Winding Ways 64 - January 2024

WINDING WAYS The LEICESTERSHIRE BRANCH NEWSLETTER Issue 64 - December 2023

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OUR MEMBERS Very best wishes from the Leicestershire Branch for 2024.

We hope your Christmas celebrations went well and that Santa managed to bring you everything on your wish lists.

SOCIAL EVENTS FOR 2024 Our next meeting will be on Thursday 8th February 2024, again at The Gate Hangs Well, Lewin Bridge, Fosse Way, Syston, Leicestershire, LE7 1NH. The meeting will start at 7.30 pm., and will be our Annual General Meeting.

Our second meeting of 2024 will be on Thursday 7th March, which will be a quiz night. There will be six rounds, only one or perhaps two of which will be waterwaysthemed, so a bit of general knowledge is all you will need.

The IWA Branch Handbook dictates that any resolutions requested by members must be submitted to the Branch chairman at least six weeks prior to the meeting, so please let me know if you want to submit a resolution.

Every one is welcome. We are hoping to have teams from the Old Union Canals Society, the Canal & River Trust, Foxton Museum, as well as an IWA committee team. So, please let me know if you are up for it, or just simply turn up on the night and we’ll sort you out.

After the formalities, our guest speaker will be Nick Roberts, whose talk will be ‘The Tidal Trent - A Link to the NE and the Pennines’. He will also be talking about how tides work on the Trent, including how to calculate times between locks.

The Gate Hangs Well very kindly let us have the room FOC, so to reciprocate their generosity, please note that they have a very interesting range of pub grub, so maybe give it a try before the meeting.

MEMORY LANE WHARF After many years of campaigning by the Leicestershire Branch, the restoration of Memory Lane Wharf is now nally due to start in January 2024.

The project will provide the full range of services for boaters - water, Elsan and rubbish disposal.

There will be provision for several permanent residential moorings, which will provide not only an income for CRT but also passive site security.

Memory Lane Wharf

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A WAG AT WORK!

OH DEAR - 27 October 2023

THE PERILS OF BIRSTALL WHARF Unlike canals, water levels on rivers can go up and down quite a lot! This is particularly so on the River Soar, and after heavy rain many inexperienced boaters have been caught out in Birstall.

If you tie up at Birstall Wharf visitor moorings when heavy rain is forecast, then boaters must take precautions to prevent their craft from drifting across the edge of the bank when the river comes up, which it does very quickly here. Failure to do so may result in disaster as the water level drops. If the boat is not kept clear of the edge it can hang up as levels drop, and then tip over and sink, as was the case with the CRT barge in October.

More oods in December. This narrowboat has drifted across the bank as the water level has risen. Hopefully the crew, who were still on board, were aware of the risk that they were exposed to.

TO THE RESCUE!

Leicestershire Branch Committee Andrew Shephard, Chairman M: 07710 362952 E: andrew.shephard@waterways.org.uk Herbert Eppel, Treasurer M: 07808 967196 E: Herbert.Eppel@team.waterways.org.uk Sue Stevens, Secretary.

Trevor Stevens, IT & Web Site Manager Mo Murray, Committee Member Debbie Shephard, Committee Member ANOTHER DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN? Monday 4 December 2023

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WATERWAYS FESTIVAL 2025

IWA EAST MIDLANDS REGION CHAIRMAN REPORT

2025 is the 75th anniversary of the 1950 Inland Waterways Festival of Boats & Arts held in Union Wharf, Market Harborough.

I hope that many of our East Midlands members took the opportunity to contribute to the future of IWA by completing the membership survey that was sent to all email addresses in November.

The Trustees are busy collating and analysing the information that came back. They were aiming for at least a 20% response, which apparently is about the norm for a survey.

Hopefully the outcomes will help Trustees to steer the association through the present “choppy waters” for charities such as ours. In January, I am expecting to attend a mini conference of Trustees, Region Chairs and national committee chairs to consider the results and to propose the future direction for IWA. Look out for feedback in “Waterways” and here in Winding Ways (especially for any specific local proposals).

Meanwhile, the Fund Britain’s Waterways campaign will continue through 2024, unless DEFRA have a change of heart about waterways funding. It would be great to have a boat gathering for a few hours sometime early in 2024 to attract some publicity, especially as in the new year MPs will start to look for votes before the looming general election.

Good luck to Winding Ways as the Leicestershire team sally forth alone with your Branch newsletter. Although you will have all had a copy of Aegre in early December, regrettably there won’t be another.

Too late for Xmas greetings! but nevertheless a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year to one and all.

