SHROPPIE FLY PAPER
Front cover : Steam launch ICTUS and VIPs prepare to cut the tape
(Photo by Graham Deakin)
President Michael Limbrey michael.limbrey@waterways.org.uk 01691 654081
Chairman Michael Haig michael.haig@waterways.org.uk 07801 415573
Secretary Philippa Bursey philippa.bursey@waterways.org.uk
Membership Secretary
Treasurer & Welsh Liaison Officer
Webmaster
Newsletter Editor
Committee Members
NW Region Chairman
Heritage & Planning (noncommittee position)
Dawn Aylwin dawn.aylwin@waterways.org.uk
Alan Platt alan.platt@waterways.org.uk
Alan Wilding alan wilding@waterways org uk
Andrew Smith andrew smith@waterways org uk
Susan Wilding Graham Russell susan wilding@waterways org uk graham.russell@waterways.org.uk
Sir Robert Atkins robert atkins@waterways org uk 01995 602225 or 07770 254444
Peter Brown
iwa@peterquita co uk
Branch Web pages
https://waterways.org.uk/shrewsburynorthwales
https://www.facebook.com/shrewsburynorthwales
If you would prefer to communicate with the branch in the traditional way, please write to the chairman c/o IWA Chesham address at foot of page
Shroppie Fly Paper is the newsletter of the Shrewsbury District & North Wales Branch of The Inland Waterways Association (IWA). IWA is a membership charity that works to protect and restore the country's 6,500 miles of canals and rivers For further information contact any committee member
Copy for Shroppie Fly Paper is very welcome, preferably by email. Photographs may be in any common computer format or as prints. Please supply a stamped addressed envelope if you require photographs to be returned. ‘Letters to the Editor’ intended for publication are invited, as are comments for the Editor’s private guidance. Copy and letters submitted for publication may be edited.
The Inland Waterways Association may not agree with the opinions expressed in this branch newsletter but encourages publicity as a matter of interest. Nothing printed may be construed as official policy unless stated otherwise The Association accepts no liability for any matter in this newsletter Any reproduction must be acknowledged.
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Registered Office: IWA Head Office, Unit 16B, First Floor, Chiltern Court, Asheridge Road, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 2PX
Tel: 01494 783 453 Web: www waterways org uk
THE EDITOR'S CUT...
I am writing this on our narrowboat currently moored up near Fradley Junction near the top of the Coventry Canal. We will shortly be moving onto the Trent & Mersey Canal making our way back to Nantwich as we finish our long summer cruise. The cruise started at the end of April with the Norbury Canal Festival which was wet but great fun (see page 26).
As a boater, I am deeply worried about the lack of funding for the waterways. The new Canal & River Trust policy on customer service facilities (see page 8) clearly states that existing facilities now deemed nonessential will simply remain closed if vandalised or they break down. So we can expect to see a fairly rapid decline in the level of provision.
Hopefully the new "Fund Britain's Waterways" group (see page 7) will be effective in making the case to government for adequate funding in the future.
But it's not all bad news! This issue of Shroppie Fly Paper contains lots of news of positive developments on the canals in our branch area.
The official opening of the new length of the Montgomery Canal and the start of work on Schoolhouse Bridge are great news. Let's hope that the new Restore The Montgomery! appeal will raise lots of money to allow the Shropshire Union Canal Society volunteers to continue their efforts south of Crickheath.
Elsewhere, the Shrewsbury & Newport Canal Trust have been pushing ahead with work at Wappenshall and, of course, organising the Norbury Canal Festival. And we will be helping at the Whitchurch Canal Festival in September as they work to maintain and extend the canal arm towards the town.
So... There are still plenty of waterways events this year and we hope to see you at one or more of them.
Andrew Smith
Next copy date: Friday, October 27, 2023
SHROPPIE FLY PAPER BACK ISSUES ONLINE!
Did you know that you can access back issues of this magazine at issuu.com? The link to find issues back to 2009 is But if that’s too much to type in, try this shortened version!
https://issuu.com/waterwaysassoc/stacks/ ff499dbd5f2941bba5e738cf88c600d6
https://bit.ly/2Pn5arf
IWA SHREWSBURY DISTRICT & NORTH WALES BRANCH DIARY 2023
You can find details of the various events mentioned below in the magazine.
