Great Ouse Branch
Ouse News - Spring 2025
Campaigning for the conservation,
The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Inland Waterways Association or of the Great Ouse Branch. They are, however, published as being of interest to our members and readers.
Great Ouse Branch Committee:
Chairman:
KeithAlderton
Tel : 01366 727236
Secretary:
John Hodgson
Tel : 01234 344884
Treasurer:
Enid Hodgson
Tel : 01234 344884
Ouse News Editor:
CaroleAlderton
Tel : 01366 727236
Membership Officer:
Peter Webb
Tel: 01353 658581
Member:
Stephen Foote
Tel: 01763 838936
Member:
RobinAdams
Tel: 01223 862026
Do you have a few hours to spare? We need your help! Weareasmall,friendly group and desperately need more committee members to help us organise meetings and events. One committee member has just resigned due to personal circumstances and there is the possibility that two more could retire within the foreseeable future.
Please contact the Chairman.
Ouse News Page 3
Branch News
WinterMeetingsareat8.00 pm at the North Lodge Pavilion, North Lodge Park, Milton, CB24 6UD.
THURSDAY 27TH FEBRUARY 2025
Welcome to our latest member and we hope to
welcome more new members soon.
Liz Davies will be presenting ‘A Journey Through Time’; an illustrated talk about the way the River Great Ouse has affected the development of St Neots. There are no new members to report.
THURSDAY 27 TH MARCH 2025
This will be our AGM, followed with an update by a River Manager from the Environment Agency.
If anyone is reading this newsletter and would like to become a member, please contact Peter Webb, our Membership Officer, on 01353 658581.
Chairman’s Corner
I regret that not a lot has changed since I wrote my report last autumn. Navigation on much of our river system has continued to be restricted due to the repeated issue of ‘strong stream advice’ warnings and lock malfunctions. Once again, the incidence of high river flows has adversely affected the EnvironmentAgency’s ability to get out and maintain the navigation channels and structures. Boaters have had a raw deal over the past twelve months, with escalating costs and limited access to our local rivers and must now be praying to be dealt a better hand in 2025.
Although much effort continues to be expended nationally lobbying ‘the powers that be’ for additional financial support for our navigation authorities, the current drive to reduce public expenditure will undoubtedly make the task even more difficult. However we have no alternative but to renew our efforts if our waterways are to have a brighter future. The good news is that at the time of writing, the snowdrops are beginning to emerge i.e. the first sign that spring is on its way! Mind you, it is still only a few degrees above freezing.
The branch has been busy with our usual varied winter programme, i.e. talks on ‘TheFutureoftheIWA’, the historical concept and eventual building of the ‘Cut Off Channel’ and ‘The way the River Great Ouse has affected the development of St.Neots’. The year will be rounded off with our branch AGM in March, together with a report from the EA. Your committee are now working on next winter’s programme.
In November, we received the sad news that Chris Howes had passed away at the age of 64 after a long battle with cancer. You may recall that Chris had formerly been IWATrustee, Eastern Region Chairman, a role Cont’d...
that he took on in addition to being Chairman of Peterborough Branch. Latterly, on moving to Ely, Chris joined our branch and attended a number of branch meetings. However, he also became widely involved with the planned development of the Lincolnshire waterways and also the private members bill enacted to enable the Middle Level Commissioners to revise their original founding constitution. Chris will also be remembered for completely rewriting and updating the Imray Guides to the Great Ouse & Tributaries and also the Fenland Waterways. Sadly, he died before he could complete his last project, rewriting the Broads Guide. All in all, Chris made a major contribution to the Anglian waterways. It was a privilege for Carole and I to represent the branch at his funeral on the 2nd December.
The EnvironmentAgency is trialling a new online water pollution reporting tool and is asking interested parties for help testing the service (see page 19). I would therefore be obliged if any member concerned about a suspected pollution incident could use the link provided to report the problem and provide feedback regarding the service.
