two new pipe and rebuild a waterproof Whitehouses bridges needed lined channel above it from work site Little Tring to Aston Clinton. Wendover 1
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progress Wooden boats The Wooden Canal Boat Society are ‘trying to keep everything afloat’ both literally and figuratively, as their operations suffer from Covid-19 Wooden Canal Boat Society
WCBS
Cautiously starting up again: Gradually the lockdown was being eased in the summer, but, knowing that many of our volunteers are vulnerable in various ways, we’ve been moving forward very cautiously. Some of us have been horrified by the disregard of social distancing practice on the streets and in shops. As nobody else seems to be bothering much it seems unlikely that we will be able to maintain strict enforcement when we open our own fundraising shop, though we intend to try. The shop was due to re-open early in September. Meanwhile a small number of volunteers have been giving it a good going over so that, as well as being as Covid-proof as possible, it would look nicely spruced up on opening day. Hazel the wellbeing boat: we have a dilemma. Clearly we can’t take groups from different households until the crisis is over, and the ‘Hazel Friends’ drop-in days are out of the question for a long time. We can, however do trips with the crew, using distancing, masks and lots of sanitiser to protect each other - and staying separate from the guests. We can therefore take out single household (or bubble) groups. The dilemma is: do we prioritise those in greatest need or those who can pay? Sadly it’s a no-brainer. Because of the Covid-induced financial situation we have to prioritise paying guests, otherwise there may be no boat available for more charitable work later. Our first trip was on 28th July on the Ashton Canal, followed by a foray up the Peak Forest on 31st July/1st August. At the moment we’re running on a skeleton crew of volunteers, just to keep things ticking over. More are eager to come back, but it would be very difficult to keep everyone safe. Recycling trips: There’s no prospect of restarting at the moment. The risks of handling goods donated by up to 300 households don’t bear thinking about, let alone a heterogeneous group of volunteers travelling on a 2 metre wide boat. It looks likely that it will be well into 2021 before this is possible. For the time being it’s just a case of trying to keep everything Hazel the wellbeing boat on a trip on the Peak Forest Canal afloat.
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progress Gipping & Lichfield The River Gipping Trust’s volunteers are working towards creating a tripboat length, while at Lichfield a new length of canal is taking shape The Trust stopped work parties in March and resumed with strict Covid-19 A few weeks back The River Gipping Trust restrictions in place in June. We continue to were delighted to have IWA / WRG’s Mikk work on the lock and by-wash at Pipps Ford Bradley visit us to carry out an engineering and recently completed the ford across the survey of the river between Needham Market by-wash suitable for motorised equipment to and Baylham, with a view to establishing cross, to get access to the lock. first sight feasibility and costs associated with The Trust’s volunteers continue to meet restoring navigation along this length. This up along the river every Wednesday. We have stretch of the river is around three miles long around 20 volunteers, with each work party with four locks. The Trust have been busy averaging out at around ten volunteers a restoring these four locks and are very close time. When not working on the by-wash and to completing them, ready for lock gates. We the new bridge we continue to carry out are awaiting the engineering survey report, maintenance work along the towpath bebut are hopeful that it will lead us towards tween Needham Market and Baylham and our next likely reporting stage of carrying out beyond. New volunteers are always very a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal (PEA) welcome to come along ! along this stretch of the waterway which will Ian Petchey essentially identify what protected species are Restoration manager, River Gipping Trust likely to be encountered and habitats affected. These surveys will provide us with Stowmarket valuable documentation to support a bid to Stowmarket the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) Navigation for a grant to support a full detailed feasibility study. (River The survey was done on a lovely sunny Needham Gipping) Needham day with Mikk taking lots of measurements, Lakes Market notes and photos along the three-mile Bosmere Lock Creeting Lock stretch. It was good to see lots of people Pipps Ford Lock enjoying themselves at Needham lakes (East Baylham Lock Anglia’s most visited free attraction) which Baylham would be the starting point of our planned Great trip boat to Baylham. We noted that already Blakenham there is sufficient foot traffic to support a trip Claydon boat, even without the new near one million pound visitor centre and café planned to open lock-side of the canal later this year, which will undoubtably bring in more visiBramford tors. Baylham, with its Rare Breeds Farm is also a very popular visitor attraction. With planning permission now granted Sproughton for a new / restored towpath bridge over the Ipswich river along this three mile stretch of the river the Trust have been looking to apply for a Length: 17 miles grant to fund the bridge, but Covid-19 seems Locks: 15 to have put a temporary hold on applicaOpened: 1793 tions, hopefully we will be back to normal Closed: 1934 soon.
