navvies 184

Navvies

waterway recovery group

Volunteers restoring waterwaysNo184 December2000-January2001

Contributions......are always welcome, whether hand-written,typed, on 3½" disk (please include hard-copy)or by e-mail. Photos also welcome: slides orcolour or b/w prints. Please state whether youwant your prints back; I assume that you wantslides returned. Computer scanned photos alsoacceptable, either on disk or as e-mailattachments, preferably JPG format. Send themto the editor Martin Ludgate, 35, SilvesterRoad, London SE22 9PB, or e-mail [email protected]. Press date forNo 185: January 1st.

SubscriptionsA year's subscription (6 issues) is available for aminimum of £1.50 (please add a donation if pos-sible) to Sue Watts, 15 Eleanor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9FZ. Cheques to"Waterway Recovery Group" please.Visit our web site: http://www.wrg.org.uk/index.htm for all the latest news

In this issue:Chairman Next year's Camps 4LondonWRGandKESCRG 5Camp reports Cotswold and Basingstole 6-9BITM at Lichfield and the Wey &Arun 10-11Feedback improving our camps 12Logistics 13Bankside Oh no, not another episode! 14-15Directory of WRG and Canal Societies 16-17Diary camps and working parties 18-20Letters to the editor 21WADS calling all thespians 22Progress including Dig Deep & WCBS 23-27WRGBC our own boat club 28-29Bits & Pieces with books and sits. vac. 30-32Noticeboard 33Last Ditch a cartoon double-spread! 34-35Backfill not another 'Pant' joke? 36

And next time......reports from all the Christmas Canal Campsand working parties.

Plus - we hope - more news on the forthcomingCleanup weekend, the 'return to Pant' dig, Ca-nalway Cavalcade festival and the 2001 Train-ing weekend. And whatever else you write!

Cover photo: Thanks to a London WRG weekend in October, the trial length of Bentonite-lined canal atLichfield that was almost completed during WRGWorks is now even nearer to completion. Although attime of going to press, the Extraction Licence was still awaited, the autumn rains were doing their best to fillthe canal. Below: The same rains weren't quite so beneficial to theWey &Arun. Not only did LondonWRGandBITMhave to useboats to get materials in and out, when it came to demolishing the old shed they choseto keep the roof in place so they could stay dry while they removed the walls... (photos by Martin Ludgate)

Contents

Editorial"Canal Camps have an excellent safety record"...as the Canal Camps booklet quite rightly says. Andwhileweshouldnever becomplacent about site safety,we do have reason to be proud of our good record,which I believe is largely (and increasingly) down togood practices rather than good luck.However - and I bet you all guessed that there was a'however' coming - such generalisations as the aboverely to a certain extent on my personal impressions,from my experience in attending and helping to leadCanalCampsandworkingweekends, from takingpartin the various WRG training exercises, from discus-sions at the WRG Board and Committee meetings,from reading other people's reports of working par-ties, from talking to other people, both within WRGand outside in the construction industries and so on.Would it be possible to get a slightly more objec-tive view of the situation?It so happened that we filled-up an Accidents Bookrecently. These books accompany the Camp Kits toall of theCanal Camps, and are used for writing downdetails of injuries on-site for possible future reference,and to satisfy the Law. A replacement book havingbeen bought, the full-up one was produced at the lastWRGCommitteemeeting; I asked to have a look at it.It made interesting - nay, entertaining - reading: moreso than one might expect for such a serious item...One can draw some conclusions from the types ofinjuries reported - such as that cement etc. in eyes isan important issue in terms of knowing about the dan-ger, wearing protective equipment to try to prevent ithappening, treating it in the correct way if it does hap-pen and so on... but the 'Navvies' editorial is not theplace for me to lecture the WRG organisation abouttheCanal CampsSafety Talk. Not that they need lec-turing - as Marcus reports elsewhere, improvementsto the Safety Talk including a video are in progress.No - it's not the injuries themselves that caught myattention, but the way that they were reported by theperson who was injured or by the Camp Leader, inthe 'About the accident - what happened' column.The majority are perfectly reasonable entries..."Burned hand on hot exhaust of pump. Rinsed withlarge amount of clean cold water. Soughtmedical ad-vice. Dressing applied at hospital."...although one or two suggest a little clumsiness orcluelessness (or both) on thepart of a fewvolunteers..."Cut knee with saw while clearing trees""Trapped finger in a chair""Fell into concrete hole"...but I'm afraid that if you manage to hurt yourself ina particularly dumb way, you'll just have to acceptthat it has to be recorded correctly in the Book. (Itripped over a FirstAid Kit once!) Although you don'tneed to deliberately make yourself sound stupid..."Making tea... missed... burned hand"...or make it sound likemaybe it wasn't an accident..."Pushed over - fell backwards onto rock...""Other volunteer hit him with a spade..."

...indeed someone has already suggested the Acci-dents Book should be accompanied by a 'Deliber-ates Book' for such things! Nor is it very helpful totry to blame it on the leader for working you too hard..."Too much hard work. With an axe. Hence blister.Hence plaster."...or even to blame it on an inanimate object..."Whilst clearing the inlet of the pump, a nasty rockcut my finger open"...and it helps if your description isn't open to hu-morous misinterpretation..."Leaned against Burco - put a plaster on it"What - on the Burco? Anyway, speaking of humour,I'm sorry to be a spoilsport but I don't think theAcci-dents Book is the place for it. Something like this..."Got hit on wrist by levering-instrument after objectbeing leveredmoved quicker than expected (honest!)""Whilst constructing a gabion basket I accidentallytrapped Natalie's finger between two sides of the bas-ket. Oops. I'mverysorry. Butit'llprobablyhappenagain."...might amuse people reading it later. But not ifthey're somebody's lawyer or the Insurance Com-pany. And the odd diversion into fantasy..."Red mist descended in front of Camp Leader's eyes,causing leader to shovel violently in direction of Dave,resulting in small abrasions toknuckles ofbothhands..."...probably wouldn't stand up in court either. Whilethe following..."Mandy's head nearly came off, so we put a plasteron it and it's much better, thank you."...is really amatter for Logistics rather than theAccidentsBook, given that the victim is 'Mandy the Mattock'.Please take theAccidents Book seriously. Writethe entries sensibly and comprehensibly in plain Eng-lish, and resist the temptation to add jokes. It is quitepossible that itmight have to beproducedas evidencein court, or to settle an insurance claim that could bedisastrous forWRG if it went against us. Don't makeit look like we're a bunch of jokers who lark aroundand don't take safety seriously, because it's not true.You have plenty of good opportunities for writinglight-heartedmickey-taking, daft jokes,wackyoff-beat humour and the rest - six 36-page opportu-nities per year called 'Navvies', as it happens!A final comment on the Accidents Book: it took useight years to fill it up. That's an average of lessthan one entry for each camp that it's been to. Andalmost all are for very minor injuries. I stand by mycomments at the start of this piece: Canal Campshave an excellent safety record.Let's keep it that way.

Martin Ludgate

Chairman"...Basically WRG had a bit ofa hangover..."

Next year's Canal Camps - where are they?

A traditional start - an apology!Normally aboutthis time you would expect a copy of next yearsCamps Brochure to peruse while you digest yourorganic vegetarian simulated turkey. Well I�mafraid that we are running a little behind sched-ule so your personal copy of Canal Camps 2001will be coming to you under separate cover some-time in the New Year.

The reasoning behind this is two fold - firstly thefact that we are having to look at ever more tech-nical (expensive!) projects means that it takeslonger for us to arrange all the details and wewould much rather delay the brochure than offera �we hope this is what going to happen� service.

Secondly the very enjoyable 'WRGWorks!' celebra-tions for our 30th Birthday meant that we were alldigging till much later in the �season� and so every-thing has been a bit delayed while we all rested upand girded our loins (or whatever was left of thatpig roast anyway). Basically WRG had a bit of ahangover [or evena 'hang-Over'? ...Ed] after a birth-day party and thatmeans the 'morning after' is prov-ing rather difficult - I�m sure you all sympathise...

So what can I tell you about next years CanalCampsschedule?Well theDroitwich has securedfunding for the restoration of the Junction Locks(from the IWA no less) so look out for more on thisexciting project in future editions of 'Navvies'. Wehave been asked to supply a lot of the volunteereffort for this so don�t be too surprised if you see alot of camps this summer based inWorcestershire.

In addition a few old favourites seem highly likely -Cotswold, Basingstoke, Mont, Lichfield, etc - anda few up-and-coming sites such as Sleaford andWendover.

The considerable rangeof projects doesmean that,whether you wish to be on a Camp that completesa small project or part of a teamworking on a larger,rolling project , we have aCanalCamp that is suitedto you. I can also predict that because of theprojects we have got lined up a greater empha-sis on training and 'built heritage' will have to bein place or we are not going to complete the work.

I also hope we get as good a mix of volunteersas we have had this year as every Camp I wenton was a highly enjoyable affair.

As I say, we will circulate the Canal Camps bro-chure as soon as possible but as soon as wehave the schedule it will appear on the web pagesso keep a watch out for that. Speaking of thingson the web, we have also decided to put back-issues of 'Navvies' on the webpages.

Feedback - be more friendly to new recruits...

Elsewhere in this issue you will find an articlefrom Marcus Jones on the results of the Feed-back survey. One point that did keep surfacingwas that, initially, people found it very hard un-derstanding what was going on and found manyof the �old hands� rather distant. Now nearly eve-ryone said that it was overcome within the firstfew days, but a common comment was �I wishpeople had been a bit more gregarious on thatfirst day - it would have meant I would have gotinto the swing of things a bit earlier, stoppedworrying and started to enjoymyself a lot quicker".This was not so much a complaint against theleaders as they naturally introduce themselves,but more aimed at the experienced volunteer. YesI know that you are meeting up with all your oldfriends and the Leader is asking you to sort out adozen problems but please try and take the timeto talk to new recruits and explain what is hap-pening. Remember your first time on a Camp?Exactly! It really does make a big difference tohow much a person takes the plunge and as weall know, it is not until you�re totally immersed thatyou get to really enjoy it.

Finally, as of any-day-now, Jude and I will bemoving to 3 Finwood Road, Rowington, War-wickshire. CV35 8DH. If you are wondering whyit sounds familiar I could have described it as thehouse next to the Tom o' The Wood Pub, Bridge63, near Lapworth on the Grand Union. (Pleasenote that it is just a house purchase - there willnot be any requirement to budget for new hats.)

Hope to see you all soon somewhere on the system.

Mike Palmer

PS For all those restoration schemes not underBritish Waterways' caring and benevolent ban-ner the Environment Agency has just publisheda Guidance Note called Navigation, Restorationand Environmental Appraisal. It gives examplesof the sort of processes they want you to gothrough in order for them to be happy with yourrestoration proposals. It�s worth a look just for thedodgy old photos of us in action. Available fromEA Regional offices.

GroupsLondonWRG andKESCRGonthe Basingstoke

London WRG and KESCRG joint weekend dig:Basingstoke Canal, 9-10 September

Friday 8th

As the Pacific Ocean descended on Woking, arandom collection of dodgy-looking beardedtypes congregated in the local pub for the occa-sional sip of ale. The crowd gradually grewthroughout the evening (as did the number ofempty glasses) and full glasses were hidden be-neath the table as part of a cunning plan to getmore pints each time a new person arrived. Thisinevitably led to the usual intoxication, hinderingthe group�s �straight line concept�. �Convoluted�paths were taken through the woods on the wayback to the accommodation (Woodham ChurchHall). Plans for the weekend�s work were, ofcourse, discussed sensibly at some point in theevening�.

Saturday 9th

Aaaarrgh�.morning arrived almost before bed-time.

Nevertheless, all were recovered in time to go onsite. We split into 2 groups, 1 at lock 3 and theother at lock 10. Work at lock 3 was mainly land-scaping (or moving mud around) and putting upsigns and fencing, which was painted (along withBubble�s nose and Liz�s face).

