The Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust kindly provided a site for our annual WRG Training Weekend, organised in late spring to help volunteers from WRG and any other restoration groups improve their skills and acquire new ones in advance of the summer Canal Camps programme. Our pictures show training on driving dumpers and excavators, bricklaying and operating bricksaws. We also provided training on vans and trailers.Our thanks to hosts LHCRT and as ever to Ali ‘Womble’ Bottomley for planning and leading the weekend
For latest news on our activities visit our website wrg.org.uk
See facebook group: WRG Follow us on Twitter: @wrg_navvies
Editor: Martin Ludgate, 35 Silvester Road, East Dulwich London SE22 9PB 020-8693 3266 martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk
Subscriptions: Unit 16B, First Floor, Chiltern Court, Asheridge Road, Chesham HP5 2PX
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, Unit 16B, First Floor, Chiltern Court, Asheridge Road, Chesham HP5 2PX 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: Unit 16B, First Floor, Chiltern Court, Asheridge Road, Chesham HP5 2PX), a nonprofit 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
PLEASE NOTE: subs renewal cheques MUST be made out to The Inland Waterways Association NOTE new subs address below
...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 320: 10 July.
A year's subscription (6 issues) is a minimum of £5.00 (cheques to The Inland Waterways Association) to WRG, Unit 16B, First Floor, Chiltern Court, Asheridge Road, Chesham HP5 2PX. Please add a donation if you can.
© 2023 WRG
Cover: Steam launch Ictus carries the VIPs at the reopening of the latest restored section of the English length of the Montgomery Canal from Gronwen Bridge to Crickheath. See our Montgomery feature on pages 22-30. (picture: Graham Deakin) Back cover top: Aerial view of work getting under way on rebuilding Schoolhouse Bridge, also on the Montgomery Canal.
Bottom: Volunteers on the Wendover Family Camp - see report on pages 8-9. (George Eycott)
As we wait for the first summer Canal Camp reports, the editor explains why we’ve given such prominence to featuring the Montgomery Canal
Despite the continued absence of Canal Camp reports – mainly because we haven’t run any week-long Canal Camps since autumn – we’ve managed to fill this issue with plenty of stuff which we hope you’ll find interesting. In particular there’s a nine-page special on the Montgomery Canal on pages 22 to 30. So why are we dedicating so much of the mag to it? Well, it’s several things…
. It’s just seen the first opening of a new section to navigation since the Aston Locks / Maesbury opening in 2003 (see our front cover photo). Where there used to be almost seven miles (and eight locks) of navigable water from the Llangollen Canal at Frankton Junction to the temporary terminus at Gronwen Bridge, there are now a little over eight miles (and eight locks) from Frankton to Crickheath Wharf. Yes, you read that right, just one-and-a-bit extra miles in 20 years. But they have been a particularly difficult one-and-a-bit miles: the original channel ran through poor ground, struggled to hold water, and suffered from settlement of the peaty soil, so restoration has involved such complications as weighting down of sections of canal bank to achieve a controlled settlement in advance of restoration (rather than have it happen randomly afterwards) and complete channel rebuilding with a waterproof lining. It’s a credit to the largely volunteer workforce (mainly from Shropshire Union Canal Society).
. Work by SUCS volunteers has already moved onto the Crickheath South project, the first part of the channel work needed on the two-mile length from the new Crickheath terminus through to the Welsh border at Llanymynech. This is a really crucial length: with funding already in place for much of the work (and bids submitted
for the rest) on the Welsh section from Llanymynech to Arddleen, and the canal already restored from there for 12 miles through Welshpool to Refail, this two-mile section it’s the ‘last piece in the jigsaw’ which will enable reopening all the way from Frankton to Refail. That’s 26 miles of spectacularly scenic and fascinatingly historic waterway reaching right into central Wales.
. Work by contractors has finally started (after various delays including the effects of the pandemic) to rebuild Schoolhouse Bridge, part way along this two-mile length, and the last road blockage to be dealt with on the English part of the canal.
. The work at Schoolhouse Bridge has been funded, but money still needs to be raised to support the channel work. And an Appeal has just been launched to raise the necessary cash. You’ll find the leaflet appended as pages 41-44 at the end of this electronic version of Navvies – please give generously.
Also in this issue you’ll find reports from three of the other things that we get up to regularly when we aren’t running week-long Canal Camps:
. Canalway Cavalcade, our parent body the Inland Waterways Association’s annual festival at Little Venice in London. This is an enjoyable and colourful event that’s an important part of the boating calendar but it’s also a good way to remind London that it’s got a canal and should appreciate it, raise some cash for IWA’s campaign, and (especially important this year with national waterways authority the Canal & River Trust facing serious funding issues) this festival and other such events (such as the IWA Festival of Water) provide a chance for IWA to put its campaign message across. But it takes a lot of work, largely by dedicated teams of volunteers, including the Site
Services team of (mainly) WRG volunteers who help set it up, run it and take it down. They’re always on the lookout for new volunteers – read Emma’s report on pages 10-14 and see if you fancy joining them next year.
. The WRG Leader Training Day. It’s not just for WRG Canal Camp leaders; this annual day-long programme covering various aspects of leading volunteer work parties on the waterways is equally helpful for those involved in local canal societies or the mobile regional working party groups. Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans brings us some highlights of this year’s event on pages 15-17.
. The Family Camp. Our ‘normal’ camps have a lower age limit of 18, but for the last few years we’ve been running weekend family camps for children accompanied by parents (or other adults), often carrying out nature conservation activities such as bird and bat nesting boxes or planting wildflowers. This year they even tried their hand at making bricks too! See Bungle’s report on pages 8-9.
But next time it’ll be different. Won’t it?
By the time you read this the summer Canal Camps programme will be just a couple of weeks away. And we’d like to report back from the first few camps in the next issue.
So please get writing those camp reports and send them in to the editor as soon as possible! Thank you!
And finally... some of us had a discussion about Navvies magazine on the Saturday evening after the Leader Training Day, following which we made the momentous decision at the WRG Committee meeting the following morning that we would increase the minimum subscription rate. Yes, for only the third time in over 40 years the cost of subscribing to Navvies is going up!
Whilst we agreed, for now, to keep with the existing principle that the cost should be low enough that nobody can’t afford to subscribe - and to continue to ask people to consider adding a donation (and we really do appreciate that many of you do so very generously, as a way of supporting WRG’s work in general and not just the magazine), we felt it was not unreasonable that the minimum rate should at least cover the postage. So as of the next issue it will be a minimum of £5.00 per year.
That’s not all we discussed. Whilst we don’t plan any radical changes (eg going online, going completely free, going monthly, going scratch & sniff) we’ve had a few thoughts. More about them in future issues, and of course if any of you readers have any thoughts on the future direction of the magazine we would be very keen to hear them.
Martin Ludgate
We need to raise the money for materials and plant hire for volunteers. We need to make faster progress with the next section south from Crickheath towards the Welsh border.
Regular donations help our forward planning.
Please see and use the Public Appeal leaflet on pages 41-44 of this electronic version of Navvies and be as generous as you can.
Or go to www.localgiving .org/charity/restorethemontgomerycanal and make your donation.
This time of year traditionally heralds a lot of emails, meetings, phone calls, etc. as what used to be called the ‘WRG brass’ try and make sure that all our plans for the summer actually stand a chance of coming to pass. Now this has pretty much always been the case ever since WRG came into being. In fact, reading those old copies of Navvies, the fundamental purpose of WRG was ‘a coordinating body’ to ensure that volunteers could give their time in the genuine belief that it wouldn’t be wasted.
Yes all you readers out there have what can only be described as ‘hope’ for our waterways network and ‘faith’ that together we can make a difference BUT that faith is best fed by a belief that if you bring the shovel, someone else will sort the wheelbarrow, pump, fuel, tea, etc. to make sure you are not literally treading water for your entire weekend!
As I’m writing this, it’s early June and I have to say, dear reader, that the annual flurry of emails, meetings, phone calls, etc. seems to be rather heavier than usual this year. I suppose I could give you the benefit of my wisdom as to why this is: a long break because of Covid, more challenging projects, excessive solar flare activity causing increased risk of flooding, subversive activity from navigation authorities, something ‘extra’ they are putting in the beer these days...
But that’s all it would be – my wisdom, and there are plenty of readers holding this copy of Navvies right now who have learned the hard way that following MKP wisdom is a path to be trod cautiously (and wearing well ies).
But as reassurance for both me and (hopefully) you I suggest this edition of Navvies replenishes that ‘hope’ and ‘belief’ I mentioned earlier…
On page 15 you can read all about our Leader Training Day (LTD) that Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans ran for us. It was a great event and a real opportunity for exchange of knowledge, skills and experience. And just to be clear, this is a two way exchange: yes there are messages from the WRG Board to our leaders telling them what we want them to do, but it’s also vital that suggestions and messages go the other way. It’s these suggestions that inform the WRG Board and help us make the right decisions.
