IWA Shrewsbury District & North Wales Branch
Shroppie
Fly Paper – June 2025
Contents
2025 Calendar dates for your Diary
2025 Branch AGM
Crickheath Topping Out Ceremony
George Watson Buck Welcomes Group Bookings
Manchester Branch comes to the Montgomery
HNBC Audlem Gathering of Historic Boats
2026 Calendars Now on Sale
Anderton Lift Closure Points to the Manchester Ship Canal
Restoration Round-up – Montgomery Canal
Williams Bridge Planning Application
Fund Britain’s Waterways – Making a Noise at Westminster
Tribute to a Treasurer
Branch Steering Team and Situations Vacant
2025 Calendar Dates for your Diary
July 19-20: Gnosall Canal Festival (C-Fest)
July 26-27: HNBC Gathering of Historic Boats, Audlem
August 9-10: Lock wind, Cholmondeston Lock – volunteers needed!
August 30-31: Whitchurch Canal Festival – volunteers needed!
September 6: Montgomery Canal Triathlon
September 20-21: Local Canals Exhibition, Shrewsbury Abbey Foregate Station
To register an interest in volunteering to help us at any of these events, please email phil.tarrant@waterways.org.uk with your availability
2025 Shrewsbury District & North Wales Branch AGM Mike Haig reports.
Our rescheduled 2025 annual general meeting was held on May 30 at Ellesmere Town Hall – a new venue for us but one that worked well.
[Meeting in Progress! Credit Alan Wilding]
It was drawn to my attention just before the meeting started that this was the fiftieth such meeting for the branch, an achievement of some note, I think we can all agree.
Welcoming attendees to this auspicious occasion, first I took the opportunity to thank the Branch Steering Team for their invaluable help and support in ensuring that your branch remains active and vigorous in campaigning for our local waterways.
We went on to record that the minutes of our 2024 AGM, held at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, had been approved by email last May by those present at the time. While no further action was required from that meeting, I observed that there were still some concerns about the embankment in Nantwich between the aqueduct and the entrance to the canal basin.
Although CRT has made repairs to the towpath surface, as reported in our November 2024 issue, from May 27 until June 20 the towpath has been closed and visitor moorings suspended to enable CRT to take core earth samples. These are needed so that CRT can better understand the geology and confirm the current position of the embankment, where the ground level has apparently dropped by a few millimetres.
Rather than repeat a familiar round-up of the branch’s activity over the last 12 months, I mentioned briefly the ongoing progress being made by the two main restoration projects in our branch area on the Montgomery and Shrewsbury & Newport canals, before devoting the bulk of my presentation to the role of the branch as an active part of our national Association and IWA’s renewed focus on campaigning.
Today’s main campaigns fall into three areas: protecting our waterways, promoting sustainable boating, and continuing our ambition to restore more miles of our canal system.
Protection
The ongoing quest for improved waterways funding will doubtless be a long-term campaign and will not be easy in the current fiscal climate. But the Fund Britain’s Waterways campaign is still building momentum and is now supported by some 160 bodies representing hundreds of thousands of waterways users and supporters. You can read FBW’s latest news elsewhere in this newsletter.
However, while securing adequate, sustained waterways funding is important, it’s not the only aspect of protecting our waterways. Equally vital is to preserve their heritage ‒ both the structures which decay through time or are damaged by unsympathetic development and changing weather conditions, as well as the heritage skills and knowledge that sustain them and without which we would be culturally impoverished.
Sustainability
I’ve had the opportunity in recent months to engage more closely with the experts in IWA’s Sustainable Boating Group, and it’s interesting to see the growing importance of this topic in IWA’s thinking and campaigning.
For the moment, most of the work is going into the future of propulsion for inland craft, whether grappling with the implications of increasing numbers of new electrically powered boats (not unlike the debates about range, charging infrastructure and costs of electric vehicles), or the efforts to reduce emissions from the vast majority of inland craft which have, and will continue to have, long-lasting diesel engines.
[Traditional working boat Spey powered by HVO. Credit Jonathan Mosse]
The good news is that there is a way to dramatically reduce the CO2 emissions of existing diesel engines – a cleaner, greener, sustainable fuel called HVO, or Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, which can be used immediately in both modern and traditional canal boat engines.
However, there are two key barriers to the widespread adoption of HVO for both propulsion and domestic use in the leisure boating sector: limited availability and inconsistent price. Despite a government-managed subsidy, HVO’s price is volatile and often more expensive than mineral diesel, meaning boaters are reluctant to buy it and suppliers to stock it.