At lock 10 we dug more holes to find a leak andthen puddled and shovelled and wheel barrowedsome clay (just like in the old days). A few unfortu-nate incidents occurred, such as losing Roy�s hatdown the culvert and run-ning out of gas for theBurco, but the hatwas re-trieved and the gas wasthere all the time, so over-all a successful day�swork was accomplished.

Back at the accommo-dation, we had reallynice food and then it wassuggested that maybe a�quick pint� might not bea bad thing. We hadsoon drunk all the beerin the pub and returnedto the hall for fun andfrolics in the pagodathing in the garden,where many a happyhour was spent discuss-ing intellectualities (suchas what happened at the�National�).

Sunday 10th

Breakfast was nice.

Site work continued from the day before. At lock3, Rhys moved some concrete. Painting and gar-dening went on in a similar manner (or lack ofmanners) but there were fewer �tribal� conse-quences, i.e. paint on fence, not face.

At lock 10, we found the hole (by draining thesection and sending Clive into the mud). It waspatched with puddle clay on both sides of thewall and then backfilled (yes, we dug a hole andthen filled it in again). Lesley suggested a pygmyhippo would have been a useful addition to thekit for the purpose of puddling clay. AndyKoskoskosminski and I let some water back in,sadly forgetting that Clive was still standing onthe wrong side of the wall�.oops (sorry Clive).

All the work was successfully completed and aswe said our goodbyes, we realised we�d prob-ably all be Panting the following weekend, whichwas nice.

Nina Whiteman

"We dug a hole and then filled it in again." Sealing-up leaks in the upperwing wall of Lock 10, St Johns. (Martin Ludgate)

CampsStroudwater:"Choppingbrambleswithgreatgustoandblunt tools..."

Diary of a first-timer:Stroudwater Navigation October 21st-28th 2000

Saturday

Arrive at grass-infested football hut, known locallyasWhitminster Sports Pavilion. Volunteers includea suspiciously high number of 'real-ale types' (Iintend to resist conversion), Duke of Edinburgh�saward people whose dedication to renovatingcanals is equal only to their determination to gettheir D of E books filled in, and some other mugs.Scoff fish and chips, listen enthralled to safetytalk and make way to local pub.

Sunday

Shown pathway overgrown by brambles and wil-low trees. Apparently this is part of the Stroud-water Navigation but the local council filled it in,to make access to the rubbish tip or something.Get to work chopping down brambles with greatgusto and blunt tools. Back to football hut forsplendid roast pork nosh. Hm! Doesn�t all thatfresh air and hard work make you hungry!

Post dinner entertainment includes moving outof sports hut to superior accommodation in Scoutfacility in Selsley. We pack up, leaving hut farcleaner than when we arrived. Admire new sur-roundings and go to pub.

Monday

Everyone suffering from tired muscles and stiffbacks due to exertion the previous day, exceptfor those who stood around the bonfire leaningon pitchforks.

Chop brambles less enthusiastically than the daybefore. Various neighbours and ramblers stop totell us what a wonderful job we�re doing or to com-plain about a) bonfire smoke, b) destruction ofnatural wildlife habitats, c) how we have choppeddown bramble bush behind their house thatused to act as an excellent anti-burglar device,or d) how we have chopped down bramble bushbehind their house which gave them a nice pri-vate garden into which any nosy-parker can nowpeer.

Go back to scout hut and begin Olympic Cham-pionship in shower hogging.

Go to pub and drink local brews with 'real-aletypes'.

Tuesday

Chop brambles. In an exciting diversion, four tonsof stones are delivered to improve muddy path-way. Swap bramble chopping for stone raking.

Camp 21 on the Stroudwater: "We have cleared hundreds of yards..."

Camps"...and standing around in frontof a fire leaning on a fork"

Shower event now has refined rules: queue indi-cated by putting towels in line on floor. Somesneaky competitors start taking towels to site sothey can rush out of minibus once home and befirst. Trip to cinema for those inclined. Others goto local pub and discover amusing toy, a plasticfish mounted on a wooden plaque, which wavesits head and tail, and sings 'Don�t worry be Happy'when you press a button.

Wednesday

On site, reach slightly wet bit of canal, filled in bywildlife and years of neglect rather than the localcouncil. Bramble chopping replaced by pollardingwillow trees: note: only those three inches in di-ameter or smaller.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, bramble-weary vol-unteers set to work cleaning scout hut in honourof posh visitor, a speaker for a group which meetsthere regularly. Apparently the speaker came be-fore, but had to be sent home as group staying inhut had left it in such a state. (Not WRG, ofcourse.)

Leave place spotless. Return to find tables strewneverywhere and strangers wandering aroundlooking for lost keys.

Thursday

More pollarding, bramble chopping and stand-ing about in front of afire leaning on a pitch-fork. We have clearedhundreds of yards ofbrambles and musthave burnt tons of thestuff. Have also madethe occupants of anearby cottage veryhappy by providingthem with a supply ofthree inch logs. Letshope that fundingcomes through beforeeverything grows backagain. Spend eveningat bowling alley - appar-ently considered a formof entertainment bysome people.

Non bowlers take upoption of being shownround workshop be-longing to Neil of theCotswold Canals Trustin which hemakes com-puter generated signs.

Friday

Last working day: time to tidy up site and findtools lost in undergrowth, etc. Weary bunch thatwe are, more than happy to knock off early andtake trip on Cotswold Canals Trust�s boat. Seeimpressive restored locks.

Splendid roast beef dinner followed by exodusto pub to say goodbye to singing fish. Drive pub-licans mad by repeatedly activating singing fishand putting cigarettes in its mouth whilst it is sing-ing.

Saturday

Pack up, clear mud out of scout hut, count howmany tools have been lost. Board severely de-layed trains to get home the day before the worststorm since 1987. See you next time XXX

Liz Bellchambers

...and burnt tons of the stuff" Photos by Sarah McGarel.

CampsBasingstoke: Bushbaby strikes ablow for obscure camp reports...

The regular reader (whoever he is) may havenoticed that there haven't been many letters to'Navvies' complaining about obscure camp re-ports full of incomprehensible in-jokes lately.

Maybe it's because there has been a bit of a lackof obscure camp reports full of incomprehensi-ble jokes lately?

In which case Helen 'Bushbaby' Gardner aims to putthis deficiency right immediately, as she brings you...

Camp Report � Basingstoke Canal Week 2ala Britney Spears....

'Navvy One More Time'

Oh Peter RedwayHow were we supposed to knowthat something wasn�t right?

The hollow in the lock side gave a small clueto what was out of sight

Show us how deep you want the hole to beTell us Peter �cos we need to know now oh because

This concrete mixing is killing me and II must confess we need our tea (need our tea)If this kerb�s not straight Mole�ll lose his mind

Don�t step on that brickie�s lineDig it Navvy one more time

Oh Peter Redway the reason we dig is clearThis pipework needs replacing

Oh Peter Redway there�s nothing that we wouldn�t doWe�ll send Ed in with the excavator

Show us how you want it to beTell us Peter �cos we need to know now oh because

This concrete mixing is killing me and II must confess we need our tea (need our tea)If this kerb�s not straight Mole�ll lose his mind

Don�t step on that brickie�s lineDig it Navvy one more time

I must confess (this concrete mixing)this concrete mixing

(is killing me) is killing me now(I must confess) don�t you know

this path�s nearly doneand that kerb is alright

and mind that brickie�s linedig it Navvy one more time

(In case you're wondering, Britney Spears is a popsinger, not - as you may have imagined - somekind of vegetable like Broccoli Spears. The abovelyrics are basedonher song 'BabyOneMoreTime',and if you would like to hear the original version,then you probably haven't heard her singing.)

Having read the above 'Camp Report' you might be worried for Helen's sanity. Well, it probably wasn'thelped by spending most of the Camp inside a concrete pipe, grouting the joints! (Martin Ludgate)

Camps"...concrete mixing is killing me...I must confess we need our tea..."

But seriously folks....

Camp 0018 was the second week on the Bas-ingstoke Canal finishing off what KESCRG hadstarted on camp 0013 rebuilding the collapsedbywash at Lock 3, and if you can comprehendthe lyrics you'll have figured that we pretty muchhad to dig some holes, repair the pipework, fillthe hole back in and reinstate the footpath. Wedid other things such as clean up the lock cham-ber, and paint some of the lock gates but we werea little limited on numbers so tried to concentrateon the main job.

My thanks to: Mole for being a fabulous, daz-zling and glamorous assistant; Bubble for cook-ing for the first few days � �twas very scrummy;Ed for being terribly useful; Gav for bringing hisCDs and doing 'Gav stuff'; Lew for being our re-sponsible and useful adult; Chris for showing ushow to really use a vibrator; Roldopho for keep-ing us on our toes; Dai for working so hard; Su-san for her mean mixes and exceptional 'Twister'skills; Basil for feeding the troops and chasingthe criminal; Felix for his impression of a firemanand for his fab name; Jo for keeping my assistantout of my hair and painting everything in sight;Jamie for going down the hole and laying perfectkerb stones; the editor for building the manholecover and not bricking it over when I was downthere; and finally Pete, Pablo and the other lo-cals for providing interesting work, their supportand constant supply of white spirit.

You all worked really hard and made the campgood fun to lead � thanks. Sorry if I missed any-one out.

Helen Gardner

Basingstoke on the Net: if you want to see PeteRedway's report on the Camp from BasingstokeCanal News plus some more photos, see web sitehttp://www.basingstokecanal1.freeserve.co.uk/wptynews.htm and follow the link at the foot ofthe page to 'Summer Camp 2000'.

In the unlikely event that you want to find out aboutBritney Spears, try http://www.britneysites.com/

In the background the lockside is being reinstatedover the repaired bywash; in the foreground issome of the junk that had accumulated in thelock since we restored it in 1988. (Martin Ludgate)

The lockside reinstated with manhole for futureaccess to the bywash, a kerb is being built ready toput the footpath back, so the temporary bridge inthe background can be removed. (Martin Ludgate)

GroupsWRG BITM on the LichfieldCanal...Lichfield in November

This weekend was arranged at short noticewhen the BITM visit to Sleaford had to bepostponed.

The Lichfield and Hatherton Canal Trust wel-comed us in their usual style; it was as if theyhad been waiting years for our next visit,rather than only weeks.

Jan Horton�s cakes were very much up tostandard and very welcome.

John�s organisation of the work on site was,as normal, brilliant (despite John losing bothhis helpers on Friday). We got stuck into pil-ing at Darnford with a not very expert team;we improved as we went.

Playing with Dave Wedd�s new toy, a laserlevel, opened our eyes to the possibilities ofachieving accuracy in many different opera-tions without the disadvantage of needingskilled Dumpy Level operators.

The plant operators with us also had a grandtime with Blue, Muriel and the other TonkaToys. Their job was starting the profiling ofthe towpath near the new lift bridge on thesame site.

The weather was kind, we had only a fewleaders and generally, the work went with aswing. An excellent low key BITM weekend.

The food, organised by Di, helped by Gra-ham was as good as home (don�t tell her Isaid that), but we had some difficulties nam-ing the protein dish for Saturday dinner; somesuggestions were:

Shepherds Pie - Lamb mince etc.Cottage Pie - Beef mince etc.Gardeners Pie - Veggie mince etc.

Tony Hinsley

Floods, Rationing, Wasps and a Fuel Crisis.

In September we visited the Wey andArun Ca-nal; despite the fuel crisis we had a good turn-out.

John Ward�s car got flooded, so he could notcollect the hall keys. Mike Paice was able tostep in and get the keys instead, saving the day.

Because of the fuel crisis, the supermarketswere rationing goods such as bread and milk, Ihad to make several trips to the supermarket,to ensure we had enough food for the week-end. The final trip being Friday night on route.Food-a-plenty with a veritable harvest festival.

Friday, it had been raining hard for severalhours, and the News was reporting flooding.But everyone had arrived safely, and we werekept late in the Foresters.

SaturdayAM, Graham Baird arrived at the hall,to report that the river had broken its banksdown at Newbridge.

The original plan was for a posse to go toTickners Heath and collect various items ofequipment, whilst everyone else made a starton site at Rowner lock. The plan changed, itwas decided that we should first see if any workcould be done.

