Lee & stort Recorder Newsletter

Autumn 2019 Ware Festival: SPACE Those of you who were at our Ware Festival in July, will be aware of the technical hitch regarding the plaques.

For those who don’t know, they were ordered, dispatched, and then never arrived!

Oh, where are our plaques?

They’re lost in ‘SPACE’.

So please be kind, And give us some grace.

They will be distributed when new ones are made, So, fellow Boaters, don’t be dismayed.

Sue B. New ones were made, and did arrive, and were duly distributed to those present at the Festival of Water, in August.

Festival of Water

The Festival of Water this year was held at Waltham Abbey, on the River Lee. Another scorcher of a weekend. The illuminated boat parade took place on the Sunday evening, with the ubiquitous beer tent and entertainment marquee, along with assorted stalls, set up for the weekend, on the field alongside.

No one seems to have any knowledge regarding the history of the ‘Tiller Pin Trophy’, which was received last year by Steve Bragger on behalf of Lea Valley Park, other than it being handed on to the next year’s host of the Festival of Water.

The 2020 festival will be held at Perdiswell Park, Worcester.

Ramblings of a Rambler If you went to Ware, and still have not received your rambling plaque, give Banny a Bell 0760 669279. Then you can be united with your plaque. The originals left Bloxwich (up north where there be dragons and fiery furnaces), travelled to the

DPD depot in Brum, down to Dunstable, and then back to Brum, where they disappeared!

Dragons are well known for hoarding shiny golden plaques. Not to fear, the burghers of Bloxwich recast them (the plaques, not the dragons) in time for the IWA Waltham Abbey National Festival.

Perhaps you recall two years (?) ago Tara Rose was reported by the rambling CaRROT’s inspectors, for NOT being in Hallingbury Marina when they called? A stiff letter of response was sent to Bristol Office remonstrating about it.

However the plot moves on (or as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would say “the game is afoot Watson”) . . . . . .This year, after the Ware Festival, Tara Rose went from Hallingbury, slipping out unnoticed by CRT, from its permanent mooring, rambling down to Waltham Abbey, ready for the Festival, mooring near ‘Fulbourne’. A good festival, even if the rubbish barge from Ware (okay then, the tender to Tara Rose) was robbed of first prize in the illuminated boat parade.

With the aid of a few broomsticks, the tender was transformed into a gaff rigged ketch. Complete with her ragged paper sails and a torch strapped, pointing upwards, on each mast, she became the Mary Celeste1 (no not Marie, there never was a Marie Celeste). Mary became a most ethereal, ghostly white and spectral vision in the parade. Naturally being crewless she was towed behind Dobbin, and kept in a straight line by means of a very long weighted towline and a long chain dragging the river bed behind her. She really, really should have won first prize, the kindest thing to say was “having no crew the judges didn’t know whom to award”???

Mary Celeste was an American merchant brigantine discovered adrift and deserted, off the Azores in 1872 1

After Waltham, Tara rambled down to the Angel Festival, and then onto the Slough Arm for their Festival. Slough Arm is ready for a new basin and much improved facilities. Highline has, as far as I can tell, the only working pump out available in September from the Lea, Stort and onwards.

After Slough she dropped down through the giant duckweed to Limehouse. Amazing all the live aboard, all the giant duckweed, all have rambled off to who knows where.

Up the Limehouse cut to find all the duckweed at least, a brief sojourn in Tottenham, wondering why the local council has installed sandy beaches below Stonebridge, mayhap to keep the continual cruisers away from the bank? Spent a day at Waltham White water checking the kayak arrangements for the Sunday. On past ‘Fulbourne’ who had moved up a lock, and then back to Hallingbury.

Then too my surprise a stiff note arrived from patricia.fox@canalrivertrust.org.uk to say why was Tara Rose not perambulating, and appeared to be moored constantly at Waltham Abbey!!

You just gotta have sympathy for the live a-board's then?

With CRT you just can’t do right? Stort to Lea to Duckett’s to Paddington to GUC to Slough Arm to Limehouse to Lea to Stort in less than a month is not enough!

