Navvies 308

navvies volunteers restoring waterways

WRG Canal Camps are back Reporting from Derby and Geldeston Looking forward to WRG’s Cotswold Canals project

issue 308 august-september 2021

Intro Grantham Lock 14 15 opening On 3 August the official opening took place of the completely rebuilt Lock 14 on the Woolsthorpe flight, scene of WRG Canal Camps supporting the Grantham Canal Society in recent years. See inset picture for what it looked like during a 2019 camp. To mark the occasion we’re running a restoration feature on the Grantham Canal in this issue: see page 20. Pictures by the editor.

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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

© 2021 WRG

PLEASE NOTE: subs renewal cheques MUST be made out to The Inland Waterways Association NOTE new subs address below Contents Acting Chairman’s Page and an interview with Sue Watts of Navvies subs 4-5 Editor Martin apologises again 6 Coming soonish Autumn events (maybe?) 7 Westfield / Oldbury our next major project on the Cotswold Canals 8-9 Going green the Chesterfield Canal’s environmental approach to restoration 10-12 Camp reports Waveney and Derby 13-19 Restoration Feature Grantham 20-24 Letters the state of the Stratford Canal 25 Progress on the Wendover, Stover and Shrewsbury & Newport canals 26-33 Tech tips temporary works 34-35 Navvies news Restoration Hub latest 36-39

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 309: 8 September.

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 Front: Resetting a coping stone at Geldeston during the River Waveney camp, see report, p13. (Picture: Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans) Back cover top: Borrowash Lock during Derby Canal camp, see report p16 (Colin Hobbs). Bottom: Shrewsbury & Newport Canals camp: digging out old culvert (Marion Weir) and replaced (Alan Lines) - camp report next time (please!)

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comment Acting Chairman Standing in for Chairman Mike Palmer, Jonathan Smith brings us up to date on canal camps, and wishes Alex Melson well in his new career unteers and supporters in this strangest of strange years.

There are some things in life that you never I’m sure none of us ever expected that expect to do, and I’m sure most of us have our camps would have been cancelled by experienced this over the last eighteen legislation, however by the time you read months with Covid, however I never ever this article we will have run several test canal expected to have to write the Chairman’s camps to see how they can work under the piece in Navvies. As some of you may know, restrictions of Covid.

WRG Chairman Mike Palmer was unfortuWhilst the legal lockdown restrictions nately involved in an accident at the end of have now eased across the UK (although June, and sustained a serious head injury. At slightly differently in England and Wales), the time of writing he is still in hospital in a there is still little guidance that specifically neuro rehab ward close to home, and it is applies to our type of residential work camps hoped he will make a full recovery in time. in communal accommodation. We took the I’m sure you will all join me in wishing decision to run the test camps with a maxiMike, Jude and their family all the best for a mum of twelve volunteers which enables speedy recovery. While Mike is recovering the sufficient social distancing in the accommoWRG Board agreed that I should take on the dation and transport. The physical work on role of acting Chairman, and so I find myself site is relatively easy to manage under Covid, considering what to say to all the WRG volas evidenced by the steady return of day

Acting Chairman’s Comment

Sue Watts: Navvies subscriptions from the then WRG Chairman Alan Jervis, Sue Watts is perhaps a name you may very much recognise and has been a staple in WRG Navvies supporting the subscription works behind the scenes, ensuring your records were up to date and doing the thankless task of cashing in cheques at the bank (which I now understand the pain of banking up to hundred cheques at a single time). As Sue is now hanging up the metaphorical hard hat, we asked Sue to look back over her involvement with WRG and tell us more about how and why she got involved.

How long have you been supporting Navvies for? I was given Navvies 63 by Tim Noakes (see below) and then subscribed from issue 64. The first time my name appears in Navvies is issue 98 (May 1985) after taking over the job of subscriptions along with Edd Leetham who did the computer updates. We took over the mantle at a WRG NorthWest Ad hoc meeting

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who needed to offload one of the many jobs he was doing at the time. Since then, and up until the pandemic, I’ve banked the cheques, dealt with correspondence and forwarded on the renewal and bank slips for computer updates.

How did you first get involved with Navvies? It all started in late ’76, after a canal boat holiday, I went to a lecture about canals by Doc Owen and at the end he showed a slide (Remember them? or ask your grandpa!) of people cleaning out canals.

I went up to him afterwards and asked who they were as it looked like good fun!! He gave me the name Tim Noakes but knew no more, so I went through the telephone directory until I found the right one! I went to meet him at COLLAC, a leisure exhibition at Belle Vue, Manchester where WRG NW had a stand. I went to my first dig on an extremely cold Stratford Blitz staying at Lowsonford Village Hall in March ’77 being armed with a borrowed very thin sleeping

work parties throughout the country on restoration projects.

I cannot underestimate the support the staff team of Jenny, Mikk and Alex have given to our leadership teams to allow the test camps to run, with physical visits to all the potential sites and accommodation, and then coming up with detail plans to ensure our volunteers are as safe as possible.

Once the camps are completed we will review them all, and where any improvements can be made, and the hope is that we can run further camps later this year before returning to a normal type schedule in 2022 – although no doubt Covid means there will be a ‘new normal’.

Talking of the staff, most will have heard that Alex Melson is moving on to a new role outside of WRG / IWA as a Green Space Development Officer. We are looking to recruit to replace Alex, and hope to have someone in post by October this year at the latest. I’m sure everyone will join me in wishing Alex well after his five and half years working with us; he will be sorely missed, although I’m sure some of us will still see Alex out on weekend digs, and maybe even some camps!

So I will end this Acting Chairman’s bag and no mat. It was the first time I’d ever done anything like that. I kept waking up with one side numb from the cold and the other numb from the hard floor! I found out years later that they’d had bets on whether I’d return as I hardly spoke a word all weekend - WRG NW Mobile (mainly from former Peak Forest Canal Society) were a lively, raucous bunch to say the least!

Do you have favourite memory of your time with us? No one particular memory but I’ve really enjoyed the camaraderie and the digs in my early days especially the Xmas work camps at various locations. Also, many hazy memories from the NW ‘Cold Hole’ parties in what was their workshop/store in the undercroft of Rodwell Tower on the Rochdale Nine in Manchester. There’s the time when a radio production team was recording at Droitwich. I’d been working at a different part of the site and came back to see everyone standing about like sheep doing

Flashback to Alex’s first day at head office in December 2016. Where did those five years go? comment by wishing everyone a speedy return to more normal times, and with the hope that we will all be able to meet our friends and new volunteers at a canal restoration project soon.

Jonathan Smith nothing. The poor sound recordist jumped as some fool emerging from a bridge hole (i.e. me) let out a very loud Baa! He snarled and muttered “We’ll have to do that one again!”

Do you have any parting words to share with the Navvies readership? I’ve enjoyed my time with WRG and worked alongside a great group of people and made many long-lasting friendships. So, it’s with very mixed feelings that I now dip out but I’m sure WRG will continue to carry on to do great things. Tho, it’s not a final goodbye as I will follow WRG activities with interest from the comfort of my armchair!

Wishing WRG all the best in the future with whatever projects they tackle.

Cheers, Sue The editor and everyone else involved in Navvies would like to give Sue our sincere thanks and best wishes for the future

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Editorial

Apologies...

Yet again the editor is sorry he can’t bring you the hoped-for details of impending camps - but there’s more news of a forthcoming project The editor apologises...

I’m sorry. Firstly for the slightly late appearance of this issue of Navvies. In my defence, it was all for the very best reasons, We figured that by delaying it by a few weeks, we could send it to press both (a) late enough that we would not only be able to include camp reports from the first few trial canal camps that we were tentatively planning, but also be able to give you all the information for the follow-up autumn camps, and at the same time (b) early enough to give you enough advance notice to be able to book on for some of those autumn camps. Wait a minute, autumn camps? I’ll come to them later...

The next thing I need to apologise for is that having spent a fair chunk of the last Navvies explaining why we couldn’t commit to running any summer camps (basically we couldn’t be sure that the last of the Covid restrictions, and in particular the associated impact on how we run our accommodation, would be lifted fully in time for the necessary planning), you will see in this issue that we’ve gone ahead and organised several of them.

Five in fact. You, the readers, could be forgiven for thinking that it seems a bit like finding out afterwards that a load of your mates have had a great time at an event that you weren’t invited to. My apologies. It wasn’t meant that way at all. We simply had to organise them at such short notice that it just didn’t work with press dates and lead times for paper magazines. I hope that our attempts to communicate it in time via email and social media reached as many people as possible. And at this point I was going to add “...and if they didn’t, at least we’re now following the successful trial with some more more camps, for which we’re giving you the full details on the following pages...” But unfortunately...

Yes, I’m afraid my third apology is because as we go to press, through no fault of any of the groups involved, we find ourselves in the unfortunate position of not being able to give you any dates for Canal Camps at all. One site is experiencing issues with planning; another with land ownership; a third with securing suitable accommodation. We do genuinely have some optimism that there will be canal camps this autumn, but once again we won’t know until this issue has gone to print - and the next issue will be too late. All I can say is: keep an eye on the WRG website and Facebook page for the latest news.

