Editor on Camps and connected canals

editor camps & connecting

Martin looks forward to some extensions of the canal system, looks back on a successful Leader Training Day, and hopes for a full postbag...

Editorial

Get connected! You may well, if you’ve read my restoration feature articles and editorial columns in recent years, be familiar with the following dialogue...

“So let me get this right: the plan isn’t to open up the first bit of canal, right at the junction where it leaves the navigable network, and welcome the first boats onto the restored waterway as soon as you can. No, instead you’re going to concentrate on some isolated duckpond-like length in the middle of nowhere, which for the next decade or more will be unusable by anyone who can’t tow their boat behind their car, or pick it up and carry it like a canoe?!” “Err… yes, that’s about it.” “But why on earth are you restoring your canal in such an arse-about-face kind of way?” “Well, it’s a long story…” As I’m explained several times in these pages, unfortunately such are the circumstances on many canal restoration projects that very often that’s exactly how we do end up restoring canals. So we’ve got 12 miles of isolated restored Montgomery Canal, some of which has been open for decades, that we’re only now finally looking forward (fingers crossed) to possibly linking up with the navigable network at Frankton Junction in the next few years. And the isolated five miles or so of the Loxwood Link restored length of the Wey & Arun. And the four miles and five locks at the top end of the Grantham.

And in every case, there is indeed a ‘long story’ – a lengthy explanation of why it actually makes good sense to start in the ‘wrong’ place. This could relate to the physical state that the canal’s in: both the Grantham and the W&A start with tricky sections which have been filled in and built over, and nobody’s going to give you the millions to reopen them if you haven’t already restored some easier bits elsewhere to show them that the canal’s worth restoring. Or it could be to do with funding sources, especially if the canal runs through different local authority areas – or even different countries in the case of the Mont. It’s deeply frustrating, especially to then hear or read uninformed comments to the effect that the canal trust working hard to make it happen “hasn’t a clue about how to restore a canal”.

So it’s really rather refreshing to be able to report on several cases where we really can actually ‘start at the beginning’ – not just because some of us are boaters and are itching to get cruising these restored canals, but also because we know there’s nothing like a reopening with a convoy of boats cruising through onto the ‘new bit’ to generate some really good publicity for getting the rest of the job done.

We’ve already reported several times in recent issues on the Cotswold Canals, where work is going full speed on getting the four miles open from Saul Junction to Stonehouse, opening up a ten-mile extension of the national waterways system in about 2025. But our cover pictures depict three other sites where it (hopefully) won’t be too long now before some (admittedly rather shorter) sections will be joining the canal network soon.

The front cover shows Shropshire Union Canal Society’s volunteers putting the finishing touches on the Redwith to Crickheath length of the Mont, ready for a reopening of two miles from the current limit at Gronwen Bridge to Crickheath Wharf – planned for next year. The back cover shows the new winding hole under construction for the Lapal Canal, which will sometime soon facilitate boats turning into the already part-restored short length leading from the Worcester & Birmingham Canal through a new retail development and into Selly Oak Park. And also on the back cover the Wendover Canal Trust’s digger and dumper are page 6

busy shifting piles of infill as they get to work on creating the ‘narrows’ that will form the start of the next section to be reopened from the current terminus at Little Tring – hopefully (subject to sorting out a few leaks) in the not too distant future. You can read about the Lapal, the Wendover and the Mont in our bumper-sized Progress section in this issue. And there are more on the way soon (for example the first short section beyond Bridge 1 on the Buckingham) and doubtless others to follow after not too many years (The next section of the Mont… and the Pocklington? Stafford? Wilts & Berks Melksham link?) So hopefully there might be just slightly fewer of the kind of conversation that kicked off this column…

Facing some challenges: But alongside these projects with the potential for visiting boats in the near future, in this issue we also report on a couple of projects that aren’t yet at that stage, and in fact are facing some big challenges. Our two restoration feature articles report on the North Walsham & Dilham, where the canal trust is picking itself up again after the loss of its leading light Laurie Ashton; and the Barnsley Canal, where a new group is in the process of being launched, just a couple of years after the former canal society disbanded having struggled to make progress for some years. These two schemes need support if they are to succeed.

Back to normal? Meanwhile in our continued progress towards ‘the new normal’ we not only have a full summer canal camps programme for the first time in three years, but we also had the first Leaders’ and Cooks’ Training Day for three years. And I found it extremely useful – even though I’m not a camp leader this year. So useful, in fact, that I’ve done a quick precis of it in this issue. I’m not suggesting that reading what I’ve written is a substitute for being there, but hopefully it will encourage you to join us next year – and in the meantime give you some useful hints and tips, especially in conjunction with the Health & Safety ‘Refresher’ piece also in this issue, as many of you head off for your first week-long Canal Camp since 2019.

And the return of Canal Camps means… the return of Canal Camp reports in Navvies! Leader training: Ricey gives us his thoughts My own contribution to the Leaders’ and Cooks’ Training Day was a piece about writing reports for Navvies, and you’ll see a very brief summary in my article. I know they’re not every reader’s cup of tea, but I regard camp reports as potentially an important part of the magazine. At best, they can be a good way to fulfil Navvies’ main objectives in (a) telling people about what we get up to in canal restoration (b) entertaining and amusing the readers (c) occasionally stimulating people to think about some of the issues and arguments and most importantly (d) hopefully encouraging more people to get involved, or the existing volunteers to keep coming back. And even if they don’t achieve all these lofty aims, they’ll serve to remind all your fellow volunteers of what a great time you had, and how you’d really like to do it all again next year.

As usual I have no intention of telling you what to put in them and what not to, nor of applying any heavy censorship on what you send – “publish and be damned” has always been our motto – although you might like to think about whether it will achieve the above aims. Or you might not…

I look forward to receiving some reports (and pictures please!) to include in the next couple of issues – and remember, the sooner you write them, the more you’ll remember from the camp, and the better chance of getting them published sooner rather than later. Martin Ludgate page 7