Navvies 192

avvies N Volunteers restoring waterways No 192 April - May 2002 BCN Cleanup report and photos...

waterway recovery group

Contents

Contributions...

...are always welcome, whether hand-written, typed, on 3½" disk (please include hard-copy) or by e-mail. Photos also welcome: slides or colour or b/w prints. Please state whether you want your prints back; I assume that you want slides returned. Computer scanned photos also acceptable, either on disk or as e-mail attachments, preferably JPG format. Send them to the editor Martin Ludgate, 35, Silvester Road, London SE22 9PB, or e-mail to editor@navvies.demon.co.uk. Press date for No 193: May 8th.

Subscriptions

A year's subscription (6 issues) is available for a minimum of ÂŁ1.50 (please add a donation if possible) to Sue Watts, 15 Eleanor Road, Chorltoncum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9FZ. Cheques to "Waterway Recovery Group" please.

In this issue:

Editorial whinging boaters!

3-4 Chairman BW are the good guys now!

5 WRGWear sartorial elegance for WRGies 6 'Best described as basic' accommodation 7 Cleanup report from the Walsall 8-11 Camps 2002 canal camps preview 12-15 Bankside another episode of the serial 16 Logistics meets 'Blue Peter' 17 Diary camps and working parties 18-20 Letters to the editor 21-25 Progress on the Wilts & Berks, Basingstoke, 26-28 Wey & Arun and Cotswolds Coming soon Training and Cavalcade 29 Forestry WRG FT talk about pruning 30-32 WRG BC our own boat club 33 Bits & Pieces with the June Jubilee Camp 34 Noticeboard horseboaters wanted!

35 Backfill bridge-lifters anonymous...

36

And next time...

...reports and photos from the Easter Camp, the Training Weekend, Droitwich locks opening and Canalway Cavalcade plus some forthcoming work on the Caldon Canal, a final preview of this summer's Canal Camps... and whatever else you send in (please!)...

Visit our web site http://www.wrg.org.uk for all the latest news or WRG's activities

Cover photo: a shopping trolley freshly plucked from its natural environment, the Birmingham Canal Navigations. (Alan Lines) Below: The first of what we hope will be a whole series of canal reopenings this year: the Anderton Lift sees its first boats for nearly 20 years. (Margaret Fletcher)

page 2

"Anderton lift? No way, you won't see me taking my boat through it!"

Actually as we go to press you won't see anyone using it: there have been some engineering problems resulting in it being temporarily taken out of use until it can be fixed; we hope they are minor 'teething troubles' and it can return to regular use again soon.

But anyway, that's not what I'm on about. Let me give you another example...

"You won't catch me using the Huddersfield Narrow Canal..."

Any wiser? Perhaps if I quote a few more words it might help... "...not if I have to pay ÂŁ35 a trip and book three days in advance for the tunnel."

Yes, it's those whinging boaters again, and this time they're moaning about having to pay a few quid extra to use the canals we've spent the last quarter-century restoring for them. More miles of canal are reopening than ever before, which most boaters have never lifted a finger to help restore, and all they can do is complain! Ungrateful sods or what?

Well, as you probably expected - given that (a) I'm a boater myself and (b) I don't want to be lynched by the WRG Boat Club - I have to say that to a certain extent I think they might have a valid point.

Yes, I realise that the Anderton Lift is a unique structure, that it will cost serious money to maintain it so that it doesn't fall into disrepair again, and that it has always been subject to a toll so the present charges aren't setting any new precedents. And once it's working properly, I and many other boaters will be happy to spend ÂŁ30 on a return trip.

And yes, I realise that there are some boaters who seem to simply enjoy whinging so much that they will whinge about anything - I remember a few years ago when there were simultaneously complaints about (a) the traffic jams and water shortages caused by excessive numbers of boats attending the National Waterways Festival and (b) the way the National Waterways Festival cost so much to attend and had so little in it for the boaters that hardly any of them were attending it any more...

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if I checked the Internet canals newsgroup uk.rec.waterways one day and found a load of boaters moaning about how much more diesel they were having to buy, now that there were so many newly-restored canals that they had to go boating on...

Editorial

Are boaters a bunch of whinging sods or what?

But if you consider some of the recent reopenings, there might appear - especially to someone not involved in the restoration movement to be some kind of pattern emerging. A pattern that involves more and more waterways requiring pre-booking and extra payments; a pattern that runs contrary to the very thing that attracts many boaters to the system: the free-and-easy go-as-you-please nature of the waterways, where you can go boating without having any real fixed plans at all, and stop for the night wherever you want, depending on the weather, your arrival at a tempting canalside pub, or whatever takes your fancy. Not really an option when you're due through the tunnel at 9am sharp the next day!

As already mentioned, the Anderton Lift will cost money and require pre-booking, as does Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

And the reopened Millennium Link canals in Scotland aren't included in the standard BW licence, so any trail-boaters heading for Scotland will have to pay more. And you have to book ahead to use the restored Frankton Locks on the Mont, and Tuel Lane Tunnel on the Rochdale. And it's likely that the Ribble Link will involve pre-booking and/or paying more money on top of your normal licence fees to use it. Ditto the Foxton Inclined Plane, Falkirk Wheel... [apologies if I've got my facts wrong about any of these - I can assure you I've heard boaters whinging about all of them!]

And what have all these got in common?

That's right, they're all restored waterways being reopened. Small wonder that the above whinges tend to end up with something along the lines of "That's not 'open' as far as I'm concerned. The canal won't be open until one can just turn up and navigate through it just like any other canal."

Followed by "...and there's no point in spending all this time and money restoring derelict canals if they're never going to be properly open..."

While you're welcome to agree with me that anyone who whinges along those lines really is an ungrateful sod, think about what will happen if canal restoration loses the support of the boaters. It's bad enough when we find ourselves at loggerheads with the nature conservationists, the cyclists, the anglers etc without the boaters taking against us as well!

page 3

Lest you think that putting-off a number of what might be seen as mean-minded boaters from using our restored canals is not a problem, and the canals will be there for the greater pleasure of the smaller number who appreciate them... remember that in many cases the major funding for restoration by local authorities etc. has been largely justified on the basis of the economic benefits they will bring to the region thanks to the large number of boats that will be using them.

While there is some individual justification for each of the restrictions mentioned above (although I'm slightly dubious of one or two of these justifications!) it's the impression they collectively create that matters.

And when you look at all the waterways that have been restored, you find that most of them have to a certain extent suffered from problems that have meant that they haven't simply ended up as parts of the waterways system with the same free access as is enjoyed on most of the canals that remained open. Some have had access restricted due to water supply problems (Kennet &Avon, Basingstoke); some have required extra licences due to having different navigation authorities (Stratford,Avon, Rochdale 'nine'); some have been restricted due to the requirement for staffing and limited capacity of locks / tunnels / lifts etc (Anderton, Standedge).

In many of these cases the situation has been resolved later by a BW takeover, a backpumping scheme improving water supply or whatever. But can anything be done to ensure that future restorations do not attract the same 'not properly restored' whinges? Or are we to read in 'Navvies' 300 that boaters are staying away from the Wilts & Berks because of the long booking times for the Swindon inclined planes, or that the high tolls on all the sump-locks are putting boaters off the Mont, or that the Oxenhall tunnel-tug system is causing a bottleneck on the H&G? And that boaters are saying "why bother restoring the Kington Leominster and Stourport Canal?" and "The Thames Berks and Andover will be a white elephant..."

Well, in some cases there is little that can be done other than to explain the reason for the restriction.

A long tunnel that's too narrow for boats to pass in is always likely to be a bottleneck; many of us would say that a booking system (and possibly an electric tug if the tunnel isn't adequately ventilated) is preferable to the only alternative of enlarging or opening-out an original tunnel. And shoe-horning a new section of canal into a limited space between roads, rivers, railways, buildings and so on will sometimes mean that some exotic engineering solution like a boat-lift makes sense (just as it made sense in the 19th Century when Anderton was built), even though it has maintenance and staffing implications that would not apply to a flight of locks.

page 4

In other cases, 'something' is already being done.

Over the last few years, canal restorations have been taking more and more note of the need for adequate water supplies, maintenance agreements and other precautions that will tend to make them 'just like any other canal' to use once they're open.

But alongside this welcome trend is another one that might tend to have the opposite effect. Note my slightly flippant remarks above about sumplocks [a lock that lowers boats under a low-level road crossing and then raises them up on the other side] and inclined planes. Both of these devices require manned operation, meaning limited hours of use and possibly tolls to cover staffing costs.

As I've already said, unusual engineering is fine when it's a good engineering solution to an unusual engineering problem - as it was at Anderton, and as it is at Falkirk. I hope that future restorations and especially newly-built canals will continue to come up with bold new solutions to the challenges they face.

But I get the distinct impression that there may be a tendency towards such exotic solutions purely for the sake of creating a tourist attraction, giving publicity to your restoration scheme, catching the eye of the funding bodies and so on when a flight of locks would be easier and cheaper to build and maintain, be more in-keeping with the rest of the historic waterway under restoration, and be available for use at any time and at no cost beyond that of the normal boat licence. For instance I gather that a sump-lock is proposed on the Mont, and an inclined plane on the new Bedford-Milton Keynes canal. Are they really necessary?

I realise that there will be occasions where such solutions will make sense, or where the funding implications are so major that they outweigh any other considerations - for example not only was Falkirk a tricky place to put a canal through by conventional means, but it may well be that the entire Scottish Millennium Link funding package would have failed had it not been for the Falkirk Wheel catching the eye of the Millennium Fund. (ouch!)

But I think that the proposers of these solutions should think long and hard about whether they are really justified. Otherwise we might just end up with some magnificently-restored but underused canals equipped with a surfeit of unnecessary engineering gimmicks, and a boating community that avoids restored canals because they don't see why they should reserve their place on the Andover Water Slope three days in advance, when they can potter up and down the Oxford or the Macclesfield at will - which is why they took up canal boating in the first place.

Martin Ludgate

Chairman's Comment

It has been rather an eventful Spring for the world of waterways hasn’t it?

I write this Comment on the day before I set off to run the Easter Camp at Droitwich. I have just come back from a swanky do in London where British Waterways assembled "the great and the good" and said they were, in partnership with others, going to restore £500million pounds worth of canals.

Now these partnerships (and probable successful restorations) were already known about but to see all nine of them in a list headed "To Be Completed (Real Quick)" was really quite breathtaking and must rank alongside such events as the reopening ceremony for the Cheshire Ring.

Now by tradition I should of course launch into a tirade about how it was all a load of rubbish and how they aren’t going to do it right but, quite frankly, I don’t think I can. Because this was a rather "grown up" BW who announced this. It is still a dangerous time to drop your guard because there are still pockets of BW that aren’t playing the game but, in general: BW are the good guys now.

...and perhaps more to the point...

BW now believe we are the good guys.

That is the shock, here is the aftershock....

Not one of these BW supported schemes have said that WRG does not have a place as a partner. Indeed most of them have asked for meetings to discuss making our input even more effective. They still need our help.

There are also a lot of other restoration schemes that we work on are nothing to do with BW and don’t have such support. They still need our help.

Our work might not possess the "purity and simplicity" of those early campaigning digs. We might not be fighting the faceless civil servants. We may not be able to say "what I did last weekend saved the Nitts and Stuffs". But we can say "what I did this weekend actually brought its re-opening a lot closer".

As mentioned above I am about to go to Droitwich to help complete the restoration of three locks, mainly funded by the IWA, while a major partnership publicly states it will complete the restoration. Does it make me want to not bother?

NO - for two very basic reasons: (1)

(2)

I know this is a very necessary contribution to the completion of the Droitwich Canals I will have fun while I’m doing it.

So please understand that all of WRG's work this year is valid, worthwhile and very necessary.

(Note that I haven’t guaranteed the "fun" part that’s still down to you)

Chairman

I really do dream of the day when a chairman of WRG can say in Navvies - "that’s it chaps, job done, lets go home". Well not yet, dear navvy, but I can say that day should be much closer now we have so many people helping us.

And if you disagree, or think I have got it wrong then please use Navvies to air your views.

After all that a few simple notices...

Regarding Droitwich, the opening ceremony for the Junction Locks has been fixed for 31st May. All are welcome, the opening ceremony will be performed by a relative of Neil Pitts the IWAmember whose legacy provided the major funding for the project.

The preparations for the Training Weekend are well in hand. I’m pleased to say that Stewart Sim, the BW operations director, has personally authorised the use of the BW Training Centre at Hatton for the weekend May 11/12th. This means we get to learn about stonemasonry and the like as well as the traditional plant, surveying, first aid, etc. More information is available on p29.

