Intro London WRG
Just to show that there’s more to WRG than week long summer Canal Camps, and more to its work than restoring derelict canals, here are some pictures by Tim Lewis of our London WRG regional group’s working weekend at the Leighton Buzzard basin on the navigable Grand Union Canal in June, putting in service ductingandaservicebollardtosupply waterandelectricitytotheBedford& MiltonKeynesWaterwayTrust’s electric trip-boat Electra. New volunteers are welcome on London WRG weekends (and you needn’t live anywhere near London!) - see diary pages
Alan Lines
In this issue Contents
For latest news on our activities visit our website wrg.org.uk
See Facebook group: WRG Follow us on @wrg_navvies
Contents
Editor’s Welcome looking back, looking ahead 4-5
Chairman’s Comment ‘issues with permissions’ 6-7 Camp reports Louth, Lichfield, Lapal and Cromford canals 8-23
Diary Camps and working weekends 24-25 Camp reports Two weeks at Weymoor 26-34 London WRG/KESCRG at Weymoor 25
Progress around the system, including a Somersetshire Coal Canal special 36-44 News WRGies win 3 IWA awards 45 Infill More comments on Navvies gone byand our agony aunt Deirdre returns 46-47
PLEASE NOTE: subscriptions renewal cheques should be made out to The Inland Waterways Association. Note new address (right)
Production
Editor: Martin Ludgate, 35 Silvester Road, East Dulwich London SE22 9PB. 020-8693 3266 martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk
Contributions welcome, by email or post, to the address above. If sending a lot of large picture files, please contact the editor first. Pressdateforissue328:15November.
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Navvies is published by Waterway Recovery Group and is available to all interested in promoting or supporting 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.
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Directors of WRG: Rick Barnes, George Eycott, Helen Gardner, John Hawkins, Dave Hearnden, Nigel Lee, Mike Palmer, George Rogers, Jonathan Smith, Harry Watts.
ISSN: 0953-6655
© 2024 WRG
Cover picture: Reinforcing is assembled ready for the second big concrete pour on one of this summer’s major Canal Camps projects on the Cotswold Canals, to install a stream culvert under the canal alongside Weymoor Bridge and reinstate the canal as a concrete channel above it. See reports , pages 26-35 (picture by Stephen ‘Ricey’ Rice) Back cover upper: The site at Weymoor in the early stages, with excavation for the culvert under way (Chris Colborne) Back coverlower: The same view after the final weekend, just awaiting finishing works and
Navvieswelcome from the editor
Editor Martin looks back on the summers Canal Camps, and forward to a winter of scrub-bashing… and to next summer’s Camps…
Editor’s Welcome
I started my editorial piece last time by welcoming new readers, particularly those first-time volunteers who have booked on Canal Camps and are receiving an issue of Navvies which has (perhaps unexpectedly) landed on their doorstep as part of a year’s free subscription for new Canal Camps bookings. And I’d like to repeat that and welcome any more new volunteers who’ve been on summer canal camps. And I’d also like to welcome any new volunteers who haven’t been on summer canal camps - see below…
As you’ll see, there are reports from six camps on five different sites in this issue - and what struck me when I was putting together this issue was quite how varied, involved and technical some of the work has been on the camps that have gone ahead this summer…
• On the Cromford Canal: a sizeable fleet of dumpers, rollers and excavators creating a flood water compensation pond, and installing heavy underground land drainage works prior to building a brand new canal channel
• On the Cotswold Canals: carrying out complex reinforcing and shuttering work prior to casting some sizeable lumps of structural concrete (in tricky wet conditions) in connection with culverting a stream under the canal bed at Weymoor
• On the Lapal Canal: digging through some tough ground and then carrying out some quite large scale carpentry to install a new towpath ramp at Selly Oak.
• On the Lichfield Canal: creating a steel piling retaining structure and rebuilding a brick canal towpath wall
• On the Louth Canal: even though on the face of it this might seem the most
Start of the scrub-bashing season: London WRG on the Shrewsbury & Newport…
‘conventional’ site restoring a brick-built lock chamber, it still involved some ‘interesting’ stuff, including rebuilding an arched brick culvert outfall and curved wing walls.
Have a read of the reports in this issue (and I promise, they aren’t all crammed with in-jokes that you won’t understand!) and you’ll get the idea. We might sometimes call what we do ‘canal digging’ and our weekend work parties ‘digs’, but we do a lot more besides that!
Speaking of weekend work parties, this issue marks the turning of the seasons and the changing of our activities. While we’re looking back at the summer camps, we’re also looking ahead to the late autumn and winter, when we run fewer week-long camps but our mobile groups are out-and-about with regular weekend work parties all over the countryand they welcome new volunteers. And given the weather, the conditions might be less well-suited to complex construction work, but with the end of the nesting season we’re able to carry out tree and vegetation clearance (‘scrub bashing’) that we can’t do in summernot to mention the odd bonfire to keep warm by. So check the diary on pages 24-25 for scrub-bashing weekends on the Wey & Arun, Uttoxeter, Chelmer & Blackwater, Shrewsbury & Newport and more.
But going back to my comment above about those new volunteers who haven’t been on summer camps: I am very aware that several of this summer’s camps unfortunately couldn’t go ahead. Our Chairman Mike Palmer goes into this in more detail on pages 6-7, but here I’d just like to say that we’re very sorry if your camp was cancelled, and you’re still very welcome to join any of the weekend work parties listed in this issue - indeed we’ve already welcomed one such volunteer on a weekend dig that I was on recently.
And we’re optimistic that some of the planned work which couldn’t take place will be able to happen in 2025, speaking of which…
Unlike this issue, the next issue won’t be crammed full of summer Canal Camp reports, because there aren’t any more to report on. What we plan that it will have instead is a preview of some of the projects that we’ll be working on next summer. So if you’re involved in a local canal society, and you’re interested in hosting a 2025 week-long Canal Camp, and you haven’t already been in touch with us, please do so as soon as possible.
See you on a scrub-bash somewhere.
Martin Ludgate, Navvies editor
Martin Ludgate
Chairman’s Comment
Mike Palmer
explains
about “issues with
permissions”
and why it impacted in so many ways on the summer Canal Camps programme
Chairman’s Comment
We do of course like to consider every edition of Navvies to be unique and this one will certainly be different. Because the Sept/Oct issue is traditionally full of “what happened over this summer”, but this year that may be a little harder for Martin to manage. [Actually we seem to have managed rather well in the circumstances! …Ed]
As I explained in issue 325 we took the decision to cancel two weeks of Canal Camps early on in the summer due to issues with permissions. Unfortunately I have to tell you that this continued through the summer and we had to cancel a total of seven Camps due to “issues with permissions”.
Now “issues with permissions” is a ambiguous term and certainly this summer we have encountered many interpretations of it:
• Failure to get permissions off a body that, it turned out, we didn’t need to get permissions off anyway!
• Failure to get permissions that we weren’t expecting to need as we had permissions for the main job, it’s just we completed that main job much earlier than expected!
• Failure to get permissions because of a wider complicated / political situation that developed between the multiple stakeholders involved in a scheme.
Now in all these situations there are certainly lessons for us to learn (and we will). But, while we do that, there are inevitably some wider discussions to be had and I can’t think of a better place than Navvies to start them.
These wider discussions were brought to my mind last Sunday at the Northern Canals Association (NCA - a get-together of representatives of all the waterway restoration societies in the northern half of the country) which on this occasion was meeting on the Montgomery Canal. While the significance of having to cancel seven Camps was weighing on my mind I was listening to reports from the many restoration projects represented there.
Now pretty much every project I spoke to started with “…it’s been tricky because of Covid / austerity / politics / planning / legislation (delete as applicable)” but then again those NCA conversations always do. However this time there seemed to be a lot of
Rupert Smedley
Mike Palmer in action at the IWA AGM
“…mind you, we found a way round it and we made quite good progress”. Perhaps I was just being a little over sensitive but, just before the tea and biscuits came out, I found myself asking the question:
Are we in WRG being a little too demanding/fussy/inflexible? Other groups in the restoration sector seem to have found a way to keep going. Were we right to cancel seven Canal Camps?
It’s a question that has been popping into my head quite a lot over the last few days. Next weekend we have a WRG Board meeting and I intend to raise the question (and hence get some answers) then. But Martin needs this “Chairman’s Comment” tonight. So I’m going to give you my version and it will be interesting to see if it agrees with the Board’s version. I could of course just write “YES” in a very large font, but instead I’ll go for six reasons:
• Yes – we are an exemplar organisation. Our advice to the whole sector is to face up to all aspects of the work. Planning & permission are a vital part of the task and for WRG to avoid them or try and bypass them would be a terrible example to set.
• Yes – while restoration societies (often) have smaller groups of volunteers who know the sites well, we may well have a Camp with a higher number of people who have not experienced the restoration world before. (I remember a Camp I led with just myself and 16 first timers – I was certainly glad of the paperwork that week).
• Yes – for similar reasons it is often easier for the local team to change the task for that day between jobs that they all know anyway, WRG do not have that luxury.
• Yes - over the years we have all worked hard to ensure that the Canal Camps “brand” really does stand for something: things like levels of planning, quality of work, safety, work, numbers, bookings, catering, accommodation, that sort of thing.
• Yes – because the one sentence that has guided us more than any other is “The Right Tool for the Right Job”. Making sure you have everything you need (including permissions, paperwork, etc) is as much a part of the WRG way as selecting the right shovel, trowel or hammer.
That’s my thoughts anyway. By the time you read this the Board will have discussed this subject but perhaps you have thoughts – if so then Navvies is the place to air them.
Mike Palmer
PS – I am aware that there is an obvious seventh reason: because it’s the law. I’m not ignoring that – just wanted to put over my “WRG reasoning” before falling back on the obvious.
One site that lost its canal camps due to permissions delays was the Cotwold Canals’ Dock Lock. Mobile group KESCRG are seen here moving scaffolding from Newtown Lock so work can go ahead in 2025
Stephen Davis
Campreport Louth Navigation
Reporting
from a week of
lock chamber wall repair at Ticklepenny Lock on the Louth Navigation in the wilds of north east Lincolnshire
Louth Canal Camp 2024
Once upon a time, in a land far away in deepest Lincolnshire, there was a canal that led to the sea. As we learnt from the local’s talk (more about that later) there was a huge flood in 1920 which effectively was the end of the Louth Navigation. The Louth Navigation Trust (LNT) was formed to preserve what is left of the canal
Back to the present and the modernday navvies (small compact group to suit the limitations of the accommodation) led by our Illustrious leader Nigel continued on from last year’s work to preserve Ticklepenny Lock, about a mile outside of Louth.
Saturday was a lot of van faff, made much more difficult by the Railway cancelling trains. Eventually we collected all our train travellers, somewhat later than expected. We invited the locals who were going to be
…and the most important bit of the camp…
… food!Anne excelled her usual high standard…
Saturday pasta Bolognese sauce, vegetables; chocolate brownie, strawberries and cream.
Sunday slow cooked brisket, Yorkshire pudding; apple crumble and custard.
Monday chicken and leek pie; cinnamon pudding cake and ice cream.
Tuesday cottage pie; fruit salad, cakes.
Wednesday cold meats salad and homemade coleslaw; fruit sponge, yogurt and ice cream.
Thursday chicken risotto; Eton mess ice cream
Friday chicken in sauce with roast vegetables and “using up” leftovers; millionaire’s cheesecake.
Nigel and Sachin sorting out the brick and block buttress wall
Pictures by Mick Lilliman
joining us on site to see the Health & Safety video and briefing; some of them stayed for a meal. We welcomed our guests from France, as part of the Rempart project.
The accommodation is a quirky community hall with plenty of parking for Sandy’s camper van and WRG vans. LNT arranged for us to use the local leisure centre for showers which were HOT.
Sunday morning, we had the usual first morning messing around, getting everyone sorted out with Person Protection Equipment and getting started on useful work.
The local team of Steve, Roger, Phil and Pete used the boat and mud anchors to get started on a small corner of brickwork. (Yes, it was in the method statement and risk assessment.)
