Navvies 309

navvies volunteers restoring waterways

The return of Canal Camps: Montgomery and Waveney reports

issue 309 october-november 2021

Mikk Bradley

In this issue we’ve got another two reports from the short programme of ‘trial’ canal camps we managed to run in late summer. Above is the lock wall going up during the second of two weeks at Geldeston Lock on the Waveney (see page 14), while below is some machinery training on a week of prep for School House Bridge on the Montgomery (see page 10)

Alex Melson

Intro Late summer canal camps

page 2

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 Jonathan looks back at trial camps and forward to 2022 4 Editor are things really looking up now? 5-7 Coming soon actual work party dates! 8-9 Camp reports Mont and Waveney 10-16 Weekend dig report Geldeston finale 17-18 Letters the state of the waterways 19 Restoration Feature Burslem Port 20-22 Weekend dig report KESCRG at Tickners on the Wey & Arun Canal 23-25 Restoration Feature Burndell Bridge on the old Portsmouth & Arundel 26-28 Progress restoration updates 29-35 Navvies news info for trailer towing 36-37 Infill the WRG Movie Channel 38-39

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 310: 1 November.

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: Young Duke of Edinburgh’s Award volunteers installing a soakaway during the Montgomery Canal Camp as preparations for 2022’s School House Bridge project. (Picture: Mikk Bradley) Back cover upper: KESCRG on the Wey & Arun - see report, p23 (Ralph Bateman); lower: WRG NW sales stand rides again at Worcester IWA Festival of Water! (Martin Ludgate)

page 3

comment Acting Chairman Standing in for Chairman Mike Palmer, Jonathan Smith looks back on a short but successful programme of trial canal camps, and forward to 2022 Acting Chairman’s Comment Doesn’t time pass quickly? It only seems yesterday that I was writing my first Acting Chairman’s piece for Navvies, and here I am writing my second! The most important news is that it should also be my last – I am pleased to say that Mike Palmer is now out of hospital and at home, and while still not 100% yet, he is making a good recovery, and expects to be signed off as fit for work around the end of November.

I also can’t believe that Alex Melson (our Volunteer Coordinator) had been with us for over five years now. Alex left us at the end of August for a new role as a Green Spaces Development Officer at a local council. We wish him all the best in his new role.

It is difficult to remember how we used to operate without that full time support. We are very fortunate that the new volunteer co-ordinator (Jonathan Green) will start with us in late October, with (hopefully) a nice gentle introduction on the October canal camp at Burslem Port!

Talking about canal camps we had five very successful trial camps where we managed the accommodation (in particular) in a Covid safe way. The working group, who spent a great deal of time and hard work in coming up with the working practices, are now reviewing them and we are confident that we can resume canal camps going forward. Although there is effectively little or no restriction in England (at present) the reality is that all operations must risk assess what they do, how they do it, and take effective measures to mitigate the risks associated with Covid. Not surprisingly there is no specific guidance from the government about volunteers sleeping in communal accommodation (and realistically there never will be as it is not a national priority!)

I am also confident that the local and regional groups can safely resume weekend working parties and we have shared the results so far with them - and already some weekends have restarted.

It really does feel as if some sense of return to normality is happening and that we can once again start to push ahead with physical restoration on the ground, with some common sense restrictions. Unfortunately, one of those casualties of common sense is the Reunion / Bonfire Bash weekend in November – there will not be a Reunion weekend this year: the limitations of time, site and accommodation mean it is not sensible or practical to try and have an event like this at the moment. So, for those of us who were hoping it would be an opportunity to meet up with friends (possibly for the first time in more than a year) I’m afraid that I have to disappoint you.

We are now working on both the Christmas camps and canal camps for 2022, and, although we expect a few challenges, I’m hopeful we can put together a full programme.

We have already decided that the summer camps brochure will be produced later than usual (it will now be in February / March - and if all goes to plan it will be mailed out with Navvies issue 211) and we will launch the February and Easter camps online late this year – so for those interested in these please keep an eye out for them.

While a lot of time and effort has been spent on how camps and volunteer working could be successfully achieved with Covid limitations, there has also been ongoing work in the background. The updated Practical Restoration Handbook should be available this year, along with updated volunteers’ Health and Safety Booklet. these are just two examples of the work behind the scenes that the volunteers and staff manage working together.

And that is perhaps as good a way to end an article as any – remember what can be achieved by working together!

Jonathan Smith

page 4

Editorial A little optimism?

The editor wonders if a quick scan of the pictures in this issue gives grounds for hope - and ponders the impact of a ‘do not demolish’ culture...

I might be daft but I’m not stupid (*)

Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans

In what way might that claimed lack of stupidity manifest itself? Well, for starters I’m not going to claim that things are ‘back to normal’, or even ‘getting back to normal’ - given that exactly a year ago I was already backtracking on the optimistic ‘back to work’ theme that I’d been planning, and which had hit the buffers as the Covid rules tightened up again. I’m also not going to risk using expressions like ‘post-Covid’ or suggesting that there isn’t every chance that it will turn around and bite us on the collective arse if we start thinking that way. And I’m going to repeat that information in this issue about forthcoming working parties should be treated with caution and checked, as the situation could change quickly.

But having got those disclaimers in first, I have to say how refreshing it was to see the pictures from the late summer ‘trial’ WRG Canal Camps, particularly the set that Mikk Bradley sent from the Montgomery Canal, and realise that yes, a few things were starting to happen that we’ve really missed over the last year and a half.

Look at the front cover for starters: a happy bunch of Duke of Edinburgh’s Award volunteers shovelling gravel, having fun, and genuinely helping a vital project - next year’s rebuilding of School House Bridge - to move forward. And on the inside front cover: one of them being trained to drive an excavator by WRG’s one and only Adrian Sturgess. Oh, and on the subject of Adrian, on the ‘Infill’ pages (which have returned after a couple of issues when I just struggled to find anything amusing to put in the mag at all) a jolly pic of his balloon-bedecked birthday digger to show that the notion of having a laugh on camp is alive and well alongside the serious business of canal restoration. And on the back cover, a picture of our friends in KESCRG on a weekend dig on the Wey & Arun - with a London WRG weekend to follow - while on the ‘Coming Soon’ pages, KESCRG have gone so far as to pencil-in a list of weekend working party dates for the next few months, rather than the few occasional ad-hoc short-notice digs that the regional / mobile groups have managed to organise when possible over the last year. Also on the back cover is the famous WRG North West Sales Stand. And on this page, there’s even a picture of your editor laying bricks at Geldeston, after as near a brick-free year as I’ve The editor helps finish the Geldeston Lock chamber wall: see p14 had since the early 1990s. (*) You may or may not agree. This is an opinion column, after all...

page 5

No, we’re not in ‘the new normal’ (whatever that is) yet, and we’re certainly not throwing caution to the wind, but as we head into that time of year when we plan for next summer’s camps, I think (fingers crossed, touch wood) we can do it with just a little optimism.

But what of the wider world of canal restoration. Are there grounds for optimism there too? There are a few current developments that show that this might just be the case...

Firstly, as we cover in our Navvies News pages, the saga of the planning application for houses at Froghall which would destroy the prospects of ever reopening the Uttoxeter has reached a satisfactory conclusion, with Staffordshire Moorlands District Council throwing out the application at its September meeting. That is extremely good news, not just for the Uttoxeter but also as a precedent for any other restoration schemes where there are fears that councils might bow to the need for new housing, even at the expense of overruling planning measures which have been put in place to protect a canal restoration.

But if you’re looking for something that will translate into actual physical progress in the not-too-distant future, look further south. We’ve already shown you (see Navvies 307 back cover) the stockpile of pre-cast concrete sections which will soon form the first ever main line railway / canal crossing reinstated as part of a UK waterway restoration at Stonehouse, where the Birmingham - Bristol main line embankment currently blocks the Stroudwater (part of the Cotswold Canals). Well it looks like it may soon be joined by one of the first canal crossings of an existing motorway to be built as part of a UK waterway restoration. Where the M4 blocks the Wilts & Berks Canal just south of Swindon, a bid to a Highways England fund for reversing damage caused by road construction in the past (the same fund which paid £4m for the A38 / Cotswold Canals crossing at Whitminster - see various recent issues of Navvies) has secured £42,000 for a feasibility study for a new bridge. The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust is hopeful that this will be followed by a six-figure sum to pay for detailed design work, and then by the full funding to build the bridge in around 2023-24. And if that sounds like overoptimism on the part of the Canal Trust, there’s something of a statement of faith in the future of the canal in the fact that a new canal bridge is currently under construction to carry Wharf Road (which is being diverted as part of road alterations in connection with an access road to a new housing development) over the new route of the canal on its way to the M4 bridge. See diagram below.

And looking further ahead it seems there’s a chance that one or both of these restorations could finally benefit from a funding source that’s often looked like a good way to pay for canal reopenings, but so far has never really delivered. And that’s domestic water supply works - usually in the form of water transfer schemes from wet areas to where the water’s needed. Of 15 major water projects which have been given the official green light for further development, two could provide big benefits for canal restoration. The first is a transfer scheme to take water from the Severn catchment to the Thames - and one option for this is to restore the entire eastern length of the Cotswold Canals from Sapperton Tunnel to the Thames as the transfer channel. The second is the proposal for a large new reservoir to hold supplies (possibly Swindon M4 delivered by this motorway transfer scheme) Access road Planned new near Abingdon. for new canal bridge This would block housing under M4 the original route motorway of the Wilts & Berks Canal, but a Planned bypass route new canal would be proroute vided as part of the reservoir New canal bridge work. In addition Original under construction a new emergency canal route draw-down channel (all new reserWharf Road voirs need a way of emptying them Plans for getting the Wilts & Berks Canal across the M4 south of Swindon

page 6

in a hurry if necessary) leading for several miles to the Thames would be built to navigable standards to provide the replacement for the eastern length of the canal, whose original route through Abingdon is no longer available.