Congratulations to Dan Evans for winning the Website Of The Month from Waterways World magazine. Dan has tried hard to make sure the website is a good mix of useful information and good recruitment stuff. He deserves this award well done, our thanks to you Dan. You will also have had time to read our Canal Camps brochure and hopefully booked on a week or two. You should also have noted that this brochure was produced with support from Land and Water. L and W are a firm of contractors that specialise in dredging. They are well known and respected amongst the navigation authorities and are very helpful. If your restoration scheme has sections of channel that require large scale dredging then you could do a lot worse than contact them. (via WRG Head Office initially)

FInally whilst on the subject of generous support we also need to thank Oxford University Students Union who generously donated in excess of £500 to help us purchase the specialist heritage tools that we seem to need more and more these days.

Mike Palmer PS The Chairman's Comment being the slow production that it is I am now finishing this off having returned from Droitwich. It was a blistering hot camp (in March!!) with a really great bunch of people. My personal thanks to you all and I hope to see you all again this summer.

page 5

WRGwear

Printed polo shirts £9.50 Red

[The t-shirts DO NOT have the list of camps on the back - you order those from head office see camps booklet or WRG web site for details.]

Please allow 4 weeks for delivery but if it takes longer then please please contact me asap. All items are printed/embroidered with the standard waterway recovery group logo.

Helen Gardner Printed t-shirts £7 Red large logo

XL

XXL

XXL

L

XL

XXL

XL

XXL

XL

XXL

XL

XXL

Printed sweat shirts £12 Red

S

M

Black Navy Grey

Embroidered polo shirts £10.50 Red

S

M

L

Black Navy

White Embroidered sweat shirts £13 Red

S

M

L

Black Navy

Red small logo

Grey

Black large logo

Embroidered rugby shirts £23

Black small logo Printed vest tops £6.50 Black large logo

XL

White

I’ve done some analysis on what people have ordered over the past 18 months and here is your chance to order the more popular items. Just fill in the number of each item you want - add up the total and send the form to me. (A photocopy will be fine if you can’t bear to cut up Navvies).

L

L

Navy

Get kitted out for the summer and look great on the many Canal Camps you book on!

M

M

Black

Be properly dressed for your Canal Camp...

S

S

S

M

L

XL

Black small logo

Red

M

L

Please make cheques payable to "WRG Canal Camps". Do not send cash.

Send completed form to: Helen Gardner, WRGWear Orders, NB Sussex, The Boatyard, Rowdell Road, Northolt, UB5 6AG

Navy large logo

Navy small logo Total enclosed:

XXL

S

Name:

Address (to be delivered to):

Contact phone Number:

Email Address:

Enquiries / suggestions to: Helen Gardner 020 88457820 or email wrgwear@wrg.org.uk

page 6

Regular readers of the Canal Camps booklet will recall that for many years the section on 'Accommodation' included the following words: "The standard of accommodation is best described as basic" So here are some more reminiscences - thist time

by Mike Palmer - from the good old days when 'quality accommodation' meant the toilet had a door on it, and 'luxury accommodation' meant it walls and a ceiling too...

They don’t make 'em like they used to...

Anybody remember the accommodation at Lichfield where a volunteer (a rather large German) tripped and literally fell through the wall?

I certainly don’t remember Sue and Roger's boat at Little Venice... ...where a rather exhausted volunteer was dragged by his feet all the way through the boat to the front bunks: "he won’t go round the corner", "yes he will, pull harder" - yank - "oh yes he did".

Also on the same boat... ...there was the famous incident regarding Sue feeding us curried sprouts safe in the knowledge that we were all sleeping in another hall unfortunately Eddie Jones missed the taxi and so Sue had enjoy a night of Eddie's gentle perfume.

Funny how some major world events still get intertwined with digging stories...

I can remember a rather unnerving weekend at Lyneham during the Gulf War in 1991. We spent all night lying awake listening to Hercules aircraft taking off from RAF Lyneham at 15 minute intervals and flying over the village hall.

A rather more relaxing time... ...was had by those of us who helped out at the Cotswold Canal Trusts Beer Festival. The accommodation was (just) a shower block!

Sleeping on the changing room floor was a little uncomfortable but not quite as strange as we felt eating in the actual showers, especially as people kept on turning on the showers and deluging everyone - what started as stew finished as soup! [As I recall, it also made rather easier washing-up than usual - simply leave all the dirty dishes on the tables and turn the showers on... ...Ed]

Chairman "Best

"You had to be up by 8.30 or the WI sold your sleeping bag..."

Described As BASIC"

And on the BCN Cleanup...

We will have just completed a BCN Clean Up by the time you read this. The Clean Up has given us a range of accommodations but none so strange as the office block in Walsall that had a metal shutter over the door that had to be kept down even with us in! There was not a single pane of glass that wasn’t lying on the floor and drinking water had to be brought in in bottles.

Limited facilities also on a KESCRG dig at the Wendover...

Anyone who has been digging will agree that a school is a great accommodation - except when it is an infants' school. The seats were so small that your knees were above your shoulders. This also extended to the toilets - not a problem you would think except for the fact that the doors were only 3ft high so anyone walking in could see your predicament over the top of the cubicle door.

Thank you Mike for the above stories. I think you've already heard most of mine. (Although I don't think I mentioned the one where the flat roof was covered in charred remains of seat-cushions as a result of attempts to burn it down by the local oiks - or maybe by the hall's owners who were hoping to make an insurance claim and buy a decent replacement... not to mention the occasion when we got a noisy reminder that it isn't just BW and the government that occasionally get accused of moving the goalposts - one morning we woke up to find the hall caretaker busy moving them through where we were trying to sleep, so that the football match could kick-off...)

But I'm sure the rest of you have lots more similar tales of dodgy places that we've tried to sleep in. Please send them to the editor.

page 7

Cleanup

"Washing machines are an absolute swine to drag out..."

BCN Clean Up Weekend 2002 – Walsall Canal I’m still claiming that I only agreed to run the clean up weekend ‘cos MKP said it more or less ran itself, Sue said BITM were all busy the following weekend, and I thought it would get me a trip to Poland. Well, as the song says, 'two out of three ain’t bad'.

Tempting as it is to write this in the style of an Oscars acceptance speech – hey, it’s topical at the time of writing – I shall try to restrain myself to just a few thank you’s...

Firstly, (sip from what looks like water glass) to Brenda, Vaughan and the BCN crew and BW chaps for the provision of organisation, brews, and almost innumerable grappling hooks. To Dr. Steve, ably assisted by Craig, for the cooking, particularly the storming curry, and of course for the revenge blow struck for camp cooks everywhere, and finally to everyone who turned up to help de-gunk the Walsall Canal. (Expansive gesture, glittery dress) I won’t say that we pulled vast quantities of the usual garbage out of the cut, because I’m not sure its ever really usual in the BCN! This year's speciality was wheelchairs, leading to speculation as to whether the water had healing properties and the occupants had walked out, or whether it was so corrosive that there was no trace left of the bodies... (further, slightly unsteady sip at glass) Then there were the bikes, the motorbikes (some worth nicking for presumably a second time) and the more modern phenomenon, (yes pedants, I know) of those flashy metal kiddies' scooters.

The Birmingham Canal Navigations: BCN Cleanup sites and restoration projects Staffs & Worcs Canal to Great Heywood

Hatherton Canal under restoration

Shropshire Union Canal to Ellesmere Port

1997 Cleanup 1998 Cleanup 1999 Cleanup 2000 Cleanup 2002 Cleanup 2003 Cleanup?

Lichfield Canal under resstoration

Wyrley & Essington Canal

BCN Main Line

Dudley No 1 Canal

Daw End Branch

Coventry Canal to Coventry

Rushall Canal

Walsall Canal

Tame Valley Canal Birmingham & Fazeley Canal

Old Main Line

New Main Stourbridge Line Canal Dudley No 2 Canal Lapal Canal Staffs & Worcs Canal to Stourport under restoration

Grand Union Canal to London

Stratford Canal to Stratford on Avon

Worcs & Birmingham Canal to Worcester

page 8

Coventry Canal to Fradley

Some of this stuff could probably be re-used, but as Matt will tell you, scooters work better with handles on, and if you choose to try them without, it's probably best to keep your hard hat on, isn’t it dear?! (Sip of neat vodka disguised as water, stifled sob) Note for future reference: I am assured that washing machines are an absolute swine to drag out of the canal. I don’t know about swine themselves, I don’t think anyone found any of them. (Further expansive gesture) We considered taking it to Jude and Mike’s so they could trade it in for their new one (er, the washing machine, I don’t think even Jude’s love of pigs stretches to non-existent dead ones fished out of the canal) but who would believe that anyone had that much mud in their washing machine? Apart from everyone who’s ever been on a canal camp, obviously. (Tearful mention at this point of my mother, and my unfortunate discovery while I lived at home that its possible to more or less ‘fire’ Over mud in a boil wash...)

After a hectic Saturday in a selection of local hostelries, some of whom seemed to be celebrating St. Paddy’s Day early, a quieter night was held in the accommodation, broken only by the occasional dragging of H outside to play with his new toy (probably as close to a stretched limo as we’re likely to get on a canal camp – even more expansive gesture, slipping of glittery dress, mass paparazzi photography...)

Sunday saw more garbage being de-canalled, or even more canal being de-garbaged, however you want to look at it. Then everyone trundled off home to try to recreate that washing machine look in their own houses.

Thanks again to those who organised where I failed to, amongst other things I plead a knackered back and a WRG meeting. Ta to Bungle for the radios (sniff, mumble, sip) to MKP, Rog, Martin and Jonathan for provision of vans, kit and cooker, to those involved in random ferrying of things and stuff, (stifled sob, slurp) and of course, we couldn’t have done it without the little people well, actually, we did - Kaye and Ralph weren’t there. (sob, gulp, whimper, discreet wiping of eyes, mention of primary school teacher, various deities and anyone else I’ve forgotten).

Another load of junk heads for the rubbish skips, courtesy of the BW crane and the BCNS workboat 'Phoenix'. (Alan Lines)

And a final warning for all those of you who’ve been taken in by Craig’s angelic grin and cookie making, ask Dr. Steve for a comment on his egg-boiling skills...

See you all soon, and a happy and snag free boating on the Walsall Canal to all, even if you don’t get as far as Poland (full blown descent into over the top hysterical sobbing, drunken tripping over microphone, followed by stumbling down steps onto onlookers and three months in rehab) Cheers all, Lou ‘they serve my beer in the Pie Factory’ Kellett (possibly only likely to be nominated for 'laziest slacker' award) See overleaf for more photos of the Cleanup...

"Have grappling hook, will grapple" (Alan Lines)

page 9

Cleanup

The Walsall Canal yields up its treasures...

New for this year: shiny metal kiddy scooters.

Easier to ride if they have handlebars, as Matt found out 5 seconds later... (Martin Ludgate)

...together with some more traditional BCN Cleanup fare, such as rusty old oil drums, with or without oil... (Martin Ludgate)

...and tyres of all kinds, from push-chair size up to tractor size... (Alan Lines)

page 10

...also concrete fenceposts, not to mention the ubiquitous supermarket trolley... (Alan Lines)

...plus the odd sofa or two... (Martin Ludgate)

...and a mortorbike that really did take seven people to pull it out of the cut! (Alan Lines)

page 11

Camps 2002

A preview of all this year's Canal Camps

Canal Camps 2002

By the time you read this, the start of the main summer Canal Camps season will be only about eight weeks away, and we hope the booking forms will be coming in thick and fast for what looks set to be an excellent programme of camps...

As I said, we hope they will - because the sooner you get your booking forms off, the more we can do to prepare for the Camps, match the available skills to the available work, ensure that the canal societies' commitment to hosting a Camp is matched by our commitment to supporting it, and generally make sure that the canal restoration progresses, you get to do some useful work, everyone has a good time and we make it to the bar of the 'Railway Inn' in Droitwich in time for Last Orders...

Easter Camp at Hanbury Locks, Droitwich: Top: installing coping stones on the upper wing walls of lock 3. (Alan Lines) Above: your editor completes the nearside lower wing wall of lock 2. (Becky Parr) Below left: the last major job to be tackled was the dismantling and rebuilding of ivy-damaged brickBut before you can send your form in, work on the lock 3 offside lower wing wall, seen here with most you need to decide which camps you of the demolition done... (Martin Ludgate) Below right: ...and want to go on. So to help you decide later in the week with rebuilding in progress. (Martin Ludgate) (assuming you've decided you want to go on one at all... go on, you do really, don't you?) here's the very latest details we have as 'Navvies' goes to press of the work and the leaders for all of this year's camps.

