Intro Christmas dig
Despite some very blustery weather the traditional curtain-raiser for our Christmas season went ahead with three mobile groups (London WRG, Kescrg and WRG Forestry) joining forces for a weekend of felling / burning / logging diseased ash trees on the banks of the Wey & Arun Canal (which were threatening to become unsafe and a hazard to trip-boats, walkers and others) - and a Christmas party on the Saturday night. The party theme was ‘Eurovision’, reflecting 50 years since Abba’s Waterloo won, and almost as long since London WRG first started meeting up at Waterloo Station for transport to weekend digs!
In this issue Contents
For latest news on our activities visit our website wrg.org.uk
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Contents
Editor’s Welcome and an appeal for help 4-5
Chairman’s Comment on CRT, canal societies and compliance 6-7
Comingsoon Book for the BCN Cleanup 8-9
Campspreview 2025 Canal Camp sites 10-17
Diary Camps and working weekends 18-19
Camp reports Wey & Arun and WRG
Forestry on the Dudley No 2 Canal 20-23
Liz Lamen an appreciation 24
Progress around the system 25-32
‘Taz’ Tarrant an appreciation 33
News Remembering Timothy West; do you want to nominate a WRG director? 34
Infill including Dear Deirdre 35
PLEASE NOTE: subscriptions renewal cheques should be made out to The Inland Waterways Association. Note new address (right)
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Editor: Martin Ludgate, 35 Silvester Road, East Dulwich London SE22 9PB. 020-8693 3266 martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk
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Directors of WRG: Rick Barnes, George Eycott, Helen Gardner, John Hawkins, Dave Hearnden, Nigel Lee, Mike Palmer, George Rogers, Jonathan Smith, Harry Watts.
ISSN: 0953-6655
© 2024 WRG
Cover picture: The winter scrub-bashing season is now well under way with volunteer teams tackling vegetation blocking disused canals all over the country. Here London WRG and the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust are clearing stumps from a heavily overgrown stretch near Uffington on the edge of Shrewsbury (picture by Bernie Jones) Back cover: Before and acter pictures of the recently completed Pike Lock to Dock Lock length of the Stroudwater Navigation, part of the Cotswold Canals - see progress report on page 32 (pictures by Cotswold Canals Trust)
Navvieswelcome from the editor
Editor Martin looks forward to next summer’s Canal Camps, tempts you with a BCN Cleanup with a difference, and worries about Salford
Editor’s Welcome
As I write this piece, darkness is falling around 4pm, the Christmas decorations are going up everywhere, and I’m about to jump in the van and head for the longstanding London WRG pickup point at Waterloo Station to pick up volunteers for this weekend’s London WRG and KESCRG Christmas dig and Christmas party (theme: Eurovision… cos Waterloo has been part of their lives even longer than London WRG’s!) And all in all it seems a very long time since we were thinking about Summer Canal Camps.
But in fact it’s time to start thinking about them again now. This is the just-preChristmas-if-you’re-lucky issue that traditionally comes accompanied by the Canal Camps brochure for the next year - except that for the last few years, that hasn’t happened. And that’s the same this year: we aren’t quite at the point of being able to finalise our
Don’t bury Salford’s canal heritage!
A new housing development is threatening to bury part of the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal, a disused waterway which has already seen a considerable amount of restoration work, and where prospects for further progress are good – including dealing with a longstanding obstruction, the major breach east of Nob End Locks which shut the canal in 1936.
You may remember that about a year ago we included a leaflet from the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal Society, urging you to support their campaign to persuade H2O Urban, a consortium which includes national navigation authority the Canal & River Trust, to change its plans for a new housing development in Salford which would destroy surviving canal features and impede restoration. But although changes have now been made to reduce the damage (in particular the proposed demolition of a bridge parapet has been dropped), MBBCS believes the changes go nowhere near far enough to remove the threat to future restoration.
Basically a length of canal and towpath running parallel to Upper Wharf Street was filled in in the 1960s and buried under concrete. A development alongside it might seem like an ideal opportunity to put the canal back or at least to facilitate its future reinstatement; at the very least, given that a footpath is planned to run alongside the development, it might seem that uncovering and restoring the historic towpath would be the best way to create this footpath. But now, H2O Urban has submitted plans which would see the route of the waterway uncovered and then filled in again so that the actual canal route can be turned into a footpath, while the historic towpath itself (whose stone surface may well survive) would remain buried under earth.
MBBCS says this will not only represent a missed opportunity; it will hinder future canal restoration (which is contrary to local planning policy, under which developments should facilitate canal restoration where practicable), will add up to £¼m to future restoration costs, and will set a precedent that could lead to further sections being similarly obstructed.
The Canal Society is urging canal supporters to voice their opposition to the plans as they stand, by going to https://tinyurl.com/Upper-Wharf-Street to make a comment on the planning application, or by sending an email to planning.contact@salford.gov.uk quoting reference 23/82372/FUL. No closing date has been set: it will be decided at a future planning meeting, which has not yet been scheduled. But getting it in earlier improves its chances of being heard.
programme of camps for next summer, confident that it will happen as planned. And yes, we know that for both of the last two years, unforeseen issues, particularly with the local canal societies getting all the necessary permissions from various bodies (and I’m not blaming the societies for this - in at least one case they weren’t even told that they needed the permission at all until much too late) have meant that some Camps have had to be cancelled.
But rather than simply asking you to bear with us while we get everything confirmed, we’ve put together a ‘pre-preview’ of seven of the sites that are looking most likely to feature - and there are some interesting ones: new projects on ‘old favourite’ canals (Wey & Arun, Lichfield, Cromford); ongoing projects continued from 2024’s Camps (Louth, Cotswold); a return to a canal we haven’t visited much for a while (Wilts & Berks); and a first time for a week-long Camp (River Parrett). And probably at least another four more to add to the list in the next issue. See pages 10 to 17.
It’s not just about Canal Camps…
But there’s more to WRG activities than Canal Camps. And one event I’d like to draw your attention to is the BCN Cleanup - because it’s going to be a bit different this time. If throwing grappling hooks into the murky waters of the Black Country canals and dragging out bikes, trolleys, prams and other unidentifiable junk isn’t quite your thing, this year for a change we’re offering an alternative job, working from workboats to clear the small trees and other vegetation that’s growing out of the banks of the BCN New Main Line and needs dealing with. But if grappling for trolleys really is your thing, there’s plenty of that too.
Turn to pages 8-9 to read about this, and also about how you can (1) find out about the background work involved in canal restoration (2) help set up and run a major waterways festival at Little Venice; (3) learn some useful skills for the summer camps and (4) hone your leadership skills.
And finally, as this is the last issue of the year…
Season’s greetings…
…from the editor to everyone involved in Navvies magazine: to all the contributors who’ve sent in words, pictures or anything else during 2024; to Lesley for proofreading; to John Hawkins and the team of volunteers at the London magazine-stuffing evenings; to Chris Griffiths for continued assistance with printing; to Dave Wedd for compiling the diary dates; to Robert Goundry for sourcing and compiling canal society progress reports; to IWA Head Office for looking after subscriptions; and to anyone else I’ve forgotten to mention. Best wishes for Christmas, have a good New Year, and if I don’t see you on the festive Canal Camp on the Buckingham then I’ll hopefully see plenty of you on a restoration site somewhere during 2025.
