Navvies 317

A reminder that WRG’s volunteers don’t just restore derelict canals, sometimes we work on open ones with actual boats on them! These pictures show our WRG Forestry and London WRG groups working recently on clearing overhanging trees and vegetation to stop them blocking the Chelmer & Blackwater, a navigation run by WRG’s parent body the Inland Waterways Association and reliant on volunteer support to keep open. OK actually they don’t seem to be doing much work in the pics, but you get the idea. There’s actual water and real boats in them! See editorial, page 4...

In this issue Contents

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Production

Editor: Martin Ludgate, 35 Silvester Road, East Dulwich London SE22 9PB 020-8693 3266 martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk

Subscriptions: WRG, Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA

Printing and assembly: John Hawkins, 4 Links Way, Croxley Green WD3 3RQ 01923 448559 john.hawkins@wrg.org.uk

Navvies is published by Waterway Recovery Group, Island House, Moor Rd., Chesham HP5 1WA and is available to all interested in promoting the restoration and conservation of inland waterways by voluntary effort in Great Britain. Articles may be reproduced in allied magazines provided that the source is acknowledged. WRG may not agree with opinions expressed in this magazine, but encourages publication as a matter of interest. Nothing printed may be construed as policy or an official announcement unless so stated - otherwise WRG and IWA accept no liability for any matter in this magazine.

Waterway Recovery Group is part of The Inland Waterways Association, (registered office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA), a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee, registered in England no 612245, and registered as a charity no 212342. VAT registration no 342 0715 89.

Directors of WRG: Rick Barnes, George Eycott, Emma Greenall, Helen Gardner, John Hawkins, Dave Hearnden, Nigel Lee, Mike Palmer, George Rogers, Jonathan Smith, Harry Watts.

ISSN: 0953-6655

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Contributions...

...are welcome, whether by email or post. Photos welcome: digital (as email attachments, or if you have a lot of large files please send them on CD / DVD or contact the editor first), or old-school slides / prints.

Contributions by post to the editor Martin Ludgate, 35, Silvester Road, London SE22 9PB, or by email to martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk.

Press date for issue 318: 10 March.

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© 2023 WRG

Cover: This is the year work begins in earnest on John Robinson Lock (formerly Westfield Lock), our main volunteer contribution to the Cotswold Canals ‘Phase 1b’ section (which will open up a 10 mile navigable extension of the national canal network in two years’ time). Our friends in KESCRG are seen clearing infill ready for rebuilding (picture: Ed Walker) Back cover: The 2020 BCN Cleanup on the Walsall Canal: the event returns in March, see page 14 (picture: Martin Ludgate)

editorial Boats in Navvies?

Several mentions of boats and navigable canals in this issue remind us that it isn’t just about long-abandoned waterways being rescued from dereliction Boats? What are they doing here?

Flick through this issue of Navvies and you might spot that in place of some of the usual pictures of jungle and dereliction gradually being transformed into working canals with boats on them at some point in the (perhaps distant) future, there’s rather more than usual in the way of pictures and descriptions of canals that are already open and in use by boats.

Firstly on our inside front cover page, London WRG and WRG Forestry are seen cutting back overhanging trees and vegetation from the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation. It’s in support of the work by our parent body the Inland Waterways Association (through its subsidiary Essex Waterways) to maintain this waterway, having saved it from abandonment when the original company went bankrupt some years ago. Next on pages 12 and 13 there are calls for volunteers to support events taking place on the navigable network - the Cleanup which helps to keep the quieter parts of the Birmingham Canal Navigations network from getting choked with rubbish and falling into disuse, and the IWA Canalway Cavalcade festival at London’s Little Venice. Please consider supporting these two worthwhile events.

And then, on pages 14 to 18 there are two accounts by folks involved in canal restoration of trips they took on the working canal network in connection with their activities - an epic trip up the Grand Union with a temperamental dredger, and a set of paddle gear that took two decades to go by water from one former part of the Shropshire Union network to another part of the same system.

So is there a connection? Smartarse answer: “yes, there are 3000 miles of connections, and with our help it will one day be 3500 miles...” Serious answer: not really. I’m not suggesting that WRG and other restoration groups are deserting the restoration world for the navigable network. It’s a coincidence really that all these things landed in the same issue of the magazine. But I do think it serves as a useful reminder of what we’re actually restoring the canals for. Yes, I know (I’ve had to explain it often enough) that you can’t just say “But they’re for boats!” and expect the National Lottery Heritage Fund / Levelling Up Fund / HS2 remediation budget / whoever to cough up £20m for your canal. To get your cash you have to make common ground with a lot of other causes, and demonstrate a lot of other wider benefits (and IWA has produced reports that really hammer home how good and how many these wider benefits are). But ultimately almost all restoration groups (while fully supporting all these wider benefits) see full reopening to ‘normal’ inland waterways craft - typically modern narrowboats and cruisers with a sprinkling of more historic craft - as the long-term aim. So I have a slight concern when I see that local nature conservation supporters seem, once again, to be lined up together opposing the use of powered craft on the Montgomery Canal once it’s restored into Powys. “Couldn’t they use horses to pull them?” they ask.

Leaving aside the sheer impracticability of that particular suggestion, it concerns me that the Monty was the subject of some long and hard debates between different groups over a couple of decades, which eventually thrashed out a solution in the form of a Conservation Management Plan. It was a compromise for everyone concerned, it terms of the numbers of boats that would be permitted to use the restored canal, the mitigation works to compensate for any nature damage they caused, the regeneration benefits and so on. Everyone had to cede a certain amount, but the result was what had seemed impossible: a document that everyone from all sides could sign up to. Now, it seems like - with the section of canal to Crickheath about to open, construction of the new School House Bridge about to remove the next obstruction beyond there, and £14m of Government funding promised towards getting through to Welshpool - one group appears to no longer support the Plan.

I’m optimisic that sense will prevail and it will prove possible to restore the Monty in

line with the agreement. But I’m concerned about the principle elsewhere. Is there any point in signing up for such agreements if - once one side has put decades of effort into reopening a canal - another party can decide that its side of the agreement need no longer apply.

On a different note: in this issue you can also read about a new housing scheme that’s going to pay to repair the major breach which shut the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal in 1936. It’s drawn some criticism, even within the canal movement, because it’s development in a green belt area, which led to the council refusing it planning permission. But it went to appeal and the Government Planning Inspector overruled the decision. And right now it’s hard to see how the breach repair could have been funded other than with something like this.

Again, I’m thinking more of the wider view. A decision where the Inspector specifically mentioned canal restoration as an exceptional reason for approving a proposal may set a powerful precedent and could be a boost for restorations elsewhere. Especially when considered alongside the case on the Uttoxeter Canal a couple of years ago where a housing scheme was refused permission because it blocked the canal’s future restoration, and was therefore counter to the Local Plan. “Restore a canal and you’ll get the go-ahead; destroy one and you won’t”. OK, that’s an oversimpli fication - but you get the idea.