In the meantime, the team of Stephen, Liz and Paul made a safe access to the bywash arch and then proceeded to clean up the arch brickwork. After that they fitted the arch formwork in readiness for bricklaying.
Elsewhere our illustrious leader Nigel supervised the making of sandbags, fitting of scaffold boards for access, cleaning up the brickwork on the buttress wall. His dream team consisted of Sachin, Blanche, Sandy, Susan and Francheska.
Stephen pointing or praying to the lock gods
It was hot, so brick cleaning under the shade of the second gazebo was the order for the afternoon.
Monday found us making more progress, Paul and Mick started the brick arch, making use of cleaned bricks. After helping erect the access platform, Stephen made a start on
factfile
Louth Navigation
Length: 11 miles Locks: 8
Date closed: 1924
The Canal Camp project: Repairs to lock wall brickwork at Ticklepenny Lock including the overflow bywash outfall arch
Why? The lock is a historic structure which has suffered from decay and damage from water running through the chamber and would deteriorate further if left unrepaired .
The wider picture: The Louth Navigation was an 11-mile canal which connected Louth with the mouth of the Humber Estuary at Tetney Haven.Although mostly built as an artificial canal, it made some use of the River Lud in its upper reaches near Louth. It fell into disuse and was abandoned in the 1920s but survived as a water channel because much of it formed part of the local land drainage system. Since the 1980s the Louth Navigation Trust has been working to conserve and restore what survives of the navigation structures, as well as promoting the towpath as a walking route, and restoring the Navigation Warehouse at Canal Head in Louth as a community centre, and generally raising awareness of the Navigation.
Tetney
Humber Estuary
Tidal gates Sand and mud Tetney Lock
Alvingham Lock
Salterfen Lock
Willows Lock
Keddington Lock
Outfen Lock Louth
Canal Camp site: Ticklepenny Lock
Cleethorpes
Spurn Head
Saltfleet
Town Lock
North Sea
the big void on the lock side. By the end of the afternoon some bricks were laid. Nigel introduced Blanche and Francheska to the joys of bricklaying on the buttress wall, whilst the locals Roger, Pete, Phil and Steve continued with bricklaying from the boat and removing vegetation from the lock sides. We packed up at 5pm as it was 28⁰C even after a short rain shower.
Tuesday we made amazing progress. The access platform team got slicker, Stephen excelled at speed bricklaying in the lock wall, making really good progress, ably assisted by Sandy. Nigel and Blanche continued with the buttress wall, Blanche enjoying laying bricks and blocks. Mick and Francheska finished off the arch and Francheska found some more brickwork and pointing preparation to do.
Sachin and Paul made loads of mortar and Sachin got to use the bricksaw, producing queen closers (bricks cut in half lengthways) and odd shaped blocks for Nigel. Whilst all this was going on Liz sat in the shade cleaning bricks.
a lot more
Brick-cleaning under the gazebo: smart move, given the heat
“Things I have learnt…”
• It’s a long way to Louth, even longer towing a trailer.
• The Louth Navigation Trust locals are great, hard workers and friendly.
• My schoolboy French needs improvement to be fluent!
• My PASMA (Prefabricated Access Suppliers and Manufacturers Association) course was good preparation for erecting an access platform in a lock with running water whilst wearing waders.
• Working with Nigel and Anne as part of the leadership team was fabulous.
of the same with Mick proving that assistant leaders have a use by working the mixer ably assisted by Blanche. Stephen added more bricks and blocks to the void and completed the brickwork by the end of the day. Liz continued brick cleaning (she says she loves it!) and Francheska and Susan did more pointing. Nigel, Sachin and Paul laid bricks and blocks in the buttress wall, once Nigel worked out how to bond courses of bricks and blocks (it was in the site paperwork!). Sandy did gofering and some brick replacement in the lock wall. Mick cut some bricks and blocks as today he could start the brick-saw. A cooler day enabled lots of work to be done for an early finish ready for a talk at the Navigation Warehouse by one of the LNT members. All of us found the talk interesting, followed by drinks at the next-door pub.
Thursday Nigel led the wall team of Blanche and Sachin (speciality bricks cut to order) completing 2 curved courses of bricks and backing blocks. Liz inducted Francheska in the art of brick cleaning while Sandy laid bricks above the arch and Susan continued pointing and persuading passers-by to support the Louth Navigation Trust. Stephen and Paul pointed the wall, initially high up and working their way down. A void was found going back 400mm-plus, which got filled rapidly. Mick did the mixing and went shopping for more builder’s sand. After supper, Susan left to find her way to the Wey & Arun Canal Camp.
…and with the brickwork completed
Friday And on our last day, we did more of the same. Nigel led the star brick team of Francheska, Blanche and Sachin to add more blocks and bricks to the wall. Paul assisted the locals clearing and tidying the site and Sandy did more bricklaying and pointing on the offside wall.
Stephen donned waders and did low level pointing to a high standard. Mick mixed and then chivvied up the site and kit tidy up.
Saturday we tidied the hall in record time allowing everyone to get away early. After a bit of van faff Nigel and Mick handed over the vans and kit to Evvo and ’Arry for the next camp.
Mick Lilliman
Camp report Lichfield Canal
“Nice faces to the front, and dodgy bricks to the back” - Lichfield Week Two learns the art of building a towpath wall in heritage bricks
Lichfield Canal 2-9 August Second week at Fosseway Lane
The Lichfield Canal (one part of the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals, as they are now known), links Ogley junction at Brownhills to Huddlesford junction on the Coventry canal. The canal was abandoned in 1955, and much of it was filled in. Since 1990, the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust have been actively engaged in excavating and rebuilding sections of the canal [See our Fact File opposite].
This year’s project is at Fosseway Lane, quite close to Lichfield: a section about 200 yards in length set between a lock and a road crossing. At a glance the lock may look very derelict but on initial inspection looks fairly undamaged (and has in fact had restoration work done on it in the past). The old humpback road bridge however has been demolished to make way for a flatter wider road bridge. It is not known how much of the original bridge foundations still exist.
The Canal Trust have cleared out the canal channel (which had been used as a general tip and landfill site for many years) and built an access ramp into the canal bed. (Far too steep for the WRG vans but the diggers and dumper could navigate the slope).
The 2024 two-week camps’ task is to install a sheet piling wall along the entire north bank and to build a new brick wall on the south bank to enable a towpath to be built alongside the water under a future new bridge. The original towpath
crossed the road and is now partly built on by an extension added on to the original lock keeper’s cottage.
Our accommodation is in Pooley Country Park scout hut, Polesworth, East of Tamworth. Go down the narrow road, down the single-track lane to the closed barrier, through the car park to another locked gate, down the track and you’re there. Easy!
The Scout hut is palatial by WRG standards. Two main halls, showers and kitchen. Several of our camp team have links to the Scout association and there is a lot of Scout Hut envy present.
Sunday: As always Sunday sees a slow start to the camp, with everyone getting to know the site, the tasks, the jobs and the equipment.
Dorothy manages to lock the camper van keys inside the van (we’ve all done that). It takes a handsome young fellow-melad from the AA over an hour to get back in.
Work continues on site with the Olympics on the radio (Tennis / boxing and shotgun shooting).
After work finishes we play ‘bat and trap’ game. This is a Kent classic game where the batter has to shoot the ball into
Steel piling going in on the north (non-towpath) side of the canal
Pictures supplied by Colin Hobbs
the air and hit a target some way away. The fielders are there to stop them hitting it. Rex, Jaiden, Matt, Kate, Steve and Nigel in the blue team are victorious. “A fair and even game” announces the extremely dodgy umpire.
Roast pork and all the trimmings for dinner. Nice apple sauce.
Monday: With a mixture of experience in bricklaying, today is really all about learning new skills and terminology, and getting the first base course of brickwork laid. A lot of time is taken to ensure all the first sections are even, using a laser level on a theodolite base. Wilma makes her first mortar mix (but definitely not her last).
Louise leads the scrounging team, looking for sand as there is none left on site, 8ft sheet piling, new boots, diesel and buckets for starters. All to be found in other compounds along the canal, but never quite in the compound you were told they were supposed to be in. A real treasure hunt. There is a struggle to get the diesel.
Once we have eventually found the bowser and battery the wires are mis-marked up and the pump blows rather than sucking!
The north bank sees the continuation of putting in the sheet piling. Progress is slow as this is a skill not many have experience of. 12ft steel piling panels weigh a ton and don’t always behave themselves. Colin and Papa Smurf in the dumpers and Ducky, Steve and Nigel on the ground make a formidable team.
Sausage and bacon sandwiches for elevenses. Always a morale booster.
Back at base, there is shepherd’s pie with baked beans for tea. (Takes you back to pack holiday!)
Big games of dingbats and other puzzles are played. There is a lot of cheating going on…
There is much speculation around the level of Kate’s complicity in the unfortunate demise of Zelda the royal horse, which fell off a cliff. Kate certainly shows no remorse as she helps herself to seconds of Eton mess.
factfile Lichfield Canal
Length: 7 miles Locks: 30
Date closed: 1954
The Canal Camp project: Working on brickwork and steel piling channel walls near Fosseway Heath
Why? The brickwork wall is a towpath wall, some of which needs rebuilding on a new line, while the steel piling is needed to support sections of steep earth bank above the canal
The wider picture: The work on this section extends a section already restored including our worksite of a few years ago at Fosseway Heath and the restored Lock 18. These lengths link to the new sections of channel being built alongside the Lichfield Bypass, which in turn will connect to the restored Borrowcop section via a length which has just been given the go-ahead And from there it’s not too far to the recently completed Darnford Moors section, and to the Coventry Canal at Huddlesford Junction. So in the medium term there are prospects for opening up a significant length of canal connecting the Coventry Canal to Lichfield and beyond, as a major step towards the ultimate goal of reopening the through route to the navigable Wyrley & Essington Canal at Ogley Junction
Canal Camp site
Tuesday: We are laying a double layer of brickwork. We are using recycled imperial bricks salvaged from the canal. The heritage bricks certainly have better appearance and character, however they are a bit random in terms of flat bottoms, curved edges and right-angled ends. Nice faces to the front and dodgy bricks to the back.
Wilma is our environmental hero with her acts of compassionate bunny rescuing. The floor of a canal is not a bunny friendly place.
Sue’s birthday is celebrated with a dragon cake and dragon biscuits for elevenses. All very bright icing in the colours of the Welsh flag. Confession time: Cook broke a mug, Louise broke the toilet. Oops!
On the way back we visit Dartford Moors, the site of last year’s camp. A very different sight now. Last year it was dusty dead zone and now it is in water with grass everywhere and towpaths and benches, signage and noticeboards all in place. [See Navvies 325 page 31 for ‘then and now’ photos …Ed]
A lovely chicken curry for tea. Nice and mild, unlike the lime pickle which is eyewateringly hot.
The Scout hut backs onto the canal, and a ½ mile walk down the towpath takes you to the Bull pub, where the beer is good and the company convivial. Walking back in the dark is not quite so easy, but it does give us the chance to do a bit of stargazing.
Wednesday: Another four metres of sheet piling is installed behind where the new wall is going to go. Once in place this allows us to dig a long trench and build the shuttering for the foundations of the new wall. There is a lot of concrete being mixed. Denise, Arthur, Jaiden are the concrete heroes.
The mystery of the mangled 4ft spirit level… run over by a digger, dashed by a dumper, axed in anger? We may never know. Croissants, pastries and brioche for elevenses. Very nice.
Lunch dissolves into an in-depth discussion about what the difference is between oranges, tangerines, clementines and satsumas and mandarins and which are the best. Also, speculation as to who opened the bourbons?
Crinkle cut chips, fish fingers and
alphabetti spaghetti... always a winner. This evening’s entertainment is kayaking / paddleboarding and Canadian canoeing courtesy of the Polesworth scouts boats and the canoe club instructors.
Janice and Matt are looking very regal on their paddleboards. Jayden, Arthur and Kate, our Duke of Edinburgh’s Award volunteers, are very competent kayakers. Nigel and Rex manage to steer their Canadian canoe straight into a stop-plank notch resulting in an early bath.
