Wolds Waters – January 2014

East Yorkshire Branch

WOLDS WATERS The newsletter of the East Yorkshire Branch

JANUARY 2014

What’s missing?

Clue:- SSYN Answer inside.

From your Branch Chairman When you read this I expect Christmas will have gone and we shall be in the early days of another New Year. May I wish you all a happy and most important, a healthy 2014.

We have much to look back on in 2013. A late start to spring and then a mainly glorious summer. I hope the boaters amongst you managed to make the most of it. Some of you I am sure will enjoy boating whatever the weather. I personally find a cold frosty morning on the canals hard to beat. Especially when there is a warming fire inside!

Our branch stall attended a few meetings throughout the year, spreading the word about the IWA and raising funds for the branch. We shall be out and about again in 2014.

Our Annual Lunch held in December was well attended with over 20 people enjoying a meal at the Cottingham Parks golf club. Many thanks to Chris Stones for organising this.

I hope you have enjoyed our social meetings in 2013. We try to ring the changes with the topics and must thank those who have made excellent suggestions for speakers. If you have any ideas, please let me know either at a meeting or by email or phone. I am always looking for something different. One change this year will be at our AGM. This year we will be offering some light refreshments to go with the teas and coffees in order to make it more of a social occasion. There will be a presentation, probably a short film or some slides, as well as the formal business which we have to carry out annually. If you would like to join our committee or just offer your services to help on our stall throughout the year, please let any committee member know.

We hold about six meetings a year, in Cottingham, which last about a couple of hours.

For news throughout the year on our meetings and events, keep an eye on our branch website which is steadily being improved by Alistair Anderson. Links and information about waterways in our area will be added and brought up to date early in the New Year.

Checkout:https://www.waterways.org.uk/east_yorkshire/east_yorkshire Roger Bromley Branch Chairman

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ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The AGM of the East Yorkshire Branch of the Inland Waterways Association will be held at 8.00pm on Friday, 21st March 2014 at Cottingham Methodist Church Hall.

Agenda i)

Apologies for absence

ii) Approval of the Minutes of 2013 AGM iii) Matters arising from the Minutes iv) Chairman’s report v) Secretary’s report vi) Financial report vii) Election of Committee members viii) Any items requested beforehand by members ix) Report on Region and National matters Secretary:Mrs Chris Stones What’s missing?

41 Keswick Gardens

The cooling towers at Barnby Dun were demolished between August Bank Holiday and 17th September 2013. No landmark to aim for on the New Junction anymore!

Cottingham Hull HU6 8TB Tel: 01482 875894

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FUND -RAISING FOR THE BRANCH.

During 2013 your branch was, once again, out and about in our area with the small marquee and display stand. This is just the kind of activity expected of I.W.A. branches. It serves to promote the aims of the association today as well as publicising our past achievements. Furthermore, money raised on the sales stall helps to fund the branch.

It is the second year that we have been doing this, thanks to the small band of ‘regulars’ who have turned out and given their time to ‘set out their stall’ and staff it. Chris, Dave, Roger and Maureen are the stalwarts but re-enforcements in the shape of Hillary and Howard Anguish joined them last year. We are especially grateful to Hillary for donating soft toys to sell on the stall. I think she even made them first!

Fresh helpers are always welcome. If you could give an afternoon of your time to help out this summer please volunteer.

In 2013 more than £260 was raised in this way. There are, of course, expenses and costs involved but these activities give a welcome boost to our finances. This form of fund-raising may become more important and necessary. Branches are facing a future where we will have to raise a greater share of our revenues locally, with less central support.

So, PLEASE, come along and help. You will be most welcome, and will surely enjoy it!

Jack Wootton. Branch Treasurer.

PS One easy way that you could help would be to donate something that could be sold on the stall; bric-a-brac with a waterways/boating connection would ideal and easy to sell.

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Rendezvous with a Princess Do you remember those mathematical brainteasers at school which went; “How many men does it take to move 500 tons over 60 miles in 24 hours?” Well, recently Roger Bromley and I had a chance to find out that the unlikely answer to that particular question is …3! We had the privilege of being able to join Humber Princess, the last remaining tanker barge still trading on the commercial waterways of Yorkshire during its twice-weekly trip from Hull to Rotherham. We were able to see first-hand how this trade provides an invaluable service by keeping heavy traffic off our roads, and at the same time substantially reducing pollution.