I have been participating in a series of online consultation meetings chaired by Paul Strudwick with the aim of charting future branch and regional relationships. The National Chairman has requested that the solution comes up from the branches rather than be dictated from HQ. So far, there has been a lot of constructive discussion, but no consensus of opinion regarding the need for a regional structure. Some branches value belonging to a region, whilst others see little advantage in having an additional layer in the organisation. In the East, we have not had a Regional Chairman for a number of years and the branch committee does not see a need for one. We consider that all we need is a nominated trustee with whom to discuss major issues and a contact at HQ for administrative queries. What do you the members think? Please contact either myself or the Secretary if you have any views on the matter.
The problems associated with the reluctance of people to join-in and participate in meetings is also being experienced by many other organisations. It was suggested that younger members could be attracted to an online rather than physical branch and that we should therefore expand our use of social media. Food for thought!
Keith Alderton
Broads Electrification
It was reported in November that the Broads Authority was considering charging boat hire companies lower fees for electric and hybrid vessels. Hired sailing boats would have their charges frozen at the 2024 level. These plans would not affect privately owned boats at this time. It was hoped that this eco-levy would pave the way for an electric switchover in due course in order to address the adverse environmental impact of fossil fuels.
However, hire boat operators warned that smaller companies would struggle to afford the additional cost of electrically propelled boats. At present there is a lack of charging infrastructure for weekly hire vessels on the Broads.
The BroadsAuthority has already had to consider staffing and service cuts due to a forecast £400.000 annual shortfall. This would seem to make any increase in expenditure on the provision of recharging facilities unlikely. Although well- meaning, the switchover would therefore seem to be an ’ambition’ rather than a ‘commitment’ at this time.
Keith Alderton
A tribute to Chris Howes by John Revell
The first time I met Chris, Christine and his boat Lily May was when we passed each other on the Caldon Canal. It was great to find 2 boats built by Fox Narrowboats enjoying this tremendous canal. We met many times after that well away from the Fens, including at Sprotborough between Doncaster and Rotherham on the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation. Another memorable encounter and amazing coincidence was in Newark. I was walking across a footbridge on my way to the supermarket just as Chris, Christine and Lily May were passing under it, having crossed the Wash a few days earlier and travelled up from Lincoln.
Much of my time with Chris was spent boating in the winter, well outside the dragonfly season, rarely relaxing and often in reverse. I recall turning up for a volunteer working party at Horseways Lock in vile weather in November. Only Chris, myself, and 2 others had come. Everyone else had been sensible and stayed indoors and it didn’t take long to decide this was not the day for a working party. I had come by boat and I asked Chris if he would be interested in helping me reverse to the nearest turning point. He jumped at the prospect. I had the easy job putting the boat in reverse gear while Chris did the trickier job of keeping the boat in the middle of the channel with a very long boat pole. After 45 mins we had reached the turning point whereupon he jumped off, walked back to his motorbike, waved cheerily and went home.
Campaigning to reopen Welches Dam Lock and to encourage more boaters to use the Old Bedford River
Chris obviously enjoyed that and this led to us working together on several campaign cruises to try and reopen the historic route dating back nearly 400 years to 1637 connecting Salters Lode near Downham Market with Chatteris and beyond along the Old Bedford River and Horseways Channel passing through Welney, Purls Bridge, Welches Dam and Horseways Locks.
Chris in his Imray Guide to the Fenland Waterways refers to boating in the the extreme, a succinct description of getting into a narrow tidal channel in reverse on another cold November day, spending 2½ hours digging out a channel with the propellor also in reverse (a technique learnt from the late, great Charlie Fox} with the aim of reaching the tidal doors and entering the non tidal Old Bedford River on the level, that is when the water level river inside and outside were the same.
Once in the Old Bedford River you had splendid views with the prospect of a fine destination and ideal photo opportunity outside the closed Welches Dam Lock and a great pub to aim for, the Lamb and Flag at Welney. You also had to contend with a river that was badly silted up and shallow in places with some of the worst cot weed anywhere on Britain’s Waterways and the knowledge that you would have to wait until you could leave via the same way, again on the level, but if you were lucky in forward gear.
