Anglia cutting winter 15 132

ANGLIAN CUTTINGS IPSWICH BRANCH NEWSLETTER

NO. 132 NOVEMBER 2015 The IWA may not agree with the opinions expressed in this publication.

They are, however, published as a matter of interest to our members and readers.

Nothing printed can be construed as policy or an official announcement unless stated.

The IWA accepts no liability for any matter in this publication.

IWA Ipswich Branch Committee

YOUR COMMITTEE Chairman Rod Mansel chairman.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk 07951 682048 Secretary Phil. Dowrick secretary.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk 07841 015218 Treasurer Spencer Greystrong treasurer.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk 07597 862793 Treasurer Elect Carole Green treasurer.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk

Membership Dale Green membership.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk 07850 960635 River Gipping Trust Gerry Crease RGTrep.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk 07747 840982

Welcome to the latest edition of the IWA Ipswich Branch newsletter. This edition is shorter than previous editions due to the lack of a Newsletter Editor so if anyone is feeling creative and would like to take on the role, please let anyone on the committee know.

There are still a number of vacant positions on the committee and the committee would welcome any volunteers and offers of help to fill them.

These are Minute Secretary, Social Secretary, Broads Forum Representative and Newsletter/Anglian Cuttings Editor. If you think that you can help in any of these areas please contact the Chairman or Secretary.

CHAIRMAN’S CORNER Welcome to Anglian Cuttings. It has been an interesting start to the year for the new committee trying to get to grips with the many and varied waterways in our region and the multitude of organisations with a vested interest in them. Hopefully as we get used to running the branch it will get easier but the lack of numbers on the committee mean that there are a lot of jobs to share out.

This Anglian Cuttings contains articles on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and boating in a wheelchair.

DATES for your DIARY 4th December 2015 Quiz Night 12th February 2015 Annual General Meeting 5th March 2016 IWA Annual Dinner 14/15th May 2016 Coach Trip The first two on the list will be held in the Needham Market Community Centre at 7.30 pm See the following pages for details of the other two events The Committee will be considering possible future events and details will be advised in due course and will be posted on the website. If members have any suggestions or are happy to assist in the arrangements, please contact the Secretary.

Saturday 5th March 2016 12.30 for 13.00

IWA Annual Dinner Cedars Hotel, Needham Road Stowmarket

Cost ÂŁ19 per head Menu Pork Loin Steak in Apple and Cider Sauce or Poached Fillet of Salmon in a Prawn & Leek Sauce or Mushroom & Aubergine Moussaka Fruit Pavlova or Homemade Profiteroles or Cheese Board Coffee

To book your place and make your choice, please contact Gerry Crease: Email: gerrycrease@btinternet.com Post: 40 Hill Rise, Stowmarket IP14 2HB

Saturday/Sunday 14/15 May 2016

Coach Trip There are currently some places left on the coach – if you are interested contact Spencer as below The times shown below are approximate and will be confirmed nearer the date.

Saturday 14th May 8.00 am Travel from Ipswich to Trentham Gardens, Stoke on Trent to arrive about 12.00. We have lunch there and the rest of the day is yours to see the gardens, take a boat trip on the mile long lake or spend some money in the garden centre or Trentham Shopping Village.

Then we head to our hotel for an evening meal and stay over.

Sunday 15th May 2016 After breakfast we travel to the Churnett Valley Railway for a steam train ride. In the afternoon we head to the National Memorial Arboretum for a guided tour on the Road Train followed by afternoon tea. We should be back at Ipswich around 8.00pm Approximate cost will be ÂŁ130 per head. To book your place please contact Spencer Greystrong: Email: treasurer.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk Post: 25 Ambrose Avenue Colchester CO3 4JY Phone : 07957 862793

RESTORATION River Gipping Trust

PROGRESS REPORT ON PIPPS FORD From Martin Bird, RGT Restoration Manger Here we are in a glorious Autumn, up to our necks in mud again and still working hard at Pipps Ford. We had a very constructive series of meetings with the environment agency in the early Summer thanks to the discovery of a live water-vole burrow, right in the middle of the river bank where we had planned the entry to the bywash. The result has in fact been a benefit to us as the EA have agreed to a shorter bywash route, meaning less excavation and earth moving than would have been otherwise required.

The Summer , when many of our volunteers take a break and we tend to be a little short handed ,was taken up largely with repairing the cracked lock wall and putting our newest recruit, Nigel, to work breaking up concrete with a sledgehammer. In between we spent some time logging up timber for the landowner in return for a contribution to our new digger!