In an effort to overcome these difficulties, IWA is working with the Royal Yachting Association, British Marine and the Cruising Association to persuade government to adopt policies that will make HVO more affordable and available to leisure boaters.
Restoration
It has also been interesting to see the growing importance of sustainability in the restoration sector. April’s Montgomery Canal Forum, held this year in Newtown, featured an IWA presentation discussing not just propulsion, but also the effects of channel and boat design on energy usage and turbidity.
And over the three latest issues (numbers 329-331) of Waterway Recovery Group’s newsletter, Navvies, former IWA Chesham staffer Alex Melson discusses how canal restoration can coexist with environmentalism and nature conservation. The first two parts of his series, on wildlife and biodiversity, have already been published, with the
final instalment on navigation set to appear in the next issue. You can read back issues on issuu.com.
The meeting concluded with the election of Phil Tarrant and Alison Smith, and reelection of Alan Wilding, to the branch committee, or Steering Team.
Focus on Ellesmere Yard
After the formal business, the meeting heard a presentation by Kathryn Woodroffe, Canal & River Trust Project Manager for Ellesmere Yard. The yard has served the local canal network for over 200 years and now, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, CRT’s Forging Ahead project aims to secure a sustainable future as a safe and functional operational yard while conserving its historic structures and heritage assets with greater public access.
In the afternoon, many attendees enjoyed a guided tour of the yard to see the historic buildings and learn about the traditional activities still carried on there.
[Tour guide Dr Maurice Ward (centre) introduces the Yard to our visitors. Credit Mike Haig]
Shropshire Union Canal Society holds ‘Topping Out’ ceremony as Shropshire Gap reduces
In glorious sunshine, a throng gathered at Crickheath Wharf in early April to attend a ‘Topping Out’ ceremony to celebrate the rewatering of another section of the Montgomery canal and it means that the Shropshire Gap - the unrestored section of
the canal between Crickheath and the Welsh border at Llanymynech - has been closed by a further 10%.
David Carter, chair of the Shropshire Union Canal Society (SUCS) welcomed special guests Lezley Picton, then-leader of Shropshire Council, and Henriette (Hen) Breukelaar, Canal & River Trust West Midlands regional director to cut the ribbon.
IWA Shrewsbury & North Wales Branch supported the event logistics, arranging for nb Merrybower, skippered by owner and branch member Dave Koring, to transport Hen Breukelaar and CRT colleagues from Maesbury to Crickheath Basin in advance of the ceremony.
[L to R: John Dodwell (MCP chair), James Dennison (CRT West Mids Regional Enterprise Manager), Hen Breukelaar (CRT West Mids Regional Director), Mike Haig (IWA Branch chair), Jamie Price (CRT Wales & South West Regional Enterprise Manager), Dave Koring (IWA, boatowner), steerer,atMaesbury.CreditMichaelLimbrey]
Speaking at the ceremony, Hen Breukelaar thanked everyone involved in the project saying, “I think in a world that is so dominated by worry and negativity, what a fantastic, inspiring example of communities coming together to restore something that is so wonderful. As we arrived by boat, we were filled with such appreciation of the beauty of nature, the biodiversity of this wonderful waterway, it deserves to be restored and cherished by all”.
Tom Fulda, restoration project manager for the Shropshire Union Canal Society, paid tribute to and thanked all the parties that had made it possible, including Shropshire Council, Canal & River Trust, the volunteers, including those from the Dry Stone Walling Association who helped so much with the wharf wall, and all the local supporters among the Parish Councils and local businesses.
But what’s a ‘Topping Out’ ceremony? (Sometimes called Topping Off, in the building trade.) Well, it’s a tradition that started in Scandinavia in the dark ages,
nearly 2,000 years ago and is a symbolic gesture that acknowledges the hard work, dedication and skill of all involved in the completion of construction or, in this case, part of the construction. There will be many more of these ceremonies on the Monty in the years to come.
The Crickheath South project in statistics
Since the start of this phase of the project last year, there have been 67 SUCS volunteers involved at different times, 23 of whom have joined the Society as members. All but one of these are from the local area around Shropshire, Cheshire and Powys. The exception travelled from Australia to attend, thereby demonstrating the Monty’s global following!
Fifty corporate volunteers from Practice Plan in Oswestry, from Openreach, consulting engineers Arcadis and RSK, and several from CRT have each offered a day of their time.