Banny, of course

From the Chair Dear Members I hope you managed to make good use of the summer months on our unique inland waterways. For one reason or another all the trips out on our boat this year have been to

various waterways festivals; Canalway Cavalcade over the May Bank Holiday, Stortford Carnival Cruise in June (although, in truth, some friends concluded their use of the boat by taking it to Stortford for us through the dreadful weather that preceded the weekend), Ware Boat Festival in July and finally the IWA Festival of Water at Waltham Abbey over the August Bank Holiday. Such get-togethers of boaters are always happy occasions that, thankfully, somehow seem to overcome the divisions elsewhere in our society at present.

The first three all followed their well-established patterns, and consequently, in the absence of any confounding factors such as appalling weather, were guaranteed successes. I’m not sure where Waltham Abbey will go down in history on the ‘received wisdom’ scale of success; my guess is somewhere in the middle. The weather must have had a huge impact – not the usual British grouse about rain (the first ever ‘National’ I attended was at St Ives in 2007, when the site ended up as a quagmire!) but, on this occasion, temperatures hovering uncomfortably around the mid 30’s.

Notwithstanding that, the organisation of the festival was, as usual, superb and much credit must go to all the volunteers who worked in the months, weeks and days leading up to, and during, the festival. Of course the hot weather of the Bank Holiday seemed to be the straw which broke the camel’s back in terms of water supply; we had to make a dash for home before Stanstead Lock was due to be closed for an indeterminate period, and since then both rivers have experienced many days of lock stoppages to keep water levels up.

I mentioned in the last newsletter that it was my intention that IWA Lee & Stort Branch should work more closely with the other branches which constitute the London Region since, I believe, we are increasingly suffering the fall-out of boat overcrowding in London.

We contributed to, and are certainly party to, the IWA ‘Vision for London’ and have taken every opportunity to put that in front of stakeholder over past months.

In mid-September Paul Strudwick (Chair of London Region) and several branch chairmen (I was otherwise committed at the time) met with Ros Daniels, CRT’s Regional Director for London & South East. That meeting seems to have gone well with broad agreement

on how CRT and IWA should work together in the region; one point that did emerge was CRT’s intention to appoint six Area Managers in the London & South East Region, of which one will be the Lee & Stort, who will have single-point responsibility for operations in that area. Hopefully, by our next newsletter, we should know who to call!

Working more closely with other branches has also brought home to me how some kind of local practical project, preferably a canal restoration project, can act as a focus to energise the activities of a branch. Unfortunately the opportunities for a restoration project in the Lee & Stort area have been very limited – until now maybe! I won’t let the cat out the bag yet, but watch out for some exciting new opportunities to roll your sleeves up and get muddy on our own patch!

With best regards Mike Newman Chairman, IWA Lee & Stort Branch

The combination of a drier than average 3 years, high water consumption and climate change, means that our environment is suffering. As a result, the Environment Agency’s Hertfordshire and North London area is suffering from an Environmental Drought.

There is significant stress on our rivers and the life they support across a number of counties, including Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and Buckinghamshire.

The South East has the highest water consumption in the country. Much of the water we use and take for granted on a daily basis is taken from rivers and groundwater reservoirs

(chalk aquifers). There’s lots of work going on to reduce current demand and avoid the ‘jaws of death’ but we still have a long way to go.

Despite the heavy rain we’ve received just recently and the flooding we’ve seen in other areas across the country, the South East has in fact received lower than average rainfall over the last 3 years. Recent dry winters mean that we have only received around 50% of the winter recharge since 2016/17.

Winter recharge is where our chalk aquifers are topped up with water. This is the resource that feeds our chalk streams and also the source of much of the water which we all use in our homes.

For the last 4 months we have been operating in incident mode for drought and have been making every effort to protect the environment as river flows have dropped. Throughout this summer, our Fisheries staff have been rescuing fish on our worst affected environments, chalk streams.