Our Van arrived on site via the Farm entrance,without a problem, the rest of us had to crossthe riverArun. True to form it had flooded acrossthe field right up to the canal. The compoundwas flooded and it appeared as though therewas no way to reach the lock. We made itthrough, by removing our wellies, socks androlling up our trouser above the knees, wewaded across the field and up to the lock. (Adeep hole just past the end of the submergedbridge caught one or two people by surprise...)

The canal was cascading though the lock, thestop planks had all popped out and had floatedaway a few yards down stream - we recoveredthem from the water. The water was up to thetop of the upper paddle holes; the top of thebottom stop plank grooves was a good two feetbelow water level.

Our main tasks for the weekend involved pump-ing out the chamber and doing various taskswithin it. Clearly this was not possible. We putin place Plan B, which consisted of scrub bash-ing by boat and a bit of landscaping.

Groups...and also on the Wey & ArunCanal

A team went off with John Cheesbrough andGraham Baird in the WACT Landrover, to getthe boat, and we started to clear the field ofbricks and rubble, to use as hard core, filling ahole near the end of the bridge. Having hookeddebris from behind the bottom gates, I crankedthe paddles using an adjustable spanner, Matttassisted by spraying the mechanism with pen-etrating oil, then, once the water had levelled,we were able to open the gates.

Later on, we used an Acrow prop to hold openthe gates. Vandals had cut the ropes that pre-viously held the gates open, and it was impor-tant that they stayed open to prevent flooding.

The scaffolding below the gates had partiallycollapsed due to the force of water passingthrough the lock. DaveWedd andAndrew Nicebalanced precariously on the unstable struc-ture and repaired it.

The scaffolding had been erected to enable acoping stone to be replaced between the bot-tom gates and the bridge. This task was haltedon a previous weekend due to the discovery ofa wasp nest under the adjacent stone.

Later on Sunday, I dealt with the nest (usingthe gas poker...)

Mid afternoon, I had to depart from site to at-tend a wedding reception; meanwhile the teamcontinued scrub bashing, landscaping, erectedscaffolding between the lock ladder and upperground paddle holes. Andrew Nice organisedthis by building the sides of the scaffolding onland and lowering them over the side into thelock. The boat was used to fit the cross mem-bers and diagonals. Dave Wedd and MikePaice practised their carpentry skill, repairingand straightening the stop planks. [Dave hassince bought a power- plane!]

I returned Sunday lunchtime with the sand-wiches. The wedding reception was fun, themorning after was not. (Graham had a skin-full, and had spent a good part of the morningreading Royal Doulton...)

The landscaping had been completed, Daveand Mike continued repairing the stop planks.The scaffolding needed a fewmore crossmem-bers and planking, however, Mattt managed todrop the spanner into the lock. The water waswell over five feet deep, so retrieving it wasgoing to be difficult, especially as the sea-searcher magnet had been broken earlier.

Ian stripped to his underpants and bravely low-ered himself into the water. He then performeda toe tip search of the bottom of the lock, whereit had dropped in. He could only just reach thebottom, with the water right up to his neck. Hefound it and managed to grip it with his toesand bring it to the surface.

The other boat was fully employed as a plat-form for scrub bashing; the scrub bashers (StellaWentworth,AnneSmart, MarkGribble andmanyothers taking turns) managed to clear a consid-erable length of over-hanging branches.

We finished the scaffolding, and started to clearup. By now the field had drained and the com-pound was dry. We moved the sand and bal-last to high ground. The almost full sand baghad rotted, so we emptied the ballast bag on toa piece of scrap ply, and then transhipped thesand into the ballast bag. The boats were takenout of the water and returned to their homes.

I enjoyed the weekend, and I think every oneelse did as well. Despite everything beingagainst us, we managed to advance the resto-ration of Rowner Lock considerably. Manythanks to everyone, and especially June Paicefor doing the cooking and supplying all thosecakes (yum yum).

Graham Hotham

BITM stands for 'Bit in the Middle' but new vol-unteers from anywhere are welcome on WRGBITMweekends. See the 'Diary' pages of 'Nav-vies' for BITM dates and contact GrahamHotham 01252-656087 to book.

For advance bookings, or to subscribe to BITM'sown newsletter, contact Dave Wedd, 7Ringwood Road, Blackwater, CAMBERLEY,Surrey GU17 0EY. Pager: 07623-980564 Tel:01252-874437 Fax: 0870-063-3713 Email:[email protected]

Or see BITM's web site:http://www.angelos.demon.co.uk/Narrowboat/BITM/

Canal Camps 2000 Feedback

Last year you may remember that last year forthe first time we conducted a formal feedbackreview of our Canal Camps. This brought abouta number of changes to both our administrativeprocedures, and to the support and advice givento our camp leaders.

This year, following these changes, and the hugenumber of responses we had received, we de-cided to consult more widely. Everyone who hadbooked on to a Canal Camp during the first ninemonths of 2000 received a questionnaire thataimed to find out whether the changes that hadbeen instituted were successful, as well as to helpWRG ensure that you find Canal Camps as en-joyable as possible.

Once again, we had an overwhelming number ofresponses, and it is pleasing to see that there is avery high level of satisfaction, with some really nicecomments.Wewere also very glad to see the largenumber of suggestions, all of which have nowbeencarefully considered by the board and committee.

So what will you see different in 2001? No hugesweeping changes, but more a case of address-ing thoseminor niggles that your responses high-lighted:

· we are stepping up our efforts to provide higherquality accommodation on all camps, with theveryminimumof interruptions fromother users� if you know of suitable places near any of ourcurrent projects, please get in touch

· our safety talk will be transformed, with muchof the material being presented on a video, andwill then be supplemented by the camp leaderproviding more specific information about theindividual camp

· your week�s work will be put firmly in to thecontext of the future restoration plans for thecanal right from the start, with perhaps a talkor visit to the canal given by local restorationexperts

· wherever possible, toilets and handwashingfacilities will be available on site

· all volunteers will be strongly encouraged towear steel toe-capped footwear when on site �the gradual but continual shift in our worktowards heavy construction requires thisapproach, and such footwear is now readilyavailable at low prices in all footsizes

· as part of our continual efforts to improveour health and safety arrangements, we willbe providing rescue throw bags in all our kittrailers, encouraging all our leaders andassistant leaders to have up-to-date first aidtraining, and reviewing the availability andprovision of personal protective equipment

FeedbackThe 2000 feeedback survey:"Whatdoyou thinkof it so far?"

· we will aim to further increase theavailability of training, be it on acamp or as part of a dedicatedtraining event

· �and when we�ve made the hugeinvestment that trainingrepresents, we�ll then be lookingat how best we can match ourvolunteers� skills to the work,making Canal Camps yet moreenjoyable and productive!

Many thanks to all those who repliedto the survey. We hope that we havetaken your comments on board in anappropriate way.

Please remember that feedback is acontinual process, and not just aonce-a-year questionnaire: if youhave any thoughts please raise themto your camp leader, to any memberof the board, or to head office.

Marcus Jones"Wherever possible toilet facilities will be available on-site"(Martin Ludgate)

Logistics...and next year's IWPSwaterway walks progamme

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

Another year gone (almost) and another aboutto spring into existence � I have to say, for mypart, I�m glad. Our thirtieth year proved ratherhectic to say the least, as I�m suremanywill agree,and was very inconvenient for the Great Logis-tics Upheaval (not that it was ever going to be�convenient�!) but hey-ho � choosers are the beg-gars and we didn�t really choose any of it, to behonest!

I have to say I�m not terribly inspired to write thistime as there is little to report on the logisticalfront � nowt particularly new at least as muchthe samework goes on as ever behind the scenesand the �scenes� are still changing. That said, thepeople in my house (and its numerous visitors)are constantly bemused by the painted tools andstrange objects that appear, not least of all thewrg stocks that currently reside in the front roomhere! Despite the fact there have been a few oc-casions where they would have been useful inthe year just passed, I have a much more needyuse here presently.

As for 2001, I suspect it will be packed with thejoy and happiness that has filled so many yearspreviously. No doubt there will be a fun-filled, joy-ful and smiley schedule mapped out, trying toget everything up and running to Logistics stand-ards, and the vans and kits to the right places atthe right times (but remember we only have fourvans � L.E.T. can provide no fish and bread di-viding type services in conjunction with wrg trans-port as our agreement does not cover it).

There will always be complaints and general dis-pleasure from some camps (the people varietyas opposed to the canal ones!!) but I have resignedmyself to the fact that you can�t please some ofthe people any of the time. I would also like toreiterate a point Mick used to make and this seemsa fitting part of the year to mention it so it may bepondered � for a while: please remember, if youare lucky enough to receive equipment from Lo-gistics then you are lucky indeed � and believeme, you have been incredibly lucky!

I hope you all have (had?) a smashing Christ-mas and very giddy New Year whatever youchoose to do.

Logistics � Sarcasm is just another servicewe offer.

Just [email protected]

P.S. No news on the trailer award as no-one haslet me know/given me photos since I asked �maybe next time?

IWPSWATERWAYWALKS 2001

Once again, IWPS (the people who have re-stored Bugsworth Basing on the Peak ForestCanal) will be organising a series of walks allover the country, looking at various canals andother things of interest to waterway enthusiasts..

Here is the programme for 2001:

Jan 1st Mow Cop Tramroads

A new year's morning stroll from theMacclesfield Canal following the old tramroads.

Feb 3rd Huddersfield Narrow Canal

Last chance to see Stalybridge before the boatsarrive.

April 7th Southern Stratford Canal

A look at the canal that Hutch (re)built..

June 2nd Louth Canal

An expedition of eastern promise.

Aug 4th Chester Canal

Waterways around Cheshire's lost port.

Oct 6th/7th Weekend away: Monmouthshire/ Brecknock and Abergavenny Canals

Wales's most beautiful waterway.

Nov 24th Potteries Peramble

Around the hidden parts of Staffordshire.

All walks and dates may be subject tochange without notice.

For further information and to join themailing list:-

Walk co-ordinator:PeteYearsley, 41, Tatton St,Knutsford, Cheshire, WA16 6AE. Phone c/o0161-860-7405 (weekends only)

The heavy rains that hadfallen for most of the week - indeed formost of the autumn - showed no signof abating. The Thames Berks andAndover Canal - the one that had beenso short of water during its working lifethat some of the boats had been fittedwith wheels to help them over theshallows - was brim-full for the first timeever, and there was a real danger of itbursting its banks and flooding if thenewly built storm-water runoff weir atWootton Mallett didn’t work properly.

But it would take more than atorrential downpour to dampen thespirits of the assembled huddle at theSpaglingworth Trailboat Slipway thatmemorable day...

“I have great pleasure in declaringthe Spaglingworth Slipway open!” declaredHenry Banks, chairman of the Thames,Berks and Andover Canal Society.

The audience of Canal Societymembers, a number of volunteers fromthe WRG Canal Camp, assorteddignitaries from the local authorities,BW, Environment Agency and EnglishNature, and various curious passers-bycheered and waved their umbrellasenthusiastically. To the accompanimentof clicking of cameras, the whirring ofvideo equipment from the ‘Canal World’TV crew and the patter of raindrops,Henry picked up his two-way radio,shook the rainwater out of themicrophone and called-up Joe Wadworth.

“Waterways Seventeen callingWaterways Three Hundred and FortyTwo. Ready when you are, Joe. Over.”

“Waterways Three Hundredand Forty Two calling WaterwaysSeventeen. Message received andunderstood. Trailboat launch sequencecommencing. Out.”

WRG old-timer Joe Wadworth,who was standing next to Henry in hissmartest boiler-suit and hard-hat,climbed into the driver’s seat of the shinyred Transit with the Canal Society trip-boat ‘Zachariah Pinkerton II’ on a trailerbehind it, and backed it carefully towardsthe slipway.

It was a very curious slipway.Unlike most slipways, which sloped downto the canal so that the boat-trailer couldbe reversed into the water, this onesloped steeply upwards from the road tothe bank of the canal - which was on anembankment - and came to an abruptend in mid-air several feet above waterlevel.