Grounds for optimism, perhaps?

Finally, I’ve seen a few things published recently highlighting one of the largest (but up to now one of the less obviously high-profile) contributors to world carbon dioxide emissions: construction - and in particular making bricks, steel and cement. No, don’t worry, I’m not going to suggest that canal restoration is a significant contributor to global warming!

But there are a few calls - most recently in a report from the Royal Academy of Engineering - for the Government to “stop buildings being demolished” - and to reuse existing buildings more. Or where that’s not practicable, to increase the amount of reclaimed materials reused.

Now I’m not going to go into the rights, wrongs and practicalities of these arguments that’s another discussion. And for now it’s just a case of ‘experts muttering” (as our Chairman puts it) rather than Government policy (as per Biodiversity Net Gain, see below) - but that may change. So I’ll point out (not for the first time) the way that savvy canal societies have always managed to turn all sorts of unhappy environmental / economic / social outcomes into ways of getting canals reopened. Everything from the high unemployment of the 1970s-80s (think job creation schemes on the canals) and the decline of the UK’s heavy industries (derelict land grants for waterway restoration) to our tendency to fill our planet with trash (landfill tax reclamation cash for canal projects). I don’t doubt that they will find a way to do the same, if and when it comes to dealing with an official aversion to demolition.

Yes, I can see that (like getting your canal structures listed by Historic England) it could be a twoedged sword. What if you really need to knock down, say, a housing estate that a less enlightened authority Froghall 2005: hope for more Uttoxeter reopenings in the future than Staffordshire Moorlands has allowed to be built on your canal’s route - but everyone’s up in arms about knocking down houses, because every house that’s demolished means another one’s built somewhere else, and it all adds to greenhouse gases... But think about Biodiversity Net Gain. That’s the recently introduced statutory requirement for developments (and canal restoration work will often qualify as a ‘development’) to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than it was beforehand. This could be - and no doubt sometimes is - seen as yet another headache for canal restorers. But it can actually help a canal restoration to get funded (by providing a good opportunity to achieve the necessary ‘net gain’ for an adjacent commercial development which is going to get built anyway, with or without a canal.

Perhaps, in a slightly similar kind of way, we might just end up in a position where the ability to reuse existing structures and therefore reduce the amount of demolition and new construction is one more good argument in favour of incorporating restoring a length of canal into a development scheme, rather than whatever other use the local authority had in mind for the land.

And on that happy if convoluted note, I’ll leave you.

Martin Ludgate

page 7

coming soon... probably...

In the closest thing yet to the revival of an actual diary of forthcoming events, we try to give you a rundown of stuff likely to be happening soonish...

Coming soon... probably...

As you’ll realise if you’ve read the last few issues of Navvies, there’s been more than one ‘false dawn’ recently when we promised a programme of canal camps happening soon, only to have to admit in the following issue that the latest twists and turns in the Covid saga had meant that we would have to put them on hold again. And then in the following issue we had to break the news to you that actually some of the camps had happened anyway (but at too short notice to tell you in print), but that having missed them we couldn’t promise you any more. And although we were doing our best to plan some autumn camps, it seemed that circumstances were conspiring to stop them happening for a whole range of reasons from land ownership and work permission issues to problems booking suitable accommodation.

So please appreciate that any events listed here still have rather less certainty of taking place than they might otherwise - and check with our website, Facebook page, head office or the work party organiser to make sure things are going ahead.

Right, having got that out of the way, you might still be just in time for the...

Autumn canal camp: Burslem Port Project Despite all the issues plaguing our plans for autumn camps, we have managed to organise one week on the Burslem Port Project. This is an old arm of the Trent & Mersey Canal on the north side of Stoke-on-Trent that’s been filled in since the 1960s but is planned for digging out and reopening as part of a local regeneration - and we’ll be working on opening a footpath in advance of putting the canal back. See our Restoration Feature on page 20 for more about it. Unfortunately by the time you read this the camp will have almost started - it runs from 24 to 30 October - but if you’re available and desperate to get back to a Canal Camp

KESCRG putting up wing wall formwork / reinforcing for the Wey & Arun’s Tickner’s Heath Bridge

page 8

(and let’s face it, lots of us are!) get in touch with head office to check for spaces. And if not, you might be wondering if there is a...

Christmas camp?

As we go to press we don’t yet have a site for a Christmas / New Year canal camp, but we haven’t given up on the idea. If you are involved in a local canal society which has suitable work for the time of year (i.e. non weather-dependent work, preferably scrub-bashing) and accommodation for a camp from around 26 December to 1 January, please get in touch. And then we’ll be looking for sites for...

Winter and Easter camps As Jonathan explains in his Acting Chairman’s Comment, we’re delaying the planning of next summer’s camps a little, and hope to announce them in a booklet enclosed with the nextbut-one issue of Navvies in February. But in the meantime we hope to plan February and Easter camps, which we will advertise via the website and in the next Navvies if possible.

But it isn’t just about week-long canal camps. Things are really starting to get going again for a couple of mobile groups...

London WRG and KESCRG working weekends These two mobile groups based in the south of England are both getting back into organising their regular weekend working parties - and both groups welcome new volunteers. You can read all about KESCRG’s recent weekend dig on the Wey & Arun Canal in the report on page 23, and the good news is that they’ve put together a whole series of working party dates for KESCRG’s next year: 6 - 7 November: Wendover Arm 4 - 5 December: Possible joint Christmas dig with London WRG, maybe Buckingham Canal 5 - 6 February: working party, venue to be arranged 5 - 6 March: working party, venue to be arranged 2 - 3 April: working party, venue to be arranged [early June bank holiday weekend dig - dates to be confirmed] 2 - 3 July: working party, venue to be arranged 4 - 5 September: working party, venue to be arranged For more details contact Ed Walker on ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk or see KESCRG’s Facebook group.

Meanwhile London WRG will be about to hold their first working party for over a year as this appears in print - it’s also on the Wey & Arun. And they have another London WRG dig planned for the following month on the Buckingham Arm: 23 - 24 October: Wey & Arun Canal 13 - 14 November: Buckingham Canal 4 - 5 December: possible joint Christmas dig with KESCRG, maybe Buckingham Canal For more details contact Tim Lewis london@wrg.org.uk or 07802 518094 or see the London WRG Facebook group.

And finally, if there are no WRG or other mobile groups’ camps or weekends that you can attend, don’t forget that as ever there are plenty of...

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.

page 9

camp report Montgomery A week’s unglamorous but vital preparation work ready for next year’s big project: the reinstatement of the important School House Bridge Camp report: School House Bridge, Montgomery Canal 14 - 21 August The canal camp accommodation was based at the Silver Band Hall in Porth-y-waen, with the work site at Schoolhouse Bridge in Crickheath. Schoolhouse Bridge is the last road crossing needing to be rebuilt before the Montgomery canal enters mid-Wales. The bridge reconstruction is being carried out

by Montgomery Canal Reconstruction Ltd (MCRL), a company set Length: 35 miles Locks: 27 up specifically to rebuild Date closed: 1936 (breach south of Frankton), 1944 (legally abandoned) the bridge.

The Canal Camp project: Preparation for rebuilding of School House The tasks for the Bridge hear Crickheath canal camp were in Llangollen Canal to Llangollen To Hurleston preparation for the reconWhy? Because the Frankton struction of the bridge demolished bridge forms the first major obstruction from March next year, and to navigation beyond the end of the navigable section Former consisted of building a at Gronwen and the length under restoration from Weston soakaway for Schoolhouse there to Crickheath Wharf.

Arm Bridge Cottage (the existAston Locks ing soakaway will be Crickheath The wider picture: Reinstating Gronwen Bridge destroyed during the Pant School House Bridge will (navigable limit) construction of the new Llanymynech En not only clear the next bridge); installing drainW glan Carreghofa blockage and allow the ale d School House age across the entrance Locks s navigable lenght to be Bridge (to be to the temporary track(restored) extended, it is also the reinstated) way, which was built last last serious blockage Arddleen year and caused flooding before the Welsh border. Burgedin of the road; some placeGetting the canal open Locks ment of hardcore to 4 road blockages into Wales is likely to between Llanymynech extend the hardstanding and Arddleen in the compound; removal unlock possible Welsh funding for further restoration.

It of brash cut down by improves the chances of WRG North West preputting together a package to pandemic; and the Welshpool reopen the more expensive preparation and repaintLlanymynech to Arddleen 12 mile isolated restored ing of the site welfare navigable length from section.

This would link container. MCRL provided Arddleen through up with the 12-mile a 13 tonnre excavator Welshpool to Refail Berriew restored section and 6 tonne dumper for through Welshpool Refail the work.

Garthmyl to Refail and open Covid restrictions 3 locks restored but up the possibility meant that the camp was several road blockages of carrying on to limited to 12 volunteers. remain south of Refail Newtown Aged between 17 and 75, they assembled from far and wide across the Final length into Newtown obstructed by Newtown sewer in canal bed, terminus basin built country at the Silver band on, possibility of diversion to new terminus Hall on Saturday. After the

fact file Montgomery

page 10

catering kit had been unloaded and the volunteers had chosen their sleeping area the two vans set off for a site visit to meet Roger (from MCRL) and look at the work locations. It was not very encouraging when Roger started by saying that he didn’t think that there would be enough work for the week.