Unfortunately, because it has just missed the press date, you won’t be able to read the report on the Training Weekend (TW) held on 27-28 May on the Lichfield Canal. This too was a pleasure to partake in as lots of people gained vital training to a suitable, consistent standard in all sorts of areas. The success of both of these vital training events is down to the interaction of three things:
· A real desire amongst those attending to learn new things – it’s never, ever a ‘boxticking exercise’,
· A good system to follow – for example the Instructor Guidance Notes (IGNs) that everybody works from at the TW have been carefully crafted by our experts to make sure that the training is appropriate to waterway restoration.
· Brilliant planning by someone – be that Evvo for the LTD or Ali ‘Womble’ Bottomley for the TW.
It’s only appropriate for me to thank all those included in both events, both those receiving the training and those giving it, my thanks to you all for your determination to get it right. Additionally my extra thanks to Evvo and Womble for the amazing job you both did of pulling it all together.
So that is message number one from me – it’s preparation that leads to the co-ordina-
“There are messages from the WRG Board to our leaders telling them what we want them to do, but it’s also vital that messages go the other way”
tion that WRG is so famous for and, because of the amazing organisation we are, that preparation can not only be reassuring it can actually be fun. If there was one consistent background noise during both LTD and TW it was laughter.
Now I do actually have a few other messages that I would like to have crated into this comment. But pressure of time (those pesky emails, meetings, phone calls, etc.) means that if I don’t get this to Martin he will probably explode and, if he does that, who’s gonna lay my bricks! So how about I just put them as bullet points below.
See you on site.
Hugs & Kisses
Mike Palmer· The Canal Camps Site Burcos now run on Propane gas bottles not Butane. So that’s orange cylinders not blue.
· One of the outcomes of the LTD was a well-supported suggestion that the training we offered as part of the Legacy Leaders programme should be continued and offered to a wider audience. We are pondering this.
· You will no doubt have read in the Editorial that Navvies is going up in price. You know all those comments you have just read about communication from and to the Board? Well guess what? That applies just as much to Navvies. Make no mistake – Navvies is vital to WRG.
· A reminder that, regarding the new/modified categories in the Driver Authorisation scheme, – if you want something adding to your card you have to fill in an application form – just sending an email with “please can I have…..” doesn’t cut it.
7-10 july (provisional)
As a result of the need for the Friends of the Cromford Canal to begin physical work on their Begarlee Extension project (*) before a planning deadline which falls in August, an ad-hoc WRG long weekend working party is being held there on 7-10 July (date to be confirmed). The work will involve demolition, concreting and culvert pipe installation as the first stage of diverting the existing land drainage under where the restored canal will go, prior to creating the canal channel.
If you’d like to help, contact Mike Palmer on 07764 354893 or email mike.palmer@waterways.org.uk
(*) For more details see Navvies 317 for a progress update or Navvies 303 for a full restoration feature, but basically it’s a reconstruction of the first missing section of canal north of where it leaves the Erewash Canal at Langley Mill, using the route of an old railway siding rather than the original canal line. This conveniently gets it through an existing bridge under a main road, but means building new locks to put the canal at the right level for the bridge.
Young volunteers and their families visit the Wendover to try their hand at making bird nesting boxes, planting wildflower seeds... and ‘Pooh Bingo’...
The family camp was originally supposed to have been in Autumn last year, but for a number of reasons it got delayed to April this year which meant my son William was old enough to go. I was planning to take him along and act in the MUP (‘Most Useful Person’ i.e. an old hand helping the leaders) role when one of the original leaders had to drop out. Then, a week before the camp the other leader had to drop out having done something unpleasant to her knee. Following some calls (and a truly heroic number of emails) we decided to continue with the camp with me leading at the accommodation, Alex (yes, the Alex who no longer works for IWA!) running Saturday and John ‘The Hawk’ Hawkins running Sunday with Mikk Bradley in a supporting role organising kit and planning.
We arrived on Friday evening at what was to be our accommodation for the weekend. In a change to normal WRG sleeping arrangements we had beds, rooms (two to a room with far more rooms than we needed), onsite catering, a field for the children to run around and a hall we could use in the evening. Following allocation of rooms we headed off for the evening meal which went down well then we headed to the hall for an evening’s entertainment involving ‘Pooh Bingo’ which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like.
Saturday we enjoyed our cooked breakfast then set to with everyone making their lunch before heading to site where we met Mikk and our day visitors with a pickup full of kit includ-
ing electric wheelbarrows. Once we had loaded them up we set off down the newly laid towpath to our work location by the footbridge, waving to the Wendover Canal Trust gang working on the relining project [see progress report, pages 34-35] as we went past. Once there, we set up the cookers and started the first task which was to paint the viewing platform with wood preservative; meanwhile some people were working with special tools to remove the various patches of thistle from the grassland to stop them taking it over. After lunch we put a second coat of wood preservative on and Alex led a nature ramble demonstrating his extensive and wide ranging knowledge (can you tell the difference between a native and an invasive ladybird?) only being foxed when asked by one of the children exactly which fungus was growing out of a tree…. Saturday evening we again enjoyed the hospitality at the accommodation (meals cooked for us and no washing up – could get used to this!), the children wore themselves out playing tag and hide & seek (clearly we hadn’t worked them hard enough on site)
before we headed into the hall where a game of consequences was held along with various card games and Beetle.
Sunday morning we packed up the kit from the accommodation then after breakfast headed to site. First job was to build some bird houses, we had a number of wooden kits and they were all assembled, some in different ways to others but all ended up structurally sound and fit for use by their potential inhabitants. Following some relocation of the existing boxes to higher up in the trees we nailed up our new boxes. After lunch the final job on site was to plant wildflower seeds, this involved clearing a patch of turf and spreading some seeds out from a pot plus more clearing of thistles. Once we got back to the car park we broke out the brick making kits and used the handy stash of clay that was sat there and the straw bale I had ‘acquired’ to have a go at making bricks and in some cases clay beakers (note to self: for making bricks you only need a very small quantity of straw, and because it is compressed there is a surprisingly large amount of straw in a bale!)
Many thanks to the two Jennys, Mikk, Alex, Wendover Arm Trust, The Hawk and mostly to the campers who definitely went easy on me! I’ll finish with some of the reports that they sent in after they got home:
“As a family we love getting out into nature. The family Canal Camp provided the perfect opportunity to do just that while also caring for the environment. All the volunteering activities were thoroughly enjoyed, from digging up thistles to making bird boxes. The sunny spring weather and plentiful cake and biscuits of course helped keep us going. It was also great to find out more about the wildlife from the knowledgeable people on site. We spotted lots of red kites circling overhead (a rarity in our town) and now know the difference between a bee and a bee fly. We’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who made the weekend possible. We made lots of wonderful family memories and had a fantastic time in the great outdoors. The children are already asking to come back!”
“I wanted to find something bit different to fill a weekend for my family; volunteering came to mind, so I set about searching. So after quite some time I came across the WRG Family Camp and after finding to my surprise that there were still spaces available, booked our tickets and informed my two daughters that there would be no horse-
riding for them that weekend! Providing them with a list of activities didn’t do much to convince them it was a good idea, but the date went in our diary regardless. It was a bit of a drive down made worse by the rain, but we arrived in time for the evening meal. The accommodation was basic but more than adequate and only a short drive from the site. Over the two days, we all got stuck in to a variety of tasks, including seed planting, cleaning and painting a viewing platform, making and installing bird boxes with plenty of time for tea breaks and to learn about some of the plants and insects on the site. Overall we all had a great time and it helped that the weather was very kind. The weekend including food, accommodation and activities was excellent value for money and we would very much welcome the opportunity to attend future family camps or other similar volunteering opportunities. My daughters both enjoyed their first canal volunteering experience and gave the weekend a big thumbs up, despite having to miss horse-riding. Although we weren’t actually camping, it was good to have a wide range of adults and children working together. The volunteer organisers were excellent, despite some last minute enforced changes. I’ve been on a number of canal holidays and haven’t really appreciated the considerable work that goes in to maintaining a navigable canal network and the wildlife cor ridors they provide.”
George ‘Bungle’ EycottReporting back from the Site Services volunteer team camp that helps to set up, run, and take down IWA’s popular Canalway Cavalcade festival
Canalway Cavalcade is a waterways festival held every year over the three days of the early May bank holiday weekend in Little Venice near Paddington, London, a highlight of the boating calendar in the south east, and a colourful and popular local attraction. The event is organised by the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) and aims to raise money for IWA, raise awareness of our work and campaigns, and increase membership.
The Site Services team, on site from the Wednesday before the festival until the Tuesday afterwards and a crucial part of making it happen, is made up of a group of volunteers lots of whom are also Waterway Recovery Group volunteers - but for the purposes of this event we are all IWA volunteers. It was estimated that about twenty thousand people visited the event, which raised some very useful funds for the IWA, quite apart from raising awareness of the capital’s canals. This is a little recap of some of the challenges and the fun of this year’s Work Camp.