The canal in Salford before infilling, and development plans (see opposite)
Martin Ludgate, Navvies editor
Chairman’s Comment
“There is uncertainty in the movement… there are probably faults on both sides…” - Mike Palmer goes into waterway restoration politics
Restoration politics? What’s all that about?
For the benefit of new readers, a few brief words of introduction to what Mike’s on about in his Chairman’s Comment this time, and how it’s relevant to what WRG volunteers do…
We in WRG don’t generally run any waterway restoration schemes ourselves. We provide and coordinate labour (and vehicles, tools and kit) to support local waterway restoration societies and trusts around the country; typically there will be one such body for each canal under restoration (although it occasionally gets a bit more complicated). These organisations are the ones who promote, plan and organise the restoration work on their canal, raise funding, and negotiate permission to work on it from whoever owns it.
In a number of cases that owner is the Canal & River Trust (CRT), the body that also owns and acts as the navigation authority for boats on most (but not all) of the actual working navigable canals and rivers. Whoever owns the land that we’re working on will need to give the local canal society permission to work on restoring the canal. If they aren’t willing to give permission (or it’s difficult to obtain as a result of the complicated negotiations between CRT and the canal society), work can’t take place - and that could be one potential reason why some of our proposed Canal Camps can’t happen. Over to Mike…
Chairman’s comment
I am sitting in Kirdford Village Hall and a storm is brewing. Well that’s enough melodrama isn’t it? Because the storm that is brewing is storm Darragh and that’s outside our cosy hall. Here in the hall with WRG Forestry and KESCRG and London WRG all is serene. It’s their annual Christmas party and fun and games (and, of course, a fiendish quiz from your editor) is going on.
Which is all very well for us, sitting in the middle of the restoration scene, but it does seem that elsewhere there is ‘uncertainty’ in the movement. I’m going to give my version of this, not because I believe that a page or two of my ramblings in Navvies will solve this issue, but: While my comment in the last edition was a little obsessed with WRG being an exemplar organisation I don’t think it is down to us to solve this issue (it’s our parent body the Inland Waterways Association’s Restoration Hub that will need to take up the ‘honest broker’ role that this situation requires), however:
At the Christmas Party Dig that Mike mentions, Santa took the opportunity to present volunteer Pete Fleming’s IWA Richard Bird Medal (see Navvies 327)
Martin Ludgate
• If there is one place for some honest talking it is Navvies, and
• There is the potential for this to affect your work on sites and therefore you all deserve the full story (rather than the one you might get on site).
This situation is mainly due to some interaction between Canal & River Trust and waterway restoration societies. While some readers may react with a “That’s all right; my project is not on their bit of the network”, I would remind you that CRT have “land ownership” (i.e. involvement) in 20 restoration projects and are often seen as the “industry standard” amongst the other projects. Also remember that, of late, the official standpoint of CRT from their “Top Brass” has been that restoration is a good thing.
Perhaps it is this simple statement that has triggered this issue. Because I’m now going to borrow that long-standing Navvies tradition and imagine conversations in corridors of power…
TopBrass #1: “Well who would have thought it that in 2024 we would be saying things like “restoration is a good thing”?”
TopBrass #2: Indeed. Mind you we really ought to check out those schemes and the organisations that are promoting them. That would be the responsible thing to do.
TopBrass #1: Yes indeed. Responsible….Yes.
And so the message comes down their organisation: “Make sure they are all compliant.”
And it seems that it is that “C-word” that is the issue. Because, while the full sentence should be “make sure they are all compliant with the law”, the message that is received is “make sure they are all compliant with the law as we measure it using our systems”. Where the only systems they have are their standard systems for running relationships/contracts with contractors, and the only staff they have to measure it are people such as contract managers who (rightly) do not have any remit/power to ‘vary’ those systems.
So inevitably the message that results is “We have looked at your arrangements and we don’t think you are compliant”. You will not be surprised to discover that this message is not received well!
So that’s what CRT are bringing to the table. Unfortunately in some cases the reaction of the restoration societies has not been as constructive/understanding as might have been hoped.
The feeling out there was best summarised recently as “they (CRT) have got lots of people to find problems but no-one to find solutions”. A conversation I had last night brought an interesting angle to this: under the CDM (Construction Design and Management regulations) it is not the Client’s role to bring solutions (indeed that can be dangerous), it is the Contractor’s.
The other half of that summary above was “….mind you, there are probably faults on both sides.”
And I think we have all seen those “faults” out on sites everywhere haven’t we?
So this is my message to everyone. The Restoration Sector has over the years shown creativity and ingenuity to many issues of legislation and the law, however it has always been subject to the law. This current impasse is only going to be resolved by decent, respectful negotiation between the two sides where both sides accept and try to address the other side’s concerns:
The Restoration Sector should not be scared by an inspection of their arrangements, and if there are issues that come up then they should grasp the opportunity to resolve them (which may be as simple as a correctly worded minute in a Trustee meeting).
The Canal & River Trust should realise that it is possible to be compliant with the law but not comply with their management arrangements, and they should also put some effort into working out how they can accommodate this in their systems.
Mike Palmer
SAFETY NOTE: The WRG Board recently considered an incident where somebody discovered that a piece of equipment was damaged, but assumed “that was just the way it was” and continued to use it. The Board would therefore like to re-iterate that they believe in “the Right Tool for the Right Job” and this includes not using damaged tools and equipment. If you come across something damaged then report it.
Coming soon Lots of stuff!
A chance to help run a major waterways festival, drag shopping trolleys out of the canal, find out about restoration politics, and get trained!
BCN Cleanup 15-16 March: not just about grappling hooks this time…
Once a year we drag ourselves away from canal restoration to spend a weekend working on some waterways that are actually open and have boats on them - but they wouldn’t have for much longer if somebody didn’t do something to stop them getting choked with rubbish and unusable. The ‘somebody’ is our volunteers, and the waterways are the under-used and less well-known reaches of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, a fascinating network of industrial canals covering the Black Country and Birmingham.
A joint effort involving WRG, our parent body the Inland Waterways Association, the BCN Society and other local canal groups, the Cleanup involves large teams of volunteers throwing grappling hooks in the water and dragging out old bikes, shopping trolleys, tyres and other junk (weirdest things we’ve found were a sword and a coffin!) for loading onto work-boats and taking away for recycling or disposal.
But this time we’ve got something different. As well as the usual grappling there’s also some work to be done trimming back vegetation growing from the canal banks, working from boatsyou’ll have a chance to work on either job.
As usual there will be WRG accommodation and food at the Malthouse Stables centre in Tipton, and the canals we’ll be concentrating on this time are the Old Main Line and New Main Line in the area around Tipton. Online booking have just been set up as this issue goes to press - see wrg.org. uk and go to ‘events’; alternatively contact 01494 783453 or enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Traditional BCN Cleanup activity, and (below) the site for some rather different work this year, trimming vegetation on the New Main Line
Chris Morgan Martin Ludgate
IWA / CRT Waterway Restoration Conference 26 Apr
This event is mainly aimed at local canal restoration societies and trusts, but open to those in WRG who want to find out more about the planning, funding and the rest of the ‘political’ side of canal restoration as opposed to the practical work. It’s organised jointly by WRG’s parent body the Inland Waterways Association and the Canal & River Trust, it’s free, and this time it’s being hosted by the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum. See the IWA website waterways.org.uk for more information nearer the time.