But if we can’t bring you the detailed ‘Camps Preview’ article that we’d been hoping to include, we’ve still managed to feature some short, medium and long-term news in this issue on where we’re likely to be working: In the short term, on the opposite page are some ideas of what might be happening this autumn, fingers crossed.

In the medium term, Harri Barnes’s piece on the following pages 8-9 gives you the lowdown on Westfield Lock and Oldbury Aqueduct. This project will keep us busy for the next couple of years - and form our contribution to the Lottery-supported Cotswold Canals Phase 1b restoration which will see a 10-mile extension to the waterways network in 2024.

In the long term, on pages 20-24 is the latest in our series of in-depth restoration features. This time it features the Grantham Canal, to tie in with the recent opening of the restored Lock 14, and we will no doubt be back to help the Grantham Canal Society restore locks 13 and 12 once funding can be secured.

Finally, I would like to add to our acting Chairman Jonathan Smith’s comment (see page 4) my own best wishes, and those of everyone involved in Navvies magazine, to our Chairman and very good friend Mike Palmer for as full and speedy a recovery as possible following his accident.

I’ll see some of you on a worksite sometime... hopefully sooner rather than later!

Martin Ludgate

. . .

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coming soon... maybe...

Not quite a Camps Preview, but the best we can manage in the circumstances on what WRG work parties might happen this autumn...

Coming soon... ish...

As explained opposite, our intentions of bringing you an Autumn Camps Preview article have unravelled in the face of planning issues which have arisen through no fault of the canal societies concerned, and which mean that as we go to press there’s nothing we can go into print on. But that doesn’t mean no WRG work parties this autumn...

Autumn canal camps?

WACT

Despite the above, we are still trying our best to sort out some week-long Canal Camps during the autumn. Although it would be unhelpful to try to guess when and where these will be (several sites have been under consideration), Potential weekend site: Wey & Arun Tickners bridge takes shape hopefully the issues of planning and accommodation can be overcome and we can finalise plans in time to get the word out via email and social media very soon.

Mobile groups’ weekend working parties As we go to press some of the mobile working party groups including London WRG and KESCRG are looking at holding weekend (or possibly long weekend) working parties on a few possible sites during the autumn. The Wey & Arun and the Buckingham are possibilities - but nothing is definite yet. New volunteers are welcome on these groups’ events - contact the groups or see their Facebook groups for details.

Local canals societies’ working parties A reminder that many local canal societies continue to run one-day working parties - and plenty of WRG volunteers have already started working on their local restoration.

Christmas camp?

We aim to run a Christmas / New Year canal camp, and hope to be able to bring you details in the next issue of Navvies.

And then what?

See over for details of a site that looks sure to feature in the 2022 Canal Camps programme

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coming soonish Cotswold Looking a bit further ahead, Harri Barnes previews what looks set to turn into one of our main worksites over the next two years... under the Bristol – Birmingham railway line at Stonehouse, and the concrete sections As we explained on the previous pages, needed to do this are currently sitting in a unfortunately for various reasons we’re not field waiting for installation at Christmas. in a position to be able to give you details of Cooperation with Highways England has also forthcoming canal camps this autumn. But resulted in the construction of a very impreslooking a little further ahead, one site where sive bit of canal through the middle of the we know WRG will be spending plenty of A38 roundabout to the west of the M5. time and effort in the next year or two is But as you would expect there is also a Westfield Lock and Oldbury Aqueduct on the lot of work for volunteers to get stuck into.

Cotswold Canals. Harri Barnes explains...

As pandemic restrictions have eased, Cotswold Canals Trust volunteers have made an excellent start on the remedial work needed Cotswold Canals: Westfield Lock / Oldbury Aqueduct on Blunder and Newtown Locks, which were originally restored 25-30 years ago. Just Even those Navvies subscribers that haven’t below these come Pike Bridge and Dock read very many issues over the last year or Lock, both of which have seen WRG input in so will almost certainly have noticed that in more recent times. Between them and the October 2020 the Cotswold Canals ConWhitminster and Fromebridge Mill sections nected project was successful in being (where many WRG Christmas Camps have granted £8.9m from the National Heritage been held including the most recent one at Lottery Fund to do the work that is needed the end of 2019) is the ‘Missing Mile’, the to link the already restored section of the stretch of canal which has largely disapStroudwater and Thames and Severn canals through Stroud (where WRG has worked on lots of projects including the locks at Bowbridge, Ham and Griffins Mills and Gough’s Orchard) back to the main national waterways system at Saul Junction.

You may have read the article by Dave Marshall of Stroud District Council in the last Navvies about putting Trial excavations at Westfield. We need to turn this back into a lock the canal back Jenny Morris

One to watch...

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peared under fields and needs reinstating (mostly by contractors) on a slightly different course to link up with the culvert under the M5 and back to the new section across the A38. This section also includes the next major project which WRG has agreed to take on, the restoration of Westfield Lock and construction of Oldbury Aqueduct.

I say ‘restoration’ of Westfield Lock, but at the moment we’re not quite sure how much still exists and just needs a bit of repointing and resetting of coping stones, and how much is going to be a complete rebuild. That’s because the lock is currently infilled, with the outline just about visible in a field. We know the coping stones have disappeared, but to what extent the walls of the lock were pulled down when it was filled in is unclear. Jon Pontefract and his volunteers have dug some trial pits which show at least some of the lower wing walls are still there, but the first job with the lock will be to dig it out and find out how much is left.

Then there will be rebuilding in a similar fashion to many other locks, involving brickwork, concreting and putting in new coping stones, plus reinstating a bywash (overflow channel) and possibly some titivating of the accommodation bridge at the tail of the lock, though this looks in pretty good nick, at least above what will ultimately be water level following earlier restoration by CCT. But this isn’t quite as simple as that – before we can get stuck into the lock, we need to build a new aqueduct to carry the canal over Oldbury Brook. This was originally

a feeder into the canal, coming in just above the head of the lock. In the intervening years that the canal has been shut, the brook has been dug down to a lower level, and now needs to pass underneath the main canal channel. Designs are still being finalised, but it is clear that a substantial amount of clever concreting work is going to be needed to construct a culvert for the brook and a channel for the canal, as well as diverting the water coming down the brook (as it’s a natural watercourse that can’t be dammed off) while we work on it. This won’t be an aqueduct on quite the Pontcysyllte or Dundas scale, and in fact will be pretty much invisible from most accessible angles once built, but then you can say that about a lot of the bits of canal we’ve rebuilt over the years!

As with any Lottery grants, the Cotswold Canals Connected partnership have to find a substantial amount of ‘match funding’.

For this particular project, we’re very fortunate and grateful to draw on two sources which will go towards the costs of materials and plant which will be needed for what are fairly large construction tasks. One is a legacy left to WRG specifically for work on the Cotswold Canals, which IWA have agreed should be used for the aqueduct; while another gift to CCT will go towards the lock itself. Work will start with some vegetation clearance and establishing a site compound, and hopefully this will be able to get under way before too much longer.

Harri Barnes

Total length: 36 miles Locks: originally 56 (at least one extra needed) Date closed: 1927-54 The Cotswold Canals consist of the Stroudwater Navigation (Saul to Stroud) and the Thames & Severn Canal (Stroud to Inglesham) which make up the through route across the south of England. To break the restoration down into more manageable chunks, Cotswold Canals Trust divides it into ‘phases’ as shown on the map. Phase 1a is already very nearly restored; the National Lottery Heritage Fund grant announced last year is part of a package to connect this to the national network by restoring the ‘missing link’ Phase 1b section. Volunteers including WRG are part of this ‘package’ - and Westfield Lock / Oldbury Aqueduct will be our main contribution.

Cotswold Canals

To Gloucester

Phase 1a: Stonehouse to Brimscombe

Phase 1b: Saul to Stonehouse Main future WRG work site: Westfield Lock / Oldbury Aqueduct

Phase 3: Brimscombe North Wilts Canal to Cerney to Swindon

Phase 2: Inglesham to Cerney

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Green team Chesterfield Chesterfield Canal Trust is developing a ‘Green Team’ to make the restoration more eco-friendly - and align it with potential funders’ green agendas...

Chesterfield’s Green Team We felt that the following article from Chesterfield Canal Trust’s magazine ‘The Cuckoo’ deserved a wider audience, especially among our readers from other canal societies, who might be interested in exchanging ideas and good practice with CCT on the benefits, possibilities and difficulties when it comes to making your canal restoration group and its activities as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible. Rod Auton explains...

Data collection Education, Learning & School Projects Developing the Hollingwood Hub Making more use of the canal Developing a Green Team.

I agreed to take on the last of these. We have two separate aims. The first is to create a group of local people who will eventually manage the canal at Renishaw. Hopefully this will then provide a model for further restored sections.

We started by discussing with Bolsover Woodlands Enterprise how the woodlands and pond below the canal can be managed.