It was not obvious why it hadbeen designed that way, nor how one wasexpected to use it to launch a boat. ButJoe knew what he was doing - he reversedthe trailer up the slope to the very brinkof the canal and put the handbrakesecurely on. Henry then tied one end of alength of rope to the boat’s sternmooring-cleat and threw the other endof it across to the other side of thecanal, where Austin ‘Oz’ Collingwoodwas waiting. Oz tied the rope to abollard, and Joe then drove the vanforward a few feet, so that the boat wasdragged backwards along the trailer bythe rope. Then he r eversed back to thebrink, and Oz took in the slack on therope.

This process was repeatedseveral times until the boat was teeteringright on the back of the trailer, at whichpoint Henry gave it a good shove and itlanded in the canal with a resounding‘kersplosh’, soaking most of thespectators who weren’t already wet-through from the rain.

BanksideBankside BanksideMoorings

written byBruce Tunnelwritten byBruce Tunnel

Quite how they would everretrieve the boat and load it back ontothe trailer, Henry had no idea - perhapsthey would simply wait until the canalwas restored and take it to anotherslipway elsewhere.

Anyway, Henry had morepressing things to worry about.

As the assembled VIPs wereshepherded into the Hospitality Tent forthe luxury buffet of leftover Canal Campfood and the numerous interminablespeeches of praise and honours for thenon-participants in the restoration, theWRGies who had built the slipway headedfor the nearby pub for their own celebration.

But Henry didn’t join eithergroup - he had been watching the risingwater levels in the canal with increasingconcern. It was dangerously near tooverflowing and he needed to find outwhether the new stormwater overflowcould cope with all the excess water. Hejumped into his old Sierra and was soonsplashing through the puddles of thecountry lane that led to the WoottonMallett Overflow weir, where a smallteam of WRGies led by ‘Gordon-I-broke-my-nose-three-times’ Drake had spentthe week reconstructing the weir andwere stationed there to make sure it gotrid of the excess water satisfactorily.

Henry could see as soon as hearrived that the weir wasn’t exactlyperforming as expected, but he couldn’tsee how it could possibly be expected toperform at all...

It was a very curious overflowweir. Unlike most such devices - whichconsist of a long weir crest behind whicha funnel-shaped area of masonry slopesgently downwards and takes the waterinto either a culvert or an open channelleading to a nearby stream - this onesloped steeply upwards from the canal,rising up the side of the cutting that thecanal ran through at this point.

It came to and abrupt end inmid-air at the top of the cutting side,beyond which the ground sloped gentlyaway towards a distant stream.

However, despite thedisadvantages of this design - and indeedof any design of overspill that requireswater to flow uphill - Gordon and histeam were making the best of a bad job,and actually succeeding in using it to getrid of surplus water. A ‘human chain’ ofvolunteers were stationed all the way upthe overflow structure, and were fillingbuckets from the canal and passing themfrom hand to hand all the way to the top,then emptying the water out in thedirection of the stream, and letting theempty buckets roll back down to the canal.It was a rather labour-intensive way ofdoing a job that gravity alone couldnormally be relied on to do , but theyseemed to be keeping pace with therainwater running into the canal. Andanother group were wrestling with a four-inch pump and a number of three-inchand six-inch pipes, obviously intending toimprove the efficiency of the operation.

Everything was under control, andthere was nothing more for Henry to do.

Well actually, there was onething. He would head for the nearestcomputer shop and buy a replacement forthe ancient and increasingly unreliableword-processing machine that he hadinherited from the previous chairman,before it caused him any more grief. Itwas bad enough having to write to theRSPCA to explain that the ‘Goat HandlingCompetition’ at last year’s festival hadbeen a misprint. (Not to mention theIWALK sponsored walk for IWA funds thatnearly ended up as an onanism marathon)

But it was time to do somethingabout it when his computer could nolonger tell the difference between a slipwayand a spillway... and neither - it appeared -could his volunteers.

To be continued...

BARNSLEY, DEARNE &DOVE CANAL TRUSTSpencer Collins9 Thrush StreetWalkleySheffield S6 5BQ0114 2853 044

BIRMINGHAM CANALNAVIGATIONS SOCIETYJeff Barley17 SunnisideWalsall Wood,W Midlands01543 373284Web site: http://www.bcn-society.demon.co.uk

BUCKINGHAM CANAL SOCSteve Morley33 Hambleton GroveEmerson valleyMilton Keynes MK4 2JS01908 520090Web: http://www.olio.demon.co.uk/BCSoverview.html

BUGSWORTH (IWPS)Ian EdgarBrowside FarmMudhurst LaneLyme HandleyWhaley BridgeHigh Peak SK23 7BT01663 732493Web site: http://www.blacksheep.org/canals/iwps.htm

CHESTERFIELD CTMick Hodgetts31 Pottery LaneWhittington Moor,Chesterfield.Derbyshire S41 9BH01246 454163

CHICHESTER CSJohn CooperJaspers, Coney RoadEast Wittering, ChichesterWest Sussex PO21 8DA01243 671051

COTSWOLD CTNeil RitchieThe Chapel HouseSandford RdChurchdownGloucestershire GL3 2HD01452 854057e-mail: [email protected] site: http://www.cotswoldcanals.mcmail.com

DERBY & SANDIACRECANAL SOCIETYDoug Flack23 Thoresby CrescentDraycottDerby DE72 3PH01332 874239

DIG DEEP INITIATIVEAlan Cavender10 Vicarage RoadMaidenheadBerkshireSL6 7DS01628 629033

DORSET & SOMERSETCANAL STUDY GROUPDerrick Hunt43 Greenland MillsBradford on AvonWilts BA15 1BL01225 863066e-mail: [email protected]

DROITWICH CANALSTRUSTVaughan Welch29 Dice PleckNorthfieldBirminghamB31 3XW0121 477 9782

EREWASH CANAL P&DAMick Golds73 Sudbury AvenueLarklandsIlkestonDerbys DE7 5EANotts (0115) 9328042

FOXTON INCLINEDPLANE TRUSTc/o Mike BeechFoxton Canal MuseumMiddle LockGumley RoadFoxtonMarket HarboroughLeicestershireLE16 7RA0116 279 2657

GRAND WESTERNCANAL TRUSTDenis DoddWharf CottageNyneheadWellingtonSomerset TA21 0BU01823 661653

GRANTHAM CANALRESTORATION SOCColin Bryan113 Hoe View RoadCropwell BishopNottingham NG12 3DJ01159 892248

HEREFS & GLOUCS CTc/o The Lock CottageOverGloucester GL2 8DB01452 332900Web site: http://www.h-g-canal.org.uk

KENT & EAST SUSSEXCANAL REST. GROUPKen ParishEastwood FarmhouseUlcombe RoadUlcombe, MaidstoneKent. ME17 1ET01622 858329e-mail:[email protected]

LAPALCANAL TRUSTPO Box 5236, HalesowenWMidlands B63 3NNWeb site: http://www.lapal.org.uk

LICHFIELD & HATHERTONCANALS REST'N TRUSTJohn Horton,32 London Road, LichfieldStaffs WS14 9EJ.01543 262466or Denis CooperGorsey Lane FarmGorsey LaneLittle Wyrley, PelsallWalsall WS3 5AJ01543 374370Web site: http://www.alma.co.uk/bps/lah

NEATH & TENNANT CSMalcolm Smith37, Blaen Cwm, LlansamletSwansea. SA7 9NLSwansea (01792) 74991Web site: www.compulink.co.uk/~bwthyn.ncan/htm

NWPGGraham Hawkes27 Lawrence Rd,Tilehurst, ReadingBerks RG30 6BH0118 941 0586E-mail:[email protected]

POCKLINGTON C.A.S.Paul WaddingtonChurch House,Main St.HemingboroughSelbyN. Yorks YO8 7QE01757 638027 (eves)01405 763985 (days)Web site: http://www.pocklington.gov.uk/PCAS/default.asp

SCARS (SANKEY CANAL)Colin Greenall16 Bleak Hill RoadEcclestonSt. HelensMerseyside WA10 4RW01744 731746Web site: http://www.scars.org.uk/index.html

SHROPSHIRE UNION CSGeoff Munro198, Oldbury RoadRowley Regis, WarleyWest Midlands B65 0NW0121-561 5747Web site: http://www.shropshireunion.freeserve.co.uk/

SLEAFORD NAV SOCSteve Hayes10 Chelmer Clo,N Hykeham Lincs LN8 8TH01522-689460

SOMERSET COAL CSBob Parnell34 Wedgewood RoadTwertonBathBA2 1NX01225-428055Web site: http://homepages.enterprise.net/rtj/SCC2.html

SWANSEA CANAL SOCClive Reed34 Ynysmeudwy RoadYnysmeudwyPontardaweSwansea. SA8 4QD01792 864637

SURREY & HANTS CSPeter Redway1 Redway CottagesSt. John's Lye, Woking.GU21 1SL01483 721710Web site:http://www.basingstokecanal1.freeserve.co.uk/

THAMES & MEDWAYCANAL ASSOCIATIONJennifer Watts108 Old Road EastGravesendDA12 1PF

WENDOVER ARM TRUSTRoger Leishman7 Hall Park, BerkhamstedHerts HP4 2NU01442 874536

WEY & ARUN CTJohn Ward32 Badgers HollowPeperharrow RoadGodalmingSurreyGU7 2PX01483-52712407971 336535 (mobile)Web site:http://www.weyandarun.co.uk

page 16

DirectoryWRG and canal society workingparty contact details

WILTS & BERKS C.A.G.Peter Smith76 Dunnington RoadWootton BassettWilts SN4 7EL01793 852883e-mail:[email protected] site: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/Members/dg.small/index.htm

WOODEN CANAL BOATSSOCIETY5 Oaken Clough TerraceLimehurstAshton under Lyne OL7 9NY0161-330-2315

IWA IPSWICHColin TurnerCornerwaysElm LaneCopdockIpswichIP8 3ET01473-730586Web site: http://www.purbrook.demon.co.uk/iwa/

WRG: GENERALENQUIRIESPO Box 114, RickmansworthHerts WD3 1ZY019232 711114e-mail:[email protected] site:http://www.wrg.org.uk

WRG NORTH WEST -MANCHESTERMalcolm Bridge (see below)

WRG NW - LIVERPOOLRoger Evans10 Long Lane, MiddlewichCheshire CW10 0BL01606 834471

WRG NW - ENQUIRIES/PAPERCHASESDavid McCarthyWoodstock, 14 Crumpsall La.Manchester. M8 5FB0161-740 2179Web site:http://www.downstream.mcmail.com/wrgnw.htm

WRG EAST MIDLANDSJohn Baylis (see below)

WRG BITM & DIARYDavid Wedd7 Ringwood RoadBlackwater, CamberleySurrey GU17 0EY01252 874437e-mail:[email protected] site: http://www.angelos.demon.co.uk/Narrowboat/BITM

WRG NA (1)Ian Nelson6 Lahn Drive Droitwich SpaWorcs WR9 8TQ.01905 798 6760973 640611 (mobile)e-mail:[email protected] site: http://www.wrgna.co.uk

WRG NA (2)Spencer Collins9 Thrush Street, WalkleySheffield S6 5BQ0114 2853 044e-mail:[email protected]

LONDON WRGTim Lewis6 Downs Road, EnfieldMiddlesex EN1 IPA020 8367 6227Web site: http://www.danevans.co.uk/lwrg/

LONDONWRG: ENQUIRIESLesley McFadyen(as per Martin Ludgate below)

ESSEX WRGJohn Gale, 12 Wakefield Ave,Billericay, Essex CM12 9DN01277 654683

WRG MONTGOMERYAlan JervisDacre House FarmDacreHarrogateHG3 4ES07968-586326e-mail: [email protected]

WRG BOAT CLUBSue Burchett152 Great Knollys StReading RG1 7HB01189 503268Fax. 07970 099052e-mail:[email protected]

IWA/WRG STAMP BANKSteve & Mandy Morley33 Hambleton GroveEmerson valleyMilton Keynes MK4 2JS01908 520090