Canalway Cavalcade Site Services Camp 30 Apr - 6 Mar
One of the most lively and colourful annual events on the canals is the Canalway Cavalcade festival held at Little Venice in central London over the May Day bank holiday weekend, which this year falls on 3 - 5 May. But it doesn’t just ‘happen’ - there are a lot of volunteers involved in organising and planning it. They include a team recruited largely from WRG to help set it up over the four days leading up to the weekend, to run the site services during the event, and to take it all down again on the Tuesday afterwards. We’ll have more details in the next issue of Navvies, but in the meantime put the date in your diary.
WRG Training Weekend 17-18 May: get trained for your Canal Camp
In preparation for our summer Canal Camps programme we’ll be holding our usual annual training weekend to give volunteers a chance to learn or to brush-up on skills, vehicle driving and machinery handling, and anything else that will help them on summer Camps, with mobile volunteer groups, or with local canal societies’ working parties. More next time.
Leadership Teams Day 31 May: preparing for summer 2025
This is aimed primarily at existing and aspiring Canal Camp leaders, assistant leaders and cooks, but those involved in the WRG regional groups and other mobile groups are also welcome to attend. The one-day event will look back at what can be learned from 2024’s Camps, and forward to summer 2025. Details including a programme in future issues.
…and then… Summer Canal Camps!
Yes, we’ll be holding lots of them. We don’t quite have the details yet, but turn over the page for a sneak preview of what we’re planning…
Help make this happen: IWA Canalway Cavalcade at London’s Little Venice
Martin Ludgate
camps 2025 Proposed sites
Where are we going on our 2025 programme of week-long WRG Canal Camps? We’re still working out the details, but here’s a sneak preview…
WRG Canal Camps 2025: a ‘pre-preview’ of seven likely sites
As this issue of Navvies comes flying through your letterbox (hopefully) just before Christmas 2024, we will (again hopefully) be well on the way to putting together our programme of week-long WRG Canal Camps for 2025. And a Camps Booklet (paper or electronic) will be on its way with full details in the not-too-distant future.
Regular readers will recall that 2024 didn’t quite work out as planned - delays getting permissions from local authorities etc meant several projects couldn’t go ahead. You’ll see some of them have reappeared hereand part of the reason we don’t quite have the finished list ready for you is because our Sites Group are doing their best to make sure that there are no snags stopping them this time.
In the meantime here’s a quick preview of what it looks like we’ll be up to in 2025. BUT PLEASE DO NOTE THAT EVERYTHING IN HERE IS STILL TO BE CONFIRMED
Cotswold Canals: Weymoor Bridge culvert
The likely Canal Camp work: We hope to be building a section of concrete channel to carry the canal over a culvert adjacent to the rebuilt Weymoor Bridge, including assembling formwork, reinforcement, and casting concrete.
Phase1bSaultoStonehouse: Lotterygrantconfirmed2020
Phase3BrimscombetoWaterPark:Some restorationcompletedmainlyaroundCerney
Phase1aStonehouseto Brimscombe:complete(except BrimscombePortlength)
The reason: A stream crossed the canal via a ditch cut right through the canal bed. The 2024 Canal Camps laid a new culvert under the canal, diverted the stream into this culvert, and then built the first part of the new concrete canal channel above it. In 2025 we are returning to finish the job, building the final section to link up with the existing canal banks.
Phase2WaterParktoInglesham: Someworkcompletedaround
Wey & Arun Canal: Rooks Hill Bridge
The likely Canal Camp work: This is expected to involve a project to build a new traditional style brick arch bridleway bridge (and later a new lock). Work might include creating formwork, reinforcing, pouring concrete, bricklaying and machinery work
The reason: Following completion of the two new lift bridges and associated restored canal at Birtley, the Wey & Arun Canal Trust is keen to extend this section southwards. The new lock and bridge (replacing missing structures) represent a major step in this direction.
The restoration: The Wey & Arun Canal Trust aims to reopen the entire through route from the River Wey Navigation above Guildford to the River Arun and the South Coast. Several significant lengths have been completed, including the Loxwood Link length of around three miles and seven locks plus shorter sections from Malham to Newbridge, on the summit at Dunsfold and elsewhere. The project supported by 2024 canal camps will be helping to close the gaps between these existing restored sections.
Seealsomaponpage22
The restoration: Cotswold Canals Trust aims to reopen the route from the Thames at Inglesham to the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal at Saul, with a phased approach. Phase 1a from Stonehouse to Brimscombe is largely complete; work is in hand on Phase 1b to reconnect this to the canal system at Saul. Phase 2 will restore the eastern end from Inglesham to the Cotswold Water Park (including Weymoor Bridge)
Finally, Cotswold Canals Trust will tackle the difficult central section from the Water Park to Brimscombe
Site for the proposed bridge, and one WACT made earlier
Ed Walker QACT
Martin Ludgate
Louth Navigation: Ticklepenny Lock
The likely Canal Camp work: It looks very much like we’ll be following on from our successful Canals Camp in 2023-24, continuing with the repair and restoration of the walls of Ticklepenny Lock.
The reason: The historic lock, built to an unusual pattern with scalloped walls, had deteriorated to the point where it was in danger of collapse. Our initial work helped prevent further deterioration and we are now working with Louth Navigation Trust to restore it for possible future reopening.
The restoration: The Louth Navigation was partly built as a river-based navigation which follows the River Lud downstream from Louth town, then as an artificial canal heading north to Tetney Haven at the mouth of the Humber. It survived as a drainage channel but the locks fell into dereliction; however since 1986 the Louth Navigation Trust has been dedicated to preserving the waterway and encouraging regeneration of the canal corridor. It has renovated the historic warehouse at Canal Head and holds events there, has published walk leaflets covering the waterway, and ultimately hopes to restore the locks and reopen the waterway to navigation.
Cleethorpes
Spurn Head
Saltfleet
Tetney
Tidal gates Sand and mud Tetney Lock
Town Lock
North Sea
Humber Estuary RiverLud
Ticklepenny Lock
Keddington Lock
Salterfen Lock
Alvingham Lock Willows Lock
Outfen Lock
Louth
Canal Camp site
Mick Lilliman
Lichfield Canal: channel rebuilding in Lichfield
The likely Canal Camp work: It’s proposed that we’ll be rebuilding a length of canal channel in Lichfield running southwards from Gallows Wharf towards Tamworth Road, with the work likely to include excavation, piling, concrete lining and towpath laying.
The reason: Two sections of canal in Lichfield have already been completed - at Borrowcop Locks (Tamworth Road) and at Gallows Wharf. The plan is now to link them together. The Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust’s volunteers are working from Borrowcop towards Cricket Lane, where the local authority will be building a new road bridge; our Canal Camp volunteers would work from Gallows Wharf to meet them at a new lock by Cricket Lane.
The restoration: The work is part of a wider project to connect various sections of restored and new canal channel to create a restored route from the Coventry Canal at Huddlesford Junction through to Lichfield and beyond. In the longer term, the plan is to continue through to Ogley Junction, re-creating a missing through route to the underused northern Birmingham Canal Navigations.