Port and stilton and a good cheese board late into the evening. Jaiden turns out to be a card sharp, dealer and shuffler. Kate goes all out with the Sprite shots.
Thursday: It is noticeable that people are beginning to “Walk like a Gungun” (Star Wars reference) where you have been using muscles that don’t usually get used. Not however, Yolande, who has just arrived on her motorbike to make the team complete. Rain stops play and the camp packs up, except for the intrepid sheet piling team which gainfully fights on against the elements. As part of a conversation about the various names for mortar, Jaiden informs us that gobbo (dgobbo) means idiot in
Creating a concrete foundation for the next length of wall
Gujarati. You learn something every day. Wooden shuttering is installed at the back of the ever-growing brick wall. Concrete is laid to reinforce the wall, and then behind that sand and soil is used to backfill the gap at the back.
Baked potatoes and chicken stew. Bread and butter pudding. Grandma’s original recipe. Nice!
This evening, we are guests of the Mercia Archers based at Greesley Hall. A Tudor listed building, it is the most haunted house in Greesley. Very good instructors are most helpful. Wilma and Rex are the winners, both awarded a medal for best male and female, both scoring 144 points. Kate has her first ever pint in Swadlincote Wetherspoons, and celebrates with a pint of lemonade.
Throughout the camp Sue has been giving us a rolling scoreboard for the number of medals the UK has been winning in the Olympics. Tracey the assistant camp leader suggests getting an electronic one. A bit harsh, don’t you think?
Friday: Full steam ahead this morning, everybody is much more productive after a week’s experience. We are now laying the brick work which will be seen by boaters and pedestrians for the next 100 years. Most of the wall will be hidden under water once the new sections are put into water.
Sheet piling work is a slow and steady task. As the week has progressed the piling has become a very striking and significant feature. The galvanised metal shining in the sunlight.
A walk round the Pooley country Park after dinner takes us into the to the top of an artificial hill with a striking monument on the top. The Country Park used to be an old coal mine and the mound is an old slag heap reclaimed and planted with trees. The monument is “The Golden Leaf” which represents the light shining out of the old colliery shaft. The big wheel from the colliery is also a strong reminder of the park’s industrial past.
A mega buffet is our dinner this evening, and Kate’s recipe for Eton mess is a winner.
The locals from the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust are
very pleased with the work that has been accomplished over the past two weeks. As is often with WRG camps, we can achieve a huge amount in a short time and give the local societies a much-valued moral boost. Word on the street is that the canal trust might have plans afoot for a new project for us for next year.
It is an excellent evening with time for thank-yous…
• To Matt for his fabulous cooking, and especially his daily elevenses deliveries.
• To Lichfield Canal Society for providing the project and the materials and to complete the job.
• To the Polesworth Scout group for their fabulous Scout Hut.
• To our 3 D-of-E-ers for their good sportsmanship and putting up with the snoring orchestra at night.
• Last but not least our thanks must go to Colin, Tina and Tracey for the months of work, preparation and patience needed to put on a project like this.
Rex Exon
Laying heritage bricks of varying shapes and sizes
Camp report Lapal Canal
Evvo and his determined team spend a week building a towpath ramp, struggling to make holes, and getting a boat ride into central Brum
Lapal Canal 17-24 August
On the Lapal (Dudley No 2) Canal Camp from 17 to 24 August this year I had the good fortune to lead Jack P, John L, David S, Preston A, Martin D, Ian J, Paul H, Emma C, Oliver B and John H, of whom four were Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award participants. Peter F, a volunteer with the Lapal Canal Trust (LCT) also worked with us and Hugh H, the CEO of the trust, did lots of fetching and carrying of tools and stuff from suppliers.
There was an age difference of over 61 years between the youngest and oldest WRGies. I’ll leave the readers of this report to work out who the youngsters might have been. Of course, everyone was young at heart, as they always are on WRG camps, and amazingly hard-working.
The task – dig deep holes for posts and then fill ’em in! Well, the full description / objective was to complete the all-abilities
factfile
Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans
access ramp in Selly Oak Park, Birmingham, which we had started last year.
I was told by Hugh that the temporary steps we had made last year, connecting to the completed upper half of the ramp to allow some access from the towpath to the
John L and David S on the post hole borer
Lapal Canal
Lengthtoberestored: 5 miles Locks: none as built
To Netherton
Windmill End
To Stourbridge
Dudley No 2
Canal navigable to Hawne Basin
Gosty Hill Tunnel
‘Lapal Canal’ is a name given by canal restorers to the abandoned length of the Dudley No 2 Canal from Hawne Basin via Lapal Tunnel to Selly Oak
Dateclosed: 1917 (tunnel collapsed)
The Canal Camp project: Creating the second half of an access ramp (begun last year) connecting the towpath to a bridge in Selly Oak Park
Why? To provide public access to a length of canal that’s being restored / reconstructed from a new junction with the Worcester & Birmingham Canal into the Park, where visitor moorings will be created.And later to enable the towpath to switch to the other side of the restored canal here
The wider picture: Reopening from the Worcester & Birmingham into Selly Oak Park is the first step towards opening the two miles to the surprisingly-named California (yes!) and a new marina at the east portal of Lapal Tunnel. Ultimately Lapal Canal Trust hopes to bypass the collapsed tunnel and open the canal right through to Hawne Basin
Hawne Basin
Canal Camp site
Proposed diversion with new locks
California
Selly Oak
To Worcester
Worcester & Birmingham Canal
Lapal Tunnel (Collapsed) M5 motorway To Birmingham
bridge over the canal, had since then become much loved - so the lower slope now had to leave the mid-point landing area opposite the steps instead of replacing them.
After excavating by hand any intruding areas of the bank up from the towpath, a significant amount of which was formed of spoil from years-goneby excavations, the lower ramp’s framework was formed of two lines of the aforementioned holes into which posts were embedded and then had boards affixed. The void between the two borders was filled with compacted material (spoil and Type 1 MOT aggregate) to form the required gradient. There are handrails and other measures to stop users falling over the sides. Needless to say, on a dig, there was lots of digging, more than we expected and most by hand. The cunning plan was to bore the holes by hiring two single-person petrol-engined post-hole borers to enable us to make really efficient progress. Unfortunately, they weren’t really the right tool for the right job. One of the machines was particularly abject so we chopped it in for a heavier and more powerful two-person example. Again, not an ideal tool, which was also difficult to use safely on the bank! Neither type of borer penetrated the ground very much because it was rock hard and contained lots of rubble, small rocks and stones. They also didn’t remove the loosened material. A couple of breaker drills were borrowed from David S’s Tardis Tool Van to help break up the ground. The long heavy digging bars that hide on the floor of a WRG trailer also saw a lot of use.
Hands and spades were made before machines so we reprised the original navvies all those years ago and just got on with it, often on knees or even
The first post: Preston supports it, Emma and Jack check it
Attaching the handrails to the posts
Laying and compacting the ramp surface material
Dave ‘Evvo’ Evans
Martin Ludgate
Martin Ludgate
prostrate to be able to get the loosened material out of the increasingly deeper holes. There were a number of trials and tribulations along the way (our materials being delivered five hours late on the Monday and no delivery on the Wednesday to name two), which held up the main task but we kept busy by doing other jobs to improve the adjacent area and towpath.
Eventually, the holes were completed, posts inserted and concreted in place. Some threaded stainless steel rods were also fixed between opposing posts under the Type 1 to provide extra strength to the structure.
The longest boards I have ever seen (5,400mm) were screwed to the posts, ramp formed between them, handrails put in place and that was it: all done and dusted.
Our accommodation was around the corner from site at The Stonehouse Gang which served us very well with lots of space. Evening activities were restricted because we did not get access to showers in a local fitness centre until after 19:15, some days after 20:00, so dinner had to be taken before we could make ourselves clean and shiny again. But the accommodation offered us table tennis, pool, a shuffle-board and
loads of games and jigsaws, so we made our own entertainment when we wanted to be more active than discussing the usual camp topics around the dinner table.
Early on the Thursday evening Hugh from LCT took grubby, sweaty us on his narrowboat into central Birmingham and back from LCT’s recently created Whitehouse Wharf in Selly Oak, while we dined on fish and chips. Despite the fact that Hugh is trying to sell his boat, he let some of us have a drive – no damage done to the boat or the Worcester & Birmingham Canal! A very welcome and relaxing interlude.
Cook Ian fed us very well, as always, and assistant leader Paul was great at assisting and getting thrashed at pool and table tennis. Many thanks to both of them and also the rest of the team for their patience, enthusiasm, determination, etc without which the week wouldn’t have been so successful. On the Wednesday evening I had thought we would need an extra day to get the ramp finished but had underestimated the determination and energy of the team. All were real WRGies.
A very enjoyable and satisfying week.
David ‘Evvo’ Evans
Campreport Cromford Canal
In
which Moose, his team, and a lot of machines spend a week digging something that looks suspiciously like a canal… but actually isn’t one!
Cromford Canal Camp 20 to 27 July at Beggarlee
Disclaimer: I’m writing this report a couple of months after the camp; unfortunately noone else wanted to write it, and no notes were made, sorry…
If you look back to issue 326 of Navvies, the front cover, and inside the front cover are pictures from the camp. If we step back rather further to the Christmas / New Year Camp 2023-4, whilst sat in the Scout campsite that was our accommodation on the Buckingham Canal, one evening, as happens fairly often, we were discussing who is going on what camp in the summer, who is leading/assisting etc… and all eyes turned to our Mr Pete Fleming. I knew he was the techie person for the Cromford Canal, as he’d led the site work there on the three unofficial weekends / mini camps last year. Apart from him there was no leader as
such, and it was going to be a ‘restricted’ camp due to the technical nature of the work and equipment.
I knew also it was mainly plant work, and I had already thought that I would like to attend, mainly to keep my hand in at driving rollers and dumpers, and also because I haven’t managed to do a summer camp for several years, due to being involved in the team at the Inland Waterways Association’s Festival of Water.
Whilst we were talking, and I was thinking that I would like to book on to the camp, I asked Pete about why he was not leading; he answered very simply: if he was the techie he would have no time for overall control over the site. I could understand the problem. I simply asked if he would be happy if I led and he was my assistant leader and techie. Pete said that would work, so we talked a bit about logistics and I agreed I would take it to the WRG board at
factfile Cromford Canal
High Peak Cromford
The Canal Camp project: Finishing the job of replacing open land drainage ditches with pipe culverts, and creating a flood compensation pond
Why? To enable the new canal channel to be built above the land drains, and to provide flood water holding capacity to compensate for building the canal embankment on floodplain land, as part of the Friends of the Cromford Canal’s current Butterlee Project (see next page)
Length: 14½ miles
Locks: 14
Date closed: 1900-1944
Beggarlee
Canal Camp site
The wider picture: The Friends hope eventually to reopen the entire canal through from Langley Mill to Cromford. There are challenges including the missing Bull BridgeAqueduct (over the main road and railway) nearAmbergate, the collapsed Butterley Tunnel and the need to work sensitively in partnership with wildlife groups. However there is a restored length with trip-boat from Cromford to High Peak Junction, and work has been carried out at other sites including Sawmills and the Pinxton Arm. The Beggarlee Project will open up the southern length extending north from Langley Mill (head of the Erewash Canal and a link to the national waterways network). It will represent a major step forward towards full restoration by putting the Cromford back on the waterways map.
Pinxton
Ambergate
Sawmills
the next meeting, which I did and it was agreed that I would lead, Pete would be Assistant and Maria to cook.
This now put me in a tricky position: I have always felt that as a leader / assistant leader, you should not spend the week sitting on a machine; your role is keeping the site safe, being accessible, but of course I wanted to go on the camp to drive plant.
During a conversation with Pete, I explained my feelings about leaders and driving plant, and thankfully he agreed / believed he had the same feeling, so we agreed, that perhaps at lunchtime while all are eating, we can then grab a piece of machinery and play.