The digger ( a small Kubota, but big enough to be of use in many different locations) arrived in September after an interesting journey from Glasgow, towed by our chairman, and was immediately put to use to such an effect that the centre line of the new bywash has been excavated to full depth for a width of 3m, and now we have the job of “losing� the excavated earth on the adjacent land, before John can come back and grade the banks to the required 35 degrees, and create more mud to be moved around.

But all this mud moving and concrete breaking has meant that we have been able to push ahead with installing a row of Gabions between the new footbridge and the weir and at least part of Simon’s garden should return to looking more domestic than industrial before the winter starts.

For those interested in the wildlife, we are still seeing signs of water vole presence and the raft we installed to check the presence of mink has remained clear of any trace of that particular animal, but has been regularly visited by an otter who has left footprints and copious spraint.

The work for the Autumn and into the winter period ill be to complete the gabion installations, and finish off, as much as possible, the area below the footbridge and above the weir. While the weather remains dry, we will carry on with the excavation work on the bywash route as well. (kindly supplied by Martin Bird) As always, volunteers are welcome every Wednesday, and most second Saturdays of every month.

WORKING PARTY DATES Working Parties are held by the River Gipping Trust from 0900 to 1700 every Wednesday and on the second Saturday of each month.

For further information and to confirm dates contact Martin Bird Tel: 01394 380765 Email: restoration@rivergippingtrust.org.uk

Cruising the Huddersfield Narrow Canal We drove up to Sowerby Bridge from Suffolk arriving at 2 pm and were shown to our boat. By the time we had loaded our luggage and had a tour of the boat, the sunshine was threatening to turn into showers as we headed off up the canal to the first lock.

We tied up the boat and set off with our piece of wood to operate the first lock. I had used the handspike on Calder & Hebble locks before but it was the first time using them for the rest of the crew. After negotiating the first lock the next two followed in quick succession and then it was a case of finding somewhere to moor for the night. We carried on until we arrived at Elland Wharf where the visitor moorings are conveniently right outside the pub which although unprepossessing from the outside served a wide range of real ales.

The next morning we set off and went down some more Calder & Hebble locks using the handspike.

Here the crew are working Connell Lock.

The locomotive bridge on the outskirts of Huddersfield is one of those quirky structures that lends charm to a waterway. In this case the operation proved more tricky as I couldn’t find the control panel

at first and the road seemed to be very busy so I had a good queue of cars by the time I had finished.

We stopped overnight in Huddersfield and went for a meal at the adjacent pub. In the morning I went on a shopping expedition to buy a colander from the town centre before we set off to the first lock of the Huddersfield Narrow proper. We arrived at the first lock to find a boat in the bottom of the lock which had struggled to get over the cill into the lock and CRT staff attempting to increase the level of the pound above which had developed a leak in the weeks before we got there. This took about an hour before the boat cleared the lock and we were told we could carry on.

This section of the Huddersfield Narrow has had many changes in lock placement and water levels in the years since restoration and is full of narrow section marking the old locks.

Here the level of the towpath is at the top of the cutting and the archway at the end shows how much the level has been dropped to restore the canal.

The canal rapidly leaves the outskirts of Huddersfield and becomes more rural but just as shallow with the boat in front of us often getting stuck near the middle of the channel. We caught up with them at one of the locks because the canal was blocked by a fallen tree which had decided to land in the cut from the sloping hill on one

bank. The very helpful CRT staff soon cleared enough of the branches for use to squeeze past in neutral and we were on our way again.

We stopped for the night at Slaithwaite where the canal emerges from a lock into the centre of the main street and walked up to look at lock 24E with its guillotine gate reminiscent of the Fens. The route up to the lock is marked by a series of narrow and low bridges that are more like short tunnels, and the water dripping over the steerer as the boat enters the lock typical of guillotine gates.

The scenery got more and more rugged as the hills began to close in and the weather got wetter. We got to the moorings near Standedge Tunnel as the heavens opened again which put an end to our plans of walking over the top of the tunnel and meant that we stopped at the tea room instead.

When the trip boat tied up for the night we moved forward ready for our passage of the tunnel in the morning.

We were the first boat into the tunnel at 1000 and with our CRT pilot on board and

accompanied by the van shadowing us through the adjacent tunnel we set off. There was far more air movement in the tunnel than I expected due to the frequent trains and the cold deluges from the ventilation shafts meant that I was much colder than I had thought I would be, even with several layers of clothing, a coat and the hi-vis jacket. The high and wide sections of tunnel followed by narrow low sections meant that I had to concentrate hard to avoid hitting the sides but I managed until it came to the point where I had to come alongside one of the adits to drop the pilot off while he reported our position. Having come to a stop in the tunnel it was quite hard to judge the speed when I set off and I found that as I was going faster I was banging about a bit more. Eventually the boat emerged into the daylight at Diggle just under two hours later. Hard work on the tiller but well worth it!