Well, nearly all of them. Because there isn't much point in telling you what's going to happen on Camp 0201 at Droitwich as it's already happened! A full report will appear in the next issue, but you will see from the photos on this page that we spent a thoroughly productive week-and-abit over Easter putting very nearly the finishing touches onto Hanbury Locks ready for the opening at the end of May. Thank you to leaders Mike and Bex for a superb week of hard work, good fun and ducks.

page 12

The main summer programme kicks off with Camps 0202 and 0203 running from 22nd June to 6th July on the Grand Western Canal: two weeks to clear out 200 metres of 6-metre deep Jays Cutting, and to build up, surface and edge a new towpath so that the restored length of canal can be opened up to the public.

Meanwhile the same week on the Wilts and Berks, Rachael Banyard and Phill Cardy will be leading Camp 0206 at the Seven Locks flight, where the complete rebuilding of Lock 3 should be around the halfway stage, with backfilling to be completed on the towpath side and bricklaying beginning on the other side.

This will require excavators and a fleet of about 8 dumpers, so plenty of opportunities for machine operators and would-be operators, but there's plenty of manual work to do too.

Then we come to a slight change of plan: Camp 0207 the following week 13th to 20th July will also be on the Wilts & Berks, but on a different site. This camp, led and run by the NWPG group, was to have taken place at Valley Lock on the Cotswold Canals, but as explained in the Dig Deep update on pages 26-27 work has had to be suspended at Valley Lock for engineering reasons, so NWPG have chosen to move their camp to Summit Lock, near Wootton Bassett. Work on rebuilding the lock has been making rapid progress recently, and it looks like the work for the camp will involve some serious construction work building a new lock-tail bridge.

Your leaders for the first week are Adrian Fry and Ian Wingfield, then Gav Moor and Sally Nutt will take over for the second week.

And incidentally, despite the Camps brochure stating that these camps will take place in Devon, they are actually just over the border in Somerset. Not that it really matters - the scenery is just as good, and so is the local cider!

Overlapping with the second Grand Western camp is Camp 0204 at Saul Junction, where the Cotswold Canals meet the rest of the waterways system. Last year some of our volunteers spent a couple of days working on the Saul Junction Boat Gathering; this year we've decided to spent a whole week's camp supporting the festival, which has grown into one of the largest regional waterways events in the country. The work will include all the usual festival setup type jobs - marking-out the site, fencing, plumbing, signs, putting up the bar and the entertainments stage - plus laying 150 metres of towpath on a nearby length of canal. Then there's looking after the car-park, the entrance gates and all the other jobs involved in helping to run the festival, followed by a couple of days taking it all down again.

And yet another Wilts & Berks site will be the venue for Camp 0208 the same week. This is a new project to restore a stream culvert that passes under the canal on the outskirts of Melksham. One end of the culvert needs repairing; the other end needs completely rebuilding.

Richard Hignett will be leading this camp.

As the Boat Gathering is held over a weekend, this Camp starts and ends midweek, running from Wednesday 3rd to Wednesday 10th July; the accommodation is in the nearby Whitminster Village Hall and your leader is Nick Coolican-Smith, ably assisted by Mark Richardson.

Running from 6th to 13th July, Camp 0205 is back at Droitwich again but this time on the Droitwich Barge Canal, hoping to finish rebuilding the enormous 18th century overspill weir that we worked on a couple of years ago before we concentrated our efforts on Hanbury Locks.

Leader Andi Kewley will be assisted by Judith Gordon, and we hope that the King Edward Sports Pavilion will have finished being re-fitted and be ready to provide the usual excellent Venue for Camp 0206: Seven Locks on the Wilts & standard of accommodation.

Berks Canal (Martin Ludgate)

page 13

Camp 0209 on 20th-27th July was also intended to be at Valley Lock, where Ian Williamson and Martin Ludgate were hoping for a repeat of their excellent camp there last year. Well, this one's had to be moved too, but those who like the excellent Cotswold scenery (not to mention the excellent Cotswold pubs!) will be glad to hear that another worksite on the same canal has been found, slightly further down the Golden Valley. The work will include dismantling and rebuilding a brickand-stone lock overflow structure, repairing a footbridge and probably helping the WRG Forestry Team with some vegetation clearance work.

Meanwhile the same week on the Basingstoke Canal, a more machinery-based Camp 0210 will be providing opportunities for dumper, digger and roller drivers - but also plenty of manual work too - as the St Johns Locks backpumping project progresses towards its aim of giving the restored canal a reliable year-round water supply.

And the same week KESCRG will be running Camp 0212: the second week of work on the Basingstoke Canal, extending the water supply backpump pipeline all the way down the St Johns flight of five locks. More work for both machinery operators and manual workers.

The Bushbaby-and-Mole leadership team (otherwise known as Helen Gardner and Paul Cattermole) are back in action the following week 3rd to 10th August with Camp 0213 on the Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation, where work at Creeting Lock is progressing.

This year the work will be centred on demolishing and rebuilding the brick parapets and one spandrel wall of the tail bridge, and possibly also some rebuilding work on the paddle culverts.

Alternatively you might like to spend the same week in the Welsh borders where Camp 0214 led by Liz Williamson and Ralph Bateman will be continuing the work of rebuilding the large stormwater overflow and tail-race channel on the Montgomery Canal at Maesbury.

On 27th July to 3rd August we move to a new site on a canal that hasn't seen much WRG involvement for some years, but which looks like one that we're going to be doing a lot of work on in the not-too-distant future. The flight of 14 locks at Rogerstone on the Crumlin branch of the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal in South Wales are a really stunning piece of waterway engineering, raising the canal over 160 feet up the valley side in less than half a mile. Camp 0211 will be concentrating on the top lock, which is currently full of rubble: removing it will be an excavator-and-dumpers job, but the clearance of the bywash weir and overflow will be done by hand. Spencer Collins will be the leader, assisted by Rob Daffern.

And down in the deep south, the Wey and Arun Canal Trust team will be running Camp 0215 on (surprise surprise!) the Wey & Arun Canal on the Surrey / Sussex borders, where the work will centre around getting the strangely-named 'Bonfire Hanger' section of canal back in-water, to provide a water supply for the restored Loxwood Link section and to provide for eventual extension north of the navigable length of the canal.

The work will include restoring original brick spillweirs in brick and concrete.

Camp 0209 on the Cotswold Canals: we have to turn this rather derelict bywash...

...into something like this - the one we worked on last year at Valley Lock. Photos by Martin Ludgate.

page 14

Next it's the turn of the Sleaford Canal to receive our attention, as Camp 0216 on August 10th to 17th continues with the work begun last year at Haverholme Lock. This year the jobs will include laying concrete bases for the rest of bywash channel and bywash weir base, carrying on with bricklaying on the bywash and possibly installing stop-plank grooves at the tail of the lock chamber ready for work to begin on rebuilding the lock itself. Izzy Gascoigne will be leading the camp, with Steve Davis assisting.

Meanwhile back on the Montgomery Canal, in a sudden flashback to the 1990s Camp 0217 will be led by Jude Moore and Rachel French, with Rachel's mum doing the catering. This is the camp that will hopefully complete the Maesbury stormwater overflow and tail-race channel: we'd Initial clearance in February at Cropwell Bishop locks, better get it finished soon, as we've just heard the venue for this year's Grantham camp. (GNA) that there's a strong possibility that this section of the canal (including 'our' locks at Aston) will be opening to boats next spring.

The main summer Camps programme usually culminates in the Site Services Camp for the IWA's National Waterways Festival, and this year is no different. Two of our regular Festival camp leaders Mick Beattie and Ali Bottomley - will be teaming-up to provide the leadership for Camp 0218 at Huddersfield, where there will no doubt be the usual festival fun: lots of marquees to erect, campsites to mark-out, fencing to put up and take down and put up again, traders, boaters and Joe Public to look after, and all the hundreds of other jobs that are involved in supporting the biggest inland waterways event of its kind in the world. This camp runs for 10 days, from Monday 19th to Thursday 29th August.

That's the end of the main summer season, but after only a week's break Camp 0219 from September 7th to 14th on the Grantham Canal will be working on a new work-site, the flight of three locks at Cropwell Bishop. An initial investigation has revealed that one of the locks is in fair condition; the other two rather more the worse for wear. The camp - led by Rick Barnes - will be carrying on with the investigation, chamber clearance and scrub-bashing that will form the early stages of what should be a major lock-rebuilding job over the next few years.

This year's autumn camp is on the Lichfield Canal and is led by Dave 'Moose' Hearndon and Leonie Greenhalgh. It is likely to involve towpath work on the Tamworth road site, machinery and manual work, bricklaying and lots of cakes from Jan Horton! Note that this camp finishes a day early - it runs from Saturday October 26th to Friday November 1st - so as to give everyone time to get to the reunion 'Bonfire Bash' weekend on the Mon & Brec on November 2nd-3rd - about which there will be more in the next 'Navvies'.

Finally we round-off 2002 with a return to the Basingstoke for the New Year Camp 0221 from December 26th to January 1st, carrying on the important job of trimming-back overhanging canalside vegetation - and the equally important job of burning it on big bonfires to keep us warm!

2003 will no doubt be seen-in in fine style, with Dave 'Daddy Cool' Worthington at the helm.

Haverholme Lock on the Sleaford Canal awaits the attention of Camp 0216. (Martin Ludgate)

OK that's all from us about this year's camps now it's over to you: let's have your booking forms!

Martin Ludgate

page 15

Bankside

Bankside Moorings

And on the towpath, a TV crew were trying to interview a very harrassed-looking Henry Banks, Chairman of the Thames Berks and Andover Canal Society as he tried simultaneously to yell at three of his committee members, talk into two 2-way radios and answer his mobile phone.

Yes, 'Sodding about on the Canal' - the annual waterways festival held every spring - was about to begin...

written written by by Bruce Bruce Tunnel Tunnel

Matthew 'Beer Matt' Young, landlord of the 'Foundering Arms' at Chipping Sodbury gazed out of the front door of his pub at the lively scene on the busy Kennet and Basingstoke Canal, grinned and made a mental note to increase all his prices...

All manner of boats were jockeying for the best position on the prime moorings outside his pub, as their owners tried to out-bid each other with the cans of beer and sums of money that they were offering to two chaps wearing 'Water Space' badges. Meanwhile at the nearby Sodding Deep Lock, boaters were beating each other with lock-windlasses as they argued about whose turn it was to use the lock... and an enterprising WRGie was selling ringside tickets and taking bets on who would win...

The other side of the lock, a crowd of 35 WRG volunteers were trying to find enough space to stow all their gear on a half-derelict6-berthnarrowboatlabelled'Accommodation'.

In a field nearby, several groups of volunteers were trying their hardest to turn what appeared to be a pile of scrap metal and some assorted scraps of cloth that looked like the left-behind clothing from the last autumn's Bonfire Bash into a trade marquee... and rapidly coming to the conclusion that what they had really was a pile of scrap timber and left-over clothing, not a marquee at all. While canal societies complained that the "twelve by eight" pitches allocated for their display-stands appeared to have been quoted in yards, allocated in feet and charged in metres...

In a small portacabin in the distance, Mike Ruddle peeled the backing off a sheet of high-visibility signmaking material and admired his handiwork...

He cursed silently, gave the signs to the operator of the steam-boat 'Premier' to feed into his boat's firebox, and disappeared back inside his cabin to start again.

Meanwhile in the pub car-park, a boiler-suited Oz Collingwood, Canal Camp leader, and his side-kick 'Gordon-I-broke-my-nose-three-times' Drake were crawling around inside a mobile generator, pulling and pushing plugs, flicking swiches, replacing fuses and swearing volubly as the PA system crackled on and off and the gaudy strings of lights on the display stands flickered on and off like some kind of demented disco.

page 16

Come the following afternoon, with the festival in full swing, Henry was wondering what on earth he had been feeling so harrassed about. As usual, despite all the arguments, political wrangling, last-minute cockups, problems of communication and the 101 other things that seemed to dog the festival every year, once it was open to the public almost everything went swimmingly.

And even when it didn't go to plan, the public never really noticed - they just assumed it was all part of the show.

Like the couple who had just congratulated him on the reenactment of the famous fight in 1893 between rival gangs of navvies who built the canal. (what they had actually witnessed was in fact a struggle between the WRG and Surrey & West Berks Waterway Restoration Group volunteers to be first into the beer tent when it opened).

Or the chap who had praised the imaginative decision to run two pageants of decorated boats, one in each direction, and with two different themes to the decoration - which was simply a near-inevitable result of having two different committees both of whom thought they were running the event.

EvenGordonDrake'slegendaryorganisationalability-namely the facility to get anything that anyone was rash enough to entrust him with spectacularly wrong - hadn't spoiled the event. After all, it wasn't every year they had a Gnu display fromthelocalzoo-everyoneagreedthatitwassomuchmore original than the Canoe display they had originally wanted.