Wednesday: A Tricky Start. As with any festival there is a huge amount of equipment which needs to be collected and brought to the site. Logistics are made trickier by the fact that many volunteers live considerable distances from London, and the equipment has to be picked up from three different
locations. So while most of us started Wednesday by jumping on the train from Middlesbrough, Manchester, Bristol and other places, team leader Pete’s journey took him from Peterborough to Moose and Maria’s at Stanstead Abbots to pick up the event trailer, with the London WRG van that Martin had already brought up from East Dulwich. Bungle and Digger also used WRG vans to bring the two generators from the hire company and tow them into London.
So far so well. But John had the job of collecting the hire van from Enterprise and when he got to their Paddington depot found they didn’t have a single suitable van for him to use (with three sitting in varying states of repair in the car park), so they had to drive him a considerable distance South of the River to another depot. This meant that by the time John got to his first pick up point, IWA head office in Chesham, who were in the middle of their office move that day, he was quite considerably delayed.
We all started to arrive at Little Venice,
greeted by Moose and Maria who had arrived by narrowboat and were handing out cups of tea and rock cakes. We were all in good spirits, happy to see each other again, excited for the week ahead and blissfully ignorant at this point of just how delayed John was. We started doing as many jobs as we could, such as unloading the Heras fencing and pedestrian barrier, and setting up our kitchen and dining marquee. But as time went on, we realised that John had the trolleys in his van and without them it was going to be quite difficult to complete many more of the set-up jobs, such as getting the huge amount of shopping that Anne had ordered from Sainsbury’s over to the work camp.
However, never scared of a challenge we improvised, using wheelbarrows and borrowing the cage trolleys from Sainsbury’s to wheel the food across to the work camp. John eventually arrived around 5:30pm which after a quick van unload (made easier with the trolleys that were on it), the kitchen could be finally plumbed up with a water supply (the pipe is part of the kit that comes from Chesham) and the store tent erected in preparation for the next delivery of event equipment.
Anne and Tracy had very kindly volunteered to cook for us for the week. Not only did they cook for us (which is no mean feat in a very simple field kitchen, in a marquee, next to the canal, for an ever-changing number of people, on a budget, and to very
movable timings...) this year they went above and beyond in order to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Canalway Cavalcade by designing a themed menu [See below] for the week and creating themed decorations as well. The decorations, which included Paddington bear bunting, hanging Pirate decorations, tablecloths and table decorations made the work camp marquee feel very festive and were a welcome boost for everyone. Seeing Tracy sat preparing the decorations with a huge pile in front of her I suggested she rope in Paul and Dave to help, and as with everything we ever ask of them they willingly obliged, although I bet Dave regretted it after breaking one and getting ratted out to Tracy!
The hearty meal boosted our spirits after a longer than expected day and after the delectable moose-like dessert [Should that be mousse-like? Probably not... ], enjoyed from our improvised dining furniture (the tables and chairs don’t arrive until Thursday morning) we all flopped into our floating beds onboard narrowboats Merlin (Hillingdon Narrowboat Association), Ben
Wednesday: Spaghetti Bolognese, Fudge cake and cream (commemorating the WRG Van fundraising fudge stall)
Thursday: Chicken curry and rice, Eton Mess and mar malade cake (Paddington Bear)
Friday: Black bean hash with jacket potatoes, Sticky toffee pudding and honey cake (Pirates)
Saturday: Roast pork with all the trimmings, Curly Wurly cheesecake and rocky road, Fizz & Birthday cake (40th Anniversar y Celebration and nod to Curly Wurly bridge and cobbles)
Sunday: Chicken and leek cobbler, Tom Pudding (Boating)
Monday: Cottage pie, Rescue apple and maple traybake and rubbish cake (Rubbish and recycling)
Gorton (the Scout Boat), Pickles Folly (South West Herts) and Opportunity (Laburnum Boat Club).
Thursday morning started with sausage sandwiches and lots of cups of tea and then we launched into the festival set-up jobs. The Electrical team of Bungle, Digger and Jon headed off to start running the miles of cable around the site to power the traders, caterers, boats, lighting and PA system, after a discussion over the best plan to collect a package that had been delivered to the BBC (typical WRG logistics). Bungle having considered the options such as Tube, buses, walking, hire bikes, he realised that Darren on his daily run could be a good option. The rest of us started with one of my favourite jobs, using NB Opportunity to move tables and chairs across from one side of the canal where they get unloaded by the supplier to the other side where they’re needed for the entertainments tent and bar.
After tea break we started everyone’s favourite job of moving the Portaloos into position using pallet trucks which was the perfect time for our Duke of Edinburgh’s Award volunteer Steph to arrive (and probably instantly regret her decisions!). Later we assembled gazebos, marquees and market stalls as well as making a start on putting up some of the many banners around the site and moving the display equipment and stock into the IWA marquee. After dinner a number of us made our annual pilgrimage to The Warwick Castle for a few drinks.
Friday is all about final preparations. The Electrical team put up festoon lights in the bar, around the pontoon and over the horsebridge, and Martin, Sue and Verena joined us to help set up the Information Stands, hang banners and set out the mooring rope in time for the visiting narrowboats to start making their way into Browings Pool which is the centre of the event, and moor end-on to the towpath. Dave and Emma got the job of putting up the wayfinder signs around the wider Paddington area, Emma
because she knows where the signs go, and Dave because his height meant he could put the signs out of reach of kids! The area for the stalls on Warwick Crescent footpath was fenced off and the required market stalls erected. Friday evening saw a packed-out bar tent for Martin Ludgate’s Boaters Quiz, with his glamorous assistant Helen, with proceeds going to London WRG funds for essential equipment for their weekend canal restoration working parties. A good time was had by all, especially those sampling the bar’s ‘special cider’.
Saturday morning started bright and early with all hands on deck to get the traders into place and set up before the show opened to the public at 10am. The traffic team consisting of Martin, Emma N, Steph and me had the additional challenge this year of our usual route around the top of the amphitheatre being taken over by contractors, meaning we had to walk the traders’ cars and vans a longer, narrower and trickier route to their pitches but using our radios to communicate between ourselves, and combined with the traders being very understanding, we were able to manage the situation successfully.
The breakfast fairy made her first delivery of the weekend (there is an almost constant flow of traders in and out through the site so limited opportunity to head back to camp for breakfast). The biggest vehicles like the fairground rides and ice cream van proved extra challenging and we all breathed a sigh of relief when they were in place.
Up on Warwick Crescent, the team of Pete, Karen, Paul, Dave, Moose, David and Darren removed the fencing to get the traders in place and distributed all the publicity materials, card readers and chairs to the information stands around the site. Amongst all the busy setting up activity on Warwick Crescent there was a case of mistaken identity which resulted in the coffee bike setting up in the wrong place but being the helpful hands-on kind of team we are, Pete volunteered Karen and Darren to push the coffee bike to its correct location, on the opposite side of the site, after some air (maybe not enough) had been added to the tyres! By 10am everyone was set up and ready to greet the public.
At 1.30pm Darren, Martin, Steph and I closed the horsebridge for the Opening Ceremony, with welcoming words from Canal & River Trust Chief Executive Richard Parry, IWA Chairman Les Etheridge who spoke about the newly launched IWA Campaign ‘Protect Our Waterways’ and Hamza Taouzzale, the youngest ever Lord Mayor of Westminster who spoke about the event being the 40th Anniversary since the first event in 1983 being many years before he was born in 1999! Immediately after the ceremony the Pageant of Decorated Boats, organised by Helen, commenced with loads of the narrowboats making their way into the pool, decorated to reflect the theme of the 40th Anniversary.
On the Saturday evening Anne and Tracy hosted a 40th Anniversary meal to
celebrate the occasion, stepping up the decorations again, and providing a beautiful meal complete with a glass or two of fizz and a wonderfully decorated birthday cake. We also enjoyed our meal to the sounds of the very talented performers taking part in the Variety Night that was happening in the entertainment tent next door. Moose & Maria offered to do the last job of the day, fencing up the bar when it closes to allow us to have an early night which was gratefully accepted, and left the rest of the gang to enjoy ‘homemade spirits night’ which has become a bit of a tradition, fuelled mainly by Emma N’s homemade strawberry, blackcurrant, gooseberry and ‘whatever else she’s grown on her allotment’ gin.
Sunday: much the same as Saturday really with the traffic team doing what they do and the rest of the team opening up Warwick Crescent and readying the site for another day of the public. We were joined by Ricey and Cathleen who joined to bolster the troops over the second half of the camp. Over the weekend once the festival is up and running, we get to sit back and enjoy it with just a few jobs to do such as servicing the boats, keeping the Information Stands topped up with leaflets, litter picking, and Paul’s favourite job of helping the Punch & Judy man set up and pack away. The lovely weather meant that Rembrandt Gardens was packed with families enjoying the zorbs, circus skills, Punch & Judy and performances, as well as the kayaking and arts & crafts activities run by waterways charity The Pirate Castle.
