IWA Chelmsford Branch Newsletter October 2016

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The Greyhound Hawkesbury Junction by Stephanie Mason

Campaigning for the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and development of the Inland Waterways Disclaimer: The IWA may not agree with opinions expressed in this Newsletter but encourages publication as a matter of interest. Nothing printed herein may be construed as policy or official announcement unless stated otherwise. The IWA accepts no liability for any matter in the Newsletter

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Content From the Editor From the Chairman From the Region Chairman Situation Vacant The Rosery Goes Solar Chelmsford River Festival 2016 Chelmsford Waterfront Waterways Triathlon Essex WRG Working Party Ford Volunteer Day The Ashby Canal

Page 2 Page 2 Page 3 Page 3 Page 4 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 9 Page 10

Social Report Social Events Trouble On The Wey Essex Waterways Update Mid Week Working Party Weekend Away Photos Volunteers Welcome Just For Fun Branch Committee

Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 15 Page 17 Page 17 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 19

From The Editor The Met Office prediction of an Indian Summer with the mercury hitting 34Âş in September and the forecast that there will be a warmer than normal weather for the beginning of Autumn. So far the colourful change of the leaves from the green to the vibrant hues of yellow, orange and red has been more spectacular that previous years and with the current conditions looks to last longer. I hope that you are making the most of the Navigation in watching this impressive autumn and getting out to the joy of kicking through piles of fallen leaves. Take your cameras.

We would like to increase our contributors to this Newsletter. Please make time to look out your photos, articles and ideas and send them in for our next Newsletter: Last inputs for Winter Newsletter 21/12/2016. Tell us about your own waterway experiences, your holiday or send in Readers Photos.

For those on e-mail please send your input to chelmsford.news@waterways.org.uk Those without just give me a call to arrange for collection. 07837 576464.

From The Chairman It was pleasing to see a good turnout of members at the new venue, Galleywood Heritage Centre, for the September meeting. I had a tour around Galleywood before I found it but was very pleasantly surprised at the amount of parking space and excellent facilities in the hall, well done Rebecca. I hope to welcome a lot more of you to the next meeting.

If you have particular difficulties or reasons for not being able to get to Galleywood, or if you can think of any improvements to arrangements for social evenings, now that things have changed anyway, do let one of the Committee know or even write to the Editor, for inclusion in the Newsletter, this could start an interesting debate among members.

Mike Grimes, Head of Boating at the Canal & River Trust, was both interesting and informative about the work of the Trust. Since his visit, the Trust has announced one of the things he spoke about, in advance, boaters will now be able, online, to self-book passage through a number of waterway attractions such as the Ribble Link, Anderson Lift, Standedge Tunnel and others. You will still be able to talk to CRT Staff and there will be no increase in current charges.

At the time of writing, we have just had the Triathlon, based at Hoe Mill, in aid of Essex Waterways. Last year’s was the first such event and was a steep learning curve, so things were somewhat easier this time, although there were fewer participants. Less equipment was hired in so there was less to erect and take down again at the end of the day and, hopefully, less profit went out in hire charges. There were more volunteers, although still not enough and some had to be moved around the course for marshalling in different sites. Three of us, recording return times for canoeing and cycling, managed to mislay one contestant who managed to slip through the net. There was some consternation for a while but he was perfectly okay, there were few other problems and a lot of people greatly enjoyed the day, which ended several hours earlier that was the case last year. It all seems to be getting better and better, so do bear it in mind and consider volunteering for the next one.

Molly Beard !2

From The Region Chairman I hope you have had an enjoyable summer. This year Janine and I decided to join one of the Birmingham Canal Navigation Society’s Explorer Cruises. These are run several times a year to encourage those of us who are not familiar with the BCN to travel around the network. The cruise was very well organised with society members at each lock flight to help us on our way. On several evenings we had entertainment laid on or were near good food outlets. My favourite evening dinner was at the pie factory at Tipton. It is on our list of places we must visit again.

Whilst we were on the trip we had the opportunity to walk up the line of the Bradley lock restoration project. This is a new project which will, when completed, connect the Bradley arm of the BCN to the Walsall Canal.