To reduce travelling and cost many of the branch business meetings now take place online. If you would like to join us online, please contact our Chairman at:
michael.haig@waterways.org.uk
July 1416, 2023
Gnosall Canal Festival Page 27
July 2930, 2023
Gathering of Historic Boats, Audlem Page 21
Aug 45, 2023
Aug 14, 2023
Sep 23, 2023
Sept 23, 2023
Branch Lock Wind Page 5
Branch Committee Meeting (online)
Whitchurch Canal Festival Page 24
Local Canals Exhibition, Shrewsbury Page 24 & Back cover
HOW DO YOU WANT YOUR COPY OF SHROPPIE FLY PAPER?
This magazine is available in a range of different forms:
◊ Hard copy printed magazine
◊ Downloadable electronic PDF file
◊ Electronic version accessed online through issuu.com
Distribution of Shroppie Fly Paper in all forms is handled by IWA headquarters staff. So, if you would like to change the way that you receive this magazine, please email membership@waterways.org.uk. 2
FROM THE STEERER
As usual, and especially at this time of year, we seem to have been very busy since we last met through these pages. Our range of activities never ceases to surprise me, and we ’ re very lucky that the branch has such wonderful waterways in our area and an enthusiastic team to help manage all the things we do.
As you know, each year we work very hard to put together a great waterways calendar as a cornerstone of our annual fundraising. For the 2024 issue (already!), Dawn Aylwin, Andrew Smith and I formed the calendar team tasked with pulling it all together.
As last year, we managed to meet our target of having printed copies available in time for the Norbury Festival at the end of April, so copies are now on sale at various canalside outlets and by mail order.
We’ll also be getting them into the popup charity card shops in Shrewsbury and Oswestry in the late autumn. I do urge you to consider buying at least one copy – the quality is excellent and they make super gifts – and by doing so you can show your support for the branch and for the local canals. Find out how to get yours on page 22.
It helps enormously that we have some very talented photographers who capture fabulous images of local waterway scenes and then kindly allow us to use them, both for the calendar and in this newsletter. We would love to welcome and showcase new photographers. If you ’ re a regular reader you’ll probably remember that we gave some helpful tips about what we need on page 23 of the Spring 2023 issue. If that’s now gone to the great recycling bin, you can still find it online at https://issuu.com/waterwaysassoc/docs/sfp 202303.
The Norbury Canal Festival itself was wellattended by the public and a successful event for the branch, although it has to be admitted that our hardy volunteers would have preferred there to have been rather less rain!
By the first evening the car park field was passable but starting to get a bit soft in lowlying patches, by the second evening the going was heavy to difficult, and on the third day it was off limits except to 4x4 owners at their own risk!
To our surprise, despite the difficulty finding parking and the extremely wet and muddy towpath, the public still turned out in force and seemed remarkably cheerful. Your columnist was only a little less cheerful while laundering the
panels of our mudsplashed gazebo. In hindsight, perhaps we should have remembered when purchasing that colours other than white are available.
More recently, it was a great privilege to be invited to two important and highly significant events on the Montgomery: the breaking ground ceremony at Schoolhouse Bridge and the reopening of the navigation from Pryces Bridge to Crickheath Basin. Full details on page 13.
Continuing the Montgomery theme, I was delighted to be asked to make my debut as a speaker at the annual Montgomery Canal Forum, held this year at the rather intimidatingly named “Aico Centre of Excellence” at Oswestry.
I will leave it to others to judge whether I met the criteria for “excellence”, but for me this was a great opportunity to introduce to a varied audience the work of IWA and in particular our latest campaign to Protect Our Waterways.
IWA’s members have been reporting, with increasing frequency, their concerns about the deteriorating quality of some of the waterways in different parts of the country as funding decreases in real (inflationadjusted) terms.
At the same time, various navigation authorities – not only Canal & River Trust – have been saying that they just don’t have the money they need to keep the waterways in good order. To varying degrees, they’re all partly funded by government and they’re all struggling with funding cuts.
