Shroppie Fly Paper - May 2026
The Newsletter of the Shrewsbury District & North Wales Branch
Hello, and welcome to Shroppie Fly Paper
In this month’s issue we report on…
• More VIP visits to the Montgomery restoration
• Our evening in a brewery at Market Drayton
• Calendar dates and appeal for help – come and have some fun!
• What will be the fate of the Maesbury service block?
• 2027 Branch Calendars now on sale
• Posh new gates and a royal visitor at Wappenshall Wharf
• Fund Britain’s Waterways – Thames Tideway Cruise
• Montgomery restoration résumé
VIP Visits
Two important visitors arrived to see the Montgomery restoration in April.
Just after Easter, we were delighted to welcome Campbell Robb, CRT’s new chief executive, and show him around some of the key restoration locations on the Montgomery Canal. Accompanied by branch chair Mike Haig, together with the Montgomery Canal Partnership’s chair John Dodwell and Michael Limbrey (branch president and chair of the Montgomery Waterway Restoration Trust), Mr Robb enjoyed a ride from Maesbury to Crickheath Basin aboard steam launch Ictus, owned by branch members Chris Bushnell and Maggie Ellis, and which seems to be becoming the water transport of choice for visiting VIPs.
At Crickheath we were met by David Carter, chair, Shropshire Union Canal Society (it was a SUCS working party weekend) who, with project manager Tom Fulda, showed Mr Robb the recent and current restoration works between Crickheath Bridge and Schoolhouse Bridge before walking further to Malthouse Bridge (also known as Waen Wen Bridge) and on to view the recently cleared Waen Wen Basin.
From there, the party went onto meet the volunteers who operate Llanymynech Wharf; Mr Robb could see for himself the problems with the lack of depth, due primarily to the damaged Tanat Feeder being unable to provide an adequate water flow (see more below in this issue).
CRT’s Jason Leach (responsible for delivery of the Levelling Up Fund funded works) joined the group to see the works in progress in building the new Carreghofa Lane Bridge, before going to the site of the new Williams Bridge and on to Vyrnwy Aqueduct At the aqueduct, a brief descent onto the flood plain below evidenced the water leaking from the arches and demonstrated the urgent need for repairs.
Then on to Arddleen to look at a solution for the dropped road crossing and witness the invasive water soldier weed that is increasingly obstructing the canal, particularly between there and Welshpool. Fortunately, CRT’s application to the Local Plan for Nature Fund has been successful and work on removing the water soldier over a 2km length should start in the autumn, leaving a further 1km to be done later when funding has been obtained.
[Invasive water soldier weed at Arddleen, with the A483 trunk road crossing the culvert carrying the canal. Credit Mike Haig]
The day ended with a boat trip on a Huelwen Trust boat into Welshpool – with Mr Robb steering part of the way.
About a week later we welcomed Ben Cottam, the new CRT regional director for Wales & South West, with branch secretary Philippa Bursey representing IWA in place of Mike The group saw the recent restoration works at Aberbechan Aqueduct and volunteers repairing the historic Brynderwyn warehouse. Later they saw more volunteers from the TRAMPS working at Belan Locks (and operating the weed cutter boat) before the visitors embarked on a Huelwen Trust boat from Welshpool to Buttington – with Mr Cottam also having a go at steering.
Thereafter, the journey was the reverse of Mr Robb’s visit as far as Llanymynech, before going over the border to see the site of the SUCS work.
We are very grateful to both gentlemen for each giving up a whole day to see how the restoration is progressing, and we believe they were both hugely impressed by the scale of the works and the volunteers’ efforts.
2026 Calendar Dates for your Diary
• July 18- 19: Gnosall Canal Festival (C-Fest) – volunteers needed!
• August 8-9: Lock wind, Cholmondeston Lock – volunteers needed!
• September 5-6: Whitchurch Canal Festival – volunteers needed!
We’re now actively seeking volunteers to help with our lock wind in early August, as well as to help at the Whitchurch Canal Festival. Come and be part of our friendly team. Please email shrewsandnwales@waterways.org.uk with your availability.
Where We’ve Been
Branch volunteers are already three events into this year’s programme.
We started at the end of April at Aqueduct Marina on the Middlewich Branch, where marine propulsion specialist Vetus teamed with local installer Kings Lock Distribution to provide an Electric Experience Day for inland boaters. Two 57’ narrowboats equipped with Vetus electric power systems were on hand in the marina to demonstrate the quietness and ease of use of electric propulsion. Over 30 people booked appointments for the day in a response that delighted the organisers.