First job was to strip off and stockpile the topsoil
Closer to the date of the camp we had 12 people including Pete, Maria and myself, in total booked on which was our planned number. We had found that the hall was available on the Friday after 17:00hrs and as we were now the first camp of the summer, (one that had been planned for the week before had been cancelled /
rescheduled), so the vans and trailer were sat there and available, so it was agreed anyone who wanted could turn up on the Friday evening and would be more than welcome.
The accommodation was the Anvil Club in Ironville. I had not managed to complete
Cromford Canal: the Beggarlee Project
The Beggarlee Project will reopen the first 1.25km of the Cromford Canal northwards from Langley Mill, terminus of the Erewash Canal. This is not an easy length to restore as it was blocked in the 1980s by the construction of the newA610 Langley Mill bypass road.
Old lock
To Cromford
Site for winding hole and end of initial Beggarlee project
Original canal route blocked by A610 embankment
Old lock
New staircase locks planned
Langley Mill
Planned canal diversion using old railway siding bridge
Flood compensation pond
Route of old railway siding
Creating a new navigable culvert to carry the restored canal through the road embankment on the original route would be prohibitively expensive and difficult, but an alternative exists in the form of a bridge which was built to carry the road over a freight railway siding which served a coal mine. The mine closed not long after the road was completed, but the unused bridge still stands and can be used to carry a diverted canal. However this is not a straightforward job, for several reasons. Firstly the siding ran east-west while the canal runs north-south, so the new channel will need two very sharp bends. Secondly the bridge wasn't built to carry the weight of a waterway on its foundations, and thirdly it's at an awkward height relative to the canal. The solution to these latter two issues is to build a pair of staircase locks (replacing two single locks on the original route) to raise the canal to a level such that it can then be carried through the old railway siding bridge on an 'aqueduct' structure supported by abutments on either side of the bridge, rather than putting any of its weight on the bridge foundations. Erewash Canal to the Trent
a visit to the site or the hall but was assured it was suitable and a decent size. Strangely enough, I had led two Christmas camps on the Cromford very close to Ironville, in the distant past. What I found, as we arrived with a WRG van and trailer plus car, was that the Anvil club is in two parts: you have the social club with bar etc, and next door you have a hall, with a large sized kitchen, toilets (but no showers) and a connecting door to the bar.
Several people had already arrived and set up home for the week. Dave Smith was in his caravan. John was also in his own camper van next to Dave. Parking at the front we found to be a slight problem due to the number of local vehicles, but there is a large carpark at the rear. Slowly other people started to arrive on the Friday, Pete and Adrian had gone on site, to speak to locals from the Friends of the Cromford Canal. There was Charlotte and Paul, Nigel and Ted. It had been agreed that food for Friday was self-service, people went off to the fish and chip shop. Maria went shopping, Pete arrived at the hall after collecting the second van from WRG North West. In the evening we sat around and chatted, and planned for the following morning.
Breakfast Saturday morning was bacon and egg sandwiches, then off to site, where the work started. Maria would prepare lunch and bring that to site. Standing by the site hut, having not seen the site before, the first thing I could see straight in front of me was a partially filled-in trench that stopped at an impressive concrete culvert headwall, installed during last year’s working parties where the main job was putting in buried land drainage pipes to replace open channels, so that the new canal channel can be built across the top. But I could see that something was missing, like another concrete headwall to join to a piece of pipe that was partly buried and sticking out of the ground. Away to my right hand side was a ditch and a manhole sticking up, one of the jobs was to remove the top lid section of the
manhole and add another section to raise it up about another metre and then refit the manhole on top.
All the earth that we dug out of our trench, we were going use to infill the existing ditches that had now been replaced by buried pipes, so there was a lot of dumpering and rolling to raise the level of this area.
The main piece of work was the excavation of a large flood compensation pond, this would be about 2000 cubic metres of material to be dug out over the week but in order to access this area, all plant would need to drive over the partially filled trench. This pond, which to me just looked like a large ditch, that when the river went into flood and water levels rose, this ditch would provide flood water capacity to replace that which is lost when the canal is built. It will fill up as the floods rise, then as the levels go back down the ditch empty again.
The first task was to remove the vegetation from this area and the topsoil was then scraped off before being stockpiled under the road bridge for reuse later on landscaping the pond.
The plant we had was 21 tonne, 5 tonne and 3 tonne diggers, one 4 tonne and two 6 tonne dumpers, a 15 tonne ‘sheep’s foot’ roller and a radio-controlled ‘sheep’s foot’ roller. Later on, it was deemed that another digger was needed and that was an 8 tonne.
Work started like magic: a digger started to fill in the partial trench to raise the
Next the main excavation of the compensation pond could get under way
By the end of the week it was looking like a canal - rather oddly, given that it isn’t one!
level so plant could get across it. We needed to fit the other concrete headwall and then make good the area, and complete the filling in of the trench.
Machines once able to get across the trench started scraping off the top soil and soon the three dumpers were travelling up and down transferring the topsoil to the dump site. That pond we were digging is fairly large (around 120m long and up to 5m wide) and that meant there was a lot of topsoil.
By the end of day one on site, still more topsoil to be moved, the concrete headwall was fitted using the large excavator and Adrian driving, but we were still waiting for the section to arrive for the manhole, which we had been told was due on Monday. Pete and a team had gone to mark out and start digging the pond, but due to space etc they could only use the smaller excavators, to start with.
It had been a hard day on site, all the plant and volunteers had been working hard, poor Pete was kept busy just being the techie guy; I just made sure people kept safe, monitoring what was happening when people were moving plant etc. plus rotating people around between the different items of plant every few hours. It had been agreed that we would do this as much as possible
according to what they had on their WRG Driver Authorisation tickets. This would help to get skill levels up, and to get practice and experience on different plant.
Back at the hall, Maria had got a lovely meal for us to eat, plus the other three volunteers had arrived: John Hawkins, ‘Mk2’ and John Christmas.
Sunday just followed on from where the topsoil had been removed, we continued to dig the pond. Nigel had double booked himself and was going to be leaving the camp on Monday evening but an unexpected phone call meant he left at lunch time today.
From then on, basically all the days seemed to be much the same: once all the topsoil had been removed everything was geared to the main effort to move earth from the pond.
Pete Fleming
As the work cracked on, the pile of topsoil just got bigger and bigger – we had to use the large excavator to push the pile higher so more could be stacked.
The earth being dug out of the soon-tobe pond was being spread on the land where the manhole is (and where the canal will be), once the ditch had been filled in.
By now the small excavator was at the bottom of the pond, grading the depth: the centre section was flat and the sides were angled up to what would be the land profile. The variation in the profile of the land meant that the right side started slightly longer than on the left, but as the pond progressed, it would become much longer. Poor Ted had the honour of making the profile of the pond as it got longer. In fact I think Ted had been glued into the excavator’s seat, as he only did this role all week.
The pile of dirt was being spread out as it came out of the pond, and at some point during the week we brought in the large sheep's foot roller, and Mk2 showed us how to use this impressive piece of kit to roll the earth. We had it trundling around, plus an excavator to spread out the dirt, and the three dumpers, either arriving with topsoil for under the bridge or dirt to be levelled out. Several times it was joked that we could do with traffic lights to control the machines.
Of the three dumpers, the 6 tonne machines were nice semi-automatics, but the 4 tonner was older with a manual gearbox and had a few quirks, but it still did the job.
At some point Maria the cook, who used to have dumpers on her ticket a long time ago but due to changing of the system systems, her ticket was never upgraded; at
This is where the actual canal will go, under the old railway bridge
the time she never worried, but on this camp having only 11 people (after Nigel had left), she managed to get on site and Mk2 retrained her on dumpers, so after she’d brought lunch to site, Maria would also be driving dumpers, she seemed to be very comfortable on the 4 tonner - perhaps because she drives a Land Rover normally!
Mk2 got the radio-controlled roller working: this was used close up to the concrete with the manhole, we did not want the larger roller to damage the pipework underground.
Ah, yes, the concrete extension piece for the manhole… on Monday we told it would be Tuesday, then Wednesday, I think it was Thursday as we arrived on site there was this lorry, with a piece of concrete on the flat bed.
We quickly got him on site with us, while we were getting the machines on site, Pete looked at the piece of concrete, looked at the plans etc, and said it was wrong: it did not meet the spec requested. A few phone calls later, the lorry went off and we waited for a replacement.
When the replacement arrived on Friday morning, Pete checked it against the spec, it was correct, so using the big excavator with Adrian driving, the cap and lid was removed, new section added and the cap was put back on.
By Friday evening we had not finished the pond, we were short by about 20m, mainly due there being far more topsoil than we had envisaged and the constrained nature of the working area at the far end of the pond, plus having to fit the headwall.
But a couple of the camp volunteered to go on site Saturday and continue whilst the plant was available. Meanwhile the rest of us packed up and got ready to hand over the kit and trundle home.
During the week, I believe Charlotte, both Johns, David, Paul, Mk2 and a couple of locals, had all had a go at driving excavators, dumpers and roller. Maria had driven the 4 tonne and 6 tonne dumpers.
Did Pete and I get to drive? Yes we did, a couple of mornings Pete and Adrian got on site early, for prep work, using excavators, and I got to drive the roller, and the three dumpers over the course of the week.
It seems that the section we had not started to dig for the pond is most likely the site of the old lock (which is being bypassed by the restored canal – see diagram on previous pages): when the first headwall was fitted, they found a lot of old brick work / rubble, which was thought to be a wall. It was agreed towards the end of the week, it definitely was the lock.
I must thank Pete for being so patient with me: as people who know me will know, I am not technical. But with Pete’s help, I learnt a lot about the surveying and checking depth etc, so huge thanks Pete.
I must also thank my wife Maria, for all the lovely food, Nigel you missed out on Maria’s Paprika Scrumpy stew. It was very well received, I believe a picture or two might have been sent to you.
I must thank all the volunteers, it was a pleasure to lead the camp, huge thank you to you all.
Dave ‘Moose’ Hearnden
Pete Fleming
navvies diary
CanalCampscost£80orasstated.BookingforWRGCampswithnumber(egCamp AsheridgeRoad,CheshamHP52PX.Tel:01494783453,enquiries@wrg.org.uk.Diary
Oct19-26 WRG CC2024-19 CoombeswoodCanal.Leaders:NigelLee/Dave‘Evvo’Evans,cook:AnneLilliman
Oct19-20 MBBCS Manchester,Bolton&BuryCanal:NobEndLocks
Oct19-20 wrgBITM CotswoldCanals:WeymoorBridge
Oct26-Nov2 WRG Forestry WRGForestryCampontheWey&ArunCanal
Nov1-14 WAT WendoverArm:provisionaldates
Nov2-3 KESCRG JointdigwithLondonWRGontheWey&ArunCanal
Nov2-3
London WRG jointdigwithKESCRGontheWey&ArunCanal
Nov16-17 MBBCS Manchester,Bolton&BuryCanal:NobEndLocks
Nov16-17 wrgBITM Tobearranged
Nov23-24 wrgNW UttoxeterCanal:ScrubbashingaroundBridge70
Dec7-8 KESCRG Wey&ArunCanal:ChristmasworkingpartywithLondonWRGandWRGForestry
Dec7-8
London WRG Wey&ArunCanal:ChristmasworkingpartywithKESCRGandWRGForestry
Dec7-8 WRG Forestry Wey&ArunCanal:ChristmasworkingpartywithKESCRGandLondonWRG
Dec6-19 WAT WendoverArm:provisionaldates
Dec14-15 wrgBITM Tobearranged
Dec21-22 MBBCS Manchester,Bolton&BuryCanal:NobEndLocks
Dec26-Jan1
Jan11-12
WRG CC2024-20 Christmas/NewYearCanalCamp:BuckinghamCanal.Leaders:Dave‘Moose’Hearndenand
London WRG Tobearranged,possiblyChelmer&BlackwaterNavigation
Jan25-26 KESCRG Tobearranged
Feb22-23 London WRG Shrewsbury&NewportCanals
Mar1-2 KESCRG Tobearranged
Mar15-16
London WRG SupportingtheBCNCleanup-datetobeconfirmed
Mar15-16 WRG/IWA/BCNS BCNCleanup-datetobeconfirmed.Moreinformationincludingbookingdetailsinnextissue
Apr5-6 KESCRG Tobearranged
Apr5-6
London WRG PossiblejointdigwithKESCRG,venuetobearranged
May3-5 IWA/WRG SupportcampforiWACanalwayCavalcadefestivalatLittleVenice,London-detailsinnext
May10-11 KESCRG Tobearranged
May17-18
London WRG Tobearranged,possiblyCotswoldCanals
Jun7-8 KESCRG Tobearranged
Jun14-15
London WRG UttoxeterCanal:balsambashingweekend
Jul5-6 KESCRG Tobearranged
Sep6-7
Oct4-5
London WRG Tobearranged
London WRG Shrewsbury&NewportCanals
WRGandmobilegroups
CC2024-19)shouldgoto:WRGCanalCamps,Unit16B,FirstFloor,ChilternCourt, DiarycontributionstoDaveWedd,Tel07816175454mdave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Sam Kennion 07843-394161 samklancs@yahoo.com
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
Ken Palfrey volunteer@wendovercanal.org.uk
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Sam Kennion 07843-394161 samklancs@yahoo.com
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
Malcolm Bridge nw@wrg.org.uk
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Ken Palfrey volunteer@wendovercanal.org.uk
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
Sam Kennion 07843-394161 samklancs@yahoo.com andNigelLee,cook:MariaHearnden
01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.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
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk issue
Ed Walker
01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk issue
Ed Walker
Tim Lewis
07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Tim Lewis
Ed Walker
Tim Lewis
07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Campreport Cotswold Canals
Week one of putting a stream culvert under the canal at Weymoor and reinstating the channel above it - come hell or high water…
CotswoldCanalCamp17-24August Week 1 at Weymoor
“Is anybody qualified as a scuba diver?”