River Gipping Trust
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‘Navigation Canal from Stowe Pool or Minster Pool in the City of Lichfield into the River Trent near King’s Mill in the County of Derby’ which would have passed along the line of Curborough Brook through Netherstowe. Brindley was unable to get the backing of the great and good in Lichfield and he was instead persuaded by the Duke of Bridgewater to build a canal to connect his coal mines in the North with Manchester...
Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust volunteers have been making rapid progress on two sections since lockdown restrictions were eased. At Fosseway Heath the section of wall from the turning basin (where the restored canal will leave the original route and turn sharp right to follow a new route alongside the Lichfield southern bypass road) onto Falkland Road was completed and a long length of steel piling sheets has been driven into place. A damp-proof membrane was put in place behind the piles, with a compacted sand backfill added. On the Falkland Road side of the channel, a towpath wall is being built on concrete pads lining the base of the channel. This wall consists of a double block wall with concrete infill, a clay backfill, earth and finally a sandbag embankment. Meanwhile, at Gallows Wharf, 2,000 tonnes of earth have been excavated from the original canal channel, which was filled in after the abandonment of the canal in 1954. This excavation is allowing the rebuilding of the original towpath wall, while at the same time a team has been constructing a higher retaining wall and the Heritage Towpath Trail has been extended. The Trust found an unusual use for some of the soil dug out at Gallows Reach when Lichfield City Council asked them to build a bund at Handel Walk in the Netherstowe district of the city. After a recent unauthorised travellers’ encampment on an area of open space, the council, in partnership with LHCRT, found an effective and environmentally friendly solution which hopefully will prevent any recurrence of the problem. The bund, shaped over two days using 150 tonnes of soil transported from Gallows Reach, will be seeded with wild flowers and shrubs and trees will further enhance the landscaping. And finally: the site at Gallows Reach is historically important for the Trust because it stands on the route of a canal proposed by canal pioneer James Brindley as part of his ‘grand cross’ project to connect the Severn, Trent, Mersey and Thames by navigable waterways. In 1759 Brindley proposed a
Pictures by LHCRT
Lichfield Canal
Fosseway Heath site: towpath wall construction and (below) concrete base pad preparation
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dig report WRG NorthWest Our NorthWest group also held their first working party since lockdown, carrying out preparation work for School House Bridge on the Montgomery North West on the Montgomery The on-going saga of School House Bridge
After several false starts to begin the work to get the bridge rebuilt to a navigable height, this WRG North West weekend was latest attempt to get things started with some initial clearance work - but then along came Covid-19, meaning another change of plan... And as with the London WRG dig you’ve read about on the previous pages, there would have to be different arrangements for travel, accommodation and food... The original plan this time was for Malcolm Bridge to get his boat to Maesbury, near the navigable limit of the Montgomery, as a base; other folks were to make their own way to the site by their own means. However, as with some plans something tends to go wrong, for whatever reason... Malcolm was making reasonable progress along the Llangollen Canal until the boat got stuck under a bridge (well before Frankton Junction, the turn for the Mont) – so he had to make a long reverse to a place wide enough to turn, and then back to Ellesmere, where I was possibly going to meet with him
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Pictures by John Hawkins
As you’ll read in our Montgomery Update elsewhere in this issue, preparation is under way (and volunteers are being sought) for the rebuilding next year of the demolished School House Bridge. This site is now the last remaining low-level unnavigable road crossing blocking the canal before it reaches the Welsh border at Llanymynech. WRG NorthWest paid a visit to help start the preparation work...
