Progress Montgomery Canal

Shropshire Union Canal Society near completion of the channel and towpath to Crickheath - and prepare for next year’s project on the length beyond

Montgomery Canal

Late August update: Towpath ‘ton-up’ boys and Crickheath South project starts. The second August Work Party on the Shropshire Union Canal Society’s major project to complete the channel and towpath to the current reopening target at Crickheath Wharf was well attended by SUCS volunteers despite being in the middle of the holiday season. The principal aim of this work party was to develop as much of the towpath reconstruction as possible. The complete 330 metre length has to have wooden shuttering on the inside and outside edges, and then the middle section has to be dressed with graded stone and dust. A small team passed the 100 metre mark on second day and by close of play on Sunday had a total of 125 metres chalked off.

Other work saw another 2000 concrete blocks being laid to advance the lined channel to within 15 metres of the winding hole (turning point) already created at Crickheath. The connection to the winding hole, which is in water (retained behind a large clay dam), was due to be made at the start of October. The existing clay dam will be replaced by a temporary fabric dam whilst the clay is removed. The channel will then be incrementally filled with this water to test it.

More riprap stone and soil were added to exposed areas of the 1 metre section above the blocks. Riprap is designed to reduce the erosive effect of wash created by boat propellers. The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) funding that has financed the project will end in October, hence the need to complete all work by the end of that month – see below. The second big advance this month was the start of preliminary work for our next project, the channel beyond Crickheath Bridge to the new Schoolhouse Bridge. The fence posts were installed in the new compound, with the fence materials to follow later in the week.

Early September update: The rakers’ progress. The first September work party saw a change of emphasis from shaping, lining and block-laying to concentrating on towpath reconstruction. The 330 metre length of towpath has wooden shuttering on the inside and outside edges and the middle is dressed with graded stone and a top layer of fine material. Teams working on different parts of the project delivered incredible distances of finished and prepared towpath.

The 220 metres from the previously finished section at Pryce’s Bridge had to be given a top layer of fine dust which was transported by power barrows, raked out and Wacker plated to compress it. To operate these endless, longdistance power barrow journeys from point of supply to point of tipping between the prepared narrow wooden shuttering required great skill and endurance from the drivers.

The process then advanced onto the next section on Sunday and another 125 metres were finished off by close of play on Sunday –remarkable!

At the Crickheath end another massive length of 117 metres of shuttering was added to take it to within 40 metres of the winding hole. A dressing of stone was added to build up the towpath to the required height so that the final topping of fine material can be added.

The milepost from this section that has been lovingly preserved by Judy and Peter Richards for many, many years was brought into position and will be installed at the next work party.

Late September update: Towpath team triumph on the Monty In beautiful dry weather, the second September work party of Shropshire Union Canal volunteers completed what had as of August seemed to be an impossible task. 330 metres of towpath has now been boarded with parallel lines of shuttering to retain the stone base. This has been top dressed with finings of stone dust and whacker plated to consolidate it. Large stones (riprap) have also been applied to the metre between the blocked channel and the towpath. Finally soil has been added on top of the stones and on either side of the new towpath to encourage the growth of vegetation.

Another 30 metres of channel was covered in layers of liner and building blocks to bring the restored section to within 10 metres of Crickheath Basin.

The Canal and River Trust deadline for completing the towpath and shaping/lining of the channel was due to fall at the beginning of October. This would mean removing the clay dam that is retaining thousands of gallons of water in Crickheath Basin, enabled by Canal and River Trust installing a synthetic dam in front of the clay dam before the end of September thus allowing removal of the clay dam during the first October work party using a large digger from the off side. This was expected to be a very tricky operation but will expose the concrete base and sides of the basin and allow the waterproofing layers of liner in the channel to be sealed to these surfaces. These final 10 metres will then be paved with building blocks to weigh down the layers of material – hopefully we’ll report on it in the next issue.

Moving on: first post for the compound for 2023’s project

CRT intend to fill the channel with water to test the section in November with a view to opening the canal for navigation around Easter next year.

Fred Barrett