'NAVVIES' EDITORMartin Ludgate35 Silvester RdEast DulwichLondon SE22 9PB020 8693 32660777 947 8629 (mobile)e-mail:[email protected]

WRG PLANTMalcolm Bridge (see below)OR John Palmer53 Southwood RoadStockport, Cheshire

CANAL CAMPS MOBILES(A) 07850 422156(B) 07850 422157

WRG LOGISTICSLou KellettAshlawn, MellingCarnforthLancashire LA6 2RE.015242 21518e-mail:[email protected]

WRG DIRECTORS

TREASURERRoger Day5 Merton RoadSloughBerks SL1 1QW

CHAIRMANMike Palmer29 Cecil Road, Selly ParkBirmingham B29 7QG0121-472 2882e-mail:[email protected]

page 17

SECRETARYChris Davey5 Heathfield Close, MidhurstW Sussex GU29 9PS01730 814670e-mail [email protected]

CANAL CAMP BOOKINGSc/o Ian WingfieldPO Box 114, RickmansworthHerts WD3 1ZY019232 711114e-mail:[email protected] site:http://www.wrg.org.uk

WRGPRINTJohn & Tess Hawkins4 Links Way, Croxley Grn,Rickmansworth WD3 3RQ01923 448559

TRANSPORT MANAGERRoger Burchett(See Sue Burchett above)

PUBLICITY & CENTRALLYBOOKED WEEKENDSHelen Davey5 Heathfield Close, MidhurstW Sussex GU29 9PS01730 814670

SITES GROUPJudith Moore99 Shrubland St,Leamington Spa CV31 2AR01926 332745e-mail:[email protected]

DRIVER AUTHORISATION

Malcolm Bridge3 Heather Bank, LittleboroughLancashire OL15 0JQ01706 378582

IWA CHAIRMANRichard Drakec/o IWA, PO Box 114Rickmansworth WD3 1ZY0151 608 4562

OTHER DIRECTORS

Neil Edwards16 Tyneham CloseAylesbury HP21 9XAe-mail [email protected]

Ray Carter56 Oakdene Drive, TolworthSurbiton, Surrey KT5 9NH

Jonathan Smith23 Hardings, ChalgroveOxford OX44 7TJ01865 891 370

John Baylis215 Clipstone Rd West,Forest Town, Mansfield,Notts NG19 0HJ01623 633895

Updating this Directory: please help!We do our best to keep the 'Navvies' directory up to date. How-ever, we rely on people to tell us that they have moved house, orthat their canal society has a new Work Party Organiser, or thattheir web site or e-mail address has changed.This edition includes a number of updates including the deletion ofseveral entries for groups that (as far as we are aware) no longer runvolunteer working parties - in some cases because their canal is fin-ished! Apologies if we have wrongly deleted your canal society's entryor failed to pick up on any other changes. Please send any updates tothe editor: they will appear in the 'Noticeboard' in issue 185, and beincluded in the next full Directory in issue 187.

Canal Camps cost £35 per week unlessotherwise stated.Bookings forWRGCanal Camps (thoseidentified by a camp number e.g. 'Camp0102') should go toWRGCanal Camps,PO Box 114, RickmansworthWD3 1ZY.Tel: 01923 711114e-mail: [email protected]

page 18

DiaryCanal Camp and weekendworking party dates

Dec 23-Jan 1SHCS Xmas Camp on Basingstoke Canal Clive Alderman 07973-877380Scrub bashing. Leaders: Garry & Clive Alderman. Cooks: MaureenAmos & Karen Alderman.

Dec 26-Jan 2Camp 0022 Wilts & Berks Christmas Camp Rachael Banyard 01249-892289The official WRG Xmas camp. Foxham: lift bridge construction, andstump pulling, dredging, towpath clearance and repair. Leaders:Rachael Banyard & Di Smurthwaite. Accom: Foxham Reading Rooms.Please book via WRGCanal Camps Bookings at Rickmansworth (see above)

Jan 1 Mon Navvies Press date for issue 185 Martin Ludgate 020-8693-3266Jan 6/7 wrgNW Barnsley Canal David McCarthy 0161-740-2179

ElsecarJan 6/7 Essex WRG Wilts & Berks Canal John Gale 01277-654683

Dauntsey Lock hedgelayingJan 13/14 NWPG Basingstoke Canal Graham Hawkes 0118-941-0586

Dig Deep project at WoodhamJan 13/14 KESCRG Thames & Severn Canal Answerphone 01622-858329

Dig Deep project at Golden ValleyJan 20/21 wrgBITM Wilts & Berks Canal DaveWedd 01252-874437

Foxham & Dauntsey, stump pulling and scrub clearance.Jan 20/21 LondonWRG Basingstoke Canal Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227

Dig Deep project at WoodhamJan 20/21 wrgNW �Paper Chase� waste paper David McCarthy 0161-740-2179

collection (Sat) & Plant maintenance (Sun)Feb 3/4 KESCRG Basingstoke Canal Answerphone 01622-858329

Dig Deep project at WoodhamFeb 3/4 Essex WRG Buckingham Arm John Gale 01277-654683

Stump pullingFeb 4 Sun wrgNW Sankey Canal David McCarthy 0161-740-2179

excavation of Newton Common Lock (Sunday only, provisional)Feb 10/11 NWPG Thames & Severn Canal Graham Hawkes 0118-941-0586

Dig Deep project at Golden ValleyFeb 10/11 LondonWRG Wilts & Berks Canal Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227

Dig Deep project at Summit LockFeb 10/11 wrgNA Lichfield Canal Ian Nelson 01905-798676

Piling and earth moving.Feb 17-24 Camp 0101 Venue to be decidedFeb 23 Fri Dig Deep Dig Deep committee meeting Bill Nicholson 01844-343369

Venue: �Mad Hatter� pub.Feb 24/25 wrgBITM Wendover Arm DaveWedd 01252-874437

Scrub-bashing. (to be confirmed)

Please send updates to Diary compiler:DaveWedd, 7 RingwoodRd, Blackwater, Camberley, Surrey GU17 0EY.

Tel 01252 874437. e-mail: [email protected]. Fax: 0870-063-3713

page 19

Feb 24/25 wrgNW �Paper Chase� waste paper David McCarthy 0161-740-2179collection (Sat) & Plant maintenance (Sun)

Mar 1 Thu Navvies Press date for issue 186 Martin Ludgate 020-8693-3266Mar 3/4 KESCRG To be arranged Answerphone 01622-858329Mar 3/4 LondonWRG Thames & Severn Canal Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227

Dig Deep project at Golden Valley. Joint dig with Essex WRG.Mar 3/4 wrgNW To be arranged David McCarthy 0161-740-2179Mar 3/4 Essex WRG Thames & Severn Canal John Gale 01277-654683

Dig Deep project at Golden Valley. Joint dig with London WRG.Mar 10/11 NWPG Wilts & Berks Canal Graham Hawkes 0118-941-0586

Dig Deep project at Summit LockMar 24/25 WRG & IWA National Clean-Up weekend VaughanWelch 0121-477-9782

Ashton Canal, ManchesterMar 24/25 wrgBITM Basingstoke Canal DaveWedd 01252-874437

Dig Deep project, backpumping at WoodhamMar 31/Apr 1wrgNW �Paper Chase� waste paper David McCarthy 0161-740-2179

collection (Sat) & Plant maintenance (Sun)Apr 7/8 NWPG Basingstoke Canal Graham Hawkes 0118-941-0586

Dig Deep project at WoodhamApr 7/8 KESCRG Wilts & Berks Canal Answerphone 01622-858329

Dig Deep project at Summit LockApr 7/8 wrgNW To be arranged David McCarthy 0161-740-2179Apr 7/8 Essex WRG Lichfield & Hatherton Canals John Gale 01277-654683Apr 21/22 wrgBITM Thames & Severn Canal DaveWedd 01252-874437

Dig Deep project at Golden Valley.Apr 22/23 LondonWRG Basingstoke Canal Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227

Dig Deep project at WoodhamMay 1 Tue Navvies Press date for issue 187 Martin Ludgate 020-8693-3266May 5/6/7 NWPG Wey & Arun Canal Graham Hawkes 0118-941-0586May 5/6/7 KESCRG Little Venice, London Answerphone 01622-858329

Site Services camp for IWA Canalway Cavalcade: more info next time.May 5/6/7 wrgNW To be arranged David McCarthy 0161-740-2179

Possible Irish dig to coincide with the World Canal Conference,dates to be confirmed.

May 5/6/7 Essex WRG Hereford & Gloucester Canal John Gale 01277-654683May 12/13 wrgNW �Paper Chase� waste paper David McCarthy 0161-740-2179

collection (Sat) & Plant maintenance (Sun)May 19/20 LondonWRG Thames & Severn Canal Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227

Dig Deep project at Golden ValleyMay 26-28 wrgBITM Tring Canal Festival DaveWedd 01252-874437

Wendover Arm. Site Services and BITM Sales Stand. Official Openingof Little Tring Bridge. Bulbourne open days.

These working parties take placeregularly on a weekly/monthly basis1st & 3rd Sunday of month BCG Elsecar Spencer Collins 0114-285-30443rd Sunday of month BCNS Jeff Barley 01543-3732842ndSunday& followingWed. BCS Cosgrove Athina Beckett 01908-661217Anytime inc. weekdays BCT Aqueduct section Gerald Fry 01288-353273Every Sunday ChCT Various sites Mick Hodgetts 01246-4541632nd & 4th Saturdays CCT Thames End George Smith 01285-8616394th Mon of month, 6pm CMT London Canal Mus. Martin Sach 020-7625-7376Every Saturday DCT Droitwich Canal Jon Axe 0121-608 02961st weekend of month D&SCS Various sites Doug Flack 01332-8742391st & 3rd Sundays GCRS Grantham Canal Colin Bryan 0115-989-22482nd Sat of month GWCT Nynehead Lift Denis Dodd 01823-661653Tuesdays H&GCT Oxenhall Brian Fox 01432-358628Wed/Thu/Fri H&GCT Over Paul Brown 01386-4438262nd & 4th Sundays H&GCT Over Paul Brown 01386-443826Every Sunday if required IWPS Bugsworth Basin Ian Edgar 01663-7324931st Saturday&3rdWed. IWA Ipswich Stowmarket Navigtn. Colin Turner 01473-7305862nd weekend of month IWA SBC Maesbury, Mont. Barry Tuffin 01691-670826/492nd weekend of month K&ACT John Rolls 01189-6663161st Sunday of month LHCRT Lichfield John Horton 01543 2624663rd Sunday of month LHCRT Hatherton Denis Cooper 01543-3743702nd & last Sundays PCAS Paul Waddington 01757-6380272nd Sunday of Month SCARS Sankey Canal Colin Greenall 01744-7317461st Sunday of Month SCCS Combe Hay Locks Bob Parnell 01225-428055Most weekends SHCS Basingstoke Peter Redway 01483-7217103rd Sunday of month TMCA David Rouse 01474-362861Approx 15th of month WACT Mid-Week group Colin Gibbs 020-82417736Every Sunday & Thursday WACT Devils Hole Lock EricWalker 023-9246-3025Thursdays fortnightly WACT Maintenance Unit Peter Wilding 01483-422519or for general information on Wey & Arun contact their office on 01403-7524031st weekend of month WAT Little Tring Roger Leishman 01442-874536Every weekend W&BCAG Peter Smith 01793-852883Every Sunday W&BCC Dauntsey / Foxham Rachael Banyard 01249-892289Please send any amendments, additions and deletions to Dave Wedd (address on previous page)

Abbreviations used in DiaryBCG Barnsley Canal GroupBCNS BirminghamCanal Navigations Soc.BCS Buckingham Canal SocietyBCT Bude Canal TrustChCT Chesterfield Canal TrustCCT Cotswolds Canals TrustCMT Canal Museum Trust (London)DCT Droitwich Canals TrustD&SCS Derby & Sandiacre Canal SocietyGCRS Grantham Canal Restoration SocietyGWCT Grand Western Canal TrustH&GCT Hereford & Gloucester Canal TrustIWA SBC IWA Shrewsbury & Border CountiesIWPS InlandWaterways Protection Society

K&ACT Kennet &Avon Canal TrustKESCRG Kent & E Sussex Canal Rest. GroupLHCRT Lichfield & Hatherton Canals

Restoration TrustLWRG LondonWaterway Recovery GroupNWPG Newbury Working Party GroupPCAS Pocklington Canal Amenity SocietySCARS Sankey Canal Restoration SocietySCCS Somersetshire Coal Canal SocietySHCS Surrey & Hants Canal SocietyTMCA Thames & Medway Canal AssociationW&BCAG Wilts & Berks Canal Amenity GroupW&BCC Wilts & Berks Canal CompanyWACT Wey & Arun Canal TrustWAT Wendover Arm Trust

Mobile groups' social evenings(please phone to confirm before turning up)

LondonWRG: 7:30pmonWed 10 days beforeeach dig. Please check withTim Lewis020-8367 6227 as we're in the process of findinga pub in London that sells real beer, doesn'thave loud music and won't throw us out.

