Camp report Wilts & Berks (4): Seven Locks The Alternative Wilts & Berks Christmas Camp 26th December - 3rd January
Reporting from the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust’s own New Year Camp on the... err... Wilts & Berks
increasingly rainy and sleety, and we had to pack up and get back to the accommodation to dry out by 2pm. We also had heavy overnight rain that night, so by Wednesday the pound below Lock 1 was up to full height, and apart from putting out yesterday’s bonfire, there was no way we could reach the trees on the offside. We cleared the saplings along the towpath edge, built a new bonfire, and finished work at 3 pm. Thursday was our ‘away day’, working at Foxham. Helped by our local plant expert, John Harrod, we had to bolt down the bascule bridge above the lock to prevent it
It was good to see most of our Christmas Camp friends back again, puts two and a quarter new ones! We discovered that there are now three WRGies called Taz: Pilot Taz (male), Welsh Taz (female) and Small Black Taz (canine). The last named is quite partial to the odd sausage for breakfast, but then again the others probably are as well. Apart from not having showers, the Foxham Reading Rooms are ideal for a smallish winter camp, snug and comfortable. The weather over the period was at times bitterly cold, and with two wet days, but with big bonfires every day on site, and good food and warm accommodation, we coped pretty well. We started Boxing Day morning with four of us, two more at teatime, and with others adding to the party ever the next 2-3 days, we had 11 for most of the camp. We started by burning up the big piles of brash which Di had built up when hedgelaying at Dauntsey. From Sunday onwards most of the work was at Seven Locks, beginning with erecting a 3strand barbed wire fence on the offside between locks 2 and 1, and then on Monday with an augmented team we got down to some serious stump-pulling and burning below Lock I. There were also a number of fallen trees across the cut which were extracted, the top brash burnt, and the loggable bits piled separately, as we sell cordwood and logs to raise money for the canal. We carried on with this on Tuesday, but the day became Tirforing: the game you can play alone or (right) with your friends
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