Whilethebunchofspaced-outhippiescompletewithguitars, wild clothes and flowers in their hair certainly contributed to what was always a colourful event - even if it hadn't been exactly the kind of 'trip-boat' that Henry had envisaged.

And speaking of Gordon... Henry noticed him standing by the canalside, watching as a boat glided smoothly past, with an entire orchestra on board, giving a delightful and thoroughly appropriate rendition of Handel's 'Water Music'. Henry didn't even remember classical music featuring in the programme at all - but he had to admit that it was a brilliant idea, and after all, he shouldn't be too surprised at another last-minute change that he hadn't known about.

He was slightly more surprised when a second boatload of classical musicians passed a couple of minutes later - especially as they were also playing Handel's Water Music. When the third and fourth ones followed in quick succession, he began to suspect that even the usual level of cockups didn't quite allow for this.

Finally, as the sixth and last performance of the Water Music died away, the Mayor of Sodbury strode up to the microphone on the rostrum.

"I have great pleasure in announcing the winners of this year's Boat-Handelling Competition..."

To be continued...

Ships After having pre-empted my own report for this issue of Navvies in a 'Blue Peter' style, it would have been easy for me to do a "Here’s one I prepared earlier..." gag, but the truth of the matter is that it was a cop-out and more importantly a blatant lie as 'prepared' is something this is definitely not! [Can you tell?!]

It seems but a few weeks since I wrote the last article... whatever happened to bi-monthly?

Ah, I understand! In a bid to get enough copy for each issue of the magazine, The Editor has been encouraging/coaxing/downright-forcing (OK, perhaps that’s a little harsh!) us to write by monthly instalments! The spelling was wrong! That must be it!! It’s the only explanation. So here is this month's: In today’s programme we will be looking at Easter, the culmination of our successful fridge freezer appeal, and the not-very-long-awaited ‘what you can make with a shower curtain, piece of string and some bottle tops’. But first we are going to take a look at the technological world: In this day and age we take technology for granted a lot of the time. That is, until it breaks down and we are left with mountains of paperwork and no way to print off urgently needed files.

This is because computers are indeed the work of the Devil and should be throttled at birth! Imagine the simplest of tasks, e.g. printing off kit lists, is turned into a major hurdle because your computer decides to blow raspberries and stick two fingers up at you. So why not return to the humble pen and paper duo? A good question and one that looks evermore appealing. It’s definitely something to think about.

Well, many of you did actually rush to your computers to e-mail me about our fridge freezer appeal. And what a huge success it was. The response was overwhelming and we’d like to say a big "thank you" for your generosity. The appeal is now over (Aargh! Not that place again!) and we are awash with fridge freezers. So many thanks to all contributors concerned.

Now it’s time to make something. You will need: a shower curtain, a length of string, some bottle tops, a pair of scissors and some double-sided sticky tape. To find out what you can make you’ll have to visit a canal camp (and for those of you who support us from home if you’re that intrigued write to me – postcard or e-mail - and I’ll let you know... I might even send you instructions!)! Needless to say, these are new for this year!

Logistics

"...computers are the work of the Devil and should be throttled..."

And, last but not least, Easter is but a very heavy boulders-throw away. To celebrate we are going to have no hot-cross Jens or Easter blunders (are we now?!). Perhaps just a piece of chocolate cake.

Enjoy the ‘holiday’. See you in the next show.

Goodbye. [Big TV smile and cheesy wave.]

And now for the out-takes (of the unfunny kind!): Here is an important reminder that if you want to use our vans for a digging weekend or a camp you need to talk to me but more importantly we do need some notice and a week or less is not enough! A minimum requirement of a fortnight's notice is the only way we can do it. Under a fortnight's notice and no van or kit - simple as that!

And if you’re planning a weekend or camp with less than a fortnight to go, may Jehovah help you!

Logistics would like to point out something the more astute of you will have noticed. It appears we do offer a bread and swimmy-things dividing service as regards our vans because on the van schedule in Navvies 191, page 15, RFB and GCW are on both Saul Junction and the Wilts and Berks camps. True, both vans are available at the start of Saul but then they continue on to the Wilts and Berks at the weekend. I’m afraid that is an editing faux pas and not a Logistics one as my list clearly states the changeover. I would also like to disclaim the "note" at the bottom of page 15 – not mine either! [Sorry! ...Ed] Thanks very much to Viv Thorpe for sending me some of his dirty photos. I’m waiting for the huge backlog of other peoples that are obviously stuck in the post!

Suggestions for "Whose 'Navvies' is it anyway?" styles are still welcome. I’d best try and find some content for next month’s instalment...

Just Jen logistics@wrg.org.uk Mobile logistics – 'one we made earlier' would be a luxury!

page 17

Diary

Apr 20/21

wrgBITM

Apr 21 Sun

wrgNW

Apr 27 Sat

wrgNW

Apr 20/21

Apr 27/28

May 3/4/5/6 May 4/5/6

May 4/5/6 May 4/5/6

May 4/5/6

May 8 Wed May 11/12

May 11/12

May 18/19

May 18/19

May 18/19

May 19 Sun May 31 Fri

Jun 1/2/3/4 Jun 1/2/3

LHCRT

London WRG KESCRG NWPG

wrgNW

wrgBITM SUCS

Navvies

wrgTrain

Essex WRG

London WRG KESCRG wrgBITM WRG DCT

Essex WRG wrgBITM

Jun 1 Sat

wrgNW

Jun 8/9

KESCRG

Jun 8/9

wrgNW

Jun 2-9

Jun 8/9

Jun 14/16

Jun 15/16

Jun 15/16

Jun 15/16

Jun 22-29 Jun 22/23

W&BCCo

London WRG wrgNW

wrgBITM NWPG SUCS

Camp 0202 WRG/IWA

Jun 29-Jul 6 Camp 0203 Jul 3-10 Jul 6/7

page 18

Camp 0204 KESCRG

Canal Camps cost £35 per week unless otherwise Bookings for WRG Canal Camps (those identified camp number e.g. 'Camp 0202') should go to WRG Camps, PO Box 114, Rickmansworth WD3 1ZY. Tel: 01923 711114. Email: enquiries@wrg.org.u

Wey & Arun Canal: Leader: Graham Hotham.

Lichfield Canal: Working party timed to coincide with LHCRT "Walk the line of t WRG volunteers requested for site-work including bricklaying at Tamworth Roa night entertainment at Martin Heath Hall.

Lichfield Canal Walk: Assist with organising Walk (Sunday only)

Hereford & Gloucester Canal: Installation of water supply at Over Basin ‘Paper Chase’ waste paper collection

Little Venice: Site Services for IWA Canalway Cavalcade rally Wey & Arun Canal

Wilts & Berks Canal: Bridge foundations

Little Venice Canalway Cavalcade: BITM Sales Stall only. Leader: Graham Ho Montgomery Canal

Press date for issue 193

WRG Training Weekend: Hatton, in Warwickshire. Cost £10 To be arranged

Droitwich Canal: probably the last chance to work at Hanbury Locks before the To be arranged

Rickmansworth Canal Festival: Site Services, and BITM Sales stall. Leader: M Committee & Board Meetings

Official opening of Hanbury Locks on the Droitwic hCanal To be arranged

Wendover Arm Festival: Site Services, and BITM Sales Stall. Leader: Mike Pa Open to public on Sun/Mon only.

‘Paper Chase’ waste paper collection

Wilts & Berks Canal: ‘June Jubilee’ Camp. Brickwork at Lock 3 of Seven Locks Camp organised by Wilts & Berks Canal Co, but please sned bookings via Hea To be arranged (Possibly Wey & Arun or Lichfield) Wey & Arun Canal

IWA Chester Branch Rally: Sales Stand at Clifton, River Weaver.

Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival: Sales Stand.

Cotswold Canals: Leader: Mark Gribble.

Lichfield Canal

Montgomery Canal: Including Dinghy Dawdle, and Re-opening of Brynderwen Grand Western Canal Camp

24-hour BCN Marathon Challenge Cruise: cruise the Birmingham Canal Navig scoring points for every mile and every lock, and extra points for the more obsc Grand Western Canal Camp

Stroudwater: Saul Junction boat gathering

Wilts & Berks Canal: Dig Deep project at Summit Lock. Joint dig with London W

e stated. by a G Canal

uk

Please send updates to Diary compiler: Dave Wedd, 7 Ringwood Rd, Blackwater, Camberley, Surrey GU17 0EY. Tel 01252 874437. e-mail: Dave.Wedd@wrgBITM.org.uk.

Dave Wedd

01252-874437

bookings@wrgBITM.org.uk

David McCarthy

0161-740-2179

malcolm.bridge@btclick.com

David McCarthy

0161-740-2179

the canal" guided walk. John & Jan Horton 01543-262466 j.horton@horton100.freeserve.co.uk ad site and for assistance with marshalling the walk on Sunday. Accommodation and 'Race Night' Saturday Tim Lewis

Answerphone

Graham Hawkes tham

David McCarthy

ike Paice

ice.

01622-858329

Kescrg@btinternet.com

0161-740-2179

malcolm.bridge@btclick.com

0118-941-0586

grahamhawkes@btinternet.com

01252-656087

bookings@wrgBITM.org.uk

Martin Ludgate

020-8693-3266

editor@navvies.demon.co.uk

Geoff Munro

John Gale Tim Lewis

Answerphone

0121-561-5747 0191-261-5913 01277-654683

020-8367-6227 01622-858329

Dave Wedd

01252-874437

John Gale

01277-654683

Mike Palmer

01564 785293

jenser@telco4u.net

enquiries@wrg.org.uk EssexWRG@cs.com

wrgtim@netscapeonline.co.uk Kescrg@btinternet.com

bookings@wrgBITM.org.uk mike.palmer@bbc.co.uk EssexWRG@cs.com

Dave Wedd

01252-874437

David McCarthy

0161-740-2179

Answerphone

01622-858329

Kescrg@btinternet.com

David McCarthy

0161-740-2179

malcolm.bridge@btclick.com

s flight.

Rachael Banyard 01249-892289 ad Office quoting Camp number: "WBCC". Cost: ÂŁ45.

Tim Lewis

David McCarthy Dave Wedd Lock on Sunday.

wrgtim@netscapeonline.co.uk

Graham Hotham

Alison Bottomley

e opening!

020-8367-6227

Graham Hawkes Colin Venus

020-8367-6227 0161-740-2179 01252-874437

0118-941-0586 01974-272628

bookings@wrgBITM.org.uk

wrgtim@netscapeonline.co.uk malcolm.bridge@btclick.com bookings@wrgBITM.org.uk

grahamhawkes@btinternet.com jenser@telco4u.net

gations, Chris & Helen Davey 01730 814670 chris@c-h-davey.demon.co.uk cure bits. Boaters wanted, also scrutineers to check up on the boaters.

WRG.

Answerphone

01622-858329

Kescrg@btinternet.com

page 19

Diary

Canal society regular working parties

Mobile groups' social evenings

(please phone to confirm before turning up)

London WRG: 7:30pm on Tues 11 days before each dig. 'Jugged Hare', Vauxhall Bridge Rd, London, Tim Lewis 020-8367 6227 or e-mail wrgtim@netscapeonline.co.uk.

NWPG: 9:00pm on 3rd Tue of month at the 'Hope Tap', West end of Friar St. Reading.

Graham Hawkes 0118 941 0586

Regular monthly or weekly working parties: 3rd Sunday of month BCNS Jeff Barley 2nd Sunday & following Wed. BCS Cosgrove Athina Beckett Anytime inc. weekdays BCT Aqueduct section Gerald Fry Every Sunday ChCT Various sites Mick Hodgetts Mon & Wed mornings CCT Cotswolds Dudley Greenslade Every weekend (Sat OR Sun)CCT Cotswolds Neil Ritchie 1st Sunday of month CCT Cotswolds: summit Mark Welton Wednesday evenings CCT Cotswolds: East end Keith Harding 4th Mon of month, 6pm CMT London Canal Mus. Martin Sach Every Saturday DCT Droitwich Canal Jon Axe Second Sun of month FIPT Foxton Inclined Plane Mike Beech 1st & 3rd Sundays GCRS Grantham Canal Colin Bryan 2nd Sat of month GWCT Nynehead Lift Denis Dodd Tuesdays H&GCT Oxenhall Brian Fox Wednesdays H&GCT Over Ted Beagles Saturdays H&GCT Over Maggie Jones Occasional Sundays H&GCT Over wharf house fitoutNigel Bailey Every Sunday if required IWPS Bugsworth Basin Ian Edgar 1st Saturday & 3rd Wed. IWA Ipswich Stowmarket Navigtn. Colin Turner 2nd weekend of month IWA SBC Maesbury, Mont.