NWPG: 9:00pm on 3rd Tue of month at theHope Tap, West end of Friar St. Reading.Graham Hawkes 0118 941 0586

DiaryCanal society regularworking parties

LettersWhat's the difference betweenMKP andGCW?

Dear MartinHaving read a report of the WRG camp in Sleafordin Issue 182 of Navvies, I felt I needed to write toyou to set the record straight. Please don�t thinkthat the Sleaford Navigation Trust have no sense ofhumour and are a miserable collection of pedanticnit-pickers but we were rather upset by the accountRachael Banyard gave of our hospitality.Unfortunately WRG members did have to sleep inthe Rugby Club changing rooms for one night be-cause of a prior social booking but after that theyhad the opportunity to move into the club room forthe rest of the week, not just for the final night asRachael states.Amember of theRugbyClub broughtin a television for the group to use in the club roomfrom Sunday evening onwards.The group were issued their own key and passnumber to the club and had access to all areas ex-cept behind the bar and in the office. The Club isremote and security is an issue. There have beenbreak ins and it is standard practice to lock the chang-ing rooms. There are men�s and ladies� toilets avail-able both upstairs and downstairs.We agree that it would have been torture indeed forWRG to spend a week by a locked bar so, to coun-ter this, at the start of the weekmembers of the groupwere asked to choose their �beverages� and a sup-ply was put in the fridge. An honesty box systemoperated with no problem.I feel sure that Rachael had nowish to cause distressto members of the Rugby Club or of the Trust but un-fortunatelywhatwas probably a light-hearted accounthas led to problems. Our relationship with the RugbyClub could well have been damaged were it not forsome excellent liaison work by Norman Osborne.Sadly, the account of the facilities contributed to thecancellation by BITM of a November workcamp al-though we are hoping to arrange another date nextyear. If it really was so bad surely Rachael would nothave volunteered to lead another campnext year too!WewereveryappreciativeoftheworkcompletedbyWRGand look forward to seeing themagain next year.Thankyou for giving us the opportunity tomake our point.Yours sincerely

Chris HayesChairman, Sleaford Navigation Trust

Dear Martin,Basingstoke Canal Camps andweekend groupsThe continuing support for the Basingstoke Canalprojects by weekend groups and summer workcamps has achieved all the targets I had hoped for.TheMatching Funding contribution work for the Lot-tery Grants is on schedule. The Pump site and ac-cess has been prepared and a water pipe providedfrom Scotland Bridge Road.Other works carried out by the summer camps in-cludedmajor repairs at Lock 3; this followed subsid-ence after installation of a new weir last year. Tow-path works and drainage system renovation werealso completed.

Please pass on my thanks to all the navvies whosupported the camps and weekends, LondonWRG,NWPG, KESCRG and BITM, with special thanks toall team leaders.Yours sincerely,

Peter RedwayChairman, Surrey & Hants. Canal Society

Martin,Following the minor GCW misunderstanding at thelast Over weekend... I felt that I was forced to changemy car (...well ...ok ...there were a few other morepressing reasons for changing it apart from the 'letsmistake a Black Rover 400 for a Red Ford Transit'...after all... anyone could make that mistake!????).Anyway, please would you make every effort to en-sure that WRG does not now acquire a van of reg-istrationWYB...Yours,

Rick Barnes

Above: misunderstanding at Over: "just pile the ca-tering kit by GCW". Below: seen atWalthamAbbey:an opportunity for more confusion? (Martin Ludgate)

W.A.D.S.Can you help with the WRGShow at Milton Keynes?

WADS: WRG Amateur Dramatic Society

Following our notable success at reducing theentire history of canals into exactly 30mins, andthe audience at last year�s �National� to hysteria,after much persuasion and gin, it is likely that themad fools at next year�s IWANational WaterwaysFestival over the August Bank Holiday in MiltonKeynes will want something similar. (In fact, Ents2 would particularly like similar precision-timingwhich won him a pint, as Ents 1 said we�d over-run by at least 15 minutes.)

So I�m after volunteers!!!

Anyone who has been in-volved in the entertain-ments in the last 2 yearsmay just have noticed asomewhat panic strickenDoctor, chivvying people onto stage whilst simultane-ously trying to get Martin toproduce the final script be-fore the interval. Some ofyou may have enjoyed this,but I feel the need to followmy own advice and reducemy blood pressure, so Iwould like to have a little bitmore organisation this year!(OK, so any at all would bea start).

So my plan is to compile alist of anyone in WRG orloosely associated with itwho would like to take partin any way next yearwhether that be would beSean Connery�s andSandra Bullock�s or peoplewho just wouldn�t mind be-ing a stage hands on thenight, or Gofer �s for aslightly-less-stressed-than-last-year stage manager.Technical experts, singers,dancers, scenery painters,etc. also welcome.

This would only be so that I had a list of phonenumbers, and interests, you would not be sayingthat you�d definitely want the leading role! (Notyet anyway, because we haven�t written the scriptyet...)

I would then aim to be able to have at least onefull rehearsal, more depending on the sort ofentertainment and time available. I hope noneof you reading this are worrying that this will inany way diminish the unique style of WADS, (andI�m not aiming for the West End yet!) but I thinkthat it is worthwhile having a small amount ofearly planning and a slightly smaller amount oflast minute/second panic! So please let me knowif you�re interested, either next time you see me,or e-mail [email protected], phone 01844 351549or 07711 955 973. I look forward to hearingfrom all of you.

Love n hugs,�Dr. Liz�Williamson.

Could you give WADS a hand? Or even three? Martin the Martian atWaltham Abbey. (Lesley McFadyen)

ProgressDigDeepontheCotswolds,Wilts&Berks andBasingstoke

Dig Deep Update

The Dig Deep initiative is a scheme involving fourmobile working party groups � KESCRG, WRGBITM, London WRG and NWPG � operatingmainly in the South of England. The idea is thatby adopting certain projects on various canals,we can co-ordinate our efforts and give a jointcommitment to a certain number of working par-ties on each project, which will help enable thelocal canal societies to commit the necessaryresources to the projects.

My last update in June talked about four newprojects for 2001. Knowing that it would be im-possible for us to support all four, it was with re-lief that when it came to a decision one had beenwithdrawn. So, following site visits we have de-cided to support three new projects as follows:

BasingstokeCanal: Work for back pump schemeon St Johns flight of locks. We will first finish workat Woodham before moving on. The scheme willbe smaller scale (size of pipe etc.) than the cur-rent project at Woodham but will still enablegreater use of the canal. 9 weekends have beencommitted plus possibly a camp. Accommoda-tion to be at Woodham or West Byfleet � prefer-ably the latter in view of the deteriorating state ofthe ale at The Bleak House!

Thames&SevernCanal: Repair and reconstruc-tion of Valley Lock at Chalford. Surely one themost scenic settings for a working party. Unfortu-nately for LWRG the canalside pub that used tostand next to the bridge has long been convertedto a dwelling. The New Red Lion a little furtherdown looks interesting. NWPG started work atthis site in early November,joined by employees of the En-vironment Agency trying to fillthe breach in the canal abovethe lock which was discharg-ing large quantities of waterinto the adjacent river. This, inturn, was filling up the backgardens of houses down-stream to the consternation ofthe residents. Access will bealmost of Wey & Arun propor-tions in that the lanes to thesite can barely accommodatea transit size vehicle let aloneanything larger. Accommoda-tion will be about 6 miles downcanal at the well appointedSelsley Scout Hut which surelymust have one of the finestviews from any work party hall.9 weekends and a one weekcamp have been allocated.

Wilts & Berks Canal: Since the last report thesite and project have changed. We have beenasked, and have agreed to, help with rebuildingSummit Lock at Wootton Bassett. This was felt tobe more appropriate to our available skills thanbuilding a brick arch bridge from scratch. Permis-sion and funds are said to be in place and NWPG(why are they always the first on new sites?) willstart work on 9 December. Reports on the siteand accommodation will follow.

The withdrawn scheme was to be for construc-tion of three lock water control structures aboveLoxwood on the Wey and Arun Canal. This willnow be a WACT project but John Ward is seek-ing help from visiting groups from next Easteronwards.

On the Dig Deep 2000 Rowner to Malham sec-tion, work has been completed with the excep-tion that the removal of the site compound andsome scaffolding awaits some dry weather! We�llsee if we get any frosts this winter

Details of all Dig Deep dates are given in theNavvies Diary.

Bill NIcholson

DigDeepon theWey&Arun: the tail of thecompletedRownerLock,with thelast of the surplus materials being taken out by boat (the fields were too wetfor vehicle access), necessitating some clearance of overhanging vegeta-tion so that the boat could get through to Newbridge. (Lesley McFadyen)

ProgressThe Wooden Canal Boat Soci-ety plans to rebuild 'Hazel'

The Wooden Canal Boat Society

Hazel�s last Trip.

Over the weekend of 29th/30th July 2000 the 86year old wooden narrow boat �Hazel� was takenon what is expected to be her last trip before sheis lifted out of the water to havemost of her planksrenewed.

�Hazel� is the last complete example of a �Runcomwooden header� narrow boat afloat on the canalsystem. These deep 6-plank boats, built bySimpson & Davies at their boatyard by the bigpool in Runcorn, were once a common sight onwaterways in the North West.

Originally named �Mull�, this boat was built forSalt Union in 1914. In 1929 she was purchasedby Agnes Beech who renamed her �Hazel� andused the boat mostly for carrying coal from pitsnear Leigh to her coal yard near Acton Bridge.

In 1948 �Hazel� became a trip boat and in 1951she was converted by Mr & Mrs Dean into a luxu-rious travelling home powered by a vintage pet-rol engine.

During the 1950s �Hazel� cruised widely and at-tended some of the campaigning boat rallies thathelped to secure the survival of the canal net-work.

A series of owners used �Hazel� as a residentialor pleasure boat until in 1988 Pete & Claire Stonedonated her to the Wooden Canal Craft Trust.(W.C.C.T.) Since then the boat has been care-fully looked after while awaiting her turn for res-toration.

The old W.C.C.T. has been re-organised as theWooden Canal Boat Society (W.C.B.S.). Thischarity exists to collect; conserve and restorewooden canal boats, then put them to work serv-ing todays community.

The last trip was arranged as the annual gath-ering of �Hazel�s sponsors and people whohave been associated with the boat over theyears.

Towed by the W.C.B.S. motor boat �Forget meNot�, �Hazel� left her current home, PortlandBasin Museum in Ashton under Lyne, and trav-elled up the Peak Forest Canal to the bottomof Marple Locks on 29th July. On the followingday the pair made the return trip to PortlandBasin.

Guests included former �Hazel� residents Colin& Shiela Scrivener, Maxine Bailey, �Legs� Leightonand Paula Holland as well as Beth Allen, Presi-dent of the Tangent Club and representativesfromMacclesfield Mind and theMarple Lions cluband other sponsors.

�Hazel�s sponsorship scheme enables individu-als or organlsations to support the boat�s longterm running costs for one or more days eachyear.

