Dig report WRG NW on the Montgomery

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

River Gipping Trust

A few weeks back The River Gipping Trust were delighted to have IWA / WRG’s Mikk Bradley visit us to carry out an engineering survey of the river between Needham Market and Baylham, with a view to establishing first sight feasibility and costs associated with restoring navigation along this length. This stretch of the river is around three miles long with four locks. The Trust have been busy restoring these four locks and are very close to completing them, ready for lock gates. We are awaiting the engineering survey report, but are hopeful that it will lead us towards our next likely reporting stage of carrying out a Preliminary Ecological Appraisal (PEA) along this stretch of the waterway which will essentially identify what protected species are likely to be encountered and habitats affected.

These surveys will provide us with valuable documentation to support a bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) for a grant to support a full detailed feasibility study.

The survey was done on a lovely sunny day with Mikk taking lots of measurements, notes and photos along the three-mile stretch. It was good to see lots of people enjoying themselves at Needham lakes (East Anglia’s most visited free attraction) which would be the starting point of our planned trip boat to Baylham. We noted that already there is sufficient foot traffic to support a trip 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 visitors. Baylham, with its Rare Breeds Farm is also a very popular visitor attraction.

With planning permission now granted for a new / restored towpath bridge over the river along this three mile stretch of the river the Trust have been looking to apply for a grant to fund the bridge, but Covid-19 seems to have put a temporary hold on applications, hopefully we will be back to normal soon. page 34

The Trust stopped work parties in March and resumed with strict Covid-19 restrictions in place in June. We continue to work on the lock and by-wash at Pipps Ford and recently completed the ford across the by-wash suitable for motorised equipment to cross, to get access to the lock.

The Trust’s volunteers continue to meet up along the river every Wednesday. We have around 20 volunteers, with each work party averaging out at around ten volunteers a time. When not working on the by-wash and the new bridge we continue to carry out maintenance work along the towpath between Needham Market and Baylham and beyond. New volunteers are always very welcome to come along !

Ian Petchey Restoration manager, River Gipping Trust Stowmarket

Stowmarket Navigation

Needham

Bosmere Lock

(River

Needham Market

Lakes

Gipping)

Creeting Lock

Pipps Ford Lock

Baylham LockBaylham

Great Blakenham Claydon

Bramford

Sproughton

Length: 17 miles Locks: 15 Opened: 1793 Closed: 1934 Ipswich

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 ‘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...

Pictures by LHCRT

Fosseway Heath site: towpath wall construction and (below) concrete base pad preparation

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

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... 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 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

Pictures by John Hawkins

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