on the Friday morning. But then because of possible change in lock-down rules for Wales, he took the boat onto the Shropshire Union Canal at Nantwich which was better for all amenities and connections. On Friday morning John Foley, having already collected some tools, met with Malcolm for the drive across to site – observing the rules re face shields etc. On site on Friday were Dave Joyner, Malcolm, John and myself; social distancing
The dry canal bed had got quite overgrown
on that site was easily achieved, all equipment was properly cleaned and also each person keeping using the same piece of kit. Good progress was made on clearing the site, cutting through plenty of blackthorn, briar, bracken and hawthorn – the usual type of scrub bash. This stretch had previously been cleared about five years back on a Bonfire Bash, but it was surprising how well the blackthorn had regrown, in particularly where the hawthorn had been pollarded and the roots not removed. The scrub was dragged into heaps in readiness for removal in the future into the work compound that is being established alongside the canal. On Friday night Dave stayed in his camper van that had been parked on a nearby (well, it turned out to be further than he thought because of a towpath closure) campsite; whilst Malcolm, John and I headed for the Travelodge, all very well sorted for Covid rules, as were the ‘eateries’. On Saturday morning we were joined on site by Mike who had been staying in his caravan. Work was more of the same, with the heaps getting bigger and more plentiful. Sue joined us on Sunday. She had spent Saturday helping with a large concrete pour at Wappenshall with the Shrewsbury
and Newport group [see our Progress section ...Ed] and then stayed overnight in her camper van. We had cleared the distance needed by mid-afternoon on Saturday – but carried on along the dry bed because all had to be removed at some point. By Sunday lunchtime we had cleared it all to the last batch of blackthorn. Over the few days several people who were walking past made favourable comments about what we were doing and that apparent progress was being made. The following week, the field of sweet corn that is on the opposite of the bridge was due to be harvested. This would then enable the temporary ‘by-pass’ road crossing to be completed, for traffic to be diverted while the bridge is built. All in, a very productive few days: even the weather behaved; it was very windy at times but generally dry and sunny throughout all of the days. After lunch on the Sunday, and a thorough clean of all the tools and stowing them safely in John F’s car, we all headed for our own homes with the knowledge that we had followed all the Covid regulations both on site, at the accommodation and the intervening time. John Hawkins
View south westwards down the canal line from the bridge site to the temporary road crossing
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1970: Someone mention WRG? Part four of our series marking WRG’s 50th year in which we look back at what was happening in 1970, and how Navvies Notebook reported it... the shock news that the second class postage was going up from 5d to 6d, meaning that it would It’s a curious quirk of WRG’s origins that the account for three shillings of the five shillings words ‘Waterway Recovery Group’ don’t appear a annual subscription rate and sooner or later the single time in any of the first four of the six issues rate would have to go up. (Rather than risk deof Navvies (or rather, Navvies Notebook to use its scending into ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ sketch style original title) which were published in 1970, the parody by converting those directly into decimal year WRG was founded. currency, I will instead say that allowing for inflaWhy? Because the magazine pre-dates the tion that’s roughly the equivalent at today’s prices organisation. Navvies Notebook (initially published of about 40p for a stamp and £4 for a year’s by the working party group of the London & subscription.) Home Counties Branch of the Inland Waterways On the subject of money, Graham menAssociation) was launched by editor Graham tioned in his column that the magazine had “gone Palmer and others in 1966 to cater for the increas- into the supplies business”, negotiating “the best ing numbers of mobile waterway restoration possible rates” for site clothing and safety gear to volunteers, the ‘new navvies’ as they styled them- get “volunteers and group better equipped at the selves (after the original navvies who built the minimum cost” - although if we reuse the same canals) who travelled the country, working on conversion factors as above (which I found on the whichever projects could benefit from their help. It Bank of England’s online inflation calculator, by would provide details of forthcoming work, the way) 14 shillings for a hard-hat is equivalent to reports from working parties, contact details for over a tenner today, which I’m not sure would be restoration projects, information about plant, anyone’s definition of ‘minimum cost’ now. machinery and equipment - plus amusement, Still on money, and in particular raising it, he entertainment, and often some pretty stroppy signs off with a mention of a calendar for 1971, comment about how the canals were run and the illustrated with the line drawings which usually state that they seemed to be falling into. It wasn’t adorned the cover of Navvies Notebook in those until four years later in 1970 that they came up days (before decent photo printing was practicable with the idea of an organisation to back up the given the magazine’s production methods) - and a magazine, providing a resource of labour, expersnip at 5 shillings. tise, equipment, coordination and more. Oh, and the mention of the name of the So although in one or two of the first four new organisation on the editorial page? On the issues in 1970 (which this series of articles has bottom line it says “Published by Waterway Rebeen reviewing one at a time in the corresponding covery Group - bi-monthly”. four issues in 2020) Graham dropped the occaWhere did we work? Moving on from this sional hint that some kind of change might be in somewhat low-key start, we get into the nittythe offing, it wasn’t until after the official launch gritty of what Issue 26 was mostly about: the of WRG at the Inland Waterways Association’s dates, sites and work for the forthcoming working National Rally of Boats at Guildford that he parties. It kicked off with the ‘Next Time Out’ finally went public about it in Navvies Notebook. (diary) pages, listing working parties on the BirWell, when I say ‘went public’... Did the mingham Canal Navigations Soho Loop, River name of the new organisation appear on the Derwent, Upper Avon Navigation, Kennet & cover? No. Did it appear overleaf on Graham’s Avon Canal (Bath Locks), Dudley Canal (Park editorial page? Well, yes, it did, but it still wasn’t Head Locks), Montgomery Canal (Welshpool), exactly launched in a blaze of glory. You might Stratford Canal, Peak Forest Canal (Marple), Peak have expected it to be the leading item in his Forest Canal (Bugsworth Basin), Pocklington column, but instead he led off with a brief apolCanal and Caldon Canal (Cheddleton), plus a ogy for the non-appearance of the directory of promise that Tim Dodwell of Horsell, Woking work party organisers (to save space) followed by (brother of John Dodwell, whose Montgomery
50 years ago...