The branch was on hand to talk to existing and prospective boat owners about the work of IWA’s Sustainable Boating Group and its advocacy for increased use of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as an environmentally friendly substitute for mineral diesel.
Aqueduct Marina offers boaters a choice of both types of fuel.
The Early May Bank Holiday weekend found us, as usual, at the Norbury Canal Festival. The camaraderie at this event is always a pleasure although, as the years progress, three full days is becoming a tougher slog for the few branch volunteers who turn out to run our stall. We need more help next year, please!
[In the sunshine at Norbury. Credit Alison Smith]
Our latest event just before this issue went to print was a guest appearance at the Stafford Riverway Link Open Weekend on the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal at Baswich, on the outskirts of
Stafford. Although outside our usual stamping ground, it was an interesting insight into the restoration project to recreate a link between the canal and the River Sow, which until the inter-war years provided a canalised river navigation into the centre of Stafford. We enjoyed being able to help skipper the visitor trip boats, kindly provide by Anglo Welsh.
2026 Annual Members’ Meeting
Almost twenty members joined us at Joule’s Red Lion Tap House in Market Drayton in early April for our annual members’ meeting, combined with an 80th anniversary dinner and a guided tour of the Joule’s brewery.
The minutes of our AGM have been circulated separately to members; we hope you’ve had the chance to take a look at them.
In his address to the meeting this year, chair Mike Haig chose to focus on the branch’s strong track record of fundraising to support local waterways causes, highlighting the income streams available to us and the beneficiaries that we mainly support.
In the branch’s 51-year history*, he said, the main focus has been on supporting waterways restoration, especially, though not exclusively, the Montgomery Canal. The late 1970s and ‘80s were a time of substantial progress with the Montgomery restoration, and this branch played an active role in raising local awareness through effective campaigning, as well as generating complementary funding.
[The opening of the Montgomery Canal at Queens Head in 1996. Credit Michael Limbrey]
More recently, Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust has successfully advanced aspects of the Shrewsbury Canal and the Newport Branch restoration, and we’re very happy to have two such significant waterway regeneration projects within our branch area, where we can help to make a difference.
In fact, over the last decade and a half, we have been able to award a total of £30,000 in grants to waterway causes - around £15,500 of which has been to the Montgomery and £10,500 to the S&N, for which our latest donation funded the new access gates at Wappenshall Wharf (see below)
Of course, to spend money one first has to raise it. Mike summarised what we do at the moment, describing the three main components: our calendar, our activity at canalside events, and our participation in the pop-up charity Christmas card shops in Shrewsbury and Oswestry. Of these, the calendar provides around half our annual income and is thus central to our fundraising effort. We hope that all readers will want to support it (see below to find out how).
In conclusion, Mike emphasised the key role of volunteers and supporters in all aspects of the branch’s activity – whether helping on our stands, contributing produce and other items that we can sell, or joining the team effort to keep us an active and thriving branch.
*Trivia snippet – During those 50-odd years, we have been, variously, the Shrewsbury, Chester & North Wales Branch, then the Chester, Shrewsbury & North Wales Branch (don’t ask!), the Shrewsbury & Border Counties Branch (from 1984), and from 2004 the Shrewsbury District & North Wales Branch.
Maesbury Customer Service Facility – in a Mire of Uncertainty
We were somewhat taken aback to learn in April that CRT is actively considering a proposal to demolish the boaters’ service block at Maesbury Marsh, close to the Navigation Inn. The boaters’ lavatory and shower facilities have already been closed and decommissioned, casualties of last year’s decision by CRT to no longer provide ‘non-essential’ services to boaters. That leaves the Elsan disposal housed within the building, with an external, free-standing water point and a pumpout point housed in an adjacent little hut.
CRT is adamant that the ‘essential ’ facilities of water, refuse, Elsan disposal and pump-out provision will remain, though apparently not necessarily in a relatively modern structure purpose-built around the time of the opening of the canal to Maesbury Marsh.
In the meantime, there is some exploratory work to be done. Who paid for the construction of the service block, using what funding, and were there any conditions attached?
2027 Calendars – Now on Sale
You can get our super new calendars at events we attend and at various canalside outlets in our area.
Our next events are the Gnosall C-Fest on 18-19 July, our lock wind at Cholmondeston Lock on 8-9 August, and the Whitchurch Canal Festival on 5-6 September.
Do come and visit us at any of these events and support the branch. We look forward to seeing you.
From early July you can also get your 2027 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
For online purchases, please visit https://iwa-shrewsburynorthwales.sumupstore.com.