Meanwhile, changes in the frequency and severity of droughts and floods threaten canals and rivers. As we well know, CRT and its contractors are still spending millions of pounds, working to repair the catastrophic nearcollapse at Toddbrook Reservoir above Whaley Bridge in the Derbyshire Peaks.
While many navigation authorities need help, the campaign has gained added urgency due to the government’s continued inability to give clarity over future funding for Canal & River Trust, after the current 15year agreement ends in 2027 – only 4 years away.
By the time you read this, barring a sudden revelation, the review by Defra that is supposed to determine future funding will be a whole year overdue – the legal agreement with CRT specified that it would be completed by 1st July 2022.
To maintain the pressure – and indeed to step it up if, as we fear, the government proposes to reduce funding for CRT and others rather than increase it, IWA has brought together a new group – Fund Britain’s Waterways – to campaign collectively for an increase in government funding, and to promote awareness of the huge economic, environmental and social wellbeing value the waterways provide (see page 7).
The new group links organisations as varied as British Marine, the Royal Yachting Association, RBOA, AWCC, other boaters’ representative bodies and restoration societies and trusts in common cause to campaign for sustainable, adequate and consistent funding for Britain’s waterways.
IWA is urging its members, and interested waterwaylovers who may not yet be members, to join us and support our campaign. Simply go to https://waterways.org.uk/campaigns/protectourwaterways to find out how.
Michael Haig Branch ChairmanBranch Lock Wind 45 August 2023
Our annual lock wind will take place at Cholmondeston Lock on 45 August.
In case you are not familiar with the term "lock wind", we help boats through the lock and invite donations from grateful boaters.
Cholmondeston Lock (near Venetian Marina just outside Nantwich) is one of the busiest in the country so a good place to hold the event. It is also a good social event where you can chat with other IWA members.
As well as donations, we also have a stall selling jams, chutneys, cakes and books. We also sometimes have canalrelated bricabrac.
To make the event successful, we need as much help as possible from branch members. Here are some ways that you can help:
◊ Help work the lock the more people available the better. You don't need to attend the whole event (even a few hours would be most appreciated). There is parking and a nice cafe at Venetian Marina so it's a pleasant day out.
◊ Donate baked goods cakes & biscuits always sell well
◊ Donate jams or chutneys boaters love them
◊ Donate goods for sale items such as books are popular as are canal related items
If you can help in any way, simply let any of the committee know using the contact details on the inside front cover of this magazine.
Membership Matters
A warm welcome to the following new members to the branch:
◊ James and Sabrina Anelay from Roam & Roost Holidays, Ellesmere Port
◊ Neil and Susan Evans from Llay, Wrexham
We look forward to meeting you all at various events; why not join us at our annual lock wind in August? Or help on our stall at Whitchurch in September.
Dawn Aylwin
REGION CHAIRMAN WRITES
So summer is here and everyone is on or about the waterways. More people, more boats each year, it seems, so the pressure on maintenance, water levels, weed and a myriad of other issues will be at the forefront of our minds.
Many colleagues have mentioned the apparent deterioration of some parts of the network and I have had to raise these issues with CRT on more than one occasion. So the IWA’s campaign to “Protect Our Waterways” has even greater significance than heretofore.
I have written before about the need for more funding from the Government and Ministers must be made aware of the vital importance of improving and developing our waterways rather than just letting things tick over. Local councils, MPs and other influential and relevant organisations can play a part here and IWA is at the forefront. All and anything that you can do locally to help will be greatly appreciated. We are still awaiting the Government’s decision on CRT’s financial allocation for the future and time is pressing!
Your Trustees are keen to encourage new members and new ideas and our campaigns will go some way to help achieve those objectives. We are not alone amongst charities in needing to economise our expenditure so all suggestions for fundraising will be gratefully accepted.
The move of HQ has now been completed and you will hear more in due course about faces and places. We have just appointed (May 31st) a new Chief Executive and she is Professor Sarah Niblock. An experienced academic in the university and charity sectors, she is a narrowboater and qualified helmswoman. She comes to us in the IWA at a time when economic, environmental and membership problems are at the forefront of our considerations and we wish her every success.
As ever, thank you for your continuing commitment and enthusiasm. Enjoy Summer on The Cut.
