Ouse News - Spring 2024

Great Ouse Branch

Ouse News - Spring 2024 Newsletter covering the Great Ouse and tributaries Contents:

New Denver Moorings photo courtesy of Environment Agency

Campaigning for the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and development of the Inland Waterways.

Branch Committee

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Branch News

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Chairman’s Corner

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Freight News

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Bank Raising MLC

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Monks Lode Trip

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Bucket List Cruise

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Flood Pictures

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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.

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Great Ouse Branch Committee: Chairman: Keith Alderton Tel : 01366 727236 Secretary: John Hodgson Tel : 01234 344884 Treasurer: Enid Hodgson Tel : 01234 344884 Ouse News Editor: Carole Alderton Tel : 01366 727236 Membership Officer: Peter Webb Tel: 01353 658581 Member: Stephen Foote Tel: 01763 838936

Do you have a few hours to spare? We need your help!

We are a small, 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.

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Branch News Winter Meetings are at 8.00 pm at the North Lodge Pavilion, North Lodge Park, Milton, CB24 6UD. T HURSDAY 28 TH M ARCH 2024

We hope to welcome more new members soon.

This will be our Annual General Meeting, together with an update from the Environment Agency.

T HURSDAY 24 TH O CTOBER 2024 This will be an illustrated talk by our Chairman, Keith Alderton, entitled The Cut-Off Channel - conceived in 1642 and completed in 1964.

T HURSDAY 24 TH N OVEMBER 2024

To be confirmed

See the names of our longest serving Branch Members on page 5. (Date issued by IWA Head Office -7th December, 2023)

If anyone is reading this newsletter and would like t o b e c o m e a m e m b e r, please contact Peter Webb, our Membership Officer, on 01353 658581.

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Chairman’s Corner A Happy New Year to one and all!

It has certainly seemed like a long winter with early frosts at the beginning of December and severe flooding in January. We are fortunate to live between the heads of navigation of the River Wissey at Stoke Ferry and the River Little Ouse at Brandon, both of which are protected by being able to discharge flood water into the Cut-off Channel below.

Even so, the Little Ouse has overtopped its banks locally at Hockwold.

However, it is at times like this that we are glad that we keep our narrowboat on a well-regulated canal rather than on a river!

Our winter boating exploits have been non-existent apart from three days spent socialising and winterising our boat at the beginning of December. I am glad to say that so far this winter we have not suffered from frost damage, despite waiting until temperatures dropped to minus 4 degrees Celsius before draining off the domestic water system.

We kick off our new off-season branch programme with the AGM on the 28th March followed, as usual, with an update from a River Manager of the Environment Agency.

Our first autumn meeting will consist of a talk by me entitled ‘The cut-off Channel – conceived in 1642 and completed in 1964’ in which I explore the belated completion of Vermuyden’s plans to alleviate flooding in the South Level.

In November, our subject is still to be confirmed.

Keith Alderton

Ouse News Page 5 Robin Adams reports on some of the interesting cargos handled by East Coast ports, large and small in the past year: Sutton Bridge – The coaster River Trader has recently loaded a 175 tonne steam turbine made in Peterborough by Howden Turbo. The turbine was shipped to Antwerp for onwards transhipment to Singapore.

Kings Lynn There have been some shipments of aggregates from Glensanda in West Scotland to Kings Lynn in the vessels Wilson Main and Wilson Gdansk.

A single consignment of barley was taken by the Fri River around Britain to Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Three consignments of malted barley were taken by sea to Buckie in North East Scotland.

Ipswich – The discharge of 13,500 tonnes of urea fertiliser from the 14,030 dwt bulk carrier Selecta at the port of Ipswich in May brought the port’s overall total of imports and exports to more than one million tonnes; a new record.

Names of our longest serving Branch Members: Mr Ivan Cane Mrs Pam Holt Mr John McLeod Mr J Aylmer Mr R A Edson Mr & Mrs Sally Roberts Mr D J Ashman Dr & Mrs R Gambell

Honorary (H) IWA Membership IWA Membership IWA Membership IWA Membership IWA Membership IWA Membership Joint Life (M)

08/01/1960 17/04/1971 24/01/1972 12/05/1973 11/08/1973 23/07/1975 19/08/1975 09/09/1975

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The Middle Level Commissioners bank raising scheme Further to our briefing of August 2023, we would like to inform you on progress to date.

As it takes a dedicated delivery team to manage a scheme of this scale and complexity our focus has been on building a project team to plan and develop the scheme ready for construction.