We have also started a series of clear-ups being held on the last Saturday afternoon of every month. This is to keep the canal clear

Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust

Earlier this year, the Trustees started looking for ways of developing the Trust to make it as attractive as possible to potential funders when we are applying for grants in the future. Five topics were chosen:

. . . . .

Bedford & Milton Keynes’ new electric tripboat. Sadly converting existing boats proved unaffordable

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engine – there are far too many people in love with its gentle phut phut and occasional fumes!]

We would also like to install a car charging point at Hollingwood Hub and ideally a bike charging point as well. At present, we are being thwarted by technical difficulties such as getting the power across the canal and the fact that there are at least thirty different types of electric bike recharging fittings, but we will get them sorted eventually.

One of the most obvious things we will do is to make sure that the restored canal is more beneficial to wildlife than at present.

We also need to get expert advice as to how to look after wildlife during the construction periods. People always think of creatures like Great Crested Newts or bats or impressive birds like Herons, but it is just as important to care for the very prevalent species such as frogs, minnows and of course the insects which are at the bottom of the food chain.

This will mean creating temporary habitats and doing careful planting. We must be

Martin Ludgate

of litter, but also to keep the towpath clear from Barlborough Road Bridge (which is known locally as Main Road bridge) to Miners Crossing. In the summer this usually gets overgrown with nettles and brambles, but it is a much nicer walk under the trees than the hot and dusty Trans-Pennine Trail.

Our second aim is to look at possibilities for making the Trust and its operations as eco-friendly as possible and to try to build sustainable features into the canal as we restore it.

Some of these choices are really simple, but incredibly expensive. For example we would ideally like to turn all the plant used by the Work Party over to electric power. To this end, I got in touch with JCB / TC Harrison who have been very helpful in the past. An electric excavator, like our own Denis, would cost approximately twice the amount of a diesel version. In the same way, we would ideally like to convert our tripboats to electric power, but again the cost would be enormous. [As an aside, I wouldn’t dare suggest replacing narrow boat Python’s

Cotswold Canals’ Dudbridge Locks’ bywash drives a hydro plant - in the concrete box, far left

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Coming to a canal near you? Maybe... careful not to inadvertently introduce invasive species like Canadian Pondweed or Himalayan Balsam.

We have been discussing doing some preliminary ecological work at Killamarsh with the Inland Waterways Association. We have also had a discussion with a landscape architect with a view to doing some plans for the restored canal through Killamarsh. Fundamental to this would be local consultation.

We then come to more technical ideas.

We will be looking at alternative sources of heating for any new buildings, such asground or water source pumps.

We are looking very carefully at the syphon pipe that will connect Staveley Town Basin with Staveley Puddlebank. Key to this is the amount of water that comes down the canal. Whilst looking at some of the figures I have been amazed by the staggering amounts of water that get lost in evaporation.

We are looking at sustainable methods of pumping water such as Iron Man windmills, which I associate with the Great Plains in America but which are installed here by ECS Engineering Services of Sutton-inAshfield who made and installed the railings and grilles at Staveley Town Basin. One thing we have discovered is that these windmills tend to make a clunking noise, so are not suitable to be installed near houses.

ECS also makes Archimedes screws which can be used for raising water. Screws can also operate in the opposite way be used to generate electricity from water flowing downhill - as pictured. Lots of people have suggested that we should be generating electricity from the bywashes on locks. If you look on the internet there are all sorts of

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systems suggested, such as Turbulent Hydro, but actually finding ones that have been installed and are working is a far more difficult task. The costs of retro-fitting and connecting to an end user are huge. That said, as more systems are developed and proven to be worthwhile, the prices will fall.

It’s not just volume of water that matters for electricity generation, the drop is also important. We are looking at the places with the biggest drops. These will be going into and out of Rother Valley, especially the Moorhouse Flight [This is one of the two new flights of locks which will be created as part of a diversion to bypass a length of original canal obstructed by a housing estate in Killamarsh - the locks will descend into Nethermarsh Lake and then climb back out agai to return to the original route ...Ed] which will have a drop of about 20m in total in a fairly short distance. If it proved worthwhile, hydro power generators could be designed into the construction of the bywashes.

We are also looking at the possibilities of using Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) for lock gates and bridges. An individual set of FRP lock gates would cost more than Oak or Ekki, but if the new locks are standardised so that we ordered lots of gates of the same size, they would be cheaper than the wooden alternatives. They should also last longer.

All of this is in the very early stages and some ideas may come to nothing, but it is important that we try to anticipate possibilities in order to make sure that they are built into the planning stages, rather than being last minute additions. We would welcome anyone to join the group who has genuine expertise in any useful areas.

Rod Auton

Landustrie Archimedes Screw in generate mode

camp report Waveney After an absence of 576 days, WRG Canal Camps finally returned on 31 July; our first report is from a week rebuilding Geldeston Lock...

Anyway, twelve honourable WRGies agreed to star in the camp as long as they could achieve a negative indication to a test My last two camp reports for this location that involved sticking long ear-type cleaning (2018 and 2019) had film and music themes sticks down their throats and up their nostrils with 2018 being based upon The Magnificent before setting off for the delights of the Seven (there were seven of us) and a rehash Suffolk / Norfolk border. They also agreed to of Glen Campbell’s Galveston into Geldeston! extra cleaning duties and not to be offended So, what to do this year… that the beds of their neighbours in the hall Fairly obvious really, twelve muddy would be over two metres away instead of WRGies would obviously be The Dirty Dozen! the traditional method of being as close That is the closest this WRG production could together as possible. Two centimetres or two metres apart makes no difference to the get to the 1967 film which was a about a ferocity of the snoring!

WW2 plot for a group of Allied troops (all In this first week of two we cleared out convicted for serious crimes) to be sent on a the soil behind the chamber wall so we could supposed suicide mission behind enemy lines. easily remove the falling-apart brickwork Our script was to finish restoring the down to a firm base, some of which is below southern lock wall. 60% had been done on the high tide level. week-long camps in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and May 2020’s camp to finish it was to be Did I mention Geldeston Lock is in one of two weeks but that plan went out of water? Well it is, and is the highest point of the window when something (I forget what!) the River Waveney to be tidal, some four prevented the camp starting until fourteen hours after the tide reaches the coast about months later. ten miles to the east.

Geldeston Lock, River Waveney Camp 1: 31 July - 7 August

fact file River Waveney

Length: 4 miles Locks: 3 Date closed: 1934 The Canal Camp project: Completing the dismantling of unsound brickwork and rebuilding on the south wall of Geldeston Lock, following on from the previous three years’ camps.

Why? Because the lock walls were in a poor condition and could have collapsed if they hadn’t been repaired.

The wider picture: As long ago as 1670, the creation of the River Waveney Navigation saw three locks built to allow boats to continue from the tidal reaches (which were already in use between Breydon Water and Beccles), on up to Bungay. These lower lengths (plus their links to Lowestoft and the upper Yare) still form part of the Broads; however the length above Geldeston fell out of use and closed. There are no current plans to reopen the locks (the upper two of which have been replaced with sluices, making it more difficult), but Geldeston is to be restored as a historic feature - and hopefully a place to moor the unique preserved wherry (sailing barge) Albion, which traded on the Waveney in the early 20th Century.

Ellingham Lock

Bungay

Wainford Lock

Geldeston Lock

Canal Camp site: Geldeston Lock

Tidal river to Breydon Water and Great Yarmouth

Beccles

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Pictures by Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans

The picture of the wing wall area [left] shows how much the lock wall needed attention.

Much of the work was conducted from a floating work platform [picured below left] which, of course, did as the tide told it, creating unusual challenges here and there.

As the lock is in water, we had a training session on throwing lifebuoys and throw ropes [pictured below right] in case of an (unlikely) emergency. The first lesson we learned, when the bag of rope wouldn’t fly any distance, was to check the rope had been stuffed in its bag in a way that allowed it to be thrown.

Having sorted out the rope, it was successfully thrown. No such rope trouble with the lifebuoy but its size and awkwardness “Requires attention”: the wall at the start of the camp was another challenge.

The top-most quoin stone was missing and the now highest one had been raised by about four inches because of a tree root growing under it. We had to lift it out of the way to remove the offending root and its associated tree

Working from a floating platform

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‘The Hawk’ shows us how to throw the throw rope

stump – all by hand. This was completed successfully as was replacing it. [picture right] There were more tree stumps to be removed along the wall, including a particularly large one at the wing wall. This was trimmed down to make it easier to be tethered to the Tirfor winch cable as we had to pull it across the cut. Getting a rope to the Tirfor hook was made easier when a mother and her young son paddled into the area in their canoe and agreed to take the rope to the Tirfor for us [picture below].

As the week ended, good progress had been made in rebuilding the wall, working from the centre outwards. This was possible because of a great team working so well together.