Sir Robert Atkins Chairman, North West Region
Major Waterways Campaign Group Launch "Fund Britain's Waterways"
As we were finalising this issue of Shroppie Fly Paper, the IWA and its partners formally announced the formation of the Fund Britain’s Waterways Action Group (FBW). The IWA is part of the FBW steering group along with AWCC (Association of Waterways Cruising Clubs), British Marine (trade body), NABO (National Association of Boat Owners) and RYA (Royal Yachting Association).
In addition, a further 21 bodies are already listed as FBW members. The aim is to broaden membership to include any organisation or individual with an interest in using or supporting inland waterways whether canal, river, tidal river or estuary.
This group has been formed to allow the waterways family to come together to campaign with a single voice for funding for the waterways.
The announcement states:
"It had been intended to launch the group in response to Defra’s announcement of the outcome of the review of government funding for the Canal & River Trust (CRT) from 2028 onwards.
However, despite being due in July 2022, the announcement has been repeatedly delayed. It is now clear that the situation is too urgent for us to wait any longer.
CRT’s government grant is fixed at its current level of £52.6m per annum until 2027. This already puts CRT in a difficult financial situation because of high inflation, the increasing impact of extreme weather resulting from climate change, and the substantial additional funding needed for reservoir maintenance in the wake of the nearcollapse of the dam at Toddbrook Reservoir in 2019.
A decision by government to further reduce CRT funding would threaten real cuts in maintenance, potentially leading to decline and even closure of some waterways. It was the likelihood of this outcome that triggered the coming together of the waterways family to form FBW. Although it was CRT’s funding which provided the impetus, we are only too well aware that inadequate funding is by no means confined to CRT and is risking the whole waterway network. FBW will therefore be campaigning for all navigation authorities to receive appropriate funding.
Our waterways need as many voices as possible to make the case for funding at a level to ensure that all the benefits documented in IWA’s Waterways for Today report can continue. FBW already represents hundreds of thousands of users and supporters of inland waterways.
If you have any suggestions for organisations that should be invited to join, please email info@fundbritainswaterways.org.uk.
Lastly, please do visit the campaign page fundbritainswaterways.org.uk, and please do like, retweet and share IWA’s posts on social media."
CRT Customer Service Facilities Policy Statement
In a clear indication of the strain being placed on Canal & River Trust's finances, it published a policy document in May which details levels of customer service facilities (CSF) which fall well below the standards laid out in the IWA Policy on the Provision of Boater Facilities published in April.
The CRT policy states that water, refuse/recycling and Elsan points will be provided with a maximum of one day's cruising between facilities (with a day being defined as 57 hours cruising). Pumpouts will be no more than 2 days cruising apart. IWA recommends 5 hours cruising maximum distance.
No provision is made in the CRT policy for reduced spacing in London and other large urban areas whereas the IWA policy recommends 2 hours cruising.
The CRT policy states that facilities such as showers, washing machines, tumble driers and public toilets are not considered to be part of the essential provision and worryingly, on the CRT webpage announcing the new policy, it states "Where showers, toilets or other facilities that are not part of the essential provision are subject to unplanned closure due to vandalism and/or breakdown, these will remain closed".
The full CRT policy document can be found at: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/refresh/media/original/48107customerservicefacilitypolicystatement2023.pdf
The IWA policy is available at: waterways.org.uk/aboutus/library/policyprovisionofboatersfacilities
Andrew SmithBench Press
We’re making good progress with our project to replace most of the dilapidated benches along the towpath in Nantwich.
Readers may recall that we successfully applied for community grants from Acton Edleston & Henhull Parish Council (now Burland & Acton PC) and Nantwich Town Council, to which we added matchfunding of our own.
The replacement benches have now arrived and have been taken into storage at Nantwich Canal Centre. At a meeting with Canal & River Trust just before we went to press, we agreed that we would earmark the week commencing July 17 for the assembly and installation work, which will be led by CRT staff supported by volunteers.
The team will also be decommissioning the existing wooden benches that we ’ re replacing, dismantling them and returning the timbers to storage at the Canal Centre pending recycling.
If you are able and would like to help with the installation, please email graham.russell@waterways.org.uk for more details.
Michael HaigWe are very sad to report that Hugh passed away peacefully at home on his 87th birthday on 27th May.