In total, over the 15 work parties, the works have been delivered by 6,500 volunteer hours.
The work has been funded by a grant from the UK’s Shared Prosperity Fund, secured by Canal & River Trust through Shropshire Council.
Groups Welcomed Aboard at Llanymynech
Volunteers at the cross-border canal wharf at Llanymynech welcomed a group of canal enthusiasts from Stourbridge and another from Manchester recently.
The popular visitor centre offers short narrowboat trips on the Montgomery Canal on the border between England and Wales and is a popular destination for visitors to the area.
The volunteers who run the centre are keen for more groups to visit to find out about the local wildlife and heritage of the area, as well as current restoration work happening on the Montgomery Canal in England and Wales.
Brenda Stevenson of Stourbridge u3a Canal Group said: “We had a wonderful day visiting the Montgomery Canal and we are particularly grateful for the welcome that we received from volunteers at Llanymynech Canal Wharf.
“We are one group within u3a, which is an organisation for those no longer in full time employment to engage in many activities – our motto is to ‘live, learn and laugh!’. We do this whilst increasing friendship with our colleagues. Our Canal Group is a good example, learning about the many wonders of our waterways system with talks and visits plus supporting local canal groups and restorations.
“Our visit to Llanymynech and Welshpool was a great example of a full day trip when we increased our knowledge of the industrial heritage of this area and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring the site and indulging in a trip on the George Watson Buck passenger boat,” Ivor Caplan from Stourbridge u3a added. “We all send our grateful appreciation to all the volunteers who made us so welcome, and we wish the future restoration well. Stourbridge u3a Canal Group will certainly be re-visiting the completed canal one day.”
Llanymynech Canal Wharf has also welcomed a group from IWA Manchester Branch recently (see below).
Graham Deakin, from Llanymynech Canal Wharf, explained: “Our narrowboat has a capacity for 12 passengers, including up to two people who use wheelchairs. Greater numbers can be accommodated by splitting larger parties into groups of 12, with one group on the boat while another visits Llanymynech Heritage Area or our visitor centre.
“Llanymynech Canal Wharf has a mini canal exhibition, and our volunteers enjoy talking to visitors about the local area and the current canal restoration,” he added.
To find out more about taking your group to the wharf, please visithttps://themontgomerycanal.org.uk/group-trips-at-llanymynech-canal-wharf
Manchester Comes to the Mont Branch chairman, Mike Haig, was back on the border on a sunny Sunday in midMay to welcome a visiting group from IWA Manchester Branch to the Montgomery Canal.
After a morning spent independently exploring the earlier phases of the restoration between Welsh Frankton and Maesbury Marsh, the Manchester group hooked up with me in a lay-by at Llynclys (despite both parties being plagued by intermittent mobile phone signals) and we proceeded to the latest phase at Crickheath.
Although it wasn’t a SUCS work party weekend, and therefore there was no actual restoration work taking place, the group was able to appreciate the impressive rebuilding of Crickheath Basin (the current limit of navigation), before inspecting the re-watered length from Tramway Wharf to the location of the recent ‘Topping Out’ ceremony (see above).
A towpath stroll brought us to Schoolhouse Bridge, to which SUCS will shortly be relocating their works compound in preparation for the work to profile and, where necessary, to line and block the canal bed back towards the re-watered section.
The compound at Schoolhouse Bridge will also serve as the operational base for profiling through the skew bridge and on towards Waen Wen basin, where the next winding hole can be created.
[ManchesterIWAventuresintoWalesaboardGeorgeWatsonBuck.CreditVicSmith]
ThegrouproundedoffthedayontheMontywithavisittoLlanymynechCanal Wharfandenjoyedacruiseinto‘internationalwaters’aboardtheGeorgeWatson Bucktripboat.Aftersuchalongspellwithoutrain,thewaterlevelwasalarmingly low,butfortunatelysufficienttokeepoperatingtrips.
HNBC Audlem Gathering of Historic Boats: 26-27 July 2025
The Audlem Gathering of Historic Boats will take place over the weekend of 26th and 27th July to coincide with the Audlem Festival of Transport. This popular boat gathering is organised by the Historic Narrow Boat Club as a club members’ event. All entrants need to be HNBC members and all members’ boats are welcome. The HNBC cannot promote it as a public event (due to insurance restrictions), although, obviously, the canal and towpath are open to the public. Moorings will be between locks 12 and 15 in the Audlem flight. There should be a fine display of historic boats over the weekend.
