editorial More Montgomery

As we wait for the first summer Canal Camp reports, the editor explains why we’ve given such prominence to featuring the Montgomery Canal

Full of Monty?

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

Will you help restore more of the Montgomery Canal?

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.