But to go back to boating, and the national navigable network, it seems we’re not much nearer to finding out how much (if any) public funding the Canal & River Trust will get towards maintaining the waterways once the current (approximately) £50m a year contract runs out in 2027. And with inflation eating away at the value of the existing grant, the canals are already in for some lean times, possibly followed by a nightmare scenario in four years with the grant either scrapped or severely cut. The best guess is that we might know “around Easter”. If the worst comes to the worst, CRT says it neither anticipates ‘handing back the keys’ and leaving the Government to pick up the pieces, nor actually closing down any canals other than as an “absolute last resort” - and even then, it’s governed by the legal framework with a duty to maintain almost all of the navigable network (all except those classed as ‘remainder waterways’ under the 1968 Act). But realistically how can they survive? Going back to my earlier thoughts, I said “I’m not suggesting that WRG and other restoration groups are deserting the restoration world for the navigable network.” I’m not suggesting they are now, but might they need to in the future? CRT these days seems a lot keener on volunteers than its predecessors British Waterways were, and its Chief Exec has said that “volunteers will improve things under any scenario” regarding the Trust’s worsening financial shortfall.

Which leads us back to the usual issue. How do we keep restoring canals, if we’re struggling to keep the navigable network going? And what’s the point? But it also leads us to the contrary view that “It’s a good job we didn’t abandon canal restoration during the dark days of [insert whatever financial crisis you want to from the last 50 years] - otherwise the [Wey & Arun / Rochdale / Cotswold / Droitwich / whatever ] would have been lost beyond hope by the time the better times eventually arrived.” What’s the answer? Send your suggestions to the editor.

And lastly, rather than end on that gloomy note, we have finally got a 2023 canal camps programme planned, just in time for this issue. See you on a Canal Camp this year!

Martin Ludgate If we’d stopped restoring canals during earlier financial crises, would it have put paid to any reopenings once the better times returned?

chairman ’ s comment

“Everyone realised they had missed the basics of sitting round a table and sharing good food, good thoughts and good laughter with good friends.”

Chairman’s Comment

I note in this edition Martin choses to raise questions about “should we be working on navigable waterways?” Which, after my comments in the last edition of Navvies, might make you suspicious that “things are afoot”. Well I can assure you that this is not the case, there is no conspiracy going on here – it is genuinely a coincidence that we have raised the same questions so close together.

So that’s any conspiracy theory put to bed – now onto the real news...

You will read on Page 8 that Martin’s Canal Camps 2023 Update article starts with “As we go to print we’re still finalising the 2023 programme of Canal Camps. But in the meantime here’s an update on what’s likely to be happening... “.

Well here is the stop press: we have actually got a finalised programme and, in a blatant abuse of privilege, I am using my part of Navvies to reveal it to you. Yes, on the opposite page to this diatribe is the schedule of WRG Canal Camps for 2023.

Now it does come with a few disclaimers – but then all of our schedules do, no matter what year. And I can’t really do anything about that BUT I can offer what I hope are two reassuring thoughts for you to ponder as you see where we (and you?) will be working this summer.

The first is quite simple – we have worked really hard on all of these camps and, when the WRG Board was discussing them, it was clear that they were very determined to get them right. Now the Board always has that mindset anyway, but the care with which they discussed every pertinent detail for each and every camp clearly showed to me not only that they care about all of them but that they know that a successful year of Canal Camps is important, both for each one of us but also for the whole Restoration Sector.

The second is similar – yesterday we held our Annual Leader Thank You meal. It was a little different to normal in that we held it in a village hall and the WRG Board provided waiter service. I usually get to say a few words of thank you while everyone waits for pudding and, given the last few years, I thought I might struggle for something encouraging. But as I looked around at all our leaders inspiration came to me: I simply said “look around you everyone doesn’t this feel good?”.

There was a momentary silence as everyone looked around and realised that yes, they had missed the basics of sitting round a table and sharing good food, good thoughts and good laughter with good friends. Followed by laughter, applause, cheers and mutterings of “Oh yes!” and “Damn right!” It is, of course, a cliché to say absence makes the heart grow fonder but what I saw and heard yesterday was a group of people determined to ensure that their 2023 Canal Camp will properly capture that spirit of having a wonderful time, doing wonderful things with wonderful people.

So that my reassurance for you – a great set of Leaders and Cooks who are determined to run great camps, and a Board of Directors that are determined to support them. And, before anyone tells me off, I’m sure I could say the same about our Regional Groups as well.

Mike Palmer

STOP PRESS

WRG CANAL CAMPS 2023 PROGRAMME

As Mike Palmer mentions in his Chairman’s Comment opposite, we managed to confirm the 2023 WRG programme of week-long canal camps with (literally) hours to spare before this issue went to print. This is the finalised list. See pages 8-11 for more about each of the projects.

14th-16th AprilFamily CampWendover Canal

27th-29th MayWRG Training Weekend (inc. Leader Training Day)

1st-8th JulyCotswold Canals - John Robinson Lock

8th-15th JulyCotswold Canals - John Robinson Lock (NWPG)

15th-22nd JulyCotswold Canals - John Robinson Lock (KESCRG)

22nd-29th JulyCotswold Canals - Weymoor Culvert

22nd-29th JulyLichfield Canal

29th July-5th AugustCotswold Canals - Weymoor Culvert

29th July-5th AugustLichfield Canal

5th-12th August Lapal Canal

5th-12th AugustDerby & Sandiacre Canal

12th-19th AugustLouth Navigation

19th-26th AugustNeath Canal

For all camps, bookings should be made online at wrg.org.uk (follow the link to ‘events’). For more information contact head office on 01494 783453 or enquiries@wrg.org.uk

Stop press As we went to press the camps schedule was confirmed...

Canal camps 2023 update

As we go to print we’re still finalising the 2023 programme of week-long Canal Camps. But in the meantime here’s an update on what’s likely to be happening...

So has WRG got a great programme of week-long Canal Camps all ready to go for 2023? was what I asked in issue 216 - with a reply of “Not yet, but we’ll definitely have one in time for the camps bookletto be included in the next issue”, followed by a preview of the likely sites. Sadly it’s been taking longer than expected to finalise the programme, and as we go to press it’s not looking like we’ll have it in time to include in this issue. But rather than leave you in the dark, we’ve put together this updated preview. We don’t yet have the dates, but we can pretty much confirm which sites are definitely on for this year, and which projects haven’t made it into the final list - but will probably feature in 2024, or in the regional groups’ weekend working parties...

Where we’re going in 2023...

Louth Navigation

First on the list of waterway restoration projects that have made it onto the final list is this 12-mile part-canal partriver route through rural Lincolnshire from the town of Louth to the mouth of the Humber estuary.

Louth Navigation Trust has restored the historic Navigation Warehouse in Louth, improved the towpath, and carried out remedial work on some of the surviving locks. We’ll be continuing this at Ticklepenny Lock, taking down and rebuilding damaged brickwork, plus repointing and vegetation removal.

Neath Canal

Following concerns about the state of management by the local authority of the formerly restored Glyn Neath to Resolven length of this South Wales Valleys canal (and potentially part of a local network taking in the Tennant and Swansea canals too), a new organisation the Ty Banc Canal Group has been formed with the aim of enhancing and promoting the canal. We’ll be working with them on various works which could include building an overflow weir, reinstating coping stones on an aqueduct and bridge, reinstating lock footbridges, bank protection and vegetation clearance

Ticklepenny Lock’s brickwork awaits attention

Lock bridge needs pointing

Cotswold Canals

Restoration and reopening of the Cotswold Canals - the Thames & Severn Canal and Stroudwater Navigation which between them formed an east-west link across southern England - has reached the point where a six-mile stretch from Stonehouse through Stroud to near Brimscombe has been completed, and work is under way to open the ‘missing link’ four miles from Stonehouse to Saul, linking it to the national waterways network.