Normally the introductions and safety talk might include such questions as “How long have you been keeping up the ridiculous practice of spending your holiday in Kempsford?”, “Does he really snore as badly as I’ve been told, I forgot my earplugs”, “Which pub is nearest / cheapest / most welcoming?” or “Are you a first aider?”
I’m sure all of those got asked as well, but I suspect nobody checked on the underwater operational abilities of any of our cohort on the Saturday night. Oh, how they should have…
Of course, this is somewhat hearsay, because in my multi-hatted role for the week I was off sampling the delights of Tesco in Cirencester and so missed the introductions. At whatever late hour I eventually served dinner that evening, I thus got everybody to introduce themselves (and their dietary requirements) as they came up for dinner –after which I promptly forgot everybody’s name but could tell you which was gluten free. But let’s backtrack, and perhaps briefly break with tradition and explain what we were (supposed to be) doing on the first of two weeks at Weymoor Bridge.
Towards the eastern end of the Cotswold Canals, Weymoor Bridge has been a regular site for WRG over the last decade or so, as the bridge has been entirely
factfile Cotswold Canals
Length: 36 miles Locks: 56 Dateclosed: 1927-1946
TheCanalCampproject:InstallingaculverttocarryastreamunderthecanalalongsideWeymoorBridge
Why? To replace the open ditch cutting across the canal bed which has been carrying this stream, thereby enabling this length of canal channel to be reinstated and the canal re-watered
The wider picture:Although most of the restoration effort on the canal in recent years has been concentrated on getting the western Phase 1a and 1b sections (both supported by major Lottery grants) open and connected to the network, the Cotswold Canals Trust will work on other sites when the opportunity arises. One such site is Weymoor Bridge, which was reinstated several years ago thanks to a legacy specifically for this purpose. Other work carried out nearby over the years has included lock restorations and a new bridge in the Cerney area, meaning that a significant length of restored canal could be put together here in the medium term. Ultimately the aim is for it to form part of the restored through route.
Phase3BrimscombetoWaterPark:Some restorationcompletedmainlyaroundCerney
BrimscombePortlength)
‘Cotswold Canals’ is a name given by canal restorers to the through route comprising the Stroudwater Navigation from Saul Junction to Stroud and the Thames & Severn Canal from Stroud to Inglesham. It has been subdivided into restoration phases as shown here
Phase2WaterParktoInglesham: Someworkcompletedaround Eisey.IngleshamLockrestored
Canal Camp site
reconstructed. Alongside the bridge and crossing the line of the canal in an open channel at a little below canal bed level, there is a small stream (technically a land drain), and the main purpose of the overall project is to put this stream into a couple of pipes underneath the canal, and then build a reinforced concrete canal channel over the top.
Prior to the camps, a combination of KESCRG, a small group visiting from the (cancelled) John Robinson Lock camps and locals from the Cotswold Canals Trust had prepared the site by excavating the area required and diverting the stream out of the way – or at least almost out of the way!
Having set out the stream diversion to give us just enough room to work, John Allan (our local) decided that it would probably be wise to move the whole structure over by around 450mm. The decision was definitely the correct one, but it did create some challenges with the stream later on!
The target for week 1 was to install the pipes and concrete the canal channel base, ready for week 2 to concrete the canal walls. This was a big target, but one we thought doable with a fair wind and calm seas.
With the stream diverted and the old course filled in before we arrived, you might be wondering why the PPE could have usefully included snorkels? In an entirelyforeseeable-yet-entirely-unforeseen twist of fate, the canal in this area is constructed largely on gravel beds. In the middle of the Cotswolds Water Park, with all those lakes? I know, surprising, right…
This meant that the groundwater was an eternal struggle –with the pump working we could reasonably pump it out faster than it flowed back in, but having spent quite a lot of time working in the excavation, I can tell you that you very quickly realise when the pump has stopped working. Unfortunately, that was a relatively common occurrence and it was only really
towards the end of the week that we got a handle on how to keep it going properly.
To assuage any fears in advance – we didn’t have any drownings. But with that scene-setting, what actually happened?
Sunday
‘RAF Martin’ Thompson had scheduled an impressive list of tasks for the day. One group started to remove loose earth from the southern (towpath) bank to create a safe working space for the base and wall construction, whilst on the northern side others took it in turn to break out some of the old brick wall. Not all the wall was actually old, as Alan Lines had done an excellent job of ‘tidying’ the end of the wall on the KESCRG weekend, but unfortunately it was then later decided to cut the whole wall back to simplify the concrete wall construction. Sorry Alan!
Much of the earth was barrowed away, but ‘Teacher Chris’ Blaxland and RAF Martin played around with the diggers to start excavating the channel for the pipes, with Aiden starting his marathon stint on the dumper to cart material away. The tip site was only about 20 metres from the excavators, but the route was ‘circuitous’, backing out of the site, over the bridge, down the private road, into the field, across the field and back into the site.
Enough weight to stop the pipes floating away? We shall see…
Pictures by Chris Colborne
Various tidying was done and preparing for the pipe installation by cleaning and starting to cut concrete blocks that would form the headwalls.
Dinner: roast pork, Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese & carrots.
Dessert: cheesecake. Lateness of dessert: on time.
Evening entertainment: None, everybody too tired. The tradition of card games deciding the shower order for the following day began.
…no, but second time lucky with rather more weight on them
Monday
Water had obviously re-filled the hole, so it was pumped out again. Then much material was dug out again, as it had washed into the hole overnight.
Chris Colborne took a team to the Cotswold Canals Trust depot to carry out an audit of the steel reinforcement that was needed for the base. This had all been ordered and delivered in 2023, so we wanted to check everything was there and get it sorted into batches to bring to site when needed. Chris describes the task:
“I had a detailed set of lists of precisely what should be there, and instructions to count it all and divide it into four separate kits for different phases of the concrete construction (actually three kits, then all the rest). There were around 50 different types from small L shapes to curious angled bits of all sizes, to 8.4m long straight pieces in 12mm and 16mm thickness. Must have been over 1000 pieces in all, many of them wired in huge trusses and laid on top of each other. Some individual lengths took 3 people to lift and the whole lot took up a lot of space and we had to identify sometimes very subtle differences from the descriptions and count them all. This took a long time! We also
discovered one item was bent completely wrong - it's a set of 17 bars about 5m long, which go across the pipes with a double joggle each side to drop down to the bottom of the slab. Instead of two short joggles with a long bit between them, they had two long joggles with a short bit between them! All four corners were in the wrong places.”
On site, much pumping and digging and generally starting to appreciate the scale of the task occurred. The wall removal was completed and the remaining concrete blocks were cut.
Dinner: Carbonara & garlic bread.
Dessert: Unknown. Chris C (who wrote the notes I’m working from here) seems to have not recorded it. I won’t take it personally. It was probably very late anyway. I also think it might have been fruit salad and thus eminently forgettable.
Evening entertainment: See Sunday.
Tuesday
The hole was full of water, and more muck. Monday was repeated. The reinforcement crew managed to rebend the bars that were wrong, and the rest of the steel started to be transported to site. Various other deliveries arrived – generally together and just when we wanted to have
brew / lunch. We finally managed to get the north end of the pipe trench deep enough to lay the footings for the headwall, particularly once we put some plywood in as a rough box – not to provide formwork for the footings (which we had always envisaged as trench fill), but to stop the trench falling in on us. Even so, the water was piping underneath and bringing silt into the hole as fast as we were excavating. Concreting eventually happened, though, and the final result wasn’t too bad!
Dinner: Curry, rice, naan bread & poppadoms.
Dessert: Eton Mess. Lateness of dessert: on time, thanks to the sterling efforts of pump maestro Hugo, who proved his deft touch with the troublesome pump was matched by his dexterity with a whisk.
Evening entertainment: See Sunday. There was some muttering of a pub ‘hop’ on Wednesday. Apparently it isn’t called a ‘crawl’ anymore, because that implies drunkenness.
Wednesday
We guessed the hole might be full of water –so the two Chrises went to site early to get the pump running and the site drained. Once everybody else arrived, Chris C worked on block laying at the north end, whilst Teacher Chris worked on getting the southern footings in. Chris C moaned that his mortar mix was too dry – the only thing that ever was too dry in the whole week!
The fitter came to fix the WRG digger, as we’d managed to damage a hose earlier in the week. It turned out to be multiple hoses and he was kept busy for some time. With the digger out of action and access getting more awkward, a large group set to with every spade and shovel in the kit and started excavating east of the stream diversion.
With the pipe trench finally dug, work started to spread the pipe bedding. This involved much barrowing and so John Allan was tasked with retrieving more barrows from the depot – it is surprisingly difficult for barrows to have soil, gravel and mortar in them simultaneously if you (a) want them in different places and (b) want them to remain separated.
The CCT volunteers co-ordinated joining the large pipe sections together and installing long ratchet straps through them to
hold them together during moving and installing.
Finally, at the end of the day, the pipes were moved into position. To get the second pipe in we had to pull the pump out, so the pipe very quickly started to float. Pallets were placed across both pipes and loaded with many, many, sandbags to hold them down.
Dinner: Lasagne, more garlic bread and salad.
Dessert: Strudel with custard and ice cream. Lateness of dessert: very. Evening entertainment: See Sunday. The pub hop was postponed.
Thursday
Lots to be done today (far too much) as in theory we were still expecting to pour the concrete base on Friday. However, that pesky water had done its thing and so the site was flooded once again.
Unfortunately the main thing occupying the hole was water, and not pipes… The pipes installed on Wednesday had floated, tipping the sandbags into the hole. The pipes were re-positioned but nothing more could be done until the water was pumped away. This was the day the pump finally broke, so CCT John had to go and get a new one.
At least this finally made everybody realise the inevitable, that week 1 wasn’t going to be concreting. This was a relief for everybody, as there was still a lot of concrete blinding, reinforcement and formwork to get ready for the pour. Obviously this would have a knock-on effect on week 2, so I spent some time talking to Ricey and Pete Fleming about what it would do their work schedule, and agreed to stay on a couple more days to help with the base steelwork, as I was pretty much the only person who understood that.