Summer is a quiet time for progress on ongoing IWA campaigns and initiatives. We are still working on trying to get the Environmental Authority (EA) Navigations transferred to the Canal and River Trust (CRT) as we believe this is the best place for them, to ensure their long term future. We understand that CRT and the EA have set up a joint working which will report back to CRT trustees, by the end of the year on progress on producing a proposal for the merger. In the meantime we have identified four categories of navigations, those at present administered by EA where the Agency is the navigation authority, and those managed by them under bye-laws.

These we believe should all be transferred to CRT. There are some navigations where the Agency just owns structures that are used for navigation but they are not the navigation authority and don’t manage the navigation.

These cases will need to be considered on their individual merit. Finally there are a number of waterways where the navigation position was uncertain, and in these cases there was probably little that could be transferred so they should not normally be included in the transfer.

At the Annual General Meeting in September members overwhelmingly approved the new Articles of Association. These replace those that had guided the association, with occasional modification, for over 40 years.

Finally I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Roy Chandler on the award of the Cyril Styring Trophy. The Cyril Styring Trophy is the Association's highest award and is given each year to a member who has, in the opinion of trustees, made an outstanding contribution in furthering the Association's campaign. The award was for Roy’s dedication and hard work on the restoration of the Chelmer and Backwater Navigation and continuing leadership of his team in managing a very successful navigable waterway.

Paul Strudwick

Situations Vacant Our Press & Publicity Officer, Mike Huggett, has had a lengthy and extremely unfortunate run of poor health and has felt it necessary to stand down from the Committee, so we are looking for someone with PR skills to take on the job. You would not necessarily have to attend the Committee meetings, of which there are only four a year, although we would always be pleased to have you there and would appreciate up-to-date reports from you. My thanks to Mike for his excellent work.

Additionally, I am looking to stand down as Chairman and would urge you to consider putting yourself forward. Obviously I would happily brief you but it seems to me that there is very little skill needed just a willingness and a touch of the Blarney.

Molly Beard

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The Rosery Goes Solar This summer I decided to fit our boat, The Rosery, with a solar panel to extend the time we could stay at places of interest and at events without having to run the engine to charge the batteries. I hope my experience might be helpful if you want to go down the same route.

I started by listing all the electrical items on the boat and how much power they use. I then made a guesstimate of how much we use them each day. My table looked like this:Item

Power Rating (Watts)

Lighting main cabin TV Water Pump Etc.

18 39

Current drawn Time running from the battery in each day (hrs) Amperes (= Watts/Voltage) 1.5 4

Ampere hours used each day

3.25 4.4A

13 1.8

4 0.4

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I then added together all the Ampere hours used each day in column five of the table to get the amount of energy I needed from the solar panels every day. In the case of The Rosery this came out to around 60 Ampere hours.

To work out the size solar panel needed (in watts) I multiplied the 60 Ampere hours by 12volts (our battery voltage) which came to 720 watts and dividing by the number of hours the panel would be charging the battery. To allow for the boat being in partial shade, the panel not being at the ideal angle to the sun, heavy cloud cover, etc. I decided to assume the panel would only be capable of giving the equivalent of full charge for 6 hours a day. If you intend to rely on solar power during the winter you should think about halving that time. For The Rosery I calculated we needed a 120 watt panel and settled for one that gives 100 watts.

The next thing I had to decide was what type of controller we should use. There are two types on the market and both are widely used to charge batteries with solar power. The two types are PWM (Pulse Width Modulated) and the more expensive MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) controller. I went onto Google to find out which was best for our boat. In the end I came to the conclusion that the PWM controller was best for static situations such as a mobile home, traffic signs that sort of thing. The MPPT controllers are more sophisticated and will adjust themselves to harvest the maximum power from the solar panel so this was ideal for our situation.

After searching on line and a visit to our local caravan shop I decided to purchase my equipment over the internet from Bimble Solar of East Sussex (other suppliers are available). The reason I chose this firm was that they were very competitively priced and offered a Solar Panel Kit with MPPT Charge Controller, Panel Mounting Kit and Cable. All I had to purchase was an isolator to go between the output of the controller and the boat battery.

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The Rosery Goes Solar (cont)

The Panel Mounting Kit. It just sticks to the roof of the boat with glue supplied.

Installation was simple on our boat because all the power equipment and switches are all housed in a cupboard by the back doors. This included a suitable point to connect the output of the solar panel controller to the battery. In the end I did not use the cable entry supplied with the kit as it was too large for where I wanted the hole through the roof. Instead I made my own using conduit bits obtained from a local electrical factors.

