94 NEWS EXTRA
IN BRIEF Chesterfield calendar
www.towpathtalk.co.uk
Thames Tideway traffic figures at highest level since the 1960s
By Harry Arnold
THE Chesterfield Canal Trust is selling its 2014 Calendar featuring 27 images, all taken by members. The price is £5 plus £1.30 for post and packaging and it is available over the counter at Nona’s Coffee Shop at Hollingwood Hub, at Laura’s Coffee Shop at Shireoaks and at Tapton Lock Visitor Centre. It can also be ordered direct from the Chesterfield Canal Trust website at www.chesterfield-canaltrust.org.uk John Varley cruise vouchers are available from Tapton Lock Visitor Centre and can be exchanged as part or full payment for cruises on board the John Varley tripboat. They are available in units of £10 and may be exchanged throughout 2014.
Detector winners
CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners of a water leak detector from River Canal Rescue in our October competition. They are: John Windeback, Stevenage, Hertfordshire; Simon Sims, Wollescote, West Midlands; Sue Rutherford, Stratford-uponAvon, Warwickshire; Garry Webster, Shepshed, Leicestershire; Lyndsey Beckford, Wibsey, West Yorkshire; Sharon Ormerod, Nantwich, Cheshire; Andy Smith, Warmley, Bristol; Michael Hodgson, Gloucester; Tracey Belcher, Romney Marsh, Kent; Andrew Kenneth, Blackpool, Lancashire; Michael Reynolds, Corfe Mullen, Dorset; Peter Clist, Colyton, Devon; Suzy Moran, Norwich, Norfolk; Byron John, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire; Darren Andrews, Knutsford, Cheshire; Cathy James, Grays, Essex; Ray Watkins, Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire; Robert Tanzer, Coalville, Leicestershire; Kristian Snooks, Exeter, Devon; Helen Battle, Boston, Lincolnshire; Roger Allsopp, Tamworth, Staffordshire; Steve Swider, Dudley, West Midlands; Jodie Harvey, Rugeley, Staffordshire; Donna Kent, Orsett, Essex; Philip Page, Westhoughton, Lancashire; Ryan Insley, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire; Mark Rewhorn, Longford, West Midlands; Edward Harding, Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire; Stuart Whittam, Accrington, Lancashire; Mr G Hibberd, Leicester; Emma Steigmann, Sittingbourne, Kent; Simon Creed, Ruislip, London; Stuart Dunlop, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire; Duncan Brown, Southend, Essex; Rachel Savery, West Midlands; Adrian Shrimpton, Portsmouth, Hampshire; Paula Hewett, Poole, Dorset; Julie Picton, Hilsea, Hampshire; Karen Rigby-Harris, Frongoch, Carmarthenshire; Elaine Mitchell, Great Stambridge, Essex; Susan Mackenzie, Edinburgh; Bridget Mansell, Tipton, West Midlands; K Renshaw, Sheffield, South Yorkshire; Thomas Barkley, Stockport, Greater Manchester; John Homer, Bronwydd, Carmarthenshire; Camille Sainsbury, York; Gillian Grady, Halifax, West Yorkshire; Mr J Jones, Guildford, Surrey; Mrs CA Bailey of Bewdley, Worcestershire and Etleva Gashi of London.
FIGURES issued this year by the Port of London Authority (PLA) indicate that in 2012 commercial barge traffic on the River Thames Tideway and its tributaries had increased to 3.3 million tonnes; a level last seen in the 1960s. Much of the increase is due to the removal of large tonnages of excavated material from tunnels being built by Thames Water and the Crossrail eastwest rail link across London. Work on the Canary Wharf station section has resulted in over 100,000 tonnes of material being moved by barge. One of the basic regular traffics through the centre of London is still the removal of a large proportion of the city’s rubbish down river to disposal sites. If the proposal for the new supersewer, The Thames Tideway Tunnel –
running mostly under the bed of the Thames for 25km across London – is approved, new opportunities for water transport will be utilised. Eleven of the 24 construction sites will be waterside with the possibility of 4.8 million tonnes of material being moved by water. The PLA, MCA and a number of River Thames boat operators have worked together to produce a Thames Freight Standard which will apply to freight vessels – including construction craft and dredgers – and operators on the tidal Thames. It creates a standard which will improve existing vessels and ensures that new vessels adhere to acknowledged national and international standards. The most significant change is that the standard calls for all vessel operators to develop and adopt a PLA accredited Thames Safety Management System.