Fish Rescue Dry river beds are not the only danger for fish. Where water levels fall, low dissolved oxygen levels can put fish at risk, especially where there is a lot of weed growth. Our Environment Officers have been carrying out walk-over surveys to look out for issues including human impacts on river flows, such as physical changes to hold back water.

We are out and about monitoring habitats, collecting evidence to inform decisions on drought and abstraction. By having this evidence we can support and enforce better planning to help conserve water for the environment.

Over the last 3 years we have been working with water companies, farmers and businesses, to balance the needs of water users. We have also worked with Affinity Water to reduce abstraction by 42 million litres per day since 2015, but we know this isn’t enough. We have secured further reductions totalling of 33 million litres per day by 2025, a combined reduction of 12% of total groundwater abstraction in their central region*. Going forward we will continue to work towards further changes to improve chalk streams.

Water resource planning is moving from being done for and by individual water companies to being coordinated by regional planning groups, such as Water Resources in the South East (WRSE) and Water Resource East (WRE).

Water companies are developing strategic regional water supply options to import water into their supply regions.

Options being considered have been and will continue to be put out for public consultation. Examples include water transfers via canals, as well as uptake from new and existing reservoirs.

All options will be developed in collaboration with other water companies and with the regional planning groups.

These options will not only improve resilience of water supply, but also reduce water companies’ reliance on local groundwater abstractions.

Water companies are also starting to ramp up their drought planning to conserve water supplies for next spring.

Another dry winter will very likely require Temporary Use Bans to be implemented next year. We will work with the water companies to do everything we can to plan and protect the environment should we not receive the level of rain we hope for this winter.

Local groups have been working hard to protect their local environments and have been in conversation with us to work out the best ways to respond to the impacts of Environmental Drought. They’ve been monitoring rivers and wetlands as well as gathering data to help us understand impacts.

We are taking action to encourage water companies to promote the importance of saving water, to their customers, and have recently joined forces with over 40 partners to launch the Love Water campaign. This is aimed at encouraging people to use less water and look after the water we have by taking steps to stop causing pollution. We need the campaign to grow, so that everyone knows that water is precious and wants to take action to protect it.

Locally it is encouraging to see the passion that members of the public have for their local environment and their awareness of the challenges it faces.

But we can still do more, so we want more people to join this conversation to help us make the environment a better place.

There is no doubt that what we are seeing, is happening as a result of climate change. By using less in our homes, reducing business consumption and Dry Stream looking after what we have, we will be able to make sure that we have clean and plentiful water for generations to come.

But we will only achieve this if everyone starts to take action now. *This is an estimate based on Affinity Water’s average deployable output as per the final draft of their Water Resources Management Plan 2019.

We are still in need of a Branch Secretary.

This interesting position offers insight to everything within the Lee & Stort Branch, while still at the thinking stage.

All of you with time on your hands, now have an outlet for those unused spare hours. contact Mike Newman (back page)

I am very pleased to once again be writing for your Branch magazine. I hope you find my ramblings about the goings on in the London Region and the wider association interesting.

Next year I will have been a trustee of the Association for over twelve years and will have to step down from the board.

As you may be aware, in order for the country to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of VE Day, the Government has moved the early May Day Bank Holiday 2020 from Monday 4th May to Friday

8th May 2020. This move has a significant impact on Cavalcade, as it was due to be held on the weekend of the bank holiday of the 4th May. The cavalcade committee, with the agreement of trustees, has decided to hold a two day event next year on, Saturday and Sunday, the 2nd and 3rd of May. Please make a note of this change in your diary, if you would like to help run the event or just visit.

At this year’s Festival of Water we met up with the people running the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills. They have a problem: they would like to restore the remaining high and low level canal systems, used to carry gunpowder and raw ingredients around the site. The system, which originally extended for nearly 10 miles, includes several locks - specially designed to minimise turbulence which could cause a laden boat to bang against the side and create an explosion - as well as three aqueducts.

Your Branch and our Waterways Recovery Group are looking at the possibility of running work parties to initially prevent any further deterioration of this unique waterway system, and then, if funds can be found, restoring as much as possible so that visitors can see the specially designed craft operating around the site.