Much of this work is being paid for by a large Lottery grant and other external funding, but it includes significant volunteer contributions by Cotswold Canals Trust and visiting volunteers including WRG. Our contribution will be to rebuild the part-demolished and largely buried Westfield Lock (now John Robinson Lock) and to reinstate the aqueduct / culvert carrying a stream under its top end. You can see the initial clearance work under way in the picture on the front cover of this issue. We’re hoping to run three camps, with our friends in KESCRG and NWPG supporting two of them.

Also at a separate site at Weymoor where we helped rebuild a brick arch road bridge some years ago, we’ll be spending a further two weeks installing a culvert to carry a stream under the canal.

Lichfield & Hatherton Canals

The Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust is dedicated to recreating 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.

On the Lichfield Canal, WRG has supported LHCRT’s work at various sites including Tamworth Road Locks and Fosseway Heath on the outskirts of Lichfield. But for this year’s Canal Camp work we’re returning to a site we last worked on 20 years ago at Darnford Moors, where we helped build a liftbridge and stream culvert, and to steel pile the channel edges. This length is now due to be affected by the HS2 railway. Initially seen as a threat, the railway’s construction will now provide for the construction of a new length of diverted canal. And an HS2 nature and community remediation fund is providing a grant towards restoring the canal and creating a nature trail and ecology park (see page 22).

The Canal Camp work will include creating a pathway through a woodland copse at as part of this work.

Our mission: turn this back into a lock, and add a culvert

Return to Darnford Moors

Lapal Canal

Reopening the entire abandoned length of the Dudley No 2 Canal, which once linked the Worcester & Birmingham Canal at Selly Oak to the surviving length of the Dudley in Halesowen, is the long-term aim of the Lapal Canal Trust. It may have to remain a long-term aim for quite some time, as it involves building a diversion around the twomile long and long-abandoned, subsided, collapsed and generally ruined Lapal Tunnel. But in the shorter term there are much brighter prospects for reopening a decent length of canal at the Selly Oak end as a branch off the W&B leading to Selly Oak Park and on to Weoley Castle and California (yes, really!) Part of the first length has been recreated as part of a retail development, and work went on for most of last year on creating a new wharf and turning basin on the W&B to enable visiting boats to enter the Lapal Canal. Our work in Selly Oak Park will complement this work, creating a new footpath ramp to link the towpath to a restored bridge in Selly Oak Park and working towards reopening this length

Derby & Sandiacre Canal

The Derby Canal once ran from Sandiacre on the Erewash Canal westwards to Derby, then south to meet the Trent & Mersey Canal at Swarkestone. Unfortunately the length through Derby has been largely obliterated by redevelopment since the canal closed - but Derby & Sandiacre Canal Trust has a cunning plan to get back there using a combination of a section of new canal, a canalised length of river, and a new boat lift called the Derby Arm. Away from Derby there’s much more still to see of the canal including several surviving locks - one of which, at Borrowash, our volunteers have been helping to rebuild for some years. Our work on the canal camp will bring this lock closer to completion.

Our mission: link this towpath to the bridge in the background

Help us finish restoring Borrowash Bottom Lock

Wendover Arm

Our Canal Camps are generally only open to those aged over 18. But in recent years we’ve begun offering weekend Family Camps as a way of introducing youngsters to volunteer canal restoration. This year on 14-16 April we’ll be holding one on the Wendover Canal, an arm of the Grand Union Canal which once connected it to Wendover town. It will be open to families with children aged between 6 and 14, and will be based at Whitehouses Pocket Park. It promises fun environmental activities, helping to enhance the waterways for wildlife. For details and to book, email verena.leonardini@waterways.org.uk or see wrg.org.uk

So where aren’t we going?

That may sound an odd question, but having mentioned them as ‘likely’ or ‘possible’ sites in the previous issue we should say that our current planning doesn’t include week-long Camps on the River Waveney, Wey & Arun, Herefordshire & Gloucestershire or Manchester & Stockport Canal. This is for a variety of reasons including planning the work and getting the appropriate permissions, and we would like to make it very clear that it in no way implies that we aren’t going back there in due course - and there’s always a possibility that we may be able to add more camps to this year’s programme at a later date. In fact in some cases our regional groups are already going there - London WRG, KESCRG and NWPG all work regularly on the Wey & Arun for example - and the same applies to all the other restoration projects that didn’t even make it into the article in the last issue. It’s just that planning a week-long camp for this summer hasn’t worked out yet. We’ll be back!

Young volunteers help with nature projects on a family camp

Coming soon BCN Cleanup

The annual trolley-and-bike fest returns to the Birmingham Canal Navigations for the first time in three years. Will you be there?

BCN Cleanup:25-26 March

BCN Cleanup? What’s that? It’s a weekend spent throwing grappling hooks into the murky waters of some of the navigable but less-frequented parts of the Birmingham Canal Navigations network, and pulling out all manner of junk - old bikes, tyres (all sizes from baby buggy up to tractor), shopping trolleys, some objects that defy identification, and quite a few that make you wonder how they got there (we found a sword one year, and a coffin another time).

Why? Because away from the main routes of the BCN network, the quieter parts of the system are under-used with few boats visiting them. And that’s a shame, because they’re fascinating former industrial waterways that deserve to be better known, and their survival can be a benefit for the sometimes run-down areas they pass through in places. But there’s a danger that the lack of boats leads to more rubbish getting thrown in the canals, which puts boaters off visiting, and so on, until they end up unusable. So the annual Cleanup aims to break this vicious circle by targeting known blackspots and pulling out as much junk as possible.

Who? It’s run jointly by the BCN Society, WRG, and WRG’s parent body the Inland Waterways Association - and attracts volunteers from all these plus other local waterways groups. It’s also supported by the Canal & River Trust who organise work boats, skips and a loader to take away all the rubbish that’s pulled out. Anyone’s welcome to attend, either all weekend (WRG-style accommodation and catering are available) or just for the day.

When? Traditionally it takes place every year in March or April, although it hasn’t happened for the last two years because of the Covid pandemic. And it’s returning to that springtime slot this year, on the weekend of 25-26 March.

Where? This year’s Cleanup targets the Walsall Canal, covering the main length of the canal from Walsall Town Basin through to Ryders Green Locks. And the accommodation is at the Malthouse Stables outdoor resource centre in Tipton.

How to book? If you’re coming for the weekend and want accommodation and catering (£18.00 for the weekend), see the WRG website wrg.org.uk, follow the link to ‘Events’, and then ‘Birmingham Canals Cleanup. If you’re just coming for the day, drop an email to the WRG leader Chris Morgan at cbmorgan@sky.com or ring 07974 111354 and turn up at the signing-in point at the Canal & River Trust’s Ocker Hill Yard, Bayleys Lane, Great Bridge, Tipton from 9.30 onwards each day.

Fine haul of shopping trolleys from a bridge on the Walsall Canal last time

Coming soon Little Venice

The Canalway Cavalcade festival returns to London’s Little Venice for the May Day weekend - and needs a team to help set it up and take it down

Canalway Cavalcade support camp, Little Venice 26 April - 2 May

Canalway Cavalcade is the Inland Waterways Association’s annual festival at Little Venice (near Paddington Station in London) which will return for the May Day Bank Holiday in 2023 to celebrate its 40th Anniversary. It’s one of the most colourful and popular events in the waterways calendar. And one thing that makes it happen is a team of site services volunteers – not an official Waterway Recovery Group Camp, but generally a bunch of mostly WRGies who set up and manage the festival infrastructure and site.