Rubbish barges and tug on the tidal Thames in central London. PHOTO:WATERWAY IMAGES
Thames Ironworks Heritage Trust plans lifeboat restoration project By Elizabeth Rogers
Tragedy befell the William and Emma, pictured in her finished state at the factory in 1904, when she capsized in rough seas off Salcombe in Devon in 1907 with the loss of 13 lifeboatmen. PHOTO COURTESY THAMES IRONWORK HERITAGE TRUST
A FUTURE restoration project for historic lifeboats could result in some examples being seen on London waterways, providing tours on the water around the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and on the wider canal and river network. A small group of enthusiasts is in the final processes of setting up a charity, the Thames Ironworks Heritage Trust, with the further objective of bringing back long-lost skills in shipwrighting in this area of east London. They include supporters of West Ham United Football Club, which is moving into the Olympic Stadium from its original home at the Boleyn Ground, Upton Park, in 2016. The club was originally the Thames Ironworks FC, and the nicknames of The Hammers and The Irons come from this period of its history, rather than The Hammers relating to its geographical location. Its base was at the ironworks.
The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding and Engineering Company was incorporated in 1857, taking over the operations of C J Mare and Company. The ironworks was situated on both sides of the River Lea as it enters the River Thames at Teamouth. It built warships for the British Admiralty and for the navies of other nations, until the turn of the 20th century when, in the face of increasing competition in this field, it moved into lifeboat building as an increasingly large source of its revenue. It had produced more than 250 boats for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution before it closed in 1912, and about 30 are thought still to be in existence, some only as wrecks but others restored. Once charity status is achieved grantsourcing can begin, including to the Heritage Lottery Fund, and it is hoped that a mooring close to the Olympic Stadium and to the original ironworks can be secured.
End of an era on River Trent By Les Heath
AS 2013 draws to a close it is sobering to reflect that this was the year that regular commercial traffic on the River Trent ended after 2000 years. Ever since the Romans brought cargo up the river to the transhipment station at Torksey, commercial vessels have been an integral part in the life of the Trent. Although sea going vessels still venture into the lower reaches at Gunness the gravel barges, which once struck fear into the hearts of many narrowboaters, are now a thing of the past.
The conveyor loading point at Besthorpe, the last of many gravel wharves on the Trent, is now silent along with the wharves at the once-busy inland ports of Gainsborough, Newark and Nottingham. This year also saw the disappearance of the huge former British Waterways warehouses in Nottingham. Built in the 1930s their demolition has changed the face of this part of the city, leaving only the old dock as a reminder of the past. The nearby oil terminal wharf at Colwick is now rusted and overgrown along with every other wharf on what was once a mighty commercial waterway.
End of an era: Farndale H arrives at Pollington lock on the Aire & Calder Navigation with its last delivery of aggregate to Whitwood. PHOTO: MALCOLM SLATER
Only the empty dock remains following the demolition this year of the former BW warehouses at Nottingham.
PHOTO: LES HEATH
Besthorpe gravel wharf conveyor – the last on the Trent to fall silent. PHOTO: LES HEATH
The overgrown remains of the former oil depot wharf at Colwick. PHOTO: LES HEATH
● Barge movements in the Humber area have been recorded by Malcolm Slater in Humberside Working Barges 2012-13. Priced £6.50 plus £2.70 recorded first class post, it can be obtained from Malcolm Slater, 75 Broome Close, Huntington, York YO32 9RH ISBN: 978-1-871392-05-0