We carried on and stopped early in the afternoon at Uppermill so that we could go for a walk up to Pots and Pans Hill from where there was a wonderful view of the valley and Standedge Hill that we had travelled beneath.

The following day was another leisurely day where we moved down to Woodend and went for some more walks in the wonderful Pennine scenery.

The following morning we went through lock 14W where this level marker confused me until I realised it was the opposite way round to the usual flood warning markers with the green level at the top! Then it was through Stalybridge with a stop for shopping where the canal became much more urban in nature, including one stretch where the canal goes through the legs of a pylon which is a very strange view indeed, and on to Ashton-underLyne where we were finishing our cruise.

Boating in a wheelchair – Oh yes you can!

Patti & I loved narrow boats and the canals and spent many happy years, firstly hiring, then owning firstly one and when I retired two shares on our beloved Orchid.

Then in 2011, Patti’s MS deteriorated rapidly, meaning not only a hectic few months finding a more suitable roof over our heads but the sale of our shares in Orchid. The standard narrowboat hardly being wheelchair friendly! So we thought that was that. We’d got our photo’s (lots!) of our cruises, happy memories and we kept in touch with friends we’d made over the years.

But – the bug doesn’t go away! So, we kept searching for disabled adapted boats.

Oh, they’re about if you look – (good old Google! –Other search engines are available!) – BUT – most are run by charitable trusts who crew them for you, insist they provide a skipper, or will let you hire one as long as there are 3 minimum able bodied people on board for each disabled person. Each trust has their own rules.

We simply wanted to go boating on our own Then late spring 2015 – EUREKA! – Canalbreaks.com came up with a boat called Beatrice. I made tentative enquiries about the number of able bodied people they insisted on per disabled

person and was pleasantly surprised to find no restrictions – “If you’re confident that the two of you can manage – that’s fine with us.”

So we booked a 5 day taster to see if Beatrice suited us and more importantly could we manage OK and in a safe manner.

Thus, early October 2015 saw us arrive at their base at Hillmorton Locks. A drop down ramp provided easy access to the hydraulic lift, the floor inside is fitted with a wood effect surface as opposed to the normal carpet tiles to make manoeuvring the wheelchair easy, clever internal design with drop down work surfaces in the galley, a full width wet room and a double cross bed in the forward cabin means the entire boat is easy for a standard width wheelchair to move about.

So, after a quick but thorough briefing from the staff we backed out and managed Hillmorton bottom lock with no problems.

The next 4 days were a gentle trundle up to Hinkley & back trying out various things just to see if they were feasible. Hydraulic wheel steering takes some getting used to. The tendency is to oversteer, so a tail wagging the dog situation occurs as you

weave from side to side, to the amusement or consternation of other boaters, depending on your proximity to them! However we found that if Patti dropped the back panel of her chair, she could sneak it in behind, but in easy reach of the controls and still use the tiller. (I couldn’t resist playing with the wheel occasionally – big boys & toys etc!)

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Beatrice from the bow

Daily maintenance is minimal, just a turn on the stern tube greaser, situated behind the control panel and pump the bilges.

Two of these, the normal one for the engine hole and a separate one for the lift recess.

So was our trial successful? Well, we’re booking a full week next spring, so you draw your own conclusions!

Thank goodness this company had the foresight to see a demand for a disabled adapted boat and the confidence to invest a pretty large dollop of money in it.

USEFUL WEBSITES IWA Head Office - http://www.waterways.org.uk Waterway Recovery Group - http://www.wrg.org.uk River Gipping Trust - http://rivergippingtrust.org.uk River Stour Trust - http://www.riverstourtrust.org East Anglian Waterways Association –http://www.eawa.co.uk Aylsham Navigation - http://aylsham-navigation.norfolkparishes.gov.uk River Waveney Association -http://groupspaces.com/RiverWaveneyTrust pages/our-aims IWA Peterborough Branch - http://www.iwapeterborough.org.uk The Broads Society - http://www.broads-society.org.uk The Australian Canal Society - http://www.auscanal.org.au/ The Canal & River Trust - http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/ DEFRA Dept. for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs http://www.defra.gov.uk

The Inland Waterways Association is a non-profit distribution company limited by guarantee.

Registered Office; Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, Buckinghamshire. HP5 1WA Tel: 01494 783453 Web: www.waterways.org.uk Registered in England No. 612245. Registered as a Charity No. 212342