Canal camps 2023 preview

By the time the next Navvies is published we should have a proper Canal Camps programme. But here’s a sneak preview of where we’re likely to be going...

So has WRG got a great programme of week-long Canal Camps all ready to go for 2023? Well, the short answer is “no”, I’m afraid. The slightly longer answer is “not yet, but we’ll definitely have one in time for the camps booklet to be included in the next issue of Navvies, and we might well have it sorted a fair bit earlier than that.

But the much longer (about six pages longer, in fact) answer is that although like last year we’re running a little later than we have in the past when it comes to getting a programme confirmed to the point of publishing a diary of camps, we’ve got a sufficiently good idea of which projects we’re likely to be supporting that we can publish this ‘pre-preview’.

Without being able to make any promises that all of these will feature in the final list (or, indeed, that any others won’t be added), we’ve put together this preview of the sites which are looking likely to feature in the 2023 Canal Camps programme, plus some more that we’re very hopeful of being able to add.

And even if some of these sites don’t make it into the programme for the coming year, you can be pretty sure that our volunteers will be working on them in the not-too-distant future in the 2024 Camps programme or on the regional groups’ weekend working parties. And we’ll start off with two that we haven’t worked on for a long time, if at all...

Louth Navigation

The Canal Camp work: taking down and rebuilding damaged brickwork, repointing and vegetation removal on the chamber and wing walls of the wonderfully named (and scalloped-sided) Ticklepenny Lock

The restoration: the Louth Navigation Trust’s long-term aim is to reopen the entire waterway, a 12 mile part-canal part-river route which linked Louth in Lincolnshire with the mouth of the Humber. The Trust has restored the historic Navigation Warehouse at Louth, restored the towpath, and carried out maintenance and remedial work on the surviving lock structures.

Neath Canal

The Canal Camp work: various possible tasks on the Resolven to Glyn-Neath length, including building an overflow weir, reinstating coping stones on an aqueduct (pictured) and bridge, reinstating lock footbridges, bank protection and vegetation clearance

The restoration: the Neath & Tennant Canals Trust has in the past restored some significant lengths including the Resolven to Glyn-Neath section. However there has been concern over the management of this length by the local authority responsible. A new volunteer group, the Ty Banc Canal Group, has recently been formed with the aim of promoting and enhancing the canal, and has identified the above potential WRG tasks. Ultimately the hope is to open Neath Canal and Tennant canals, and link them via a new connection through Swansea Docks to the Swansea Canal, also under restoration

Wey & Arun Canal

The Canal Camp work: building the fixed structure for the second of two new swingbridges to carry footpaths across the canal at Birtley, near Bramley

The restoration: In its long-term plan to restore the entire through route from the River Wey to the River Arun (and so provide a link from the canal network to the south coast) the Wey & Arun Canal Trust has concentrated on certain ‘showpiece’ lengths including the Loxwood Link section and the summit at Dunsfold.

It is now working to create another restored length nearer to the north end of the canal, south of Bramley. The new bridges will form part of this plan, as well as opening up a network of local footpaths linking to the canal Another of these needed: building the first liftbridge in 2019

River Waveney

The Canal Camp work: restoring the second chamber wall at Geldeston Lock

The restoration: The River Waveney is part of the Broads, and navigable as a tidal waterway to Geldeston. In the past, three locks enabled boats to carry on up to Bungay. There are no plans to reopen this length, but the old lock at Geldeston is a historic structure, was in danger of collapsing, and could have a new role as a place to display the last surviving former trading wherry - the type of sailing barge which was used on the Broads.

Cotswold Canals

The Canal Camp work: two likely sites, each of them with one or more dedicated camps: carrying out the first stage of a project to restore / rebuild Westfield Lock near Eastington and reinstate the aqueduct / culvert carrying a stream under its top end; and putting a stream culvert under the canal near the rebuilt Weymoor Bridge, Latton

The restoration: the Cotswold Canals Trust is committed to reopening the through route from the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal to the River Thames. It has broken the project down into ‘phases’ to be tackled in sequence, but at the same time it will work on other projects if opportunities arise. The Westfield Lock project is a vital volunteer contribution to the Lottery-funded ‘Phase 1b’ section which will see ten miles reopened from Saul to near Brimscombe within three years. By contrast the Weymoor culvert is away from the main focus of restoration, on the Inglesham to Cerney length identified as ‘Phase 2’, but follows on from an ‘opportunity’ which arose when a bequest was left to the Trust specifically to rebuild Weymoor Bridge.