The camp runs from mid-morning on Wednesday 26th April (when stuff starts arriving and we build our camp) through Thursday and Friday, when we build the festival. The three days of the weekend during the actual festival generally involve site management activities before the take down of the event on the Monday evening and Tuesday morning, with the aim to have cleared the site by mid-afternoon on Tuesday 2nd May.

To make it all happen we’d like the experienced volunteers who have helped in previous years to come again, and we’d also like some new faces to join the team to ensure the future of the event. We recognise that you may not be able to attend the whole camp because it does run mid-week to mid-week, but we do need people to attend on the weekdays, in particular on the Monday evening and Tuesday because this is when we most need them! We welcome people who are only able to help for a day or two. There will be a plan of work activities so that everyone gets a chance to enjoy some of the festival and take in the amazing atmosphere of the event.

The accommodation is limited and restricted to two narrow boats for sleeping on, plus a field kitchen (which needs to be built on day 1) for cooking and eating. Work activities include putting up (and taking down) marquees, market stalls and banners around the site, fencing, and general event management.

Outside of the work camp activities the event also needs volunteers to assist with other aspects of the event such as donation collecting, giving information to the public and children’s activities – if this is of interest please let me know. Contact me by email on Pete.Fleming@ waterways.org.uk for more information.

Pete Fleming

The pool at Little Venice packed with boats for the annual Canalway Cavalcade

Diana ’ s Dramas

Buckingham Canal Society’s volunteers needed to fetch newly-acquired dredger Diana from Apsley to Cosgrove. What could possibly go wrong?

The

joys of boating...

Our reports from WRG Canal Camp and weekend working parties, as well as the updates from canal societies in the ‘Progress’ section of the magazine, tend to concentrate on the physical progress with the restoration - rebuilding locks, bridges, channels and so on, on lengths of waterway which quite possibly won’t see regular use by boats for some years. But it’s not unknown for canal restoration volunteers to get involved in some actual boating on the navigable system. In particular, when they acquire a tug, workboat or dredger to help with their work, and it rather inconveniently turns out to be moored some distance away and need fetching by water. Sometimes it hasn’t seen active use for some time, having become available as a result of being surplus to requirements. That can make for some interesting journeys, as Steve Morley of the Buckingham Canal Society reports...

Diana’s Dramas

Having taken part in bringing workboat Louise up the Grand Union from Brentford to the start of the Buckingham Canal at Cosgrove, fetching dredger Diana from Aspley should have been easy – after all, Diana is narrow beam, so there would be more chance of seeing ahead when steering. However, things did not go according to plan. This is the story from one of those involved.

Our first visit to Aspley, on 22nd September, found Diana moored on the offside bank, meaning we had to carry all our equipment across the lock gates and down a bramble-strewn path. The boat had not been used for a couple of years and the first task was to pump water out of the cabin and engine compartment. The engine oil was emulsified but after an oil change it started up and we tested the hydraulics; most functions seemed to be OK. Moving gear back to the van the trolley tipped over, depositing

various equipment into the muddy water. Little did we know that this was a foretaste of things to come...

We had been bringing tug Shoveler, on loan from the Canal & River Trust, from Cosgrove to bring Diana back, but since things looked promising we decided to try Diana under her own power to meet up with Shoveler. On 26th September all started well with the engine lighting up, but Diana was well aground. We tried to shift her by using the grab, but a hydraulic union broke. Unfortunately the spare fitting that a helpful CRT man had did not fit, but we were able to change round the hoses to enable the slew to operate.

By this time we were afloat but the engine suddenly started smoking heavily and stopped. On investigation we found that the oil had again emulsified and we suspected there was water in the fuel line. It would be necessary to bring tug Shoveler all the way to Aspley after all.

My next involvement was on 2nd October as work was going on at Cosgrove at the same time.

Before setting off, Shoveler’s leaking stern gland had been attended to by a CRT fitter, but by the time it arrived at Aspley it was again leaking seriously. A Sunday afternoon was spent fitting a solar panel on Diana’s cabin roof to power a battery-operated bilge pump to keep Shoveler afloat.

6th October came with the intention of starting Diana’s engine but in the event, despite Alan and Matt’s best efforts bleeding through, cleaning out filters and dismantling and rebuilding the fuel pump the engine refused to start.

It was decided that the best course of action would be to use an external power pack to operate the dredger’s legs and boom to allow us to remove Diana’s engine for attention when we got back to Cosgrove.

By 29th October this had been installed. After much pulling and pushing from Shoveler the dredger was eventually released from the mud and all that remained was to

re-arrange the CRT workboats which had been moored on the outside of Diana before we set off.

It had been calculated that in push-tow mode the two boats would be too long to fit in the locks together, so we first attempted to move breasted up side-by-side. This did not work: steering proved all but impossible. We stopped above Aspley Top Lock to change to push-tow format and at Boxmoor Bottom Lock discovered that the assemblage did in fact fit in the lock together if the boom was raised. We moored above Winkwell Top Lock after a frustrating half-hour trying to find a way over a shoal just before the swing bridge; much reversing and pulling on ropes were involved.

Sadly, having left Diana with legs down, the water level had fluctuated and had sunk the boat. On 5th November we took a van full of tools, pumps and hoses to the stricken craft but did not manage to raise her. It was time to call in the professionals and on the 10th a team from inland waterways breakdown and recovery specialists River Canal Rescue, armed with pumps much larger than

ours, refloated Diana. An afternoon’s boating took us to Berkhamstead Bottom Lock, which would at least be more accessible if anything else happened.

My next involvement was on the 13th, when I met the boats at Cowroast, having travelled that far in the morning. We managed a fairly uneventful journey to Tring Station Bridge, mooring on the summit pound. The comment was made that “It’s all downhill from here”. If only we knew...

17th November took the boats from Tring to Slapton without incident but on the 22nd we managed about half a mile before Shoveler stopped. We moored up and discovered an engine full of emulsified oil. The rest of the day was spent changing the oil and replacing the filters but without success. We pulled the boats back to a section of piled bank to make them more accessible.

This was a job for CRT and on the 24th we met two fitters at the nearest point on the road, loaded equipment into wheelbarrows and carted it across two fields to the boats. One fitter looked at the stern gland (and was uncomplimentary about his col-

Diana being refloated (with the crew’s help) by River Canal Rescue

league’s previous efforts) while the other attended to the engine, flushing through the oil, refilling it with fresh and changing the filter. Having returned the fitters and their equipment to their van we set off for Church Lock. Passing through the lock the lowering clouds unleashed a downpour and by the time we had moored and packed up the boats we were drenched.

On 28th November we set off with high hopes of reaching at least the outskirts of Milton Keynes. Apart from striking a large underwater obstruction just past the Globe at Linslade, all was going well until just short of Old Linslade Bridge, when frantic signals from Matt caused me to stop. He had spotted fuel spraying out of Shoveler’s engine. Matt and Alan discovered a fracture in the copper fuel return pipe. Thoughts of how to repair this suddenly turned to the fact that there was an identical part on Diana’s non-working engine. Just over an hour later we were on our way again. We reached, and descended, Soulbury Three Locks before the light failed.

This was my last involvement with the boat move (apart from a ‘checking-up’ visit) as I was due for surgery, but I can report that Diana did reach Cosgrove without further incident.

The next stage was to return Shoveler to CRT at Gayton for its 5year out of the water inspection. What else could possibly go wrong – apart from three

inches of ice on the cut!

Many thanks to my fellow boat steerers, handlers, lock wheelers and mechanics, (and those travelling to check up on the boats between movements) at various stages of the journey – Terry, Colin, Matt, Paul S, Paul M, Alan, Bill, John H, John O, Rob and Amanda.