In December we appointed Balfour Beatty as our main contractor for the project. We have been working with Balfour Beatty to appoint a design consultant who will be developing the engineering design for the entire scheme, to understand the exact requirements across the catchment, along with an outline design for sections of the Sixteen Foot and Forty Foot Drains.

This will take these areas into construction as soon as possible, following the completion of all the necessary environmental assessments.

We anticipate the appointment of the design consultant in January 2024.

During January Balfour Beatty will start carrying out and managing survey work across the Middle Level System. The first phase of aerial survey work will start late January 2024 and will be carried out using an aerial drone to survey the surrounding areas from the Isle of Ely Way (A141) to the Stonea area of the Sixteen Foot. This work will take approximately 5 working days on site.

Before the surveys start, we will contact individual landowners where access to land will be needed. We will discuss the details of access arrangements and the surveys that will be carried out. Aerial drone surveys generate high-resolution and detailed 3D models of areas where low-quality, outdated or even no data, exists. This enables up to date and accurate maps to be produced quickly.

Ouse News Page 8 Further surveys will be carried out as part of the design over the next year to support the planning and future years’ bank raising works that is being developed. Our consultant will carry out all assessments that will be needed as part of the bank raising works. This will include the Environment Impact Assessment that considers all aspects of the works and how it may affect the ecology and environment across the catchment.

Programme of works: 2024 Winter/spring Appoint contractor Surveys and investigation work Develop the desilting and bank raising design Commence Environment Impact Assessments (EIA) & surveys Spring/summer Develop the programme of construction works Develop EIA & other environmental assessments & continue surveys Autumn/winter 2025 Desilting preconstruction work Start desilting works of the Main Drain 2025 Winter - Summer Bank raising surveys and detailed design of embankment and hard defences Further environmental surveys Late summer Bank raising preconstruction works Autumn Bank raising works start In the spring we will hold a public drop-in event that will give all our stakeholders the opportunity to meet the team and ask questions about the project before the construction works start.

During the construction period, we plan to hold regular pop-up surgeries and local school visits to talk about the work we are doing.

Ouse News Page 9 We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support in our work. We will continue to keep you up to date with project progress, locations and timescales.

The project is fully funded through flood risk management grant-in-aid (GiA) funding from Defra.

This funding is from central government for managing flood risk in England providing additional assurance required to ensure value for money is delivered.

If you would like to know more about this scheme or about any of the works we are carrying out, follow this link to our webpage https:// middlelevel.gov.uk or contact our Public Liaison team at bankraising@middlelevel.gov.uk Follow us on Twitter @ML1862

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October Trip To Monks Lode At the end of October last year three narrow boats Lion, Strait ’n Narrow and Olive Emily, all based on the Middle Level, spent time exploring the waterways beyond Lodes End lock. They met no other moving boats beyond the lock and just a handful of fishermen. Despite its closeness to Peterborough this area feels very remote. Many will know that this is the lowest place on our interconnected waterways in Britain. Yet from here you can reach the highest point at Standedge tunnel 643 feet (196 m) above sea level, on the Huddersfield Narrow canal, a voyage which one of the boats had undertaken earlier in the year.

Getting to Lodes End lock from Nordelph and March was straightforward and passage through the lock (a drop of just a foot) was equally straightforward and we reached the end of navigation at Holme in good time to spend an excellent evening in the Admiral Wells that claims to be the lowest pub in Britain.

The wide turning (winding) point at Holme comes after a narrow stretch but the turning point itself is obvious and easy. Private and hire boats up to 60' long from Fox’s Marina in March turn here. In the past it was used by Fen Lighters collecting and dropping off people and goods at the now closed transhipment area and Holme train station. See picture: Boats turning at Holme winding point.

The next morning we set off to explore the rarely visited Monk’s Lode which starts at the junction with New Dyke adjacent to the splendid new 24 hour rural mooring provided recently by MLC. On the way we saw Kingfishers, Red Kites, Buzzards, Kestrel, Merlin and a large herd of Chinese Water Deer.

Ouse News Page 11 We knew that there was no turning point after the junction with Monks Lode so we adopted a simple system of breasting up together 2 boats with ropes fore and aft with one boat facing one way and the other facing the other. See picture: Olive Emily and Lion breasting up together in Monks Lode. This worked well and after 90 minutes we reached the natural end of navigation near the main line railway. We were all impressed with the work that MLC have done to clean out and deepen the last mile or so (we measured a depth of between 4 and 5 feet).See pictures: Monks Lode, journeys end and extensive work by MLC. The return journey was easy and after a brief stop for photographs at Conington Fen bridge we returned to the junction and MLC’s rural mooring before heading off to the extensive new moorings at Ramsey basin for the evening.See picture: The turning space at Ramsey basin.