The controller mounted in the electrical cupboard. Connection from the output of the controller to the battery is via a 15 Ampere switch and fuse purchased from a local car spares shop.

The solar panel on the roof of The Rosery.

So how did it work in practice? Well there was several problems. For a start when I did my calculations I had assumed that I would install a new low energy fridge. Unfortunately by the time we set off for a summer cruise I had not got round to doing this. The old fridge is not very efficient and uses a lot of power. Even so with the solar panel we were able to stop for several days without having to run the engine. The time depending on how much sunshine there was each day. Now the solar panel was fitted The Rosery has three systems for charging the battery. The solar panel’s control system tended to get confused and would sometimes lock the output off, if it was asked to operate when the engine was running. Similarly the shore powered battery charger locked off if asked to operate with the solar panel. The answer to these problems was to leave the solar panel switched off when the batteries were being charged by one of the other systems.

Hopefully we will replace the fridge before next summer and should be able to run the boat using solar power for several weeks without running the engine or connecting to shore power.

Paul Strudwick !5

Chelmsford River Festival 2016 On a bright, sunny morning on Sunday 26th June, a few members of the Chelmsford Branch of IWA erected a gazebo in Backnang Square. We had a lovely display of posters of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation and tables set up with activities for children provided by the Wild over Water (WoW) team from Head Office.

Several children enjoyed colouring pictures of canal boats and the wild life to be found on waterways

It was disappointing that there were only a few people who stopped to chat about their experiences on the waterway or to make enquiries about IWA. We have concluded that our display should be more visual to passing visitors to this busy area and to enlighten the people of Chelmsford on this amazing linear park on the door step of their city, which is the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation

Our future attendance at this festival requires large posters of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation, a large, easy to read map and posters advertising for volunteers. Volunteer pamphlets could be given to those interested with suggestion on the tasks available and contact numbers.

Fortunately, it was a beautiful, sunny day and we as we packed away we were able to agree that next time‌‌.

Chris Chandler

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Chelmsford Waterfront In the early 1980’s there were proposals to expand the Chelmsford shopping centre on the land to the east of the High Street which runs down to the River Chelmer. However at the same time there were also proposals to develop the Meadows Shopping Centre between the River Chelmer and River Can. At the time the commercial demand would only support one of these major developments and probably because of land ownership issues the Meadows was the scheme that proceeded.

The initial proposals for the Meadows did little for the setting and frontages of the two rivers and following prolonged negotiations a design developed that avoided service areas on the river frontages by placing these at first floor level. This allowed the river frontages to become riverside walks and whilst there were main mall entrances on both, there were still some large areas of dead frontage. Fortunately it was possible in subsequent years to add small kiosk units to some of these and open up other areas for waterside eateries.

A decade or so later there was further demand to expand the shopping centre and suitable sites were in short supply.

Development of the land to the east of the High Street was complicated because there were over seventy separate ownerships involved. This was deterring developers and investors as land assembly would be a complex and expensive process and at the end of this there was no certainty that planning permission would be granted. In 2002 the Council therefore produced and approved a Development Framework for the area as Supplementary Planning Guidance. This identified the constraints and outlined the principles and expectations for development of the area. It created the necessary developer confidence to proceed with the land assembly and development and avoid the need for compulsory purchase orders on the land. A first phase of riverside apartments and restaurants was completed a few years ago and the main shopping street, to be known as Bond Street will be opened during this September. The Council are delighted that the new shops include a John Lewis store.

The Development Framework provided the opportunity for the Council to insist upon the inclusion of new riverside spaces and riverside walks all with active frontages. These will include a new cinema and numerous restaurants and we look forward to these new waterfronts being open.

All we need now is more activity on the rivers which could of course be achieved by a new 170 metre long navigable Cut through Chelmer Waterside to bypass automatic weir and link the city centre rivers with the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation.

The waterfront in Springfield Basin is also continuing to change with the Taylor Wimpey redevelopment of the Waterfront Place site nearing completion. This predominantly residential scheme retains the ground floor of the former restaurant for a commercial use and we hear rumours (as yet not confirmed) that a restaurant will reopen here. The return of a restaurant to the basin would be good news creating a focal point for the area and a destination for boaters on the Navigation.

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Chelmsford Waterfront (cont) We also understand that following public consultation Taylor Wimpey have now submitted their planning application for development of the Chelmer Waterside peninsula site and we will obviously follow this with great interest.