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Update appears elsewhere in this issue - how about that for long service by the family?) had “some ‘unorganised’ projects in hand” for volunteers “not far from London” - which I understand to be a coded message meaning working on the Basingstoke, which wasn’t actually legally permitted at that time, pending the transfer of ownership from the canal company to the local authorities which dragged on for some years. This is such a comprehensive list of what was going on restorationwise at the time that we’ve summarised what happened subsequently (see page 5) and made it our front-and-back cover feature in this issue. But there’s more... The Dudley Dig and Cruise was the big forthcoming event: there was to be a day’s preparation work on the Friday, the main work on the weekend would cover all three pounds of the Park Head Locks flight leading up to Dudley Tunnel, plus clearance of the badly overgrown area around Park Head Junction and Blowers Green Lock which was to be the main mooring site for all the boats which were expected to attend the ‘cruise’ part of the event. It was all aimed towards complete restoration of the locks which form the link between Dudley Tunnel and Blowers Green and the rest of the Dudley Canals. Meanwhile in among the pages, another couple of mentions of WRG sneak in - but only as an abbreviation, and with no clue as to what it might be - in the form of a piece about the ‘WRG Bank’ (trading stamp and coupon collection for funds), and the ad for the ‘WRG Calendar’. Looking ahead... The ‘Open the Avon’ project to get the river reopened from Evesham to Stratford was gaining momentum: as well as appearing in the ‘Next Time Out’ column there’s an article about it by the Upper Avon Navigation Trust’s David Hutchings who masterminded the scheme, describing the difficulties encountered as well as looking forward towards completion. Much of this was concerned with the struggle to get the first test boat through hard marl slabs in the river bed above Harvington: both a practical struggle with an excavator attempting to cut a channel through the marl, and a political struggle involving
negotiations with the Severn River Authority to raise the water levels back towards what they had been before the navigation had fallen into disuse. The third paragraph gave an insight into the legendary Hutch’s methods of working... “In spite of the decision to raise the water level, the boat which had a comparatively deep draught could not float over the slab. However it was essential to test the final three quarters of a mile between Marlcliff and Bidford in order that preparation could be made for any necessary dredging. The boat was therefore dragged over the slab by a digger and dumped into deep water at the upstream end. It then travelled to within 30 yards of Bidford Bridge. The Trust could not afford to have the slab removed by normal commercial means and it thus appeared that navigation was to be restricted to boats drawing less than 2ft 6in (at time of low water). However once more the Royal Engineers came to our aid. A quantity of obsolescent explosive was obtained and as this report is being written the blasting out of a channel through the marl is progressing.” He followed this with an optimistic prediction: “It is hoped to have Phase 1 (Evesham to Bidford) open to general navigation in early September...” followed by the rather more cautionary note that “at Bidford Bridge it is now clear that we shall have to lower the foundations of a number of the arches - this is likely to be an interesting job!” and a summary of the remaining work from Bidford to Stratford: “We have nine and a half miles, seven locks, five weirs and a mass of dredging to go.” On a rather smaller scale, but still important in view of its promotion of what might seem an unpromising location at the heart of the grimily industrial BCN network, is a short piece by Nick Grazebrook titled “Why the Soho Loop?” Kicking off by quoting British Waterways Board as saying that “The Main Line provides a far more convenient route though Birmingham”, he replied that “Those who have cruised the BCN will know that it provides a wealth of fascinating cruising, a large part of the interest being the old loops - often part of James Brindley’s Old Main Line (now 200 years old), branches and wharves.