Barry Tuffin 2nd weekend of month K&ACT John Rolls 1st Sunday of month LHCRT Lichfield John Horton 3rd Sunday of month LHCRT Hatherton Denis Cooper 2nd & last Sundays PCAS Paul Waddington 2nd Sunday of month SCARS Sankey Canal Colin Greenall 1st Sunday of month SCCS Combe Hay Locks Bob Parnell Most weekends SHCS Basingstoke Peter Redway 3rd Sunday of month TMCA David Rouse Approx 15th of month WACT Mid-Week group Colin Gibbs Every Sunday & Thursday WACT Devils Hole Lock Eric Walker Thursdays fortnightly WACT Maintenance Unit Peter Wilding or for general information on Wey & Arun contact their office on 01403-752403 1st weekend of month WAT Little Tring Roger Leishman Every weekend WBCT Wilts & Berks Canal Peter Smith Every Sunday W&BCC Dauntsey / Foxham Rachael Banyard

01543-373284 01908-661217 01288-353273 01246-620695 01453 825515 01452-854057 01453-872405 01451-860181 020-7625-7376 0121-608 0296 0116-279-2657 0115-989-2248 01823-661653 01432-358628 01452-522648 01452-618010 01452-533835 01663-732493 01473-730586 01691-670826/49 01189-666316 01543 262466 01543-374370 01757-638027 01744-731746 01225-428055 01483-721710 01474-362861 020-82417736 023-9246-3025 01483-422519 01442-874536 01793-852883 01249-892289

Please send any amendments, additions and deletions to Dave Wedd (address on previous page)

Abbreviations used in Diary BCG BCNS BCS BCT ChCT CCT CMT DCT FIPT D&SCS GCRS GWCT H&GCT IWA SBC

page 20

Barnsley Canal Group Birmingham Canal Navigations Soc. Buckingham Canal Society Bude Canal Trust Chesterfield Canal Trust Cotswolds Canals Trust Canal Museum Trust (London) Droitwich Canals Trust Foxton Inclined Plane Trust Derby & Sandiacre Canal Society Grantham Canal Restoration Society Grand Western Canal Trust Hereford & Gloucester Canal Trust IWA Shrewsbury & Border Counties

IWPS K&ACT KESCRG LHCRT LWRG NWPG PCAS SCARS SCCS SHCS TMCA WBCT W&BCC WACT WAT

Inland Waterways Protection Society Kennet & Avon Canal Trust Kent & E Sussex Canal Rest. Group Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Rest'n Trust London Waterway Recovery Group Newbury Working Party Group Pocklington Canal Amenity Society Sankey Canal Restoration Society Somersetshire Coal Canal Society Surrey & Hants Canal Society Thames & Medway Canal Association Wilts & Berks Canal Trust Wilts & Berks Canal Company Wey & Arun Canal Trust Wendover Arm Trust

Dear Martin Re: National Canal Clean Up 2002. Joint organisation between BCNS, IWA, WRG & BW: Walsall Canal from the long pound on Ryders Green flight to Porkets Bridge, Moxley.

Letters

Cleanups on the BCN; cruising on the HNC

This was the 6th consecutive year that a big clean up has taken place somewhere on the BCN. On Saturday and Sunday 16th & 17th March well over 100 volunteers came from 14 different voluntary organisations to help clean up this part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. The weather was reasonable to us and everyone who came was much appreciated, whether, they stayed all day, half a day or just a few hours – every bit helped!

Eight huge skips were filled or in mathematical terms 340m3 was cleared from the canal. I would like to thank all those from WRG who came and helped over the weekend. I know that the enthusiasm shown all your members makes a huge impression on other volunteers, whether actually taking rubbish out of the water or the support team supplying transport, food etc. A big THANK YOU to you all. It was noted that there was a large presence from London WRG! Regards

Brenda Ward

And a letter to Dave Wedd of WRG BITM concerning the Lapal Canal Cleanup the following weekend: Dear Dave Would you convey to all BITM bods our sincere thanks for their gallant efforts last week end. Although no actual "restoration" took place, they transformed the whole line from an overgrown tip to a very pleasant area, and gave us Brownie Points with the Council and the bottom line we needed to take to Sainsbury’s etc. - that the locals want their canal back.

Statistically, 103 volunteers booked in, and moved 350 cubic metres of rubbish, plus vast wood clearance. Actual costs were £3500 for Birmingham Council, and £1600 from our Trust for which we had a £500 donation from Cadburys.

Yours

Stan Thomas Lapal Canal Trust

Dear Sue Please tell Martin not to be quite so despondent over the knockers of canal restoration - they are in a small minority.

We spent the last August Bank Holiday Monday cruising our boat up the Huddersfield Narrow Canal from Portland Basin to Wool Lane. The canal banks were thronged with people enjoying the sunshine and at every lock the boat drew a dozen or more spectators interested to see how a lock worked. They waited patiently until we were on our way before strolling off leaving us far behind.

Many of those we spoke to were not aware that boats were once again passing through Standedge Tunnel and the HNC. All the comments we received were positive about the canal’s restoration.

During the whole length of our HNC cruise - we took five days, about average - we had not one adverse comment to the canal’s reopening.

No matter what you do there will always be those who see fit to criticise. Don’t waste valuable paper and ink defending yourself against them - they are not worth it.

All the best for 2002,

Ken Johnson

page 21

Letters

The importance of armchair supporters

Dear Editor Only received this issue today (7th) and note the press date is tomorrow! Not much chance of getting this to you in time then...

Must have missed the comment earlier about ‘armchair members’ but I think it would be very unwise for WRG to belittle those, like me, who have spent a lifetime supporting waterways restoration without ever having been on a canal camp.

It’s not just the subs we pay; what is more important is the fact that without the sea-change in public and political opinion that has occurred over the last ten years there would be little, if any, of the effective restoration of which WRG is quite rightly so proud. There would certainly be no Huddersfield and Rochdale restorations, No Anderton Lift, no Ribble Link and no Falkirk Wheel!

It ill-becomes anyone in the restoration movement to risk alienating older, more influential, members by jokes at their expense; or does WRG think the battle is now won and the support of those ‘armchair members’ who may have spent the last 30 years quietly promoting the aim of waterways restoration to anyone who would listen is no longer needed?

Which leads me to another reason to write to you: deluxe camps. I’m 56, a skilled bricklayer, a qualified surveyor, have spent a lifetime in the construction industry and I can drive anything with wheels, but I’m too old, and too sybaritic, to sleep on the floor. The idea of a camp where I could have my own room, and bed, would probably tempt me out to give it a go. I’m not antisocial, just a bit long in the tooth to bed down with 30 or so strangers young enough to be my children. But perhaps with a ready supply of young ‘uns you don’t want us oldies, especially as we might know more about building, civil engineering and Health & Safety regulations than you do!

Yours

Eric Jackson

A few editorial comments on the points made by Eric Jackson in the above letter...

Firstly my apologies for the last issue being published so close to the press date for this issue. I'm afraid a combination of late-arriving copy that couldn't wait for this issue, work on the camps booklet and an untimely fault with the printing press meant that 191 was a couple of weeks late. Hopefully this one will be nearer to on-time.

Secondly the subject of 'armchair members'. I have never knowingly belittled armchair members - in fact I tried last time to make it clear that in WRG we greatly value the continued support of people who are not active participants in canal restoration and we hope they will continue to support us.

However, while we like to include a variety of articles of interest to all readers (and would welcome contributions from readers who aren't involved in the physical side of restoration - for example some factual articles about engineering or Health & Safety might well be of value), there will always be an emphasis on content that is written by and for (and in the preferred style of) the active volunteers because they are after all the main reason for the magazine's existence.

And anyway, I'm not sure that I would class somebody who has been actively involved in restoration work as an 'armchair member' just because they haven't been on a Canal Camp. I managed several years involvement in WRG and IWA without going on one!

I don't recall any jokes in 'Navvies' that I felt were likely to risk alienating 'older, more influential members' - just the usual light-hearted mickey-taking aimed at most people in canal restoration. (and in particular our chairman!) Apologies if I've missed anything - and please can somebody point it out to me.

Not that I particularly believe that influence and age are that closely-related or particularly deserving of respect compared to the younger and/or less-influential: there are volunteers that I respect in WRG who are young enough to be my children and others that I also respect who are old enough to be my parents, and I am happy to exchange advice and knowledge in either direction with any of them.

page 22

And anyway 56 isn't what I'd call an 'oldie' - we have plenty of regular WRG volunteers who are older than that.

Finally on the subject of 'de luxe' camps: if there is enough interest we will be happy to try and run one during next year's Canal Camps programme - expecially is there is some interest in volunteering to help to organise it.

The Editor

Letters

...from Alan 'the what?'

Lines...

Mr Ludgate: Re Navvies No 191, page 9, bottom left hand corner. And I quote: "All photo’s accompanying this article are by the editor - except the dodgy one of MKP in the shower which was taken by Alan ‘the pervert’ Lines."

I am really pissed off with you for allowing such libellous comments to appear in a magazine which is read by people who know me, and people that don’t...

Do I now: (1)

Stop taking photographs?

(3)

Kick some arse and then carry on as before?

(2)

Take photographs mainly of male persons? (or would I then be called "Gay Alan Lines") A Really Pissed Off Alan.

Blam! Hop hop hop... That - in case you hadn't guessed - is the sound of your editor shooting himself in the foot again... Having moaned repeatedly about the shortage of contributions arriving on time for publication, I've only gone and hacked-off one of the few people who I can count on to send me lots of pictures immediately from every WRG event he goes on. Drat! Well, I guess option (1) is out of the question, and option (2) might get me into all sorts of confusion when I ask for 'camp photographs', so it looks like it's option (3) and a boot up the backside for me! In the meantime, I promise never to call Alan a pervert again. So what shall I call him in future? I know!

Let's have a 'suggest an alternative nickname for Alan Lines' competition. Suggestions to the editor by the 8th of May.... ...Ed Dear Martin, In Navvies 191 you show a photograph of a scene at Ashtac, which you describe as "the Big Dig that launched the restoration of the Ashton and Lower Peak Forest Canals..."

In the interests of historical accuracy, I write to point out that if a Big Dig did launch that restoration it was Operation Ashton, or "Opash", which I think took place in 1969.

I attended both Opash and Ashtac. Opash was in the central part of the Ashton, Ashtac at the Dukinfield Junction end. They were both massive and highly successful digs. With the benefit of the Opash experience, Ashtac was probably the more slick in organisation and was more mechanised.

For me, however, Opash was the more memorable.

This was partly due to its pioneering nature and partly due to the appalling weather, which of course did not dim by one jot the enthusiasm of those splendid Wergies.

My impression at the time was that Opash turned a number of important minds in high places, and that Ashtac built on the success of Opash.

Yours sincerely,

N.Q. Grazebrook

page 23

Letters

Dear Martin,

What did Dick Barton look like?

I’m a 71 year old, somewhat creaky supporter and a fan of Navvies, because it gives me a chance to read about a wonderful bunch of folks.

My admiration for the groups who work so hard in restoring our Waterways is beyond bounds.

They are an example to so many of the whinging ‘gits’ that seem to be in the majority in society today.

As someone who spent most of his adult life involved in Trade Unions and Politics, I became fed up with the constant question, ‘What are you going to do about it’, when really it was in the questioners ability to do something his or her self.

There are other organisations such as BTCV and the National Trust that have Voluntary Workers.

But, by a long chalk they do not approach WRG and the other Waterway Groups in their commitment to the job in hand.

I have had one holiday on a hire boat, a week on the Stourport Ring. Report: Boat Superb, Crew Magnificent, Family, (i.e The Crew), B****y Awful. I don’t suppose I will ever have another trip on the ‘Cut’. The best bit was going through the Soho Loop and trying to explain to the family that this was where we did our ‘courting’, almost fifty years before.

So don’t bother with the colour, just keep plenty of reports and funny stories, I’m sure us ‘old un’s’ will imagine the rest, after all we were all brought up with the ‘wireless’. Does anybody know what Dick Barton and Snowy looked like?

More power to your elbows, Ron Drew from the wilds of Cumberland, on the Scottish Border.

PS In a few weeks time we will own about a hundred yards of the Black Lyne, any chance of a working party to make it navigable to Carlisle?. Well I can live in hope... R.D. Dear Martin At the time of the effort to clear the Ashton canal and establish a ring for cruising it was seen as a matter of national importance: if this went the system would cease to have any meaning. It had become difficult to use those canals which had ceased trading and it wasn’t foreseen how the leisure industry was going to take up the financial slack.

BW were, at the time, almost paranoiacally worried about the proportion of government grant to income which was declining. On the ground it seems the staff were glad to see someone taking an interest in their livelihood. In the office there was terror that it would all lead to greater liabilities.

Letters from HQ warned about the expense of maintaining waterways for the sole use of pleasure boats.