Sunday night highlight: the illuminated boats
Another highlight of the festival is the Boat Handling competition with different categories for level of experience and challenge the handlers to do things like reversing around the island, pulling alongside the pontoon to shake hands with the judge, and rescuing an overboard passenger. Always up for a challenge, Adrian entered the competition using narrowboat Shaldon, borrowed from Dennis, ably assisted by Rachel and Steph, also giving Steph her first experience of handling a narrowboat.
Yet another highlight of the event takes place on Sunday night, the Procession of Illuminated Boats, where thousands of people gather around the pool at dusk to get a good view of the procession as the boats enter the pool to music, whoops and cheers all compered by Master of Ceremonies Craig Haslam. The boat owners who enter are such good sports, spending ages decorating their boats, and sometimes themselves, with miles of fairy lights and navigating the waterways in the dark which isn’t easy but we’re very appreciative of them for putting on such a good show for us to enjoy.
Monday is another full day of the event, and the last chance to enjoy the music of the bands, shop for souvenirs and gifts from the stalls, and sample the delights of the food stalls. It was around this time that Paul realised he’d got mixed up with the dates of the camp and booked his train home a day later than everyone else...
The Awards Ceremony took place in the afternoon which we helped prepare for by helping move the trophies and prizes and table up to the bridge from their prestigious holding location of Speedwell’s bathtub. During the day we take it easy to conserve energy for the big take down on Monday evening, just doing little jobs around the site like pumping out the grey water tank. Unfortunately the hose we use is getting a bit old and has a few little holes in it which made a fun new game of standing poised with buckets ready to throw them over the jets before they get you! It was time for Steph to depart to catch her train, having very successfully completed her DofE residential having learnt a lot including the art of mumping, how to steer a boat, exactly how portaloos are serviced, and how to get an Ice cream van into a very tight space.
The Monday night event take down started with a team briefing and 4pm and energy boosting bowl of cake and biscuits to see us through until dinner. A few of us used the leftovers to make little ‘snack packs’ for an extra boost. We were joined by Ian, Tim, Karen and Helen and the team made their way around the site packing down gazebos, marquees, market stalls, banners, informa-
tion stands, lights, PA systems, cables, fencing, barriers and loading everything into the vans ready to leave early the next morning and get back in time for everyone to make their journeys home. Despite it being a late night, the team pulled together to get everything done, with Paul euphemistically describing it as ‘making memories’. And good ones they are too.
Tuesday: The final pack up and clearing of site! Most of the event is packed away Monday evening; however the workcamp still remains to strip down and pack into the trailer as well as loading up the Heras fencing for collection and moving the portaloos back around to where they were dropped off. It is a bit of a challenge to get as much done as early as possible, especially the labour intensive jobs as people slowly start dispersing to catch trains back home as the day goes on. The final van left site around 5:30pm.
A massive thank you to everyone who volunteered with us, whether for one day or all six, we couldn’t do it without you, but it’s the laughs that we have along the way together that make all the hard work worth it.
Emma GreenallIf you weren’t at the WRG Leader Training Day, Evvo’s report fills you in on some of what you missed - and the date for your diary for next years event
This important annual event took place on Saturday, 13 May. There was a small but beautifully formed group of participants, who engaged in all the discussions and came up with useful observations and suggestions to be considered for the future, while learning from others at the same time.
Twenty three people attended the Leaders Training Day (LTD), including two representatives from host societies who provided useful insights and information from a local, hosting perspective. One commented that “the day provides learning and comfort for local groups that they aren’t doing things wrong”. Many WRG leaders have said over the years that the day is very valuable to them, all of which makes the work put in by many people to make LTD happen so worthwhile.
At the time of LTD, there were ten Canal Camps planned this year to which WRG is fully committed. I would be keen in future years to see all camps were represented.
We all know that WRG’s army of volunteers need lots of sustenance to conduct its excellent work and no exception on this day so many thanks to Jude Palmer and Maria Hearnden for keeping all of us fully fuelled. Also, lots of thanks to Mike P, Moose, Emma G and George R who led sessions and got us all thinking and contributing.
Key points from the day:
Health and Safety: this theme ran through a lot of the day and, of course, is the responsibility of leadership teams on canal camps. There were nine accident, near miss or incident reports in 2022, down from 25 pre-Covid. Immediate reporting is essential - and don’t forget to tear out and send in completed pages from the accident book in the first aid case.
Covid: not now a separate consideration for leaders but the message still is that if volunteers feel flu-like symptoms, they should not attend camps. There is a new red briefcase in camp kits with Covid tests, masks, etc just in case they are needed on camp.
Camp money: the £500 float will continue and the catering budget per volunteer is now £8 per volunteer per day.
General leader training: the Legacy Leaders Training Programme was praised highly, although perhaps a different name for it is needed. Feedback received included “solid gateway into leadership” and “wide variety of skills learned”. There were suggestions and discussions about its value to experienced leaders (it does have value), making it an NVQ, some mandatory sessions, minimum standards for leaders etc amongst other things, which the WRG Board will consider.
Practical Restoration Handbook: leaders were updated on its progress. Book 1 has been completed and concentrates on getting restoration projects right from the start, developing a healthy and safe construction environment and addresses how to create a culture of safety within volunteer groups. Copies will be given to all restoration societies, WRG Regional Groups, WRG Legacy Leaders, and will also be in the WRG flight-cases at WRG Canal Camps.
Communicating: the importance of leaders keeping in contact with their counterparts before and after their own camps was discussed and it was agreed that early and regular contact makes life easier for all and removes stress and uncertainty. No definitive method of
contact was suggested because the most appropriate methods of contact will be determined by the relevant leaders.
Safety Helmets: leaders were reminded of the standards required from hard hats and how to check them. A new Toolbox Talk was introduced and will feature somewhere else in this issue of Navvies.
Driver Authorisation Scheme : there had been some changes and a new category is about to come into force: s28 Bricksaws and Abrasive Wheels. From June 2023, volunteers will need to have this category on their DA card. This category includes all ‘angle grinders’ from small electric or cordless 125mm ones to the 2-stroke fuelled 300mm Stihl 410s included in a WRG canal camp kit. Volunteers who are experienced in their use only need to complete a DA application and detail their experience; and how much instructing they might have done, to get that box ticked. The application form can be found in the online Restoration Hub at https://waterways.org.uk/restoration_hub/building-your-skills/wrg-driver-authorisation-scheme-introduction/driver-authorisation-apply-here
Vans, trailers and their loading: with new larger generators in trailers some changes to loading one side of trailers are necessary. We were shown the new method and then had a familiarisation wrestle with ratchet tie-down straps, which hold all pieces of our kit secure during transport and opening of doors – another responsibility for leaders.
One Team: an energetic session in that people had to switch tables and form new teams. The new teams considered the composition of volunteers on a WRG canal camp and, no doubt, within any canal restoration society. The list showed that camps are made up of
Each ‘block’ should be separately secured by a ratchet strap except for the ‘fragile’ wheelie bin which should just be secured using the bungee cords
individuals; individuals of vastly differing: ages, experience, abilities (physical and mental), occupations, knowledge, happiness, confidence, nationalities, diets, etc.
Those present recognised that these different individuals are all valuable members of a team and most cannot / must not be treated as a ‘typical WRGie’ – if there is such a beast. Typically, leaders are skilled at melding all the various volunteers into a single unit and sessions like this help significantly.
Finding everyone an appropriate task / role on site and in the accommodation, and explaining the role, was considered essential for a camp which everyone can enjoy. It was commented that WRG is proud that it can have vulnerable individuals as volunteers on a camp and we are able to care for them. Leaders were reminded of WRG’s Safeguarding Policy.
Don’t forget your cook: we were reminded that cooks are on their own all day and need to make the most of their interaction with the rest of the team before and after time on site. Cooks need including, motivating and monitoring just as all volunteers do.
And also:
· Site Burcos now use propane, which comes in orange bottles.
· Duty directors: call them… should you need their advice, need to tell them something important, etc. Your camp’s DD is there as a resource.
Some final thoughts from me: I do enjoy pulling LTDs together and getting useful subjects covered and discussed by leadership teams. I am wondering if the format needs a revamp, although I do not know how any such revamp might look and any future format would have to complement future leadership training programmes decided by the WRG Board.
Suggestions for a new format would be gratefully received. Similarly, if anyone has suggestions for subjects to be covered on 18 May 2024, let me have them please. Please note the date.
Summaries of discussions are being collected and we hope to find a way for everyone to get access to them along with the LTD PowerPoint and handouts given out on the day.
David ‘Evvo’ Evans
Luke Walker fills us in on what’s happening with a new group founded almost six years ago to work on the Wilts & Berks Canal restoration
It’s been good to see the recent coverage in Navvies and another respected waterways journal regarding progress on the Wilts & Berks and North Wilts Canals. What is perhaps conspicuously absent is a mention of the new waterway restoration charity which achieved its registration on 11 September 2017. There was no publicity in advance of that date as those of us involved were not confident that our application would be successful.
There was, and still is, the well-established Wilts & Berks Canal Trust already busy on many sites on the Wilts & Berks Canal and its branches to Latton and elsewhere. This letter to the editor is to make the wider community of waterways restoration volunteers aware of the existence of the new charity and to share some of our recent news.