Steve Morley

Latest news is that the engine is now dismantled and appears not to be in as bad condition as feared (subject to expert examination).

This article written for BCS magazine Buckingham Navigator reproduced with the author’s permission

Grand Union Canal Main Line to Braunston and Birmingham

Diana’s journey

Cosgrove: Diana’s destination Shoveler due to make return trip but frozen in

‘Buckingham Canal’ (originally Old Stratford and Buckingham arms of Grand Junction Canal) under restoration Aylesbury Arm

Linslade: Shoveler’s fuel hose burst Diana cannibalised for spare

Slapton: Shoveler’s engine died Engine and sterngland attended to

Winkwell Top: Diana sank Refloated by RCR

Winkwell: Stuck on shoal

Wendover Arm (under restoration)

Grand Union Canal Main Line

Apsley: start of journey (after engine problems with Diana resulting in fetching tug Shoveler to push, problems with Shoveler’s sterngland etc)

Paddington Arm (to Little Venice)

Arm

Brentford

To London

River Thames

Slough

paddles to go...

Another canal restoration project, another boat trip. How the Aston Locks paddle gear made it to Norbury Junction, by way of Langley Mill...

Travelling paddle...

Still on the subject of canal boat journeys made on the navigable network but in connection with restoration work on disused routes, is this tale of how some surplus paddle gear salvaged from the Montgomery Canal ended up on a completely different part of the former Shropshire Union network, 20 years later and having travelled via the East Midlands. Dave Turner takes up the story...

Shroppie Paddle Gear

Following WRG’s restoration of Aston Locks (reopened 2003) there were about four tonnes of surplus and unwanted items left over on the Montgomery Canal; including

unused bricks, shelf racking, various timbers and 3 cast ground paddle starts (the metal or wooden pillar, also known as a jack head or a paddle stand, that supports the paddle gear) with pinions still fitted, two racks and several other pieces of ironwork associated with a canal lock.

The ground paddles were of an old Shroppie pattern, still sound, but unwanted and about to be scrapped. Unsurprisingly, all these items were declared by the late John ‘The Collector/Hoarder’ Baylis as being too useful to be discarded.

So we loaded them aboard our working boat Bath and my wife Izzie and I brought them back to Langley Mill at the top of the Erewash Canal where we moor and where Erewash Canal Preservation & Development Association (ECPDA) has a base.

Manhandling the 3cwt/50kg paddle starts (jackheads) onto narrow boat Bath at Shardlow

Pictures by Dave Turner

Fast forward to 2022 and having become Work Party Organiser for ECP&DA I set about clearing out one of our four compounds and came across all this ironwork. Since it had been unwanted by British Waterways presumably the Canal & River Trust was not going to love it and obviously it could not be scrapped after all this timeso what to do with it? The best hope seemed to be another part of the SUC system, so I emailed the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust and received word back from their Work Party Organiser John Myers that my offer was somewhat timely as he was organising a project to completely restore one of their locks.

For the first time in many years we attended the IWA Festival of Water at Burton-on-Trent since it was conveniently on the way back from the Historic Narrow Boat Club gathering in London. It would have been nice to pass the paddle gear to someone from the S&NCT there but unfortunately they were not attending. Moreover, the cargo was still at Langley Mill and the next destination for Bath would be Norbury for a cabin repaint in the autumn but via the Shardlow Historic Port Festival. Then we realised that

Pentland, the ECP&DA work boat at Langley Mill was also bound for the Festival so the paddle gear could be loaded into it then transferred into Bath at Shardlow.

My guess is that each of the paddle starts weighs about three hundredweight (150kg) so lifting them into Pentland at ‘the Mill’ we used the WRG Case shovel loader. At Shardlow there was no such mechanical aid so it was back to manpower, carefully sliding each piece in turn up a plank, securely anchored with ropes, onto the back end of one boat, across to the other and then down a third plank into our boat’s hold. This operation took several hours and involved nearly half our (not so young!) work party on a very hot Friday afternoon. Job done we headed for the pub.

Luckily John M was able to arrange for the nice people at Norbury Wharf to use their big shovel loader to lift all the heavy pieces out again – which took no time at all!

I do hope the paddle gear will be of some use to S&NCT if only as a demonstration of a completed lock to the local populace and councillors.

Dave Turner

A rather easier job unloading the paddle gear at Norbury Junction using Norbury Wharf’s loader

progress Cromford Canal

The Friends of Cromford Canal, Erewash Canal Preservation & Development Association and WRG regional groups are all in action at Beggarlee...

Cromford Canal

The Erewash Canal Preservation & Development Association don’t just carry random pieces of paddle gear around the waterways (see previous pages). They’ve also got involved in the early stages of the Cromford Canal restoration’s next project at Beggarlee, where the first section of the canal leads off from the head of the Erewash at ECP&DA’s base at Langley Mill, as Dave Turner reports...

ECP&DA had not been involved with canal restoration for over 12 years so it was nice to hear that the Friends of the Cromford Canal were finally able to start on their Beggarlee Extension project and wanted our help. Work must commence within three years of planning permission being granted but for FCC there were numerous challenging pre-start conditions which delayed work

The Beggarlee Extension Project

The Friends of the Cromford Canal’s Beggarlee Extension Project will recreate the first 1km length of the Cromford Canal from the head of the Erewash Canal at Great Northern Basin, Langley Mill northwards. Unfortunately since the Cromford Canal was abandoned the new A610 main road has been built across the Erewash valley, blocking the canal just a short distance north of Langley Mill. However, very conveniently a bridge which was built to carry the road over an railway siding serving a coal mine has been unused since the mine closed some years ago, so the restored canal will be diverted to pass through this bridge.

on site. FCC has until August to get the project underway but before they can make a start in planning terms there are lots of trees, shrubs and brambles to clear. Sufficient of the site must be cleared by the end of February, the start of the bird nesting season, to enable the culverting of two ditches that cross the canal route and thus secure the planning permission before that August deadline.

So from early November until now at the beginning of February, ECP&DA’s efforts has gone into assisting with felling, logging, chipping brash and winching out stumps, working our way across the site following a laid down priority list. FCC work on site Wednesdays and ourselves on Fridays and share some of our equipment such as the FCC dumper and the ECP&DA chipper. We are also sharing plant training opportunities. In January we started a joint first Saturday of the month work party and will continue this for as long as necessary.

On the plant and equipment front it soon became apparent that the ECP&DA chipper was not functioning well and it had to be stripped down for the blades to be sharpened and the anvil reset. What was even more troubling was that our old 3RB excavator burst a hose just before a driver training session which encouraged us to take a closer look at the rest. Unfortunately the machine was built with hydraulic pipes using a now obsolete thread so there will be a delay before we sort it all out.

It’s not a straightforward project: the bridge is at an awkward angle and a different height from the historic canal. So the restored canal will need a dog-leg bend and a new pair of staircase locks - but that’s still a lot easier and cheaper than a new main road bridge. And WRG is likely to be quite heavily involved in helping to carry out the work.

Our thanks go to WRG for agreeing to lend their excavator to assist with tree stump removal; it was due to arrive on Monday 6th February. Thanks also to WRG NW who are loaning us a Tirfor and to WRG BITM who are joining us for the weekend of 18/19th February - despite neither of their cooks nor me being available.

Dave Turner

Work Party Organiser ECP&DA

A planning inspector overruling a council decision and allowing housing to be built doesn’t often mean good news for canal restoration. But this time...

Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal

The big news for the restoration of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal is a bit different from most of the news stories in our Navvies progress section. It doesn’t involve volunteers restoring locks, or Lottery funding paying for channel reinstatement, or even the machinations of HS2. No, it’s the news that a somewhat controversial planning application to build some houses has been given the goahead following an appeal. And its relevance to the canal is that it will result in the repair of a spectacular burst that closed the canal as a through route back in 1936.

The 15 mile canal ran from the River Irwell in Salford up the Irwell Valley to Nob End near Prestolee, where it split into two branches - one to Bolton and the other to Bury. At this point the canal ran high along the steep side of the Irwell valley, and in 1936 a major breach just on the Bury side of the junction saw a large chunk of the canal bank collapse into the river 300 feet below, almost taking a boat with it.

The breach was never repaired, the canal was progressively closed between then and the 1960s, and by the time the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal Society was formed to restore it there were numerous blockages - including the 1936 breach.

Repairing it was going to be a tricky

and expensive job, but in recent years a housing development alongside the canal was proposed, using the former Cream’s Mill site and other land - and the developer would reinstate the canal past the breach site as part of the work.

Unfortunately the development involved construction on green belt land - and for this reason it was turned down by local planners. However following an appeal, it has now been given the go-ahead by a Planning Inspector, overruling the local council’s refusal, and quoting the canal restoration as one of the factors in making this decision. This has been a controversial decision locally. The canal restorers have tended to take a neutral position on whether they are in favour or against the housing developmentbut (given that there are no other big pots of money to fund the breach repairs) they saw it as the only opportunity on the horizon for dealing with one of the worst blockages. There are conditions written into the planning permission concerning the timing of the construction and canal work - meaning that the developer cannot just build the houses and leave the breach for later.

Work is expected to begin soon; when complete it will link together two clear lengths of canal - to Water Street on the way to Bury, and to Hall Lane on the Bolton line - making a three-mile continuous restored length.

To be repaired at last: a 1936 picture of the breach that shut the canal to through trade

Canals

What’s happening at Westfield Lock - see also front cover and page 9

Unearthing Westfield Lock

When the M5 motorway was built, it was deemed necessary to fill in the Stroudwater Navigation from Westfield Bridge to the A38 (the ‘Missing Mile’). This Included re-routing Oldbury Brook, and infilling Westfield Lock. A new route for Oldbury Brook was achieved by destroying the top end of the lock, and it lay hidden for 50 years under a field.

Restoration of Westfield Lock and the adjoining new Oldbury Brook Aqueduct will be undertaken by volunteers from Waterway Recovery Group and other mobile groups. In late October, Newbury Working Party Group (NWPG), together with corporate volunteers from Godwin Pumps, came to the Cotswolds to help locate the remains of the lock, just east of Westfield Bridge. Over this long weekend, the tops of the lock walls emerged again from the ground. Using spades, shovels and mattocks they dug down 300mm on the Inside of the walls to help determine the overall condition of the lock.

Meanwhile, Pete Bunker used the Cotswold Canals Trust mini excavator to start digging out under the bridge revealing a couple of coping stones amongst the spoil. At the top end of the lock, the entire gate recess, ground paddle culvert, and wing wall are missing on the south-east side, but all of the nor th-east side remains This also revealed the tell-tale signs of the demolition having been done by a large excavator, as the bucket teeth marks are dearly visible. Meanwhile, Graham battled away with a spade and mattock to try and locate the remains of a bypass spill weir, following clues in a late 1960s photo. This was as far as we were able to go, but we now had plans for a repeat visit.

Despite a poor weather forecast, NWPG returned in late November when we had assembled heavy plant - an 8 tonne excavator and two 6 tonne dumpers - all kindly supplied by Plantforce free of charge. Entering the site under the bridge would be difficult due to the steep slopes necessary to get under the arch, so we made an access route in from the north side of the lock. Initially we started digging back eastwards from the bridge, with the excavator sitting about 5m above the base of the lock. Both dumpers plied back and forth, delivering spoil to a fenced-off compound.

At this point we realised that most of the lock chamber coping stones had been tossed into the bottom. We currently have a pile of around 20

coping stones, including two of the specially shaped hinge quoin stones, most of which can be re-used. We confidently expect to find most of the remaining coping stones next time.

On Sunday, we switched to the eastern end of the lock, working back from a retained bund against Oldbury Brook cutting. Gradually the remains of the north eastern side of the lock cill started to reappear from the spoil. By lunchtime we’d exposed the timber mitre for the gates, but the 10" x 12" timbers hadn’t fared that well from being buried for over 50 years. At the end of the day, the working excavated face had moved back about 7m into the lock.

With the plant due to be collected on Tuesday, we planned another day’s digging but Monday saw heavy rain all day. Instead, Duncan and I cleared some random spoil heaps and reduced the height of the infill by another metre. This left us with an access route and a gently ramped top surface, meaning that we can dig much closer to the bottom of the lock.

Despite awful weather, we had a visit from Terry Robinson and friends. The Robinson family has made a generous donation to CCT in memory of John Robinson, restricted to the restoration of Westfield Lock. With luck, this money will cover the restoration of the str ucture and pay for new lock gates, paddle gear and lock ladders. The lock will henceforth be known as John Robinson Lock. The canal route will lead out under the original Westfield Bridge, but then turn hard left onto the Missing Mile and eventually arrive at Westfield New Lock, which will drop the canal to the required level to pass under the M5 River Frome bridge.

We now need to arrange a further two or three days’ work, as we’re only about halfway through emptying the lock. Present indications are that its remains are in remarkably good condition and that restoration will be no more difficult than any other lock on the Phase 1a and 1b (Saul to Brimscombe) lengths. The complication of the missing south-east section of the lock head will be resolved by incorporating it into the concrete channel forming the new Oldbury Brook Aqueduct, thus linking into the existing canal up the Eastington locks.

Regional groups are now scheduled to return on 4/5 February, 18/19 February, 4/5 March, and 11/12 March - after which it’s hoped that the lock will be looking pretty much like any other Stroudwater Navigation lock under restoration.

Jon Pontefract (in CCT’s The Trow )

progress Lichfield Canal

Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Trust return to a worksite that WRG volunteers might remember from a couple of decades ago...

Lichfield Canal

A new location this month! It has been over 20 years since any major work was carried out at the Darnford Moors section of the Lichfield Canal. With the fantastic news of £116,200 funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and HS2’s Community and Environment Fund (CEF) to create the Darnford Moors Ecology Park and get this section in water, the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust’s teams were back on site to prepare for contractors to start work.

Before our teams could start work there was the matter of 20 years of nature to overcome! The brambles were so thick that they completely enveloped and hid all of the previous canal works. (see picture, above right)

It took many volunteer hours from visiting corporate teams, our Duke of Edinburgh volunteers and our workparty before the outline of the canal was again visible. Even when the brambles were initially cut off, the remaining stalks were so large that it was difficult to remove their long, thorny, arching and entangled canes. Many hours later and the area is thankfully now once again cleared.