[Historic boats moored at Audlem at the 2024 gathering. Credit HNBC]
Other moorings for visiting boats not taking part in this event will be available between locks 11 and 12 and also below the bottom lock.
On the Sunday the Audlem Festival of Transport takes place with around 300 vehicles parading through the village and assembling on the playing field behind the Shroppie Fly for the afternoon – always a great spectacle.
Our 2026 IWA Branch Calendars have arrived!
They are now on sale at events we attend and at various canalside outlets in our area. From July we can supply by mail order, and you can also buy them from our online shop at https://iwa-shrewsburynorthwales.sumupstore.com.
[CalendarcoverphotobyBarryWitts]
Our next events are the Gnosall C-Fest on 19-20 July, our lock wind at Cholmondeston Lock on 9-10 August, and the Whitchurch Canal Festival on 30-31 August.
Do come and visit our stand at any (or all) of these events and support the branch. We look forward to seeing you.
From early July you can also get your 2026 calendars direct from the branch, online or by mail order. We’re holding our price at just £8 per calendar, and shipping costs for online and mail order sales will be on the same sliding scale per shipment as last year:
1 calendar - £3
2 calendars - £4
3 calendars - £6
4 calendars - £7
5-8 calendars - £9
If you prefer mail order to online, we have easy ways you can pay...
Simply email shrewsandnwales@waterways.org.uk with the number of calendars you would like, the address to which they should be posted, and how you’d like to pay (BACS transfer or card payment via SumUp). We will reply with the amount payable, and the branch bank details or a secure SumUp payment link depending on your preferred payment method.
PayPal
If you have a PayPal account you can pay direct to our branch chair on 07801 415573.
In all cases, please remember to include the postal address for despatch of the calendars. We will send them by 2nd class post on receipt of payment.
You’ll also find our calendars at the following outlets:
ABC Whitchurch
ABC Wrenbury Mill Norbury Wharf Llanymynech Canal Wharf
And from October at the pop-up charity card shops at St Mary’s Church, Shrewsbury, and at St Oswald’s Church, Oswestry.
With thanks to our generous calendar sponsors… Aqueduct Marina Kings Lock Chandlery Knights Narrowboats Morris Lubricants Norbury Wharf OverWater Marina Swanley Bridge Marina Talbot Wharf …andtothephotographerswhokindlydonatedtheirphotographyforouruse.
Thecalendarisproducedonqualitypaper,isspiralbound,andopenstoA3sizewith superbphotographsofsomeofthewonderfulwaterwayswithinourbrancharea.It makesanidealcompanionforthewholeof2026onyour,oronafriend’s,wall.
Anderton Lift Closure Points
to the Manchester Ship Canal Branch team member and keen boater, Alison Smith, reports on what’s happening at the Anderton Boat Lift and the mechanics of using the Manchester Ship Canal to move between the Shroppie and the River Weaver.
In the aftermath of multiple closures this winter and spring, rendering Manchester all but landlocked and north-south routes few and problematic, CRT decided to hold an information session on the Manchester Ship Canal (MSC), at the Anderton Boat Lift on Friday 16th May.
The event was attended by some 16 boaters, all keen to understand just how tricky and costly it is to venture onto the MSC, including a Dutch couple who have hired the same boat for a couple of months every year. They were knocked back straightaway –no hire boats under any circumstances.
Anderton Boat Lift Closure
Before getting to grips with the headline talk, Jason Watts, the area operations manager for the Anderton Lift, gave an overview of the current closure there. As I’m sure you know, the Lift operates by two caissons, to deliver a tank of water, with or without boats floating in them, to and from the Trent and Mersey canal above and the Weaver Navigation 50ft below.
[A boat in the lower caisson at the Anderton Lift. Credit Mike Haig]
The Lift has been in urgent need of an overhaul since its grand refurbishment over 20 years ago, but the pace has been forced by the failure of a gate lifting mechanism. The current method to raise each gate is by winching a cable. The cables are certified to lift five times the weight of the gate, and to last five years, while being replaced after only three years. Thus, a one-year-old cable snapping, and the braking arrangement not working correctly, is a major cause for concern. CRT was keen to point out that even had there been a boat in transit at the time it would not have been near the failure, but even so, a rethink is required.
Three options are on the table: the first a straight replacement of the existing system with beefed up backup arrangements. However, this leaves CRT reliant on the cable manufacturer to provide non-faulty cables and requires lots of maintenance. What the local management prefer is, inevitably, much more expensive but also much more rigorous, and involves using a rack and pinion system already in use on the Weaver Navigation locks.