We toured the site and Adrian got a chance to look over the excavator that he would be occupying for the next week. Then back to the hall for a hearty dinner and the safety briefing. The duty rota was prepared and volunteers assigned their duties for the week. A quiet evening followed.

Everybody was keen to get to site on Sunday and PPE was handed out and the trailer kit check carried out with ‘RAF Martin’ explaining the difference between a London and a Philadelphia bricklaying trowel. One group went off to start clearing brash, another to start the preparation for painting the container, and Adrian and Ian took a banksman to start digging the soakaway and trench for the connecting pipework. It quickly became clear that the brash was

going to be a lot more difficult than originally envisaged because of the vegetation that had grown up around and amongst it. The container preparation was made difficult because of the lack of bristles on the wire brushes in the kit.

Sunday afternoon provided an opportunity for the young D of E’ers [Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme participants] to go offsite and help the historic narrow boats Saturn and Buckden up the Aston flight of locks. For most of them it was the first time they had operated a lock. They had the opportunity to haul Saturn through the locks and after the top lock they were given a ride.

In the box below are some of their thoughts.

Meanwhile back on site the soakaway hole become bigger and Mike and Christine removed more of the rust from the container.

A good first day on site, but we didn’t know what was in store for us back at the hall….

The boiler wasn’t working so cold showers were taken….. very quickly!

The building inspector was due on site on Monday to inspect the soakaway so the final

On hauling boats by hand...

As Mikk mentions in his report, the D of E volunteers had the chance to help work a pair of historic boats including the unpowered Saturn through Aston Locks. Here are their comments...

Pulling the narrow boats through the locks was quite interesting, I never knew how to open a lock properly before coming on the canal camp, or the fact you can pull a boat across water easily.

The people who owned the narrow boats were nice and I learnt a lot about the history of the narrow boats I was pulling, it was an enjoyable experience - Sam While volunteering with the Waterway Recovery Group, I was lucky enough to gain the opportunity, along with several other volunteers, to help with the passage of two traditional and historic canal boats through the locks of the Montgomery canal. This was a very special experience, as I had never seen such canal boats before, let alone used canal locks before. I learned how to use the canal locks and move the boats along safely, as well as use ropes to pull and guide an engine-less barge through the canal and locks. The experience was incredibly fascinating and taught me a lot about the history of the canals, and how they contributed to the industry of the UK and livelihoods of the people who worked and relied on the canals.

Witnessing the beauty and splendour of the 100 year old boats moving almost silently and peacefully through the canals, leaving practically no wake behind, was something irrevocably mesmerising - Adam As part of our canal camp we were given the amazing opportunity to help the historic narrow boat Saturn, the only surviving wooden Shropshire Union fly-boat to travel through the Ashton locks. Not only did we learn how to use the canal locks we learnt about the history of Saturn. Saturn was built in 1906 and was used to transport cheese and other fresh products along the canal. To maximise the amount of space available for the produce Saturn was drawn by horses. However when we arrived to help with Saturn there were no horses in sight, instead Saturn was being drawn by another historic narrow boat.

As only one boat can fit through a lock at a time we got the opportunity to pull Saturn as the horses would have done. After helping Saturn through all of the Aston locks we were allowed to have a short ride on it which was an amazing experience as we discovered more of its history and really started to appreciate how the produce was transported. Saturn is now a travelling exhibit set up to look like it would have appeared when in use except now the cargo it carries is polystyrene rather than actual cheese and other produce - Libby

page 11

Picrutes by Mikk Bradley

dig was undertaken giving Ben and James an opportunity to learn the subtle are of ‘boning-in’ using sight boards and a traveller. They also got ‘hands-on’ experience with shovels and rakes. The building inspector arrived and his comment was ‘How many houses were planned for the development?’ Needless to say the inspection passed.

The afternoon was spent pegging out the lining in the soakaway.

The container had had all the rust removed, a wipe down with white spirit and the red oxide was liberally applied around the base and sides, the higher section couldn’t be reached because the only site ladder was in use in the soakaway pit.

New volunteer Adam receives instruction on the excavator On Monday evening the volunteers had a photo shoot with the Silver Band who were having a rehearsal in the field adjoining the hall. Apparently it was a condition of using the hall and the photos were used for publicity. The requisite dress code was hard hat and hi-viz, which led to the quote of the week, if that’s all we are wearing is it ‘the FULL MONTgomerY’? No repair to the boiler so cold showers again!

The first part of Tuesday was spent waiting for a delivery of stone for the soakaway so more brash was removed from the channel using the excavator and dumper.

D of E’ers enjoyed themselves building the bonfire under RAF’s watchful eye. The red oxide was completed to the container and the lower section was given the top coat of container paint.

Eventually the stone was delivered and placed and levelled in the soakaway. Pipes were cut and laid but there was only time to Painting the site container level one end.

Good news back at the hall, the boiler had been fixed so a hot shower for a change. The hall steward gave us permission to ‘have a blow’ on the instruments around the hall. The noise lasted a short time before Cath called ‘DINNER’ and the only blowing was to cool the next plateful of her delicious cooking.

Wednesday was Adrian’s birthday so we had to let him have a drive in the excavator but it was used as a counterweight for a plate compaction test on the canal bed where the gabions would eventually be built. Adrian was seen out of the cab! The D of E’ers all got to use shovels and rakes to level the stone in the soakaway until we decided that the excavator would be able to do it much more efficiently after lunch. The container had the roof red

page 12

oxided so there was no more work to be done there. The afternoon was an opportunity for Adrian and RAF to use the excavator and dumper while everybody else went on an excursion to Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

Back at the hall Cath made and decorated a cake for Adrian and the heat from the candles nearly set off the fire alarm.

On Thursday we had a visit from head office and things started going downhill. Ben who sustained a blister early in the week got an infected arm and went to the minor injuries clinic where the doctor gave him a Tetanus jab, antibiotics and sent him home. Following that we had two near miss incidents, Adrian Midweek excursion to the Pontcysyllte aqueduct ran over a wheelbarrow in the excavator and Ian ran over the road brush in the dumper. The Hawk made an unexpected visit as well on his way to Anglesey.

Christine and Mike completed painting the container between rain showers.

Highlight of the visit was the presentation to Adrian of his Richard Bird Medal for the significant benefits he has brought to IWA. In addition to the over 70 WRG camps, training events and weekend digs, he has trained over 200 volunteers as new plant operators.

Friday was a slow day, the hired-in cooker had to be returned to Walsall by 4pm.

Adrian gave James, Sam, Libby and Adam ‘drive a digger’ training before they went off with Ian to return the cooker then back to the hall to start packing up the catering kit. James had remained on site to lay the last section of pipe and then help RAF with the timber edging to the towpath. Friday evening we all went off to Whittington for fish and chips and a walk around the castle ruins. It was at the castle that we found the new storage container for D of E’ers.

The camp achieved everything and set the site up ready for the main work to start in March 2022.

Mikk Bradley

Laying gravel in the new soakaway

page 13

camp report Waveney Following on from the report on the first week’s camp in the last Navvies, week two very nearly finishes rebuilding Geldeston Lock’s first wall...

Geldeston Lock, River Waveney Camp 2: 7 - 14 August In the last issue we included a report from the first of two weeks spent working on rebuilding the final section of the south wall of Geldeston Lock, written by the leader Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans. We’re following it up with a report from the second week, but this time written by the cook Ian Johnson...

Alex Melson

This was my 3rd year cooking on the River Waveney Camps. A long time ago Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans asked me if I would do two weeks this year as it was thought a good idea to have as many people doing both weeks rather than separate groups for each week. It seemed a good idea at the time, but all of a sudden it came along and I thought about what I had committed to... was I mad?

The first week’s report will either be somewhere in this magazine or the last Navvies, Martin is apparently putting the magazine together as I am writing this and I’m still on the camp. The second camp

followed directly on from the first, five of the first week’s WRGies left on Saturday morning while the remaining seven of us remained in Beccles to hopefully finish off the repair of the lock wall. Evvo, Hawk, Susan and Geoff went to site on Saturday morning, John performed taxi duties taking Dom to Beccles station and Darren to Norwich for them to catch trains home after the first week, John then returned to site. Andy had gone off to see some friends for a night to return with tales of a wonderful Sunday lunch, pfffffft, what was wrong with my roast pork last week?

Cooking was slightly different in that I didn’t inherit the ‘coffin’ box containing a mix of weird miscellaneous ingredients. After eighteen months or so of no camps, the rice, dried fruit, etc was even more out of date than usual. I had to think up meals instead of relying on the coffin’s contents and fuelling my imagination. In order to stay ‘Covid safe’ I was making sandwiches everyday for the team and taking them to site so mornings were pretty busy, breakfast then clearing up, shopping then usually baking a cake

Bricklaying progressing on the south side chamber wall at Geldeston Lock

page 14

Ian Johnson

or biscuits before preparing the sandwiches listed on the whiteboard. I then drove to site and joined everyone for lunch before heading back to our luxury accommodation in the Beccles Sea Cadets building to prepare the evening meal. Evvo had enticed me with the promise of a ‘proper kitchen’ with plate warmers, hot trays, fryers etc however I couldn’t see the point of most of it when I was on site, preferring to do things in the traditional WRG way. All the extras seemed to just make more washing up, but then again we did have a dishwasher!

With fewer people to cater for I got the chance to do a bit on site on Sunday afternoon, which was particularly pleasant even if the weather wasn’t great. There is a pub on the other side of the lock, they had live music in the garden: that must be a first, live music on site (OK the odd whistle doesn’t count!) My WRG skills are definitely culinary meaning that I got the labouring jobs on site, moving bricks around etc but it was good to be able to contribute to the job. The bricklayers - Hawk, Evvo, Andy and Geoff needed a supply of bricks and mortar keeping John, Susan and me busy. When the rain started I returned to Beccles to start preparing dinner although the team stayed late on site to wait for low tide so that they could pour some quick setting concrete as a foundation for the a section of brickwork.