Our name is Wessex Waterways Restoration Trust – very distinct from the name of our companion organisation working on the Wilts & Berks Canal, and our logo and corporate colour were selected to be distinctive from them, too.
How an application came to be submitted to form another charity is not nearly as important as what our new-ish charity has been doing so far, and what we’re aiming to help to deliver. In the months since ways were found to work on waterways without breaching regulations to stop the spread of Covid-19 our trustees have been meeting using Zoom (except for two physical meetings) and our volunteers have been working on sections of the Wilts & Berks main line between Bowds Lane at Lyneham and Foxham Upper Lock at Foxham, all in Wiltshire. We’ve raised funds from Awards for All to buy kit to enable us to maintain canal towpaths and more recently we bought two 20-foot shipping containers to be our plant repair workshop and store at Dauntsey Lock. We have a website at www.wessexwaterways.org.uk which is expertly maintained for us by Alan Mynard of the Bucking-
ham Canal Society and we send out an occasional email newsletter under the title The Oriel.
Like many new organisations, we went through a rather stormy period in the early years. However good news in recent months has mostly flowed from being able to participate in the local Wiltshire, Swindon and Oxfordshire Canal Partnership. Two of our Trustees have had an initial meeting with the new CEO and recently elected Chair of WBCT, we’ve renewed our contact with a trustee of the Cotswold Canals Trust (who has been very helpful with our work to set up our plant maintenance depot) and two of our Trustees had a very useful and positive day at the first IWA/CRT Restoration Conference in Chesterfield during March.
One other good thing that has happened since the start of 2023 is that we’ve heard from our foundation trustee Dr Geraint Coles (who had to stand down as a Trustee in the early months due to a serious health issue). We’ve ‘engaged’ him as a pro-bono consultant and he’s already showing signs of adding significant value at Partnership level. Welcome aboard, Geraint – it’s good that you’ve come back to help us. Geraint got various honourable mentions at the March conference for the work he did for the Chesterfield Canal some years ago – laying the foundations for some successes on that canal back then, and more successes more recently.
Our work programme on the ground has been mostly limited to keeping sections of the towpath in good order at Foxham, Dauntsey and Lyneham. I feel it’s almost unethical to let the work of previous generations of volunteers go to waste due to simple neglect. We’ve learned the value of backpack brushcutters – if you’ve ever wanted to use the right tool for the job of vegetation clearance on a canal bank you need to find and try one of these.
One bit of structures work we have been able to complete was alongside the restored lock chamber at Dauntsey Lock.
The vital piece of stone we needed was provided by a helpful person involved in another waterway restoration, the brindle paving was provided by a former Trustee of WBCT from many years ago when his driveway was re-laid in Royal Wootton Bassett. The Wacker plate became unavailable due to damage sustained on a WRG BITM weekend at Weymoor Bridge, and one of my former neighbours in Evesham (who is also a member of the Cotswold Canals Trust) provided the expertise to fit the replacement items and get it ready for service.
I’m hoping that you will have space for further progress reports from us in the coming years, but for now here’s a photo [above ] of the lock chamber at Dauntsey with the brindle paving alongside.
One other point I must mention, to correct the record, comes from what was included in Navvies 315. There was a potted history of restoration work on the Wilts & Berks but I have to request a correction regarding the independent group working on the canal in the area around Lyneham. That’s not strictly true – though it is true that a commercial company was registered and carried forward some canalside property development at Dauntsey Lock. That initia-
tive extended to funding restoration work by volunteers at Dauntsey – including the Hignetts Hole Spillway, re-excavation of a significant length of the canal, finding, emptying, and restoring the lock chamber. The volunteer effort came from several of the WRG mobile teams and from the local branch of the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust – thus not ‘an independent group’. The work on Seven Locks at Lyneham, back then was led by the WBCT – and enjoyed great support from KESCRG, NWPG, WRG Forestry and several WRG mobile teams. We completed the restoration of the chambers of Locks 3 and 4 which had been started many years previously without sufficient funding being committed to enable completion.
Thank you, Martin, for allowing me to use a little space in Navvies for the above clarification regarding what the (independent) Wilts & Berks Canal Company did, and what the (part of Wilts & Berks Canal Trust) Foxham-Lyneham Branch of WBCT did. The same people did operate in both organisations so perhaps not so easy to work out who was doing what, back then.
Best regards
Luke Walker Wessex Waterways Restoration TrustCanals Camps cost £80 per week or as stated. Bookings for WRG Camps with number Court, Asheridge Road, Chesham HP5 2PX. Tel: 01494 783453, enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Jul 1-8
CC2023-02
Jul 7-10 WRG
Jul 8-15
CC2023-03
Cotswold Canals Camp: initial works on restoring Westfield (John Robin
Cromford Canal working party on Beggarlee Extension: see Stop Press,
Cotswold Canals Camp: restoring Westfield (John Robinson) Lock. Lead
Jul 15-16 WRG BITM Cotswold Canals: to be confirmed
Jul 15-22
Jul 22-29
Jul 22-29
Jul 29-Aug 5
Jul 29-Aug 5
Aug 5-12
CC2023-04
CC2023-05
CC2023-07
CC2023-06
Cotswold Canals Camp: restoring Westfield (John Robinson) Lock. Lead
Cotswold Canals Camp: building culvert under Westfield (John Robinson
Lichfield Canal Camp: creating a towpath through Darnford Moors Ecolo
Cotswold Canals Camp: building culvert under Westfield (John Robinso
CC2023-08 Lichfield Canal Camp: creating a towpath through Darnford Moors Ecolog
CC2023-09 Lapal Canal Camp: Building towpath access ramp and steps in Selly Oak P
Aug 12-19 CC2023-11
Aug 18-25 CC2023-12
Louth Navigation Canal Camp: repairing Ticklepenny Lock. Leaders: Mi
Neath Canal Camp: Installing drainage under towpath, reinstating lock brid
Sep 2-3 KESCRG Working party, site to be arranged
Sep 16-17 WRG BITM Maidenhead Waterways, working on Bray Cut
Sep 16-17
Oct 7-8
Oct 7-8
London WRG Wey & Arun Canal: likely to be working on Birtley No 2 Swingbridge
KESCRG Buckingham Canal (to be confirmed)
London WRG Working party: Shrewsbury & Newport Canals
Oct 20-22 NWPG Working party, site to be arranged - Wey & Arun or Cotswold
Oct 21-22 WRG BITM Working party, site to be arranged
Nov 4-5 WRG Possible WRG Reunion’Bonfire Bash’ working party - venue to be confir
Nov 4-5
Nov 4-5
London WRG supporting WRG Bonfire Bash - if it happens
KESCRG supporting WRG Bonfire Bash - if it happens
Nov 18-19 NWPG
Working party, site to be arranged - Wey & Arun or Cotswold
Nov 18-19 WRG BITM Maidenhead Waterways, working on Bray Cut
Dec 2-3
Dec 2-3
London WRG
Joint Christmas dig and party with KESCRG on the Wey & Arun Canal
KESCRG Joint Christmas dig and party with London WRG on the Wey & Arun Ca
Dec 9-10 WRG BITM Working party, site to be arranged
e.g. ‘Camp CC-202302’ should go to WRG Canal Camps, Unit 16B, First Floor, Chiltern . Diary contributions to Dave Wedd, Tel: 07816 175454, dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
son) Lock. Leaders: Mike Palmer / Becky Parr 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
, page 7
Mike Palmer 07764-354893 mike.palmer@waterways.org.uk
ders: Bill Nicholson / Graham Hawkes01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
ders: Stephen Davis / Ed Walker01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
) Lock. Leaders: Stephen Rice / Sandra Horner 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
ogy Park. Leaders: Jess Leighton / Colin Hobbs01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
n) Lock. Leaders: Mike Palmer / Becky Parr01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
gy Park. Leaders: Colin Hobbs / Andy Pritchard 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
ark. Leaders: Dave Evans / Paul Harrowsmith 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
kk Bradley / Mick Lilliman01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
dges. Leaders: Paul Rodgers / Will Radice Horne 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Bill Nicholson 01844-343369 bill@nwpg.org.uk
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk med01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Bill Nicholson 01844-343369 bill@nwpg.org.uk
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
anal
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
We’ve dedicated 9 pages to the Montgomery Canal to mark the completion and Restore more of the Montgomery Canal
WRG’s connection to the Montgomery Canal goes back to the very start of restoration: just look at Navvies 21 and 22! [ See below] WRG transformed Frankton Locks and Aston Locks and more recently helped preparation at Schoolhouse Bridge. Today some 60% of the Canal’s 35 miles are open: an isolated 12 mile section through Welshpool in mid-Wales and eight miles in Shropshire south from the Llangollen Canal at Welsh Frankton.
Progress in 2023:
· Reopening to Crickheath Basin (June 2) celebrated the achievement of Shropshire Union Canal Society volunteers who rebuilt the Canal across a peat bog (as reported in Navvies): now eight miles in Shropshire are part of the national network.
