Letters the state of the waterways

Letters Burslem... and CRT...

A post-Camp update on the Burslem, and an appeal for help. And is the navigable network getting in a bad way, or mainly no worse than normal?

On the Burslem Port Project

Hi Martin Well, it happened although not quite as envisaged. Due to matters beyond our control, our contractors had to delay starting the path, so WRG had the privilege of laying the first third of the path themselves. And that had to be a mini camp for three full days, due to a shortage of available leaders. Thanks to Jenny, Mikk and Paul for sharing the load. In those three days, edge boards were erected along the former canal bed as far as the warehouse, sand, a membrane and chipped stone were all laid, a fantastic achievement in a short time [See Camp Report, page 10].

We are just waiting for the top coat of road planings to complete the job, which is happening in the last 2 weeks of November. Our contractors expect to complete the whole path by then.

Just a couple of comments on your piece in Navvies 309. You mention the figure of £58 million - this is deceptive as it included land acquisition for all the surrounding houses. The waterway reinstatement figure was less than £6 million, as estimated in the Engineering Study carried out by AECOM in 2011. And the project has always been jointly funded by our local IWA Branch and the Trent & Mersey Canal society - so they deserve a mention.

And now for an appeal. The Trust has recently lost two valuable - and younger - trustees, leaving two thirds of our trustees in their eighties. We badly need someone with a WRG background to help us move forward. With our meetings now conducted via Zoom, living in the locality is not essential. So I am appealing to Navvies’ readership to step up. We are on the cusp of exciting developments. I can be reached on roger.st21@gmail.com. I look forward to a full inbox!

Roger Savage Chairman, Burslem Port Trust On the state of maintenance of the waterways system (again)...

In issue308 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.

Last time we printed a reply from Alan Hodson reporting various aspects of waterways maintenance of the Yorkshire waterways that were sub-standard and concluding CRT was ”clearly not fit for purpose”. Here’s another view of the state of the system...

Dear Martin Like you we have not boated the Stratford this year but have probably got near to our average mileages. Starting from our base at Langley Mill we did the Leicester Ring in May/June and travelled over to the Middlewich Branch via the Shroppie in August returning the same way in October with the addition of a run up the Llangollen to Frankton and down the Mont. The main observations were excess vegetation growth mainly offside especially on the Mont and southern Shroppie plus ground paddle failures at 25% of the northern Staffs & Worcs locks.

Otherwise much the same from an operational point of view as previously, but with vegetation out of control in many areas and almost every lock and lift bridge in need

of repainting, the system looked neglected. My understanding is that CRT furloughed most of their canal bank staff (big mistake?) at the start of the pandemic which restricted their ability to keep up with essential maintenance. Individual paddle failures were not attended to if navigation was still possible and staff were busy elsewhere.

In my East Midlands area a plea to the Erewash Canal Preservation & Development Association for help from the local Customer Service Manager resulted in the Friday work party team changing paddle boards, repairing spear rods, replacing windlass/ spindle posts and much more besides to keep the Erewash Canal fully navigable.

Other CRT volunteers have also been busy painting lock gates and picking litter etc. In fact CRT staff in our area have in recent weeks resumed repairing failed paddles even where other paddles remained in operation. For instance at Potters Lock on the Erewash they recently extracted a ground paddle board and put everything back together after we had made and welded a new eye on the spear rod.

Several years ago we purchased and

Also useful for vegetation clearance: ECPDA workboat ‘Pentland’ restored a CRT work boat for use on off-side vegetation clearance work but were subsequently told the work had to be done by outside contractors. We are now in talks with CRT about using Pentland our work boat to assist the Erewash Towpath Action Team - the ‘Thursday Gang’ - with some of this work. Yes, there are two teams of volunteers helping to keep the Erewash Canal clean, smart and operational. Dave Turner Does anyone else have any comments? ...Ed

Dear Martin Please find attached a photo of an artifact that I think may be of interest to you. I rescued it from being left to rest on the bottom of the canal at Castlefield over 30 years ago.

I now need to find a forever home for it as I am moving house. It has a Hayley’s Patent and dates back to the 1800’s.

Best regards

Steve Parr

Anyone know what it is? And can anyone provide it with a ‘forever home’? Contact the editor and I’ll put you in touch with Steve Parr ...The Editor