We understand that the original puddling clay has been removed, as it was contaminated with gunpowder, so we shouldn’t need any special precautions to prevent explosions!

Our London Region Heritage Officer Derek Humphries (derek.humphries@waterways.org.uk) has been investigating the whereabouts of coal-tax posts, alongside the navigations in our region. Coal Tax Posts were erected in the 1860s, and form an irregular loop between 12 and 18 miles from central London, to mark the points where taxes on coal were due to the Corporation of London.

There were originally around 280 posts of which over 200 remain. One, a granite obelisk, about 4 feet (1.2 metres) high, is alongside the River Lee near Kings Weir.

The more Derek looks at the region, the more at risk heritage we are finding. So please, when you are out and about on our waterways, bring to his attention, anything that you see, whether it is photos of a fine view, canal furniture or

dilapidated structures you think need retaining for future generations to enjoy.

Paul Strudwick London Region Chair Person Deputy National Chairman

– a bit more from Mike Events conspired against our making a long trip on Annie & Walt this year - not least the arrival of a new grandchild this morning (as I sit drafting this piece – not when you sit reading it). So in the three weeks after Ware Festival and before family commitments we took up an offer from Babs Davis to join her on a trip in her new North Midlands locality. Of the various options, doing the Four Counties Ring looked a good one, so that we did.

For the uninitiated the four counties are (clockwise, from the North) Cheshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands (yes, it is a county) and Shropshire, and comprises three and a half canals; the Trent & Mersey, Staffs & Worcester, Shropshire Union Main Line and Shropshire Union Middlewich Branch. (I couldn’t decide whether the last two count as one or two).

For no good reason, we set out on the ring anti-clockwise.

Stone justifiably describes itself as ‘a canal town’ since the first meeting of the Grand Trunk Canal Company (later the Trent and Mersey Canal Company) was held in the Crown Inn, Stone on 10 th June 1766. At this meeting James Brindley was appointed Surveyor-General, John Sparrow Clerk, and Josiah Wedgwood Treasurer. In 1767 it was decided to locate the headquarters of the canal company in the Town.

We arrived at Barlaston, and spent a fascinating few hours at the Wedgewood factory. So often such ‘factories’ are a cameo of their former selves, but this one still produces the top-of-therange ceramics, some of which can each take tens of hours, of

exceptionally skilled labour, to produce. Onwards north through the not-so-attractive outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent, to Middleport, and the junction with the Caldon Canal at Etruria, the earlier site of the Wedgewood factory.

Onwards again, to the daunting entrance to the Scarecastle Tunnel.

Of course, you’ll all know there are four parallel tunnels; two rail and two canal tunnels and that, in order to avoid being overcome by exhaust fumes, they shut the doors at the south end, and blow air through. The section of the tunnel does change markedly, and it does get quite low at some points.

At the far end you’re into salt country. So anything with ‘wich’ on the end implies salt; Middlewich, Northwich, Nantwich were all founded on producing salt by boiling off the underground streams of brine. At Middlewich there are still mountains of salt at the side of the canal, and in the middle of town is our departure point onto the Middlewich Arm – scene of last year’s major breach.

Not much to say about the Middlewich Branch, but you’re soon onto the Shropshire Union Main Line - and what an idyllic stretch of canal it is, with glorious, ever-changing vistas over the Cheshire plains! Beware, however, the ‘Shropie Shelf’ that lies about 2’ below the waterline, and explains the frequent use of old tractor tyres along the bank. Now Middlewich seemed, I have to say, a bit down-in-the-mouth, but Nantwich is a delightful, thriving town. The Grade II* listed aqueduct over the main road, and row of beautifully kept Alms Houses caught my eye in particular.

Southwards via the Shropshire Fly canal-side pub at Audlem and on to interesting town of Market Drayton, through picturesque Tyrley Locks and under the quirky High Bridge at Woodseaves where a span was inserted into the arch to support a stubby telegraph pole - now a listed building!