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Such is the Soho Loop, three quarters of a mile long, and a pleasant contrast to the dull, wide, straight Main Line”. However he added that “Not only is it intricate, twisting and full of history, it is also full of rubbish, rats and pollution.” But he then pointed out that this “disgrace to the City of Birmingham” ran past the former Lodge Road railway interchange basins which could make “magnificent moorings”, and that the loop was completely navigable barring a 150-yard rubbish-choked section - and appealed for volunteers get it open and “draw attention to the reasons why the loop should be restored and maintained”. Speaking of the British Waterways Board, and of looking to the future, there’s another of the not-so-gentle shots that Navvies Notebook sometimes aimed across the bows of the organisation responsible for maintaining most of our waterways, not to mention sniping at the cruiser fraternity, gin drinkers, and anyone who ever used the hated term “cruiseway” to describe a waterway identified under the 1968 Transport Act as worth retaining primarily for leisure boating. This one seems to be describing a nightmare vision of the future of the waterways...
the bottom lock were a dozen or so gleaming white craft waiting their turn to start the climb. “Plug’s out again” yelled a voice on the bank, and once again we realised we had time to spare while the levels between the locks were restored to the statutory twentytwo inches. Ah well, there’s always something happening at Stoke,” I said as I moored alongside a pair of twenty foot outboards, “How about a cool glass of draught gin and tonic in the Bargee Bar...” - Brian W Bloke
Signs of the times... Some of the above might seem a bit odd today, perhaps the targets of some of the jibes could come across as a bit off-target to some of us... for example the hire boat fleets, which for many of us who are boaters provided us with our first taste of canal boating (whoops, I nearly said cruising then!) Alternatively, maybe the lack of similarly barbed attacks in today’s magazine is a sign of where we’re going wrong? As always, the ever-empty Navvies letters page is yours! Or perhaps it’s simply a sign that 50 years ago was a different age, and the waterways (and some of the battles being fought over them) were Impossible? different. A few snippets from elsewhere in issue 26 give a clue as to just how much (22 inch deep) Soon the waving corn gave way to picturwater has flowed under the bridge since then... esque cruisewayside chalets, with their colCanals for freight? It may hardly seem ourful garden gnomes, and the flotsam (or was it jetsam’) of ice cream wrappers told us credible to some today that Navvies 26 was fighting for a future for regular long-distance commerthat we should soon be at Stoke Rotton cial freight carrying in 70ft by 7ft narrow boats in Locks. We were looking forward to climbing this water staircase because it not only gave the 1970s. But just ten years earlier (yes, like looking back from now to 2010) the majority of us a chance to stretch our legs, while my crew worked the boat up to the higher level, the narrow canals had still seen regular freight, and but also an opportunity to chat with old Tom. a few had been positively busy. And the editor clearly saw that as something that shouldn’t have Although Tom had not been “born on the bank of the cruiseway” he had run a hire been lost, and he viewed with dismay the final boat yard for one hilarious summer and had demise of regular traffic: an endless fund of yarns about the messages left on the answer-phone service by stranded “Towpath rumour has it that yet another major narrow hirers. He had taken his company’s bankcanal traffic is in danger of being stopped. This is serious, ruptcy very well and was now running an ice something MUST be done.” cream stall at the top of the locks. We swung expertly round the final bend, producing an “Hear that the famous Blue Line carrying fleet has ceased to operate its ‘Jam ’ole’ run between Atherstone and extraordinary noise from an old lady as our Southall. This news plus the cancellation of the Ashby bow wave swept across her lawn and into her lounge, and had our first sight of the Canal Association traffic to Croxley Mill and the rupurple gates and candy-striped beams of the moured ‘stoppage’ of BWB’s lime juice boats operating from Brentford in December makes the commercial traffic Stoke Rotten six. The usual lock activities were taking place. Bobble-hatted figures situation south of Wolverhampton just about as bad as it scampered to and fro across the gates holdcan get.” ing handfuls of rope and screaming excitedly at the people in the boats far below, while by “Anyone interested in seeing if a way can be found to
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tive route for the road was indeed found (it took them another 23 years to build it), and the Mont restoration has progressed ever since. Getting technical... A regular feature in the ...but to no avail. Incidentally, a recent plan to remagazine in the past has been reviews of various create the last Jam ’ole run as a commemoration types of plant and machinery, and issue 26 carries of the 50th anniversary of the demise of what one covering pumps, power-barrows and that proved to be the last regular long-distance comcurious beast, the digger-dumper - a standard mercial narrow boat traffic (as has been done for hydraulic tip dumper modified by the removal of the 40th and other anniversaries), due to take the bucket and its replacement with a 180 degree place just as this issue went to press, was sadly excavator arm, but capable of “being re-converted cancelled due to the worsening Covid-19 situation. back into a normal dumper in a matter of minFill ’em in... Back to 1970 and not only was utes”. I know of one WRG volunteer who until freight on narrow canals still in its final decline, recently owned one of these machines, a Thwaites but canals which we would have regarded today as Tusker (perhaps he’d like to comment on the straightforward to restore were still being obliterated: “matter of minutes”!) but does anyone recall them ever being used on canal restoration? “A contract worth about £800,000 has been awarded by And finally... at the very bottom of the last Glasgow Corporation to Mitchell Construction (Scotland) page, the magic three words finally appear again. for major work on the disused Monkland Canal. The The Navvies Gear Shop piece about boots, weathstretch of canal affected is five miles long and the work erproof clothing and hard hats for sale ends with involves laying of twin reinforced concrete pipes of 30in the words: and 42in diameters as well as some asbestos cement piping, partly in tunnel and partly in open cut” “Cheques etc made out to Waterway Recovery Group please.” bring about even a temporary revival in commercial traffic - or indeed anyone who has any realistic ideas on the subject - is invited to contact the editor.”