The week carried on in the same way,

As the tide came in, a swan arrived to help...

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

page 15

Ian Johnson

Martin Ludgate

Ian Johnson

the work was simply laying bricks using lime mortar; however a lot of bricks needed cutting to fit. Slowly the brickies reduced the amount of wall left to be completed, despite the mixer or generator or both breaking down meaning that we had to hire perhaps the most well-used petrol mixer in north Suffolk. Or was it south Norfolk?

By Thursday, despite some help for John Hawkins from a swan [see photo], it was looking like we were not going to finish the job completely.

So it was now a case of leaving the site in a state that would be OK until the work could be completed. A long weekend would probably do the job [see opposite page]. Tides would still have to be considered, not for where the water would cover where bricks needed to be laid but to make sure a selection of brickies are present – long arms at low tide, short legs at high tide – because work is mainly done from floating platforms.

When Geldeston Lock was last restored in 1910, the restorers put an engraved stone in the wall. This had been rescued by WRG in either 2018 or 2019 and kept safely by RWT. It was time to bring it out of hibernation and reinstall it in the wall, which was done without mishap and just above the high tide line for all to see. There was a different view of restoration 111 years as the text on the stone says: This lock was concreted and new gates put down. 1910. WD and AE Walker, Proprietors.

‘Concreted’ gets a line to itself to give it a certain emphasis. Was there Top: the plaque recording the date of the lock‘s no NHL5 lime then?! previous rebuild is reinstated. Above: close-up of Final thank yous match those the plaque. Below: breakfast: the cook’s view from the first week’s report and raise them to include Frank and Jodie, landlords at the Locks Inn, who have been great and patient hosts to our vans in their car park and serve a lovely pint as well.

Ian Johnson

page 16

Dig report Waveney finale As mentioned on the previous pages, this year’s camps got Geldeston’s first lock wall to the point where “a long weekend would probably do it...”

River Waveney extra weekend The last few bricks at Geldeston

and Norfolk lanes, spotting a crinkle-crankle wall and the elusive remains of the former Waveney Valley Railway, saw us on site by 8.30am and laying bricks as the tide rose...

Ah yes, the tide. As I mentioned, this is the limit of navigation on the Waveney, and that’s because that’s about as far as the tides flow, and the reason for building the lock (and two others further upstream) was to enable boats to get beyond there to Bungay. There’s no actual plan to restore this length to navigation (the other locks have

Martin Ludgate

As Ian reported in his camp report on the previous pages, this summer’s two weeks made some excellent progress with taking down and rebuilding the badley decayed south side lock chamber wall at Geldeston Lock (limit of navigation on Broadland’s River Waveney) following on from the success of the camps in 2017-19. But given the amount of brick-cutting needed (not to mention the odd misbehaving mixer) there just wasn’t quite enough time to complete the last section of the wall - although it was close enough that a long weekend would “probably do the job”.

And so it was that I got the call from Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans to be a member of a small team (there wasn’t room for more than a handful of people to work on it at once) to complete the job over a Friday to Sunday working party in late September. Unfortunately the day job meant that I couldn’t join them until Friday evening, and by the time I met Evvo, John, Pete, ’Arry and Andy at the well-appointed Beccles Sea Cadet’s HQ (sorry TS I think!), they’d got on so well on the Friday that it looked like we might finish with a day to spare.

An early start to avoid the Sea Cadets’ fundraising event, then drive through the Suffolk Nearing completion: the bricks on edge are added to form a coping

page 17

But despite this interesting new slant on providing the brickies with something to moan about, we cracked on with it. adding the final courses, the line of bricks-on-edge to top it off, the sloping section where the lock tail wall drops down to the level of the downstream landing stage, and a few ‘interesting’ corners for gate recesses and the like.

And yes, we did finish it on the Saturday. We backfilled the wall with all the leftover rubble from the demolition stage, leaving the River Waveney Trust with just some landscaping to do to to tidy it up. The Trust’s Bernard was very pleased with it, and our leader Evvo bought us a drink to savour in the beer garden of the adjacent Locks Inn to celebrate, before we retired to the Sea Cadets’ base to sample John’s cooking.

Oh, and to make it even more like a ‘real’ dig, once we’d sorted out the tools and kit and packed up on the Sunday morning, John and I then spent the rest of the day driving half way across the country, unloading a load of stuff, pushing trailers around, picking up John’s car, and then driving back to London. I almost felt nostalgic for the old days...

Job done! Thanks to Evvo for leading this year’s efforts, and well done to everyone who’s been involved over the length of the Geldeston project. And don’t forget - there’s the other lock wall to rebuild sometime.

Watch this space...

Martin Ludgate

Martin Ludgate

been replaced by flood control sluices which would make it tricky) so the aim is to restore the lock as a historic feature, and hopefully a place for the unique surviving trading wherry (Broads sailing barge) Albion to be displayed at times. But the tide still makes itself felt at the lock, with its twice-daily rise and fall of a couple of feet or more, depending on how close to the fortnightly spring tides it is.

At the previous camps, the bricklaying began at a height where it was very much influenced by the tides. I visited briefly in 2017 and managed to lay three bricks as the tide threatened to rise high enough to wash them away again from below - before the heavens open and the rain did its best to do the same from above...

But for this final weekend the last incomplete section of wall at the tail end of the lock had already been built up to above high spring tide level, so at least that wasn’t a worry. On the other hand, we were working from a floating pontoon which rose as the tide did. I can see that a larger group would be able to take advantage of this (“Can we have all the tall brickies working this morning, then we’ll swap and the short brickies can take over this afternoon”), but for us it was a case of stretching or stooping accordingly. Oh, and the ‘equal and opposite reaction’ thing that you may remember from school physics means that when you tap a brick to the left, the pontoon you’re standing on moves to the right, and vice versa...

The completed Geldeston Lock chamber wall

page 18

Letters the state of the canals Is the canal network in an appalling state, thanks to being run by a body that’s “not fit for purpose”? Or is that just the Stratford paddle gear?

On the state of maintenance of the waterways system...

In the last issue we published a letter from Mike Day, who was involved in the earliest days of WRG, and who had returned to the Stratford Canal (reopened pre-WRG in 1964, but subject to a lot of maintenance / improvement from WRG and other volunteers in the years when it was run by the National Trust on a limited budget) for a boat holiday recently.

He reported that the canal was generally OK but the paddle gear in particular was in poor condition - “most of the racks were knackered as were the pinions”, surmised that “it looks like the Canal & River Trust are worthy successors to British Waterways Board and reserve all the rubbish gear for this canal” - and asked if any boating readers cared to comment on their experiences of the state of the Stratford - or indeed the waterway system in general.

We have received the following reply...

Hello Martin I was very interested to read Mike Day’s letter in Navvies 308. Like Mike, I am 74 years old and recently retraced a voyage of 30 years ago.

We were showing off to our daughter, son-in-law and grandson the delights of West Yorkshire’s waterways - Calder & Hebble Navigation, Aire & Calder Navigation and the eastern end of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal.

We had such good memories of cruising these quiet waterways.

What appalled us most was the state of repair of everything. Paddle gear is in a poor state. If a paddle fails, it is not repaired, just covered by a bag saying it needs mending. Only when a further paddle fails and the lock is closed does anything happen.

Gates are in a poor condition. Vegetation is completely neglected. Those wonderful open views are now often obscured by overgrown bushes, but worse far than that it frequently grows right out across the water,

obscuring sight-lines of oncoming vessels.

The dredging is non-existent and once I ran aground 3 feet from the bank!

At this time when promoting boating holidays, many potential future customers are surely going to be put off coming again.

It is supposed to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience, not a struggle with poor canals.

Hire companies must not be happy with the state of our network.

The Canal & River Trust is clearly not fit for purpose, the basic job is not being done.

Regards Alan Hodson I will admit that (a) my boating postlockdown has been fairly limited and (b) as most of it’s in a full-length narrow boat, I don’t get to navigate many of the Yorkshire waterways (with their shorter locks) as often as I’d like to. So perhaps it’s not unexpected that my experience is different - coming back after a couple of years of little boating and experiencing a few of the (mainly) Midlands routes (but not including the Stratford), I can’t say that I’ve been particularly struck by a general poor state of repair.

Yes, the odd out-of-use paddle, a few more patched-up lock gates than before, the occasional scraping-the-bottom incident, but nothing spectacularly worse than pre-pandemic, nor for that matter from two or three decades back as far as I can remember. (But maybe it’s been creeping up on me slowly.)

However where I do agree with Alan Hodson is regarding the offside vegetation obscuring the sightlines ahead especially on bends - it does appear to have got a whole lot worse in a relatively short time.

To end on a brighter note, on a recent walk on the Macclesfield Canal I came across a local volunteer team hard at work clearing offside vegetation - it’s one area where volunteers can help, and it’s good to see them getting back to work again after the various lockdowns.

Does anyone else have any comments on the state of the system? ...The Editor

page 19

Restoration feature You may not even have heard of the restoration that’s hosting our October Canal Burslem Port? Where’s that then?

Those not intimately acquainted with the canal network might be forgiven for not immediately being able to pinpoint the Burslem Port Project, the canal restoration scheme which (if you’re lucky and this issue comes out on time) will be about to host its first full week-long WRG Canal Camp as this Navvies drops through your letterbox. Or which (if you’re not so lucky) you’ll still be able to read about in the camp report in the next issue. After all, it’s not quite up there with the Montgomery or the Cotswold Canals when it comes to high profile schemes. But after quite a lot of the inevitable behind-the-scenes negotiating, campaigning and talking, it appears that practical work is gathering pace on this short (and therefore potentially ‘quick-win’) canal reopening project.