Humber Princess is a giant among inland waterway craft; 60.75 m long by 6.0 m beam with a maximum loaded draft of 2.4 m meaning she can carry a massive 595 tons of oil products on estuarial and inland waters, making her among the biggest inland waterways craft trading in the UK, unfortunately one of a dying breed.

Contrast this with Europe, where vessels of this size and larger are commonplace.

Humber Princess presently operates a regular service between Hull and Rotherham, carrying cargoes of various grades of lubricating oil. This is blended and distributed to customers throughout Yorkshire. Because of depth restrictions she carries around 500 tons each trip giving her a draft of around 2.2 metres. The cargo is loaded in King George Dock, Hull, and then the barge leaves as soon as the flood tide allows, reaching Goole on the same tide. In recent months she has been arriving at the outskirts of Doncaster in the early evening where she ties up overnight. Early the following morning she continues her journey, arriving at Stevenson’s Wharf, Rotherham, just after noon, a total journey time of around 24 hours.

For our leg of the journey, we joined the barge at around 7-30 am as she passed through Long Sandall Lock, and soon we were travelling through Doncaster, following the line of the railway for most of our journey to Rotherham. We were made very welcome by Jim Shields the Skipper, together with the other two members of the crew – the Mate and the Engineer – who kept us well supplied with cups of tea and coffee and patiently answered our many questions.

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Like many canals, the route through Doncaster gives a completely different aspect to the town, and I suspect that our journey was almost totally unnoticed by the many commuters on the nearby roads. Once clear of Doncaster the route follows the line of the River Don; sometimes in a canalised section and sometimes using the river itself. Between Long Sandall and Rotherham we passed through 9 locks, all of which had been modernised in 1983 as part of a scheme to upgrade the system to the 700 tonne Eurobarge standard. The locks are manned by CRT which makes the passage quick and uneventful.

It was sad to pass the many barges laid up at Swinton, where the now derelict Dearne & Dove Canal joins the navigation, and the long-established home of Waddington’s; it is sad to think that the navigation, upgraded and improved in the 1980s, is virtually ignored by local industry, with only the Humber Princess currently making regular cargo runs, and the barges laid up at Swinton are a reminder of what was once a thriving industry.

The navigation is pleasantly rural in many places with a number of tree-lined sections, and in one place is overlooked by the magnificent ruins of Conisborough Castle. The waterway is now predominately used by leisure craft, with a surprising number of boats moored along the cut. A number of bridges cross the navigation 6

and most of them provide sufficient headroom even for the largest barges, but occasionally we came across bridges where Humber Princess had to make use of her telescopic wheelhouse to allow passage underneath. Hydraulically operated, the whole wheelhouse can be lowered until it almost disappears into the deck, allowing the barge to pass under the lowest bridges on the way to Rotherham. In one or two places there is not much clearance even with the wheelhouse lowered to its lowest level, and the visibility through the wheelhouse windows is reduced to a narrow slit, calling for fine judgement by the Skipper. It is an eerie feeling to find the wheelhouse gently sinking at the press of a button, but like everything on the barge the operation is managed with the minimum of fuss; a sign of true professionalism by the crew.

When approaching Rawmarsh Bridge near Rotherham, the navigation – now known as Rotherham Cut- widens to form a large turning basin, allowing the largest barges to turn after discharging their cargo at Rotherham’s wharves.

Unfortunately, the ultimate destination of Humber Princess is down a much narrower cut, a few hundred metres further along the canal, so after discharging she has to navigate stern-first back to the turning basin, a manoeuvre made more tricky for such a large vessel by the many pleasure craft moored all along the cut.

It was noticeable that the navigation was getting much shallower in this section.

Since joining the barge at Long Sandall, we had noticed that, by and large, the cut was deep enough to allow the fully loaded vessel to proceed safely at a reasonable speed, but when approaching the final destination of Stevenson’s Wharf it became very apparent that the bottom was much nearer to the top and the speed dropped to 1-2 mph, despite the application of more power. No time was wasted on arrival and after tying up securely, samples were taken of the cargo before the discharge hoses were connected and pumping operation commenced. The oil cargo is pumped ashore into large storage tanks and because of the large capacity cargo pumps on board, this can be accomplished very quickly.

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Although Roger and I left the barge at Rotherham, within an hour or so she would leave and retrace her route back to Hull, where she was due to pick up another cargo of Lubricating Oil. It is remarkable to think that in carrying her cargo of 500 tons from Hull, three men had been able to do the work of 20 road tankers, greatly reducing pollution and congestion on the roads, and with minimum disturbance to the environment. In this part of the world we have a magnificent infrastructure in our commercial waterways and it is tragic that they are not used to the maximum. Let’s hope that common sense prevails and that we see a resurgence of waterborne freight as soon as possible and make the most of this precious asset on our doorsteps.