The Leicestershire Branch are collaborating with the Canal & River Trust, the Old Union Canals Society, Harborough District Council and Foxton Museum to organise an event to mark this important historical festival, to be held on Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June 2025.

Our waterways are now at risk again through lack of funding, and we feel that this is an ideal and unique opportunity to highlight the potential implications to the general public.

The festival will be based in Foxton, as Union Wharf is not now a viable venue for the number of boats we hope to attract, but we hope that there would be a range of exhibitions and arts events in the town itself.

Boats will be assembled at Foxton, above and below the ight. We will visually interconnect Foxton and Harborough with a cavalcade on the Saturday, some boats cruising from Foxton, up the Harborough Arm and back, and some boats possibly staying over night in the basin at Market Harborough. Planning for the event is progressing, and an event web-site will be available shortly.

If you think you might be interested in helping with the organising of the event, please do contact the branch Chairman (contact details below)

VANDALISED BOAT IN LEICESTER

David Pullen Chairman, IWA East Midlands Region.

This boat had been set alight in a suspected arson attack while left moored at Aylestone. It transpired that the boat had been unoccupied for several months.

IWA MEMBER SURVEY ‘The Trustees have initiated a Reinvigoration Plan and, as part of this, we’re consulting with members for ideas and feedback to assess where we are now - understanding our unique position relative to other waterway charities - and to plan our future direction and priorities. It’s an opportunity for a reset. It will help us evolve into an agile, e ective and nancially sustainable organisation’. (Peter Marlow, Trustee) The membership survey closed on 12 December, with results to be published in January 2024.

Hope you all submitted your questionnaires.

Views and opinions on the future role of the IWA vary widely to say the least, as was clear from reports of the 2023 AGM. It will be interesting to see if the Trustees can reconcile these con icting factions.

A re service spokesperson said: "It is believed the cause was deliverable ignition." The police have not identi ed any suspects in connection with the incident.

A spokesperson for the force said "inquiries remain ongoing”.

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News from the Melton & Oakham Waterways Society (MOWS)

The heavy rain at the end of October caused the River Soar to ood into the navigation below Kings Lock.

Unfortunately, the top and bottom gate paddles of the lock had been lifted, and the pound above the lock emptied into the navigation to combine with the oodwater from the Soar, resulting in the washing away of the towpath.

The society has a new chair, Sharon Brown, who was voted in at our AGM following the resigna on of Glynn Cartwright. Sharon is also a Melton Councillor, so we are hoping to improve our rela onship with MMBC through her and, hopefully, when any levelling up money comes along, we may get a slice of that too.

CRT are currently assessing the situation, and will be letting us know in due course when and how the work will be undertaken.

The recent spate of ooding has hampered work par es somewhat, but has proved that our ood-proof moorings are working, with our three boats ‘Mole’, ‘Badger’ and trip boat ‘Day Dream’ surviving the latest onslaught. It was not always so, with ‘Day Dream’ cast up bow rst onto the bank during a previous ood, and the resul ng “lean angle” as the water receded su cient to allow river water ingress into an uncapped hull outlet. When we got to her (now oa ng correctly) it appeared that the weight of water had caused her to slide back in and luckily had not resulted in any external damage. So, Pumps ‘R’ Us, and several hours later the water inside had disappeared, but under the oor the story was di erent, as “slopping” could be heard as we walked about.

It has been suggested that the cost of the making good is estimated at some £250,000, but this is yet to be con rmed.

To cut a long story short, the oor is up and all remains dry, and all we have to do now is reinstate the oor, carpet, table bases and tables and chairs and repaint the side walls – simples! Several other jobs will also have to be done before her rst ou ng in the spring - that is as long as we get the winding hole completed too!

Sales of our Melton Naviga on and walks books are healthy, with a reprint already, and further merchandise sales are planned in the future, all available from the many outlets in and around the town.

Due to an unfortunate vehicle mishap by a third party within the Town Estate compound (and subsequent legal ac on) MOWS vehicles are temporarily prohibited from the compound, where we access our boat enclosure, hampering our work par es further, but we hope this situa on can be resolved soon and things return to normal.

Can we take this opportunity to wish everyone in the Leicestershire Branch and restora on groups everywhere a very happy New Year.

Mick Clowes MOWS

⚠ We need your help to #ProtectOurWaterways Join the campaign to protect our canals and rivers from funding cuts.

With your help, the waterways stand a better chance of securing the investment they need.

Visit waterways.org.uk/protect or email protect@waterways.org.uk to get involved.

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TOWPATH WASHED AWAY

BY FLOODS