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Tickners on the Wey & Arun Canal
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
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 before and after the event, and heightened awareness of hygiene and space both on site 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
River Wey to the Thames Shalford
Length: 23 miles Locks: 26 Date closed: 1871
Bramley Birtley
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.
Why? This work is the first stage of a major project which will see the new road bridge itself built by contractors, following which volunteers will return for the final stages of work. The new bridge will replace the current low-level culvert blocking the canal, and thereby extend the existing restored navigable Tickners to Fastbridge length of the canal’s summit level southwards.
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 together and reopen the entire route from the Wey to the south coast.
Dunsfold
Site for Kescrg dig: Tickners Restored Loxwood Link section 9
Summit length Loxwood
Newbridge
Tidal River Arun to the coast Pallingham
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 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
Stephen Davis
Return wall reinforcing in progress
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 weekthend digs are finally feasible again. Kescrg will be back out on the Buckingham Arm 9/10 thOctober, then we are planning a visit to the Wendover Arm 6/7 November and possibly th thback to the Buckingham 4 /5 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
Stephen Davis