You can add your support to the Chelmsford New Cut proposal by completing a survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/3QK5YYN

Roy Chandler

Waterways Triathlon The Chelmer & Blackwater Naviga4on in Essex hosted IWA's second waterways triathlon on 25th September when 40 par4cipants canoed (or paddle-board!), cycled and ran their choice of a 30km or 50km route.

The Naviga4on provided the perfect sePng for this event and par4cipants and spectators alike enjoyed what turned out to be an unseasonably sunny day for late September, with many even staying for a BBQ aSer the event. Many entrants commented that the Waterways Triathlon not only provided a new and different kind of challenge but also gave them an opportunity to experience some parts of the local area that they had never before been to.

IWA Fundraising Officer, Sarah Frayne said ‘’ The event is a great way to get people to enjoy all that the Chelmer and Blackwater has to offer whilst raising money to maintain it for the future, keeping it a fantas4c local asset’’.

All funds raised will go towards towpath repairs and improvements along the Naviga4on and will benefit walkers, cyclists and runners almost immediately as volunteers plan to be carrying out the work later this year.

Sarah Frayne

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Essex WRG Working Party On the weekend of 3rd and 4th September Essex WRG were working at Heybridge. We were a very small team of Bob K, Steve and I and desperately hoping that no more volunteers would appear, as the job was painting Essex Waterways “new” work boat and there just wasn’t room for more than three to paint without tripping over each other.

As you will have noticed that the word new was in inverted commas a little bit of history is needed. The boat started life as a work boat for British Waterways. While rubbing the paintwork down we found that (as expected) the bottom layer was BW blue. Above that was BW green dating back to when BW changed their corporate colours. Above that was red, as BW gave the boat to the Waterway Recovery Group for use on the Montgomery Canal.

When WRG had finished with it, they gave it to Essex Waterways Ltd. On 18th March 2009 Dave, Tony and I used the ‘Buddy’ to push-tow the boat from Paper Mill to Heybridge Basin. Once there it was lifted out for a survey.

The surveyor’s report was not good.

The steel of the hull was dangerously thin and, indeed, there were holes as well (luckily above the unladen waterline). After this it was left on the bank for a number of years, until, earlier this year major repairs to the hull were made.

By the end of the weekend it was resplendent in a new coat of ‘Ford Tractor Blue’ which is the Essex Waterways house colour. History doesn’t reveal what the boat’s original name was when it belonged to BW. I just hope that Roy chooses a suitable name and not something boring like “Work Boat”.

John Gale

Ford Volunteer Day Painting the crane Jib at Heybridge Basin

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The Ashby Canal Leaving Union Canal Carriers at Braunston in NB Mendip on a lovely sunny day we passed the well-known Braunston Junction onto the Oxford Canal northwards.

Navigating through the three 'duplicated' Hillmorton Locks we saw boats heading in both directions, we continued on to Rugby and moored, to enjoy a 'rack of ribs' at the canal side Bell & Barge Harvester Restaurant, delicious.

Another lovely sunny day cruising through Newbold and its tunnel, seeing some stunning reflections of black & white painted bridges and brick bridges, to moor before Hawkesbury Junction, a lovely place for the dogs to have another run around. The Greyhound Pub is as popular as ever with diners inside and out, we were lucky enough to get a table inside, and another tasty meal.

The following day with a contrast in the weather which started dull and damp, we navigated the stop lock (only a few inches drop!) and did a Uturn under the junction bridge onto the Coventry Canal, only briefly though as we took the right turn at Marston Junction onto the Ashby Canal.

Cruising along this peaceful, rural canal and as the weather improved we appreciated the very pretty canal, especially with the autumnal colours and copious berries on the trees and bushes. Passing places such as Burton Hastings, Hinkley and Stoke Golding where we saw water vole holes in the banking, and even spotted some voles swimming along this stretch. Then onwards we passed the new Bosworth Marina, to moor along a very rural part before Congerstone.

The next day although initially damp to start we cruised through Shackerstone, and the shady Gopsall Wood where the trees were many colours and stunning, then on through Snarestone Tunnel to pass under bridge 61 which is the last one navigable, to 'wind' and moor at Snarestone Wharf to explore this area.