The cast was: Pete Bowers, Andy Catling, Alex Gibbs, John Hawkins, John Lawrance, Susan Reinstating the quoin stone Malloch, Dom Melville, Geoff Moody, Eleanor Prince, Darren Shepherd, Ian Johnson (cook) and yours truly. Three of the team were there as part of their Duke of Edinburgh’s Award; I’ll let you work out who they were! They played their part in all aspects of the camp. Special thanks to ace cook Ian who made everyone’s lunch and brought it to site every day as a way of reducing the potential transmission of Covid. Oh dash, had hoped not to use that word!

My thanks also to the River Waveney Trust and in particular Bernard Watson, who somehow managed to find the NHL5 lime and other hard to find / rationed materials that were necessary for the camp to go ahead. The Big Dog Ferry did us a great turn by taking us from our base in Beccles to site on Thursday morning. It was really lovely to see some kingfishers darting about the river.

Last but by no means least, a huge thank you to the Sea Cadets in Beccles who let us use their fabulous headquarters. Very spacious and so well equipped. Six showers, table football, WIFI, a lounge bar (sorry, wardroom), dishwashers and a plate warmer to name some key facilities.

I doubt my next camp will afford us such luxuries!

This first camp back after pandemic restrictions were lifted went very well and everyone played their part in acting responsibly. Bring on the next camps!

Canoeists provide assistance with the Tirfor rope David (Evvo) Evans

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camp report Derby Canal A week completing wing walls, retaining wall, bywash, coping stones, landscaping and generally getting Borrowash Lock close to finished Derby Canal Camp 2021 They came from across the country, emerging into the daylight, the WRG refugees looking for mud and diggers, after the 18 month cancellation of activities. From Kent and Dorset in the South, Knaresborough in the North and Wales in the West...

Covid restrictions had been lifted the week before, but the camp was very socially distant. Colin and Tina made sure there was no Covid contamination. Each WRGie had their own 2 metre sleeping area, and their own table in the outdoor dining and recreation orangery (several large gazebos). Each had their own personalised plate mug and glass. Also their own personal sandwich box, which proved very useful in stopping sandwiches getting squashed in the cool boxes.

The teams were divided into two bus crews of six, with each WRGie given their personal seat. The buses were not at all competitive. On the bowling evening, both vans claimed victory. Team SAD in the using

Personalised plates, mugs and glasses the barriers category. Team EHP in the naked fall in the gutter category.

The West Hallam village hall is a lovely place for WRGie accommodation. Hundreds of years old, it is spacious and well modernised. In the heart of the village, the local shop and chippy takeaway are 100 yards

fact file Derby & Sandiacre Canal Length: 14 miles Locks: 9 (on main line Swarkestone-Sandiacre) DERBY

Proposed new route into Derby using River Derwent Proposed new aqueduct and boat lift

Swarkestone Trent & Mersey Canal to Burton

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Original route obliterated

Canal Camp site: Borrowash

Date closed: 1964

Erewash Canal to Langley Mill Sandiacre

Erewash Canal to the Trent

The Canal Camp project: Lock completion works at Borrowash including wing walls, retaining wall, bywash, coping stones and landscaping.

Why? Borrowash Lower Lock was part-restored years ago, and there’s hope of future rewatering in that area so it made a lot of sense to finish it.

The wider picture: The Derby & Sandiacre Canal Society aim to eventually reopen the through route from Sandiacre (where they’ve recently begun another lock restoration project) to Swarkestone plus a link to Derby on a new route via a boat lift and the River Derwent. And as an indication of what might one day happen, they plan to run a trip-boat on the river soon.

away, and even better the pub is directly opposite. Result!

This was the 3rd WRG camp at Borrowash lock. With most of the very visible restoration already completed, this year’s camp tasks were to finish off lots of smaller jobs:

. . . . . .

Rebuild and finish the wing walls Excavate the buried bywash Rebuild a key coping stone Build from scratch a retaining wall Finish the ‘crazy paving’ Landscape the whole site, to be put to grass later.

the lock floor, braced into place by two huge old stop planks. After 48 hours the shuttering was removed and… IT WORKED! Credit goes to Jolene, who spent three hours ‘distressing’ the new stone, which looks great, and when weathered in, to the untrained eye the stone will look almost like it was the original.

The original retaining wall at the east end of the lock had been completely destroyed and needed to be rebuilt from scratch. Much discussion was had as to whether the top of the wall should be flat or step down. We compromised with a bit of both. This was Andrew’s baby and was completed using original recovered bricks,

One of the lock gate hinge blocks (of Egyptian pyramid proportions) had been severely damaged when the lock was filled in, with much of its bulk missing.

David, Rex and Janine, the monumental masonry team, diligently read the WRGie crib sheet on how to build, in situ, a new concrete coping stone, and we did largely follow the guidelines. Each job is different, and the block we were creating was far more complicated than a straightforward coping stone. The highly engineered shuttering system incorporating 3 different formers was The new cast concrete coping ‘stone’ suspended 20ft above

‘Andrew’s baby’: the rebuilt retaining wall at the bottom end of the lock

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and the finished product looks great. wall. El recorded a magnificent zero foot About 8 square metres of ‘crazy paving’ maiden flight distance, whilst David was was required to tidy up the area surrounding disqualified for chewing up his aircraft into a the lock chamber. Louise masterminded this papier-mâché ball and throwing it. task, using many of the rocks that had been The self propelled wheelbarrow proved recovered from the canal lock when it was its worth in saving a lot of time, despite excavated by previous WRG camps.

David’s determination make it break down on An archaeological dig of the original bywash was undertaken by Local David, and based on his excavations a new 10ft section of bywash was rebuilt using as much of the original stone as possible. The rest of the bywash is probably waiting to be discovered, but that will be the story of another canal camp, and subject to negotiations with Severn Trent as to the re-routing of a strategic sewer pipe encroaching onto the canal route.

Tina’s wing wall is a thing of beauty (beauty is in the eye of the beholder). When the canal was abandoned in the 1950s, much of the canal side walls had been badly damaged when being demolished and buried. All the wing walls had been to varying extents been excavated where possible, on previous WRG camps. This year’s task was to repair and rebuild the walls to full height, using the original stone wherever possible. Sue, Tracey and El’s wing wall building skills are now legendary.

Lastly the land around the wing walls, crazy paving, retaining wall and bywash was filled in and landscaped using soil from the The ‘crazy paving’ on the lockside culvert end of the lock. When this is seeded with grass by the locals it will make the project look much more complete.

Pizza night made the day of the local takeaway, maybe doubling the takings for the evening. Andrew chose a 12in megadeath extra hot and spicy option. As he began to look like his face was going to explode, everyone was understandingly concerned and sympathetic.

The phrase “self inflicted wound” was whispered in the back ground.

A paper aeroplanes competition was held. Janice was our ace pilot with a magnificent 38ft maiden flight. Andy was the team’s kamikaze pilot determined to “A thing of beauty” - the rebuilt wing wall veer into any available brick

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a daily basis. The equipment hire engineer was very understanding especially when he could share tea and cake.

A nice glass of Port accompanied with a cheeseboard to die for is a popular WRG tradition to be honoured. We held a toast to absent friends, and a “Baby Guinness” toast in honour of long time WRGie Ju Davenport, who left us last year.

Film night was The woman in the van in honour of our very own WRGie in a van. (If you get the chance, check out Louise’s expertly self built camper van. Bijou, but with every mod con). During the interval, popcorn and cocktails were provided. We do like to do things properly.

Colin’s excavation: “The structure I uncovered with the digger Colin was for some time still has the locals guessing. It looks like something to drain the lost in the jungle that is the lost length of canal to the east canal built in the 1960s. If anyone knows, please let us know!” of Borrowash Lock. Somewhere in there was lost the orange flashing that one day the canal will once again be in light from off the top of the digger. This was water. Success breeds success. found two days later after some super-sleuth Thank you credits: investigating by Jordan.

Here the canal has a an unusual feature Tina for her excellent cooking for, as (Colin can describe it - see picture caption) well as working on site each day. and further up passes over a culvert carrying The Derby & Sandiacre Canal Trust the Ock Brook. The culvert was destroyed in for giving us a comprehensive list of the 1950s. Much speculation was mused as tasks, and materials to do them. to a future WRGie project to rebuild the Derby Canal Trustees and Dom and culvert and extend the canal. Time will tell.

Joyce for the daily ice creams drops.

All our efforts would not have been God for making it rain only at night possible without the Olympian efforts of time.

Andy and Jordan, who manned up to three cement mixers at any one time, making And last but not least, our thanks must go to cement, mortar, lime mortar and concrete all Colin and Tina for making the camp happen at the same time. and agreeing to trial the new Covid Canal All the jobs were completed by Friday Camp arrangements after a difficult 18 lunchtime, so there was a bit of time to months of no digging. teach WRGies new skills, Colin giving digger Rex Exon driving lessons to the new volunteers.