Before retiring in 1999 and moving to Llanfechain, Hugh was a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and started his working life as an apprentice at the Derby Locomotive Works; the perfect employment for a railway enthusiast and 'train spotter'.
Once retired Hugh kept busy and always had a project on the go, as well as spending time with his 5 grand children a favourite pastime being pooh stick races.
Having enjoyed various branch trips and walks since they joined the IWA in 2002, Hugh and his wife Ann decided to join the committee in June 2012 to help with various activities; the most notable of which was serving at the Shrewsbury Christmas Card Shop in St Mary's Church. According to Hugh, Ann was brilliant at adding up; in fact she was faster than a calculator!
Before the meeting on 9th June 2014 at The Horse & Jockey, Grindley Brook Hugh thanked everyone for their sympathy and attendance at Ann's funeral and stated that he did not wish to be reelected onto the committee at the next AGM the following year, but would continue to support the branch.
He helped at festivals, joined in all the walks, talks, outings etc. and was always the first to volunteer for the branch lock wind on days which didn't clash with his work at the Welshpool to Llanfair railway.
In fact he was at the August 2022 lockwind with lock key in hand ready and willing to work all day in the heat wave.
Hugh will be missed as a supporter to the branch and as a friend.
Our condolences go to his daughters Helen, Karen & Sarah and their families.
Dawn AylwinA Midsummer Day Forum
What do you do on a bright, sunny – not to say sweltering – afternoon on the longest day of the year? Of course! Sit in the dark in an airconditioned auditorium on the edge of Oswestry’s commercial district.
Each year the Montgomery Canal Forum shows what has been happening on the canal and what is planned. Over the years, topics have included tourism – of which the canal is an important part – biodiversity, horseboating, volunteering by TRAMPS and SUCS, strategic planning, built heritage, and much more. Meeting in turn at Newtown, Welshpool and Oswestry, the Forum is a valuable opportunity to engage with local councillors and politicians and tell them not only what we are doing, but why, and how restoration fits their plans.
About seventy canal supporters, visitors from councils and other organisations along the canal came to this year ’ s Forum hosted by Aico: you may have seen their impressive new building at the Maesbury Road junction outside Oswestry. The Mayor of Oswestry, Cllr Olly Rose opened the meeting leading us into a series of presentations.
Aico
Firstly, our hosts Aico told us of their impressive policy of support for local and national educational and charitable organisations. We hope they will be able to engage with future canal activities.
Update
In an update which followed I attempted to squeeze in all the activity of the last twelve months – the start at Schoolhouse Bridge, the Triathlon, the Crickheath opening – showing everything the restored canal offers: safeguards for the canal’s natural and built heritage, opportunities for recreation and volunteering, benefits for communities along the canal and for the local economy, and the canal’s history and its revival for boats.
SUCS
A double act by David Carter and Tom Fulda from SUCS told how from the 1970s SUCS had restored locks in Powys and then moved to channel restoration in Shropshire. The channel work involved clearing vegetation, removing newts, overcoming the challenges of wet ground and peat subsidence and lining & laying blocks to create a restored canal to Crickheath. ‘Volunteers can do large scale complex canal construction projects,’ said David, but not work that requires highly specialised equipment. The quality of their finished work compares with that of commercial contractors, he said, adding, ‘As a rule of thumb, volunteers are cheaper than commercial contractors by a factor of about four, but take up to six times longer.’
Tom then described a threephase plan to restore the canal south of Crickheath with the intention if possible to restore, not rebuild. The first stages have involved reestablishing their new works compound, surveying the channel and clearing more vegetation. Now they are repairing the former tramway wharf wall south of Bridge 85, some of which was repaired by WRG some years ago.
Future work will involve testing the condition of the canal bed to determine the design and specification for rewatering.
Levelling Up Fund (LUF)
Rich Harrison from CRT told us about the Levelling Up programme. This builds on the Conservation Management Strategy plan for a sustainable, balanced restoration. Rich has a team of five to manage repairs to Aberbechan aqueduct, create new nature reserves and improve habitat, with four miles of bank and dredging works between Arddleen and Llanymynech. Dredging in January removed 3,200 tons of material to deepen the channel and there will be more later in the year.