Several wharves were built on the canal to cater for the local pottery industry, bringing in raw materials – clay and coal – and taking out finished ware for export via the Mersey. But in 1963 a major breach closed the Branch, and rather than it being repaired, the Branch was shut and dammed off where it met the main line. It was later filled in (burying an unfortunate working boat that

Trent & Mersey Canal Burslem Branch

So where is it, then? Well, Burslem is one of the lesser-known of the ‘five towns’ of the north Staffordshire Potteries (formerly) industrial area – the others are Stoke, Tunstall, Hanley, Fenton and Longton (yes, I know!) And the Burslem Port Project aims to reopen a short arm of the Trent & Mersey Canal which linked the industrial areas of Burslem to the canal’s main line.

The history: The Trent & Mersey Canal’s main line was opened in 1777. Its summit level passed within a mile of Burslem on its way south from the top of the Cheshire Locks and Harecastle Tunnel towards Etruria Top Lock and the start of the long descent down the Trent Valley to Stone and eventually to join the River Trent near Shardlow. But Burslem had to wait almost 30 years before it acquired a direct connection to the waterways, when the half-mile Burslem Branch opened in 1805.

It linked the canal’s main line to a basin on the edge of the town, with a horse tramway continuing into the town centre.

page 20

(and Uttoxeter one day)

Burslem

Port

Project

Camp - but it might just be the sort of ‘quick win’ restoration that could succeed had been stranded by the breach). Over the following decades its banks sank as a result of coal-mining subsidence, its course became overgrown with trees and vegetation, while many of the industrial buildings along its banks were demolished or fell derelict.

setback in 2008 saw the canal omitted from the local masterplan document, but a campaign by Burslem Port Project and IWA saw it added in 2009.

Practical work began in 2010 – and some longer-standing Navvies readers may recall the report in issue 241 of a five-day WRG mini-camp supporting the Burslem Port The restoration back-story: The first moves towards reopening the Burslem Project (combined with work on another site Branch came in 1999, when the members of nearby - clearance of one of the out-of-use the local branch of the Inland Waterways duplicate lock chambers on the Cheshire Association began campaigning for its resto- Locks series). It was largely exploratory ration, holding meetings and demonstrating work, and we succeeded in uncovering a length of the concrete washwall of the canal, local support for its reopening – both as a navigation and a boost to an area in serious and used a level to measure how much it had subsided compared to the modern-day need of regeneration.

The name ‘Burslem Port’ was coined for level of the Trent & Mersey main line’s banks (which since the 1960s has been raised to the project, an informal organisation of that keep pace with the subsidence). name was launched, and a report was comIn 2011 what had up to now been an missioned which showed how the canal could fit into a regeneration scheme for the neigh- informal group was reconstituted as the Burslem Port Trust, with representatives of bouring Etruria Valley ex-industrial area, IWA and the Trent & Mersey Canal Society, formerly the site of the Shelton Bar Steel to take the project forward, and in 2012 the Works. A feasibility study showed the entire canal was added to the T&M Canal Conservarefurbishment and regeneration plan for the tion Area. Unfortunately the same year a fire canal and neighbouring properties would damaged a historic canalside warehouse cost £58m but would generate an ‘invisible’ building. 2014 saw the publication of the income in benefits for the local area which Burslem Port Brochure, putting the case for would pay this back in around 15 years. A

The aftermath of the 1963 breach which shut the Burslem Branch and trapped a boat

page 21

restoring the Branch to improve the whole area, while on the ground the Trust launched regular volunteer work parties to clear the route of the canal.

Where are we at now? There’s a bit of a feeling that the Burslem Port Project has spent a fair amount of the last two decades waiting for the right moment to happen. But after 20 years Burslem Port Trust says “That moment is now” – with the regeneration of the Etruria Valley getting going in recent years just across the Trent & Mersey Canal from the Burslem Branch junction, redevelopment of Middleport (the area to the west of the north end of the Branch) under way including new housing near the canal’s terminus, followed by sites along the rest of the canal, and plans for new road links making the area more accessible. As the Trust puts it “There is an opportunity that has never existed before to think about Middleport in a completely new way, as a modern residential area with great employment and transport links, beside an attractive waterway, right next to open land.

This opportunity must not be missed.”

At the same time as expressing these optimistic feelings, the Trust has been active on a practical level too. Two years ago it launched a plan christened ‘Footsteps’ to build a path along the route of the Branch, with interpretation signs covering the canal’s heritage as well as the potential for reopening it – and attracted support from the Community Investment Fund for the Trust’s volunteers to do much of the work. Sadly the pandemic then meant the Trust’s working parties had to go on hold. They have now restarted (backed by short-term employment of a contractor to catch up with the backlog of vegetation clearance from a year’s break), and in late October WRG will be boosting their efforts with a week’s canal camp from 23 to 30 October – with the aim of carrying out the bulk of the work to complete the path.

WRG uncovers the canal wall on the 2010 dig ing that a restored canal with small marina on it could see 2300 boat movements a year, support 270 new waterside homes, attract 65,000 visitors annually, create the equivalent of 133 permanent full time jobs plus 295 temporary construction jobs and 21 apprenticeships, and attract £500,000 a year of spending on retail and leisure – and is hopeful that these figures, plus the impact of the ‘footsteps’ project on showing the benefits of opening up the route, will justify support (for example through Government grants or developer contributions under a Section 106 planning agreement) for rebuilding the canal.

Martin Ludgate (with a lot of help from burslemport.org.uk)

And then what? As regards rebuilding the actual canal (and remember, the banks are going to have to be built up to counter the subsidence of the past 60 years), it is going to be necessary to attract serious external funding for construction work. But BPT View along the line; building has since been demolished has put together figures indicat-

page 22

Dig report W&A with Kescrg It’s not just WRG Canal Camps that have been cautiously re-starting lately - regional mobile group Kescrg report from a Wey & Arun weekend before and after the event, and heightened Wey & Arun Canal Kescrg at Tickner’s Heath Road Bridge awareness of hygiene and space both on site Not only has the Covid pandemic disrupted WRG Camp activity over the last 18 months, it has also curtailed the efforts of the regional visiting weekend groups. Seeing local societies return to site work over the last year, and limited WRG Camps restarting this summer has been very encouraging; but it hadn’t seemed sensible up until now to draw our volunteers from a wider geographic region to cram into a village hall to sleep, and the local pub to socialise.

However following Kescrg’s successful single day on site in June on the Wey and Arun Tickner’s Heath Road Crossing project, and all the preparation work done by the Inland Waterways Association’s head office team to make the WRG summer camp season safe and successful, it felt like in midSeptember, 18 months since our last weekend dig, the time had come to restart full weekend work parties. This would be with sensible Covid precautions such as LFT tests

and at the accommodation.

The Tickner’s Heath Road Crossing is an exciting and very well organised project on the Wey & Arun Canal which will extend the restored summit level section at Dunsfold southwards towards Sidney Wood. The road here originally crossed the canal on a humpbacked bridge on an S-bend, which has long since been demolished so that the road crosses the canal just a foot or so above water level. Modern highway regulations and access to neighbouring properties will not allow for the original bridge to be reinstated. So instead the canal is being diverted to cross under the road through a new bridge constructed a couple of hundred yards east of the original crossing point where the road is straight and high enough to allow passage with minimal alteration to the road alignment and elevation. A new canal cut excavated through the new bridge will curve round to re-join the original canal to the west of the old crossing, and a sepa-

fact file Wey & Arun Canal Length: 23 miles

Locks: 26

Date closed: 1871

River Wey to the Thames Shalford

Bramley

The working party project: Setting up formwork and reinforcing ready for casting the concrete wing walls for the foot, cycle and horse bridge which will form part of the new Tickners Heath road crossing.

Site for Kescrg

Birtley

Dunsfold Summit

Why? This work is the first stage of a major project which will see dig: Tickners 9 length the new road bridge itself built by contractors, following which Loxwood volunteers will return for the final stages of work. The new bridge will replace the current low-level culvert blocking the Restored Loxwood canal, and thereby extend the existing restored navigable Tickners to Link section Fastbridge length of the canal’s summit level southwards.

Newbridge

The wider picture: A few years ago, having previously concentrated much of its work on the Loxwood Link section, WACT adopted a ‘Three Sites’ approach to spread its efforts more widely along the canal, including the summit section and also the north end near Shalford. Ultimately the aim is to link all these sections Tidal River Arun Pallingham together and reopen the entire route from the Wey to the south coast. to the coast

page 23

evening to find that popping to the pub with good friends then retiring to sleep on a hard hall floor was as familiar as putting on a favourite pair of old slippers - or maybe like riding a bike (but probably not both at the same time).

Saturday morning came and we headed to site bright and early to join forces with Dave and his local volunteers; and with Clive, Jo, Garry and Rhiannon who were joining us on site just for the day. While Clive, Jo and Nigel eyed up the last three trees that needed to come out to align the new cut with the original canal line, the rest of us set to work studying the reinforcing diagrams and gathering all the bits we needed to set up the wing walls ready for their scheduled concrete pours in the coming weeks.