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The Ashby Canal (cont) When I planned this route to cruise up the Ashby Canal John did not realise we would end up in among fields with nothing but greenery! There is a hut selling Ashby Canal souvenirs and canal wares, and next to the hut is a unit selling bric a brac, all in aid of raising more funds to continue restoration of this lovely route. Although boats have to stop here currently, the canal is in water up to bridge 62 and the towpath is restored for use.

Beware though, cruising along this lovely canal you will need to be prepared provision wise, as shops are few and far between, however there are some farm shops but with limited stock. Still well worth the trip, we hope to return when restoration has progressed.

Stephanie Mason

Social Report About 30 members and visitors gathered at the Galleywood Heritage Centre for the first social meeting in September. The general feeling about the hall was good. It is spacious, has a ramp access, a great kitchen and a large screen. The chairs were all put out for us and we didn’t have to put them away and the volunteers who run the Heritage Centre made us feel very welcome.

We had a fantastic speaker - Mike Grimes from Canal and River Trust (C&RT) who is Head of Boating. Mike took us on a journey from the commercial years of the canals onto the years of decay, then to the years of restoration and finally today and the challenges around maintaining the network.

Mike told us so many interesting things it’s impossible to do justice to the talk in a couple of paragraphs but a few facts of interest. C&RT has an income of 189 million of which 34.9 million is from boat licences and 49.7 is a grant from DEFRA which carries on until 2025. C&RT also manage a large property portfolio which brings in an income of 45-50 million. 132 million is spent on the canal network annually. There are currently 33,000 boats licensed of which 5,500 have no permanent mooring. C&RT have now recruited 100,000 volunteer friends but would like more so please check their web site if you would be interested.

The audience had lots of questions and Mike answered the question with further information and much discussion took place. If we had had longer this could have gone on for another half an hour at least. An example of just 3 questions 1) Mike was asked about Mooring problems in special locations. Mike talked about London and a pilot project of bookable moorings being introduced. 2) Asked if there was a limit to the number of boats that could be granted a license Mike replied that C &RT has to grant a license to every boat that wants one as long as the criteria is met. 3) Mike was asked about the 48hour moorings and sometimes 14 day ones in areas being inconsistent. Mike replied that this is historic due to the regions that BWB had and more consistency will follow in future. Should boaters know of an area where the mooring time seems inappropriate please contact C &RT and they will review.

We have a full social programme now for the rest of the year so please do come and join us for interesting talks and homemade cakes, monthly raffle and to meet with friendly people. All visitors are welcome.

Rebecca Loader !1 1

Social Events Thursday 13th October 2016 David Newman : Salt Extraction from the Blackwater Estuary Thursday 10th November 2016 Ivan Cane : North Walsham & Dilham Canal 1826-2026 - An Update Thursday 8th December 2016 Branch social bring and share Christmas buffet and quiz Thursday 12th January 2017 Steven Wilding – Olympic Legacy Waterways Framework Thursday 9th February 2017 Jim Jenkins – Abberton Reservoir Thursday 9th March 2017 AGM followed by Adrian Wright – 150 years of the Great Eastern Railway Thursday 13th April 2017 Richard Thomas – Gunpowder on the Lea May 2017 Possible Social trip out River Stort or C&BN ?

Our social meetings take place at The Galleywood Heritage Centre The Galleywood Heritage Centre, The Common, Galleywood Chelmsford Essex CM2 8TR The Galleywood Heritage Centre in Chelmsford,1 mile from the A12 junction 16.

7:45 pm for an 8:00 pm start Web site for further information on directions / local map. www.galleywoodheritagecentre.org.uk

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Trouble On The Wey We have been hiring narrowboats for over 20 years once or twice a year (on odd occasions three times). We have cruised a lot of the UK's Inland Waterways, also Falkirk to Edinburgh in Scotland, and Wales, and just love this way of spending our time with our dogs on holidays, using different hire companies for different routes, and many different boats.

Our long term dream was to one day have our own boat and were not really looking to buy a boat just yet, however last March (2015) we saw a 30ft Sea Otter for sale down at Pyrford Marina in Surrey, with only one owner and only 205 hours on the clock it was worth a look.

Bueno Vita is a 2001 aluminium narrowboat and had been repainted the year before, the curtains and furnishings were a bit tired and worn, but the units and general condition inside the cabin and wet room was excellent.