For mail order, please 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.
You’ll also find our calendars at the following outlets:
ABC Nantwich ABC Wrenbury Mill Norbury 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 Distribution Knights Narrowboats Morris Lubricants
Norbury Wharf
OverWater Marina Swanley Bridge Marina Talbot Wharf
…and to the photographers who kindly donated their photography for our use.
The calendar is produced on quality paper, is spiral bound, and opens to A3 size with superb photographs of some of the wonderful waterways within our branch area.
New Security Gates at Wappenshall Wharf
[Bespoke gates at Wappenshall, funded by IWA Shrewsbury & North Wales Branch. Credit Bernie Jones]
A pair of splendid new wrought-iron gates now grace the entrance to Wappenshall, provided through the fundraising efforts of our branch.
Designed by SNCT trustee and IWA Honorary Consultant Engineer John Heather, the gates were made by Kevin Jones Fabrications in Stafford to an extremely high standard including galvanising and powder coating. Made to measure, very tight fitting and sturdy, hopefully they will help keep this important restoration site secure for a very long time...
IWA branch chair Mike Haig said: “Completing this phase of the restoration, and opening the fantastic Welldeck Cafe, is an amazing milestone for all the volunteers who have worked so hard to get to this point. They should rightly be very proud of their achievement. We’re delighted to have been able to support the restoration from the early days right up to the public opening, and we look forward to the phases still to come.”
The Welldeck Café at Wappenshall has made an encouragingly strong start in the few months since opening, to the extent that SNCT volunteers are now working to expand capacity by building a kitchen extension above the present one that will be connected via a “dumb waiter” to the serving area downstairs. This work is already well advanced and should be open by early summer.
[SNCT chair Bernie Jones and IWA branch chair Mike Haig celebrate the new installation. Credit Philippa Bursey]
The café has also become a hub for community activity. The Telford Remote Control Boat Club has been bringing the basin to life on Saturdays, drawing interest from visitors of all ages. In addition, a community garden group has been established, planting well over 500 plants, including beautiful David Austin Roses, helping to enhance the surroundings and create a space in which everyone can take pride.
In early May Wappenshall Wharf was honoured to host a visit by HRH The Duke of Gloucester, who came to view the restoration work and meet the volunteers.
The current phase of the Wappenshall restoration involves substantial work on the larger, transhipment warehouse and working with the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, recently taken over by the
National Trust, to source artefacts for an exhibition to celebrate the life and work of canal engineer Thomas Telford.
Fund Britain’s Waterways / Historic Narrow Boat Club
Thames Tideway Cruise, 6-7 May 2026
On Wednesday 6 May a fleet of historic working canal boats travelled along the tidal Thames to King George V Dock in North Woolwich where they had been built. Their journey commemorated the 90th birthday of the narrowboats’ construction by the Harland & Wolff shipyard in 1936. On the cruise, they were joined by leisure boats dispersing from the Inland Waterways Association’s annual Canalway Cavalcade Festival at Little Venice. All were flying the banners and flags of the Fund Britain’s Waterways campaign.
After assembling in Limehouse Basin on the evening of 5 May, the flotilla locked out onto the river on the morning of 6 May. Because the Thames Barrier was scheduled for a test closure at 0945, the first of seven locks full of boats left the basin at 0600. The boats grouped for photos off Margaretness, some of them stemming the tide for three hours, and then travelled upstream to enter the King George V Lock, where they were to spend the night. All the historic boats (which included three motor boat and towed butty pairs) completed the journey into the tidal lock successfully, and a lively celebration took place that evening in a dockside pub.
[Boats manoeuvring in King George V Dock. Credit Kev Maslin/Chasing the Boats]
The following morning, thirteen historic boats entered King George V Dock and manoeuvred for a photoshoot. Later in the day, the flotilla locked out and travelled in convoy upstream, displaying Fund Britain’s Waterways banners as they passed the Thames Barrier and the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. A few boats returned to Limehouse, the rest passing Tower Bridge and the Palace of Westminster before leaving the Tideway at Brentford or Teddington.
Keen-eyed readers will have noted that the cruise participants are ‘yard mates’ of our local ‘large Woolwich’ boats Bainton and Berkhampstead, also built at Harland & Wolff in 1936 and currently being restored by SNCT at Norbury Junction.
Montgomery Canal - Restoration Progress and Other Works
John Dodwell has brought us up to date on these restoration developments
REPLACEMENT BRIDGES IN POWYS
Sadly, there is little positive progress to report since the February Shroppie Fly Paper.
