Progress news roundup

Progress Wendover

Our roundup of progress around the waterways begins onthe Wendover Arm with news of the Whitehouses Pumping Station site and more...

Wendover Arm

Overview: The Wendover Arm Trust’s Covid 19 arrangements have worked well this month with separated work areas and a vigilant Volunteer team.

We had the wettest October Tuesday (3rd) since 1891 and this affected some of the work that was programmed. The effect of the rain was to create a large amount of mud and slurry. Although this did not stop the machines from getting through it did make working at Bridge 4 difficult and more hazardous for some operations such as concreting

Whitehouses: The wing walls and concrete coping blocks at the old pumping station site have been completed. The sluice ‘benching’ has been completed. The paving on top of the wing walls and some pointing of the old brickwork remains to be done

Bridge 4 walls: The new walls containing the stop plank channels have been very nearly completed with a row of ‘soldier’ (on end) bricks on the top face remaining to be done. We have measured the stop plank channel positions and designed the stop planks to fit. We are currently raising a purchase order for the planks

One of the main tasks over this work party was to cast 16 cubic metres of reinforced concrete between the old swingbridge walls to stabilise the foundations. This was done over several days and was hampered by the quantitiy of mud and water that proved to be difficult to control. As can be seen in the picture below we did create a clean/dry area for the concrete but the dumpers ‘cut through’ the temporary bunds and water/mud/poured through. Unfortunately when you have a concrete delivery you can’t stop half way through and send

Pictures by WAT

the remainder back!

Whilst excvating for the concrete work a new length of wall was discovered on each side of the canal. These are continuations of the previously exposed walls. As can be seen in the picture these walls curve back into the banks. On the offside they curve back under our No.1 hut and Portaloo so those will need to be moved soon. These walls also contain the remains of another set of stop plank channels.

We expect to be rebuilding these walls back to the same height as the previously exposed walls.

Historical refuse Tip Excavation: Together with a Sub-Contractor we have developed a process and method to potentially remove the tip material placed in the canal length close to the winding hole at the current limit of navigation at Little Tring, which has been an obstacle to reexcavation of this infilled length. A test/trial excavation and removal of part of the tip is being planned. View from new Bridge 4 of the old swingbridge site

New volunteers and public comments: During this work party we have attracted yet more volunteers, this was mainly a result of asking for skilled brick workers to work on Whitehouses and Bridge 4 walls. During the brick laying activity on site we had many positive comments from members of the public who were walking past. The fact that we are rebuilding the walls and structures seems to impress everybody who sees it! First concrete pour on a clean dry area... little did they know...

Tony Bardwell Operations Director

Progress Wey & Arun

Next we head down south to the Wey & Arun with news of work continuing at Birtley Liftbridge while preparations get under way at two other sites

Wey & Arun Canal Volunteers investigate Lordings

Lock: The Wey & Arun Canal Trust’s canal maintenance manager Kevin Baker writes:

Volunteers and I have been working on a particularly interesting section of the Wey & Arun Canal in September/October, an area that was the focus for restoration under early member Winston Harwood some 35 years ago.

Lording’s Lock and Orfold Aqueduct form a combined structure on the Arun Navigation (which forms the southern section of the Wey & Arun route), with two weirs, a waterwheel (which fed the canal above the lock from the river) and a canal and river flood channel crossing each other, plus a turf-sided flood lock to the south of the main site. The second weir and the flood channel were installed by the Southern Water Board (predecessor of the Environment Agency) in an attempt to reduce flooding of the Arun Valley, and this crosses sectionthe canal on the level below the lock.

With the help of a WACT Volunteer I was able to determine that a level, four-way junction is possible with a little bit of work on the weirs, which if maintained and made watertight again

Map by WACT

Wey & Arun Canal

Southern (Arun Navigation) would provide a

minimum water depth of 41" across the bottom mitre of the lock .The Ideal depth is 43" so a slight modification would give us the extra 2". So we started investigating the condition of the lock chamber and approach. We hired a 1.6 tonne excavator for the job and the team cleared the lower entrance and gate recess areas of the lock. In doing so it became clear that extensive damage had been done to the end of the entrance walls. The north wall was exposed first and revealed a hole in the curved brickwork which at first we feared would continue, but luckily we found intact brickwork again. We pushed on to find the end of the wall and although the upper brickwork was damaged, the bulk of it was intact.

At the south wall it soon became clear

that it was substantially more damaged, but again as we revealed more we found the bottom 1 metre to be in good shape. Most of the broken wall was found in the bottom and we’ve recovered a sizeable amount of bricks that can be reclaimed to rebuild the damaged sections. The bottom rails of both bottom gates are still in place: an unusual thing is that the bottom pin (which locates the bottom of the gate) is set in the floor of the lock pointing upwards, and a recess in the gate locates onto it –the opposite of the usual arrangement of a pin pointing downwards from the gate into a cup set in the lock floor. We also found some of the gate’s ironwork.

The other interesting find was that the bottom gates had no paddles, but instead a ground paddle culvert has been found in the

Pictures by WACT

Areas of damaged and sound brickwork on the Lordlings Lock tail

south wall and apart from being bricked-up at the top appears to be intact.