With the pumps re-positioned, they were weighted down again – this time with more sandbags, several half-dumpy bags of pipe bedding and then with loads of spare steel in the pipes themselves. Around a tonne of steel was put into the pipes and several tonnes of gravel and sandbags on top – we really didn’t want them moving again! Our aeronautical engineer Duke of Edinburgh’s Award student John did some swift calculations and promptly informed us that we didn’t have enough weight – we needed 56 tonnes to resist the buoyancy! It improved when he realised the pipe was
700mm in diameter, not 700cm.
Otherwise, more digging and blinding took place.
Dinner: Cottage Pie with vegetables (I think, Chris C’s notes are deficient here). But I definitely did that on one day… Dessert: Chris C says Trifle. I think it was pineapple-upsidedown cake, with trifle on Friday. Lateness of dessert: very – it was made after an already late dinner!
Evening entertainment: Pub Hop – yes, it finally happened!
Friday
The pipes were still in place!
The day was predominantly spent backfilling the pipes and preparing the blinding concrete for the base slab. Pete Fleming arrived and brought some much needed energy (and technical skills) to the week. We were finally ready to start tying the reinforcing steel – but we were out of time and it was up to Week 2.
Dinner/dessert/eveningentertainment: picnic and boat trip from St John’s Lock on the Thames. I was in the second group, I’ll let Chris describe dinner:
“We took delivery of all the food for the riverside picnic - with stern warnings only to eat our half of it. We set out heaps of dishes on a picnic table by the lock – chicken fried in three different ways, pesto pasta, breadsticks and dips, sausage rolls, tortilla chips, salad, potato salad, pizza slices and so-on. We dived in with delight. By the time the boat returned it was sunset; it went down through the lock with the passengers aboard before dropping them off and departing. The second group set about devouring their half of the picnic in darkness, while all the youths crossed the bridge to The Trout Inn. I stayed with the oldies for a bit. They weren’t even half as enthusiastic
eaters as the young had been, so we could have been less sparing! It was properly dark by then. We joined the others at the pub before all heading ‘home’ for the final time.”
Saturday
Packing up happened. Aiden read us his ‘Ballad of Weymoor Bridge’. Hopefully that has also made it into Navvies. [I’ve saved it for next time …Ed] As always, a big thanks to everyone on the camp for a very enjoyable week. It may have been damp, but the group was excellent and mucked in through all of the challenges. Whilst not in the order they came up for dinner on that first night, thanks to our D of E’ers Nick, Hannah, Joe, Jon, Joel (GF/LF), Nathan & Hugo, to budding engineer Lewis, to the other new and old hands alike Ian, Aiden, Arry, Colin and Michael, to Teacher Chris and Pete Fleming for their sterling effort as MUPs for respective parts of the week, to RAF Martin & Chris Colborne for leading and to John Allan for a mammoth shift as the local.
If I ever say I’ll do so again, please remind me not to combine being the cook and chief engineer… That way, dessert might be on time, and I might get some sleep.
The week can best be summarised by comparing the list RAF Martin had of ‘day 1 tasks’ with the list we eventually completed. They aren’t that far off the same. Only the list of levels written on Lewis’s arm was longer.
George Rogers plus contributions from Chris Colborne
Team photo on top of Weymoor Bridge
Campreport Cotswold Canals
The second week at Weymoor: Ricey’s team have until noon on Wednesday to get everything ready for the canal base concrete pour…
CotswoldCanalCamp24-31August Week 2 at Weymoor Bridge
One of the nice things about canal camps is you often find yourself working on long-term projects, where you’re there to do a week’s worth of work, with no great pressure to reach a certain milestone by a certain time. It’s about enjoying the journey – on site for 9am, pack up by 5pm, be happy with the progress we’ve made in six days. I probably said something reassuring like this to the volunteers in my introductory talk! Unfortunately, on this camp someone booked a concrete pour for noon on Wednesday, which put the pressure on a bit…
Rewinding a little, I’d planned to arrive for Friday of week one led by ‘RAF Martin’ Thompson, ‘Teacher Chris’ Blaxland and George Rogers, to see the slab concrete pour, but that got rescheduled to the middle of week two after the culvert floated away [see camp report on preceding pages]. Most of my planning was on how to assemble formwork for the channel walls on top of that slab, so I was relieved that George was able to stay for a few extra days to help get the tricky channel base slab reinforcement right.
Each camp I ask volunteers to help with this report by writing diary entries. I’ll point these out as we go…
Saturday
On Saturday it became clear that tentative plans for volunteers staying over to continue Friday’s work on site weren’t going to happen. The weather could be described as ‘mixed’, alternating between sunshine to tempt you outside, and some very heavy rain to make you wish you’d stayed in. Hopefully this was not to continue through the week!
Volunteers arrived in turn, subject to the joys of
bank holiday Cotswolds traffic, with some arriving wetter than others. A certain amount of faff occurred getting everyone to the right platform of the right station at the right time to be collected but we got there in the end, didn’t we Filippo? I think basically RAF spent most of the day driving to and from Kemble station. The weather held off long enough for everyone to take a trip to look at the site, which was at this point just a big pool of water with just some sandbag islands hinting that there was something underneath.
The usual health and safety video was livened up by the projector breaking just as it started. Thankfully David was able to lend us his TV, so we still got to appreciate that world-class acting once more, while we ate our tasty desserts.
Sunday
Diary entry: “mixed concrete” Brew kit item forgotten: cake :-(
The day began with a van going early with a small group to get pumps set up and the site draining so that any work could be done, furnished by our cook Lou with breakfast in a bun, a pattern we’d continue through the week. Then at a more civilised hour the rest of the group would go in the other van, and finally the first van come back to pick up the
Constructing shuttering ready for the concrete pour
Pictures by Ricey
Assembling the reinforcing
rest. This involved a certain amount of arithmetic and communication to ensure everyone had actually got in a van.
The main work on Sunday was finishing the work from Friday to dig out the rest of the space for the slab and add a blinding layer of concrete. This was specified as a “lean mix” as it only needed to be strong enough to contain the structural concrete during the pour. We added less and less water to it too, as there was no shortage of groundwater where we were laying the concrete. Given the delay to the concrete pour, we also took the opportunity to fill in the space between the existing invert (the inverted brick arch which forms the canal bed under the bridge) and the new slab, to save some time later and make the site easier to navigate. With two mixers going full tilt and everyone pitching in we were able to get all the digging done and the blinding in place and tamped down and off site by 6.30pm, a bit later than planned.
We were also able to start some carpentry. CCT volunteers had made up wooden shuttering, which needed some bits chopping out to fit around the culvert ends. Some volunteers also got an introduction to placing and tying rebar (reinforcing bar for the concrete). How new and novel this seemed at the time! By the end of the day the bars for south wall base were starting to come together.
The day concluded with a promise of easier days ahead now the concreting was done, and a hilarious quiz kindly prepared by Sandra.
Monday
Diary entry: “built a centipede and stuck its legs in mushrooms”
Brew kit item forgotten: crisps.
The rest of the group got their introduction to rebar tying as they constructed the reinforcing for the nearly 6 metre long “toe” for the edge of the channel slab, to defend it against water running underneath. This was put together in the site compound threaded around some scaffolding poles. With P bars all the way along, and plastic caps to prevent injury from the ends of the bars, it did bear more than a passing resemblance to a big centipede!
Meanwhile on the site proper, the north wall base started to go in, and the second layer of bars for the south wall base. The south wall stop end needed more digging out, which would have been easy had the stream diversion been further away, happily Dave found a way to “move the stream” while not flooding the site in the process. There were some tricky angled bars to go over the culvert which also meant moving two pallets of sandbags off the top of it. Fingers crossed the culvert won’t float away (again) when the site floods overnight…
With there being less space to work on the site today, our Duke of Edinburgh’s Award volunteers Connor and Bee were able to take time out to get some excavator experience, which from all the grinning I think was much enjoyed. The main priority for Monday was to put George in a hole at the end of the north wall until he’d worked out where all the rebar should go, which thankfully he was able to get done, with Pete’s help. This time we were off site by 7pm and George was allowed to go home.
The day concluded with a discussion of “OK well the day was even longer, but it was at least easier, wasn’t it?” Someone definitely agreed it was easier, honest.
Tuesday
Brew kit item forgotten: squash.
With one day to go until the concrete pour, Tuesday was a blur of moving and tying rebar, and a concerted effort by everyone to get us ready in time. The “caterpillar” took a walk across the site into position, and the rest of the bars went in for the wall bases, which have two layers of verticals sticking out for the rest of the wall to be tied to. The slab pour included a kicker forming the base of the walls, which required “hangman” shuttering going through the bars to form the inner side of the kicker. With CCT volunteers on site getting the shuttering in place, it was a busy site.
Finally, we got the mesh to form the lower layer of slab reinforcement on and started to get the bars for the top layer on top, ready to place and tie tomorrow. All done by 7.30pm, which was getting on for a 12-hour day for the early van crew. Fingers crossed the shuttering will be OK underwater, as we couldn’t leave a pump going overnight, and didn’t have time to put it all in on Wednesday morning…
The day concluded with not a lot because we were all knackered, almost too tired to finish the dessert, but Peter rose to the challenge.
Wednesday
Diary entry: “concrete” and “went to Daneway, saw tunnel”
Today was a day of highlights. The morning was all hands to the rebar tying, to get around 100 bars in place and tied for the top layer of the slab, sustained by some epic coffee and walnut cake. We were still tying rebar at 1pm when the pour eventually started but we got it done. Our volunteers with wellies got to work raking and poking and over the next 3½ hours, three trucks of concrete were poured. We were off site at a sensible time for once, heading back via the Daneway pub for a dirty pint (or two) and a walk to see the canal tunnel entrance. The drive was enhanced by something called “Em Nav” which seems to involve travelling by the narrowest roads possible.
The concrete was perhaps not the most exciting thing to arrive on Wednesday as we also got a new Portaloo. We’d been repeatedly let down by the welfare unit hire company, and its loo was in a bad way, so we got one from another supplier. “Delightful” said Rachel, on testing it out.
The day concluded with our DofE volunteers getting another new experience, this time of pineapple upside down cake. We got the figures, the pour was
With everything in place, the first of three and a half truckloads of concrete arrives
around 20 cubic metres, or 50 tonnes. Or just under 1% of an Olympic swimming pool, though that doesn’t sound so impressive. [Try “20% of a typical narrow-beam canal lock” …Ed]
Thursday
After a lie in, I welcomed the volunteers to DAY ONE of our camp (as originally planned), which I think they took in good humour. Everyone made their fish and chip shop orders on the whiteboard, which would have worked a lot better if I’d taken a photo of it before I went to site so that I could place the order.
Work on site was to start the channel walls – striking the shuttering from Wednesday’s pour, cleaning off the top of the kickers, starting to tie on U bars for the wall uprights and long bars along the inside of the walls, with around 70 bars required per wall. One tricky part was getting the bars to the right height using a laser level and string, though Darren also made some innovative use of a spirit level to work around a bend in the wall. At the end of the day all the U bars were in, and we finished at a sensible time, hurray!
The day concluded with a walk to the local pub the George, and Lou conducting a survey about, as I recall, possets and syllabubs.
Friday
Brew kit item forgotten: to shut the van door after loading it into the van.
Our final day on site involved getting the formwork to site, which was substantial stuff, with lots of 43 kg panels, and to complete the reinforcement for the walls, so that the formwork could start to go on. Bob and his team patiently took on the task of straightening the north wall, as with none of the U bars being regular angles, it was hard to keep the reinforcement clear of the outside edge of the concrete.
We had another challenge getting the shuttering on the stop ends of the walls with the starter bars sticking through for the rest of the walls to be added next year. The bars form corners immediately before the stop end, making them tricky to assemble. Whether it’s better to tie the bars then drill and push on the panel where the bars end up, or to thread them through the panel
where they’re supposed to go, then try to push them into the wall, around a corner, the jury is out, I think.
Anyway, with everything unloaded, the reinforcement all but done, the site tidied for the next group, and the kit checked and packed, it was back to the hall to get cleaned up and ready for a boat trip down the Thames, a chip supper from Monica’s Plaice, and a pleasant evening in the Trout Inn. With Emma arriving to help on Saturday it was a mini Canalway Cavalcade reunion, with five of the sites team from the Little Venice festival on one canal camp, which was nice.