· Starting the reconstruction of Schoolhouse Bridge (the last highway obstacle in Shropshire), due to be completed by the autumn.
· Dredging at Llanymynech started work in Powys funded by the Government’s Levelling Up Fund.
The above brief report from Navvies Notebook issue 21 of the Welshpool ‘Big Dig’ in 1969, which helped to fight off a threat from a new road scheme and kickstart the Montgomery Canal restoration, represents one of the canal’s earliest appearances in this magazine
Now there are just two miles of dry canal in Shropshire from the new limit of navigation (since the recent reopening) at Crickheath to just short of the Welsh border at Llanymynech. The main task is to make it hold water again. Shropshire Union Canal Society (SUCS) volunteers have already begun clearing and re-profiling the section to Schoolhouse Bridge – the ‘Crickheath South’ project. You can read more about their work on pages 28-30.
The Restore the Montgomery Canal! appeal for Schoolhouse Bridge was supported by many generous donors far and wide. Now a new Public Appeal has been launched with a target of £250,000 to help restoration towards the Welsh border at Llanymynech. We already have £50,000 towards that target. You will find a leaflet reproduced as pages 41-44 at the back of this electronic version of Navvies.
Why support the Montgomery Canal?
· Multi-million pound support from the UK Governments means the Welshpool section could reach the Shropshire border in the next few years. So reopening those two miles of dry canal in Shropshire would reconnect the English and Welsh lengths and make 26 miles of continuously navigable waterway from Welsh Frankton to Refail.
· County Councils in Powys and Shropshire, and local MPs , keen to see the canal open, help with any opportunities for Government grants.
· Apart from those two miles in Shropshire, the canal to Welshpool and beyond is in water with no water supply issues.
· Apart from the last couple of miles into Newtown, the canal is all owned by the Canal & River Trust so there will be no need for tricky land ownership negotia-
Reopened Queen’s Head to Gronwen Bridge 2003
Llangollen Canal
Weston Arm
Aston Locks
Pant
Llanymynech
Carreghofa Locks (restored 1986)
Reopened Frankton to Queen’s Head 1996 Restored trip-boat length at Llanymynech
Arddleen
Burgedin Locks
School House Bridge under construction
Welshpool
Berriew
Refail
Garthmyl
Crickheath Newtown
4 road blockages : 2 funded for reopening
12 mile isolated restored navigable length from Arddleen through Welshpool to Refail. Reopend in stages from 1970s to 2000
3 locks restored 2006 but road blockages remain south of Refail
Final length into Newtown obstructed by sewer in canal bed, terminus basin built on, possibility of diversion to new terminus
tions, and all the locks have been restored.
· The canal’s collection of structures – one of the best – tells the story of its life as a working canal.
Images
Waterways
The canal is the habitat for rare protected flora and fauna. The restoration Strategy provides a detailed (and hard-won) compromise for a navigable canal with protected habitats. Accepted by the Councils, the statutory agencies and indeed CRT – all have duties for nature conservation (just see if your council has declared a Nature Emergency) – carrying the Strategy forward can ensure the canal is not hijacked to deny the wider social and economic benefits for visitors and locals. Funding already secured in Wales will rebuild two of the four blocked bridges north of Welshpool, dredge the channel and create new nature reserves. Other Government funding could pay for the other two bridges. So you can see how important it is to complete restoration of the last two miles in Shropshire.
Your generosity will support the team of skilled and experienced volunteers. If you can sign the Gift Aid option, a tax rebate can add 25% to your gift.
Without your donation, work could slow or stop.
John Dodwell RestoreWaterways Images
to Crickheath 2 June 2023; Crickheath to Llanymynech and on to Welshpool 20??
Top left: some of the boats at Crickheath Wharf to celebrate the reopening of the canal from Gronwen Bridge to Crickheath on 2 June. See also our front cover picture.
Above left: the same scene during the WRG ‘Bonfire Bash’ weekend in November 2010.
Top right: the previous major reopening on the Montgomery Canal was in 2003, when Aston Locks (largely restored by WRG volunteers) and the length of canal from Queen’s Head via Maesbury to Gronwen Bridge was opened. John Craven was there to cut the tape.
Above right: Target for the next major reopening (and the subject of the new Appeal) is the two miles to Llanymynech on the Welsh border, to meet up with work underway in Wales
Jeff Buck was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time - on a boat on the
After following the progress of the channel lining and rewatering of the Montgomery Canal to Crickheath winding hole, I was keen to visit in its first summer of operation. As you can imagine I was overjoyed to find that the official opening coincided with my 2 weeks out on shared NB Rowington. However, when I found that the official opening had been put back to June, I was rather disappointed, but hopeful that it may still be open to navigation ahead of the official date. After overnighting in Maestermyn, I arrived at the top of Frankton Locks on the morning of 10th May ready for my booked passage. I couldn’t see the lock keeper anywhere, so had a wander down the locks to try to find him, but instead came across a woman who had just rescued a hedgehog from the canal. This was the closest I have ever come to a live hedgehog, which she was carrying in a bucket and about to take
home to put somewhere warm to recover.
Having walked back to the top of the locks I found the lock keeper in his cabin, but he was using the door that’s hidden from boaters on their approach, which is why I didn’t spot him initially...
Whilst he was working us through the locks I asked the lock keeper if it was possible to get to Crickheath yet, his response was that he should be removing the boom that afternoon, so things were looking promising. As we approached Aston Locks we saw that there was another boat working down ahead of us, so we had a quick chat with them, a friendly couple whose aim is to complete the work on their boat and then offer ‘liveaboard experiences’. As the lock keeper had not given a 100% commitment to the boom’s removal that afternoon, we decided to moor up by Canal Central in Maesbury and have a wander down to check the lie of the land (so to speak...).
As we started walking down the other
Montgomery Canal just as boats were allowed down to Crickheath for the first time boat was just mooring up in Maesbury, having made it all the way to Crickheath, winded and come back; they did say that another boat had followed them down. When we got to the winding hole, there was indeed another boat there and he was already winded and mooring up (this is the nearest boat to the bridge in the picture. Unfortunately I didn’t get the name of either the boat or the owner), so we gave him a hand and stopped for a chat. It turns out that he moors on the arm at Crofts Mill, he saw the other boat going past on its way to Crickheath and realised that the navigation was now open, so he quickly got under way so that he could be the second boat to get there. He told us that he had phoned his friend from Liverpool, who also has a boat moored at Maesbury, and he was planning to come down that evening.
Thursday 11th May dawned bright and sunny. Once my crew was also up and about we slipped our mooring and headed down to Crickheath. The section from Gronwen Wharf to Redwith Bridge was tough going, as it was full of lillies and various weeds due to being in water but undisturbed for a number of years (we assumed that the early opening to navigation was to allow this to be chopped up by
propellers ahead of the official opening). As we passed the farmhouse near Redwith Bridge a lady was walking past the big picture window: she actually stepped back and did a double-take before giving us a wave. Once past Redwith Bridge the water got steadily clearer and in the end you could see the bottom and all of the fish swimming around. Once we got to Crickheath we winded and moored up, making Rowington only the 4th boat to get there, the 3rd to wind and the 3rd to moor in nearly 90 years. We chatted to a number of locals who were passing by (including the chap who runs the trip boat at Llanymynech), all of whom said it was lovely to see boats along there at last. It seems that the towpath telegraph was doing its thing and word was quickly getting around. Afterwards we went up to Queens Head to moor up for the night, from where we could make our booked passage at Frankton on the Friday, and caught the bus into Oswestry for a couple of hours. No sooner had we got on the bus than the heavens opened, with a thunderstorm that went on for 2.5 hours, but then that’s another story...
Jeff Buck, nb RowingtonWhat canal restorers nowadays usually refer to as the Montgomery Canal was built as four separate sections. The first was a short length from Frankton Junction down Frankton Locks, built as part of the original intended main line of the Ellesmere Canal, which was to run from the Mersey at Ellesmere Port via Chester, Ruabon and Frankton to the Severn at Shrewsbury. In the event, neither the routes north to Chester nor southeast to Shrewsbury were ever completed - and most of what was built ended up as what’s known today as the Llangollen Canal.
The second section was a branch of the Ellesmere Canal which left this line below Frankton Locks and headed south westwards via Aston Locks to serve the mines at Llanymynech.
Thirdly, from Llanymynech onwards the Montgomeryshire Canal was begun, with the aim of continuing on to Newtown. However it had only reached Garthmyl when the money ran out.
Finally the Montgomeryshire Canal (Wester n Branch) was built to complete the route to from Garthmyl to Newtown.
All four became part of the Shropshire Union Railways & Canal Co amalgamation. Originally the Shropshire Union’s plan was to convert many of its canals into railways, but in the event they continued to operated as canals. The Montg omery route remained open until a breach below Frankton closed it in 1936. The owners (by then the London Midland & Scottish Railway) never repaired it, the canal was legally abandoned in 1944, the southernmost two miles were sold off, and numerous bridges were demolished between then and the start of restoration in 1969.
