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

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.

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.

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!