That contract was for the destruction of the entire urban length (through the city and eastern suburbs) of what had been Scotland’s most prosperous canal, prior to the M8 motorway being built along its route. ...or burn ’em down! Things weren’t going too well in Ellesmere Port either:
And that concludes Navvies Notebook’s coverage of WRG’s birth.
“Telford’s warehouses, which were badly damaged by fire recently, have now been razed to the ground. What price European Conservation Year?” On a brighter note in Welshpool, where the Montgomery had been threatened by a planned new bypass road (leading to the 1969 big dig in the town, an important part in the kick-starting of the canal restoration campaign), new Secretary of State for Wales Peter Thomas was quoted as saying that “It was yet to be decided whether there would be a Public Inquiry into the Welshpool Bypass. There have been so many objections to the proposed foute that they must look for an alternative, and if it was satisfactory there would be no need for an Inquiry”. An alterna-
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Canalsocietiesorganisation “Waterways charities depend entirely on the goodwill of their members and supporters” - some further thoughts on canal trust organisation More thoughts on canal societies complete, and volunteers are more likely to Following on from his piece in the last issue giving an independent view on canal societies’ governance, the author, who has previously served on the Inland Waterways Association’s Restoration Committee and as a Trustee of three canal societies, has brought us some further thoughts on how these organisations should organise themselves and their activities...
be drawn into the project if they can see there’s a regular day each week so they can turn up on that day expecting to be able to contribute. Conversations with passers-by are another element of the marketing mix – being able to sound as if you and your organisation will stick at it until the job is completed will encourage those passers-by to feel more confident of a positive outcome from your work. It might even result in more people joining and becoming part of the active membership – or perhaps donations towards your funds. To me, it is a statement of the obvious that waterways restoration charities depend entirely on the goodwill of their members and supporters. The management posture should be welcoming and encouraging. Anyone who helps, or wants to help, is a friend to be thanked. If a volunteer needs to be reprimanded for action that the management doesn’t approve of, the reprimand should be gentle, and fair. The volunteer has given of their time and skills in support of the objective – they are not an employee
Pictures by John Hawkins
Before I wrote the first article, I made a list of issues – and the people associated – to prompt my memory when I got to article number two. Here’s a few examples, but I’ll still have a few to write about in the next issue of Navvies – if Martin will allow me the space. One example that really should be obvious is about the way the Trust presents itself to the local population. Is the work party team on site and working hard on a regular basis for at least one day every week? Is the site left tidy and securely fenced at the end of each workday? Is there good site signage to caution against entering areas of the site where work is not yet complete? Is there signage about the overall objective, with the Trust’s branding, website and up-to-date contact information for further enquiries? Occasionally a landowner will feel they should be asked for their permission before signage is displayed on the site – so a polite approach, perhaps asking for their approval to the style, size, and wording of the sign is called for. A reputation for determination and persistence is a good thing – waterway restoA question of balance: does a scrub-bash make more sense... rations take many years to
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less than £10m – and many have a need for more than £100m to see ‘their’ waterway reopened. I have heard the view that tackling the restoration of a structure represents more of a risk than a scrub-bash project where the canal trust only has a limited-duration lease over the land. I feel there’s a balance to be considered here – a scrub-bash project can only be seen as a success if there’s regular maintenance to stop the land reverting to scrub. A restored structure is ‘hard’ – bricks and concrete. It takes nature a lot longer to conceal the work that’s been done and it’s virtually impossible to destroy a completed lock, for example, through lack of maintenance. If the skills mix and preferences of the volunteers are more in the direction of structures – that’s the thing to major on. Structures take up less space and need less maintenance to keep them tidy when compared to a length of restored channel. A final thought for this article is that success breeds success. A restoration charity that can point to (or show on its website) the successes it has had in the past stands more chance of attracting more, and more-skilled, volunteers to support its project. I’ve attended meetings of a group of capable people focussed on working together to deliver a canal and to make the wider world aware of their work. I was welcomed and encouraged to participate and, when it became possible for me, I was proud to join that board of trustees. I’ve seen more people offer to join the board since I joined – and all those people have brought useful skills and done constructive work to advance our Trust. I’m sure the opposite situation can arise, where the incumbents are hostile to newcomers and gradually the effectiveness of the whole organisation starts to suffer. I do want to write a further article in this series – so please do write to me with your thoughts, questions, ideas – perhaps you disagree with what I’ve written and want to put another view forward. Please do! Luke Walker Pictures for illustration purposes - no comment impied on the canal socieities!