The sheet piling installed by a WRG canal camp in the 1990s has stood the test of time and has just needed bit of upgrade work. The rear of the sheet piles were exposed so that sealing tape could be applied to the interlocking clutch seam. Additional anchor piles and longer three-metre tie rods have been tied into the existing waling beam, to provide additional support, before the area was backfilled up to towpath level. (see picture, below left)

On the opposite bank the batter profile has been created with specialist tracked dumpers and excavators. Blessed with good weather one weekend, some 800 tonnes of soil was moved and a 115m section of canal channel expertly re-profiled. (see picture, below right)

Pictures by LHCRT

A part of these works to create the ecology park has included the creation of a nature trail, adjacent to the former lock 29, as well as a wildlife pond. The pond has been created by using the natural low flood plain area and the adjacent Darnford Brook, and will provide a very important all-year round boost to the ecology of the wetland area. (See picture, above)

The area will be handed over to a ground works contractor in the new year, who will create the non-permeable canal bed. Watch this space!

Meanwhile over at our Tamworth Road Narrows worksite on the south west side of Lichfield, you can really start to see what the finished canal will look like, now that a section of towpath at The Narrows has been topped out and completed. The team has advanced the dry walling against the towpath and has also created an intersecting wall with a safetyhandrail along the slope. (see picture, below)

On the construction side, work has slowed, partly due to the weather but also due to the build up of excavated spoil and not being able to export it off site. For every linear metre of canal that we create, we excavate approximately 12 cubic metres of soil. This has now built up on site and is starting to hamper our progress. Plans are afoot to get it moved.

progress Wendover Canal

Wendover Canal Trust brave the muddy conditions to carry on channel rebuilding, plant trees and hedge plants, and fix a leaky sluice gate

Wendover Canal

Wendover Canal Trust December 2022

Work Party

Bridge 4: The area around Bridge 4 was tidied up and surplus materials moved back to the compound.

Whitehouses Sluice Gate: A new gasket was cut and fitted to the backing plate to the sluice gate. The gate was refitted and the operation checked. A water test could not be carried out because of the lack of water in the canal.

Canal Channel reconstruction: The day before the work party, water lying in the canal channel was pumped out to allow work to progress, however the spoil that had been stockpiled on the canal bed in November was too wet to support the weight of the excavator, so it was not possible to backfill these sections of the bank as had been planned. Some spoil was placed on the banks where the bed mat had not been rolled out. Rough profiling of both banks was carried out along the canal channel from the last lined section towards our car park (close to where the length under restoration meets the limit of the navigable section at the new ‘narrows’ which last year’s WRG Canal Camps worked on. The spoil was used to backfill sections of the former rubbish tip where buried ash used to fill in the canal a century ago has been removed and the towpath bank needed widening.

Tidy Friday was spent planting tree and hedge whips at the winding hole at the limit of navigation and along the offside fence at the narrows. Some reeds at the winding hole were cut by hand.

WRG BITM weekend

The main activity during the BITM weekend was to install the fence between Little Tring

The Whitehouses sluice backing plate and gasket and (below) fitted to the sluice gate

Pictures by WCT

Farm and the canal. 16 volunteers were on site and completed the fence installation. In addition to the fence some of their volunteers continued with the rough profiling of the canal channel. WCT’s thanks go to the BITM group.

Wendover Canal Trust January 2023 Work Party

Bridge 4: A gate was fitted into the fence at Bridge 4.

Canal Channel: The day before the work party, water lying in the canal channel was pumped out to allow work to progress. The canal bed still had some standing water which mixed with the spoil to create a slurry making working conditions very muddy.

Approximately 35m of bed mat was rolled out along the base of the canal, concrete ‘sleeping policemen’ (struts across the canal to provide support) laid, and banks backfilled where we could reach. Surplus spoil was placed in the canal bed ready to complete the backfilling of the banks later in the year.

Odd Jobs: The green fencing along the towpath was tidied up and extended towards the car park. The WCT survey team established level control points through the car park to the Narrows. These will allow the canal profile to be set out accurately. In addition some control points were set up through the former tip area.

Mikk Bradley

Despite the wet December conditions some spoil could be placed on the banks

Hedge planting by the winding hole and (below) despite muddy conditions, channel work resumed in January

progress Wilts & Berks

Next we head down to Wiltshire where the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust have more news of useful developments, this time in the Pewsham area

Wilts & Berks Canal

A popular stretch of restored canal between Chippenham and Lacock could be extended thanks to a new deal which has just been signed.

The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust has already rebuilt more than a kilometre of the former waterway from Pewsham Locks to Double Bridge. Now the charity has signed a lease with Wiltshire Council for an additional 500 metre stretch from Double Bridge towards Reybridge.

WBCT Calne Branch Chair Dave Maloney explained: “Walkers, runners and cyclists enjoy this beautiful corridor through the local countryside, and we run tripboats through the summer for local families and community groups. However, the rewatered section currently ends at Double Bridge and the towpath becomes more uneven after this point. This new lease, which will be automatically renewed every seven years at a peppercorn rent, gives us the confidence to start investing in plans to restore and rewater this length too.”

Expert advice and surveys will be commissioned to improve the habitat and protect the wildlife, beginning in the Spring. Assuming no problems are discovered, the channel will be cleared and the towpath raised. WBCT would then remove the bund at Double Bridge and allow water to flow into the new section.

The Pewsham section includes a flight of three locks which are steadily being repaired, as well as a wharf. There are also plans to rebuild a historic dry dock and carpenter’s workshop. The Trust aims to extend the Pewsham stretch towards Lacock and then connect with the original line south of the village, where the Trust has already purchased some of the land. This would join the proposed new ‘Melksham Link’, a route which will make use of the currently unnavigable River Avon to bypass the missing length of the canal through the town centre and to reinstate the historic connection to the Kennet & Avon Canal via a new cut from the Avon.

The ultimate ambition is to restore the entire waterway from the Kennet & Avon Canal to the Thames & Severn Canal near Cricklade and the River Thames near Abingdon, connecting Chippenham, Calne, Royal Wootton Bassett and Swindon.

Visit www.wbct.org.uk or see our restoration feature in Navvies 315 for more about the Wilts & Berks Canal restoration

Dave Maloney beside the newly-acquired length and (below) the already restored length at Pewshame

Justin Guy

Alison Guy

Progress S&N Canals

Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust have been continuing their work at Berwick Tunnel near Shewsbury and at Wappenshall Junction

Shrewsbury & Newport canals

WRG’s Mikk Bradley plus Mick and Ann Lilliman came to the north portal of the Berwick Tunnel on the Shrewsbury Canal in early November. This was to continue the lime mortaring of brickwork and stonework to the disassembled Lengthsman’s Hut, carrying on from the summer Canal Camp work. With some help from SNCT volunteers to mix the mortar and despite the rain (thanks to Mick’s ‘tent’ over the work) a fair bit more was completed. WRG’s Forestry Team are due to visit the site for a weekend in January 2023 to remove a troublesome and dangerous tree using a cherry-picker, while London WRG, Forestry and KESCRG will be visiting in the spring.

Elsewhere on the S&N progress has been good at Wappenshall Wharf. The east basin work is now complete, as is the new towpath. Now work is being carried out on the smaller of the two warehouses to repurpose it, making it into a good quality café. Major work is now ongoing to install the sewage treatment plant and connect it to the new toilet block that is under construction.

Bernie Jones

The completed towpath at Wappenshall

The part-filled Wappenshall East Basin

Pictures by Bernie Jones / SNCT

wrg vehicles and plant

George fills us in on the latest updates to the Driver Authorisation Scheme - and what to do if you have the misfortune to have a van ‘incident’

Driver Authorisation Scheme update

For those who aren’t aware, WRG operates a Driver Authorisation Scheme which requires volunteers to have the appropriate authorisation for the relevant category of vehicles or machinery on their Driver Authorisation Card before they are permitted to drive / operate them. It covers vans and other road-going vehicles, site vehicles and machinery such as dumpers and excavators, and some handheld power tools.