After several successful trips, including one with 3 narrowboats taking part, one of which was 50 foot long, Peterborough Branch IWA, led by Chris decided on a “flotilla cruise” in August 2018. Despite advance publicity and many meetings with the Environment Agency who are responsible for these waterways, conditions were again tricky and in the end the flotilla consisted of Chris his crew, Lily May, a 2 person Canadian canoe, a kayak and a rowing boat - all other participants leaving their boats safely moored at Salters Lode on the non tidal Middle Level. But we were were successful and we all reached Welches Dam Lock to be greeted by an ITV reporter taking photographs using a drone who then interviewed various people including Chris, those on the canoe and the rowing boat and some who had left their boat at Horseways and walked to meet us. We then returned to Welney to be joined by others at the Lamb & Flag for a great evening.
There was no time to sit around to enjoy coffee and dragonflies the following morning as Chris and Lily May had to leave the Old Bedford, which on this occasion was relatively straightforward (he was even able to do this in forward gear} before heading for the IWA Festival of Water at St Neots which Chris had also helped to arrange together with a scheduled live press interview to take part in. There was also of course follow up publicity used at national level following the campaign cruise.
Only Christine knows how Chris found the time and the energy to do this, to attend all the committee meetings and other meetings at local and national level, to publish articles and campaign materials, to write and revise 2 Imray Guides and start work on a third guide, to help with the passage on the Middle Level Bill in the House of Lords, to chair the Middle Level Navigation Advisory Committee, to represent IWA on the initial discussions for the proposed vast new reservoir near Chatteris, to promote the benefits of the Boston to Peterborough waterways corridor as well as travelling the length and breadth of Britain’s canal network.
John Revell
Wilderness Boat Owners’ Club Keith Hadden Memorial Cruise –The Ely Ouse and Tributaries - 13th-18th September 2024
Funding British Waterways
At their AGM in May, the Wilderness Boat Owners’ Club endorsed their support of the Fund British Waterways Campaign as complementing their aim of “Supporting Waterway Restoration”. Their biennial Club cruise emphasised the need for such change, as encounters during their planned route gave weight to the problems that navigation authorities, in this case the EnvironmentAgency, is experiencing in attempting to eke out its limited resources.
From Whittington, on the River Wissey, the route was to take the ten trailboats to Brandon, on the Little Ouse. From here, a morning cruise was to be taken into the non-EA Santon Downham Forest section of the river (itself truncated by fallen trees that have not been cleared). However, the closure of the Brandon Lock, earlier during the year meant that the flotilla was unable to reach Brandon itself, instead having to moor below the lock.
The reason for the closure, was that the lock was used by the EA’s Flood Management Team during the spring flooding, earlier in the year. This has led to the lock and lock stream becoming completely silted up, even too shallow for the 15inch draft of a Wilderness Boat. The V-gates were also entirely immoveable due to the silt deposit in the lock chamber itself.
Although Brandon Lock has been one of the “at risk” FBW structures throughout the year, it is unlikely the EA’s Navigation Team will have the funding to re-open it until 2025 at the earliest. More concerning is that this lock will join Welches Dam and Swaffham Bulbeck locks on the list of permanently closed and lost amenities.
The itinerary also included a visit to Reach, at the end of Reach Lode. In places the reeds completely covered the channel, but all the boats managed the two-mile Roman cut to the Port, in the end.Afinal venue was at Denver, where there was the opportunity to see the partially cleared silt bank, below Denver Sluice Lock and the outside of Salter’s Lode Lock, where the Middle Level Link was closed for several months, earlier in the year, and is again causing problems for longer boats wishing to cross the tidal section of the Great Ouse.
The Cruise highlighted the problems that the navigational authorities are having in the east of the country, and the need to “Use Them or Lose Them”, or the extremities of the systemwillgraduallywither away.
Ivan Cane Cruise Organiser
A privileged encounter on the River Great Ouse
In June 2023 we set off from Bedford in our boat Otter’s Way for a couple of weeks holiday on the river. As we got further downstream past Ely we noted that a lot of the moorings had been roped off as they were in such a bad state of repair as to be unusable.
We were on our way to the Relief Channel and on passing the mooring at the site of the old Windmill pub we noticed that once again the end of the mooring was roped off. We were having a little moan about yet another mooring with a roped off area when we noticed a seal on the bank. It was too late to get the camera out so we decided to see if we could get a picture on the way back.
A couple of days later we returned, camera at the ready and you have guessed it, no seal. As it was lunch time, we decided to moor up in front of a wide-beamed steel boat that was already on the mooring.