The main wing wall will be cast directly against the concrete piles with formwork just to the front, and is reinforced with relatively simple mesh sheets, whereas the return wall section is beyond the piling and required a standalone box formwork and a more complex reinforcing system stitched from individual bars. The formwork for both pours uses a panel system with very significant bracing, which all made for a very interesting

KESCRG

rate bridge will cater for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders. More details of the project can be found on the Wey and Arun Canal Trust (WACT) web site: https://weyarun.org. uk/content/tickners-heath-road-crossing The first phase of the project is to drill deep concrete piles to define the canal line, install the pedestrian bridge as a standalone structure outside these piles, excavate the new canal approach between the piles and then cast a concrete channel for the canal up to and under the pedestrian bridge, with the plan being to complete this work this year.

The second phase starting next year will be for contractors to temporarily divert the road and install the road bridge, with volunteers then returning to excavate the new canal line and cast the channel under the new bridge.

With the first phase excavation already complete, Ed and Adrian joined Dave Evans of WACT and a couple of his local volunteers on site on Friday to complete the concrete pour for the base of the channel. This would give us a safe and dry work area for the rest of the weekend.

And so finally, with evidence of our LFT results to hand, a small band of volunteers arrived at Wonersh Memorial Hall on Friday

Tickners Heath Crossing takes shape: wingwall construction and footbridge deck in place

page 24

Stephen Davis

Return wall reinforcing in progress

Stephen Davis

weekend’s work mastering both the reinforcing design and the formwork system. By early afternoon on Sunday the rain had set in and we called it a day - but we’d achieved what we set out to accomplish, with the reinforcing and formwork for both walls almost complete, just requiring the bracing feet to be bolted down, and scaffolding to be erected to allow access for the pours themselves.

All in all, it was a most successful weekend and a welcome return to digging for the group. With vaccinations and sensible precautions - Lateral Flow Tests before and after the dig and encouraging a mix of day visitors and weekend volunteers, it really feels like weekend digs are finally feasible again. Kescrg will be back out on the Buckingham Arm 9/10th October, then we are planning a visit to the Wendover Arm 6/7th November and possibly back to the Buckingham 4th/5th December. London WRG are also planning a return to digging and no doubt the other weekend visiting groups are too.

Getting out for a weekend is a great way to hone your restoration skills, see a variety of sites and sometimes getting a chance to contribute to more technical projects, and all the visiting groups would welcome anyone who has been on WRG Camps or who just wants to get out and volunteer for a weekend doing something a little different. See the ‘Coming soon’ section on pages 8-9 for dates and contact details, and our website (www.kescrg.org.uk/ dig-weekends/) for a description of what to expect on a weekend.

Stephen Davis Formwork coming together on the Sunday morning

page 25

Restoration feature Not actually a plan to reopen the long-lost Portsmouth & Arundel Canal to boats, Burndell Bridge It does sometimes seem that just when you think there couldn’t possibly be any more new canal restoration schemes, up pops another new group with a plan. And Burndell Bridge, Yapton, is a case in point. Sure, they’re not actually proposing reopening the route to navigation, but a group in Sussex have found a rare surviving structure from the old Portsmouth & Arundel Canal, and are hoping to restore it. But before Andrew Saunders explains about their ambitions, let’s hear from Allen Misselbrook about the history and surviving heritage of the canal...

A very brief history of the Ford to Hunston Canal and its relationship to Yapton In June 1823, with great pomp and ceremony, the final section of the Portsmouth & Arundel canal, from Ford to Hunston, was

officially opened. It was the final link in a waterway route which would allow gold bullion to be transported from London to the Navy in Portsmouth Harbour without having to sail via the Channel, running the risk of the hazardous sea journey and of being intercepted by the French. It would also facilitate the transport of cargo between the capital and the south.

The route had been surveyed by the experienced John Rennie with James Hollinsworth being appointed as the engineer. The main supply of water for the canal was provided by a large pumping station taking water from the River Arun at Ford near to the canal entrance.

This was one of the last canals of its type to be built and was not a commercial success due, mainly, to the coming of the railways. The section from Ford to Hunston closed in 1847 and slowly fell into disrepair.

There is very little to show in Yapton of this once important waterway linking London to

Portsmouth & Arundel Canal Opened in 1823, the canal linked the River Arun to Salterns, and from there via a dredged channel through the natural inlets to a short terminal length of canal leading into Portsmouth. It was abandoned in 1847 apart from the short length from Salterns to Hunston and the branch from there to Chichester, which had been built to a larger gauge, lasted until 1906, and much of which has been restored by the Chichester Ship Canal Trust. East of Hunston it has fared less well - but some remains survived - including Burndell Bridge, Yapton.

Burndell Bridge, Yapton

page 26

Burndell Bridge, Yapton but a proposal to restore an original bridge as a reminder of a village’s history the English Channel. Most of the route has either been filled in or built upon. Of the four bridges one, Tack Lee Bridge, has been preserved while another, Drove Lane Bridge, has been demolished completely leaving only a small pile of rubble in the hedgerow. Of ‘Bognor Bridge’ which carried what is now the B2233 there is no sign save for a slight rise in the road in front of the village hall.

This leaves bridge number four, ‘Burndell Bridge’ which still survives, albeit in desperate need of renovation, almost buried under dense undergrowth. There is still the opportunity to save this bridge as an example of the heritage of Yapton and the country.

Allen Misselbrook

Where are we and where are we going?

Burndell Bridge Society

Having lived in Yapton since 1985 and not having known there was ever a canal here, I can appreciate the value of physical monu-

ments to remind and capture the imagination of those who discover them. I discovered Burndell Bridge by accident, prompting some research... well, an exponentially growing amount in fact!

Various groups have worked to save and preserve the history and remains of this section. Sussex Industrial Archaeological Society (SIAS) mapped, restored and excavated various features on this section detailed in their excellent book (*). Most significant was the restoration of a brick-built bridge, St Giles bridge, at Merston near Chichester. Tack Lee bridge, Yapton, was restored by developers as part of The Pines development in the 1980’s.

In more recent times the Friends of the Old Ford to Hunston Canal and the Ford Greenway Project have sought to maintain and lobby for the route and its remains to be preserved and included in local plans, planning permissions and to be the basis for a non-vehicular route crossing the area from

Burndell Bridge photographed recently

page 27

support and permission of the owners of the estate who we have sought to support in whatever way gets the job done!

My opinion is that this bridge roughly marks out how small the village was in the 1800s and so will show to future generations how the village changed with the arrival of the canal and has continued to grow, recently at a great pace with new estates springing up doubling the size if not more of the village in a short space of time.

Andrew Saunders To find out more about the plans for Burndell Bridge (and to offer your services as a volunteer to help get it restored), contact Andrew Saunders and the Burndell Bridge Society by email at burndellbridgesociety@gmail.com or find the Burndell Bridge Society on Facebook. (*) A Description of the Remains of the Ford to Hunston Section of the Portsmouth to Arundel Canal, Roger Reed 2007.

Yapton History Group

Arundel to Chichester.

Burndell Bridge is located in Yapton on the other side of the village to Tack Lee. This brick-built skew bridge dating back to 1823 has been left in the corner of a field until the Emerald Gardens estate was built, which prompted the question: what to do with it.

This estate has also preserved a section of original canal bed, now dry and overgrown and a haven for wildlife, whilst retaining some original towpath.

The opportunity, supported by the Inland Waterways Association, WRG, county councillors, district councillors, district council protections and parish council neighbourhood plans and the Yapton History Group, is to clear the overgrowth and then rebuild the brick sections whilst also creating a usable accessible path underneath. The public footpath which runs over one run-up to the bridge is not suitable for many people all year (and all during the wetter winter months). This can only be done with the

The bridge in the 1980s, and an impression by local artist James Gadd of how it could look

page 28

Progress Wendover Arm Good progress by Wendover Arm Trust on profiling / lining the channel, coping with a coal tar problem, and solving the mystery of the disappearing pipe Grand Union Wendover Arm

next inspection pipe hole about 30m beyond.

We started excavating around hole and eventually found signs of the trench. Further digging back towards our work area showed that the trench soon disappeared. How could this be?

Further delving was enough to find the top of the pipeline and we could now see which direction it was running. We also found that excavating with our 13-tonne machine was difficult due to the very hard (almost like limestone) chalk layers. It would seen the team 100 years ago found it so difficult to carve through, that they decide to tunnel under the rock! It must have been very risky to hand dig some 30 m under the rock, especially as what appeared to be a softer layer was more likely to drop from the roof...

Mystery solved, the hole was filled in and it was back to the concreting. This con-

August working party: Having now finished the brick work on the towpath side on the old swingbridge site at Bridge 4, “all we had to do” was to make a mirrored version on the offside. The existing structure condition was found to be very poor and most of the work done was demolishing the brick work and excavating down behind the bricks to give a clear working area. Rebuilding could now begin.

On to the main task of continuing the concrete pipe capping and roadway in the canal bed. [see explanation of ‘pipe capping’, right ...Ed] Excavation continued, following the “trench” infill that resulted from the pipeline being installed under the bed at the turn of the century. The concrete layer is 150mm thick and reinforced with steel “rebar” sheets. We have chosen to Pipe capping: an explanation make it wider than strictly needed to just protect the Bentomat liner should The Wendover Arm was built primarily as a feeder to the pipe ever collapse in future. This bring in water from springs near Wendover to feed the will allow the machines to run on a Tring summit of the canal’s main line – but it suffered concrete “road” and thus avoid all the from long-term leakage problems as a result of the issues with mud churning and subseporous chalky soil it passed through, and this led to its quent volunteer risks. It also allows eventual demise as a navigation, and to the worst the dumpers to run inside the wooden section being drained many years ago. formers to get the concrete to where it That’s the length that’s now being restored: it is needed when casting the road. has an 18-inch glazed clay pipe installed underneath, This all went well until the line of buried in the canal bed, to carry a feed to allow water the trench “disappeared”. We think the from Wendover to still reach the pumping station at trench was originally dug by use of a Tring (and from there to the Grand Union main line) steam shovel or similar, due to its after the canal had been drained. Due to the age of the regularity and depth. The clay pipe pipe (which is now abandoned and blocked), as part with mortar joints wouldn’t have lent of the channel restoration and waterproofing work, itself to sharp bends so where did the protective measures must be taken to avoid damage to pipe go? We also found that the old the new lining system if the pipe ever collapses under the coal tar lining was intact across the restored canal. Therefore the pipe is being uncovered, a canal bed, the coal tar having being section at a time, and a concrete ‘raft’ or capping is being put there long before the pipeline, as a installed on top of it to provide that protection. final attempt to make the channel That capping also forms a temporary access waterproof before the canal company road for machinery to get to and from the worksite, gave up and piped the water. before the new channel is built on top of it, incorpoFaced with this puzzle we went rating a waterproof Bentomat (bentonite clay matting) to the only place where we knew the membrane to avoid the leakage problems recurring. pipeline would be and that was the

page 29

Pictures by WAT

tinued as far as we could get in the time available, and we have now got to 452m from Bridge 4.