Borrowash Lock is now looking in one Camp leader’s notes: I would like to thank piece (albeit a bit muddy, lacking lock gates all the volunteers who turned up to the and water) and is like many a WRG project, camp, and give a very big thank you for all a real boost to the local canal trust’s proyour hard work. Also the WRG Board for gramme to reopen the Derby Canal. Whilst letting us do a camp. And Jen, Alex (who will this in only one small part in a much bigger be sadly missed) and Mikk at head office for project, it shows to the press, public and all the work they do behind the scenes. See authorities that progress is being made, the you all next year! project is serious, is worthy of support and Colin Hobbs

. . . .

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Restoration feature As the opening of the rebuilt Lock 15 completes another phase of the Grantham and maintained in working order for flood management purposes) was the site of a boat rally in 1973 - but this was done more The restoration back-story As long of a publicity exercise for the restoration ago as the 1960s there was local interest in than in the expectation that it would one day reviving or preserving what was left of the be part of the restored route. Elsewhere on abandoned Grantham Canal, which ran from the canal, navigation authority British Waterthe Trent in Nottingham to Grantham. In ways was reluctant to allow restoration of 1970 this led to the founding of the waterway structures, but the canal society Grantham Canal Society - initially to preserve carried out considerable towpath clearance the amenity value of the canal rather than to work, held a rally for small craft at Hickling, reopen it to navigation - but unfortunately created a picnic site and published a walking the early years of the society were not good guide, while a restoration feasibility study ones for the canal. Interest in saving the was carried out in 1975. canal had come just too late to save the Unfortunately in the late 1970s this Nottingham end of the route from being generally positive (if restricted) progress badly damaged by a new road construction came up against another major setback with scheme in the early 1970s, with a length of proposals to develop an important new the new A6011 and a major junction with the coalfield in the Vale of Belvoir which looked A6520 built right on top of the canal - ironiset to cause subsidence which would damcally just as the Canal Society was becoming age the canal restoration’s prospects. And to more of a restoration-oriented body. make things even more complicated, BW The first lock and a short length of proposed building a new large-scale canal to canal leading off the Trent (which had been transport the coal from the new mines to the transferred to the then Trent Water Authority Trent - leading to the Inland Waterways

Restoration feature: The Grantham Canal

Rebuilding under way at Woolsthorpe Lock 14 during a 2019 WRG Canal Camp

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Grantham

Canal

restoration, we take a wider view of progress to date and plans for the future

Pictures by Martin Ludgate

Association feeling that it needed to support the new freight waterway.

Later BW withdrew its plans (as it duplicated an alternative plan for reopening railway lines to carry the coal), and ultimately in 1982 a Government Inquiry turned down the coalfield plans.

But meanwhile the uncertainty and the disagreements within the waterways movement hadn’t helped the restoration’s prospects.

By the 1990s, however, the restoration was making good Lock 1 in Nottingham was the scene of a 1973 boat rally progress at the Grantham end. but is unlikely to feature in the restored canal’s route With WRG Canal Camps supportLength: 33 miles Locks: 18 Date closed: 1936

The Grantham Canal

The Grantham Canal opened in1797 and ran for 33 miles via 18 locks from the River Trent in Nottingham to Grantham. Intended to supply Grantham with coal, it was a wide-beam waterway built with locks 75ft by 14ft, so that it could take the same size of boats as the Nottingham Canal. The canal was moderately successful for the first half of the 19th Century, but its owners saw the arrival of the railways as a threat to its profitability. When a railway was proposed that would parellel the canal from Nottingham to Grantham, the canal’s owners agreed to sell out to the railway company. The railway opened in 1850, the canal’s ownership was transferred in 1854, and traffic on the canal subsequently declined. The last trade ended in 1929, and in 1936 it was officially abandoned - although the Act of Abandonment stipulated that 2ft of water should be maintained in the channel for agricultural needs. Although abandoned, the canal’s railway ownership (by then it was the London & North Eastern Railway, following mergers) meant that it was nationalised in 1948 along with the railways, and has ended up under the Canal & River Trust. In the 1950s many of the road bridges were demolished, but the channel has survived largely intact apart from the loss of a length to a major 1970s road scheme in Nottingham.

Nottingham River To Trent Shardlow

To Newark

Original route obstructed

Funding sought for Locks 12-13 restoration

Cropwell Bishop

Cotgrave

Woolsthorpe Locks Grantham

Redmile The Long Pound Kinoulton

Hickling

A1

Restored length including locks 7 and 8

Proposed diversion via Polser Brook

Locks 14-18 restored

Restored from Woolsthorpe to A1

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On the restored navigable summit level section between Woolsthorpe and the edge of Grantham ing the Canal Society’s efforts, the top three only the part obliterated by the 1970s new locks of the seven-lock Woolsthorpe flight road, but a longer length leading out of the were restored, and a former freight railway city which runs alongside the Radcliffe Road. embankment blocking the canal was reThere are multiple side-roads which cross the moved. The summit level was restored from canal at low level immediately before joining Woolsthorpe to the A1 crossing on the edge the main road, and it’s unlikely that the of Grantham, and a tripboat operation highways authorities would accept either started on this length. liftbridges or (as it would have originally had) Progress hasn’t been limited to the hump-backed bridges leading directly to Tupper end of the canal: a section near junctions.

Cotgrave including two locks was restored as In the last few years GCS returned to part of remediation works on a former coal Woolsthorpe for the major Lottery-supported mine site, initial clearance was carried out at project to rebuild locks 14 and 15 - and that locks 9-11, and on the 20-mile ‘Long Pound’ between these locks and Woolsthorpe, a length of some two and a half miles east of Hickling was cleared in the 1990s thanks to a Derelict Land Grant, while a WRG Christmas Camp in 2006 and weekend visits by London WRG and WRG BITM have helped GCS with vegetation clearance elsewhere on the Long Pound.

Meanwhile in the background, the Canal Society studied the options for bypassing the Lock 8 at Cotgrave, restored under a mine reclamation scheme Nottingham section - not

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has been the main focus of a huge canal society volunteer effort (made even greater by the discovery that both chambers needed to be completely dismantled and rebuilt, rather than repaired as had initially been hoped) supported by numerous WRG Canal Camps over several years leading up to 2019.

It hasn’t all been good news: although the A46 main road improvement scheme did (as one would hope) cross the canal with Next in line for restoration (given funding): Woolsthorpe Lock 13 navigable headhave been cleared, many bridges still survive room, could easily have made better provi(and one has been reinstated, initially as a sion for the canal as part of the junction works carried out where other roads connect low level structure but designed to be converted to a liftbridge when needed), and the with it. towpath is open throughout as a popular walk. A route has been identified (but may Where are we at now? The recent yet change) which uses an enlargement of reopening means that five of the seven the Polser Brook to gain a new access to the Woolsthorpe Locks are now restored, and Trent downstream of Nottingham. the canal is continuously navigable from the A1 crossing on the edge of Grantham to just So what next? The obvious next step is below Lock 14. A length including two locks is restored in Cotgrave. In between, sections to restore the remaining two Woolsthorpe Locks. It is hoped that (unlike locks 14 and 15) Lock 13 will be more of a restoration than a demolition and rebuild, while Lock 12 looks like it might be another one needing to be taken right down. But unfortunately the funding from the existing National Lottery Heritage Fund grant has now been used up, NLHF haven’t yet agreed any further funding, and it looks like being a couple of years before any will Medium-term target: Redmile, the next village west of Woolsthorpe be forthcoming. So

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why doesn’t GCS begin restoring the locks slowly, using what resources and funds it can find? The problem with that approach is that any volunteer work done would normally be counted as equivalent ‘match funding’ to any Lottery grants - but that can’t necessarily be done retrospectively. It’s hoped that this can be overcome and work can begin on those locks in the not-too-distant future, but in the meantime there’s progress on a slipway and other works in the Woolsthorpe area.

At the same time, GCS has been looking to get work going on a ‘second front’ much nearer to the Nottingham end of the canal: the five-mile ‘dry section’ from Cotgrave through locks 9-11 and via Cropwell Bishop to near Kinoulton.

and Redmile village would be an attractive destination for trip-boats, trailboats, and any other craft.

In the longer term, although the A1 main road represents a serious obstruction, GCS feels that the value of having a canal running right into the town rather than ending by a road on the outskirts makes it worth looking for a way through it. And crucially, unlike the road blockage at the Nottingham end, the A1 crosses with adequate headroom. Perhaps if it’s ever upgraded to motorway standard, and opportunity might arise.

If some way can then be found of funding the diversion at the Nottingham end (whether via the Polser Brook or any other route), that would leave some 15 miles of rural canal (with a number of missing road And then what? Once Woolsthorpe locks bridges) from Kinoulton to Redmile. That 12 and 13 have be restored, there are no might sound a lot, but on the plus side it’s in more blockages for some distance along the water, some of the bridges survive, and there Long Pound heading west. In fact there are isn’t a single main (A or B class) road crossonly two obstructions - a farm crossing and a ing it. And no locks at all. very minor road - between there and Martin Ludgate Redmile. Reopening the canal to Redmile would create a ten-mile navigable length To find out more and to join the Grantham from there to the outskirts of Grantham Canal Society see granthamcanal.org

One for the future: GCS is developing plans to restore the length through Cropwell Bishop

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letters

to the editor

In the 1960s David Hutchings handed over a reopened southern Stratford Canal which his successors continued to improve - has it been neglected since?