HuddlesfordJunction
Wilts & Berks Canal: Pewsham Locks
Cotswold Canals
To Stroud To Inglesham
The likely Canal Camp work: It’s proposed that this will be centred on Pewsham Bottom Lock near Chippenham, with possible tasks including demolishing damaged brickwork and laying some 40 courses of new brick wall, plus a similar height of concrete block wall, and filling in the gap between them with concrete to create the new lock wall - plus other rebuilding and foundation work elsewhere on the lock.
The reason: Because the Canadian Army blew it up as a wartime training exercise. And because it’s a Wilts & Berks Canal Trust project to restore the three locks and old canal maintenance yard (including dry dock and saw pit) at Pewsham as a heritage feature, linked to the restored Pewsham to Lacock length.
Cricklade
Royal Wootton Bassett
Possible diversion
Swindon
Planned diversion around Swindon
Planned diversion via River Avon
Kennet & Avon Canal to Bath
To Reading
Cromford Canal: Beggarlee project
The likely Canal Camp work: It’s proposed that we will build a 45-metre length of new canal channel (with steel piling on one side and an earth bank on the other) leading on from the Langley Mill terminus of the Erewash Canal.
The reason: This is the start of the Beggarlee project, a plan to bypass the original route of the canal (which was blocked by a new road built in the 1980s) by building a new route with two new locks, making use of an old railway bridge to get under the road. The Friends of the Cromford Canal believe this will really put their canal back on the map and show that restoration has started in earnest.
Melksham
Semington
Chippenham
Calne
Dauntsey Foxham
Pewsham Lacock
Canal Camp site
Martin
Ludgate
To Oxford and Inglesham
To Reading and London River Thames
Possible diversion around Abingdon
The restoration: Although the Friends of the Cromford Canal’s ultimate aim is to reopen the entire canal from Langley Mill to Cromford, major challenges (such as the collapsed Butterley Tunnel, a missing aqueduct at Bull Bridge and a length obliterated by opencast mining north of Langley Mill) mean that restoration has concentrated on the less difficult sections, rather than proceeding in a sequence from south to north. An earlier group restored an isolated length at the Cromford end in the 1970s; the Friends have worked on sections at Sawmills and Ironville so far. The Beggarlee project will be a big step forward as it will allow visiting boats to cruise the first length of canal.
Erewash Canal to the Trent
Butterley Tunnel
High Peak Junction
Langley Mill
Beggarlee
Ironville
Whatstandwell
Cromford
Abingdon
Wantage
East Challow
Pinxton
Ambergate
Sawmills
Canal Camp site
New for ’25: The River Parrett
Well, OK, not quite ‘new’ to WRG - our mobile groups WRG BITM and WRG Forestry have both held weekend working parties on the River Parrett already - but as it would be a first time for a week-long Canal Camp on a not terribly well-known waterway, we’ve extended this piece to include more background on the Parrett and how it fits into the regional waterways
River Parrett: Langport riverside paths
The likely Canal Camp work: This would involve rebuilding and improving the paths on Cocklemoor, the riverside land in Langport owned by Langport Town Council.
The reason: Following the regeneration of Langport’s riverside (including a new halfmile path) between 2015 and 2020, led by the Council with European funding and support from the Inland Waterways Association’s West Country Branch, Cocklemoor has become more heavily used by both the local community and visitors. It has become apparent that the paths need upgrading and improving in order to cope with the increased usage. The purpose of the Canal Camp would be to undertake this and thus ensure that the riverside paths are fit for purpose for many years ahead.
The restoration: Although this isn’t exactly a conventional canal restoration, there is considerably more to it than helping to improve an attractive riverside community facility at Langport. The work in 2015-20 also included provision for navigation by smaller portable craft in the form of refurbishment of a slipway, and installation of canoe steps and pontoons. The result was to re-open the slipway and 7.6 miles of the Upper Parrett and its tributaries the River Isle and River Yeo to navigation, by both paddle craft and trail boats. But there’s more to it than that…
Broader navigation aims: There is tremendous scope for increasing the navigable waterways in Somerset, although this is a long term ambition and will take some time to achieve. The River Parrett is in theory navigable throughout its length but Oath Lock –in reality a pair of sluice gates – is only open for through navigation from December to March and is closed for the remainder of the year. The River Tone is navigable for part of its length and also within Taunton, and the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal is navigable throughout.
Bridgwater Docks are due to be regenerated following the receipt of a Towns Fund award of £4.2m and to the west of Taunton there are emerging plans to restore 2.3 miles of the Grand Western Canal from Taunton to Norton Fitzwarren, to include a “Park ’n’ Glide” boat service scheme from Silk Mills Car Park into Taunton. In addition, and just recently, a draft strategy for Taunton’s waterways has been published for comment.
In the last 50 years the barge section (Lowdwells to Tiverton) of the Grand Western Canal, the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal along with the River Tone in Taunton, and the Upper Parrett have all been restored to navigation. To find out more see IWA West Country Branch’s booklet Somerset & Mid-Devon Waterways – 50 Years of Progress.
The River Parrett at Langport and (below) one of the paths we’ll be improving during the Canal Camp
…and where else?