We had not been there very long when a head popped up out of the water quickly followed by a second one. It was a seal with her pup that she had been taking for a swim. We watched them in the water for quite a time and they came in quite close to the side between the two boats.
It was then time to get out of the water for a rest. A pallet had been tied to the last mooring bollard to assist the pup climb onto the bank. First the mother put her weight onto the pallet to lower it in the water to let the pup climb on. Then she got off so that the pallet floated up again to let the pup climb out onto the bank. She then climbed out of the water without using the pallet and they both settled down for a rest. She seemed to have a basic understanding of physics!We felt very privileged to have been able to watch.
Although we have seen seals and pups at Earith we had not seen seals in this stretch of river before. Our neighbours on the steel boat informed us that the locals had thought that the seal was a male and were surprised when the pup was born. The area at the end of the mooring had been roped off to protect the two of them with notices requesting that people keep their distance. Please note that the photographs were taken with a telephoto lens.
Enid Hodgson
A Trip on the Caledonian Canal
I once stayed with my friend Grant who lives on the Island of Raasay which is situated between the Isle of Sky and the mainland of Scotland. To get there, I took the train on the very scenic line from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, a trip that I would recommend to anybody. We then drove over the new Skye Bridge and caught the ferry from Portree to Raasay.
Once there, I spent a week exploring the Island, visiting the remains of an iron ore mine and a sawmill. Most of the 2000 population live in the south of the island. The north of the island is very bleak and there you get an idea of what it would be like to live in one of the most remote parts of Britain. Here there is a road that was built by one man using only a wheelbarrow, pickaxe and shovel.
Whilst we were on the island, we took a trip on the paddle steamer Waverley. On the way back we went on the Caledonian Canal, stopping at FortAugustus for lunch. There we saw the flight of locks that connects the canal with Loch Ness and Loch Lochy. These lochs form part of the route of the Caledonian Canal. We then boarded a boat that took us on the man-made part of the canal and onwards to Loch Ness itself. This is rather like being on the sea!
We stopped at Urquhart Castle near Drumnadrochit. Just up the road there is a place called Milton! When we disembarked we drove to Inverness where Grant showed me where the canal joins the River Ness and on to the sea. We visited the docks at Inverness and saw a ship in port. I had seen three there from the train the previous week.
In the past, Clyde Puffers and small coasters used the canal, but most ships today are too large to go through. However, many fishing vessels, a few training ships and a large number of yachts and private vessels still use the canal as a safe route avoiding the dangerous alternative journey along the Pentland Firth. I should think that wind farm, lighthouse and oil rig support vessels could make use of the canal. However, the only recent commercial cargos that I have heard of are shipments of logs from west to east.
Robin Adams
Water Heater Safety Warning
The Environment Agency has asked us to inform our members that gas water heater manufacturer Morco has issued a safety warning to boat owners to stop using certain open-flued models. it is important that owners of such devices check to see if their heater is one of the types listed. Full details are shown on the warning document above. Keith Alderton
Memories of the IWAby Peter & Jean Webb
I often think back and wonder how we joined the IWA; we have belonged for half of our lives!
When we had seaside holidays, especially in Cornwall, I often thought it would be nice to have a little boat to potter around to the next beach. Back home I would look at magazines such as Practical Boating and read about small craft both motorised and sail. Jean, although she grew up on the coast, was not keen on the sea and I soon decided that taking anything to the coast was time consuming and depended too much on the weather.
In 1971, with another couple, we had our first canal holiday on the Llangollen Canal for a week. A 40ft Anglo Welsh boat, starting at Trevor Basin. We had a daughter of 3 months, they had one of a few weeks and so soon we were known as the Nappy Boat as we used to hang them on the bull bars at the front of the boat. Two years later (3rd-5thAugust 1973) the IWA Festival was held in Ely. By this time our second daughter was born so we took both to view the boats.
On 1st July 1974 the Cambridge Section of the IWA achieved full branch status with Ronald Russell as Chairman.The branch then went on to make a major contribution to the re-opening of the Great Ouse up to Bedford which was completed in 1978.
Many years later, we and another couple, hired a canal boat for a week in 1988 (this was to become a regular occurrence over the next 12 years) At that time we regularly bought Waterways World magazine and other canal related publications so we must have read more about the IWA.