We particularly fancied a Sea Otter due to the easy maintenance, and no blacking every 3 years. After a test run out on the River Wey with the Tingdene sales man Chris, we spent the journey home discussing the boat, by the time we got home we had decided to make an offer subject to a full boat survey.

The day of the boat survey we went down to see the boat out of the water and speak to the surveyor, all good news, so we confirmed our offer, and a boat safety test was carried out as part of the sale.

Then at Easter (2015) weekend contracts were signed.

We were now boat owners! Wow - how did that happen so easily.

We spent the rest of Easter weekend stripping out all the curtains and furnishings (which we later took to an upholsterer in Braintree who did a fab job in our chosen fabric), and removed anything that had been left on the boat, we even removed the carpet, leaving the lino underneath in place. We then cleaned inside and out.

The marina had allowed us to stay in our motorhome for the weekend which was a great help, and we had a covered trailer to use as storeroom for all the boat stuff.

Boat owning was new to us but we did know a bit about what was required, we obtained a River Wey licence, paid marina fees and got boat insurance, we also had a full service done so we knew where we were with maintenance.

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Trouble On The Wey (cont) It was all quite exciting and we could not wait for our maiden voyage which was planned for mid May when our curtains and furnishings were due to be ready.

Once we started cruising we planned to go boating as often as possible, even though we already had three camping holidays booked and one week on a hire boat prior to the purchase of Bueno Vita! A busy year for us.

The River Wey is a lovely, mostly rural waterway, similar in way to the Chelmer & Blackwater, and is owned and run by the National Trust. It starts at Thames Lock, Weybridge (which has a lock keeper) and meanders along 19.5 miles with 14 locks, 2 flood locks, to it's terminus at Godalming.

We did have a couple of teething troubles, one of the problems was the engine overheating especially in the hot summer, we changed the thermostat, sender unit, and then it was noticed that the cooling tank was plumbed wrong way round, an easy fix in the end.

This was followed by a re-occurrence of the fuel problem, we had a Fuel Guard fitted (bought at Crick show), we had the pipes and olives checked/changed where needed, but still had an intermittent problem with fuel starving, it seemed worse when the diesel tank was 1/2 empty, we even had another electric pump fitted to help push the diesel through.

These niggles were probably not picked up due to the minimal cruising hours the boat had done. I had started keeping a diary of the problem, we noticed it was worse after cruising for 3-4 hours, and after locking when we switched the engine off in locks (a requirement on the River Wey & in Thames locks), eventually we saw a chap 'Spencer' on the Kennet & Avon who soon diagnosed the problem!!

One of the pipes was sagging when hot and catching the stop button!! Another easy fix once spotted.

For 2016 we planned a very full calendar of trips, weekends, bank holidays, and holidays, as much time as we can as we love cruising, and Bueno Vita will finally get 'run in'!!

By the way Bueno Vita means 'Good Life' - we had to google it!! We will soon have plenty of trips to report on.

Stephanie Mason

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Essex Waterways Update During the summer months Essex Waterways’ staff and volunteers are busy cutting tow paths and clearing weed in the river to ensure that all users of the Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation are able to enjoy it. There are of course regular maintenance jobs, especially dealing with any problems on the locks and there are still some opportunities to carry out improvements.

One such example occurred when the timber floor to the lower lock chamber at Paper Mill was exposed during the recent lock repairs and it was found that part of it was in fact still in good condition and could be retained. This meant that the oak planks especially ordered for the repair would not all be required.

We had been aware that part of the trip boat moorings at Paper Mill Lock still had an exposed pile edge which needed to be improved with the installation of timber capping boards. This would be much kinder to the trip boats when mooring and more importantly safer for users. A design solution was soon produced to use the surplus timbers for a new capping and the work was undertaken before the timbers began to warp in the hot summer sun.

The winter floods had dislodged one of the timber fenders from the road bridge supports at Paper Mill. This was reported to the Highways Bridge Engineer at the time as Essex Waterways’ staff had removed the timber to avoid a navigation hazard. All the timber fenders on this bridge were replaced by the Highways Department during the summer.

Meanwhile in West Yorkshire new top lock gates are being made for Heybridge sea lock and then taken apart again ready for transport to site where they will be reassembled and installed later in the year. The new bottom sliding gate has also been manufactured in Cardiff and tested prior to its delivery to Langford where it waits to be moved to site in accordance with the work programme.