who gets paid for the time they put in. Leaders in a voluntary organisation should tread carefully, and think carefully, when they make accusations against volunteers. Those volunteers might well be doing the right thing for the charity – or feel that they are doing the right thing. They absolutely should not be treated as hostile to the charity or to its objective – the vast majority of their actions, over time, will already have demonstrated that they are positive about what the charity is established to deliver. My first article mentioned the financial reputation of the waterways restoration charity – it’s all in the public domain – and very accessible given the internet. It’s important to have sound financial processes in the charity – so that the small sums needed to ensure sites are kept presentable are promptly made available. Larger commitments to take on the restoration of, say, a complete lock chamber, will need careful investigation of the costs to complete – and some funds available to cover contingencies which arise once work has started. A project to restore a structure should, if possible, have all the funds in place before work on the ground starts. A project that pauses for an extended period tells a story that the organisation behind the project starts things without thinking through how it will complete them. That’s not a good reputation to have when your charitable objective is the completion of a large, long-term project. There aren’t many waterway restoration trusts for whom their total project cost is
...or would it be better to major on restoration of structures?
If you do have any thoughts on either of Luke’s articles, please do send them in. ...Ed
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feature Going further afield Canal restoration doesn’t stop at the English Channel: we’ve got a selection of reports of progress on canal reopening elsewhere in Europe cent series of lakes around Kouvola town. Over a century ago a canal was built to There’s been a bit of theme of “taking the bypass the river and link the two lake syswider view” in some of the articles in this tems together, but (as was common at the issue. In the absence of a great deal happen- time - and still happens elsewhere in Finland) ing at the moment as far as WRG working the cargo of timber wasn’t carried in barges, parties are concerned, we’ve looked back to it was tied together in rafts. So half of the what was happening in 1970 when WRG was canal was built at the higher level of the founded. We’ve looked forward to some Päijänne system, half at the lower level of interesting forthcoming work on the Montthe Kouvola lakes, and where they met, a gomery, the Cromford and the Wey & Arun. crane was installed to lift logs between the We’ve looked a bit further forward to a coulevels. ple of the more off-the-wall ideas for funding This crane, out of use since the log major restoration that look like they’re start- traffic ended, has been replaced by a single ing to produce the goods. deep lock (12m rise) leading into a rock And finally, we’ll take a look a bit further tunnel, which provides a navigable link beafield to a few very interesting things that are tween the lakes, and adds another 30km of happening elsewhere in Europe - as reported navigable water to the Päijänne system. by World Wide Waterways, the annual magazine of Inland Waterway International. And they don’t come much more interesting than the opening of a brand new canal...
Waterways international...
Kimola Canal
Inland Waterways International
OK, I’ll come clean. The Kimola Canal, billed as Finland’s first brand new canal for 25 years, isn’t actually an entirely new canal at all. And it’s only 5.5km long. But neither of those need detract from its opening, because as far as boating is concerned, it’s opening up 30km of water that boats haven’t ever been able to navigate before. Let me explain... The huge Päijänne lake navigation, a system of connected lakes covering a sizeable area in the southern half of the country, provides a total length of 300km of navigation, and covers a total of 37,000 square kilometres of lake area. At its south eastern tip, an unnavigable length of the Kymi River including a couple of hydroelectric Using the lock on Finland’s newly opened Kimola Canal dams prevented access to the adja-
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which links the River Danube to the River Tisza, crosses it and then links back to the I’ve got another confession to make. A couDanube again, hence the slightly odd name), ple of years ago, on a holiday in the Nether- two locks have been reopened. They are the lands, I visited Utrecht. Arriving by tram in Bezdan Lock (a pioneering concrete structure the city centre, I found that there seemed to going back to 1856) and the Šebešfok Lock, be quite a lot of construction work going on. and they open up access to the Baja-Bezdan A new road or railway line, I guessed, and Canal, and across the border into Hungary. didn’t stop to look more closely... In Norway, the “world’s second ship Imagine my surprise (and annoyance at canal tunnel” (I don’t know where the first having failed to take any photos!) when I later one is, can anyone help?) the Selje is set to found out that they were actually demolishing be built, creating a 1.7km underground link a motorway and reinstating a 12th century between two fjords, capable of taking vessels canal. This was the Stadsbuitengracht, a canal up to 37m headroom and 26.5m beam. circuit which formed a defensive moat surIn France, the Canal des Ardennes rounding the mediaeval city in time of war, and the Canal de la Sambre a l’Oise, as well as being used in peacetime for trans- both shut for years as a result of structure port, connected to the River Vecht and other failures, are to be reopened in 2021. Alwaterways. It lasted right up to the 1970s though the fact that they were allowed to fall before the authorities, keen to allow better into disuse for so long isn’t a great reflection access to the city for road vehicles, filled in a on the navigation authorities (reminiscent of length of it known as the Catherijnesingel the Tunnels Crisis here in the 1980s), hopeand used the route to create a motorway. fully it indicates a chance of a better future Since the 1990s this has been regarded as a than seemed likely less than a year ago, mistake, in 2002 local residents voted in when the possibility of permanent closure of favour of reversing it, and earlier this year 20 percent of the French network was seen work was completed on removing the motor- as a serious threat. way and reinstating the canal, whose entire And finally in Poland, there’s a proposal 6km circuit is once again open to boats. to extend navigation on the River Odra up to the Czech border. Martin Ludgate And more...