Hello again Martin I’ve just come off the Stratford on Avon cut after a mixed week aboard. Most of the weather was fine, the canal generally was in good fettle, the boat we hired was ‘good in parts’ as they say – but I have written to the hire company about that.

This is really a matter of enquiry. Have we members out there who have boated this canal in the relatively recent past? I last used it in 2009, and it wasn’t bad; this year it was awful. And no, I am not contradicting the first paragraph: what was so poor was the paddle gear.

When David Hutchings left the canal [following the restoration of the southern section under his leadership and 1964 reopening] to go on to the river Avon, he left behind a canal that worked, but only after a struggle because he was denied enough time to do the job properly. Over the years after that, the major problems were solved by support from the National Trust [who took over as navigation authority for the restored southern section of the canal] and voluntary labour, not forgetting the two Petes who were the permanent workforce – and very hard working they were. ‘Hutch’ used any paddle gear he could lay hands on, and the inbuilt problems that caused were worked out down the years. When I boated down 13 years ago the paddle gear and gates all worked. A few bits were less than great, but caused no real problems.

Last week, I only just managed to work some of the paddles. No doubt I am not as strong as I once was – you can’t get to 74 entirely in good nick after all. But apparently, the paddles haven’t made it through at all well, because most of the racks were knackered as were the pinions. It looks like the Canal & River Trust are worthy successors to BWB and reserve all the rubbish gear for this canal.

May I suggest we ask the Navvies readership about the Stratford cut? Have any of our friends been down there in the past couple of years, and how did you find it? Come to

that, how are things all over the system? It is very annoying that the most easily maintained and easily replaceable parts of a lock should be ignored by regular maintenance.

It was most gratifying that the main things we did over the years to complete Hutchings’s work, that of providing working bywashes at each lock, were still working well. In fact, very gratifying as prior to our intervention most of them in the lower half of the cut did not work at all, and frequently delivered the bywash water to the nearest field. It is very worrying for an old crumbly like me to think that the beginning of that work by the London WRG (London and Home Counties Branch, IWA) now goes back 50 years ….. but I digress.

Just one more thing to mention. Lock 53, Maidenhead Road Lock, suffers from the road being widened which prevents the bottom gate having a conventional balance beam. I suspect the solution, still in use, is a Hutchings inheritance, where the balance beam is cut off completely, and a jury rigged arm is bent through 90 degrees in order to provide something to push/pull against. This solution entirely omitted the addition of a short but very heavy balance weight to support the gate from dragging on the bottom. I could only just move it, but could not shut the gate. I found that judicious work with the boat and lots of water worked, but I wonder about the average boat hirer who would probably be totally stumped.

Anyway, greetings from deepest Hampshire Mike Day Over to you, readers: I confess that I haven’t boated the Stratford since 2014, when I found it basically OK - a little shallow in places for a 3ft draught former working boat, but so are various canals – and don’t recall us having any problems with the operability of the paddle gear. Have any of you with more recent experience found any problems?

And over to you, CRT: any comments; any plans for improvements? ...Ed

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Progress on the “S&N” More progress on the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust’s current major project to reinstate the East Basin at Wappenshall Junction Shrewsbury & Newport Canals The “Great Wall of Wappenshall” [the retaining wall of the east basin at the Wappenhall Junction where the Shrewsbury and Newport canals meet] was finally completed by Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust volunteers at the end of June and a “Topping out” barbecue was had to celebrate this milestone in our restoration plan. We then set about completing more of the basin base slabs.

With 92 to cast in total, this will also be somewhat of a marathon task. As I type this we will have completed 36 of them.

Cement shortages have delayed progress, but we are now managing to get 4 or 5 done each week. We have dispensed with the concrete pump as it was getting expensive. We have now switched to a mix on site arrangement where the concrete is discharged into a 3-tonne swivel dumper and delivered to the waiting “spazzlers” to spread it. Once roughly spread, it is purged of any air pockets using a petrol driven vibrating

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poker. Then it is finally tamped and expansion slot laths are inserted 20mm deep around the edges. These are smothered in mould oil to ensure they can be easily removed once the concrete has set.

Our team of volunteers has now become quite proficient in using this method and 10-12m3 of concrete can be completed in about 2½ hours. The only problem we have encountered is that in the extreme heat, the curing concrete needed to be kept wet to stop it from cracking. So spraying with water for the following 24 hours became necessary. Night shift anyone?

The other major task has been to backfill the retaining wall up to towpath level. Each 150mm of soil has had to be compacted using a whacker-plate. This has proved to be very hard work, as many passes have been required along the 46m length of the wall. We are now about 400mm from the top of the wall. Another 2 or 3 weekends should see it finished.

Bernie Jones

Pictures by SNCT

Opposite: SNCT volunteers completing a slab by tamping it down. The guys with spades are removing any excess concrete to the next slab.

Above: Here are a team of “spazzlers” spreading the concrete over the reinforcing mesh that is supported on spacer rings that are on the polythene liner. Right: SNCT’s JCB excavator is putting soil behind the retaining wall.

This is then spread with shovels and rakes, then whacker-plated at every 150mm depth. We had to attach a rope to the whacker plate to pull it over the wet soil. Extremely good free exercise if anyone feels like joining us!

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Progress Wendover Arm The Wendover Arm Trust are continuing with the next length of channel excavation and re-lining, and have invented ‘The Bentomatic’ Grand Union Wendover Arm and sunny, with all with all work completed just

Pipe capping: an explanation The Wendover Arm was built primarily as a feeder to bring in water from springs near Wendover to feed the Tring summit of the canal’s main line – but it suffered from long-term leakage problems as a result of the porous chalky soil it passed through, and this led to its eventual demise as a navigation, and to the worst section being drained many years ago. That’s the length that’s now being restored: it has an 18-inch glazed clay pipe installed underneath, buried in the canal bed, to carry a feed to allow water from Wendover to still reach the pumping station at Tring (and from there to the Grand Union main line) after the canal had been drained. Due to the age of the pipe (which is now abandoned and blocked), as part of the channel restoration and waterproofing work, protective measures must be taken to avoid damage to the new lining system if the pipe ever collapses under the restored canal. Therefore the pipe is being uncovered, a section at a time, and a concrete ‘raft’ or capping is being installed on top of it to provide that protection.

Pictures by WAT

For the June working party it was dry before we had 70mm or rain in two days! The weather was with us for once!

The pipe capping/roadway has continued at a pace during the good weather. We now have 245 metres of capping completed from Bridge 4 towards Tringford (work is proceeding from the far end of the dry section back towards the GU Main Line). During the recent works the second “lamp hole” (a shaft to allow inpection of the flow in the pipe, 2m below) into the pipeline was reached. As can be seen in the picture, the lamp hole is close to the towpath because of the glazed clay piping being laid in a series of straight lines on the curving canal. The next section of pipe goes off at a different angle to “graze” the offside apex of the next bend to the right.

The lamp hole pipe was cut down below bed level and covered with a concrete slab before the normal pipe capping concrete was installed.

The excavator clears around the top of the ‘lamp hole’ inspection shaft reaching down to the pipe

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Whilst excavating the bed for the capping we are going below the coal tar lining (added late on in the canal’s working life to try to waterproof it) and the original excavation level when the canal was originally built. The local strata are very hard primaeval chalk and, even with modern diesel-powered excavators, this is difficult work! We can imagine the original navvies digging through this by hand: it must have been slow and tiring. Later, when the pipeline was installed, the steam powered excavator probably struggled to get to 2m down as well! Luckily the pipeline excavation shows us where the pipeline is buried.

Swing bridge brickwork restoration: Work on the old swing bridge walls has been continued. The foundations for a curved wall have now been built up with heritage bricks to form a “lead in” from the 45-degree banks to the width between the swing bridge walls. This must be robustly built to withstand boating “errors” for many years to come!

The first of several Memorial Benches was “planted” on the offside bank near to Whitehouses.

Bentomatic: We are still developing a new method for laying the Bentomat (waterproof bentonite clay lining material) by use of an excavator. This uses a fabricated steel structure so that a Bentomat roll can be lifted and manipulated with an excavator.

The framework has been designed, stress proven by analysis and built by a specialist Company. Special welding techniques were used to guarantee the joint strength required. A roll of Bentomat weighs around 1 tonne so a 13 tonne Excavator is required to avoid tipping over. After initial trials, some adjustments have been made, and it is hoped more trials can commence in July.

This equipment has been nicknamed ‘The Bentomatic’ in honour of Wallace and Gromit. When in use the reliance on manually handling of the Bentomat and the subsequent difficulties involved will be much eliminated. We will also not have to spend time and energy cutting the large Bentomat roll into smaller pieces to aid handling.