At 28 pounds to adopt her for one day this is away of providing support to this important boatthat is within reach of most people. While take-up is growing, there is still a long way to go be-fore all 365 days are booked and the boat�s fu-ture is completely secure.

W.C.B.S. volunteers are currently working atStalybridge preparing a site beside the �Hudders-field Narrow Canal to receive �Hazel�.

Sometime hi the next few months �Hazel� will betaken to Stalybridge for work to began. As she isrestored, work will continue around her to createa heritage boatyard where more boats can berestored and the public can learn about woodenboatbuilding on the canals.

When she is eventually re-launched �Hazel� willbe put to work providing opportunities for peoplerecovering from depression and other stress re-lated illness to spend time on the canal.

The old boat will be serving today�s �pressure-cooker society� by giving its victims the chance toexperience the therapeutic qualities of canaltravel.

The Wooden Canal Boat Society needs help notonly with the �Hazel� project but also with main-taining its 5 other historic boats. At present thegroup particularly needs to hear from people whoare able to contribute Business, Organisationaland Fund Raising skills.

Anyone who would like to help or needs moreinformation about the WCBS or the �Hazel�sponsorship scheme should contact WoodenCanal Boat Society, 5, Oaken Clough Ter-race, Ashton under Lyne, 0L7 9NY. Tel0161 330 2315

Progress...in pictures. Well, if you don'tsendme anywords in...

Below: 'Hazel', the last surviving 'Runcornwodden-header' narrow boat makes her final journey alongthe Peak Forest Canal before being lifted out of thewater forrebuilding. (seestoryopposite;photobyChrisLeah, WCBS) Bottom: Lichfield Canal: Lock 25 atTamworthRoadisnowcompleteandworkhasmoveddown to lock 26, as seen here on a London WRGweekend. Our excavator 'Blue' is seen exposingwhat is left of the nearside lower wing wall, whilejust visible behind themachine, LHCRTvolunteersare rebuilding the offside wall. (Martin Ludgate)

Progress...then I'll just have to bore youwith my photographs.

Left: Work continues on the large spillweir on theDroitwich Junction Canal during the 'DroitwichBonfire Bash' weekend. Above: Two weeks latera small group from London WRG and KESCRGalmost completed the weir wall, and made a starton reinstating the missing parts of the spillweir sur-face. Below:Wey & Arun Canal: extension of theLoxwood Link navigable length gets under way withthe construction of the new Drungewick Lane roadbridge - mainly by contractors but with some workby WACT volunters. Below left: Lichfield canal:brick-cleaning made easy with a purpose-builtbrick-cleaning table! Photos by Martin Ludgate.

A canal that hasn't seen much volunteer work for a while is the Huddersfield - mainly because theNational Lottery Millennium Fund (plus matching funding) is paying for the completion of the resto-ration by contractors. One of the major jobs is the reinstatement of the formerly filled-in and built-onsection in Stalybridge. Above: the recently excavated section of canal is seen in the background,with the final coping stone of a reinstated roadbridge being fitted in the foreground. Below: Lock 7W,one of several locks to be rebuilt on this length, is seen from the other side of the same bridge withgates installed and work nearing completion. Our 2001 Cleanup aims to bring the Ashton up toscratch ready for the influx of boats when the Huddersfield opens this Spring. (Martin Ludgate)

WRG BCNews from WRG's own BoatClub...

WRG Boat Club

First let's hear from Sadie the Secretary...

Here is the �BBCNews�: Congratulations to mem-bers Cath and Pete for their �brilliant� success withthe illuminated boat at WalthamAbbey. Very welldone - we are dead proud of you.

The Bring-a-boat dig on the Wendover was fundespite the awful weather. As Bill Crockett saidto a visitor (from BW, doing a �day in the life of avolunteer� study - Gawd what next?!) �We can putup with the work and the weather, it�s the cater-ing that gets us down.� That man likes to livedangerously.

The catering was done by the famous/notoriousThree Witches from Salford, and he made theremark for their benefit. Just lucky that all the foodwasn�t served from cauldrons I say.

After supper on the Saturday night the collectionof boats brought was assembled and inspected- well, all the portable ones, and a good variedselection they were too. Some dead classy; oth-ers most inventive!

Unfortunately boats of the floating licensed sortwere thin on the canal so the planned cruise wasabandoned without much regret as the weatherwas foul.

Then theWRGBoatClubAGMfor2000washeld.

Apologies had been received from -SheelahLockwood, Anne Ridley, Vaughan Welch, theMacDonalds, Jeffries, Byes, Beards, Sharmansand Old Uncle Tom Cobbley.

Theminutes of the previousmeeting were agreedvariously to be correct or missing (for those thatcouldn�t recollect them)

The Treasurer reported that we have somemoney so discussion followed about what we cando with it.

It was agreed that we fund BITM�s refurbishmentof their display boards.

A Sinking Fund was suggested, and mostmembers were apprehensive as sinking was nota thing they had planned on doing. After it wasexplained more fully it seemed like a good ideaafter all. It also seemed a good idea to get ahigher interest on some of our cache.

A clubhouse was another rather unrealisticidea, but it now seems that AWCC think it is atthe secretary�s mooring. Some club membersare all for this and insist that she gets in a suit-able supply of booze; she protests that she�knows -a -nothin�.

As things are going OK it was agreed to keepsubscriptions at the same bargain level. (so comeon and PAY UP if you haven�t renewed yet).

The Secretary reported that membership, stand-ing at 43, was up this year (-4 +8).

We now are in the Midlands AWCC area andClaire will cover most meetings and get othersto do so when she can�t.

It was agreed to continue with three main offic-ers and as there was no arm wrestling or otherform of competition for the posts it was settledthat Lynn carries on as Chairman / Club Com-mode Door, Sadie sticks to being secretary, anddoing all the work,(so they think) and Ann willtake over as treasurer once we finally get ouraccounts sorted from BITMs.

There was a lot of chat about next year�s �Bring aboat�. Not many canal-going ones made it thisyear.

Should we change the time of year? Should it bein another area? Perhaps it should be more cen-tral? Would another branch of Navvies like tohost it? Would they want to? Will they fight overthe chance?Will Dick Barton escape? Can I standall the excitement and uncertainty?

The meeting ended with members rushing to-

- order clothing with the club logo on- purchase club burgees (a bargain at £10)- mob the treasurer in order to pay their subs!

Or did I imagine that bit?

There was a sort of tombola going on where peo-ple kept winning beverages of some kind. Somestayed to �socialise� some went to be sociableelsewhere.

I wonder how it all ended?

XXX Sadie

WRG BC...including the Bring-a-boatDig, theAGM and the 'National'

Now let's hear from the 'Commode Door'...

Congratulations to Peter Richards on winning theLucas Pacemaker Plate for the best-illuminatedboat at WalthamAbbey National Waterways Fes-tival. This year the theme was �Gunpowder, Trea-son and Plot�.

Hundreds gathered on the bridge over the Leeand Stort Navigation and along the towpath towatch the impressive procession. In the distancethe chimes of Big Ben could be heard gettingcloser, then the Houses of Parliament floatednearer and November the 5th in large letters sig-nified Guy Fawkes Night. The lighting effect gavethe impression that the building was on fire. Inthe gloom several characters were lurking, wasthat Guy Fawkes in the front well deck, or wasthat him creeping along the gunwales of Jay II.The crowd cheered as the tower cleared thebridge.

Peter, with the help from Bob Dewey and KathHorrocks, had spent the previous day, as well asseveral days on the way to the festival, makingthe impressive building from cardboard and fairylights purchased en route. Those black cloaks andtall Puritan style hats looked suspiciously like 20thCentury bin liners. With help from you know whoat the Beeb for the sound effects, the effect wascomplete and the judges rightly voted membersof the WRG Boat Club the winners.

Well-done Peter.

The Slack and Offley Trophy was taken away byour club two years ago at Salford Quays for thehighest number of boats attending, so membersstart thinking of how we can win in 2002 (I�m sug-gesting every other year as we don�t want to betoo good).

Lynne CaterCommode Door WRG B.C.

Above: the winners receive their Lucas Pace-maker Plate award for the Illuminated Boats atWaltham Abbey. Below: the winning entry byPeter Richards's 'Jay II'. Photos by Lynne Cater

WRG Boat Club members:Does your boat need newfenders?

|f so, see the 'Bits and Pieces'page for how to buy new fend-ers from 'Fenderman' andhelp WRG at the same time.

Any other chandlery compa-nies - or anyone else for thatmatter - who feel generousenough to want to donate partof their profits to WRG, pleaseget in touch and we'll makesure wemention your productsin 'Navvies'. ...Ed

Bits & PiecesGet your 'WRGometer' figuresin now...

Remember the WRGometer?

That's right - our attempt to add-up the totalnumber of person-days work done by WRG vol-unteers over the whole of our 30th anniversaryyear. See p33 for the latest total - we're gettingvery close to the 5000 person-days mark as Iwrite, and there's a good chance that wewill reachit before the year end.

Well the good news is that I won't be pesteringyou any more for volunteer numbers from yourCanal Camps and weekend working parties.

The bad news is that Marcus Jones will be pes-tering you for them. I've managed to get Mar-cus his WRG driver authorisation for theWRGometer, and so if you suspect that thevolunteer numbers for your working party - offor any other aspect of WRG that you are in-volved in - hasn't been included in the total,phone him on 07968 334358 or e-mail him [email protected]

And please do it as soon as possible, preferablyby 1st January, as the next issue will contain thefinal total for the year.

Buy a fender and help WRG!

That's a boat fender by the way - we haven'tmanaged to arrange a sponsorship deal with theFender electric guitar company yet!

Anyway all you boatingWRGiesmight like to knowthat Lloyd Clarke, who trades under the name ofThe Fenderman, has generously agreed tomakea donation to WRG for every one of his range ofquality Sisal fenders and DIY fender kits that hesells.

He will give us 25p for every side fender, £1.00for every bow or stern fender and 50p for everyDIY fender kit.

For full details of his product range, prices andan order form, contact him at 9 Home Close,Blisworth, Northamton NN7 3DJ, telephone07941-033956 or contact him by e-mail [email protected].

Christmas Camp latest info

The Alderman Brothers Christmas camp on theBasingstoke will be running from 23rd Decemberuntil 1st January, and not as stated in the previous'Navvies' - although there is of course no compul-sion for to attend the entire duration of the Camp.

Work will be clearance of really good dense scrubon the embankments of the Basingstoke aroundFleet, very similar to the LWRG / KESCRGChrist-mas Party last year.

Accommodation is in a brand new hall in thebrand new Elvetham Heath development on thenorth side of Fleet. The hall will be (when it iscompleted in the next couple of weeks!) 4 star,or 5 star minus showers, and is huge.

The camp costs £5 a day. The theme for NewYears Eve is "Stars of Screen and Radio", andthere will be an extra £5 charge to cover theevening.

Please let Clive, Garry, or Karen know when youwill be around.

Clive: Tel: 07973 877380.

Garry and Karen: 48 Southfield Road,Broadwater,WorthingWest SussexBN14 9EH.Tel: 01903 212628

Lost Property

The editor seems to have ended up with a size-able quantity of lost property from various of thisyear's camps, 'WRG Works' and other events.

If you've lost a towel, rugby jumper, boots or any-thing else, please phone or e-mail the editor (seep2) with a description. If we have it, we'll return it. Ifnot, we'll put a 'wanted' ad in the next 'Navvies' for it.

Join Telecomplus and help WRG!

Downstream Ltd. is a small company run by long-serving North West WRGie (and maintainer ofthe 'Navvies' subscriptions database) EddLeetham and his wife Nancy Cleeve.

The company is an official distributor forTelecomplus which is a 'bulk buying club' for tel-ephone calls, whose members get phone callsat 'wholesale' prices. If your bill is over £50 youmay well benefit - and so will WRG, as they get a£10 donation for every new customer - and if youdon't benefit, there's a money-back trial period.

Contact Edd on 01270 625125 or [email protected] for details.

Bits & Pieces...including the 'sits vac'column...

Situations vacant...

