dig report S&N Canals

London WRG, KESCRG and WRG Forestry held a joint weekend working party on the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals. Sophie Smith reports...

London WRG, KESCRG, WRG Forestry Shrewsbury & Newport Canals 25-26 March 2023

We always enjoy our trips to Shropshire (although that doesn’t stop us moaning about the long drive there from London). This time, London WRG were joining WRG Forestry for a focused weekend of tree felling and shrub bashing. Although the long-arranged dig unfortunately clashed with the late-organised BCN Cleanup, we had healthy numbers and had to cap it at around 23 people as we knew we couldn’t fit any more round the dinner table.

This was a stretch of the Shrewsbury & Newport that we hadn’t worked on before and there was a good amount of work for a large group. On this particular weekend we were felling some large trees and extracting many smaller ones. We were limited only by the number of Tirfor winches we could deploy: there were at least three at work but we could have used twice as many.

The site, by a major electricity substation just outside Uffington village, presented a number of hazards including overhead cables and fairly deep water in the cut. The narrowness of the towpath and lack of anchor points for Tirfors were also limiting factors.

Although Forestry were leading the dig there was less chainsaw activity than I’d expected as the main emphasis was on fully extracting what we’d cut down. This means it was the Tirfors working at full tilt rather than the chainsaws. I don’t know if it’s just coinci- dence but Tirforing seems to be a very big part of what London WRG does these days, particularly as we are so active on the Wey & Arun where there is so much ash dieback to tackle. I think there’s probably a case for buying more Tirfors for our kit, as we are often asked to supply them (big ones in particular). This dig also required a very unusual piece of equipment – chainsaw safe wader trousers, which I’ve never seen before!

We managed to get a large amount of wood offsite and used a logsplitter at the Berwick Tunnel north portal site to turn it into logs which help fund the SNCT’s activities. We used waders to get a lot of partially submerged willow out of the cut, and burned some of the smaller branches on site. We also trimmed a lot of the hedgeline, particularly under the power lines. The main focus though was on clearing tree growth out of the cut, including some very mature specimens and ones that have fallen and rerooted themselves sideways.

It’s really great to see that the local trust has increased its ambitions since we first started digging regularly on this canal about six or seven years ago. They are now active across a number of sites and there has been very significant progress made, at Wappenshall in particular [ See progress report, page 21 ]. They seem to have a good momentum going with their working parties but they are still glad of an injection of WRG support, including our specialist skills such as tree felling and extraction. As London WRG weren’t able to bring tools on this dig we relied on the Forestry trailer for everything, which brought home how much better organised all other groups seem to be than us. We were particularly impressed with Forestry’s cutlery kitbox. Catering was kindly provided by Anne with support from Mia. Some volunteers took advantage of the accommodation offered by the pub in the village and others bought tents, which really freed up some room in the small hall. Thanks to those who camped as it really helped manage the space. I’m also grateful to those who generously shared their own tools, including David Smith and Alan Lines, and to Tim Lewis for doing the van movements. Thanks also to the Buckingham Canal Society for letting us borrow their van for the weekend as ours was on the BCN. We’ve already agreed to go back to Shropshire 7-8 October and finish this stretch off. You’re very welcome to come too –particularly if you bring a Tirfor!

Sophie Smith