Meanwhile bed excavation continued on the next section ready for the following month’s concreting. A section of pipe was removed intact and will be kept as the only large section of pipeline to have been salvaged. It will become an exhibit at the old pumping station site at Whitehouses for everyone to see.

September working Guiding the dumper in, with the next load of concrete for the capping party: the The twowere able to cut 4m pieces from the roll on week work party was largely blessed with the bed, attach them to the lifting rig and good weather. It was so hot on some days place them on the bank with an excavator. that work stopped early to avoid sunburn Meanwhile the old swingbridge brickand heat stroke! Our site layout once again work at Bridge 4 (as mentioned on the Auallowed for volunteers to be well spaced gust working party report above) was apart for covid 19 infection avoidance. cleaned up to remove the old crumbling lime, On the bank excavation and channel loose bricks, and other debris. The new ‘old lining: once we were sure that we had no badgers living in the offside bank at bridge 4, style’ heritage bricks were carefully built up with fresh lime mortar. work progressed to rough excavation and The coal tar solution: as alluded to then final profiling lining and block-laying on earlier, a very long time ago the canal was both banks. As can be seen in the picture, progress along the bank was pleasingly rapid. The towpath side, at 40m long, ended up being slightly more advanced than the offside. Bridge 4 can be seen in the distance.

Whilst we modify the “Bentomatic” (as we have christened the excavator mounted Bentomat handling rig that we have devised), we needed to find an interim method of handling the heavy Bentomat sheets. By adapting another Good progress in September with profiling, lining and blocking the banks handling tool, we

page 30

lined with a new-fangled material that was a by product of making ‘town gas’ (the predecessor of today’s natural gas) by heating coal in a closed retort. The residue from the gas-producing process contained many chemicals and compounds and one of the most useful was coal tar. This material was used on many of the roads of the day and is still there in lots of cases but covered with later layers of Bitumen (derived from crude oil).

At the time this coal tar material was seen as a cheaper method to waterproof reservoirs and ponds compared to the traditional clay puddling process. The Canal directors decided that the leaky Wendover Arm should be coated with a layer of this material (it didn’t Bentomat handling, pending perfection of the Bentomatic ® work), and it is still there today.

In 2021 the coal tar is now a problem material when considering how to dispose of tonnes of spoil that now contains the tar. We have found that coal tar is not accepted at all at landfill sites, and that includes spoil with only small amounts of the tar in it. We know the tar does not leach into the subsoil and we also know that it is not easily dissolved in water, or it wouldn’t still be there after 100 years or so.

We have now been a lot more careful when excavating the banks. It has been possible to remove the contaminated top layers and the coal tar layer itself and leave the original clean subsoil exposed and then remove it and keep it separated from the tar-contaminated spoil. This in turn has allowed the removal of the “clean spoil”. (We will have a net excess of spoil, so something must be removed from site). This can be done relatively cheaply.

Finally, due to the bank excavation and lining going well, it was decided to leave the concreting of the pipe capping until the last day of the fortnight to allow access for the machines and focus on the bank works. Another 30m of capping was completed on the last working day: the length now stands at 480m from bridge 4.

Tony Bardwell Operations Director Rebuilding the second wall at the old swingbridge site by Bridge 4 Wendover Arm Trust

page 31

Progress River Gipping Next, our roundup of progress on restoration projects heads east for Suffolk and the River Gipping, also known as the Stowmarket Navigation River Gipping

Pictures by RGT

The River Gipping Trust have now taken delivery of all the timber components needed to build a wooden footbridge platform that will sit on 230 year old brick abutments and will cross the river Gipping in Suffolk.

The 2m wide footbridge platform consists of five timber beams, each 10.5m long x 475mm deep x 200mm wide. The original timber footbridge platform was lost over 80 years ago and since then there has been no towpath along the river for around 1km.

The Trust have restored one of the bridge abutments and are working hard on the other before work starts on erecting the wooden platform over the river. Hopefully volunteers will start building the footbridge platform over the river in October and be able to re-open the 1km of towpath again.

The timber for the bridge deck is delivered...

The Trust hope to be able to undertake a 1km stretch of de-silting work just upstream of the footbridge improving the river conditions to enable canoes and kayaks to paddle more freely and have recently met up with the Environment Agency who in principle, subject to conditions, have indicated that they will approve our upcoming permit applications.

More photos and latest updates on our website https://www. rivergippingtrust.uk/ ...and delivered to the bridge site latest-news

page 32

Top: restoration of the first bridge abutment is complete. Above: the second bride abutment awaiting restoration hopefully to be complete during October. Right: once that’s done, the timber is ready for building the new deck

page 33

Progress Tennant and Mont The Tennant Canal’s aqueduct is under threat, but there’s progress with funding a survey. Meanwhile on the Montgomery, channel work continues demolition of the structure.

The Neath and Tennant Canals Trust There’s more positive news on the future of and the Inland Waterways Association have the Aberdulais Aqueduct, which was damcampaigned for its retention and restoration. aged by flood water 18 months ago leading They see the way forward as being a long to fears that it would collapse or be term management plan and a heritage partdeolished - which would represent the loss of nership agreement with the owners (the stillan important heritage structure as well as a independent Port Tennant Company which blow to future reopening of the canals, which uses part of the canal as a water supply in recent years has been put forward as part channel for industry) and public bodies of the wider Swansea Bay Inland Waterway (some of whom it was feared would support scheme. the removal of the aqueduct) including Welsh The aqueduct carries the Tennant Canal heritage organisation CADW, local authorities over the River Neath, close to its junction and Natural Resources Wales, to agree works with the Neath Canal. The ten-arch stone to stabilise the structure. Fears of worsening structure is the second-longest in Wales (no storms and floods as a result of climate prizes for working out which one is the long- change mean that they see a need to act est!) but its low height and solid stone piers soon. mean that it forms a barrier to water coming Following discussions with NRW, CADW, down the river during flood conditions. The the Council, PTC and the Save the Tennant canal here is unnavigable, the channel over Canal group, IWA applied successfully for a the aqueduct has been empty for quite some CADW for a grant to cover the cost of a years, and it has long suffered from flood structural survey of the aqueduct, which will damage and lack of maintenance. In early give an idea of the scale and cost of repairs 2020 Storm Dennis caused further damage, needed. This survey has now been commiswashing away some stonework and causing sioned, and the results will determine the a buildup of debris against the aqueduct next stage in the campaign to save the resulting in local flooding and calls for the aqueduct.

IWA

Neath and Tennant Canals

Under threat of demolition: Aberdulais Aqueduct

page 34

Montgomery Canal The main effort over the summer at Shropshire Union Canal Society’s worksite (rebuilding the length of the Montgomery Canal between Lloyds Animal Feeds near Pryces Bridge and Crickheath Wharf) has been construction of banks that require surcharge [Surcharge means pre-loading ground which is expected to suffer from settlement with weights, in this case stacks of large waterfilled plastic tanks of a type known as IBCs, so that the sinking occurs in a controlled way before the canal channel is restored], with the fourth and final one now finished. the bank in question is on the outside at the Lloyd’s Animal Feeds (LAF) end of the site.

As a preliminary, the channel bed in this area had the works ground conditions on the site and had to be treated by the addition of copious quantities of grout and stone.

Additonally, as part of this work, the corresponding towpath bank was reconstructed.

In both cases the necessary stone was delivered to the banks by power barrow from the LAF compound and simultaneously by dumper from Crickheath. Although superficially similar the two banks had a very different construction. The offside ‘surcharge bank’ was held together by five layers of heavy-duty geogrid whilst the towpath is devoid of such technological wizardry.

The consulting engineers have now agreed that two banks at the oak tree, which were finished before Christmas, can now move from ‘primary’ to ‘secondary’ settle-

ment. This means that the bulk of the likely settlement has now happened and accordingly the IBCs can be removed and the banks reduced in size to their final shape.

Accordinly the IBCs were drained, moved (manually!) to the third and fourth ‘settlement’ banks and refilled with water. Also the bank reshaping work provides us with our own on-site quarry - no more imported stone required!

The other major task over the summer has been preparation for the start of lining / blocklaying of the channel. Part of these preparations is final shaping of the channel between the oak tree and Crickheath. This was a major effort mainly using hand tools.

The nationwide shortage of building materials has made acquisition of the various lining materials a fraught process. However all of the necessary sheet materials and blocks are now on site and the start of lining / blocking work is imminent.