When we reached Lodes End lock on the return journey we passed through “on the level” which happens by design from time to time to enable drainage operations. All we had to do was open and close both sets of gates, refit the chain on the top gates loosely and securely [see MLC note 10] and lock the enclosure. MLC were pumping hard (our trip was between Storms Babet and Ciaran) and the river was low at Ramsey basin. We turned the shorter boat that afternoon and the longer 55' boat early the next morning when the river had risen to more normal levels. We had chosen to eat at the Jolly Sailor in Great Whyte. This was warm and friendly and the food and drink were great. This historic pub has many rooms so some people were glued to the TV screen watching the Rugby World Cup final while others were able to completely ignore it.

Returning to March the following morning was again easy and enjoyable.

Fishermen were lined up in good humour for about a mile in Benwick waiting for the start of a fishing competition.

Ouse News Page 12 We met just one moving narrowboat, one cruiser and one small fishing day boat in 4 hours boating. Meanwhile the third boat which needed to get through Marmont Priory lock before the planned closure for maintenance met a group of paddle boarders in wet suits heading along Well Creek towards Outwell. It’s great to see people enjoying the Middle Level in lots of different ways out of season.

Mike Daines and John Revell

Turning at Holme

Monks Lode

Clear navigable passage

Ramsey Basin

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Bridge Boatyard Bridge Road Ely, Cambs CB7 4DY

email info@bridgeboatyard.com Website www.bridgeboatyard.com Telephone 01353 663726

Moorings in marina and on riverside in historic Ely. Close to rail station.

Repairs and servicing Engineering and glassfibre workshops Slipway Suppliers of diesel, gas and coal Authorised Nanni dealership Gas safe engineer

Ouse News Page 14 The Bucket List Cruise part two - from Bristol to Stafford via Reading, Oxford and Crick by Graham Schneider This is the second instalment of our cruise log and I can hear you shouting why Crick? Well you will have to read it to find out.

When we last left you we were spending three days in the Bristol Floating Harbour opposite the SS Great Britain. Now this place is very cosmopolitan and a wonderful place to visit. Yet again the weather was kind and it is the type of place a people watcher like me enjoys. All life is there.

On Sunday Morning we had our visit to SS Great Britain and after a late lunch we set sail to catch the tide which would allow us to get as far as Keynsham and off the tidal section of the River Avon. In actual fact we did better than we thought and found a good mooring pontoon at Bitton near the Avon Valley Heritage Railway Bridge. There were lots of families enjoying picnics and swimming in the river. Even high diving off the railway bridge, definitely not for the faint-hearted or me. I offered to hold Sue’s towel while she went in but her reply is not for those of a delicate disposition.

Our next planned visit was for Bath. We moored half way up the Widcombe flight of locks and visited Widcombe and Bath.

Sidney Gardens Bridge and Tunnel in Bath Knowing that the canal/river in Bath has suffered at the hands of constant cruisers/ moorers. We were pleasantly surprised to find clear moorings all around Bath. As we came out of Bath it became clear that all the constant moorers/cruisers from Bath had moved out into the countryside and we could not find anything between Bath and Bradford on Avon. Very disappointing.

Ouse News Page 15 We carried on beyond Hilperton Marsh having tried three times to moor without success (shallow water or areas set aside for wildlife or full up with constant cruisers/moorers). We found one place to moor at Sells Green near a caravan site. A very good time restricted mooring and obviously well ‘policed’ by CRT. For the first time in long days we were happy to get to the 29 locks of Caen Hill in Devizes. It took us 5 hours but the good weather had returned so the crew did not complain at all until the top. Devizes is another town it is worth spending a little time to explore particularly if you like beer. The local brewery comes highly recommended and they do tours. The rest of the town is very pleasant to walk around/shopping and of course there is the wharf tea rooms and museum. A very interesting place.

We were now cruising a little slower as we had a timetable to meet up with relatives near Newbury and we were running ahead of schedule. We had been told of a music festival at All Cannings but it was a week or more in the future so we decided to carry on through and stop at Honey Street by The Barge right opposite the White Horse.

One is a pub the other is on the side of a hill I will leave you to decide which is which but here is a clue.

Ouse News Page 16 As you can see the weather in the Vale of Pewsey was glorious and we enjoyed it. Our aim now was to do the four locks to the summit and through the Bruce Tunnel then down six locks to Crofton Bridge where there is a steam pump house and a museum. We have now started on the downwards part of the canal towards Reading and the Thames.