We are extremely grateful to Whitaker Tankers in Hull for giving us the opportunity to see the operation first-hand, and especially the crew of Humber Princess for their kindness and hospitality during our trip.

Howard Anguish

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News from Beverley Beck Boating Association Visitor Berths on the Beck. Readers of the BBBA newsletter will be aware that over a number years now we have been encouraging the Beck’s owners, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, to allow visitor berths at the head of the Beck, alongside the port’s historic commercial wharf.

There is good news, so far three pedestals, each fitted out with two electrical and one water point were installed on the south side wharf in June and have since been connected up with power and water. Only one of the stanchions has been commissioned so far which is now providing electrical power and water to the Beverley Barge Preservation Society’s vessels berthed at Crane Hill Wharf. We are told that there will be a short delay whilst the rules governing entry by visitors are published and that the council hope to open the visitor berths around Easter 2014 which next year occurs over the weekend 18th to 21st April. We believe that the Tourist Information Office will eventually handle some type of visitor licencing arrangement with possibly some cost involved to the visitor, this has yet to be resolved!

The B.B.B.A. have been given a draft copy of the ‘Visitor Mooring Rules for Beverley Beck’ which are to be read alongside the ‘Basic Rules of Navigation – Beverley Beck dated 10th October 2008’: these rules will not be amended but stay as they are.

Copies of the Basic Rules of Navigation can be found on the lock notice board at Beverley lock and in the B.B.B.A. clubhouse. A copy of the draft Visitor Mooring Rules can be seen in the clubhouse. If you have any constructive comments on the proposed rules they would be appreciated. The rules appear to be common sense and follow similar guide-lines to those given by the national Canal and River Trust on visitor berths.

Boats visiting the Beck will be limited to a two night stay which can be extended to 72 hours to allow for tidal passages. Vessels may not return to the Beck within 3 days. All vessels must have insurance that covers at least third party liabilities of up to two million pounds.

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Whilst we wait for the visitor berths to be commissioned I have been asked to say that at the moment skippers with boats cannot as of right enter Beverley Beck without first obtaining permission from the East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

Skippers MAY be given permission if they apply to enter before arriving at Beverley Beck. If they have a genuine reason for entering the Beck they can apply for permission to enter from, Michael Metzle Civil Engineering Services East Riding of Yorkshire Council, County Hall, Beverley Tel.: 01482 39 5683 email

Michael.Metzler@eastriding.gov.uk

At the moment the accepted procedure is to either ring or write giving your proposed date of arrival, departure and the reason for your intended visit, your application will then be considered. The only exceptions to these conditions of entry are those boats that have a permanent berth on the Beck.

The B.B.B.A. has a website run by our Web Master, Ruaridh Macaulay. It can be accessed at www.bbba.org.uk What plans for 2014?

The joint BBBA / IWA litter pick is proposed for Sunday 13th April 2014 with tea and biscuits in the BBBA clubhouse after.

At Easter 2014 the official opening of the Beverley Beck visitor berths with their electricity / water stanchions.

Martin Benson

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Some pictures from our Christmas meal at Cottingham Parks.

Those balloons were great fun – and noisy,

but we did eat too!

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PROGRAMME Spring 2014 Venue (unless stated otherwise) Cottingham Methodist Church Hall, Hallgate, Cottingham HU16 4BD 8.00-10.00 pm. Use entrance down side of church.

Friday 17th January

Andrew Brett

‘Boston or bust’

Friday 21st February

Boat Hiring by Iain Campbell

Friday 21st March

Branch AGM which will be kept as short as reasonably possible followed by ‘Nibbles and Natter’

Friday 11th April

The River Derwent – Past and Present

by Roger Womersley

Friday 16th May

See April ‘Wolds Waters’

Friday 20th June

Branch evening out

For more information about the Inland Waterways Association use the website www.waterways.org.uk or contact Barry Robins on 01482 658254 or 07885941983. For more information on the above meetings contact Roger Bromley on 01482 845099. The Branch email address is roger@roger.karoo.co.uk This newsletter is edited and produced by Barry Robins, 90 Carr Lane, Willerby, Hull HU10 6JU, tel. 01482 658254

Note: The views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the Association and should not be construed as such unless so stated.

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