Incidently the grout mentioned above has a bit of history. It was originally obtained by the Canal & River Trust for scheduled winter work on the Toddbrook Reservoir at Whaley Bridge. However before it could be used there, the well-publicised failure of the spillway and the attendant dramatic evacuation of the town occurred. The subsequent emergency remedial work to the reservoir included much of the original scheduled work. Thus the grout was surplus to requirements and was diverted to the Montgomery.

“An ill wind...” if there ever was one!

See also Monty camp report on page 10

Lining and blocking in progress by SUCS volunteers on the Montgomery Canal

page 35

News

navvies

Licence changes for trailers and new petrol formula - how do they affect us? Council decision favours Uttoxeter Canal, and Adrian gets an award!

Trailers

1:

As you may have heard, the rules regarding trailer towing are changing. Until now, if you passed your driving test after 1 January 1997 you were restricted in what you could tow 2: unless you took an additional test. This additional test is now being scrapped and so the vast majority of people who have passed their driving test in a car will be able to tow 3500Kg. It is important to note that NOTHING has changed with the WRG driver authorisation scheme, so you will still need the 3: appropriate categories on your DA card for both the trailer and towing vehicle before towing trailers for WRG and/or other societies who use our DA scheme.

E10 Petrol E numbers? In petrol? What, are they adding artificial colour and flavour to fuel now? Err, no. As you may have seen, recently the standard unleaded petrol coming from fuel pumps has been changed to include 10% ethanol - hence the name E10. This has been done to reduce the carbon footprint of fuel but it does have some consequences.

Cars sold since 2011 have components that will tolerate ethanol, but older vehicles and plant like mowers, strimmers, pumps etc still rely on rubber pipes and gaskets and in some cases soldered copper floats, all of which are attacked and degraded by ethanol.

In addition, ethanol is a solvent that is excellent at removing all that old crud that was firmly stuck in your fuel system and then depositing it in the fuel filter - or worse, in the jets of the carburettor. Lastly it is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs water which then adds to the corrosion effect and also means it degrades more quickly when stored. All in all it is not an ideal fuel for use in the sort of kit we use on site.

So what should you do for running petrol powered plant? Well you have three options:

page 36

Just use E10 petrol. For the odd tank of fuel where someone filled a can with the wrong stuff this isn’t a problem; most of the issues are long term effects anyway.

Switch to ‘super unleaded’. For now, super unleaded remains at up to 5% ethanol (as standard unleaded was) and typically only contains 2%-3%. You may need to tweak the mixture when you first switch over to compensate for the higher octane.

Switch to an alkylate type fuel. Probably the most well known brand is Aspen though there are others are available and they come as either 4 stroke or pre-mixed 2 stroke (i.e. you do not need to add 2 stroke oil); again, when you first switch over you may need to tweak the mixture settings.

These fuels have a number of benefits, the two main ones being that they are very stable and so can be stored without degrading and even left in equipment for months without any problems (no more having to run the saw out of petrol at the end of the day), and also the emissions from the equipment are less harmful to the user. So why isn’t everyone using it? Well it is considerably more expensive than petrol but particularly for kit that is less frequently used it may be your best option.

Froghall threat rejected The application to build houses across the route of the former Uttoxeter Canal at Froghall, which would have prevented future reopening of the canal by any practicable route, has been unanimously rejected by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council’s planning committee.

As described in more detail in previous issues of Navvies, there are actually two pieces of land concerned: one area which is earmarked for housing in local masterplanning documents, and a smaller

Raffle tickets... ...for the Wey & Arun Canal Trust’s raffle should fall out of this issue as you open it.

We do understand that many of you will feel that you give plenty of time and money to the cause of waterway restora-

tion already via WRG - and that’s fine. But when we include other organisations’ tickets in Navvies, we like them to be relevant to what we’re doing and to what’s in the magazine - and this is no exception.

See the article on page 23 about KESCRG helping with the first phase of the crucial Tickners Heath Crossing which will extend navigation on the Wey & Arun’s restored summit section southwards towards the completed Loxwood Link length to see how useful any support you give to the Wey & Arun Canal Trust - whether in cash or by volunteering on future working parties - would be.

Congratulations...

Mikk Bradley

adjacent strip along the route of the canal which is protected for future canal restoration. But the developers said that unless they could build houses on both pieces of land, it wasn’t worth their while to develop the site at all. There were concerns among canal supporters that the council would feel under pressure to approve the plans, because it would need to satisfy the need for new housing somewhere within its boundaries.

A campaign by Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust and other opponents of the housing scheme saw some 300 objections submitted, with actor and canal supporter Sir David Suchet backing their cause. The developers Hadleigh Industrial Estates said there was “no evidence that the canal could be restored” but in case it could, they suggested alternative routes for it to take: one involved canalising the River Churnet and adding several new bridges (which probably wouldn’t have gone down well with the Environment Agency); the other involved a new canal tunnel. CUCT dismissed both as “ill informed and unworkable”.

Finally after several postponements of the planning meeting, the application was considered and unanimously turned down in September. Of course that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the matter - there could be a further application with some changes but not enough to satisfy objectors; or there could even be an appeal against the decision. But given that the objections at the meeting, came not just from CUCT and IWA (Rupert Smedley, who many of you will know through WRG, put the case for protecting the canal for future restoration on behalf of both of these organisations) but also from councillors, representatives of the smaller local authorities and others, and also that the canal issue wasn’t the only factor by a long way - there were also issues of inappropriate size of development for the area; lack of local services and facilities; visual impact; poor road access; sustainability; lack of vision; ground contamination; and flood risk - there seem grounds for optimism that the threat’s been seen off for now.

...to our ace digger driver Adrian Sturgess who is pictured being presented with the Inland Waterways Association’s Richard Bird Medal by Jenny Morris, while on the recent Montgomery Canal Camp.

Adrian has volunteered on over 70 canal camps and national events plus lots more weekend work parties, and trained over 200 machine operators. Well done!

page 37

infill

Movie

time!

What’s your choice for film night? Full Montgomery or Last Kango...

The Incredible Bulk

A canal restoration volunteer finds that he is transformed into an unstoppable huge green monster by cake, beer and lasagne

WRG Movie Night

It’s a Mud, Mud, Mud, Mud World

A group of WRG minibus drivers hear about WRG Logistics’ hidden stash of grubbing mattocks and race against each other around the canal restoration sites of the country to get to it [Note: how this differs from any normal Saturday during a WRG summer camps programme is not entirely clear]

Dig Hard

Coming soon on the WRG Movie Channel...

Some new and not-so-new titles to entertain you on that mid-week night on a canal camp when you realise there are only so many times you can watch the WRG Health & Safety video, and start to wonder if you can find something else to watch that’s even funnier than the Navvies editor knocking a pile of bricks over...

The Full Montgomery

Six unemployed London WRG volunteers strip to raise funds for a new Burco. And then find they can raise more money by promising to keep their clothes on...

Guardians of the Waterway

A group of intergalactic misfits must pull together to stop a fanatical warrior with plans to build a housing estate in Froghall

The Dam Rustlers

The incredible story of how, against all the odds, the heroes of WRG removed an inflatable dam from deep in CRT territory to enable the restoration of a lock, loading the giant slime-covered balloon into a car boot before bouncing it seven times across the Montgomery Canal and into place

page 38

A canal camp leader tries to save his cook and several D of E volunteers taken hostage during a Cotswold Christmas camp by IWA terrorists at Unit 4 in Brimscombe Port

Vertigo

A retired WRGie who suffers from Acrophobia (a fear of Acrow Props) is trailing an attractive lady to check she is following safe practice for working at heights

Last Kango in Paris

A young French canal camp volunteer meets a middle-aged American canal camp leader who demands that their clandestine relationship be based only on hired power tools

The Bantam of the Opera

A young WRGie becomes the obsession of a disfigured and murderous mechanical genius who lives in a small diesel push-tug on the River Seine This selection of titles and plot synopses (*) comes to you courtesy of Dr McFloodbush.

I’m sure that the film fans among the Navvies readership can suggest some much better ones! Please do, and we’ll include them in the next issue. (*) Is that really the plural? I guess Synopsises sounds even worse...

Happy birthday...

Adrian ‘Velcro’ Sturgess, famous for being difficult to shift from the seat of his beloved excavator, celebrated a birthday on the recent Montgomery Canal. So what better way to mark it than to decorate his digger with festive balloons! [See also page 37]

You know it’s been too long since you’ve been doing WRG stuff when... ...your inkject printer still has red ink in it, after it’s run out of all the other colours. Yes, that did actually happen to the editor recently. A sign of the times. A rare chance to use the word ‘unprecedented’ and really mean it.

And finally...

A story briefly made the national press recently concerning a little-known but picturesque Norfolk waterway with a curious name. In fact it was the curious name that made it newsworthy. A boater on the Broads posted a message to the Love the Norfolk Broads Facebook group to say that she’d moored her boat on Cockshoot Dyke. This was way too much for Facebook, which promptly removed her posting, saying that it contained “violence and sexual content”. Facebook banned any mention of the waterway under its ‘hate speech’ algorithms, and local folks using the group took to referring to it as “The waterway that shall not be named”.

In fact the name Cockshoot is derived from the hunting of woodcock birds, and ‘dyke’ (from the same origin as ‘ditch’) is used to mean a raised bank, sometimes to hold back water in a channel, or as in this case the channel itself.

The group’s administrator Steve Burgess felt it was “a bit heavy handed” and that the social media giant had “put two and two together and got 58”. Good job he didn’t say ‘69’.

Meanwhile at Navvies, (“edited by people, not algorithms”) we can’t help wondering what Facebook would make of a volunteer clearing junk out of Black Cock Bridge on the Birmingham Canal Navigations, or restoring Nob End Locks on the Manchester Bolton & Bury...

page 39

page 40