12 minute read
canal open in the 1970s and 1980s
looking back Stratford Blitz
The Stratford Canal is part of the Canal & River Trust’s network. But 40 years ago WRG was helping the National Trust keep it open on limited resources.
Canal created the popular Avon Ring – making the Stratford Canal even more popular. With this increase in use there were The background: During the 1940s and continuing problems in the day to day run1950s the southern section of the Stratford- ning of the canal. These were largely beupon-Avon Canal had slowly become unnavi- cause of the difficulty for the NT with its gable, although legally it should still have limited resources in committing sufficient been maintained as fit for purpose. funding for the level of maintenance it really
In 1958 Warwickshire County Council needed despite the best efforts of the small had applied for a ‘Legal Abandonment’. They permanent staff; the fact that the restoration wanted to demolish a bridge over the canal had (of necessity, in that era) been done on and rebuild it but with insufficient headroom a shoestring budget; a very persistent water for boats to pass underneath. Around May supply problem; and leakages, particularly on 1959, because of the Councils application a the Wilmcote Flight of locks. campaign was started to try to stop this The Blitz is launched: The decision application from succeeding. After many long was made to involve WRG in bringing in and detailed discussions with the British additional volunteer labour to help try to go Transport Commission (and crucially the some way to eliminate these problems. production of a ticket showing that a cam- In 1975 articles started to appear in paign cruise by canoe had used the canal) it Navvies referring to the condition of the was agreed that from September 1960 the canal and WRG’s intended plans. This then canal would be taken over, restored and run became known as ‘The Stratford Blitz’ and by The National Trust. would be a joint effort running all through
During the ensuing years the canal was the winter season from early November 1975 restored and put back into use under the to the end of March 1976 with WRG, The leadership of David Hutchings. Many differ- National Trust, many other canal societies ent methods were used to accomplish this, and Maurice Frost who was the organiser for including the use of prisoners from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham.
The canal was eventually reopened by the Queen Mother in July 1964.
The problem: The canal soon became very popular with boaters because they could now travel from the Northern Stratford, down the newly opened Southern Stratford and then out onto the River Avon. Ten years after the Stratford opened, the Upper Avon was also reopened (also masterminded by Hutchings) through from Evesham to Stratford, which together with the River Severn Chris Griffiths and Worcester & Birmingham Building a new open channel bywash at Wilmcote page 20
SONACS (Stratford on Avon Canal Society, the local canal society).
The main works were to be on the Wilmcote Flight: rebuilding of lock and wing walls, building new lock overflow bywashes (these had been originally built as culverts and many were blocked) and also many other jobs that were in need of attention.
As dates were fixed, the overall plan was for a different Canal Society each John Hawkins weekend to pro- Birmingham Rd bywash team includes the author’s children aged 6 and 9! vide and cook food and generally run the weekend in conjunc- Work was duly sorted for us so that we tion with WRG and SONACS etc. were away from the main works.
People who were interested in working At the end of the day getting the car had to contact Graham Palmer (WRG founder out of its parking spot was bit difficult and and Chairman at the time – and incidentally the drive to the road to say the least was no relation to current Chairman Mike Palmer) ‘interesting’, the track had been used by so that the number of people could be ca- dumpers nearly all day. But along the sidetered for and work apportioned accordingly. road we went, and out onto the main road to Catering at that time was rather more diffi- head for the accommodation at Lowsonford cult because there weren’t any 24 hour a few miles away. Some cars had left before Supermarkets - or Sunday opening. us to head for the hall, but we and a couple
The experience: My wife Tess and I of others got caught in a road closure becontacted Graham to book onto a weekend, cause of a major traffic accident. On arrival we also informed him that we had two chil- at the hall there wasn’t much food left –dren (Andrew and Tracey) who were aged luckily we had bought some food with us. about 6 and 3 years of age. Graham appre- During my first chat with Graham, he had ciated the fact that some folks with children also told me that people with children had to would like to work. sleep on the stage, which was a bit annoying
And so, on a Saturday morning we for the folks who had already settled there were awoken by our alarm clock; a quick for themselves. However all soon sorted. breakfast, load car and a drive to site. The Obviously several folks went to the pub for majority of other attendees arrived on the the remainder of the evening. Friday evening, but it was easier for us to After a good breakfast on Sunday, all drive Saturday. had been washed-up, and packed away
Because we had the children Graham everybody drove to site. Work was more of had told me to drive down the towpath to the the same. A very productive and tiring two main work compound, but to take great care days of work and now only the drive home because of the perilous state of the towpath – to look forward to!! (Mk II Ford Cortinas tended not to float very We hadn’t been put off by the exploits well!) and park out of the way beside the and so we sorted some other dates. lock in order to keep the towpath clear. Back there for the next one, and on page 21
with twenty men...” - luckily the form teacher knew about our times working at Stratford. I cannot recall how many months the ‘Stratford Blitz’, in that format went on for, but over the period there were some “interesting happenings”, to John Hawkins recall a few: travelling in a Ford Transit minibus with Wing wall rebuilding near Featherbed Lane at the top of Wilmcote in 1986 longitudinal seats; several Saturday everything went well for the major- folks travelling to the pub (at lunch time) in an ity of the day until we got back to the hall. open-back truck; trying to bump start a Transit We sorted bedding as before and had a good on packed snow; driving a rear wheel steer meal; only then to be told that the hall was dumper with one ‘odd’ wheel; one boiled egg going to be used for the village Bingo ses- being served for breakfast on a Sunday mornsion. All personal belongings pushed to one ing (at least there was plenty of toast!) and side as agreed. Everybody then descended some others that maybe I had better not to the pub, but what were we to do with our include! two children who really needed to be kept The ‘Stratford Blitz’ had reached many warm and also found somewhere to sleep? of its targets which meant that the canal Driving around the Warwickshire countryside could generally be operated in a more effiwith the children strapped in their seats gets cient way; but there were still many jobs really boring!! Back to the hall after the that needed to be completed and new ones Bingo had finished. started. A second ‘Blitz’ was therefore organ-