The next step is to install some stopplank channels below the lock and above the aqueduct. Further investigation of the aqueduct has revealed a sizeable hole in the bed on approach to the aqueduct, but this is not a major problem as a new floor can be installed (the walls are already in place).

We will now leave the site for the winter and return in the spring to continue with the excavation of the main lock chamber (approx 65ft x 12ft x 4ft to 5ft of soil and silt to remove!). The lock itself is 75ft long x 12ft wide and 10ft 5in deep with a 6ft 4in rise so there’s lots more to do.

It’s also hoped to revisit the waterwheel in the future, to find a way of ensuring its reliability (any mechanical engineers out there please get in touch!). Northern Working Party Group

heads back to Birtley: It couldn’t quite

be called a camp (the luxury of separate

rooms in a local pub instead of a village hall floor), but a small group headed back to Birtley in Surrey at the end of October for four days.

Their mission was to construct the decking parts for the first Birtley liftbridge, whose abutments were built last year. Visiting groups played a big part in its creation and so it was fitting the Northern Working Party Group and Wey & Arun Canal Trust regulars could come together to finish the job – even if the conditions weren’t quite what we were all used to.

But the weather played ball for once and the Thriscutt Slipway site on Dunsfold Park became a hive of activity, acting as the workshop to make all the deck elements. page 35

The benefit of this site was a lot less mud than we were used to at Birtley.

The bridge deck is being made from wooden timbers previously used as props at Drungewick Lock, sandwiched together with bespoke metal plates to make the four metre span. Needless to say there was an awful lot of drilling and cutting of metal. Some 400 holes had to be drilled and 400kg of steel used.

On top of the deck planks will go lengths of Douglas Fir, bought from a local mill. All these planks needed to be routed to make them smooth. Assembling the deck for the first new liftbridge at Birtley

In a socially-distanced production line the parts came together. The prefabricated elements needed to be bolted together –that’s when we hope all the holes line up –and will be taken to the bridge site and put into place on a future working party.

The deck will eventually be replaced with a lift bridge, but with another bridge yet to be built on this canal stretch the temporary solution at least allows a circular canalside walk to open. Work begins on major restoration

project: With tree work completed, things are moving on at Tickner’s Heath, the site of the latest major restoration project for the Trust where a new road bridge is to be built to replace a causeway blocking the canal.

Volunteers have so far built the compound area on an adjacent agricultural field, created culverts and ditching, erected fencing and constructed a base for power connections.

Tree protection has gone up, along with screening around the compound, and the next step will be for work to begin on a temporary road and piling contractors to come in. Here’s hoping for a mild winter with not too much rain. page 36

Progress Roundup

The H&G plans a new work site, there’s progress on the Stafford Arm, but the Wooden Canal Boat Society is facing an uncertain future thanks to Covid

Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal

The Stafford Riverway LinkThe Hereford-

project to reinstate the formershire and

Stafford branch (mainly a canali-Gloucester-

sation of the River Sow) of theshire Canal

Staffordshire & WorcestershireTrust has just

Canal , has got the go-ahead forput in for

its next stage of work involvingplanning

building a new towpath bridge.permission for

The Trust’s work so far hasthe develop-

concentrated on the short armment of 600

which left the S&W main line atyards of canal

Baswich and linked to the Sownear Newent.

via a lock (which will need re-The team

placing on a new site). Initiallyhope to start

this arm is being rebuilt as athe digging in

mooring basin which will providethe spring

an income, but in the future it will2021. The

form the first stage of a reopenedpicture shows

route to Stafford. The planningthe route and

consent means the former con-the aim is to dig from the hedge line going across

nection to the main line and thethe picture above the football ground and off the

demolished towpath bridge Stafford Riverway Link

page at the top covering 600 yds in total. spanning it can be reinstated.

Wooden Canal Boat Society

The WCBS charity shop re-opened as planned at the beginning of September. Most of the former volunteers have returned, eagerly, to run it. Unfortunately, with the ongoing pandemic and near collapse of Ashton town centre, takings so far have not been enough to cover costs. This situation has led to discussions about how the business can be adapted to current and future conditions

Hazel has been busy, both in her wellbeing role and more commercial work, providing people with a unique ‘staycation’. It can be argued that all trips are wellbeing trips, it’s just that some people pay and others don’t.

There’s no prospect of reviving recycling trips until the virus goes away. Nevertheless, the shop hasn’t been short of goods to sell as everybody seems to have used the lockdown period to de-clutter their homes. Donated goods, of course, have to be quarantined before they are unpacked and put out for sale.

Work on the boats is almost nonexistent save for essential maintenance on Forget me Not and Hazel as well as a little work on Southam. Getting Southam back into service had been the big project for 2020 but the nasty little virus put paid to that. Similarly, not much has been going on at the Heritage Boatyard, save eBaying surplus equipment to bring in some much needed cash. Most of the regular boatyard volunteers are classed as vulnerable and so are staying at home. However, with help from a younger furloughed worker we were able to construct a new firewood shelter from scrap timber.

As I write this, Greater Manchester is being put into Tier 3 restrictions. Half our Airbnb bookings for the rest of the year have already been cancelled. It’s all about survival for the time being.