Utrecht ring canal
In Serbia, on the Danube-Tisza-Danube Canal system (a partially navigable network of over 600km of interconnected canals,
To join Inland Waterways International and find out more about overseas canals, see inlandwaterwaysinternational.org
Reopening of restored Bezdan Lock on the Danube-Tisza-Danube Canal system in Serbia
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infill Are you MKP or Hutch? Continuing with a couple of themes we’ve been running in the last two issues...
You know it’s been too long since you went canal digging when...
...but you start to think WRGie life may one day return when...
...you realise you haven't even tackled the annual struggle to figure out how the hell you put the WRG van's clock on to British Summer Time... and then you just think "Oh bugger it, there's no point, the clocks go back again in a month." ...you find a Santa stocking in the London WRG catering kit... in September! [Both of these are genuine experiences of the editor. And so, for that matter, are the three in the right-hand column too!]
...you stop regarding the WRG van parked outside your house as a big red bike shed for long enough to wonder if there's actually any diesel in the tank ...you finally get around refuelling said van, and think "I suppose I need to claim it back from the BCN Clean Up" ...you put your safety specs on and try to colourmatch the mud obscuring your view to decide if it was Ironbridge in March or Lichfield in February
Coming soon: the “Which well-known canal restorer are you?” quiz You remember those ‘personality’ quizzes that did the rounds on social media a couple of years back? They ask you half a dozen or more multiple choice questions, and then based on your answers they tell you which Star Wars character you are, or which English king or queen you are, or in one example I saw (yes, really!) which mid-20th century Anglican theologian you are. Well we haven’t quite got there yet, but we’re working on it... 1: The ideal backfill material for lock walls is: A Hand made bricks by the thousand B The bodies of the landowners who stood in the way of your restoration project C High spec modern concrete with bespoke designed reinforcing D Someone else’s problem 2: It’s late, the cook has texted to say dinner is nearly ready and the concrete pour is half done. Do you: A Remember that you’re all volunteers and are hungry B Hire in arc-lights C Carry on in the gathering dark (hiring lights is for wimps) D It's never going to happen as you are still waiting for the intricate reinforcing design 3: You have a couple of completely hopeless Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme attendees on your camp. How do you help them get better? A Put them on brick cleaning duty B Inflict them on the cook to help C Send them home on day two, there’s no space for time wasters D See question 1 above: use them as backfill for the lock walls
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All we need now is someone to write the 'world-beating' computer system that turns your answers into something like: "Congratulations, you are the legendary David Hutchings of the Upper Avon Navigation. You’re happiest when using (a) long-term prisoners or (b) dynamite on your working parties. Ideally you like to combine the two, to make sure things really go with a bang!" ...or perhaps... Congratulations, you are WRG Chairman Mike Palmer. The only reason the editor is reduced to writing this rubbish is because he’s bored of waiting for your column to arrive... ...or maybe... "Commiserations, you are Martin, the Navvies editor. You would think nothing of deliberately bricklaying extra-slowly because you've got more space to fill in the next-butone issue of the magazine than the current one. Or hiring a narrow skip-loading dumper rather than the wider one you really need, because its picture fits the front cover better." Coming next time: which 18th century canal engineer are you? PS answers to last issue’s crossword in the next issue - sorry
outro Wendover Arm
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