Further on we found ourselves in the middle of the inaugural Gnosall Boat Festival, clearly a very big and well-organised event. And am I not right in thinking that someone who organises Canalway Cavalcade has an address in Gnosall? Nice to put a place to a Gname!!

Join the Staffs and Worcester at Autherley Junction (silly little stop lock of 6” fall) and clearly on the northern outskirts of Wolverhampton before becoming more rural again. Stopped at a pub on the outskirts of Stafford and met up with a chap I shared houses with for more than five years, in the early 1970’s.

Couldn’t believe how old he looked, but spent the evening discussing grandchildren and pension arrangements - then looked in a mirror and reality dawned!

Tixall Wide is delightful and tranquil and overlooked by the imposing 16th-century Tixall Gatehouse, all that remains of Tixall Hall which was demolished in 1927, then onto Great Haywood Junction and back to Aston Marina and Stone.

Could we have spent a couple of weeks more enjoyably? I don’t think so.

Mike Newman.

CANAL & RIVER TRUST TO HOLD ELECTIONS FOR NEW MEMBERS OF GOVERNING COUNCIL The Canal & River Trust is calling on individuals to stand for election to the charity’s governing Council with nominations opening on 21st October until 18th November.

The Council is currently made up of 50 elected and independently nominated members together with six Regional Advisory Board chairs. Together they reflect the wide appeal of the waterways – from boating and angling through to walking and conservation. The Council is responsible for the appointment of Trustees, helps to shape policies and provides guidance and perspective to Trustees.

The elections are for representatives from the private boating, business boating, fisheries and angling, volunteers, Friends of the Trust, and Trust employees.

To be eligible to stand for election, sponsor an election candidate, and vote in the election, interested parties are referred to the Canal & River Trust’s website for the eligibility criteria: www.canalrivertrust.org.uk/council-elections-2020 Allan Leighton, chair of Canal & River Trust, said: “We are excited to be holding these elections to our Council, and I would encourage people to stand as candidates. The Council plays a vital role in our governance framework and this is a fantastic opportunity to get involved with our work, find out more about the opportunities and challenges we face, and channel the views of these constituency groups.”

The election process will be run independently of the Trust by Electoral Reform Services (ERS) and it will be an online process. Anyone keen to stand for election, or anyone who may have a query about eligibility or the election process, can find out more at www.canalrivertrust.org.uk/council-elections-2020 The Trust will be sending out emails to all those eligible on 21st October 2019.

Monthly Meetings 2nd

Every Monday, at The New Inn Roydon, at 8.00 14th October Himalayan Balsam, discussion th 11 November Steve Haywood, raconteur th 9 December Mulled Wine & Mince Pies.

If anyone wishes to partake of Mince Pies & Mulled Wine, please Terry (back page) by the end of November.

13th January 2020 John Dillon-Leetch 10th February 9th March AGM

Committee Members Chairman Mike Newman m: 07887 540 398 e: mike.newman2@btinternet.com Secretary, Membership Secretary Position Currently Vacant

Treasurer Carole Beeton m: 07905 701 948 e: robandcarole@msn.com

Joint Events Officers Banny Banyard Terry Stembridge m: 07860 669 279 m: 07709 205 498 e: banny.banyard@btinternet.com e: terrystembridge32@hotmail.com Magazine Editor Monica Hawes Bob Langley m: 07943 169 800 h: 01707 646 876 e:monicaforboats@hotmail.com e: robert@bobbunty.plus.com Craig Haslam m: 07956 848 025 e: craighaslam5@gmail.com

George Cutting m: 07721 654 410 e: georgecutting@btinternet.com

The IWA may not agree with opinions expressed in this newsletter, but encourages publication as a matter of interest.

Nothing printed may be construed as policy, or an official announcement unless otherwise stated.

IWA accepts no liability for any matter in this newsletter. The IWA is a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee. Registered in England no 612245. Registered charity no 212342.

Registered Office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, HP5 1WA. Tel: 01494 783 453. Web: www.waterways.org.uk