These are the seven ‘front runners’ that are close to being confirmed as we go to press. Several other potential Canal Camps sites will also hopefully be confirmed in the next few weeks. We aim to feature them in future issues, in the Canal Camps Brochure published in early 2025, and on wrg.org.uk
Martin Ludgate
Ray Alexander
navvies diary
CanalCampscost£80orasstated.BookingforWRGCampswithnumber(egCamp AsheridgeRoad,CheshamHP52PX.Tel:01494783453,enquiries@wrg.org.uk.Diary
Dec21-22 MBBCS Manchester,Bolton&BuryCanal:NobEndLocks
Dec26-Jan1 WRG CC2024-20 Christmas/NewYearCanalCamp:BuckinghamCanal.Leaders:Dave‘Moose’Hearnden
Dec26-Jan1 wrgBITM ChristmasCamp-WessexWaterways:DauntseyLockandFoxhamarea
Jan11-12 London WRG Tobearranged,possiblyChelmer&BlackwaterNavigation
Jan18-19 wrgBITM CotswoldCanals:Inglesham/Kempsford
Jan18Sat WRG WRGCommittee/BoardMeeting:tobeconfirmed
Jan25-26 KESCRG Tobearranged
Feb1-2 wrgNW UttoxeterCanal:ScrubbashingaroundBridge70
Feb15-16 wrgBITM MaidenheadWaterways:BrayCut,removingfallentreesusingcanoesandTirfors
Feb22-23 London WRG Shrewsbury&NewportCanals
Mar1-2 KESCRG Tobearranged
Mar15-16 London WRG SupportingtheBCNCleanup
Mar15-16 WRG/IWA/BCNS BCNCleanup-seepages8-9
Mar15-16, wrgBITM Tobearranged
Mar22Sat WRG
WRGCommittee/BoardMeeting:tobeconfirmed.PossiblyonZoom
Mar29-30 NWPG Tobearranged
Apr5-6 KESCRG Tobearranged
Apr5-6 London WRG PossiblejointdigwithKESCRG,venuetobearranged
Apr30-May6 IWA/WRG SupportcampforiWACanalwayCavalcadefestivalatLittleVenice,London-seepages
May10-11 KESCRG Tobearranged
May16-18, NWPG Tobearranged
May17-18 TW2024 WRGTrainingWeekend
May17-18 London WRG Tobearranged,possiblyCotswoldCanals
May31Sat LTD LeadershipTeamsDay:RowingtonVillageHall
Jun1Sun WRG WRGCommittee/BoardMeeting:tobeconfirmed.RowingtonVillageHall
Jun7-8 KESCRG Tobearranged
Jun14-15 London WRG UttoxeterCanal:balsambashingweekend
Jul5-6 KESCRG Tobearranged
Jul5-12, NWPG Camp:Date&venuetobeconfirmed
Sep6-7 London WRG Tobearranged
Sep27Sat WRG WRGCommittee/BoardMeeting:tobeconfirmed.RowingtonVillageHall
Oct4-5 London WRG Shrewsbury&NewportCanals
Oct17-19 NWPG Tobearranged
Nov22-23 NWPG Tobearranged
WRGandmobilegroups
CC2024-19)shouldgoto:WRGCanalCamps,Unit16B,FirstFloor,ChilternCourt, DiarycontributionstoDaveWedd,Tel07816175454mdave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
Sam Kennion
07843-394161 samklancs@yahoo.com
HearndenandNigelLee,cook:MariaHearnden 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Rachael Banyard 01249-892289 rachael.banyard@gmail.com
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Helen Gardner 07989-425346 nw@wrg.org.uk
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Dave Wedd 07816-175454 dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Bill Nicholson 01844-343369 bill.nicholson@weyarun.org
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
pages8-9
Ed Walker
07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Bill Nicholson 01844-343369 bill.nicholson@weyarun.org 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Tim Lewis
07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
Ed Walker 07887-568029 ed@edwalker.eclipse.co.uk
Bill Nicholson 01844-343369 bill.nicholson@weyarun.org
Tim Lewis 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk
Tim Lewis
Bill Nicholson
Bill Nicholson
07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk
01844-343369 bill.nicholson@weyarun.org
01844-343369 bill.nicholson@weyarun.org
Camp report Coombeswood
Following on from the summer Lapal Canal Camps, in October we held one on the other end of the same route, at Coombeswood…
Camp report
Coombeswood Canal Camp
October 2024
Camp 19 of the 2024 Canal Camps season was scheduled for Coombeswood Canal Trust’s project at Hawne Basin, which is at the end of the navigable section of the Dudley no 2 Canal, part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations [see panel below].
The job was to clear the very overgrown towpath and uncover the wall at the edge of the canal for the final 100 odd meters of old channel that continues on from the navigable bit, so that it can be surveyed and assessed. So basically a scrub bash with a few trees to fell. (Oh, and in true BCN style - remove a load of fly-tipping from the off side bank).
Now this was always planned to be a small camp (a maximum of 10 Volunteers) due to the relatively small size of the work
factfile
Dudley No 2 Canal navigable to Hawne Basin Gosty Hill Tunnel
‘Lapal Canal’ is a name given by canal restorers to the abandoned length of the Dudley No 2 Canal from Hawne Basin via Lapal Tunnel to Selly Oak To Netherton To Stourbridge
area and the accommodation. However, we ended up with only six of us on site (plus Anne our cook) due to various drop outs for very good reasons.
This lack of numbers actually turned out to be a good thing as we pretty much finished all that was asked of us by Wednesday evening, thanks to the hard work and enthusiasm from Mick, Peter, Laurence, Patrick, ’Arry and myself. Scrub was bashed and left in big habitat piles (no bonfires allowed) and about 10 trees felled and logged up for the locals. We also filled a roll on roll off skip with the flytipped rubbish.
On Thursday we had a day off and went to the Black Country Living Museum, which we all thoroughly enjoyed, before returning to the accommodation for supper and a few beers with the locals in the bar. Yes, we had a bar in the accommodation.
Lapal Canal and Coombeswood
The Canal Camp project: Tree and scrub clearance from a length of canal just southeast of Hawne Basin, home of Coombeswood Canal Trust
Why? To clear the remaining section of surviving canal beyond the limit of navigation of the Dudley No 2 Canal at Hawne Basin, so that it can be surveyed and assessed with a view to future restoration
The wider picture: The ultimate aim of the Lapal Canal Trust, most of whose recent work has been concentrated at the other end of the Dudley No 2 Canal at Selly Oak, is to eventually reopen the entire canal from there to Coombeswood as a through route. The project at Hawne Basin helps to get work going at the western end, which hasn’t seen much restoration in recent years.
Canal Camp site
Things we learned:
(1) Be very careful when opening cans of Brewdog Stout. The instructions tell you to turn the can upside down and then pull the ring pull to pour the stout into the glass. Mick found out what happens if you have an overactive widget. Stout goes everywhere including the kitchen ceiling!
(2) Local WRGies are spying on you, so be careful where you park the big red van if you are having a day off. Thanks Sue for the photo and for coming over to eat breakfast / help pack the catering kit up on the Friday morning.
Big thank you to all at Coombeswood Canal Trust for hosting us.
Nigel Lee
Before the camp and (below) emerging from the undergrowth
Pictures by Nigel Lee
Pictures by Nigel Lee
Camp report Wey & Arun
WRG’s specialist Forestry Team and friends spent a week-and-a-bit clearingcanalsidetreeswhichwerebecomingunsafeduetoashdie-back
WRG Forestry Team camp 2024
Wey and Arun Canal
A Slash & Burn Production
Well, what to report on this camp? We turned up and cut down trees and burnt everything (well nearly)!!
There were quite a lot of groups in one place over the course of 10 days. We had WRG Forestry, NWPG, KESCRG and London WRG. We also had quite a few day visitors to add to the day’s running total. It was a bit of a headache for Mitch and Mr Hawkins and Mr Thompson keeping track of how many Posset Bangers we needed at breakfast each morning, I think it reached 27 at one point. NWPG were with us for the 1st weekend putting together the new back pumping chamber at Baldwins Knob Lock, and London WRG and KESCRG joined us for the last weekend in lieu of a WRG Reunion and tidied
factfile
Wey
up after us.
As with any visit to the Wey & Arun, we stayed at Kirdford Village Hall, but no Foresters pub still! My ‘local’ spy aka Garry Alderman has informed me that it will reopen in summer 2025 hopefully. So we brought our own from the nearby Hepworth Brewery. “What! No pub visit?” I hear you ask! Of course not! As tradition with Forestry a dirty pint or latte was consumed at the Onslow arms on the way back from site most evenings. Then back in time for Mitch’s small gluten free, vegan friendly dinner and tiny dairy and fat free pudding?!
The work as usual was ash dieback removal, mainly on the offside of the canal between Brewhurst Lane and Baldwins Knob Lock; all big trees were hugged by Paul Goodman before felling. Seriously, this was important to the Wey & Arun Canal Trust for us to undertake, as a large number of these
& Arun Canal
Length: 23 miles Locks: originally 26 Date closed: 1871
The Canal Camp project: Felling and logging canalside ash trees suffering from ash die-back near Loxwood
Why? Because the diseased and dying trees are rotting from the inside and will gradually become more likely to fall, making them a hazard to the Wey &Arun Canal Trust’s trip boat operations, and to towpath walkers, canoeists and other canal users.