The LUF project includes two new bridges near Carreghofa: one near Walls Bridge – to be called Carreghofa Lane Bridge – will follow the ideas developed by IWA volunteer Roger Bravey a few years ago.
Williams Bridge is more complicated: when we challenged demolition in 1980 we were told the bridge had to go because it was a narrow dogleg controlled by traffic lights. Today one of the designs under consideration is for a singlelane dogleg bridge controlled by traffic lights; another is a moveable bridge, again with traffic lights.
The final element of this work is the creation of new nature reserves. The Conservation Management Strategy commitment to sustainable restoration requires positive nature conservation measures to compensate for any adverse changes that may be brought about by restoring the canal to navigation. Designs are being prepared for offline nature reserves but possible alternative conservation measures in the wider landscape are also being considered.
Waterways for Today
For the final presentation Michael Haig featured the benefits of canals shown in the new IWA report Waterways for Today: for the local economy, for the natural and built environment, for local communities and the improvement of peoples’ lives. He then underlined the chronic underfunding of public navigation authorities, including CRT, and the coming campaign to ‘Protect our Waterways’.
Michael finished by awarding the Tetlow Cup to David Carter and Tom Fulda on behalf of all SUCS work party volunteers.
Several of those who came to the Forum were kind enough to say how informative they found it – and that made worthwhile all the preparation … and the sitting for an hour or so in a darkened room!
Michael Limbrey£1 million bridge
‘What have I let myself in for?’ You buy a boat, take a job, commit to spouse, family … I am not sure we knew what we were letting ourselves in for when we launched the Restore the Montgomery Canal! appeal. ‘We’? Well IWA has always been a partner in the appeal and has supported the Schoolhouse Bridge project in many ways.
Work has started. Schoolhouse Bridge will cost more than we expected – you will know why from my reports over the last six years. Michael Haig was among those who came on 24 April to see the First Sod cut with a silver spade by Shropshire Council Chairman Vince Hunt ( – his council ward includes half the bridge!).
The spade was ‘second hand’ and had been used by a former Mayor and Mayoress of Oswestry for the start of restoration from Gronwen in 2006.
Sod duly cut, the contractors, Beaver Bridges from Shrewsbury, very soon created a big hole where the road had been. After excavation they laid a reinforced concrete base and abutments ready for the arch structures to be craned into place in July. They have also been carefully constructing embankments of stonefilled gabion baskets.
It could all be over in the autumn – just final landscaping left for volunteers.
This is a £1 million project: the biggest volunteerled project on the Montgomery Canal. There would be no bridge – and therefore a real obstruction to restoration to Llanymynech – without support from the IWA and other members of the Restore the Montgomery Canal! group, and all the private individuals and trusts who have made many donations, modest or substantial, oneoff, or by monthly payment. If you are one, the canal owes you many thanks.
Michael LimbreyVideo available at https://youtu.be/upvDDVP0i8
Crickheath Official Opening
A further length of the Montgomery Canal was opened on 2 June. The opening ceremony marked the completion of restoration to Crickheath, near Oswestry, Shropshire, adding add a further 1½ miles to the national canal network.
Local MP Helen Morgan and Shropshire Council Leader Lezley
Picton with other VIPs travelled the newest section to the new terminus at Crickheath Basin. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, volunteers of the Shropshire Union Canal Society had cleared, shaped and lined a length of canal that had been dry and derelict for many years and contractors for the Canal & River Trust had constructed a new basin where boats can turn.
Lezley Picton commended the work of the Montgomery Canal volunteers. She had met volunteers from all over the country, she said, continuing, “They all have one thing in common, which I imagine quite a few of us here have in common as well, which is we absolutely love this canal.” She and Helen Morgan then unveiled a commemorative plaque.
Other speakers included David Carter, SUCS Chairman and Crickheath Project Leader, Richard Parry, Canal & River Trust Chief Executive, National Lottery Heritage Fund trustee Julian Glover and John Dodwell, Chair of the Montgomery Canal Partnership.
