Camps First Canal Camp at the Seven Locks flight Camp 0106: Wilts & Berks Canal This was the first WRG camp on this section of the canal. Seven Locks covers about three quarters of a mile, and is in three different land ownerships - Locks 1 is 'anti', Lock 6 and 7 are cautious, and Locks 2, 3, 4 and 5 belong to a friendly owner! The local group started some clearance work on Lock 3 of the Seven Locks flight on 27th May after the foot and mouth restrictions were lifted, and worked flat-out on the six weekends before the camp to get the site prepared as far as possible. They constructed a dam at the top end of the lock, dug out an existing ditch to create a bywash, and graded the sides back. Finally, the towpath wall was virtually ready to start rebuilding on the camp, with scaffolding in place.
We also had help from three of the local volunteers who regularly work on the Foxham-Lyneham stretch. Ballast, sand, cement and bricks disappeared remarkably fast - we got through 5 tonnes each of ballast and sand, 1.75 tonnes of cement, and 4,000 bricks were laid in six days! A second project was clearing the towpath bank between Locks 3 and 2, which was stone-faced. We cleared down to the puddled-clay canal lining, and the stone proved to be mostly in quite good condition, despite several small hawthorns growing on top of the bank, which had to be mostly mattocked out. The top 12� of stone may have to be rebuilt, and we are hopeful that Farmington Stone who supply much of the stone for Cotswold stone walls will donate sufficient stone to complete this. We also cleared scrub growing in Lock 2, so that Tom Cutting, our civil engineer volunteer, could conduct a survey. This lock is at present bisected by the small lane providing access to the site, so because of the problems this may cause to restore it, it will probably be tackled last of the four locks that we can work on. It is possible that the Council will ask us to actually move the lock further up towards Lock 3, so it will simply need a box culvert under the road.
The lower half of the lock walls are in reasonably good condition, but the offside wall couldn’t be touched because a grey wagtail had built her nest and was sitting on eggs in a missing-brick hole halfway up. This could have caused a problem, because two of the local inhabitants, who are anti the canal restoration, attempted to give out a lot of adverse publicity about the work we were doing: 'ruining the wildlife and the environment' etc. We put fence netting round the section of the wall with the nest, and were as quiet as possible when working, and were pleased to find that our bird adapted quite happily to our presence. On the second day, the eggs hatched out, and both parents flew in and out of the nest feeding four youngsters all week. The main work was bricklaying on the towpathside chamber wall, and clearing the area between wall and towpath. Richard Hignett advised a metre wide brick and concrete wall, with holes drilled in the old brick and vertical reinforcing bar inserted to tie in the concrete backfill to the original wall. Unfortunately, it was not practical to have deliveries of ready-mix concrete, so it all had to be mixed on site and barrowed down ramps to the backfill area. At one time, we had three concrete mixers going full time, with relays of barrows rushing back and forth. By this time, the wall was growing fast, with some excellent bricklaying, with most of the team, including those with little or no experience, making a pretty good fist of it.
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Chamber wall rebuilding in progress at Lock 3, Seven Locks. (Ian Nicholson)