Group report Kescrg are back

group report KESCRG

The regional mobile working party groups have been getting going again in the autumn. Let’s hear what a couple of them have been up to, starting with Kescrg...

Kescrg returns…

As reported in the last edition of Navvies, mobile working party group Kescrg returned to weekend digging in September with a very successful dig helping prepare reinforcing and formwork for a concrete pour on the Wey and Arun at the Tickner’s Heath Road Crossing. This weekend proved that a hybrid approach combining local volunteers, Kescrg day trippers and a small group staying overnight in traditional dig fashion was both worthwhile and effective, and as Covid safe as we could make it - and more importantly reminded us just how much we had missed getting out and being constructive and useful on canal projects over the preceding 18 months. A quick Lateral Flow Test before and after the weekend was a small if slightly uncomfortable price to pay for being back out doing what we love.

So, with this experience under our belts our October weekend was arranged on the Buckingham Arm of the Grand Union canal, the plan being to investigate and repair a number of leaks that had appeared in the newly rewatered section beyond Bridge 1 at Cosgrove. We were staying at Stoke Bruerne village hall, and seven of us were booked in to sleep at the accommodation. Still a small number by normal standards, but just about the right number for this weekend as we slowly increased the size of digs as we became more comfortable and confident with the arrangements. Best of all, we once more had a dedicated cook with Anne being with us for the weekend – Mick was also out digging, but he was down in the South West with WRG Forestry. This might be the ideal realisation of the romantic weekend digging ‘together’…

Saturday morning saw us meet with Terry and his local crew at Cosgrove for a briefing on Covid arrangements, the site and the specific work we were doing, then we proceeded down the Arm to the offending leaky sections to do some ‘investigation’. The canal here traverses the gentle slope of the River Ouse valley, and the first task was to cut trenches in the waterlogged farmer’s field to encourage the leaking water to flow away from the puddles it had created at the

Stephen Davis

base of the low canal embankment and out into the field, so we could try and pin point the leaks. The conclusion was a) it is quite fun digging mini canals in a muddy farmer’s field, and b) the water was emerging from multiple places along 20m or so of the embankment. The plan for the repairs was to dig a narrow, deep slit trench in the towpath, then fill this with puddling clay. This we duly did for the rest of the weekend – given there was only one excavator and it was busy digging the trench, this involved a lot of manual filling of the dumper with clay, and walking to-and-fro from the clay pile some distance away – but at least this kept us busy!

By the end of the weekend it looked like the leaks were subsiding, and LWRG were returning a couple of weeks later to continue the trench, so hopefully now the field is somewhat drier. The only downside to the weekend were the slightly curtailed

Tim Lewis

Kescrg on the Buckingham: stockpiling clay for fixing the leaks... opening hours at the lovely Boat Inn… we were all in bed by 11pm on the Saturday. Scandalous! On to November, and we made a welcome return to the Wendover Arm, another branch of the Grand Union Canal. This is a great project and one which when complete will have huge and immediate benefit to the canal system as it will provide water from springs in Wendover directly to the Tring summit pound of the canal’s main line (rather than via Tringford Pumping Station as at present), greatly reducing the pumping required to keep the Grand Union up and running. Kescrg have been heavily involved on this canal over the years – most recently five or six years ago with the restoration of the overflow structures at the former Whitehouses pumping station site. It is always great to return to a canal after several years away to see progress at first hand, and this was no exception, with the section past Whitehouse complete and due to be rewatered Tim Lewis shortly after our visit – and indeed it is now in water, with some great pictures available ...and filling the trench with it... by hand! online. The local trust are page 35

now onto the last phase of their relining project from bridge 4 back to the navigable section at Little Tring, and we joined them for the first weekend of their regular November week-long working party. Our task was to complete the brickwork of the former swing-bridge narrows around bridge 4, so they could concentrate on continuing the Bentomat (waterproof bentonite matting) lining. With this brickwork complete, they would be able to decamp the container and tools from this area, enabling them to complete the lining of the base of the canal, which in turn would free up logistics for handling and reusing the spoil from profiling the canal line, rather than having to store it all at their main compound for future use.

It had proved a little tricky finding accommodation, but in the end we were very impressed with Wiggington Village Hall – a really good sized hall, with decent kitchen and a nice pub almost next door… and it turns out an enormous, free fireworks display that draws in thousands of people from all around on the Saturday evening of a dig weekend (I suppose it may not happen every dig weekend, my sample size is admittedly limited). When a sizeable oak tree is fully silhouette by the bonfire as you approach the field, you know they mean business!

By the end of the weekend we had completed all but a handful of the bricks, and contributed to what looks to have been another really successful work party for the local group. We had ten volunteers at the accommodation, again with Anne cooking (thanks Anne!), and Mick was even with her this time. This has been a gradual ramping up of the number of volunteers as individuals feel comfortable returning and sharing spaces, and with testing and being a little careful in congested areas such as toilets and

Mick Lilliman Kescrg on the Wendover: rebuilding the old swingbridge narrows dinner queues, I think we have had a really successful three digs this autumn. Of course, just as I write this the Omicron variant has reared its head, and we’ll have to see how things pan out over the next month or two – but if vaccines and testing remain effective, and there is not too great a wave of infection, I am very much looking forward to more weekend digs in the new year, returning hopefully as the year progresses to pre-pandemic numbers and regularity. Stephen Davis Kescrg Although it originally stood for ‘Kent & East Sussex Canal Restoration Group’, Kescrg has for a long time been a mobile group supported by volunteers from all over the south eastern part of the country - and further afield. The group holds weekend working parties usually at monthly intervals, on various waterways mainly in the south. New volunteers are welcome, see kescrgonline.co.uk or find the Kescrg group on Facebook for details