The situation changes now and all the locks have to be left empty with the bottom paddle open. It makes hard work of it because if there are no other boats about you have to fill the lock and empty it. Those going uphill have to do the opposite of course. Once they have used the lock they have to empty it and leave the bottom paddle up. Apparently it is something required because the Rivers Dunn and Kennet rise very quickly when there is rainfall and that is what it did to us - rain all day! We had a good cruise to Hungerford despite stopping to help another boater who had got his stern rope wrapped around his propeller. Despite all our efforts he was unable to free it or cut the rope. We all got cold and wet that day.

We moored up at the wharf and the following day had a nice walk up and down the High Street in Hungerford. An antique hunter’s dream I think, well Sue liked it. Found fantastic local butchers who did sausages to die for.

We had some of those alright!

Off then to Newbury where we had decided to have a couple of days off so we booked into a boat yard for moorings with services so that we did not have to run engine or generator. I have a liking for Newbury as a town, must be because I am a Berkshire lad born.

We intended to meet cousins in Thatcham and we were there by lunchtime so had a walk into the town. We contacted our relatives and they invited us to join their History Society for a talk. The speaker’s subject was the Avebury Stones. We found it an interesting subject. I am including this snippet of information because you will hear later how this was the first and not last piece of education our boating bought us on this trip.

Having spent the next day at Thatcham we set off towards Reading and the Thames.

Ouse News Page 17 The next piece of excitement was at Woolhampton Lift Bridge. It is the type of thing you want to do rarely. As you drop down the lock, just outside the bottom gates and coming in from the right is the River Kennet and it has a powerful flow. The crew have to go and swing the road bridge before the boat leaves the lock tail. When the bridge was open and I left the lock I went through that section like on a surfboard and travelling so fast despite having very low engine revs. As soon as I had passed the bridge I had to engage reverse with the engine at full throttle trying to hold my own backwards against the river flow. Just to add a little more spice to the situation what is on the allocated landing site for me to get the crew back? Yes you’ve guessed it, a constant cruiser/moorer tied up and not at home. Luckily I was able to get the boat further back and on to a reasonable piece of banking to get Sue back on. I could not do the next bit without her and the next bridge with access is about a mile away. Well things always come in threes. We got as far as Aldermaston but the lift bridge was out of order.

We were second in the queue and decided to fill the water tank whilst waiting. Our luck changed when getting back on station, the bridge lifted and all the other boats were not ready. We were, so they waved us on through.

Number three turned up the following day when we met a very large boat which was going through in front of us but informed us that he intended to turn in reverse at County Lock because of the height of his boat and one of the bridges in Reading needed him to go backwards. I must admit I did not understand it but it is his boat and he had all the handrails etc covered in protective foam. Anyway we arrive at County Lock and found his boat tied up under the bridge and not on the lock tail. Their crew call us forward as they had decided to let us go through first and out of their way. It worked for both of us because I was then able to warn boats coming upstream Next stop the Thames. Our first stop on the Royal River is at Caversham which happens to be my birthplace. Of course I now have to pay the EA their dues. We decided to have a seven day licence and go beyond Oxford to come back and in at the Sheepwash Channel when our time was up. We enjoy the Thames and the crew particularly enjoy it because all the locks are manned.

Ouse News Page 18 Our progress upstream is very leisurely and we have good opportunities to visit towns and villages along the Thames. To list all the wonderful places and opportunities on the river would take a book and my suggestion would be to take a trip yourselves and you will not be disappointed. One of our favourite towns is Abingdon a market town just outside Oxford. The town enjoys its river and welcomes boating visitors.

On this trip we also found a new place to visit. Buscot.

The village of Buscot has a wealth of history and spectacular old buildings in the centre and an NT picnic site alongside the weirpool. There are walks on both sides of the river which are well worth the exercise. We were lucky enough to find a mooring just above the lock in the weir stream by paying a small charge to the lock keeper. We decided this would be the furthest we would go upstream as we have previously been to Lechlade 2 miles further on and the extra two locks would make our return journey to Oxford a bit tight for time. The crew decided to enter Oxford through the Sheepwash Channel and Isis lock.

The visitor moorings at Oxford are quite good and peaceful. They are a short distance from the City centre so all amenities are nearby. A chance to stock up the food locker. We spent a couple of days on the short term visitor moorings which gave us time to do the tourist visits to Oxford and then relax a bit before taking on the South Oxford Canal.

Now the crew is going to earn her corn!

Ouse News Page 19 However I know we are both happy to be back on the narrow canal system. We slowly worked our way through Kidlington and on towards Thrupp. For those of you who are Morse/Lewis fans you may know this is where true beer is served to the detectives.