Saturday (another one)
Brew kit item forgotten: RAF’s lunch :-(
While most of us said our goodbyes, a good few volunteers were able to stay on for another day. Joined by Ed and Emma we were able to get the formwork on for the south wall, which was very satisfying for me having spent so long reading about it before the camp! We also found a new use for the cable ties in the flight case – they’re handy for temporarily reattaching soles to boots, it turns out.
Thanks so much to everyone that came together to make this camp work before, during and after, particularly to John Allen from CCT, and to George and Pete for going above and beyond in their efforts to get this done. Also, to WRG BITM, KESCRG and London WRG for their work this year before and after the camp. I look forward to finishing the walls next year, now the difficult bit is done.
That was the difficult bit, wasn’t it?
Stephen ‘Ricey’ Rice
Assembling reinforcing for the side walls
dig report Weymoor finale
After two camps. a joint weekend working party by London WRG and KESCRG gets the Weymoor project ready for the final concrete pour
Joint KESCRG/London dig Weymoor bridge, Cotswold Canals
Sometimes I’m astonished by how well our volunteers pull together to achieve real miracles and this weekend was a great example of that.
Our original plan was to have a ‘tidying up’ weekend dig following a series of camps creating a stream culvert under the canal and reinstating the canal channel above it in concrete at Weymoor bridge [reported on the preceding pages]. Although the campers had worked hard throughout, various circumstances meant that they had not managed to complete all the work as planned. This put pressure on our weekend dig to complete the preparation for a concrete pour to cast the side walls, as well as other bits and bobs of outstanding work.
We started talking about the possibility of a 4-day dig but this was quickly changed to 3 when we refined the work. The main focus was getting ready for the concrete to arrive early Monday morning and a good number of people volunteered to stay the extra day. This was always intended as a joint dig between KESCRG and London, and combining forces like this meant we had the technical skills we needed as well as the right number of people to stay the extra day.
Volunteers who work as civil engineers in their ‘day job’ swung into action and used their skills and experience to put together the shuttering for the pour. This was a highly technical dig and we were fortunate to have the likes of Emma and Pete to manage the work and the technicalities of screwing together the hired shuttering. We were also very lucky that David Smith generously lent us
his pumps despite being too ill to work on site, even coming to drop them off on the Friday evening. Those of us without specific knowledge managed to work brooms as required.
We battled the additional challenge of high water levels on site, which meant water needed to be swept and pumped off site at the start of each day. We were lucky that the heavy rainfall came overnight and we enjoyed good daytime working conditions including some sun.
We enjoyed staying at Kempsford village hall. This used to be a regular WRG haunt before the pandemic, and the hall has since had some upgrade work done. The oven is still a disaster but there is now a shower on-site. If you stay at this accommodation, a catering box jammed up against the oven door will help keep it shut.
I wasn’t there for the concrete pour on the Monday but I understand it went very smoothly with minimal grout loss on some corners. I was at home making about 3 pints of sloe gin with all the berries I picked on the Sunday. Remind me in a few years time to bring the sloe gin to a Christmas dig.
Sophie Smith
Assembling the shuttering ready for casting the channel sides
Martin Ludgate
Progress special
In our first report from the Somersetshire Canal Canal for some time, we
Somersetshire Coal Canal Progress at Terminus Bridge
The Somersetshire Coal Canal Society’s (SCCS) main goal is to restore the full 10.5 mile stretch of the northern branch of the Coal Canal from Timsbury to Bath. Most of the work is being carried out by our fantastic volunteers, most of which have day jobs too! It can feel and look like we are making slow progress, but every now and again we make a big step forward…
The northern branch terminated at two wharves in Paulton and Timsbury Basins. The towpath along the south side of the canal gave access to Paulton Basin, whilst a second towpath along the north side ran to Timsbury Basin. To reach the northern towpath, a bridge, ‘Terminus Bridge', was constructed at the entrance to the basins. This bridge was demolished many years ago, but the bridge abutments survived, just about!
When we first dug out this part of the
by SCCS
The remains of Terminus Bridge
Somersetshire Coal Canal
Length: 10½ miles (plus 7 miles Radstock line)
Locks: 23 Closed: 1904
The Somersetshire Coal Canal (SCC) opened for business in 1805 with the purpose of transporting coal from the pits of the Somerset Coalfield to a junction with the Kennet andAvon Canal at Dundas Wharf, near Bath. It was surveyed by John Rennie, who was also responsible for the K &A, assisted by William Smith, the ‘Father of English Geology’. It was a highly profitable venture for many years until competition from the railways made it unprofitable. It eventually closed in 1898.
The canal played a key part in local history and the coalfields. The price of Somerset coal in Bath was higher than coal from Wales and other areas due to the poor state of the roads. Transportation costs were higher due to packhorses or horse-drawn carts carrying limited amounts of coal. Other mine owners across the country were using canals to transport their coal. The canal was authorised by anAct of Parliament entitled "AnAct for making and maintaining a navigable Canal, with certain Railways and Stone Roads, from several Collieries in the county of Somerset, to communicate with the intended Kennet andAvon Canal, in the parish of Bradford, in the county of Wilts" of 1794.
At its height, the canal served up to 30 pits in the local area – with a southern branch linking with the pits around Radstock, and a northern branch (soon converted to a tramway - an early horsedrawn railway) linking with the pits around Timsbury and Paulton. Some 14 collieries at Timsbury and Paulton were connected to their respective basins in the meadow terminus by tramways; this required the construction of three tramway bridges over the Cam brook.Afurther bridge at Upper Radford was required over the canal; at this point tramways connected the Withy Mills and Radford workings.At its peak, around 20 boats per day would navigate the coal canal carrying over 100,000 tonnes of coal per year.
Pictures
Somersetshire Coal Canal
catch up with bridge rebuilding progress at Timsbury and Paulton basins before restoration work began
canal, the Terminus Bridge site was in a terrible state of repair. It has taken us a long time to prepare and clear the ground around the bridge site so that we could see the condition of the stone abutment walls. We have volunteers working every Sunday at Paulton, but it is an arduous task to keep the area beautiful for the public to use as well as trying to restore sections. There is a lot of work to do, and we are always looking for more help! We are currently trying to rebuild the historic abutment walls of Terminus Bridge and a nearby sluice gate, which will allow us to put the half-mile stretch of canal back in water soon.
By far the most important recent development has been attracting a skilled volunteer to work on Terminus Bridge site. Leading up to the main part of where the bridge would have sat are the four abutment wing walls. All four were in a bad state of repair and needed rebuilding. A lot of work was completed last year on the main bridge walls and one of the abutment walls was
almost finished, minus the top coping stones. Over the last month, we have seen some fantastic progress on the second wing wall, and we are hopeful the last two will be completed before the harsh weather kicks in. We are so grateful for the superb work that has been put in by our volunteer Adrian Iles recently.
If you think you can help with maintenance or restoration activities, please do contact the work party leader at Paulton, Stu Ashman. You can contact him by email at workparty_paulton@coalcanal.org.uk.
Tracy Craven
Left: Terminus Bridge which carried the towpath over to the north side of the canal for access to Timsbury Basin - initial clearance under way.
Below: work in progress on the first of the four abutment wing walls to be restored.
Bottom: the first abutment wing wall completed. Three more to go!
progress Montgomery Canal
Shropshire Union Canal Society’s volunteers continue rebuilding the channel south from Crickheath - and bid the wallers farewell
Montgomery Canal: Shropshire Union Canal Society Crickheath South work party report
The Crickheath South project: As of the 2023 reopening of the Gronwen to Crickjheath restored length of canal, the Montgomery Canal in England is now open from the junction with the Llangollen Canal at Frankton for eight miles to a new interim terminus basin at Crickheath. The Shropshire Union Canal Society’s Crickheath South volunteer project is working on rebuilding / restoring the next length of canal channel southwards from there to the recently rebuilt Schoolhouse Bridge and beyond towards the Welsh border at Llanymynech.
August working party: In what feels like ‘the end of an era’, we said goodbye to John and Paul the wallers.
Work to repair the former tramway wharf wall is now complete. [This was a relic of a horse tramway which linked the limestone quarries at Porthywaen and Whitehaven to a canal wharf at Crickheath - see Navvies 322 for the full story] Starting in April last year, we have been privileged to have support from members of the Dry Stone Walling Association led by stalwarts John and Paul. There have been plenty of challenges along the way, not least from the condition of the wall but most notably from a site that steadfastly remained under water much longer than expected due to the extraordinarily wet winter. But by Saturday teatime, the remaining 15 metres of copings had been placed and off went John and Paul, accompanied by a few cans of Navigation Pale Ale. A big thank you to all the wallers and Society volunteers who have helped, especially Graham the plant operator. The result looks impressive!
On Friday, we were joined by nine corporate volunteers from Practice Plan in Oswestry. With careful direction provided by Fred, they undertook valuable vegetation clearance work around recently-planted hedging whips. With the Society’s regular volunteers fully occupied with channel and towpath restoration activities, this was an enormous help. Fred also took the opportunity to provide them with a site tour and explain ‘all things restoration’. Thanks to all of them for their hard work. So far this year, 44 corporate volunteers have joined us for a day which must be something of a record.
Channel works were focused on the Phase 1A section (nearest to Crickheath). Despite deep mud in the bed of the channel, the area where the remaining copings had been placed has now been profiled, the banks above the wharf wall have been tidied along the full length and the channel bed has been flattened down to grade. Profiling the channel in 1A is now all but complete. The southern end is ready for lining and blocking; the northern end does not require waterproofing.
Whilst plant operations in the channel were underway, other volunteers worked on the towpath in 1A. Great progress has been made. A further 60 metres was completed during this work party adding to the 40 metres previously constructed. We are now over halfway in this section. The final wear course of quarry dust will be applied once the entire length has
John, Graham and Paul with their completed wharf wall
Pictures by SUCS
been constructed.
And finally, a footnote to the wharf wall repairs. Following tradition, a current year coin (2024 King Charles III 50p) has been hidden somewhere in the repaired wall. The location will remain secret until it may be found by future restorers. It is 227 years since the wharf was originally built. Will the secret remain for a further 227 years?
‘Before’ and ‘after’ views of channel, wharf wall and towpath at Crickheath
September working party: Two out of three’s not bad. Benign weather on Friday and Saturday helped enormously but Sunday was soggy.
The top priority now is to complete channel works in Phase 1A before this area refills with water over winter. The southernmost 70 metres of channel in this section requires lining and blocking with a temporary dam constructed at the south end. As an interim measure, there will be a pipe past the farm crossing connecting the channel in Phase 1A and Phase 1B.
Friday saw the start of lining and blocking which had three variations to the standard approach. The first was to achieve the transition from unlined to lined channel. The second to make an effective connection to the base of the wharf wall in this area rather than liner continuing above water level on both banks. Both operations were a little fiddly to start with but by Friday lunchtime, the method was being perfected. The final variation, which proved a great help, was access for block delivery. Normally blocks are delivered down a chute from the bank top whereas here, not only did we have easy access from the compound along the channel bed but the bed was firm enough to take the weight of tracked dumpers to deliver blocks without getting damaged. By Saturday evening, 40 metres of channel had been lined and a large area blocked
Heavy rainfall overnight, which persisted through much of Sunday, put a stop to any more lining activity. Thankfully it was possible to finish all the block laying in the lined area and make good the transition to unlined channel and base of wharf wall along their entire lengths. Sterling work from a high turnout of volunteers in such miserable conditions.
Elsewhere, plant operations involved constructing a temporary clay dam further down the channel towards Schoolhouse Bridge. This marks the limit to the next area of works which will begin in earnest once the activities in phase 1A are completed. A small remaining area of site strip and profiling in Phase 1A was completed so preparations are now complete for the remaining 30 metres of lining and blocking.
