London WRG on the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals

Groups London WRG

It’s not just about week-long Canal Camps. London WRG have been out again, this time on a weekend working party on the Shrewsbury & Newport

London WRG on the Shrewsbury and Newport Canals 23-24 July

Back on the S&N after three years! London WRG enjoyed a great turn-out on our first time back in Shrewsbury since the pandemic. We had so many people some of them had to camp in the paddock next to the accommodation in Uffington village.

The weekend’s aim was to prepare for the week’s Canal Camp led by Mick Lilliman at the north west portal of Berwick Tunnel the following month. Our main task was to demolish the crumbling lengthsman’s hut (built into one side of the portal) in an orderly fashion ready for it to be reconstructed by the camp. The team took this apart very speedily with the help of a small digger although they did moan a lot about having to wrap the stones in carpet protector to keep the elements off them.

We built the base for a section of boardwalk which will protect tree roots from pedestrian traffic and forms part of the wheelchair accessible path being created on the non-towpath side of the canal. We installed a section of permanent fencing across the top of the portal face. We took advantage of having three Tirfor winches on site to get up a lot of tree stumps. We also took the work boat out on its maiden voyage and, more importantly, also brought it in again.

It felt very much like a return to our old pre-pandemic form and we steamrolled all available jobs thanks to the number of skilled people we had on site. As the drizzle didn’t stop on Sunday we managed to pack up early ready for the long drive back. Cooking was kindly provided by Anne Lilliman, while

Buckingham Canal Society kindly lent us a van as our usual one was away on Canal Camps duty.

The S&N Canals Trust are making real progress at Berwick north west portal and they’ve accomplished significant reprofiling work in the time we’ve been away. It’s now possible to walk a loop (via the cleared towpath and the new path) around the short section of canal here that ends at the A5, although other hazards mean the site can’t yet be opened to the public. The planned work on the north west portal face has been delayed for structural reasons but the work at Wappenshall Junction and warehouses is storming ahead. London WRG expect to be back again in the next 12 months to help maintain the pace of progress.

Sophie Smith

We’ll hopefully have a camp report from the Shrewsbury & Newport Canal Camp in the next issue of Navvies The boardwalk support structure takes shape

Pulling fallen branches out of the canal

All pictures by Martin Ludgate