The wider picture: This length of canal is part of what WACT has christened the Loxwood Link section, where it concentrated a lot of its effort from the 1990s onwards, and where there is now a length of over three miles restored, with six rebuilt locks and one brand new one. WACT has in recent years adopted a ‘Three Sites’strategy aimed at making progress on two other sections as well - the Summit near Dunsfold and near the north end of the canal including a length at Birtley where two liftbridges have been built, and its extension south to the Fanesbridge and Rooks Hill where WRG will be working in summer 2025. In the coming years it is hoped to link these sections together, with the eventual aim of reopening the entire through route between the Thames and the South Coast.
River Wey to the Thames
River Arun to the South Coast
trees have been dead or dying for a number of years now and are becoming more and more potentially hazardous for the trip boats that operate as well as other canal users and of course the towpath users.
Access to site was via the Trust’s work boat May Upton and assisted by the mud hoppers and pusher tug Kermit. Over the course of the 10 days there were 3 trips down the canal (well some parts seemed more like the upper reaches of the Amazon rainforest) to the slipway with the hopper barges which were loaded with logs that will be split and sold by the Trust for additional funds. The loading of the hoppers involved a sort of game of skittles, once the ramp was set right; Charlie Moorse got rather good at this, however Mr Hawkins spent more time fishing for his. The first run gave the local working party 21 dumpy bags of logs! They did run out of dumpy bags!! KESCRG doing the final tug run Sunday afternoon as we were packing up our catering kit from a most excellent week.
Well what else? There were at least eight ‘small and controlled’ fires, lots of trees converted to logs and a lot of fun with the Trust’s EDER - a portable powered capstan winch. This has been a great help, especially where the trees have started to rot out from
inside, allowing these fells to be completed more safely, and then assisting with the movement of large, heavy logs to more suitable positions for cutting up and splitting. This has become a very, very useful bit of equipment, but very expensive. However we are lucky enough to have been funded to purchase one for ourselves. We at Forestry would like to thank the persons responsible for this with a VERY BIG THANK YOU! By the time you read this we will have taken delivery and had a weekend with it. We had also been using the Trust’s radios in conjunction with the use of the winch and we have been donated a set of 6 radios with flight case by Jim Alderman. A BIG thank you to you also.
What else can I say apart from thank you so much Mr Fleming aka Mr Burn for assisting and Mitch for so much amazing food (Mr Fleming is still working his way through the leftovers) and organizing the face time call with Mr Gordon Brown, your mug peg is ready when you are Sir!! Also to Jack Walker & Bill Nicholson MBE the locals for assisting on the weeks logistics.
See you next time
Mr Slash Slash and Burn will return in 2025 on the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation
Another one bites the dust… Look carefully and you can see the signs of rotting from the inside
Appreciation Liz Lamen
Elizabeth (Liz) Lamen 2 October 1943 - 29 September 2024
I first met Liz in November 1991 at the Waterway Recovery Group 21st Birthday Big Dig at Wantage. She was distributing the blue Navvies T-shirts.At this event they aimed to get 1000 volunteers together – and succeeded.
Well before that, in the 1980s Liz and her husband Jim and sometimes their two boys were regularly found at weekends working with WRG NorthWest on the Stratford Canal Blitz, although I believe that their first ‘dig’was the clearance of Princess Street lock on the ‘Rochdale Nine’in central Manchester in early 1973.
Having met through a shared love of cycling, Liz married Jim in 1964 and, after several years in Heaton Moor, Stockport, they moved to Romiley (also Stockport) and then to the canal town of Middlewich in 2007. They had a small narrow boat called Flimby which was kept first at North Cheshire Cruising Club, then moored in Middlewich at Margaret and Roger’s home. It was unusual as inside it was wallpapered and its equally unusual hydraulic drive was often unreliable and broke down…
Liz and Jim contributed much of their time and energy to WRG NW by attending monthly work parties. Many weekends were spent on the Montgomery, Huddersfield Narrow, Chesterfield, Grantham and Lichfield canals, and on the project at Over Basin on the Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal in 1999-2000. Liz enjoyed and shared the fun at these digs by scrub bashing, tending bonfires or mixing concrete and helped by driving the red vans. In latter years she frequently did the catering, presenting us with excellent hearty tasty meals on a minimal budget. She obtained the fruit and vegetables from the greengrocers where she worked.
They travelled to all the Inland WaterwaysAssociation’s National Rallies and Festivals, and other canal society events where Liz manned the WRG NW sales stand selling ‘tat’(valuable merchandise) and second-hand books alongside John Foley’s specialist books on the canals. Not far from home the stand was set up at Middlewich Folk & Boat Festivals. These generated considerable funds for WRG and publicity for canal restoration.Another WRG fundraising enterprise they supported was Mr Mac’s Paper Chase (waste paper collection for recycling) in Crumpsall where they always helped. Liz also found time to volunteer at a hospice charity shop.
Jim died suddenly in December 2014, a day after WRG NW’s Christmas weekend dig on the Cromford Canal. Liz later moved to Devizes in 2018 to be nearer to her family. Travelling to events in her motorhome, she continued volunteering. Running the NW stall at the IWAFestival of Water in Burton on Trent in 2022 was her last one.
Liz was always present supporting WRG NW. She will be remembered as hard-working, reliable and a very good friend. Her contribution to canal restoration all over the country covering nearly 40 years was huge. She was a ‘one in a thousand’.
Condolences to her family and to her many WRG friends.
Lynne Cater
Liz with the late David (‘Mr Mac’) McCarthy on tea-making duty
progress Montgomery Canal
SUCS volunteers complete the next section of channel beyond Crickheath Wharf ahead of schedule - and start work on another length
Montgomery Canal: Crickheath South work party report
As the Shropshire Union Canal Society’s Crickheath South project (to restore / re-line the next section of canal from the new 2023 limit of navigation at Crickheath Wharf basin towards Schoolhouse Bridge) is below budget and ahead of schedule, the remaining budget will be used to achieve more restoration over the next six months. Work has therefore started on a further 130 metres of channel continuing on towards Schoolhouse Bridge.
Last year, activity in Phase 1A (the length nearest to Crickheath) was still possible in November with the aid of much pumping. But then the task was working on the wharf wall away from the channel bed. Now, the remaining activity in Phase 1A was working in the bed itself. With such a wet 2024 it was expected that the October work party would be the last opportunity to do so… and there was much to do.
For the work party to hit the ground running on the Friday, five volunteers attended the day before to complete a wide variety of preparation activities including a modest amount of pumping the site free of water (but not mud!), unloading several deliveries and preparing cut lengths of the different liners then placing them in the correct location along the channel ready for use.
The work party was blessed with high volunteer numbers throughout – 30 on Friday including a group from the Canal & River Trust eager to roll their sleeves up. By Saturday lunchtime, 25 metres of channel had been lined and blocked (the lining overlaid with protective concrete blocks), up to the position of the temporary clay dam marking the southern limit of this section. Construction of the dam started after lunch and was completed by the end of the day.
