Monty update School House Bridge

montgomery Update

Preparatory works are already under way for 2021’s big project to remove the only remaining blockage on the Montgomery before the Welsh border

Montgomery Update

The Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust and its partners are continuing to gear up towards the big project for 2021: construction of Schoolhouse Bridge, to replace the causeway which was built to carry the road across the canal when the old bridge was removed, and which is now the only road blockage still to be removed on the English length of the canal. John Dodwell of MWRT brings us the latest...

Originally, canals were the preferred means of transport over poor, badly constructed roads. Nowadays road transport takes precedence and we have had to build a temporary roadway before we can start rebuilding Schoolhouse Bridge. Doesn’t look much, does it – that photo? (Taken before rolling the surface). But without it we wouldn’t even be able to think about starting our next phase of restoration. This photo means we’ve done the work I wrote about last time!

The enabling works to rebuild Schoolhouse Bridge have started – this temporary roadway will be used as a diversion for heavy traffic when we close the lane to rebuild the bridge. Some people have said its surface is better than the lane itself!

And what about Covid? Well, we welcomed WRG NorthWest in the autumn and managed social distancing OK. And we do have a local Premier Inn and a local Travelodge which people can – and did - use. Navvies 303 had a report about their work –

Michael Limbrey

thanks for coming, guys!

Our local volunteers have also managed their way around Covid. The main civil engineering industry is keeping going – so are we. But one important difference is that civil engineering staff (and our local volunteers) go home each night, whilst most of WRG NW stay overnight. We may need to do the same with WRG Summer Camp people – who knows? [See article on pages 8-9 ...Ed]

Shropshire Council have agreed to allow the road bridge to be rebuilt - they knocked it down in the 1950s/60s and we’ve persuaded them to take ownership of the new bridge after we’ve built it. Our volunteer engineers have designed it and Shropshire’s Highways department have approved the design.

The bridge arch will be installed by Macrete, specialist concrete engineers. Specialists sub-contractors will do the concrete foundations and abutments. Most of the rest will depends on volunteers – we’ve got some brick works. And Shropshire Council have been mightily impressed by what they’ve seen you volunteers do on other parts of the canal. So you can see why your role can be so important.

Sometimes, time is not important with restoration projects. This is VERY different. We shall be closing the country lane which crosses the canal. We cannot keep the lane closed too long. So we HAVE to finish on time.

We hope to run a series of WRG Camps in July/August 2021. The work will involve brickwork (no cleaning of old bricks!); gabion support works; and backfilling around the bridge abutments and Newtownthe road. We’d be delighted

if you’d volunteer to come on one of the Camps… or outside of the Camps.

By then, we shall have put in the bridge foundations. The concrete shuttering will have been done. The abutments will be in place.

And then… if you’re lucky, you’ll be on site when the clever bit starts. The bridge arch will be designed, fabricated and delivered by Macrete who say they will then install the bridge arch in a day! They will use their flexi-arch technique. The hinged concrete sections will arrive on a flat bed lorry. When lifted up by a crane, these sections will “bend” into the arch shape.

Don’t believe it? Then look at the

Montgomery Canal

Length: 35 miles

Locks: 27 Date closed: 1936 (breach south of Frankton), 1944 (legally abandoned)

Llangollen Canal to Llangollen

To Hurleston Frankton

Crickheath Pant

Llanymynech Carreghofa Locks (restored) EnglandWales

Arddleen Former

Weston

Arm Aston Locks

Gronwen Bridge (navigable limit)

School House Bridge (to be reinstated)

Burgedin Locks

4 road blockages between Llanymynech and Arddleen

Welshpool

Berriew Refail Garthmyl

12 mile isolated restored navigable length from Arddleen through Welshpool to Refail

3 locks restored but several road blockages remain south of Refail

Final length into Newtown obstructed by sewer in canal bed, terminus basin built on, possibility of diversion to new terminus

website at www.macrete.com!

So just add a dose of volunteers….and then watch what happens! “A giant step forwards” – didn’t someone once say?

