Camp 2014-06 Swansea Canal “Joy to the World”. (OK, so I’ll be honest – that’s an in-joke, and for diplomatic reasons it’ll remain so [diplomatic? Navvies? Surely not?]) The problem with not delegating the writing of the camp report is that, invariably, you end up writing it yourself. And so, some 10 weeks after the camp has finished I am left trying to remember what actually happened! It is perhaps a sign of our evolving times that the easiest way to do this is to read through the edits made to the site paperwork throughout the week – the various additions, changes, removals and task briefings requested by our overseers, the Canal & River Trust (CRT). CRT? But I thought this was the Swansea Canal? Well yes, it is, and we were indeed invited by the Swansea Canal Society. The Swansea is however, still owned by CRT, who have a duty to maintain a water flow through the site to feed various industries downstream. Whilst the jobs were ones that SCS wanted to carry out, they were only allowed with the agreement and coordination of CRT. The presence of up to 8 CRT staff, a full camp of WRG volunteers and a healthy contingent of locals made the whole site something of a jurisdiction nightmare! It is because of this that I think I’ll start the body of this report with the thanks that would normally constitute the end. This is so that I can thank the truly brilliant group of volunteers, without which Ju (my glorious assistant) and I would have had a much more difficult week. Their support and unwavering jovial nature made the whole week worthwhile. For our entertainments we are all indebted to Alan Williams of SCS who provided us with an on-site picnic and a free curry evening (complete with coordinated singing!) – and brought beer! The local society are a fabulous, hard working and well meaning group of people, and I hope that we did you proud (and taught you some more skills along the way!). So, what did we do? The aim of the camp was to carry out a multitude of jobs around the Trebanos Locks. WRG started to work there last year (and the continuation of this has already been reported by the much more organised leadership team of Bob & Katrina from week 2), repairing the bywashes (which, incidentally, seem to be called bi-weirs on this site). This year, SCS also wanted to start work repairing the Lower Trebanos Lock, and to that end one of their members had paid to have the stop planks replaced that were holding back the water in the intermediate pound. This ensured that CRT could sign off the dam and allow us to enter the chamber. In addition, work was to continue on the bywashes of both the Lower and
Camp Report Swansea Canal Upper locks, the rebuilding of the intermediate pound wall was to be completed and the lock approach wall to the Upper Lock was to be dismantled and rebuilt (this before the changes noted above). Day 1: The arrival saga. What a long way away Swansea is! It is also, contrary to popular belief, a long way from the Mon & Brec. This was unfortunate, as part of the (typically convoluted WRG style) logistics plan involved Bungle depositing a van and trailer with us and then collecting a van from the Mon & Brec to return to the Cotswolds. With trains being rather infrequent and Bungle needing to get back home in good time to go out again, I agreed to ‘nip him over’ to the Mon & Brec. That all done, I returned to the Swansea just about in time to meet all of the new and old volunteers and get ready for the week ahead… The normal kit counting activities and fine dining (courtesy of our weekend cook, Mitch) were followed by a somewhat later than normal health & safety brief before retirement to the luxurious wooden floor of Ystradgynlais Scout Hut. Day 2: The setting up site saga. The first thing that became apparent on site was that things were not quite as they were on the site visit a month previously. A slight miscommunication between SCS and CRT had meant that SCS had done some work on the offside of the lower lock that rather altered our intending working methods. This meant that a small amount of head scratching (me and CRT), twiddling of thumbs (volunteers), tea drinking (all of the above) and, yes, rewriting paperwork (me) was needed before CRT could finally sign the site over to me and allow work to start around lunchtime. Thankfully the weather held out and everyone was able to enjoy the additional bonding time. Once work did begin teams started on the dismantling of the two sections of wall (Ju taking the opportunity to lead the team that was destined to get the most dirty) whilst a third team was set the task of devising a safe, simple method for installing and removing the Youngman bridge that provided access across the head of the lock. Their initial ingenious systems of ropes, ladders, shouting and waving was perhaps not the most suitable but it provided entertainment for several hours. Unfortunately this was the last time we used the bridge and so their creation was never recorded for posterity.
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