But it will affect somewhat the look of the Lift, so they await the view of head office and of English Heritage. All of which means they can’t get commissioning the new parts until the latter part of the year, never mind fitting them. If you want to cruise the Weaver, the only way on or off for the next 10 months at least is the Ship Canal.
Small boats on a big ships’ canal
Regional customer service manager Liam Cooper then introduced Mike Carter, a survey engineer, whose job was to set our worries at rest. He explained that Peel Holdings (owners of the Ship Canal) might seem unhelpful, but that’s because our £200 bills are petty cash to them and a bit annoying: and that their main customers,
big tankers used to bucketing about the Atlantic and already stressed at being squeezed into the Ship Canal, are terrified of what they think of as canoes with gas bottles.
The experience of navigating the MSC is the same as, say, the Gloucester and Sharpness. Key are communication with the berth management, and being aware of, but not too close to, any navigation buoys. He gave precise instructions for the section between Marsh Lock and Ellesmere Port, and was happy to advise on the other sections.
VHF is not mandatory – mobile phone numbers are provided – but if you do use VHF, then use the radio, humbly because you’re the new kid, as you leave the lock, as you approach the jetties, as you leave the jetties, and as you depart the canal.
For other sections of the MSC, Mike was happy to have further conversations and can be contacted at www.marinesurveysltd.com / 07831 184495
At the event, Mike was offering a discount on the necessary Ship Safety certificate, which is much less thorough than the Boat Safety Scheme, which it in fact predates, and is valid for 12 months. Two of the boats present took up the offer, and others went on the tour of the top of the Lift after the session ended.
To close, Liam confirmed the booking requirements for CRT, while recommending that the paperwork required by Peel Ports is also to hand at the same time. There is full information on the CRT web page to take the hopeful traveller through the process.
All in all, this was a most interesting couple of hours. See you on the Weaver via the MSC!
RestorationRound-up–MontgomeryCanal
We’regratefultoMontgomeryCanalPartnershipChair,JohnDodwell,forhis latestprogressreport.
The Public Appeal being run by the Restore the Montgomery Canal! Group (of which the Branch is a member) has now reached (as at 25 April 2025) £230,000– so just about 90% of the way to its target of £250,000 to help towards the costs of the next phase of the restoration in Shropshire – helping to close the Shropshire Gap and get closer to Llanymynech at the Welsh border.
That’s a £27,000 increase since the last Shroppie Fly Paper. Recent donations include £1,000 from Llanymynech & Pant Parish Council, while a further £1,000 donation has come from the Historic Narrow Boat Club – a welcome addition to the approx. £350 from their raffle at the Audlem Festival last year. And, separately, thanks go to the Oswestry Rural Parish Council for another donation for towpath improvement works – this time £1,500 direct to the Shropshire Union Canal Society (SUCS).
Alice
chair of Llanymynech & Pant
About £38,000 of the money raised has already been put to good use. The recent channel and other works at Crickheath cost about £253,000. Canal & River Trust were successful in obtaining a £177,000 Shared Prosperity Fund grant from Shropshire Council on the basis that the voluntary societies provided match funding of 30% of the roughly £253,000 cost - about £76,000. Half (the £38,000 mentioned earlier) came from the Public Appeal with the other half coming directly from SUCS’s own funds. This meant that 100% worth of work was done for a contribution from the voluntary societies of 30%.
A further sum of up to £35,000 has been provisionally allocated from the Appeal funds for the restoration costs in the year to 31 March 2026, with SUCS providing an equal sum. However, a further round of Shared Prosperity Funding has just been launched and via Canal & River Trust (as before) a further application has been submitted – for spending by 31 March 2026. This time the match fund requirement is down to 20%. The application not only covers the restoration costs but includes design costs for the farm bridge which needs building at Crickheath.
All this means that good progress is being made in linking up to the recently rebuilt Schoolhouse Bridge and onward to the next winding hole at Waen Wen, on the outskirts of Pant.
Some Members make monthly donations and this is very much encouraged. We always need to plan ahead and knowing we have monthly income helps us to do that. Please see the relevant part on the donation page which can be found at www.localgiving.org/charity/restorethemontgomerycanal. Alternatively, donations
can be made by sending a cheque (payable to “Restore the Montgomery Canal”) to Tixall Lodge, Tixall, Stafford, ST18 0XS