We need a constant pool of volunteers to call upon throughout the project, in addition to the WRG Summer camps. If you are interested in helping us (and we hope so) then please contact Ken Jackson at kgjackson@btinternet.com or 07778 417 315 or 01584 823401

John Dodwell Chair, Montgomery Canal Partnership page 23

update Outside of the box

Since our feature in the last Navvies on new and unlikely-seeming sources of support for canal restoration there have been some more developments...

Restoration outside of the box...

...or ‘off the wall’. Or ‘blue sky thinking’. Or ‘left-field’. Or whatever this week’s buzz-phrase is for something that seems to have come from nowhere but might just turn out to be the next big thing. In the last issue we included a feature on three unlikely sources that were looking like there was just a chance that they might be the next big providers of waterway restoration funding (like the Millennium Fund turned out to be, some 20-plus years ago, or more recently the National Lottery Heritage Fund). And even in the few weeks since then, we’ve heard of a couple more examples where things seem to be moving in the right direction. So here’s an update...

Road, water and rail

To recap, the three unlikely saviours of canal restoration and the examples we quoted in support of them were:

Roads:

in particular Highways England’s recently established fund specifically for remediating environmental damage from national road-building scheme (such as construction of new motorways) in the past. This has already produced £4m towards reinstating the ‘missing mile’ of the Cotswold

Canals which was obliterated when the

M5 and associated new road connections were built in the 1970s: the money has paid for the newly completed crossing of the A38 roundabout near Whitminster, as described in the

Cotswold Phase 1b feature on pages 16-21. And in the Black Country another grant from the same pot has paid to clear the Titford Pools on the Birmingham Canal Navigations which have suffered from silting-up from run-off water from the M5. page 24

Water: here we’re referring to the possible use of the canal network to shift drinking water supplies around from parts of the country with plenty to areas where it is in short supply - and the possibility of such schemes paying for canals to be restored (the eastern section of the Cotswold Canals being a front-runner for this).

Rail: we were less optimistic about this one, given that the impact on the canals of the obvious current big rail project, HS2, seems to be generally looking like being more negative than positive at the moment (having seemed a few years ago like it might help get part of the Ashby northern reaches restored).

Housing too? One further source that we didn’t mention last time (mainly because it isn’t quite so off-the-wall as the others, having already resulted in some canal restoration in the past), but which we’ll mention here because of one recent news story, is new housing and other building development. The idea is that not only can local authorities insist on canal restoration work being carried out by housing developers as part of the ‘planning gain’ from getting permission to build, but also the uplift in property prices (often quoted at something as high as 20%) as a result of a waterside location can actually make it worth their while. It can be a bit of a controversial one - would canal restoration supporters be happy for their formerly rural waterway to be lined with modern housing schemes along most of its length, if that’s the easiest (or only) way of getting it funded? But if (as is often the case) the land is earmarked for building anyway, the choice can be between a development with a canal and a development without a canal.

This is actually a combination of the ‘housing’ and ‘roads’ themes. But first, a bit of background...

The Wilts & Berks Canal was always going to be a tricky one to restore, given that at all three of its extremities (Melksham at the west end, Abingdon at the east, and Cricklade at the north end of its North Wilts Canal branch) it’s been obstructed by urban development, and diversions will be necessary to re-connect it to the Kennet & Avon, River Thames and Cotswold Canals respectively. To make matters worse, right in the middle where the Wilts & Berks and the North Wilts met, is Swindon - and a chunk of canal lies buried under it. And then, immediately south west of Swindon, is what will be one of the most difficult / expensive new transport crossings needed to reopen the canal, where it’s blocked by the M4 motorway.

Many years ago Wilts & Berks Canal Trust identified possible diversionary routes or both canals around the west and south side of Swindon; more recently an imaginative new alternative idea proposed reinstating some urban lengths on a new route much closer to the original line, by pedestrianising some of Swindon’s streets, and adding a new canal channel dug down the middle of the road.

Meanwhile to the south side of the town, a major expansion of the urban area is under way. Consisting of several phases of construction, the Wichelstowe developments are adding some thousands of new homes on an area which includes parts of the original canal and parts of the restored waterway. And already some lengths have been restored, and new ones south west of Swindon, several lengths have been restored reaching as far as Royal Wootton Bassett, including rebuilding Chadderton (West Summit) lock. Combined with the Wichelstowe / Swindon work, this could create a significant length of restored canal if only the M4 crossing could be built to connect it up.