Thanks to the high numbers of volunteers, a variety of other tasks were undertaken concurrent with the channel lining work:
Lining the channel on the Phase 1A section
by SUCS
Pictures
• Installing a drain to connect the Phase 1B section previously completed past the farm crossing to the Phase 1A section.
• Further towpath works in Phase 1A.
• Weed clearance in Phase 1B around the hedging whips planted last winter and also the hedge-laying area.
Sunday morning saw the final connection of the drain through the dam. By lunchtime, lining and blocking had been extended up the face of the dam and the job was complete – with hours to spare! Following rainfall on Sunday evening, the channel was already starting to fill. Sunday also saw continued construction of the towpath which progressed so far that all available aggregate was used up.
The November work party saw the completion of all channel and towpath deliverables
Towpath work under way, and (below) completed along with all channel works in Phase 1A section
for the original scope of the Rural Prosperity Fund grant – five months ahead of schedule!
Given the torrential rain and flooding during October it was a pleasant relief to have dry, calm, mild weather for the entire work party, albeit overcast. Once again, substantial progress was made. There were the three main activities:
• To complete the towpath and bank works in Phase 1A (wharf area) which in turn would complete the original scope for the RPF project.
• Continue channel profiling in the Phase 1B section, beyond the area already completed. This extends the original scope.
• Hedge laying to kick off the winter environmental works.
In addition, four volunteers took a refresher brushcutter qualification on Friday which is essential to deliver all the scheduled environmental activities.
On Friday morning, there remained 65 metres of towpath to construct in the Phase 1A length. Coupled with this were 60 metres of bank to complete with riprap (large aggregate) covered by soil above the blocked area. And finally the entire length of towpath in 1A (which runs opposite the tramway wharf area) needed to be dressed with a wear course of quarry dust. By Sunday lunchtime the job was done which marked a major milestone: completion of all the channel and towpath deliverables in the original funded scope scheduled to finish by the end of March next year.
Practical completion for this funded scope is for the two completed sections of channel to be in water by the end of March. They are filling of their own accord with rainwater and it is expected that the stop planks by Crickheath Bridge will be cracked open in January or February to equalise the levels with those in the now navigable Crickheath Basin.
Further along the site towards Schoolhouse Bridge, work continued to profile the channel. In the area worked, no lining and blocking is required and an impressive 70 metres is now complete.
Just beyond this area in the direction of Schoolhouse Bridge, hedge laying picked up from where work had finished last winter. Over two days and with a number of ‘new hands’, 23 metres was completed – also impressive. Of course hedge laying generates a large quantity of material to be burned. There is never a lack of volunteers to do the honours. For more information see SUCS website:shropshireunion.org.uk
Channel profiled on the next (Phase 1B) section, beyond the original scope of SUCS’ work
progress Shrewsbury & Newport
Shrewsbury & Newport Canal Canals Trust get closer to opening the Wappenshall warehouse cafe, and welcome a visit from London WRG
Shrewsbury & Newport Canals
Work at Wappenshall Wharf, the junction of the two canals where the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust is restoring the transhipment warehouses as a canal centre and community centre, has significantly progressed since the last issue of Navvies. The stable block has been clad with its horizontal timbers on the back and gable end walls and the stable doors have been installed.
All the floor tiles have at last been laid on the café floor, as the picture (below right) from our security camera shows. The tiles, ordered and paid for in April, finally turned up in September!
The finished ground level for our car park has been very challenging to determine. This is because we have to break up and dispose of the concrete that mostly covers the 1100 square metre area, then prepare the ground by putting in a fairly extensive drainage system, then add two differing layers of aggregate before finishing it with permeable block paving. However, our resourceful team has succeeded in working it out and the boundary kerb stones have been laid on the eastern side. The car park is the last really big job to complete before we can think about opening the café to paying customers. We are presently concentrating on building a dwarf wall to act as the northern boundary of the car park. This will involve laying 4,250 bricks, topped off with 660 double bull-nosed blue ones. After digging the foundations out and putting 7.3 cubic metres of concrete into them, a start was made on 26October.
Meanwhile a London WRG weekend camp greatly boosted our own volunteer effort to clear some big tree stumps from the Uffington section of the Shrewsbury canal in early October.
Many thanks go to them for a great job well done!
BernieJones
Stable cladding and (below) security camera shot of cafe floor tiles
Pictures by Bernie Jones
Above left: kerb stones for the car park Above right: the start of the ‘dwarf wall’ along the boundary of the car park Below: London WRG pulling stumps at Uffington on an October visit
progress Chesterfield Canal
The Chesterfield Canal has a new bridge, and is about to gain another one and a new lock too, at the Towns Fund project at Staveley
Chesterfield
Canal
The big news on the Chesterfield is that the new Trans Pennine Trail (TPT) Bridge at Staveley, for which the planning, fabrication and preparation has been going on for quite some months (as covered in previous issues of Navvies) was successfully craned into place at the second attempt (the first time they brought the wrong crane!) and the editor was there to get the photos on these pages.
This is the first step of a programme supported by a £5.83m Government Towns Fund grant to reinstate the next 0.5km or so of canal leading on from the end of the isolated restored Chesterfield to Staveley section just below the new Staveley Town Lock. It continues via another new lock, the new TPT Bridge, a further new bridge and a reinstated basin (where a small arm once branched off) to end at the start of the approach to the Puddle Bank clay embankment across the Doe Lea Valley. It is being constructed by engineering contractors.
Meanwhile the Chesterfield Canal Trust volunteers are planning to start work on completing (and installing a pumped water supply to) a part-restored section of canal running through Renishaw. Following completion of the Staveley project (planned for 2026) attention will turn to raising funds to raise / repair / restore the Puddle Bank (including a new aqueduct over the Doe Lea stream) and completing the remaining length between there and Renishaw. This would reduce the ‘missing link’ unrestored section to just over five miles between Renishaw and Kiveton (from which point the canal is navigable all the way to the Trent) - admittedly a tricky five miles, including the collapsed Norwood Tunnel and a length in Killamarsh obstructed by a 1970s housing development and requiring a diversion via two new flights of locks.
Opposite/above: Built in Sheffield and cut in two for transport, the reassembled bridge is craned in Below: Looking along the canal line past the site for the second new lock with the bridge beyond
progress Cotswold Canals
Cotswold Canals
Pike Lock to Dock Lock: The following report from the Cotswold Canals Trust website describes an important piece of volunteer input to the ‘Cotswold Canals Connected’ scheme (otherwise known as the Phase 1b section), the major project funded by the National Lottery, Stroud District Council (SDC), CCT and others to reopen four miles of canal from Saul Junction to Stonehouse and thereby reconnect the entire western ten miles of the canal to the national network…
Over the past two years, Volunteers from across the CCC partnership (including SDC and CCT), have been working to reinstate the canal pound between Pike Lock and Dock Lock. The canal had been effectively drained for over 10 years and the bottom and sides had lush growth…with some endangered rodents taking up residence. The presence of water voles held up work significantly whilst help and expertise from Ecologist Mike Dean and the necessary Natural England licences were obtained plus a suitable relocation habitat identified upstream on the canal. Following successful translocation of 6 of these protected rodents, the old habitat area was available for canal restoration to take place.
