Coming soon weekends

It’s not just about week-long Canal Camps. The regional groups are getting back into planning weekend volunteer work in advance...

Regional groups’ weekend working parties are back...

Well, actually they’ve been back for a while. But we haven’t had much news of forthcoming weekend working parties by WRG’s regional groups and the independent mobile working party groups in Navvies since they stopped working when the pandemic struck. And part of the reason (certainly in the case of London WRG and the other southern groups) is that generally they’ve been planning their work on rather more of a short-term ad hoc basis since then, so we’ve rarely had much information about planned working parties in time to publish it in Navvies.

But all that looks like it’s changing - at least in the case of three groups in the south. So here are details of what London WRG, KESCRG and NWPG will be up to in 2023...

London WRG

This is WRG’s region group in the south east, although as with all the mobile groups it attracts volunteers from all over the southern half of the country and sometimes further afield. New volunteers are always welcome, and if you do happen to live in London we can provide transport to and from our weekends in a WRG minibus (except when the vehicles are all in use on Canal Camps duty in the summer). To find out more and to book your place on a weekend, either see the London WRG Facebook group (we have a Facebook ‘event’ for each working party) or contact Tim Lewis on london@wrg.org.uk 07802 518094. Here are our forthcoming weekend ‘digs’...

14-15 January Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation: An outing to ‘our very own navigation’ - the Chelmer & Blackwater is run by Essex Waterways, a subsidiary of WRG’s parent body the Inland Waterways Association. It doesn’t receive any regular public funding, so although it doesn’t need restoring (it’s fully navigable and regularly used by boats),it does rely on a fair bit of volunteer support to keep it well maintained. We’ve yet to confirm the accommodation and work for the weekend, but in the past it’s often involved vegetation control and towpath improvement / maintenance.

18-19 February Cotswold Canals: The Cotswold Canals used to be a regular venue for the weekend groups but has been a bit ‘between projects’ recently. However work is now starting on Westfield Lock (aka John Robinson Lock) whose restoration will be the main volunteer input to the current Lottery-funded programme of work to complete the restoration from Saul Junction to Stonehouse. The lock was largely buried but work began recently on excavating it: there will be a lot of work there over the next year, with a culvert / aqueduct to be built carrying a stream under the canal in addition to the rebuilding of the lock itself. We’ll probably still be on the uncovering / dismantling stage. Accommodation for the weekend is at Saul Memorial Hall.

25-26 March Shrewsbury & Newport Canals: This will be a joint weekend with our friends from the WRG Forestry team and KESCRG. We’ll be clearing small trees and extracting roots with Tirfor winches on a new site within walking distance of our regular accommodation, Uffington Village Hall. It’s not a large hall, so we’ll have to cap the numbers - although we can take more people if some of them bring tents / caravans as they did last time we went.

10-11 June Wey & Arun Canal: Another joint weekend, this time with our friends in KESCRG. The Wey & Arun Canal Trust have a project to build a new swingbridge at Birtley lined up as a summer Canal Camps site, so we may well be working on that too.

16-17 September Wey & Arun Canal: Whether we’ll be continuing on from the summer camps work at Birtley or getting back into autumn scrub-bashing, we’ll know nearer the time

2-3 December Wey & Arun Canal: Yes, we really have already booked our joint Christmas scrub-bash and party with KESCRG a whole year in advance!

There will be more dates to fill the gaps in the above schedule: we aim to go out every three or four weeks. See future issues of Navvies or our Facebook group for the latest.

Kescrg

KESCRG originally stood for ‘Kent & East Sussex Canal Restoration Group’, but (like London WRG) they come from all over the south of England and beyond, and welcome anyone from anywhere on their weekends.

Contact Ed Walker ed@edwalker.org.uk for details or to book on a weekend, or find the KESCRG Facebook group. The following are their dates...

4-5 February: Cotswold Canals, Westfield (John Robinson) Lock

4-5 March: Cotswold Canals, Westfield (John Robinson) Lock

25-26 March: Shrewsbury & Newport Canals, joint dig with London WRG and WRG Forestry

6-7 May: Venue to be arranged, possibly Wendover Arm

10-11 June Wey & Arun Canal: A joint weekend with London WRG. The Wey & Arun Canal Trust have a project to build a new swingbridge at Birtley lined up as a summer Canal Camps site, so this weekend may be working on preparation for that.

15-22 July: Provisional date for KESCRG/WRG Camp, likely to be on the Wey & Arun Canal

2-3 December: Joint Christmas scrub-bash and party with London WRG on the Wey & Arun Canal

Nwpg

The third of the inappropriately named regional groups in the South began life as the Newbury Working Party Group, but like the other groups its volunteers come from all over the place these days and they welcome new recruits from anywhere. They haven’t confirmed sites for their 2023 working parties yet, but they plan to work on two sitesWestfield (John Robinson) Lock on the Cotswold Canals (see above under London WRG) and a site on the Wey & Arun which is currently awaiting planning permission.

NWPG unearth the remains of Westfield Lock on the Cotswold Canals

11-12 March Venue to be arranged - Wey & Arun or Cotswold

21-23 April Venue to be arranged - Wey & Arun or Cotswold

8-15 July Week-long NWPG/WRG Canal Camp - Wey & Arun or Cotswold

20-22 October Venue to be arranged - Wey & Arun or Cotswold

18-19 November Venue to be arranged - Wey & Arun or Cotswold

Those aren’t the only mobile groups still operating - we’re happy to include details of what WRG BITM, NorthWest, Forestry or anyone else is up to - just tell your Navvies editor about it