Historical refuse Tip: This is the short section of infilled channel just past the current limit of navigation at Tringford, where the unexpected discovery of contaminated fill (basically old domestic refuse with a lead content) has pushed up the expected cost of re-excavating it very significantly. Following on from some intensive work clearing the area (including the Bentomat cutting slab) and obtaining several technical proposals from hazardous material removal specialists, we are now in the process of further analysing the material in Pipe capping being laid and (below) a section completed

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the tip. This has been done after we were given advice by one of the potential contractors, and it may mean that we can reduce the cost of removal of the infill if we can show that the material is less hazardous than previously thought. The results were expected to be available towards the end of July.

Wanted: An Archivist to sort out and help store hundreds of pictures on our cloud-based archive. We have many historical pictures that need to be stored for Impression of ‘The Bentomatic’ at work multiple access users. Once we have a viable storage and description procedure, extra help will be provided to get the pictures into the cloud.

Tony Bardwell , Wendover Arm Trust Operations Director

Repairs to the old swingbridge wall while (below) the adjacent lead-in brick walls take shape

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Progress Stover Canal Next it’s down to South Devon, where the Stover Canal Trust are reproducing a historic wharfside crane from an oak tree and a black-and-white photo Stover Canal

Pictures by Stover Canal Trust

The volunteers of the Stover Canal Trust have been progressing the construction of a replica of the crane which was used at the Ventiford Basin terminus to load granite brought down from Haytor on Dartmoor onto the barges. We had just one black and white photograph to work from and much research was done to ensure the original was followed as closely as possible.

A suitable oak tree was sourced in north Devon and it was transported to a local sawmill to be fashioned into shape. The pieces were then taken to our compound near the canal (but unfortunately some 1½ miles from the basin) where it was skilfully finished, with the jib and supporting strut being fitted to the main shaft.

On 2 August the pieces were taken to the basin along the Stover Way cyclepath and assembed on-site. Some metalwork remains to be added to show the gearing used on the original and an unvelling is planned for mid-September. The whole Basin restoration, involving landscaping, planting, seating and an information board, is expected to be completed by Spring 2022.

We are grateful to the contributions which local contractors have made to the crane construction, many of them have worked at ‘cost’ rates or less!

Rob Harris Trustee, Stover Canal Trust

The Stover Canal Ventiford Basin crane Above: The only surviving photograph of the original crane. Opposite upper: a suitable oak tree for the main shaft, sourced in North Devon, is fashioned into shape at a local sawmill. Opposite lower: The strut and jib are fitted to the main shaft

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Stover Canal

Length: 1¾ miles

Locks: 5

Date closed: 1943

al an rc ve Sto

The Stover Canal, built between 1790 and 1792, was a short waterway running inland up the Teign valley in south Devon. From a junction with the River Teign above the head of the estuary at Newton Abbot it climbed via five locks (the bottom two built as a staircase pair) to a terminus at Ventiford.

It was built to take barges up to Ha 56ft long, but some of the locks yto Site of crane: were double this rG r Ventiford Basin a length, to take nit Dartmoor eT two barges at ram Graving Dock wa once. The barges carried ball clay from local clay pits y Lock: restored down the Teign estuary to Teignmouth; from there it was Ventiford carried onward by coastal shipping for use in ceramic trades.

Teigngrace Lock From 1820 the canal also served the granite quarries on Graving Dock Lock Teignbridge Lock Teignmouth Dartmoor via the Haytor Granite Tramway (with stone ‘rails’) Jetty Marsh Locks until the quarries closed in 1858. After that the upper end Teign estuary of the canal fell into disuse, but the lower part continued Newton to carry clay until 1937. It was closed in 1943.

R. Teign Abbot

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The Stover Canal Ventiford Basin crane (continued) Top: erecting the main shaft.

Above: Attaching the strut and jib to the main shaft. Right: the crane erected and awaiting final metalwork.

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tech tips Temporary works Temporary works - such as formwork, scaffolding, dams and work platforms - are safety critical and subject to CDM rules. Mikk Bradley explains...

Temporary Works Waterway Recovery Group have recently prepared a guidance video on managing temporary works and this article outlines the key points of managing temporary works in restoration . Just about all restoration projects will have some form of temporary works, which will need to be planned and possibly designed.

Temporary works are defined in British Standard 5975 Code of Practice for Temporary Works Procedures and the Permissible Stress Design of Falsework (BS5975) as the parts of the works that allow or enable the construction of the permanent structure or asset, or provide protection support or access to the works and is described as an engineered solution. They may be removed after use or remain in place in the permanent works.

Some examples of temporary works that are likely to be found on a restoration project are:

· · · · · · · · · ·

Access roads Scaffolding Formwork for concreting Edge protection Excavation supports Earth dams Fencing Floating platforms Work platforms for plant Temporary embankments or cuttings

Temporary works are safety critical and require the same level of design and construction as permanent works. When designing temporary works you must consider how you will remove them when you have finished using them. The nature of restoration projects often requires temporary works to be left in place longer than on a commercial construction site. The design of temporary works can be specialist works because the designer needs to understand how they are to be used and how they are affected by

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other work nearby. For example the designer of formwork for a concrete pour will need to understand how the concrete will be poured and the rate of filling the forms.

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM) requires volunteers (as workers) to be competent and those carrying out temporary works need have had the appropriate education, training and to be experienced. They need to be judged by a senior person in the restoration group as being competent. Temporary works procedures should cover the management of the design process and include measures for ensuring that the design function and the roles for co-ordination and supervision of temporary works is carried out by competent individuals.

The volunteer organizing the temporary works needs to be aware of the problems that can occur at each stage of the process and needs to co-ordinate the design, selection of equipment, appointment of installers, supervision of the work, checking completion and giving authorization to load or unload.

This needs to be done in a systematic way to prevent problems occurring.

Not all temporary works need to be designed. For small scale and straightforward situations a standard solution may be appropriate, for example the use of a tower scaffold or road forms for concrete slab construction.

BS5975 sets out one way of managing temporary works that works well on medium and large projects, but the principles can be applied to all restoration projects and the detail required will depend on the size and complexity of the restoration project. BS5975 introduces the Temporary Works Coordinator (TWC), who must be appointed by someone senior in the restoration group, known as the Designated Individual.

Restoration groups need to demonstrate that they have an effective procedure in place for controlling the risks from the use of temporary works. The procedure will contain some or all of the following elements:

· · · · · · · ·

·

Appointment of a TWC Preparation of an adequate temporary works design brief Completion and maintenance of a temporary works register Produce a temporary works design with a designers risk assessment and method statement where appropriate Independent checking of a temporary works design Issue of a design/design check certificate, if appropriate Pre-erection inspection of the temporary works materials and components, Control and supervision of the erection, safe use, maintenance and dismantling the temporary works: (a) check temporary works have been erected in accordance with the design and issue a permit to load where necessary (b) confirm the permanent works have attained strength to allow dismantling of the temporary works and issue a permit to dismantle where necessary Measures to ensure the design function, the role of TWC and Temporary Works Supervisor(s) where appropriate are carried out by competent volunteers.

Restoration groups may not have the experience to operate their own temporary works procedure and may need to use expertise within the IWA Restoration Hub. The TWC is responsible for ensuring the temporary works procedure for the control of temporary works is carried out on site. The TWC must ensure a suitable temporary works design is carried out, checked and implemented on site in accordance with the relevant drawings and specification. On restoration projects involving lower risk temporary works the TWC may be the designer as well, provided they are competent to carry out both roles. The TWC should have:

· · ·

Experience of the relevant types of temporary works, Completed formal TWC training, The competence and authority to be effective.

On larger restoration sites it may be appropriate to appoint one or more Temporary Works Supervisors (TWS). The TWS is responsible to the TWC and assists in the supervision of temporary works.

It can be useful to prepare a temporary

works register to list all identified temporary works items. These can be set out as a table using appropriate headings:

· · · · · · · · ·

Design brief number (for each item) and date issued Short description of the temporary works Date required Category of temporary works Designer Checker Date design completed Date design checked/approved Erection complete and checked or ‘permit to load’/‘permit to dismantle’.

A design brief should be prepared for each item of temporary works and should include all data relevant to the design and should be prepared in adequate time to allow all subsequent activities. The TWC should ensure the design brief is provided to the designer and design checker.

The temporary works design should be based on the design brief and any changes made by the designer should be referred back to the TWC. The design should be carried out in accordance with recognized engineering practices. Even relatively simple temporary works may require careful consideration in their design, construction, commissioning, inspection and loading. A ‘standard solution’ is an arrangement for which the basic design work has been already carried out.

Temporary works designs should be checked for design concept, strength and structural adequacy and compliance with the brief. The design check should be carried out by an independent competent volunteer.

For restoration groups the principles of BS5975 should be in place if not the formal and specific procedures. You should ensure suitable competent temporary works designer/adviser is in place to supply an engineered solution with checking at an appropriate level,someone to oversee and co-ordinate the temporary works process, and verification of correct installation.