The next day on site I mentioned to ised over the following winter 1976-77. Maurice about the Bingo – apologies all The work continued over numerous around, it been totally forgotten. For any weekends with the removing of closed future clashes of dates, Maurice and his wife bywash culverts around some of the locks, Meg offered us the use of their home for the then new concrete footings put in place and evening and then return to the hall, and also an open bywash constructed using conon a couple of occasions we stayed overnight blocks and steel reinforcing where needed. – for which many thanks. A little later when Tracey was at the local junior school the pupils had to write an essay as to what they been doing over the weekend. During a parents’ evening we were looking through her work books and came across the entry relating to a previous weekend at Stratford which read, in part: “I spent the weekend Photorapher unknown, supplied by John Hawkins in a village hall sleeping Part of the WRG vehicle fleet of the era page 22
Towpath upgrading was continued along the canal in places: particularly above Featherbed Lane bridge, where the towpath was rather higher than the water level. For this work the canal was drained the day before, new footings excavated using a Smalley excavator. New footings consisted of partially filled sandbags of concrete, and once again a con-block wall (with steel reinforcing) was built. Concrete copings were then cast in situ, mooring rings dug and concreted in, and finally all backfilled. In other places, where the edge of the towpath had subsided steel pilings were used to retain the edge and then backfilled. Whilst this was happening Photorapher unknown, supplied by John Hawkins there was still scrub to be bashed Lock chamber clearance with barrow hoist and trees to be felled.
During these times Maurice and Meg were taking Arthur’s Land Rover, the Case retired from the role of organisers for (skid-steer loader) and a dumper up the SONACS and moved their home to the north flight to the top compound when the Case east of England. Arthur Beeston then be- ran out of fuel. A Contractor’s compound came the SONACS working party organiser. was nearby and they had left out a Jerry can
Arthur owned an unconverted ex-work- of diesel (but a funnel would have been useful) ing narrowboat Squire which was sometimes – very handy for us. After bleeding the fuel used to move materials up and down the system on the Case in the dark, pouring rain flight, and was often used to tow an old and cold we got it back to the compound. “Joey boat”. All sorted before the drive home.
One day we were towing the Joey up And afterwards: After two winters, the canal and because it only had a very WRG felt it needed to support restoration small deck at both ends and also no rudder, work on other canals so there wasn’t a 1977we used to tie a shopping trolley to a rope 78 Blitz, but some visiting groups returned and throw it off the back to act as a drag the following two winters, and a final Stratanchor. Whilst we stopped for lunch this rope ford Blitz took place as late as 1984-85. was untied from the trolley and used to moor Between them they did a lot of good work the boat. As we moved off the trolley was duly keeping the canal navigable and making thrown back into water, only to find that the improvements using the limited resources rope had not been re attached. A bit embar- available, but finally after some very prorassing; trolley recovered and duly re-tied... tracted discussions, during 1988 once again
Quite a lot of concrete and mortar was the ownership of the canal changed: this mixed in the boat by positioning a mixer (the time from The National Trust to British Wapetrol engine type) at the extreme end. terways Board – the forerunner of today’s However, one day the stand could not have Canal and River Trust. been positioned safely. After a few shovels As time went on the weekend work of ballast had been put in the drum, it top- parties gradually petered out. Some work pled off its stand, landed on its side, and carried on, mainly doing the smaller jobs and “drove” itself along the boat, spilling petrol lots of offside clearance, but on a Sunday everywhere and then catching fire. This was only basis and organised by SONACS. quickly extinguished by water from the ca- A few years later we got to try out the nal. Not too much damage – I only had to canal by boat: the Inland Waterways Assopurchase a couple of items for its re-build. ciation’s 1990 Waterways Festival had been More care taken in the future. held near Gloucester and we were moving
One Sunday at the end of the day we our friends’ boat back from the event to the page 23
Channel wall rebuilding (with Smalley excavator) above Lock 47, Wilmcote in 1983
John Hawkins
Saltisford Arm near Warwick. All was going very well (it’s very gratifying to take a boat along a canal, and up through its locks that you’ve spent many hours working on), until we got part way up the Wilmcote Flight. A boat was partially jammed in the lock. The guy reckoned that it was on the bottom cill. We tried the usual ‘tricks’ to get him into the chamber. But he stuck again in the same place, I then noticed that the boat was actually floating, and that it was jamming on the anodes that were protruding (the owner had recently had them replaced). Once again we dragged him out and he asked what he could do. The most obvious answer was to get in the water and (somehow) cut at least one off. Whether he did or not I’m not too certain! We then passed easily into the lock only to find that the upper pound was almost empty (and our boat pulls quite a lot of water). During all of our attempts somebody had a left a ground paddle slightly raised. After running lots of water down we eventually reached the top of the flight. A short distance to pass the Odd Lock, moor up and eat a well-earned meal. Next day continue to Lapworth and then head down the Grand Union to moor in Saltisford Arm.
Looking back:Looking at some photographs taken during the ‘Blitz’ times, and for a while after, somethings are very noticeable: methods of working, the ages of some on site, PPE (or rather lack of) etc. In those distant days PPE was often a woollen bobble hat, a donkey jacket and maybe some wearing safety footwear. Oh, and not forgetting the visits to the pub... All of the organisation was all very much ‘of the time’, and arranged without the use of Facebook, Text, Zoom, and very luckily … NO COVID!! John Hawkins