Our recollections of joining the Cambridge Branch are hazy. Our first remembered meeting was on a walk around Wicken Fen then, the next day, seeing them at Reach Fair. Our membership card has joining date 18th January1990. (As nothing has made its way into our scrapbooks it obviously made little impact with us!!)
We went to the Botanic Gardens to their winter meetings. In those days it was closely linked to a university canal group and the branch had a bigger membership and attendance at the meetings.
In March 1991 we bought our first boat Sam a Capti 16ft “day” boat for £1200. It was moored at The Ship, Brandon Creek (£50 per year!). As it had a small cabin to sleep in we did manage journeys as far as Oundle by storing a Portaloo and the Camping Gas stove under the rear seat !
After a couple of years attending the winter talks we were “volunteered” to provide the refreshments for meetings, something we have done ever since.
In Feb 1995 we upgraded to a Norman 20ft called Live Wire. Quite appropriate as I was working in electronics. It was luxury! Had its own toilet compartment and we could stand up when using the cooker albeit the hatch had to be open.
In 1996 I was co-opted onto the IWAcommittee and then a full committee member at the next AGM
We loved the River Nene and wanted to cruise the canals more; so in July 1998 we sold Live Wire and after much searching decided to order a brand new 26ft boat from Sea Otter who were making trailable aluminium narrowboats. We named ours Arachne as no other boat had that name and it was appropriate for our surname of Webb,As we had a small car the company had a towing service that for £100 per day, plus the cost of diesel, he would drive from Sheffield take us and the boat to the Thames for £150 and the same for the return journey !!!!
In March 1999 Arachne was delivered to us. Later that year we had our two weeks cruising the Thames. Fabulous memories, lock keepers in smart uniforms, sitting in the evenings watching the party boats go by. One day at Kingston we saw a quite tatty fibreglass adrift in the middle of the river.
The teenagers aboard said their battery was flat so we roped them to us and took them upriver to a creek opposite Hampton Court where one of them lived. They kindly gave us 2 cans of beer. The following year we read in the newspapers about a boat belonging to Chris Tarrant had been torchedit was the boat we had rescued! Not that we would have recognised it from The Sun newspaper’s description!
2001 was the first IWA Festival that we took a boat to at Milton Keynes.
In 2004 I was jobless due to redundancy and Jean was not enjoying her job. In October that year DJ John Peel died who was only a few years older than us so we made the decision to downsize our house so that we could spend the summer months on Arachne discovering more canals and rivers.
In 2005 (without having a buyer for our house) we started our first long cruise. On this we attended the Preston Brook IWA Festival, then every year afterwards we made the Festival a definite destination. Following years were:; Beale Park on the Thames , St Ives which was very muddy and the first year where we both worked for the 3 weeks, Wolverhampton where I joined the Team of Plumbers, Redhill on the Soar then Beale Park in 2010. In 2011 a week before joining the team I fell into the canal and broke my ankle so I missed that year. As there were no more big festivals it was the end of a era.
On 12 July 2012, the CRT took over the responsibilities of the state-owned British Waterways in England and Wales.
We did go to a couple of “Festival of Water” events (Northampton 2015 and St Neots 2018) and helped in a very small way.
In 2019 Arachne had done 15,000 miles, 6,000 engine hours and 7,800 locks.As its original expensive items would soon need upgrading we decided to sell.
In hindsight it was a good decision as Covid soon appeared and we would not have been able to use the boat for a couple of seasons. We had, what we think, were the best years of the canals. We still visit them by foot but are saddened at the state they are in these days
At the nextAGM I shall be resigning from the committee and not renewing my membership. It is with sadness that I do and leave the present committee with more work. It would be great if we could get new people onto the committee as most have served over 15 years – people do get depressed trying to find new events for members, especially when after a lot of organising, it has to be cancelled due to lack of interest. Covid has not helped, but people are just not willing to join committees these days.
Sam, Live Wire & Arachne
The Inland Waterways Association is a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No 612245. Registered as a charity No 212342. Registered Office: 16B Chiltern Court, Asheridge Rd, Chesham, HP5 2PX. Phone No 01494 783453.