Blocklaying continues in the Phase 1A section of canal
The corporate volunteering team
progressShrewsbury & Newport
SNCT build the Stable Block at their Wappenshall canal centre site, rebuild Rodington Lift Bridge, and have a ‘big job’ installing a sewer…
Shrewsbury & Newport Canals
Wappenshall Wharf: In our last report we were busy building the walls of the Stable Block at Wappenshall, the junction of the Shrewsbury Canal with the Newport Arm, where we are restoring the historic transhipment warehouses as a canal centre. The external walls of the Stable Block are now complete and the roof timbers and roofing sheets have been installed on the East ‘wing’ of the Lshaped building. The West ‘wing’ was due to have its roof completed during the first week of September, when the seven stable doors were due to be delivered, along with the timber cladding that will be fixed horizontally to the vertical battens that have been fixed to the external walls.
We will have completed the sewage plant outfall by mid-September. This has been a big job necessitating a 1m deep trench being dug for approximately 75m, the installation of two pre-cast concrete manholes and building a head wall for the outlet drainpipe.
Excavating the sewer trench…
…and installing one of the manholes
East wing of the stable block with its external walls complete
West wing waiting for timber cladding
Pictures by Bernie Jones
Rodington: The work to rebuild the bridge hole at Rodington Bridge is coming on nicely now. Drawings of the original lift bridge have been obtained and just about all of the metal parts have now been located. It is planned to build a replica bridge which will stand out at the top of the bank beside the eastern lane approach to Rodington village, to make a bold statement that the canal is under restoration.
Berwick: After the recent digger training delivered by WRG for some of our volunteers, our JCB has been put to work at the south portal of the Berwick Tunnel. The machine was used to level the ground for a new shelter that will be built and used in the coming autumn and winter months.
BernieJones
Length to be restored:
Shrewsbury & Newport Canals
Excavator at work by Berwick Tunnel
Progress on the abutments of the former lift bridge at Rodington
Berwick Tunnel site
progress Chesterfield Canal
By the time you read this, the Chesterfield Canal should have a new bridge taking the Trans Pennine Trail over a reinstated canal channel
Chesterfield Canal
The current main focus of attention on the Chesterfield Canal (and the subject of our recent Navvies progress reports) is the section in Staveley being restored with funding from the Staveley Town Deal. This include two new bridges over the canal, one of them a sizeable structure carrying the Trans Pennine Trail (TPT) long-distance footpath and cycleway across the canal. After a great deal of planning and preparation, practical work began with the ‘ground breaking’ ceremony reported in previous issues.
With the ground-breaking ceremony over, work has continued to develop at a rapid pace on site, with the bridge foundations completed. This involved assembling a reinforcement cage, building formwork around it and then pouring in a lot of concrete. Now that this is complete, the contractors have been busy burying them again - or at least most of them! Meanwhile the new bridge itself has been prefabricated from steel at makers CTS’s factory in Huddersfield, then cut into two pieces for transport to Doncaster for painting and then to the site. It was scheduled to be lowered into place in October [we may just manage to get a picture of it in this issue], and a temporary entrance has been built on site to accommodate the large crane which will move and lower the ready-made bridge into its new home. In preparation for the bridge’s arrival, a laydown area has been created where the two halves of the bridge will be joined back together before it is lifted in place. The dirt dug out to accommodate this may be re-used by the canal for embankments further on, and is undergoing testing due to contamination from when Staveley featured a railway line.
The old ramp has been removed steadily, displacing heaps of dirt. Communications have also been underway regarding gas and water pipelines in the area.
In other news, local badgers have returned to their old set by the construction site, which they were lured out of during piling works to avoid disturbance. With piling now finished, they have readopted their old home alongside a new, man-made sett built for them, resiliently staying on despite a backdrop of diggers and lorries
Lots of earthwork has been ongoing to create the final profile of the ground in this area ready for when the next phase of canal works begins in 2025.
Away from site, the design is almost complete for the next phase and procurement of the contractor for those works should start in October. We are also getting ready for some archaeological investigation works and landscaping works.
Reinforcing for bridge abutments and (below) bridge span being fabricated
navvies News
The demise of WRG Stamp Bank
Stamp Bank was set up to collect coupons, trading stamps (remember those?) and used postage stamps turn into goods for sale or money for canal restoration. Over the years the opportunities for these have declined and lately it has just been postage stamps which have been arriving. The supply of these has now dwindled to the point that it is no longer worthwhile collecting them, so I have reluctantly decided to close this operation. If anyone has a supply of stamps to hand please let me have them as soon as possible so that I can take them to a dealer.
Many thanks to those who have contributed over the years and hopefully we can find another way to raise funds from unwanted goods in the future.
Steve Morley
Congratulations…
…to three people involved in WRG who received awards from our parent body the Inland Waterways Association at its recent Annual General Meeting.
Ali ‘Womble’ Bottomley, leader and organiser of the annual WRG Training Weekend for many years, is pictured (right, above) receiving the Christopher Power Prize, awarded for the most significant contribution to waterway restoration. IWA said “Ali’s dedication to the WRG Training Weekend has been extraordinary, having an amazing impact on both WRG and other canal restoration volunteers and societies.”
eventbuild up and is on-site to lead the work camp volunteers for the entire weekend. Pete is pivotal in ensuring everything runs smoothly and is invaluable to the team and organisation.”
Emma, described as “A long-standing WRG volunteer” has “played strategic roles behind the scenes, ensuring the success of IWA Canalway Cavalcade.”
“Emma has confidently stepped into several strategic roles for Canalway Cavalcade, both behind the scenes and on the ground during the weekend event. She has been key to ensuring Cavalcade runs successfully and is a great asset to the team and organisation.”
Very well deserved, all three of you.
Liz Lamen R.I.P.
We are sorry to have to bring you the sad news that Liz Lamen, stalwart of our WRG Northwest group, died just as this issue of Navvies was going to print. We will include an appreciation in the next issue.
Pictured (right, below, busy plotting Canalway Cavalcade things at Little Venice) are Emma Greenall and Pete Fleming, who were among this year’s four recipients of the Richard Bird Medal, for IWA members whose efforts are considered to have brought significant benefit to the Association over a sustained period. IWA credited Pete as “A key volunteer with WRG” whose “contributions to IWA’s Canalway Cavalcade are invaluable, particularly his dedication to event planning and volunteer leadership”; and who “takes on key planning roles for the
Rupert Smedley
Tim Lewis
Infill Alookbackatissuesgoneby
Scratch-and-sniff, obituaries of kitchen implements, lots of mud…
WRG recently received the donation of the entire collection of Navvies magazine which had belonged to the late David Smith, husband of former IWA National Chair Audrey Smith. Rather than struggle to find them a good home (they are all online and accessible via the IWA website, and the few of us who want paper copies have mostly already got a set), Mike Palmer took them along to the WRG Training Weekend and Leader Training Day. They were handed out to the volunteers present, who were asked to scan through one of the issues from years gone by, and pick up on a few memorable items which they found “particularly interesting / shocking / amazing / entertaining.” We published a few last time; here are some more…
From Navvies 141: “Which one of the five objectives of the new editor has he achieved? The Tim Lewis-free issue?”
This was the current editor’s first issue, and the above question refers to list in the editorial of “some of the more printable” questions from readers on hearing of the change at the helm:
(1) Can we have more factual articles?
(2) Can we have fewer boring camp reports full of ‘in-jokes’?
(3) Will material be subject to censorship?
(4) Can we have a Tim Lewis-free issue?
(5) How about a ‘scratch & sniff’ issue?
In response, what I said amounted to: (1) Yes, and there’s a restoration feature in issue 141 to start us off (and I’ve tried to keep this up since) (2) They’ll be as boring and full of ‘in-jokes’as those of you who write them make them.Please try to make them interesting not just for people who were there (and again I’ve taken that view since) (3) I might cut things to fit, but I’m not about to apply the heavy hand of censorship - so long as stuff is at least moderately relevant, interesting and not too obviously libellous it goes in. Again I’ve tried to keep to that, although there’s the been the odd time I’ve had to watch out for folks using the letters pages to carry on their feuds (4) Yes, when the rest of you send in any pics (this was a dig at Tim getting so many photos published - because he sent in more than anyone else, because he took more. That was before digital cameras were in general use (let alone available on mobile phones!) - you had to invest in a camera, take it on camps, pay for film and processing, and post the prints to the editor. It’s rather less of a struggle rounding up enough pics now! Tim still features, though - see p2) (5) I doubt if scratch & sniff technology can cope with canal mud yet! (I suspect this may still be the case)
From Navvies 157: “The whisk obituary - and the Last Ditch cartoon”
The obituary was in the form a letter From Tom Jeffries, and follows on from the days when WRG Logistics put an entire camps kit up for ‘adoption’- like the way zoo animals are ‘adopted’to raise funds. It included the lines “It is my sad duty to report the demise ofA494 (whisk) who could not manage yet another Canal Camps custard and sadly defragmented on one of the numerous lumps. I hope you can pass on my condolences to his adoptive parent if their whereabouts are known…” And we reproduce the Last Ditch cartoon below:
From Navvies 193: our contributor picked up on a couple of thing that have changed since this issue was published in 2002: “The Canal Camp mobile phone numbersas opposed to everyone having their own” and “the huge number of photos” - we ran an entire camp report in pictures and captions. I think John had just got a new printing press, so the (still black and white) pics came out rather better.And a letter from a volunteer in his 50s defendingWRG after correspondence in the previous issue suggesting that we were belittling and dismissing the support of older volunteers and ‘armchair’ supporters…
From Navvies 211: In this case it was a Canal Camp report which caught the eye of the person flicking through the mag. But not just any camp report: “It purports to be the first ever camp report.” It was an article from an old issue of The Countryman about a school group joining other volunteers for a fortnight on the NationalTrust’s Stratford Canal restoration in 1961, where “the accommodation seems less than ideal…”
“Until recently I have been an ‘armchair supporter’… last year I decided to give it a try and selected a camp… I am not a good mixer, nor would I consider myself a group animal. It did not matter, as the camp organisers were professional in their attitude and friendly in their manner, with evident enthusiasm. Although nearly three-quarters of the people there were young enough to be my children, I felt the older element in the group helped make a good balance. I did not tell the organisers my background [bricklaying then management], and quite enjoyed not having the responsibility of command for a few days. I eventually laid a few bricks, which for me was therapeutic…”
“After much improvisation and equipment shopping, we settled in, but for both weeks some of our party slept under a tarpaulin stretched between two poles, the ends being covered in boards and straw… A group of Scouts went the whole hog and cooked over an open wood fire. A couple of young men from the BBC went to the other extreme, sleeping in a luxurious French tent and drinking wine with their meals”
Andas for thework:“Although the work we were asked to do was varied, it seemed to be uncompromisingly connected with mud. Even the chopping down of trees on the bank necessitated someone’s wallowing in the mud of the canal to retrieve branches and foliage. Anyone who makes a habit of engaging in that type of operation must sooner or later end up on a psychiatrist’s couch, muttering deliriously though caked lips: “Mud,… mud… mud”
Dear Deirdre We had a rare new volunteer turn up to our recent weekend working and we’re really keen to turn her into a regular. We included her in all our conversations at the pub, we gave her plenty of good food to eat, we gave her all the safety training she needed and made sure she had the fun jobs on site. We even let her drive an excavator! But she’s not signed up for any of our next digs. Do you think she’s just a bit strange?
- Chris, East Weston
Deirdre replies It’s really hard to tell why she didn’t warm to the experience. I think you just need to accept that not everyone is cut out to be a WRGie.
Dear Deirdre I thought I’d try a weekend canal volunteering but the local group was very difficult to get along with. In the pub on the Friday all they talked about was tractor engines. At breakfast time they kept giving me double helpings of their horrible burned sausages. Then they took me to site and told me all kinds of gruesome stories about the time an excavator rolled over their friend Kev and how lime mortar makes your eyes fall out. They made me tend a bonfire when I really wanted a go at brick cleaning. On Saturday night they all kept asking me what my favourite type of tractor engine was. Worst of all, they put me in charge of driving an excavator! I think I will have to try a different group as this one was very strange.
- Jane, Stoke-on-Avon
Deirdre replies I’m afraid you might have a similar experience with other WRG groups but I wish you the best of luck.