Much work was done in preparation for the next set of actions including improving the access track, leasing a strip of land next to the canal for vehicle and materials movement and then fencing this off to protect the public and safeguard the landlord’s property. With a long reach excavator, we were able to remove the vegetation from both banks and also profile the canal to the correct depth and shape of the walls.
Work could now start on several canal features. The old spill weir (for setting the water level) was cleared, the brick work tidied up and the outfall to the Oldbury Brook isolated. The new bypass channel from the rather ugly concrete edifice that had been installed around 1993 was also cleared and a contractor engaged to dig a deep trench and install the large bypass pipe exiting below the lock. The block wall entrance to the old Dry Dock had to be resealed, and the crumbling plastic protection alongside the old dock removed, to be replaced by a new wall.
The ground was cleared, a concrete base installed and then a new wall built using ‘porcupine blocks’. This was sealed at the back by pouring in 7 cubic metres of concrete with special sealants used to create a waterproof barrier at each end. Several trees along the canal banks had to be removed so that the towpath could be reinstated to the proper width and to prevent the trees falling into the canal as the water was reintroduced.
The Dock Lock stop planks were next carefully fitted in place in sequence over a few weeks so that as the water level rose, any subsequent impact on the surrounding properties could be monitored. Using the bucket of an excavator helps hold down the planks which can then be wedged in place, otherwise they have a tendency to float when first introduced to water.
The profiled canal banks have been replanted with a mixture of 1,500 riparian (marginal) plants recommended by ecologists, supplied by Habitat Aid. The mix is mostly made of Glyceria maxima (reed sweet-grass) which acts as great food and cover for water voles for the future. The mix also includes: yellow-flag iris, branched bur-reed, greater tussock-sedge, blue sedge and cyperus sedge. The volunteers were from Stroud Valleys Project (led by Ruth) joined by some from CCT. The bypass outfall from Pike Lock also needed some attention and several tons of blue clay were used to seal the canal bank from further erosion.
With the recent heavy rain there was no problem with the pound filling up! See the back cover of the magazine for ‘before and after’ – the overgrown channel two years ago, and the pleasing vista now from Pike Lock Bridge showing a relatively short stretch of restored canal, but one which demonstrates both the complexity of renovation of this Lottery funded work and the wide range of skills and expertise required to carry it out. Volunteers celebrated in late October the first boat on this stretch of canal for very many years.
Appreciation ‘Taz’ Tarrant
Dave ‘Taz’ Tarrant R. I. P.
Dave ‘Taz’ Tarrant sadly passed away suddenly in September. He had always enjoyed the canals, whether volunteering on Canal Camps, boating on his beloved narrowboat, helping out on the Grantham Canal Society trip boat or just walking sections of various canals up and down the country. It was on a canal camp that Taz met WRG regular and his future wife Jo 'Smudge' Smith. He was good company and so enjoyed long conversations with fellow enthusiasts about trains, planes and of course canals. He was a kind and generous man, donating regularly to various canal restoration groups. He will be greatly missed by his friends and family. RIP Taz.
navvies News
Timothy West
You will no doubt have already heard the sad news of the death aged 90 of Timothy West, actor of stage, film and TV, canal enthusiast, boater, and most well-known to waterways folk as one half of the duo (with his wife and fellow actor Prunella Scales) who starred in the TV series Great Canal Journeys.
You may or may not also recall his involvement in canal restoration, which brought him into contact with WRG on a few occasions. He was a Vice President of the Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust, he officially opened the Over Basin extension on the Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal following its construction largely by WRG Canal Camps, and he was presented with WRG’s parent body the Inland Waterways Association’s Waterways Personality of the Year award at the 2004 IWA National Waterways Festival at Burton-upon-Trent. At the same festival, we were publicising the hot-off-the-press WRG 2005 calendar, done in the ‘Calendar Girls’ style with 12 male and 12 female WRGies hiding barely enough of their unclad bodies behind various tools and items of WRG kit (in my case a griddle). This photo by the late Harry Arnold captured Tim & Pru’s raised eyebrows reaction on being shown it on the WRG display, and duly appeared on the Navvies front cover.
Incident forms
Just a reminder that if you need to fill in an incident / accident / near miss form on a WRG working party, then even if one has been completed by the local canal society under their own H&S regime, you still need to send one to our Head Office too.
More WRG directors needed
At a recent meeting of WRG's board of directors* we reflected upon needing to find more directors, and that it would be especially useful if we could increase the diversity of directors. So we thought we'd do something a bit different and ask the wider restoration community for suggestions of who would make a good WRG director.
The board makes sure that Canal Camps happen and that they (along with the work of regional groups) happen safely. From ensuring we comply with health & safety law on site, to finding work sites, helping our leaders to run successful camps, keeping our vans and trailers equipped and on the road, administering the driver authorisation scheme, supporting the regional groups and keeping an eye on the funds to do all that and more. The directors don't necessarily do all of that themselves but they form a committee that oversees the activities.
So what sort of person are we looking for? We're looking for people who are actively involved in canal restoration and if they regularly attend Canal Camps then even better. Other qualities include good decision making skills and judgement, listening, confident to challenge, pragmatic, enthusiastic. We're not saying that someone has to be all of that but it gives a bit of an indication.
If you can think of someone then please email helen.gardner@waterways.org. uk and if you can include a couple of lines of why you think they'd be good that would be helpful. This isn't an official vote or election; just a different way of getting ideas.
*Director is an historic term dating to when WRG was a company; these days directors are members of a committee without the legal obligations of either a trustee or a company director.
Infill including ‘Dear Deirdre’
Build your own aqueduct
Lots of us are looking forward to getting involved sometime soon in building the new aqueduct that will carry the restored Cotswold Canals route over the stream that crosses at the head of John Robinson Lock. But in the meantime if you can’t wait, you might get an earlier chance at aqueduct construction. A 6ft long model of the famous Pontcysyllte Aqueduct has been created entirely from LEGO for display in nearby Wrexham (where UK LEGO brick used to be made), and there’s a campaign to get 10,000 votes to get a smaller 18in version added to the LEGO range. You can support it - go to lego.com and search on Pontcysyllte. Here is a picture of the model, and a contemporary illustration of the real thing being built. Hope you can tell which is which..
Dear Deirdre I really want some new chainsaw trousers for Christmas as mine are ripped at the seams. But my mum wants to get me a nice dress instead. What should I ask for?
- Lena, Battersea
Deirdre replies Until they invent a dress that can protect your femoral artery, I think you are better off with the chainsaw trousers.
Dear Deirdre I found a pair of olive green RAF trousers in an army surplus shop and thought they would be practical for Canal Camps. They’re so comfy and have so many pockets. The trouble is, I can’t stop wearing them! Do you think it’s ok for me to wear them in daily life, or should I save them for site?
- MG, Crewe
Deirdre replies I don’t think it’s really acceptable to wear a flight suit round Asda; people will think you’re trying to dress like Tom Cruise in Top Gear to pick up women. Unless that is your real motive, in which case could you let me know if it works?
Dear Deirdre At the Christmas weekend dig I got drunk and they all bullied me into leading my first dig next year. Is there any way I can get out of it?
- Ian, Tonbridge
Deirdre replies Unfortunately are only three inevitable things in life – death, taxes, and having to lead a weekend dig at some point. I think you will just have to shoulder your responsibility.