If you don’t have sufficiently experienced volunteers you can obtain the services of a suitably competent TWC and designer from a temporary works consultant. Advice is available from the IWA Restoration Hub. If you want to know more, have a look at the 5 minute video produced by WRG, which is available on Youtube.

Mikk Bradley

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News

navvies

Lots of news from the IWA Restoration Hub - looking forward to the online restoration conference, and looking back at the Restoring Confidence project IWA / WRG Restoring Confidence Project: a review WRG’s parent body the Inland Waterways Association’s Restoration Hub and its activities are funded by IWA memberships, donations and grants.

In 2019 we were awarded nearly £30,000 from National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) Grant for our ‘Restoring Confidence’ Project. If you’ve received support or training from IWA in the past 18 months, funding is likely to have come from this grant, or through our capacity building grant from Historic England.

The Restoring Confidence project, funded by the Resilient Heritage Grant Programme, aimed to enhance the role of IWA’s technical support officer, permitting them the opportunity to undertake further training and provide more expert advice to restoration organisations as well as helping restart any stalled restoration projects. The grant was also secured to help the IWA Restoration Hub provide training on environmental management, heritage construction methods, good governance and legacy fundraising, and set up funding surgeries to advise restoration societies on how best to approach

funders or manage their own fundraising efforts.

The Restoring Confidence Project aimed to develop five key strands of our Restoration Hub:

. .

. . .

Technical: Development of key members of staff to provide technical support to waterway restoration project, including support to projects which has stalled due to lack of expertise.

Environmental: Access training in order to provide effective environmental support and advice to restoration group, with a particular focus on integration of heritage and biodiversity conservation.

Fundraising: Developing skills of Fundraising Officer and cover costs of offering fundraising 1-2-1.

Upskilling: Funding to organise more training events for WRG and restoration groups.

Resources: Creation of a new, accessible virtual Restoration Hub.

Training included this SSSTS (Site Supervision Safety Training Scheme) course...

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Impact on People and Numbers: The pandemic dramatically impacted our ability to deliver our original programme of events and activities, with our traditional model of overnight stays/volunteers meeting in central locations for training shut down overnight.

Mikk Bradley, our Technical Support Officer, also had to be diverted away to support groups trying to navigate through the challenges of interrupting COVID guidelines and rules. It has also meant we were unable to offer several planned bricklaying training weekends within the funding period.

Despite this, and after working closely with the NHLF to rejig our programme, we managed to deliver on most of our key targets improving our ability to support restoration projects, providing workshops and training events (even though many have been through zoom) and working on strategic issues such as governance and biodiversity net gains.

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Launch of Restoration Hub TV: Brand new youtube playlist on IWA’s main account which has received 2618 views of our 15 webinars and guidance videos.

Creation of the Virtual Restoration Hub: A dedicated space on IWA’s new website full of resources for restoration groups – due to launch September 2021. If you would like to be sent details of launch please email jenny.morris@waterways.org.uk

for Restoration in order to develop a plan to ensure the sector seizes the opportunities as this legislation comes in.

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Annual Restoration Conference: 153 people viewed the first ever Virtual Annual Restoration Conference 2020, and the subsequent six Thursday lunchtime breakout session were viewed by 262 people. The 2021 conference will also be virtual but we plan to return to face-to-face events in Spring 2022.

More conversations: In April 2021 we helped organise the first Restoration Networking Meeting which was attended by 40 people, representing 19 groups. We have also run webinars and workshops with the Young Trustee Movement, Heritage Lottery, external consultants on PR and several other individuals to talk about key issues affecting the sector. We have more events planned in Autumn 2021 as a legacy of this project focusing on diversity and equality for example.

IWA would like to thank the National Lottery Heritage Fund for this grant. We hope to continue to be able to develop our capacity to support restoration groups going forward as well as growing our ‘panels of experts’ that offer advice to restoration groups.

Jenny Morris

193 queries received on the Hub ‘Hotline’: Staff Team have dealt with a diverse range of queries from waterway restoration groups – from requests to undertake Preliminary Environmental Surveys to helping develop volunteer training programmes to technical advice on rebuilding bridges and locks.

105 volunteers with new skills: Restoration volunteers have developed a wide range of skills by attending courses funded through the Restoring Confidence project – we now have more first aiders, mental health first aiders, slingers and chainsaw operators.

Strategic thinking on Environmental Issues: We have formed the Biodiversity Net Gains Working Group

...and this practical lifting and slinging course

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navvies

News

Coming soon: the restoration conference and other hub events. And going soon: the last bottles of WRG Restoration Whisky. Hurry while stocks last!

Virtual Restoration Conference Due to the success of the 2020 conference and the continued uncertainty around Covid19 we have decided to run the 2021 Annual Waterway Restoration Conference as a virtual event.

The conference, jointly organised by WRG’s parent body the Inland Waterways Association and the Canal & River Trust, will take place on Saturday 16th October 2021 from 9.45am to 1pm.

This year the conference will look at how we, as a sector, can work in a greener way. We also have a keynote speaker from one of our main stakeholders, the Environment Agency.

Restoration Hub Events

Youth engagement: IWA’s & Canal & River Trust’s Restoration Teams have been running the first ever Waterway Restoration Youth Engagement Month this August.

Young people are already making positive impacts across communities throughout the UK. “4 in 10 young people aged between 10-20 are already taking part in youth social action” so there is a huge opportunity for the waterways restoration sector to engage with young people and build stronger, more sustainable organisations. There is still a perception that young people may not have the skills, maturity or experience to get involved in all aspects of waterway restoration, however, young people have so much to offer Session 1: Working together: Environand can bring energy, new perspectives and ment Agency priorities going forward - Envidifferent experiences to your organisation. ronment Agency, speaker to be confirmed Engagement with young people does not need to be limited to practical skills on site, Session 2: Heritage & Biodiversity Con- involving young people in decision making servation - Kate Jeffreys, Director at could bring a diversity of perspective that Geckoella & Historic England Researcher really benefits your organisation.

Going forward we hope this month Session 3: How green is our sector? becomes an annual fixture in everyone’s John Pomfret, IWA’s Environmental Advisor calendar but year 1 was all about providing support and advice to groups who want to Big Green Conversation: Discussion and reach out to younger audiences. We have Q&A with our panel of experts: John therefore created a digital Youth EngagePomfret, Inland Waterways Association; ment Toolkit and series of resources for Anna Tarbet, Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust; restoration groups to use. The toolkit aims to David Barnes, Manchester, Bolton & Bury give groups the confidence and ideas to start Canal Society; Kate Jeffreys, Geckoella, out on their journeys of engaging young Darren Leftley, Canal & River Trust, Head volunteers, with a particular focus on partof Water Development, Investment & Comnership working. By the time you are reading mercial; Jonathan Mosse, IWA’s Sustainthis we will have also held three youth enable Boating Group - HVO Expert gagement events to celebrate youth volunKeeping the event online means we do teering on the Lancaster Canal, Wendover not have to limit bookings so please share Arm and Buckingham Canal as well as a halfinformation about this series of virtual events day workshop with the Young Trustee Moveto all your fellow waterway restoration volun- ment on diversifying your Board. teers and staff.

If you’d like to download the Toolkit go To book, see waterways.org.uk and to waterways.org.uk/contact-us/youthselect ‘events’ from the ‘support’ tab. engagement-toolkit We look forward to seeing you there!

Also if you would like to get involved in Jenny Morris running an event for the 2022 Youth En-

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gagement Month please contact jenny.morris@waterways.org.uk Diversity: Let’s make our sector more diverse – join us for a one day workshop run by the Equality Trust.

This one day workshop on Thursday 16 September (9:30am-5pm) is focused on making our sector more diverse – so if you are interested in starting the conversation then please sign up to this free workshop. The more people we have involved the better!

This session will provide an opportunity to think together about how we can work more inclusively. Participants will gain a better understanding of equality, equity, diversity and inclusion issues and discuss language, engagement, and formulate an action plan.

It will be a safe space for everyone to contribute, share their knowledge and explore any queries.

For details and to book, contact jenny.morris@waterways.org.uk.

WRG Whisky The commemorative Restoration Islay single malt whisky produced to commemorate WRG’s 50th anniversary in 2020 is still available - but in decreasing quantities, with just 49 bottles left as we went to press.

It would make an ideal Christmas present for the discerning whisky-loving WRGie, don’t you think? And that time of year is approaching! See waterways.org.uk/support/shop/restoration-whisky-10-year-private-cask to order one while you still can.

When it’s gone, it’s gone - the remaining WRG whisky

Thank you ...to Chris Griffiths for his continued assistance with printing Navvies.

Also to Jen, Alex and Mikk at Head Office for their valuable contributions which have helped to keep this issue on track at short notice after the original plans went awry. And indeed to Alex for his contributions over the last five years (I actually more-or-less understand Biodiversity Net Gain!) - all the best for It wouldn’t be a canal camps programme - even a the future from the Editor and all inshort one - without cake. This one’s by Ian Johnson volved in Navvies.

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