Lapal Canal

The Canal Camp work: creating a new footpath ramp to link the towpath to a restored bridge in Selly Oak Park, south of Birmingham

The restoration: the Lapal Canal Trust aims to eventually restore the abandoned length of the Dudley No 2 Canal which once extended from the current terminus at Hawne Basin, Halesowen, to reach the Worcester & Birmingham Canal at Selly Oak. In the medium term they would like to restore the better preserved Selly Oak end of the canal, and as an initial aim to open the canal into Selly Oak Park. Work is already under way on creating a new turning basin and junction, a route through a Supermarket development has been reserved and part of the canal constructed, and a new road bridge built. The proposed Canal Camp work builds on work carried out on previous camps to improve the canal in Selly Oak Park, and repair the towpath through Selly Oak Park Bridge

Lichfield & Hatherton Canals

The Canal Camp work: creating a pathway through a woodland copse at Darnford Lane, on the east side at Lichfield

The restoration: Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust plans to recreate two ‘missing link’ canal routes which connected the surviving length of the Wyrley & Essington Canal in the northern Black Country to the Coventry Canal and Staffs & Worcs Canal respectively.

A focus for much of its effort recently has been several sites around Lichfield, including Tamworth Road, Fosseway Heath and more recently Darnford Lane, where WRG supported the Trust many years ago when they created a liftbridge, a culvert, and a piled length of canal channel. As well as creating a local amenity, our work will tie in with funding recently secured to restore an adjacent length of canal, and with alterations to the canal where the HS2 railway crosses it nearby, improving the prospects for opening this end of the canal in the not too distant future.

And anywhere else?

The seven sites that we’ve described on the previous four pages are the ones that (as Navvies went to press) appeared to be the front-runners in terms of getting all the details, permissions, accommodation and so on sorted out and dates agreed on for them to go ahead - although as I said earlier, nothing was absolutely confirmed as happening. Here are four more which we also very much hope to support with Canal Camps this year, but where preparations hadn’t quite the same level of readiness to go ahead. But as with all of the projects in this preview, we definitely see ourselves working there sometime soon...

Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal

The Canal Camp work: Continuing building a new canal channel at Malswick

The restoration: The Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust is working to reopen the canal all the way from the River Severn on the edge of Gloucester to Hereford.

Lengths have been restored along the line including Over Basin (Gloucester), Oxenhall, Monkhide, Kymin East and Aylestone near Hereford.

Keen to see some progress on the Newent to Gloucester section, the Trust began recreating a length of canal al Malswick in 2022, not on the original site (which is obstructed by an old railway embankment) but on a brand new route

Derby & Sandiacre Canal

The Canal Camp work: Likely to be either working on a lock restoration at Sandiacre or a lock and channel walls at Borrowash

The restoration: The Derby Canal once linked the Trent & Mersey Canal at Swarkestone via Derby to the Erewash Canal at Sandiacre. The Derby & Sandiacre Canal Trust aims to reopen the whole route, but as the length in Derby has been built on, it will be bypassed by a new length of canal, while a boat lift called the Derby Arm will transfer boats to a length of the River Derwent, which will provide a link into the city centre.

So far restoration work has mainly concentrated on the Derby to Sandiacre section, which is where both of the proposed work sites are situated

Wendover Arm

The Canal Camp work: likely to be continuing with channel construction work

The restoration: the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal was built largely to supply the main line of the canal with water from springs near Wendover - although it was also made navigable to serve the town. But unfortunately the porous chalky ground of the Chilterns meant that it proved very difficult to keep it watertight. Soon it was leaking so badly that it was costing the canal more water than it was supplying - and eventually the canal company gave up and piped the water.

This means that reopening the canal involves major reconstruction work to line the canal channel so that it will hold water - and Wendover Canal Trust has been working on this for some 20 years. Our 2022 Camps were spent creating a brick sided ‘narrows’ where the new channel joins up with the existing restored section near Tringford

Manchester & Stockport Canal

The Canal Camp work: Scrub and tree clearance on the route of the canal

The restoration: Manchester & Stockport Canal Society aims to restore the Stockport Branch of the Ashton Canal in east Manchester. The branch was abandoned as recently as the 1960s when all efforts were going into saving the main line of the canal from dereliction and reopening it as a through route and part of the Cheshire Ring. Unfortunately since then parts of the branch have been built on, but the northern section survives unobstructed with the towpath use as a footpath and cycleway. MSCS has been carrying out clearance work with a view to eventually reopening to navigation as much as possible of the branch MSCS carry out a litter-pick on the line of the canal