The latest news is that the same Highways England fund is paying £42,000 towards a feasibility study into putting in a navigable culvert under the motorway. It’s a relatively modest sum compared to the £4m for the Cotswold Canals, but WBCT reckons it could be a real game-changer in finding a solution to a blockage which has left the Trust’s vision for reopening the canal “clouded for many years by uncertainty”.

Railway comes to Derby’s aid

Last time we rather played down the likelihood of railway projects supporting canal restoration - but one has popped up in the news since then. Network Rail is investing

£350,000 to help restore a section of the historic Draycott length of the Derby Canal to reduce flooding on the railway, rebuild herit-

age and create new recreational facilities for locals and tourists alike.

The section to be restored, known locally as the Golden Mile, was infilled in the

1960s after the canal shut. In 1999, a drainage ditch was installed along the canal route to help to prevent flooding on the nearby

proposed the east-west diversionary route for M4 motorway

built, as part of the first phase of this work.

Meanwhile to the Midland Main Line, which connects Derby

Proposed new canal route and London. Whilst this did help, increased rainfall has seen the railway flooded 19 times in the past eight years, costing around £2million and causing over 357 hours of delays for passengers.

Work on the scheme has now started Swindon

Access road for new housing

Original canal route

and will see a 1.1km stretch of canal re-

stored, as well as low points of the canal bank raised by 1 metre to reduce the chances of water overflowing onto the nearby rail route. This is a key step in reducing flooding in the area, but further work will also be required.

Network Rail’s contribution joins a £100,000 investment, which has been fundraised by the Derby & Sandiacre Canal Trust over the last three years. The project will create a new section of canal which can be used by boaters and will ultimately form part of the restored canal from Sandiacre to Derby. Existing facilities for walkers, cyclists and horse riders will also be improved with the current footpath re-laid, and the scheme will bring environmental and biodiversity benefits. A former mill, later turned into cottages, is also being restored by DSCT and turned into a community hub, with toilets and a café for visitors. The scheme is expected to complete in Summer 2021.

Chris Madge, Chairman for Derby and Sandiacre Canal Trust, said: “We’ve been working for many years to bring this project to fruition and we are delighted that work has been able to begin”. MB&B breach to finally be fixed? If you were on our Christmas Canal Camp a few years back on the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal, you will be familiar with the layout of the canal at Nob End, where the canal climbs six locks before splitting in two: one branch running high along the side of the Irwell Valley as it heads eastwards to Bury; the other heading north westwards along the Croal Valley towards Bolton.

If you wandered off along the Bury line you will soon have arrived at the site of the famous breach where in 1936 part of the canal embankment collapsed into the valley some 30 metres below (very nearly taking a boat with it), and was never repaired. Some local traffic continued, but that was the beginning of the end for the canal, which was finally officially abandoned in 1961.

Since 1987 the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal Society has been campaigning to restore the canal, and there has been progress at various locations (including a development scheme which saw the first section in Salford reopened) - but at some point the breach was going to need to be repaired - and it appears that a housing scheme is likely to do just that.

Bolton Council has received an application to build 300 homes near Nob End (although I bet they don’t call it that in the estate agents’ brochures!) and as part of the plan the developer proposes to repair the breach and recreate a 700m length of canal including a new access bridge.

There’s currently a slight issue about dimensions - the developer is offering a 3m wide channel, whereas local waterways campaigners want 4.5m (to cater for the 14ft beam craft that the canal and its locks were built for), but it does look like one of the canal’s trickiest problems could be sorted. And the canal society is optimistic that this will lead to removal of a further blockage at

Radcliffe, creating an 8km navigable length. And finally...

...back to the Cotswold Canals where the roles of road and canal were reversed recently and the canal came to the rescue of the roads. A length of the Old A40 near Northleach had been closed for five years after cracks appeared as a result of damage to a supporting wall, with repairs costed at £800,000. But it’s been fixed for a fraction of that, by strengthening the wall with soil piled against it, sourced from... the excavations for

the canal at the new A38 bridges!