Camp reports Waveney and Derby

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...

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

My last two camp reports for this location (2018 and 2019) had film and music themes with 2018 being based upon The Magnificent Seven (there were seven of us) and a rehash of Glen Campbell’s Galveston into Geldeston! So, what to do this year…

Fairly obvious really, twelve muddy WRGies would obviously be The Dirty Dozen! That is the closest this WRG production could get to the 1967 film which was a about a WW2 plot for a group of Allied troops (all convicted for serious crimes) to be sent on a supposed suicide mission behind enemy lines.

Our script was to finish restoring the southern lock wall. 60% had been done on week-long camps in 2017, 2018 and 2019 and May 2020’s camp to finish it was to be one of two weeks but that plan went out of the window when something (I forget what!) prevented the camp starting until fourteen months later.

Anyway, twelve honourable WRGies agreed to star in the camp as long as they could achieve a negative indication to a test that involved sticking long ear-type cleaning sticks down their throats and up their nostrils before setting off for the delights of the Suffolk / Norfolk border. They also agreed to extra cleaning duties and not to be offended that the beds of their neighbours in the hall would be over two metres away instead of the traditional method of being as close together as possible. Two centimetres or two metres apart makes no difference to the ferocity of the snoring!

In this first week of two we cleared out the soil behind the chamber wall so we could easily remove the falling-apart brickwork down to a firm base, some of which is below the high tide level.

Did I mention Geldeston Lock is in water? Well it is, and is the highest point of the River Waveney to be tidal, some four hours after the tide reaches the coast about ten miles to the east.

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.

Bungay Ellingham Lock

Wainford Lock Geldeston Lock

Canal Camp site: Geldeston Lock Tidal river to Breydon Water and Great Yarmouth

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

Pictures by Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans

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 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

Reinstating the quoin stone

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 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

Personalised plates, mugs and glasses

fact file Derby & Sandiacre Canal

Length: 14 miles Locks: 9 (on main line Swarkestone-Sandiacre) Date closed: 1964

DERBY Original route obliterated Canal Camp site: Borrowash Erewash Canal to Langley Mill

Sandiacre

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

Swarkestone Trent & Mersey Canal to Burton page 16

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! rd

This was the 3 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.

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 suspended 20ft above

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, The new cast concrete coping ‘stone’ ‘Andrew’s baby’: the rebuilt retaining wall at the bottom end of the lock page 17

and the finished product looks great.

About 8 square metres of ‘crazy paving’ was required to tidy up the area surrounding the lock chamber. Louise masterminded this task, using many of the rocks that had been recovered from the canal lock when it was excavated by previous WRG camps.

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 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 veer into any available brick wall. El recorded a magnificent zero foot maiden flight distance, whilst David was disqualified for chewing up his aircraft into a papier-mâché ball and throwing it. The self propelled wheelbarrow proved its worth in saving a lot of time, despite

David’s determination make it break down on The ‘crazy paving’ on the lockside “A thing of beauty” - the rebuilt wing wall

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 was for some time lost in the jungle that is the lost length of canal to the east of Borrowash Lock. Somewhere in there was lost the orange flashing light from off the top of the digger. This was found two days later after some super-sleuth investigating by Jordan.

Here the canal has a an unusual feature (Colin can describe it - see picture caption) and further up passes over a culvert carrying the Ock Brook. The culvert was destroyed in the 1950s. Much speculation was mused as to a future WRGie project to rebuild the culvert and extend the canal. Time will tell.

All our efforts would not have been possible without the Olympian efforts of Andy and Jordan, who manned up to three cement mixers at any one time, making cement, mortar, lime mortar and concrete all at the same time.

All the jobs were completed by Friday lunchtime, so there was a bit of time to teach WRGies new skills, Colin giving digger driving lessons to the new volunteers.

Borrowash Lock is now looking in one piece (albeit a bit muddy, lacking lock gates and water) and is like many a WRG project, a real boost to the local canal trust’s programme to reopen the Derby Canal. Whilst this in only one small part in a much bigger project, it shows to the press, public and authorities that progress is being made, the project is serious, is worthy of support and

Colin’s excavation: “The structure I uncovered with the digger still has the locals guessing. It looks like something to drain the canal built in the 1960s. If anyone knows, please let us know!” that one day the canal will once again be in water. Success breeds success. Thank you credits: . Tina for her excellent cooking for, as well as working on site each day. . The Derby & Sandiacre Canal Trust for giving us a comprehensive list of tasks, and materials to do them. . Derby Canal Trustees and Dom and Joyce for the daily ice creams drops. . God for making it rain only at night time. And last but not least, our thanks must go to Colin and Tina for making the camp happen and agreeing to trial the new Covid Canal Camp arrangements after a difficult 18 months of no digging. Rex Exon Camp leader’s notes: I would like to thank all the volunteers who turned up to the camp, and give a very big thank you for all your hard work. Also the WRG Board for letting us do a camp. And Jen, Alex (who will be sadly missed) and Mikk at head office for all the work they do behind the scenes. See you all next year! Colin Hobbs page 19