There are two levels of authorisation –‘operator’, which means that you have been trained / satisfied WRG that you have the appropriate competency, and ‘instructor’, which means you have the greater level of experience appropriate to enable you to train new operators.

For more about the scheme and to download the application forms etc to apply for authorisation and other paperwork, see the IWA restoration hub website as per the end of this article.

The scheme isn’t just used by WRG on its canal camps and weekend working parties, many canal societies also use it. So it needs to cover all sorts of types of vehicle and machine, and periodically the categories need to be changed to keep up, as George ‘Bungle’ Eycott explains...

Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye. Over the past year a couple of anomalies have cropped up relating to the WRG Driver Authorisation scheme:

1. One restoration group which uses the Driver Authorisation Scheme has purchased an MPV so we needed to add it to the scheme.

2. We came across an issue where the ‘small excavator’ category was covering too large a range, so you could be trained on a 0.8 tonne machine then go and drive a 6t machine (or vice versa which actually is just as bad).

3. The system prompted people for a licence check if they had category 4 (trailers), even if they were only towing with their own vehicle or just using site trailers.

4. It was not possible to go on road with plant (e.g. a tractor) unless you also had vans, minibus or 4x4 on your Driver Authorisation card.

5. Ride on mowers were included with tractors, and splitting small/large tractors by weight no longer makes sense with the modern ‘compact’ tractors now being heavier than they were when we designed the current DA system some 20-odd years ago.

So following some discussion the following changes are being made.

Category 1 (vans and trucks). 1a (which was vans) is becoming 1b, 1b (which was 7.5t trucks) is becoming 1c and so on. 1a will now be “Cars” and category 29 (which is currently cars) will become obsolete. This formalises the situation where anyone who had vans was able to drive a car by putting them into the same hierarchy.

Other than your next card having a different reference there is no impact to you as an operator/instructor.

Category 10 (excavators). 10a (excavators up to 7t) will become new category 30 and category 10b (excavators over 7t) will become new category 31. Anyone who currently has 10b will get both 30 and 31 under “grandfather rights” BUT remember when your renewal form comes through you get the option not to renew certain categories if you feel you have not had enough experience on them, so please make sure you consider this carefully on your renewal. Category 10 will become obsolete.

Note that when training for large excavators (31) you will be expected to be trained on a minimum 6t machine.

Category 5 (tractors). 5a (small tractors up to 1t) will become 32a (tractors up to 30hp), 5c (tractors over 1t) will become 32b (tractors 30hp and above). Ride on mowers will become new category 33. We will be contacting some people who currently have 5b or 5c to discuss individually which of the new categories they should get. Incidentally, if you are not sure whether what you have is a ride on mower or a tractor with mower fitted, the answer is to look at the back. If it has a three pin hitch and PTO shaft it is a tractor, if not it is a ride on mower.

Category 99 is going to be created which is “Plant use on road”. This will trigger an annual license check and means that volunteers (mostly with local canal societies) that do not have vans/minibuses/4x4 on their DA card will still be able to drive plant on the road. Anyone who currently has categories 13 and a plant category will be given 99 automatically. Category 4 (trailers) will be removed from the need to have a licence check.

Category 28: Lastly, if you wish to use a cut off saw (Bricksaw) you will be required to have the new category 28. This was a decision made earlier last year but we deferred the change so it only becomes mandatory after the training weekend this year to give people a chance to get trained/assessed. Of course if you already have training and/or extensive experience there is nothing stopping you from applying prior to this. Shortly (i.e. hopefully by the time you read this) the DA application form will get updated as will the instructors guidance notes. Latest versions will be on the restora-

tion hub website (which no longer requires you to login, hurrah!). Just go to waterways.org.uk/restoration_hub/overview and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

George ‘Bungle’ Eycott

Incidents in WRG vehicles

Following some incidents last year it seems a reminder is needed relating to the procedure to take if you have an “incident” with a WRG vehicle, in particular there are two seemingly common misconceptions when there is only minor damage:

1. That reporting the damage can be done on the van log sheet. WRONG. The log sheet purely records who was driving the van and when; it has never been the correct place to record damage.

2. That if the damage is minor you can just carry on driving. WRONG. If the vehicle is safe to drive and the driver is happy to continue, they may drive it to the end of the journey then their WRG driver authorisation is suspended pending a decision from the WRG Board (which may be immediate reinstatement, retraining, or a longer period of suspension). Note that often in the case of minor incidents the Board decision can be done by email or even phone calls resulting in a very quick decision.

To make things clearer and avoid future misunderstandings we have produced a flow chart (see next page), which will go into all the van folders and on the van bulkheads from this year’s Canal Camps season.

George ‘Bungle’ Eycott

Van (now category 1b) and trailer (4) training. See next issue for news of the Training Weekend

Martin Ludgate

infill Anagrams

Where are the “Brisk Wetlands”, and which canal is situated at “a runway end”? - and

why can’t you restore canals that never existed?

Scrambled restorations

Far be it from Navvies to suggest that any of our canal restoration projects are putting things in the wrong order... but... well... this is what happens when you quite literally do that. The following are anagrams of waterway restoration projects, almost all of which WRG volunteers have worked on. Apologies to the restoration groups involved if a few sound a little less than complimentary; on the other hand one or two are particularly apt...

1A runway end

2Red van mower

3Brisk wetlands

4De-rust a trow

5Rubble rot and money snatch

6Ditch feelers

7Cry dead-end, Sabrina

8Bum making arch

9Ancestral

10Clonking top

11Child Life

12North hate

13Tech riches

14Voters

15Sherry and port buns, eww!

16Gnat harm

17Fir fiddle

18Rich warm hutch

19A new ass

20Feral sod Answers next time

The canal that never was?

At the same time as Government department Defra spends a year and a half failing to make its mind up about whether it thinks it’s worth spending money keeping our navigable canal system going at all, despite the many public benefits it undoubtedly provides (see Editorial, pages 4-5), in Scotland and Wales they’re busy restoring one or two which were never navigable in the first place. First there was Cardiff. Impressed by how inner city ‘canal quarters’ have become the latest thing for urban regeneration planners (albeit not always for traditional waterways enthusiasts), Cardiff has decided it wants a canal quarter too. Only problem is that the one navigable canal it had, the Glamorganshire Canal, is so thoroughly buried under the city that nobody’s restoring it...

No problem. There’s a 180-year-old dock water supply feeder ‘canal’ that’s been buried since about 1950, and it’s now being uncovered to form the centrepiece of a regenerated Canal Quarter, making the Welsh capital “look similar to other UK cities like Manchester and Birmingham”.

Not to be outdone, Scotland is following with the Perth Canal, actually a mill stream with a short length where small boats once offloaded coal from bigger craft out on the Tay, and which was covered over in 1802, is proposed for ‘reopening’. The city’s Provost said it would make a transformation as great as the Dutch city of Utrecht which recently dug up a 1970s motorway and put back the canal which had existed there before.

Where next?

And finally...

If you’re dragging rubbish out of the BCN, or digging silt out of some long derelict lock, spare a thought for those in Wisconsin, where a recent fire in a canalside dairy led to a river of melted butter which spread (sorry!) to the adjacent historic Portage Canal and set.

Is that how Butterley Tunnel got its name?

Will you be here in March?

Will you be here in March?

See page 12

See page 12