While the recent celebrations mark the opening of the restored canal to Shropshire Union Canal Society: Crickheath South work party report
The Crickheath South project is the volunteer restoration / relining / reconstruction of the 750 metres from Crickheath Wharf (the new limit of navigation following the recent reopening) to Schoolhouse Bridge (currently under construction). It forms the first part of the crucial two mile length (if you’ll excuse me mixing metric and imperial!) which is the subject of the Appeal covered in John Dodwell’s article on the preceding pages, and which will link the restored English section to the start of the Welsh length (currently benefiting from a £15m Government grant). It’s covered in more detail in Navvies 318.
The SUCS April work party focused on Phase 1A (Crickheath Wharf area) and was characterised by new tasks, high volunteer numbers and great progress. Work on repairs to the former tramway wharf south of Crickheath Bridge has started. After much planning, coping stones –some weighing over half a tonne – were lifted off to allow repairs to the wall beneath. Whilst it was anticipated that this could take the whole three days, by Friday evening, the task was largely complete. Members of the Dry Stone Walling Association (DSWA) joined the work party and by the end of Saturday, over 8m of wall had
tions. There remains 83m of
parties for the coming months
Crickheath, SUCS volunteers are already working onwards towards Llanymynech
On the towpath side to the south of Crickheath Bridge, the wash wall also requires repair. This will be done using lime mortar. In readiness, a meticulous job of cleaning the existing stone wall and joints was completed.
Whilst Phase 1A has previously been cleared of scrub, there remained many stumps. These ranged from the remains of small saplings, mainly on the towpath side, to two enormous alder stumps growing out of the wharf wall. In fact ‘monster’ would be a better description of the largest. However, after much preparatory work the previous day, even this was removed by Sunday morning and dragged out of the way. The inevitable large void was treated with grout to provide a firm foundation for rebuilding the stone wall in this area.
With various other ‘housekeeping’ jobs being completed in compounds north and south of the bridge, this completed a highly productive work party.
On the May working party Volunteer effort was spread across a wide variety of activities and experienced variable weather conditions. The one constant being the incredible output and progress made.
Work commenced on the towpath improvements in Phase 1A which are supported by a grant from Oswestry Rural Parish Council. The finished specification for the towpath won’t be delivered until works in this area are completed but this provides a level, self-draining path in the meantime by removing slip and trip hazards from mud and tree roots. On this occasion, a four-day work party had been organised to include bank holiday Monday – the Coronation Big Help Out event. It was by no means certain the works would be finished in this time. In the event, the towpath improvements were completed in barely more than two
days. Remarkable! Compliments abounded from passing pedestrians and cyclists. Much time and effort was spent during this work party concluding the decommissioning activities for the previous project north of Crickheath Bridge. Tidying up of the previous works compound by Crickheath Basin was completed and two large spoil heaps were levelled. ‘Spoil’ does little justice to the material since over the years this site strip and vegetation had composted down to high quality topsoil.
Repairs to the wharf wall continued and received considerable focus. This is no small task and will feature in many future reports but here again, great progress was made with a good number of the Society’s regular volunteers getting involved and picking up skills from the Dry Stone Walling Association volunteers. A start was made in filling the void left by the monster stump removal.
Towpath improvements in progress
It is likely that the saga of the stump will also feature in a number of future reports. During this work party a substantial quantity was removed – but it’s still huge!
Our roundup of work on restoration projects begins with the Lichfield, where’s there’s progress at Darnford Moors and Tamworth Road...
The Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust continues to make significant progress, with the main focus of work (as previously) being on two key areas with some remedial maintenance elsewhere.
Darnford Moors Ecology Park: Once completed, and opened, this stretch of the canal will not only provide an environmentally friendly, visually appealing setting for walkers and boaters alike, but will also connect up to one of the few remaining parts of the original canal and, through that, reestablish the link with the Coventry Canal and the national network.
Huge progress has been made on phase one, with our contractors Onsite Central speeding ahead on lining the canal.
A potential weak point was identified early on. The joint between the ground and the vertical metal piling was found to have totally different material characteristics. To get round this problem a four-stage process was/is being used.
Firstly, a base sheet of matting is laid to abut the piling. The surface textile is removed and handfuls of bentonite putty are applied into the corners and across the face of the piling. A quadrant material is then forced into the corner of the putty. Finally, a second layer of bentonite is spliced to the shape of the piling, its rear geotextile removed, and it is then forced into place with more putty added. Since
this material expands when in contact with water, a confining layer of 300mm of soil is added on top of the matting. Clever stuff! Meanwhile, our volunteers have been preparing phase two of the site, between the lift bridge and the former lock. This has involved repairing the piling, shifting about 1,500 tonnes of soil, and shaping the channel.
The piling was leaning forward due to the soil pressure acting behind, so we dug it out and added additional three metre tie rods and anchor piles, before setting a universal height via the use of a digger mounted vibro-plate.
As the rear of the piling has now been completely dug out, for this Phase 2 area we changed our approach slightly. In order to align the sheets and restore them to the vertical position, instead of putting tape across the back of the joint and pumping resin into the front we dug down the front of the piling and then pumped an elastomeric sealant (having elastic properties) across the joint, having first cleaned the joint with a solvent activator. Our thoughts were that at
least when the canal is in water hydrostatic water pressure would be pushing the sealant into the joint on phase 2 (rather than trying to force the tape off the back of the joint, as with phase 1). It all progressed rather well and we completed our works on phase 2 in April, ready for handover to our groundworks contractor.
The work on phase 2 has been greatly facilitated by our recent gain of a substantial grant from Biffa Award; a multi-million pound fund that helps to build communities and transform lives through awarding grants to community and environmental projects across the UK, as part of the Government’s Landfill Communities Fund. We are naturally most grateful to the awarding body and are already putting the grant to good use as described above.
To Anglesey Basin
Ogley Junction
Tamworth Road (A51) / Canal Park / Cricket Lane: With the bottom part of the eastern section of this length in water, as it has been for a number of years now (and unable to proceed further until we can get under the A51 into Darnford Park), ongoing work here has focused on securing the channel from the Canal Park to Cricket LaneTamworth Road Narrows.
Length: 7 miles Locks: 30 Date closed: 1955
Diversions to be built to avoid obstructions to restoration HS2
To Fradley
Fosseway Heath LICHFIELD
Huddlesford
The Lichfield Canal is the name given by canal restorers to the abandoned eastern seven miles of the Wyrley & Essington Canal. The canal originally stretched from the Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line in Wolverhampton to a junction with the Coventry Canal at Huddlesford, but this eastern length which included all 30 of the canal’s locks was closed in the 1950s to save the cost of maintaining the locks.
Here the team have been working hard on the offside wall and buttresses. The buttresses support the historic canal wall, as it is now intended for this to sit higher than the new water level, which will be several feet lower than the original level. This is because we need to approach Cricket Lane at a much lower level than was the case with the original canal, as the canal needs to pass under Cricket Lane, which it originally did via a humpback bridge. If only we could have a new humpback bridge – sadly no chance! This also means that the old lock 24 will have to be relocated to the other side of Cricket Lane, where the new lock will raise the canal to its original level.
Work is also in hand to add themed sculptures to the towpath to create a much more ambient environment and complement the flower planting that has already taken place and is certainly adding colour and appeal to the canal banks around this point.
General maintenance: One recurring problem is our battle with Mother Nature to ensure that the work we have already completed is not undermined by plant/shrub growth which threatens to erode newly restored walls and banks.
Gorse bushes along the Fosseway section (parallel to the old Lichfield to Walsall railway line) present a classic challenge of this nature. Deploying a combination of
volunteers, Duke of Edinburgh candidates and local Scouts, cutting parties have been (and remain) in action for much of March and April. While the flowering gorse bushes are not without visual appeal, the damage they could potentially cause if left to grow unchecked does not bear thinking about. Meanwhile up at Summerhill (off A461 Walsall Road), the paths and ramps leading down from the Boat Inn towards the M6 Toll Road aqueduct have been cleared to make what is a pleasant walk slightly less fraught.
Conclusion: Overall a period of significant progress refecting the continued hard work and commitment of all parts of our volunteer team. Thank you everyone and thank you to new funders Biffa Award, as well as ERDF and HS2 CEF.
Meanwhile Wendover Canal Trust’s volunteers are continuing lining the channel, improving the towpath, and finding somewhere to bury some tar...
Canal lining: The first days of the work party were spent carrying out the final profiling of 45m of the bank on both sides of the canal to receive the Bentomat (waterproof Bentonite clay matting) lining.
40m of Bentomat was rolled out on each bank over the middle weekend. The remainder of the work party was spent placing the hollow blocks on top of it, and concreting the foundation on both sides. On the towpath side solid block and coir roll was completed. On the offside the hollow blocks were placed, and the foundation concreted.
Towpath construction: The trial length of towpath was completed. The section of towpath was topped with Type 1 aggregate to full depth over the last 20m. A surface dressing of fine aggregate was placed, raked and compacted to complete the work. In total 167m of towpath has been upgraded.