Michael Limbrey, Chairman of the Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust, said, "This really was a most exciting day. For the first time for more than eighty years there were boats at Crickheath Basin, some of them even from the working days of canals. It was a day to celebrate the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Canal & River Trust and particularly the effort of volunteer work parties over many years – among other things this involved laying by hand some 67,000 concrete blocks to secure the new lining for the canal."
"There are many ways to celebrate at an event like this, the Shropshire Boatmen whose singing greeted the opening party, celebrated with a specially composed shanty Down to Crickheath Wharf."
"Crickheath really is an unlikely canal destination, yet it now joins places like Gloucester, Liverpool, Bath or York as the end of a journey for boating visitors and it is now a new destination for the IWA’s Silver Propeller Challenge."
"Having brought the canal to Crickheath the volunteers have already started work on the next section. There is no Lottery support for this so we are asking anyone who can to help reopen more of this special canal by supporting our latest Restore the Montgomery Canal! appeal."
"I am delighted to say that the appeal got under way on the day of the Crickheath opening with a generous donation from a supporter of £1,000 which was increased by 25% through Gift Aid."
"Half a mile from our celebrations contractors are working on the reconstruction of Schoolhouse Bridge, the last highway blockage in Shropshire. This project, funded by private donations from across the country, is part of just two miles of dry canal, all that is now left to restore in Shropshire."
"This work in Shropshire will complement substantial projects in Powys where UK Government LevellingUp funding will build bridges so towpath users no longer have to dash across the road where the canal is blocked, create new canalside nature reserves to replicate the special habitat and safeguard rare and special flora and fauna, and restore the canal channel where it is in water but not capable of use. "
"There are so many success stories around our canal network of reopened canals that add to the visitor economy, the conservation of plants and wildlife, safe towpaths for recreation and wellbeing, and historic structures from our first transport network. They all bring social, environmental and economic benefits and we are keen to see those benefits here in the borderland of Shropshire and Wales."
The celebrations concluded on Saturday 3 June when volunteers of the Shropshire Union Canal Society, following a tradition of the 1800s when navvies were rewarded with a barrel of beer, celebrated with a barrel of Navigation Ale sponsored by Monty’s Brewery from Montgomery.
A video about the opening ceremony by wellknown canal YouTuber, David Johns can be found on his channel "Cruising the Cut" at:
https://youtu.be/hs9btXcvqA0
Shropshire Union Canal Society and its volunteers have been recognised with an award from The Inland Waterways Association for their achievement in completing a difficult rebuilding of the Montgomery Canal in Shropshire and extending the navigation a further two kilometres towards the Welsh border.
Our branch chairman, Michael Haig, presented the Tetlow Cup, an IWA regional trophy for outstanding services to the waterways, at the Montgomery Canal Forum held in Oswestry on 21 June.
The project involved reconstructing 600 metres of canal channel across a former peat bog. The section of canal had been disused for nearly eighty years and in many places the banks had disappeared. The society’s volunteers overcame several major challenges during the work including very bad ground conditions, local high water table, the need to relocate the resident Great Crested Newts, and covid lockdowns.
Michael Haig commented: "We had a difficult decision this year, as the Montgomery Canal has played host to two massive success stories – the raising of almost £1 million to rebuild Schoolhouse Bridge, and the reopening of the restored navigation through to Crickheath Basin."
"Both have been multiyear projects, requiring enthusiasm, dedication and tenacity. But the extension of the navigation by around two kilometres has also required very high levels of skill by the many volunteers who have given several hundreds of hours to the project, and has extended the boundaries of works normally considered suitable for volunteers."
"Shropshire Union Canal Society and its volunteers are worthy winners for their heroic work over eight years to complete the restoration from Pryce’s Bridge to Crickheath. Those of us lucky enough to be at the reopening ceremony in June will always carry with us the memories of that fantastic event."
Shropshire Union Canal Society chair David Carter said: "Our volunteers have worked tirelessly for eight years on a very complicated piece of construction work of a type not normally done by volunteers. In doing so they have overcome a whole range of ecological, construction and logistical challenges. That they managed to complete the work to deadline, on budget and safely is to their very great credit."
A fresh funding appeal has been launched this month to enable the Canal Society and its volunteers to proceed at pace with the next stage of the canal restoration, dubbed Crickheath South. More details of the appeal can be found on page 16.
Bernie Jones