1: "Take me to your leader!"

As mentioned by Mike in his Chairman's Comment, we are in the process of planningthe 2001 Canal Camps programme. And one important aspect of this planning isappointing the Camp Leaders and Assistant Leaders for all of the Camps.

Adrian Fry and Gavin Moor will be in charge of this job, and no doubt all the 'usualsuspects' will be receiving a call from them in due course.

But why not make their day - and make their job easier - by contacting them yourselfand volunteering to lead one of next year's Camps?

Gavin Moor: 07970 989 245 or e-mail [email protected] Fry: 07976 640 962 or e-mail [email protected].

2: "WFY @ MK"

IWA's National Waterways Festivals need a Team Leader to run the 'Waterways for Youth'Feature at the Milton Keynes National. Its a Fun Job.

Anyone interested please contact Barry Green on 01508 499519.

The 2001 National Cleanup Weekend...

...will be happening on the usual weekend of 24-25 March (subject to confirmation), but by way ofa change it won't be on the Birmingham CanalNavigations this year. After 4 years on the BCN,the Cleanup is heading north for the Ashton Ca-nal on the east side of Manchester.

The Ashton was the scene of some of WRG'searliest achievments when it was restored in theearly 1970s to recreate the Cheshire Ring; un-fortunately being a typical urban waterway it hasattracted its share of rubbish since then. But theCleanup isn't just about keeping urban waterwaysnavigable for their own sake - important thoughthat is - it's also preparing the Ashton for the stra-tegic role it will have as a central link in the SouthPennine waterways network that will soon be-come a reality when the Rochdale and Hudders-field Canals reopen throughout within the nextcouple of years.

Wewould like asmany as possible of the regionalgroups to support this important working party,with Canal Campers and regular WRG weekendvolunteers working alongside volunteers from thelocal IWAbranches and canal societies to achievethe sort of impact that has benefited the BCN somuch in recent years.

Please note the date, see the next 'Navvies' formore details and for further information contactVaughan Welch on 0121 477 9782.

WRGwear

Helen Gardner has asked me to point out that the'WRGwear' page in the last issue wasn't just foryour entertainment - shedoesgenuinely haveWRGT-shirts, vests for sale. Surely there must be morethan one person in WRG who wants to buy one!

Coming next time: WRG sweatshirts and Rugbyshirts. In the meantime, enquiries aboutWRGwear to Helen Gardner on 07785 925 164or e-mail [email protected].

Volunteers needed on the Chesterfield - soon

Formobile groups looking for a new venue - Ches-terfield Canal Trust hope to be starting a projectto build a substantial new foot-bridge at Staveleywhich should appeal to those groups with brick-laying skills. More details in a future issue, but ifyou're interested please contact Dave France at54 Hambleton Ave, N. Wingfield, ChesterfieldS42 5LT, tel 01246 856122.

Bits & Pieces...including the Book Reviewscolumn...

For your bookshelf...'Over and OverAgain' by Nigel Bailey.For those of you who would like to re-live the last year, 'Over and OverAgain: 750 years of change at Over'is a book describing the history of the Over area. It covers the building of the canal, some rather less familiarhistory including themills, bridges and vineyards that have been there in the past, and somemore recent and(for many of us in WRG) much more familiar history: the recreation of the canal basin.Written by one of Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust's own volunteers, and published to coincidewith the Official Opening of the basin, the book costs £6.00 plus £1.00 postage & packing, and all proceedsgo to support the H&G Canal Trust.Send your cheque for £7 - or $10 in the USA - (payable to Nigel Bailey) to NJ Bailey, 30 Fieldfare,Abbeydale, Gloucester GL4 4WF.'Curry on Canals' by Keith NobleFor some inexplicable reason, a large proportion of WRGies seem to be very keen on Indian food. For a(possibly) slightly more explicable reason, a similarly sizeableWRG contingent enjoy canal boating. Somemust inevitably like both - and 'Curry on Canals: a guide for waterway users with an urge to eat curry' is thebook for them. It doesn't try to give advice on such subjective things as the quality of food: instead, it doesits best to list - in alphabetical order of waterway names - the address and phone number of every curryestablishment (restaurant or take-away) within reach of navigable water.All proceeds go to the Calder Navigation Society, and the Guide is available from them for £2.75 includingpostage and packing from them at The Dene, Triangle, Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire HX6 3EA.They also welcome corrections or information on new canal-accessible curry-houses, sent to the same ad-dress or by e-mail to [email protected].

Our grateful thanks...

...to the three people who have generously do-nated towards the cost of printing the special 30thAnniversary edition of 'Navvies'. These dona-tions, about 50% of the total, are in memory ofRichard Bird, who for many years helped to raisethousands of pounds which enabledWRG to pur-chase the excavator 'Blue' and to assist in upgrading the vehicle fleet, including the utility van'RFB' whose registration commemorates Rich-ard's name.

Boost for Droitwich and Wendover

The IWA has announced two grants fo canal res-toration of around £100,000 each from legaciesthat have been left to IWA recently. The Neil PittsAward will go to the Droitwich Canal for comple-tion of the Junction Locks 1-3 at Hanbury. The TimWilkinsonAward will go to theWendoverArmTrustto extend the navigable length including creatinga 72ft turning point at the end. Both of these grantsrely on volunteer labour for much of the work, soplenty of work for volunteers on both or them!

New on the 'net...

See http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk and fol-low the links to 'canal restoration' for (a) somepictures of Frankton on the Mont in the 1970sbefore restoration started, (b) some similar-vin-tage pictures of Norbury on the SU Newport Armwhen restoration would have been a lot easierthan the rather daunting task it is now, and (c)some pictures of the present state of the entirecurrently-unnavigable length of the Rochdale, toshow what's going to be achieved in the next 18months of restoration - and maybe give somehope to the people who are just setting out tohave another go at restoring the SUNewportArm.

See http://www.driffieldnavigation.co.uk for newsof the Driffield Navigation in Yorkshire.

WRG Training Weekend 2001

...is definitely on, and Vetus Marine have offeredto sponsor it. In fact, we might even hold morethan one training weekend in 2001. See the nextissues for more information.

Thank you...

...toWaterwaysWorld forCampsbookletsponsorship.

And finally...

Thank you to all who have helped 'Navvies' in2000, whether by writing, sending photos, help-ing with assembly, subscriptions or whatever.Happy Christmas and all the best for 2001.

Registered in Englandno 1599204

Directors :

John Baylis, MalcolmBridge, Roger Burchett,Ray Carter, ChristopherDavey, Helen Davey,Roger Day, RichardDrake, Neil Edwards,John Hawkins, JudithMoore, Michael Palmer,Jonathan Smith.

Secretary:

Christopher Davey

VAT reg. no : 285 1387 37

terest. Nothing printedmaybeconstruedaspolicy or anofficial announcement un-less so stated - otherwiseWRG and IWAaccept no li-ability for any matter in thismagazine.© 2000 WRG ltdISSN 0953-6655Waterway Recovery GroupLtd is a subsidiary of the In-landWaterwaysAssociation(a registered charity).Registered office:3 Norfolk Court, Norfolk Rd.Rickmansworth WD3 1LTtel : 01923 711114

Navvies ProductionNavvies is published byWaterwayRecoveryGroupLtd, PO Box 114, Rick-mansworthWD3 1ZYandis available to all interestedin promoting the restorationand conservation of inlandwaterways by voluntary ef-fort inGreat Britain. Articlesmaybe reproduced in alliedmagazinesprovidedthat thesource is acknowledged.WRG may not agree withopinions expressed in thismagazine, but encouragespublicationasamatterof in-

Editor : Martin Ludgate35 Silvester RoadEast DulwichLondon SE22 9PB020-8693 3266Subscriptions / circulationSue Watts15 Eleanor RoadChorlton-cum-HardyManchester M21 9FZPrinting and assembly:John & Tess Hawkins4 Links Way, Croxley GrnRickmansworth, HertsWD3 3RQWatford (01923) 448559

TheWRGCanalCamps mobilephones:

07850 422156 (A)and

07850 422157 (B)

Noticeboard

For up-to-date information by e-mail aboutcanal restoration matters, subscribe to the:

Canal Restoration Mailing ListTo subscribe, simply send a blank e-mail to:[email protected] you've subscribed, any message yousend to [email protected] sent to all the other subscribers.

Moving house...Mike Palmer and Jude Moore are moving to:3 Finwood Road, Rowington, Warwick-shire CV35 8DH. Phone number next time.Neil Edwards has moved to:16 Tyneham Close Aylesbury HP21 9XAIzzy Gascoigne has moved to:333 Crewe Road, Wheelock, Cheshire,CW11 4QBViv West has a new e-mail address:[email protected] does Lou Kellett:[email protected] Tom Jeffries:[email protected]

WRGOMETER4 8 34

person-days work byWRG so far this year

S t a m p sw a n t e d

Send all your used post-age stamps, cigaretteand petrol coupons andold phone cards to IWA/WRG Stamp Bank, 33,Hambleton Grove,Emerson Valley, MiltonKeynesMK42JS.Allpro-ceedstocanal restoration.

MAGAZINESOffers invited for avirtually complete set of 'Nav-vies' from issue 1 in 1966.

ContactJimWoolgarat37SheldonRoad, Ickford,Aylesbury,Bucks.

Donation to 'Navvies'.

For individual back-issues of all canalmagazinesincluding 'Canal Boat', 'Canal and Riverboat','WaterwaysWorld', 'Navvies' and 'Waterways'(all proceeds to WRG) contact SheelahLockwood: phone 01908 675255.

page 33

Onlyonemoreissuetogo

-send

yourfiguresintoMarcus(seep30)

On the Twelfth day of the Christmas Camp, Logistics sent to me....

Twelve Dumpers Dumping... ...Eleven Pipers Piping...

...Ten Lords A-leaping... ...Nine Ladies Dancing...

...Eight Maids A-milking... ...Seven Swans A-swimming...

..Five Gold Things...

...Three French Hens...

...Two Purple Gloves... ...and a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

...Four Calling Birds...

...Six Geese A-laying (*)...

(*) Whoops Sorry, make that five ...MKP

BackfillWhat has Jonathan Smithbeen up to?

An image problem? (1)

From the 'Motor Boat and Yachting' guide to Lifeon-line:

"http://www.waterways.org.uk: the home site of theInlandWaterwaysAssociation. Links to theWater-way Recovery Group and other scary people..."

An image problem? (2)

From the Radio Times:

"Thus we spent the whole of The Remorseful Dayjust waiting for Inspector Morse to die. ... He took tostaring meaningfully into stretches of Britain's in-land waterways, a sure sign that mortality is puttingout the milk bottles and cancelling the papers..."

Seen at Waltham Abbey festival...

Thank you to Neil Evans (1)...

...for this photo of a sign which might conceivablybe useful as an addition to the Canal Camps ac-commodation signs supplied by WRG Logistics.

Thank you to Neil Evans (2)...

...for a series of photos showing whatWRG boardmembers get up to in their spare time. This isone of the more printable ones; as for the oth-ers... let's just say that - as with the 1999 Reun-ion Dig - it's a case of 'Pant's off'...

And finally...

Season's greetings from 'Martian Floodgates' toall our readers and contributors, including:

Bogs, Wobbly, Mole, Bushbaby, Mucky, all theGrimms, Dizzy, Womble, Timmy Ducksquasher,GreatUncleBulgaria, Bro, Fagin,WayOut, Six-pack,Chisel, Beefcake, Crabs, Big Boy, Cornish Pasty-Head, Bungle, Steve Bollocks, Colonel Mustard,Wonderbra and the Incredible Bullshitting Man.

...an appropriate selection of books on the WRGNorth West bric-a-brac stall.

Seen on the side of a BW trailer at Aston...

The latest 'Waterways for All' design - canals forboaters, cyclists, walkers and... err... Armalite-toting tin-hat wearing urban guerrillas? Hassomeone been on the BCN lately maybe?

navvies 184

Documents

canal camps booklet

years camps

editorialcanal camps

diary camps

london wrg weekend

canal societies

fillthe canal

wrg board