Coal Tar Trial: An attempt was made to try to excavate the former coal tar lining (relic of an unsuccessful attempt to waterproof the
canal in its working days) off the bank without disturbing the ‘clean’ clay beneath. The trial was not successful and was abandoned.
Trial to bury the contaminated spoil: Calculations have shown that there will be an excess of spoil, contaminated with fragments of coal tar from the former canal lining, that would need to be disposed offsite. The disposal of contaminated spoil is five times more expensive than ‘clean’ spoil. A trial was conducted to excavate ‘clean’ spoil from under the bed of the canal for disposal and the replacement with contaminated spoil. An excavation, 4.4m wide at the top and 2.5m at the bottom, terraced in 0.6m layers was excavated. The excavation was filled with contaminated spoil from the canal channel and compacted in 300mm layers. It was found that the contaminated spoil was too wet to comp act adequately and will be left to consolidate before work is carried out. An over-burden of spoil will be placed on this to ensure full consolidation prior to the next stage of the work in the area in 12 months’ time.
Camp: Over the weekend Wendover Canal Trust hosted a family camp where six families carried out work in the Whitehouses Pocket Park. The viewing platform was cleaned and given a coat of preservative. Bird boxes were made up and placed in the trees. The post securing the bug hotel was replaced with a more secure one. It was not all work! The children were led in activities looking at the plants and insects that abound in the pocket park. [See camp report, pages 8-9]
Mikk BradleyFinally the Chesterfield Canal Trust is celebrating having been donated an enormous pile of clay, which is just what they need to restore an embankment
The restoration of the Chesterfield Canal will shortly take a great leap forward. This has been made possible by a huge donation of clay from property company Suon Ltd. The Chesterfield Canal Trust will be spending £5.3 million on major works. These monies are its share of the Staveley Town Deal fund. These works will extend the restored canal eastwards from the end of the isolated restored Chesterfield to Staveley length, and a substantial section of it will be rebuilding the historic Staveley Puddlebank. This is a massive structure, a clay embankment 800 metres long that stretches across the Doe Lea Val ley. It was originally constructed in 1776 out of clay dug by hand and moved in wheelbarrows by navvies. Where it crossed the river Doe Lea it was 10 metres high. It was one of the most important navigation works on the canal (and indeed on the whole waterways network at that early point in the canal-building era). but after the canal west of Norwood Tunnel ceased to be used following the tunnel’s collapse, the Puddlebank was partially bulldozed in 1972, hence the need to remodel it.
The value of the clay runs well into seven figures. It is currently at Foxlow, just north of Barrow Hill. It was originally stockpiled for a brickworks which has long closed down.
The total volume is 160,000 cubic metres, which is hard to imagine. If it was all heaped onto the pitch at Wembley Stadium, it would be 22 metres high. That’s the height of a seven storey building or five double decker buses. If it was piled onto the centre court at Wimbledon, it would be over 800 metres high. That’s the same as the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building or nearly three times the height of the Shard, Britain’s tallest building. [ I prefer to think of it as enough clay to make about 80 million bricks. That’s almost certainly several times as many bricks as have been laid in the entire 60-plus year history of the waterway restoration movement. ... Ed ]
The Chesterfield Canal Trust is incredibly grateful for this wonderful gesture by Suon and also to the Chatsworth Settlement which has waived its right to the royalties that it held upon the clay.
Nicholas Wood, Estates Director for Chatsworth, commented: “We are very happy to have been able to support the Chesterfield Canal Trust with this project, and we hope it will help enable future generations to enjoy the canal for many years.”
The Trust’s Development Manager, George Rogers, said “Purchasing and transporting suitable materials from other sources would be prohibitively expensive and cause untold disturbance to the local population. Without this incredibly generous donation, the project simply couldn’t proceed in its current form and so the Trust is very grateful for the support and generosity of Suon and Chatsworth. We look forward to continuing our long history of working together to enable the restoration of the canal”.
Ivan Fomin, Chair of the Staveley Town Deal Board, said: “It’s fantastic to see project sponsors working together to achieve the overall objectives of the Town Deal. This is an important donation that will help ensure the canal can continue to be enjoyed by local people and visitors, whilst making use of this natural resource in the local area.”
The first visible works were due to start in May with gr ound i nvestigations along the restoration route.
Update on canal camp bookings and plans, a change of address for WRG and our parent body IWA, and who wants to hire a cheap mud barge?
Unfortunately the Canal Camp which was due to be held on the Derby Canal from 5 to 12 August has had to be cancelled. However as we went to press all other weeks in the summer Canal Camps programme were set to go ahead as planned. In fact by that point most of them were fully booked. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve missed your chance. In a number of cases the maximum number of volunteers on the camp is being raised from 12 (the limit that we introduced as part of the process of getting Canal Camps going again safely in the wake of the pandemic) back to the previous usual limit of 18 (based on fitting the volunteers into two minibuses), plus there’s always a chance of a cancelled booking so it’s worth checking on the website and/or getting in touch.
Does your canal society have a use for a temporary hire of a mud hopper barge? The Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust has a 70-footer available - not free, but very cheaply as they need to move it off Canal & River Trust waters. They can also hire you a tug to haul it with if you need one.
Contact HGCT Chairman Ralph Barber on 07836 347427 for details.
Well, not exactly as none of us actually work there, but WRG’s (and our parent body the Inland Waterways Association’s) head office address has changed. It’s now at Unit 16B, First Floor, Chiltern Court, Asheridge Road, Chesham HP5 2PX. The phone number hasn’t changed - it’s still 01494 783453.
“Luckily a stall at a local car boot sale was selling off some endof-life bottles of Gorilla glue at a very reasonable price...”
Our canal society was given an electric mixer several years ago; it was in excellent condition apart from a twisted frame, a fractured gearbox mounting foot and a tendency to give electric shocks to the operator in wet weather. Before it could be used, a steel strap had to be fitted around the gearbox to take the strain off the remaining three feet. The operator invested in a pair of rubber gloves.
After lying around unused during a wet autumn, the motor filled with rainwater and the bearings rusted solid; so we dismantled the motor, dried it and fitted new bearings. Parts of the starter switch were also rusted away, so we devised a different starting system based on some old fruit machine relays and also took the opportunity to rewire the motor for 110v operation.
The new ‘waterproof’ Stop and Start buttons were found to be letting water into the control box, so we replaced them with some sturdy waterproof military switches, which had probably become surplus at the end of the Korean War, and drilled drainage holes in the bottom of the box. Everything now appeared to be electrically and mechanically safe.
At this point we noticed a strange white spiral pattern appearing around the tub when it was used for lime mortar. Looking from the inside outwards, there appeared to be a constellation of pinpoints of light shining through the tub wall. Luckily a stall at a local car boot sale was selling off some end-of-life bottles of Gorilla glue at a very reasonable price, so the holes were patched with offcuts of old PVC floor covering which, with the aid of a hot air gun, could be moulded nicely around the
curvature of the tub.
Until recently the refurbished machine has served us well. Now it has developed a minor fault, which came to light when scouring the tub with a large brick at the end of a working day [ See photograph]. Perhaps one of your readers could suggest the appropriate action to take, as I feel this machine still has a lot of life left in it and could go on working for many more years if it were treated sympathetically.
Ivor HopePerhaps Ivor could draw some inspiration from the letter to Deirdre and her reply (opposite page). Or perhaps not. ...Ed
“Unfortunately I ran over one of our steel flasks, which now looks like a ‘horrible bashed up old thing’ but still works well...”
Back in 2015 my site organiser gave me an urgent job involving brew kit transport with my own car. Unfortunately I ran over one of our steel flasks, which now looks like a “horrible bashed up old thing” but still works well. Our treasurer has been pressing me ever since to pay for a replacement out of my own money, but as (a) it still works and (b) the damage occurred as part of WRG activity, I claim it should be paid for by WRG. Can this be resolved without the threatened legal action?
“Horrible bashed up old thing” or part of the finest tea service?
I have sent a photo of the flask to the editor - I do hope he can print it!
- Nervous Navvy, Wyre PiddleDeirdre replies I’m not sure what you mean by “horrible bashed up old thing”. In London WRG this would be considered part of our finest tea service. Have you tried running over the Treasurer a few times? This might resolve the issue.
Do you have a question for Deirdre to answer? Just email it to the editor and he’ll pass it on to her.
Forget about dredgers, grappling hooks and kebs, because...
Will you help volunteers restore more of the Montgomery Canal?
FROM THIS… …TO THIS DONATE NOW so we continuecan restoration!
Nearly two thirds of the canal open already. Restoration in Wales will extend the canal to the Shropshire border. Just two miles of derelict canal in Shropshire: We are raising £250,000 towards the cost of the next stages of the restoration
** First £50,000 already raised **
Achievements in 2023...
Another 1½ miles reopened in Shropshire (to Crickheath)
Reconstruction of the last lowered road bridge in Shropshire (Schoolhouse Bridge)
In Shropshire volunteers have started on the next section of derelict canal – but need funding to carry on.
www.localgiving.org/charity/restorethemontgomerycanal