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Essex Waterways Update (cont) Paper Mill Lock is a real honey pot especially during the summer when the Tea Rooms there are extremely busy even on weekdays. During one of my visits there I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of activity taking place in addition to the boat movements. I immediately noticed a group of smartly dressed people by the canoe launching area and then realised they were watching two people on paddle-boards. The paddle-boarding girl was wearing a wedding dress and her partner was alongside, both facing the bank. A class of young canoeists was standing nearby watching what I later learnt from our Caretaker was a renewal of marriage vows.

The young canoeists soon launched their canoes and began their training session. Meanwhile, just below the lock, the Ambulance Service was also carrying out a training session involving rescue techniques in the water.

As I watched, the trip boat BLACKWATER DAWN arrived carrying a party which had travelled up from Hoe Mill, this turned below the lock and headed back downstream. There was certainly plenty for the tow path walkers and tea room visitors to watch.

Roy Chandler !1 6

Mid Week Working Party At the time of writing the last report the grass was growing like the clappers, and we were struggling to keep up with it, and we continued with this, but by early August it stopped growing.

Since then we spent a couple of weeks removing the invasive weed floating pennywort from the long pond between Beeleigh and Heybridge Basin, and then we turned our hand to painting the locks. At the time of writing we have primed and painted the white ends of the balance beams at both Beeleigh locks, at Ricketts, Rushes, Paper Mill, Baddow, Stonhams, and Cuton, And we have painted the lock furniture (bollards, handrails etc) in ‘Ford Tractor Blue’ at Beeleigh, Ricketts, Rushes, Baddow, Stonhams and Cuton. If the weather holds we still have Barnes and Springfield to do.

The paintwork at Sandford is reasonably good so doesn’t need doing and Hoe Mill will be done when major work is carried out there in the New Year.

John Gale

Weekend Away To All Chelmsford Branch members IWA's Ipswich branch have organised a weekend away for both members and non-members on 13th-14th May 2017.

The trip includes a visit to Stockwood Discovery Centre in Luton, a 3hr boat trip along the Great Ouse on board the John Bunyan , overnight hotel accommodation with dinner and breakfast, a visit to Woburn Abbey with lunch followed by a visit to Bletchley Park plus return coach transport.

See https://www.waterways.org.uk/ipswich/pdf/2017_weekend_away_booking_form for more information and details of how to book.

If you have any questions please contact me Tracy Higgin tracy.higgins@waterways.org.uk or Spencer Greystrong spencer.greystrong@waterways.org.uk We hope you will be able to come along.

Photos

Blackwater Dawn Leaving Sandford Lock

Belgium Boats At Heybridge

Roy Chandler

Roy Chandler

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Chelmer & Blackwater Naviga3on Opened 1797 14 miles Heybridge Basin, Maldon to Springfield Basin, Chelmsford Maintained and operated by

Essex Waterways Ltd A not-for-profit volunteer led company Wholly owned by IWA

Volunteers welcomed to assist with the maintenance and improvement as well as specific projects Please contact The Naviga3on Manager 07966 375351 david.smart@waterways.org.uk

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Just For Fun SUDOKU Fill in the grid so that each row, column and 3 x 3 block contains the numbers one to nine (1 - 9) 6 2

8 3

5

7 7

8

7

1

3

8

5 7

4

5

2

9 2

8

9

9

8

9

3

9

7

5 6

Branch Committee If you have any topics or subject that you wish to bring to the committees attention please use the contact details below Molly Beard:

Chairman

molly.beard@waterways.org.uk

John Gale:

Vice Chairman & Treasurer.

24 Longleaf Drive, Braintree CM7 1XS

Paul Strudwick:

London Region Chairman.

Paul.strudwick@waterways.org.uk

Chris Chandler:

Secretary.

Chris.chandler@waterways.org.uk

Roy Chandler:

Planning and Conservation.

Roy.chandler@waterways.org.uk

John Carlaw:

Newsletter and Membership.

Chelmsford.news@waterways.org.uk John.carlaw@waterways.org.uk

Publicity.

Situation Vacant

Stephanie Mason:

Refreshments.

None

Kirsten Smith:

Youth.

None

Rebecca Loader

Social Secretary

rebecca.loader@waterways.org.uk

Adam Wyllie:

Branch Web Editor.

Adam.wyllie@waterways.org.uk

IWA Chelmsford Web Address

http://www.waterways.org.uk/chelmsford

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