At Carreghofa Lane, just outside Llanymynech, the physical structure of the new bridge is now apparent (see photo below), but progress towards completion has been further delayed and is not now expected before September.
[The prefabricated structure of the new Carreghofa Lane Bridge, showing the channel profile
and towpath profile (right). Unusually, the towpath will be below the water level.
The start of work on the new Williams Bridge, close to the Vyrnwy Aqueduct, is still held up whilst the planning application winds its way through the planning process. At the time of writing, the granting of planning permission is still “imminent”.
As we reported in February, once construction is finally started, it should be quicker than with Carreghofa Lane Bridge as there is no new accompanying road to build.
Patience and time are going to be needed!
VYRNWY NEW RESERVE
Following Powys County Council Planning Committee’s approval of the planning application, tenders have been received back from contractors and at the time of writing a contract was about to be placed. By the time you read this, works on site may have started with completion hoped for by the autumn.
This is the second of the mitigatory nature reserves being built as part of the current restoration in Powys.
VYRNWY AQUEDUCT
CRT’s application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for funding to repair this Grade II* structure – the only Grade II* status structure on the Canal – will soon be reaching the second stage: seeking the go-ahead for the delivery phase. Until that is finalised, the delivery remains as previously reported, with work hopefully starting around the end of this year with completion in 2028.
OTHER POWYS NEWS – TANAT WEIR REPAIRS AND FISH SCREENS
Members may be aware that one of the main sources of water supply for the canal comes from the River Tanat (a tributary of the River Vyrnwy – and thus of the River Severn). There is a CRT-owned weir across the river which diverts some of the water down a mile long (or so) feeder to join the canal at Carreghofa Locks.
In the winter of 2024-5, the crest of the weir was damaged when hit by a large dead tree floating down the river. This led to less water than usual coming down the feeder – not helped by the summer of 2025 being exceptionally dry,as Members will recall. Repairs could not be carried out in the summer of 2025 as the necessary permit from the authorities to work in the river was not obtained in time. Compliance with river life protection regimes mean the work can only be done between July and October.
The consequential reduction in water levels adversely affected the canal running south to the “sump” at Wern. It has also meant there is not enough water at Llanymynech for the George Watson Buck trip boat which has had to suspend its operations.
CRT is now planning to carry out the repairs in summer 2026 and we are told work should start on site in July.
Where the water flows from the River Tanat into the canal at Carreghofa, and also where water is taken from the River Severn at Penarth, just north of Newtown, new regulations to protect fish require the installation of fish screens. Work started on both sites this spring.
Shrewsbury District & North Wales Branch Steering Team
Your Branch Steering Team currently comprises:
Philippa Bursey Secretary philippa.bursey@waterways.org.uk
Mike Haig Chairman michael.haig@waterways.org.uk
Michael Limbrey Hon. President michael.limbrey@waterways.org.uk
Graham Russell Treasurer graham.russell@waterways.org.uk
Alison Smith Acting Navigation Officer alison.smith@waterways.org.uk
Phil Tarrant Events Coordinator phil.tarrant@waterways.org.uk
Alan Wilding Online Editor alan.wilding@waterways.org.uk
Susan Wilding Member susan.wilding@waterways.org.uk
Sir Robert Atkins , IWA North West Region Chairman (robert.atkins@waterways.org.uk) is an exofficio member
SHROPPIE FLY PAPER BACK ISSUES ONLINE, AND STAYING IN TOUCH
Previous issues of this newsletter, all the way back to 2009, can be found at issuu.com through this link: https://issuu.com/waterwaysassoc/stacks/ff499dbd5f2941bba5e738cf88c600d6
But if that’s too much to type in, try this shortened version instead: https://bit.ly/2Pn5arf
You can keep up to date with the latest news from the branch at https://waterways.org.uk/shrewsburynorthwales or https://www.facebook.com/shrewsburynorthwales
SOME SMALL PRINT
Shroppie Fly Paper is the newsletter of the Shrewsbury District & North Wales Branch of The Inland Waterways Association (IWA). IWA is the only independent, national charity campaigning for all Britain’s canals and rivers. We are dedicated to supporting and regenerating Britain’s waterways – for leisure, living and business. For further information contact any Steering Team member.
The Inland Waterways Association may not agree with the opinions expressed in this branch newsletter but encourages publicity as a matter of interest. Nothing printed may be construed as official policy unless stated otherwise. The Association accepts no liability for any matter in this newsletter. Any reproduction must be acknowledged.