I note from her diary that the first mate has noticed that she not only has to do the lockwheeling she also has to operate the lift bridges.

Now I am sure that out in the world of Chuggers there will be some shout -ing it is unfair that the women do all the hard work. Just to set your minds at ease, WE run a very democratic ship. There are two parts needing to be covered if we are to make progress. 1) Lock operation (also known as lockwheeling) coupled with bridge operations, and 2) Helmsman (steering/engine room and rope handling). One person cannot do it all effectively so everyday I ask the first mate her preference locking or helmsman? Invariably she prefers to do the locks and bridges. As skipper I just enjoy boating and everything connected with it. So, I pick up whatever is left after ‘Senior Management’ has made her choices.

As we progress towards Banbury we have to pass through Somerton Deep Lock which has a rise of 12 feet. It is dark down there when you and your boat are on your own.

Rural moorings are the norm for this section of the South Oxford but the invention of Armco allows us to be secure and safe.

Our next stop will be in Banbury, another market town that embraces its canal history and is well worth a visit. It includes a waterways museum at Tooleys Boatyard. The boatyard is still a working yard. Mooring overnight is simple and normally very quiet.

We have a crew meeting and decide to increase our cruising range to take in the River Soar and Leicester before heading back towards Stafford.

However as with all boating plans we must keep an eye on the weather.

The Rivers Soar and Trent can be very volatile at times of flood.

Ouse News Page 20 Setting sail from Banbury our route is now set for Napton, Braunston and on to Crick. Whilst all these places are beautiful, there are so many parts of this area that are steeped in canal history. From Fenny Compton tunnel which isn’t a tunnel at all! (they took the roof off it) to Braunston with its towering church spire and tunnel with a kinky bit in the middle.

We eventually arrive at Crick and I have an ex-work colleague who lives there and we decided to meet up. Surprise, surprise another piece of that education I spoke about earlier. David is now a tour guide for Rugby School and he had a tour scheduled for that afternoon. Would Sue and I like to join the tour? Too right we would! A most interesting visit and I learned a lot about how Rugby School was started to educate boys of the poorer classes and its progress to what it is now. No poor there now methinks and they even take girl students. How things change We were getting a little bit concerned about the amount of rain that had been falling and how it would affect our progress. It wasn’t long before I had a text message telling me that there was flooding on the River Soar and the Craneet flood lock on the River Trent had been closed due to the river being in flood.

We decided we would wait a while to decide our route home so we descended the Foxton flight of two sets of five staircase locks.

Whilst waiting at the top lock we noticed that the following weekend was the Foxton Locks Festival. We are members of the Foxton Inclined Plane Trust but have never been able to attend the festival. We made a call and the lady in charge of boat moorings for the festival arranged to meet us at the bottom of the flight. We updated our decision about our route home. We were not concerned about the flooding rivers at the moment and felt we could probably get to Burton on Trent over the next couple of weeks. But our worry was a section of river between the canal sections around Alrewas.

If we get stuck there behind flood waters we would never have enough time to get back home within our time restraints. Decision made we will stick on the canal system and go back to Braunston but not before attending the Foxton Locks Festival.

Ouse News Page 21 When the lady arrived to tell us about the moorings it was such a shock because I knew her from my early days in Saffron Walden. Her ex-husband was a local emergency doctor and we regularly met up at work and socially. Small world. We offered to help with the setting up because we were going to be on site for a few days, we might as well help. I am glad we did. It was great fun and the festival was well attended. The music was fantastic. The weather was kind until the day to break down the festival when rain came down in buckets.

We were now on the homeward leg of the trip. Back to Braunston and off towards Hillmorton and Rugby. Cruising was relatively easy with only a few locks until we arrive at Hawkesbury Junction (known to boaters as Sutton Stop).

Through the arch and onto another canal, The Coventry. We will also take in the Ashby canal as it is a remarkable canal because it is one of the few with no locks.

Back on the Coventry canal we are en route to Nuneaton, Mancetter (where Queen Boudicca fought her last battle).

The Locks at Atherstone are another set of 11 locks but they are not difficult and very often volunteers are on hand to help.

This part of the cruise is going very quickly, probably because we know it so well and we can time our movements almost to the minute. We were surprised by how few boat movements were taking place. Perhaps it is the time of year? Earlier than we normally go out.

Another couple of days easy cruising and we were back home to Stafford Boat Club, our home mooring. The end of a fabulous cruise and one that we would do again in a heartbeat.

Ouse News Page 22 Photos of the local floods: John & Enid Hodgson

Bedford

Cardington Lock

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Great Barford

St Neots (Russell Alderton)

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Registered in England No 612245.

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