It must have been a year or two later when the first intrepid sailors completed the circuit of the Macclesfield, T&M, Bridgewater, Rochdale, Ashton & Peak Forest. Boating people still like to tell of their experiences, how they worked 12 hours to avoid having to spend the night in a grim part of Manchester. At first there were stories of vandals and dry pounds, then there was thick weed, on another occasion there was a recidivist official.

By the 1970’s adverts proclaiming the various rings now possible were appearing in the new Waterways magazines. My own trip through the area occurred some years later and there was hardly a boat between Marple and the Bridgewater, that is the whole section of lower Peak Forest and Ashton. It appeared that the natives were not friendly: those boats I saw were heavily armoured or damaged. I had to chase off some stone throwers. The circle remained something of an adventure.

page 24

Somewhere in the 1970’s BW must have recognised that it was no longer a commercial entity and they seem to have tried to remake the firm as a controller of a boating industry. Whatever they aimed for that was the impression from the waterlevel where I worked.

Now it projects as the kindly uncle watching over a national asset. It does seem clear that BW is now wise to the potential of the boating fraternity, they certainly charge me for the privilege of belonging.

Letters

BW: the kindly uncle watching over a national asset...

My point in all this preamble is that boating is to be the central pull of the waterways and it needs its rings to retain its adventure for people who have only a limited time to explore. It also needs its more challenging routes.

Nowadays there is the biggest challenge of them all by narrow boat Huddersfield to Huddersfield via the Trent (&Mersey), Macclesfield and Peak Forest. All the while this remains limited to craft less than 57ft x 7ft it's only half a job.

From Wakefield to Cooper Bridge there are seven locks to lengthen, others having been done more than a hundred years ago. In order to reach a section of 70 foot locks it would be necessary to extend the 9 to Huddersfield or the 14 to Sowerby Bridge. This full length ring will come eventually and maybe the Navvies will do it.

Till then I would like to see far more of us using our boats throughout the year, a pleasant form of campaigning if ever I heard it. Each passage assists the powers that be to demonstrate that the demand exists and therefore that the cash can be shaken down. People talk of opposing BW just to keep them on their toes but I think the better course is to keep pushing to build a system that works all year round and accomodates 70ft everywhere either x 7ft or x 14ft.

When the Thames & Severn is done the majority of southern England will be at 14ft or at least broad gauge. The Fenlands will be joined by the proposed Bedford link and all of it only separated from the North and East by the Leicester Summit which is at broad gauge already except for the locks at Foxton and Watford as observed by H. Rodolph de Salis back in 1910. If you add in a HigherAvon it will be a very extensive network with wide possibilities for cruising routes. Who knows it may one day join on to the Broads.

Yours

William J Ashbery

I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with William Ashbery on the subject of lengthening the Calder & Hebble and Huddersfield Broad Canal locks.

I appreciate that there are other craft besides the go-anywhere just-under-60ft narrow boat, and I believe that restoration should if at all possible be done without any reduction in the historic dimensions. Indeed I own a share in a 71ft 6in by 7ft 0.5in ex-working narrow boat, and get a bit annoyed when I hear that waterways whose restoration I have supported for years are going to be incapable of taking 'Fulbourne' because the locks have been rebuilt to tighter than original size.

I fully support plans to extend the canal system by construction of new waterways such as the proposed Bedford-Milton Keynes link. I would be keen to see more of these ideas come to fruition such as the Higher Avon scheme, the Rother Link or the recently-announced proposal for a new connection from the Leeds & Liverpool Canal to the Liverpool Docks. I would like to see the link to the Broads happen one day. And it makes sense to build all of these new canals large enough to take boats from any of the adjoining waterways.

But I wouldn't like to see the fascinating (albeit sometimes inconvenient) variety of local styles, local materials and local dimensions that characterise much of our historic system lost, simply so that people who have chosen to buy larger pleasure boats can get around more of the system. By all means extend their cruising range with restorations and new canals to bypass the bottlenecks, but let's keep the changes to our unique historic waterways to a minimum. That's my view: others' opinions may vary! ...Ed

page 25

Progress

The Dig Deep initiative: progress on the Thames & Severn...

Dig Deep report: March 2002 The Dig Deep Initiative involves five mobile working party groups (London WRG, KESCRG, Essex WRG, NWPG and WRG BITM) committing themselves to carrying out a certain amount of volunteer work (whether in the form of Canal Camps or weekend working parties) on certain restoration projects in southern England that have been adopted as 'Dig Deep Projects'.

The project has benefited from good local organisation, a clear plan of work, good sound scaffolding and support equipment such as shuttering panels, new bricks and excellent access to the work for workers and machines. There must be a real prospect of completing the lock re-build in 2002 leaving the tail bridge for the local bridge building team.

Valley Lock on the Thames & Severn has somewhat hit the buffers. Whether this is permanent as far as Dig Deep is concerned is in the hands of British Waterways. There are however good reasons, which centre around the precarious state of the off-side chamber wall which has to be entirely reconstructed.

There are usually three or four of these projects on the go at any one time, and the idea is to coordinate the four groups' work on them so that they can be completed in a reasonable timescale. This helps the local canal societies responsible for those projects to commit the necessary funding for materials from their usually limited resources - something that we have found from experience in the past can tend to be more of a problem if visiting groups' work-parties are organised individually on an ad-hoc basis with no knowledge of when and whether the job is likely to be finished.

My last report in September 2001 reported on the woes of the Wilts & Berks project seriously delayed by Foot & Mouth and good progress at Valley Lock on the Thames & Severn. How things can change in a mere six months!

Our star project at the moment must be Summit Lock on the Wilts & Berks, where the combination of Dig Deep weekend work parties and local volunteer activity in the week has produced excellent progress.

By the end of last weekend (10th March) the eastern lock wall was complete with only the coping bricks to lay.

These will await completion of the off side wall as the concrete will have to be delivered from the finished side.

By the time you read this the concrete backing to the wall will also be done.

Progress has also been made on the top sill where the nearside paddle hole is heading nicely skyward and preliminary work has started on the other side.

page 26

Above: Dig Deep on the Wilts & Berks: the nearside chamber wall nearing completion, and work beginning on the offside ground paddle. Below: Dig Deep on the Thames & Severn: the head of Valley Lock is complete; the chamber awaits the contractors and BW.

Progress

...and the Wilts & Berks, Basingstoke and Wey & Arun...

Of course this news came out just as the WRG camps brochure had been finalised. Camps 07 and 09 which were to be at this site will have to relocated. The NWPG camp (07) is likely to be at Summit Lock on the Wilts & Berks though this venue is still to be confirmed. Whatever site is chosen the Camp will go ahead.

Essex WRG putting the finishing touches on the Valley Lock bywash weir chamber.

"Not normally a problem for most volunteer groups", you may say but in this case there is a strong possibility that the adjoining garden will head lockwards as soon as the first demolition starts. BW are planning to survey the wall in April but Cotswold Canals Trust feel that piling and contractors are the likely solution. So after work on the culvert has finished, Dig Deep’s involvement with this site will end, for the time being at least.

On the Basingstoke canal we are trying to become expert pipe layers. Murphys, Clancys et al certainly have nothing to worry about yet!! NWPG and LWRG managed to lay a total of four sections of pipe between them on their last two visits. Since, KESCRG have set the industry standard by managing 7 pipes in one weekend. (Easy ones no doubt, which didn’t have to go around corners!) Anyway we’re learning the hard way as usual and no doubt progress will be much faster over the summer. The purpose of all this is the St Johns back pumping project.

At Easter we start on a Dig Deep mini project on the Bonfire Hanger section of the Wey & Arun Canal. The plan is to concrete the bases for three spill weirs across the head of the former locks of the Sidney Wood flight and to start work on two footbridges to enable public footpaths to cross the canal when work is finished and the canal full of water – hopefully!.

Work has continued through the winter on the top end of the lock which with the double top gate recess arrangements of these locks almost constitutes a lock on its own. The complex paddle holes have been rebuilt and capped. Coping stones have been re-laid along the new wing walls and gate recesses and the by wash weir re-built. KESCRG have hand dug a large hole to expose the first 5 metres of the bywash culvert the brick roof of which has collapsed. This will be rebuilt on their April weekend at what will be the Dig Deep on the Basingstoke: London last work party on this WRG installing the St Johns backpump site for the time being. pipe. All photos by Martin Ludgate.

Each group has committed one weekend to the work during the summer months.

All participating Dig Deep Groups ( WRG BITM, Essex WRG, KESCRG, LWRG and NWPG) welcome old and new volunteers to their digs. Please check the Navvies Directory for contact details.

For general Dig Deep information contact Alan Cavender by phone on 01628 629033 or by e-mail to alancavender@lineone.net Bill Nicholson

page 27

Progress

Seven Locks flight on the WIlts & Berks Canal WRG BITM and the WIlts & Berks Canal Trust: Progress at Bowd's Lane, Wiltshire Foxham & Lyneham Branch of the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust organised a long weekend from 2427 January, to include a BITM visit on 26-27, with the intention of raising a concrete wall behind the towpath chamber brick face wall at lock 3 and clearing lock 4 of its floral cover on the flight of Seven Locks. The wall was begun during a WRG camp last July from about 1 metre above the invert & finished to coping, 2.5 metres above, by local branch members. Both paddle chambers on lock 3 have also been rebuilt.

We had a slow start on Thursday, concrete not pouring until about 10:30, as first our dumper had to be filled with ballast, 2.5 tonne plus, which is stockpiled in the farmyard of local farmer (and landowner of locks 2-5) Janet Nicolls, using one of her tractors for loading, then driven 200 metres by road, along 150 metres of towpath up to our concrete mixer, with bags of cement loaded on the way. Here the fun started !

After shovelling ballast straight from the dumper into the drum, adding 2 bags of cement plus water, mixing about half a tonne at a time, concrete was poured onto a chute and pushed along into the void between brick & shuttering. We repeated this five or six times per dumper load, averaging four dumper loads per day for four days. (Five loads on Friday & Sunday, despite the tractor breaking down on Friday afternoon requiring the dumper to be loaded by shovel until we were allowed to use a nice new tractor and only two loads on Saturday as it drizzled all morning, building up to heavy rain by afternoon, so, soaked through, we retired to our hall at Brinkworth for lunch & stayed there. Every radiator & hot spot was draped with wet clothing, boots & gloves.).

Periodically the mixer was heaved and levered along the chamber edge (it’s 20 metres long) as the concrete level rose. With each passing of our dumper, combined with drizzle & rain, the towpath was transformed into twin trenches of runny mud & the work site into a slippery morass (sounds familiar ?). We had picnics here too!

page 28

Meanwhile, further on at lock four, with the arrival of BITM members en-masse (peaking at twenty one), scrub bashing, clearance & bonfires (after many attempts under rain and the arrival of ‘pyrotech’ Ray from Swindon), progress was made to a point where the chamber could be seen & its condition assessed for rebuilding during the WRG camp planned for July.

More of the structure remains than we had at lock three (just!), though much of the lock chamber may need to be demolished. The paddle chambers, however, are almost intact. Tony, BITM Chairman, spent Saturday morning, with an assistant, digging in the mud to find a firm base for footings to extend the upper wing walls. "Well I can only get wet once".

Despite the rain & storms prior to & during the weekend, the soft, muddy ground & full water courses (including the canal), we achieved a very successful work programme, mixing about 50 tonne of concrete using over 4.5 tonne of cement (filling a space of almost 20 cubic metres) in 4 days with an average of 7 volunteers per day, including local branch chairman and weekend BITM work party leader Rachael, local works organiser Luke, professional bricklayer Ron, old hand Cliff & BITM extra duty volunteers Ian, Deb, Dave & myself.

In addition, with the arrival of BITM Group on Saturday, the exposure & clearance of lock four in preparation for the summer camp in July.

After the success of this weekend, we have now arranged an Easter programme from 29 March to 1 April to begin pouring concrete behind the opposite chamber wall, continue raising its brick face & complete the upper wing walls plus an extra summer camp, organised by the Foxham & Lyneham Branch through WRG, running from 2 to 9 June to begin rebuilding the lower wing walls from the gate recesses. We will also finish any brickwork on sections already begun.

We need volunteers to complete these ambitious schedules. Please contact Rachael Banyard on 01249 892289 if you can join us.

Phill Cardy Postscript: For three days over the following two weekends, local members have completed concreting the towpath chamber wall, mixing & pouring a further 30 tonne. Setting coping & back filling will complete this side of the lock to the lower gate recess.

The WRG Training Weekend 2002

The next event on the WRG horizon is the Training weekend on the 11/12th May. This year I am pleased to say that it will be based at British Waterways Heritage Skills Centre at Hatton in Warwickshire. This marvellous place (as described in last Navvies) is alongside the Grand Union canal and possesses such attributes as indoor bricklaying areas, lecture rooms and a large field to dig up and put back again!

But some of you reading this may be wondering what the Training weekend is all about. Well it varies every year, but basically it is a weekend dedicated to training volunteers in a range of skills such as bricklaying or surveying or demolition or dumper driving or site first aid etc, etc. This really is open to anyone, be it someone who has yet to actually go on a Canal Camp or someone who has been digging on their local project for years.

So what is actually on offer? Well, mainly the demand from you the volunteer but we do try and focus on the skills we think we will need our volunteers to master to make them most useful for the coming year. So, for example, we will definitely be running courses in large excavator operation (needed for the Grand Western Camps) and stonemasonry (needed for the Droitwich Camps). But don’t feel you have to have a "reason" to learn about anything, training on everything is available to all (subject to the usual legal/age limits).

So how do you book on for this? Well you contact Alison Bottomley who is organising this event and she sends you a form listing all the possible areas we can train on. You fill in the areas you would like to receive instruction on and send the form back (quickly!) Alison then frantically tries to align times, instructors, volunteers and kit and hopefully manages to squeeze everyone in. In a few cases we find we don’t have enough trainees to warrant the cost of hiring in the kit, etc and so these are dropped but this is fairly rare.

The BIG ISSUE here is that all of this has to happen in the next few weeks so contact Alison Bottomley now!!! Her address is 27 Claremont Road, Spital Tongues, Newcastle on Tyne NE2 4AN and her phone number is 0191 261 5913.

Accommodation is provided and all for the bargain price of £10. All can gain - all are welcome.

Mike Palmer

Little Venice Canalway Cavalcade 4-6 May

Every year, WRG's parent body the Inland Waterways Association organises one of the most colourful and popular regular waterways events in the country, the Canalway Cavalcade at Little Venice in London.

As the name suggests, a cavalcade of decorated boats (usually including a WRG boat) is one of the highlights of a weekend that also includes craft stalls, entertainment, boat handling competitions, and 100plus boats in the canal basin.

Every year, a team of volunteers from KESCRG help to set up, run and take down the Festival. Over to Eddie Jones for a fuller explanation...

Coming soon

The training weekend and Canalway Cavalcade Sat here on a sunny afternoon tapping away at the laptop made me think back to the Litte Venice event last year and what a gloriously sunny weekend it was. Lets hope the same weather graces this year’s event and helps carry on the success of what is undoubtedly a fantastic event.

KESCRG will be there supplying the site and service support in a similar role to last year and as ever I am looking for volunteers to help.

The main requirement for labour is from the Thursday through to Monday night/Tuesday morning although I will need some additional help from Wednesday laying in power. Accommodation has been booked in the shape of the community boats as used for the last couple of years. Those of you who have helped previously will remember the strenuous activity of collecting and erecting the various marquees and market stalls. You will be pleased to know this is no longer part of our remit as the hire company are doing so instead to meet health and safety requirements. No slur on our abilities but we can’t sign the site off for insurance purposes in case of an incident. Another chore gone for this year is supervising the pontoon bridge across the entrance to the Paddington Arm as there is going to be a temporary footbridge in place further down the arm.

We will be helping the traders move their stock, assisting waterspace with the boat movements, operating the ferry boat Opportunity, keeping the site clear of rubbish and associated festival type jobs. The KESCRG stand will be there and will need manning throughout the weekend.

It is not all work though, there will be a real ale bar to help relieve any aches and pains during the evening, the illuminated boat parade, the marvellous St Pancras Barbecue to name but a few. Take a look at the LV CC website at http://www.london.waterways.org.uk/ cavalcade/index.htm.

All are welcome but because of the accommodation setup I need to know in advance if you want to attend so PLEASE let me know. You can email me eddie@jazzfm.com, leave a message at home on 020 8684 7741. If you want any further info call the mobile 07850 889 249 but please don’t call the mobile to book on as my memory is awful and it often isn’t easy to make notes when out and about!

Looking forward to another successful LV CC and hope you can join us to make it so.

Cheers

Eddie Jones KESCRG

page 29

Courtesy of the loan of WRG van ‘RFB’ for the winter we’ve been seen at the Bonfire Bash, back to Basingstoke for Xmas, on the Cotswolds a couple of weekends and spent Easter on the Wey & Arun. More news hot off the press next issue.

Graham "Sparky" Robinson And having introduced the WRG Forestry Team, here's some practical advice from them...

Introducing WRG Forestry Team

A Simple guide to pruning

At your Chairman’s request - see last 'Navvies' "a piece" by "Sparky", so if your editor prints it... here goes...

After my observations on the Bonfire Bash and Basingstoke Xmas Camp of volunteers pruning trees and shrubs, some good and some bad, I thought it may be helpful to produce a few notes on the correct method of pruning.

Off the ground: both the IWA Training Award Scheme and WRG Forestry Team. As I write from a beach somewhere in the Tropics, may I thank the IWA for my award and to the panel of judges - cheques will be in the post!

Seriously, (You want me to be serious? You’ll be asking me to wear a suit next!) the WRG Training Award is is an excellent scheme, so get those applications in and let’s get more people certified, sorry, qualified.

Over the last 10 years I’ve completed training courses in basic chainsaw use, pesticide application, fencing, hedge-laying, tree planting, coppicing, charcoal burning, mensuration (always handy at this time of the month!) and more, before moving into the arboricultural courses all in my own time and at my own expense - because I’ve always believed in professional training to do a job to a professional standard.

All of these skills have been put to good use on canals up and down the country, mainly down as most canals are from where I live way up North.

WRG Forestry Team was an idea that came about after being asked to undertake a tree survey for the Cotswold Canals Trust on a 10 mile section of canal from Eastington to Chalford with somewhere in the region of 300-plus trees for complete removal or renovation via pruning, coppicing or pollarding. I had to consult local authorities, BW, etc, regarding planning and conservation issues etc - so we had to have some sort of a ‘handle’ for initial contacts. "I’m Sparky from WRG" probably translated as "You’re who from where?"

After much discussion and much Boddington’s WRG FT was agreed on and now we have a nice little logo to go with the title. Feel free to join us at a tree near you, this is definitely clearance work with a difference.

page 30

Trees are trained and pruned chiefly to keep them vigorous, healthy and - by forming a strong, wellbalanced branch framework - stable. Pruning and training are most important in the early years, laying the foundations of a well-shaped mature tree. On established trees, pruning is more often than not confined to the removal of dead, diseased, damaged or wayward growth.

These notes particularly refer to the subject most relevant to us, i.e. the pruning of trees, shrubs and specifically their laterals or side branches; these are the branches that sweep water cans, chimneys and mops off the roof of a boat if the steerer is asleep!

The following information refers to cuts made from the ground. You are advised not to climb into the tree however small it is: your safety is at risk as well as the health of the tree concerned. Instead, used a pole saw if available or leave this type of work to the arboriculturists.

All cuts, large or small, should be cleanly made with sharp tools so that plant tissue is not torn or bruised. Use secateurs for soft growth and woody stems up to 1cm (½") and loppers for branches up to 3.5cm (1½") depending upon the capacity of the jaws. Bow, pruning and pole saws can be used for branches up to 7.5cm (3"), the more accurate cuts being made with the pruning saws. This is particularly important when making the final-target cut.

Go to a bud or stem as shown (Fig. 1), making sure the secateurs are cutting the correct way.

Larger cuts are made as shown (Fig. 2), the undercut and top cut being collectively known as a ‘step cut’. You may need to make more than one step cut if the branch is long so as to remove it in small manageable sections. [continued on page 32]

Incorrect use: when secateurs are held normally (i.e. thin blade uppermost) this lateral (above left) cannot be cut off correctly: the thick blade is nearer the trunk and thus determines the cut's position. The cut is made too far from the main stem (above right) leaving a stub that may die back.

Correct use: by turning the secateurs over (i.e. thick blade uppermost) the thin blade is nearer the trunk and the cut can be made precisely where it is required.

Fig 1: the wrong way and the right way to cut off a branch with secateurs.

1: Reduce the weight of the branch to make the final cut more controllable.

Some 30cm (12in) away from the trunk, saw a quarter of the way into the branch from the underside.

2: C u t squarely downwards from the top of the branch about 5cm (2 inches) beyond the undercut (further away from the trunk) until the branch falls away.

This partial cut stops the bark from tearing The undercut ensures that you do not need down the trunk if the branch accidentally to support the weight of the branch, provided the area beneath is clear. breaks.

3: if the remaining stub is still heavy or awkward to support securely, make another undercut 5-8cm (2-3 inches) from the trunk.

4: Finished Cut: The final cut downwards must be completely smooth; if an undercut was first made, ensure that the final cut is either closer to the trunk or meets the unThen make the final cut following the line dercut exactly. of the branch collar from top to bottom. (see diagrams overleaf for where to make Smooth any rough edges with a pruning the final cut) knife without enlarging the wound.

Fig 2: cutting off larger branches with a pruning saw.

page 31

The final cut is known as natural target pruning and getting this right is essential. You will need to locate the branch collar and bark ridge to implement this cut correctly. (Fig. 3a and 3b) The general practice in the past was to remove larger branches with a ‘flush’ cut against the stem then apply wound paint, e.g. Arborex. This is no longer recommended as it has been found that with careful pruning nature can heal a wound quite successfully.

The time at which a tree is pruned is important. It is usually carried out once the sap has stopped running, usually mid/late summer until late winter/early spring.

There are exceptions however (aren’t there always!): birch should never be pruned when the sap is or is about to start rising from mid/late winter to mid-summer; cherry is usually pruned in summer to avoid the risk of silver leaf infection.

More advice can be given if requested.

Dead or dying wood can be pruned at any time.

Finally, remember to check your tetanus jabs: it is easy to cut yourself on a sharp pruning saw even when wearing gloves.

Graham 'Sparky' Robertson

Natural Target Pruning Correct pruning should be made as close as possible to the branch collar without tearing the bark and to make the final cut without leaving a stub (but always stubcut first before removal).

Do not injure or remove the collar.

Do not cut behind the ridge.

No set angle determines the position of the pruning cut: see diagrams below.

Aim for a complete circle 'doughut' of callus next growing season.

Branch collars and angles of cuts: Proper pruning of a living branch is a cut as close as possible to the branch collar.

There is no set angle for a proper cut - it depends on the tree. Cuts A, B, C and D below are all proper cuts.

Finding the branch collar: If the position of the collar (and therefore the correct position for the pruning cut A to B below) is uncertain, draw an imaginary line from A to E and make angle EAD equal angle EAB.

A C

A

B

Ridge

B D

E

Collar

C Figs 3a and 3b: Branch collars and angles of cut

page 32

D

WRG Boat Club Well as I write this I see signs that Spring is here. It has been pouring with rain ever since we removed the top cloths from the Lynx as we prepare for the Easter pilgrimage to Ellesmere Port. Is it a working boat or mobile swimming pool?

It is also time for the annual BCN Clean Up, and there is certainly a lot to be cleared up round here.

The AWCC WRG boat club is affiliated to the AWCC (Association of Waterways Cruising Clubs) and Claire and I had to forgo playing in the rubbish at the Clean Up weekend to attend their AGM at Stafford Boat Club.

Two questions that I have been asked are ‘Why is it important for our club to be members of the AWCC?’ and ‘What’s in it for me?’ This is the AWCC’s ‘Statement’: ‘The Association exists to secure the interests of its member clubs, and their members, in all matters relating to their enjoyment of the navigable waterways of the United Kingdom. AWCC seeks to encourage a spirit of assistance and interdependence amoung its associated clubs and their members. The Association seeks to make representations to all bodies exercising control of the use of those inland waterways.’

I like to think that all of us are happy to help other boaters and would provide information and aid when asked.

As mentioned in the past it is essential that members have a current membership card and ask, in advance if possible, if they wish to use the facilities at any AWCC club. Should you require the use of a mooring at a club then to ASK in advance is a must, the club is not obliged to accommodate you!

We belong to the Midland region but remember that we can attend any of AWCC social activities throughout the country.

AWCC also have stands at lots of the shows and those working on them will be pleased to see you, especially if you can offer to help, even if just for long enough to give someone a coffee break.

I really don’t want to go into details of all the BSS and mooring charges arguments/discussions here but they are all still going on.

WRGBC

News from WRG's own Boat Club After the AGM Roger Hanbury gave a talk about The Waterways Trust. It’s seemed amazing how many canal restorations ‘just happened’ in the last few years. What have WRG been up to all this time? After a large hint he did give some credit to WRG and say something nice about us!

Now to our own AGM....

It is usually held at BITM’s Bring-a-Boat weekend.

That is to be on the Basingstoke in September and I hope to see many members plus boats there, BUT we are planning a change with the AGM this year...

We can also get boats to WRG NW’s dig on The Mont in October: shall we have the AGM there? Hands up who can get to that? There will be a special prize for any boat that attends the Basingstoke Bring-a-Boat Bash in September AND The Mont in October.

Don’t worry about beating the closures to get back from The Mont as any boats, preferably wooden ones, that are there after 4th November (when we expect the closures to start) can be used on the bonfire on 5th...

Or can we hold the AGM at Huddersfield?

There are usually lots of members at the ‘National’, but it is hard enough to arrange a time for a social gathering let alone a business meeting, as most of us are there with a job to do.

Where else can we boat and ‘WRG’? The Wendover Arm ‘do’ was very good last year. I went by boat and was made most welcome.

If members think of any other suitable venues or have AGM ideas please let me know.

XXX SADIE 07748186867 sadiedean@vizzavi.net PS Latest on the Bring-a-Boat on the Basingstoke: those planning to go, please contact Peter Redway on 01483 721710 who has offered to help sort out your licence needs!

page 33

Bits & pieces

including the Wilts & Berks 'June Jubilee Camp'...

The June Jubilee Camp...

...is an extra Canal Camp on the Wilts & Berks Canal, mainly bricklaying and backfilling work on lock 3 of the Seven Locks flight but also hoping to do some initial investigation at lock 4, plus installing the deck of the new Foxham liftbridge and removing the farm crossing embankment that it replaces.

The Camp runs from Saturday June 1st to Sunday June 9th (that's right, it's called the Jubilee Camp because it includes the Queen's Jubilee bank holiday!) and as lasts for nine whole days, it will cost £45. Accommodation is at Foxham Reading Rooms. Contact Rachael Banyard on 01249-892289 for more details; please bookviaHeadOfficeusingtheusualCanal Camps booking form but with 'WBCC' as the Camp Number.

Gift Aid

Some 'Navvies' subscibers have recently asked whether WRG can take advantage of the Gift Aid arrangements, whereby for every £1 donated to a charity, the charity can claim back an extra 28p from the government in reimbursement of tax paid that relates to the £1 donated.

The simple answer is ‘No’ - WRG is not a charity.

However, The Inland Waterways Association, WRG’s parent body, is a registered charity and can claim Gift Aid on donations it receives, provided that the donor has signed a Gift Aid declaration.

IWA cannot claim Gift Aid on behalf of WRG; it can only claim GiftAid on donations given to the IWAfor theAssociation’s objectives. However, ever since WRG has been around, it has been very well supported by IWAand there is every reason to believe this will continue.

Want to buy a boat?

Well-known WRG volunteer Alison Smedley is selling her boat 'Shirley' and would be happy to sell it to another WRGie if anyone's interested. It's a converted GUCCCo Big Northwich motor, built in 1936, with a National DM2 engine, a fully fitted back cabin and a spacious conversion. Please phone her on 01538 385388 or e-mail alison@hazelhurst3.fsnet.co.uk if you're interested. And don't worry - she's not giving up boating, she's already bought another one!

The mystery accommodation...

....in the puzzle in 'Bankside' last time was "St Gregory's".

page 34

Want to buy a Land Rover?

Series 2a short wheel base Landrover. 1971 Tax exempt, Petrol, 2 1/4 ltr. engine-unleaded. Cab roofpick up style, ex forestery. Capston winch-runs off engine. New front types and spare. New petrol tank.

Well loved, anyone interested? Looking for about £1000. Reading area, phone 07813 068481.

Dangerous Dumpers?

Take care if you're working with a Pel-job (Volvo) 750kg skip-loading dumper. Recent experience has shown that even the most experienced WRG operators need to be aware that they not the most stable of machines. Even when the bucket is not in the raised position, they are liable to tip over sideways if not on level ground. Please be careful.

Apologies for the late arrival...

...of the last 'Navvies'. This was due to a signalling failure in the WRGPrint area, the wrong kind of ink, operational difficulties in Rowington and a person under a car in East Dulwich...

Seriously, if you're planning on sending in anything for 'Navvies', please do try to get it in by the press date. Over the last few issues we've been getting later and later getting it to the printers - all very well when you want to read up-to-date last-minute news, but then an unexpected problem with the printing press meant we had no spare time to sort it, the whole magazine was late out and the booking form for the Cleanup very nearly didn't appear in print until after the event had happened!

Please, all you regular 'Navvies' contributors, send things in promptly and help to avoid this sort of thing happening again. Thanks.

The WRG Web Site...

...www.wrg.org.uk has been AWOL for a while recently due to difficulties in moving it to a different server or something technical like that wot I don't understand. (I assumed Logistics just loaded it into a trailer when it needed moving!) Anyway it should be back online by the time you read this, but just in case it isn't, in the meantime a limited amount of WRG Canal Camps information is available on the IWA site www.waterways.org.uk.

When the main WRG site comes back, we hope to have (a) some more photos from the Cleanup and the Easter Camp and (b) some more pictures to tempt you on the summer camps.

And finally, from Mike Palmer...

"I must make one thing clear. In the last Navvies my comment about WRG North West digs where 'those that were too slow had to buy their wellies back from some old dear' was not in anyway a reference to the financial acumen of our favourite OBE from Crumpsall.

I apologise for any confusion concerned."

Contacting the chairman:

Mike Palmer, 3 Finwood Rd, Rowington, Warwickshire CV35 7DH Tel: 01564 785293

e-mail: mike.palmer@bbc.co.uk

DirectoryUpdate Lapal Canal Trust new contact details:

26 Loynells Road, Rednal, Birmingham B45 9NP Tel : 01785 713862 or 020 8293 9744

Full directory next time: please send any additions, delections or changes to the editor by May 8th.

Free

to

a

good

home:

...an A0 size drawing board. On stand, with parallel motion. Free to a canal-related organisation, or ÂŁ20 (with 50% to WRG) to anyone else. Buyer collects from Upton-uponSevern. (by road or by water!)

Contact Nick Wright, 14 Church St, Uptonupon-Severn, Worcs WR8 0HT. Tel: 01684 593821.

Market Stall ...available cheap, possibly free, to a suitable group. 24' x 8' market stall and, being of modular construction, is reducible to 16', or even 8', in length. Contact John Foley on 01457-853582 for further information.

Navvies Production

Navvies is published by Waterway Recovery Group, PO Box 114, Rickmansworth WD3 1ZY and is available to all interested in promoting the restoration and conSubscriptions / circulation servation of inland waterSue Watts ways by voluntary effort in 15 Eleanor Road Great Britain. Articles may Chorlton-cum-Hardy be reproduced in allied Manchester M21 9FZ magazines provided that the Printing and assembly: source is acknowledged.

John & Tess Hawkins WRG may not agree with 4 Links Way, Croxley Grn opinions expressed in this Rickmansworth, Herts magazine, but encourages WD3 3RQ 01923 448559 publication as a matter of inhawkins@jote.fsnet.co.uk terest. Nothing printed may Editor : Martin Ludgate 35 Silvester Road East Dulwich London SE22 9PB 020-8693 3266

Noticeboard

Moving house...

Chris and Helen Davey are in the middle of a rather complicated house-moving process and are temporarily living in both Oxfordshire and Yorkshire.

They can be phoned in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire on 01756 753003, or in Adderbury, near Banbury on 01295 812002, but if you're writing to them please use only the following address until further notice: 6 Partridge Court, Round Close Road, Adderbury, Banbury, Oxfordshire OX17 3EP. Ken Whapples has a new email address: ken.whapples@btopenworld.com

...and so does David Penny, for H&G Canal matters: canal@penny-ep.co.uk

If you move house, please remember to ask us to change your 'Navvies' subscription details: write to Sue Watts (see below) Alternatively you can e-mail Edd Leethem edd@downstream.ltd.uk.

Horseboaters wanted!

Contact Sue Day on 01457 834863 if you want to help take a horse-boat round the South Pennine Ring this summer. be construed as policy or an official announcement unless so stated - otherwise WRG and IWA accept no liability for any matter in this magazine.

Waterway Recovery Group is a division of Inland Waterways Enterprises Ltd., a subsidiary of the Inland Waterways Association (a registered charity).

Directors of WRG:

John Baylis, Mick Beattie, Malcolm Bridge, Roger Burchett, Spencer Collins, Christopher Davey, Helen Davey, Roger Day, Richard Drake, Neil Edwards, Adrian Fry, John Hawkins, Jennifer Leigh, Judith Moore, Michael Palmer, Jonathan Smith.

Inland Waterways Enterprises Registered office: Secretary: Neil Edwards 3 Norfolk Court, Norfolk Rd. Rickmansworth WD3 1LT VAT reg. no : 788 9425 54 Š 2002 WRG Tel : 01923 711114 Registered no 4305322 ISSN 0953-6655

page 35

Backfill

Meanwhile, somewhere in the North...

Uncle Mort: Now then, Carter.

Carter: Eyup, Uncle Mort. What’s up? You look proper fed up.

UM: I am that, lad. Reading this "Grimthorpe Evening Sentinel" has given me a right old turn, I don’t mind saying.

C: Why, what’s it say? Let’s have a look. Is it this on’t front page? "Grimthorpe Flat Cap Mills to close. Unable to cope with the American baseball cap scourge. 600 to lose jobs. No prospect of re-employment for any of them."

UM: Nay, lad, that’s the sort of story you expect to see in a proper Northern newspaper. A reassuring bit of gloom and misery with your pig’s trotter for tea is just what you want, and expect. Nay, take a look at page 2.

C: "Anderton Boat Lift re-opens" What’s that about then?

UM: A few years back, that boat lift were just a heap of rusting scrap metal on the river bank. Just the sort of thing you’d expect to find in a traditional Northern post-industrial setting. The sort of neglected eyesore that let you know you’re not in Surrey or any other of them places down South. Now some meddler’s had the thing done up and turned into a fairground ride for Southerners in boats. I’ve nivver heared owt so daft. They’ll be coming up from Leatherhead and Sevenoaks, spending their money, creating employment, and ruining the place. And that’s not the end of it. They’ve opened a canal from Huddersfield to Manchester. Decent folk from Mytholmroyd and Cleckheaton, who’ve never known a day’s happiness in their lives, are going to be encouraged to get into boats and have fun. It’s not natural, Carter, not natural at all. There’s another canal going through Rochdale being messed about with. Where are people going to put old bikes if the canal’s full of boats, Carter? Answer me that. All this happiness and employment will be the end of Rochdale. Can you imagine the place full of happy buggers with wage packets in their pockets? Of course you can’t. The place’ll nivver be t’same again. They’ll be turning tripe shops into them sushi bars next. If it carries on like this, you’ll never be able to buy a pie with mushy peas and mint sauce again.

They’re even on about a canal to Bolton and Bury. Bloody Bury, Carter! I just don’t know what’s going on any more, I really don’t.

page 36

C:

I suppose you’re right, Uncle Mort. Eyup, It’s six o’clock. I’ll put the telly news on for you.

That’s usually good and miserable.

UM: You’re a good lad, Carter Telly: "Blackpool to be transformed into casino capital of Europe. Hundreds of new jobs. Massive growth potential..."

UM: Bloody hell, Carter!

Richard Lucas

Best described as 'basic'...

A couple of issues ago I appealed for 'world's worst canal camp accommodation' stories, and this time we've got another page of reminiscences of staying in rat-infested dumps where the only running water was running down the walls...

But these stories are from long ago: these days we stay in much more luxurious accommodation.

Such as the King Edward sports pavilion in Droitwich - famed for its proximity to the 'Railway' pub and its excellent shower facilities (not to mention its sizeable earwig population).

Well, about two years ago the local council decided to strip out and re-fit the already-good King Edward centre to an even higher standard. Imagine our delight! Imagine our disappointment when two years later they still haven't finished - it looks increasingly like we're going to get Hanbury Locks finished before the sports centre re-opens!

So how about a quick change of plan: we'll let Wychavon Council finish restoring the canal for us - after all, it's a logical progression for any canal restoration scheme to move on from the volunteer phase to the Local Authority stage - and meanwhile we'll rebuild the sports centre for them!

While we're at it, we might even think of changing our name - to King Edward Sports Centre Recovery Group...

Lift bridge lifted?

My spies on the K&A tell me that while the main road liftbridge at Aldermaston was being repaired recently, the newly-refurbished aluminium road deck weighing several tonnes was awaiting re-installation when it disappeared mysteriously in the night, courtesy of person or persons unknown!

Rumours that it was spotted on the Essex WRG trailer behind a Land Rover heading towards Emerson Valley, Milton Keynes have been strenuously denied by the WRG Recycling Bank...

PS sorry no 'Last Ditch' cartoon - back next time! ...Ed