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Issue No 267October-November

2014

Issue No 267October-November

2014

Focus on theChesterfield

Canal

Focus on theChesterfield

Canal

Plus camp reports:Cromford, Cotswold, Basingstoke, ‘Driff-Pock’

Plus camp reports:Cromford, Cotswold, Basingstoke, ‘Driff-Pock’

Ralp

h M

ills

Visit our web site

www.wrg.org.uk or find

Waterway Recovery Group

on Facebook for all the latest

news of WRG's activities

Comment some questions to answer 4-6Coming soon Christmas camps 7Feature the Chesterfield Canal 8-29Camp reports Cromford, Swansea andBasingstoke canals 20-29Diary canal camps, weekend digs, CRTand IWA one-day working parties 30-35Caldon40 reopening anniversary 36-37Progress roundup 28-40Letters what’s that in Somerset? 41Camp reports Cotswold and the combinedDriffield and Pocklington 42-49WRG BC the Shackerstone disaster 50-52Training report from the Wilts & Berks 53Driver Authorisation refresher 54-55Noticeboard lots of new arrivals 56Infill the least inspiring canal 57Tess Hawkins an appreciation 58-59

Contributions...

...are always welcome, whether handwritten,typed, on CD, DVD or by email.

Photos welcome: digital, slides,prints. Please say if you want prints back.Digital pics are welcome as email attach-ments, preferably JPG, but if you have a lotof large files it’s best to send them on CD orDVD or to contact the editor first.

Contributions by post to the editorMartin Ludgate, 35, Silvester Road,London SE22 9PB, or by email [email protected].

Press date for issue 268: 1 November.

Subscriptions

A year's subscription (6 issues) is availablefor a minimum of £3.00 to Sue Watts, 15Eleanor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy,Manchester M21 9FZ. Cheques payable to"Waterway Recovery Group" please.

This is a minimum subscription, thateveryone can afford. Please add a donation.

ContentsIn this issue...

Production

Editor: Martin Ludgate, 35 Silvester Road,East Dulwich London SE22 9PB020-8693 3266 [email protected]

Subscriptions: Sue Watts, 15 Eleanor Rd.,Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9FZ

Printing and assembly: John & TessHawkins, 4 Links Way, Croxley Green,Rickmansworth, Herts WD3 3RQ01923 448559 [email protected]

Navvies is published by Waterway RecoveryGroup, Island House, Moor Rd., CheshamHP5 1WA and is available to all interested inpromoting the restoration and conservationof inland waterways by voluntary effort inGreat Britain. Articles may be reproduced inallied magazines provided that the source isacknowledged. WRG may not agree withopinions expressed in this magazine, butencourages publication as a matter of inter-est. Nothing printed may be construed aspolicy or an official announcement unless sostated - otherwise WRG and IWA accept noliability for any matter in this magazine.

Waterway Recovery Group is part of TheInland Waterways Association, (registeredoffice: Island House, Moor Road, CheshamHP5 1WA), a non-profit distributing companylimited by guarantee, registered in England no612245, and registered as a charity no212342. VAT registration no 342 0715 89.

Directors of WRG: Rick Barnes, JohnBaylis, George Eycott, Helen Gardner, JohnHawkins, Dave Hearnden, Jude Palmer, MikePalmer, Jonathan Smith, Harry Watts.

ISSN: 0953-6655 © 2014 WRG

Photos on opposite page taken on summer camps at (clockwise from top left) Swansea,Bowbridge, Newport, Basingstoke, Inglesham, Lancaster. Front cover: Chesterfield Canal atStaveley (see feature, p8-19) Back cover top: Caldon 40 celebrations, with survivors ofthe 1974 reopening at the left Bottom: London WRG on the Somersetshire Coal Canal

CommentA few questions...

What will we do if

somebody offers

us 100 million to

restore a few

canals?

Not-the-Chairman’s Comment

Mike Palmer’s away on holiday as I finish thisissue, so instead of his Chairman’s Commentyou’ve got some ramblings from your editor,followed by a ‘guest comment’ from one ofour camp leaders. Both of us are asking afew questions - so feel free to write in withyour views, suggestions, arguments or what-ever, and let’s see if we can get some discus-sions going. It’s what our Letters page is for.

We’ll start with the most general ques-tion about canal restoration, and work downtowards the nitty-gritty of WRG organisation.And the most general question is...

Are we ready?

That’s ‘we’, the waterway restoration move-ment in general. Not far short of two dec-ades ago, the National Lottery was first onthe scene and ready to dish out large wedgesof cash to deserving causes. One of the firstthings it did was set up the Millennium Fund- and waterways did rather well out of it. TheRochdale, Huddersfield, Scottish LowlandCanals (Forth & Clyde and Union) and theRibble Link were all completed faster thananyone had hoped, thanks to the MillenniumFund (plus matching funding from elsewhere- mainly regeneration type grants).

Since then the canalshaven’t done badly by any meas-ure - the Heritage Lottery Fundhas paid a large chunk of themoney to finish the Droitwich, isproviding the half the funding forthe current Cotswold Phase 1project, and has awarded manysmaller grants. But there hasn’tbeen anything quite the same asthe Millennium, when somethingapproaching 100 million of Lot-tery money led to the opening ofover 100 miles of canal. Not thatI’m complaining that we’re beinghard done by - canals have stilldone better for funding post-

Millennium than pre-Millennium. It’s just thatthere’s been the odd rumour that in thecoming years the Lottery might be going foranother Millennium-type programme ofmajor, eye-catching, landmark, iconic (insertcurrent buzzword adjective here) projects.

And having heard these rumours, Istarted worrying: if it does happen, will thecanals be ready for it? I’m not knocking thecurrent schemes here, it’s just that we’vebeen continually moving on to restoringcanals that are more and more difficult, aseach canal is completed. So how manycurrent projects are there that would (a)appeal to a funder looking for ‘landmark’schemes and (b) be at the point where a fullpackage to complete them can be put to-gether and carried out within five years ofthe money becoming available and (c) becapable of being completed with the sort ofmoney likely to be available? And if therearen’t many, what can we, the volunteerrestoration movement, do to help more ofthem get to that point?

How do we choose?

And that leads on to another more immedi-ate question. Our summer Canal Camps areoversubscribed - not just in terms of morevolunteers than camps, but also in terms of

Standedge, Millennium success. Could the same happen again?

Mart

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Comment...and a few more...

“I challenge the notion that

WRG can’t handle the

expanded camp schedule.

But I believe we need to

think outside the box.”

more canal societies asking to host morecamps than we have the resources to sup-port. A chance remark in a discussion about2015 camps led me to wonder - how shouldwe decide between them? Support the oneswith the biggest chance of getting to thepoint where the Lottery might be able tothrow twenty million into completing them(as per above)? Or support those that appearto have rather less rosy prospects, on thegrounds that they need our help the most?Support as many as we can? Or concentrateon making a real difference to a few?

How do we make it work?

In this case I’m back to ‘we’ meaning thewhole movement - ourselves, the canalsocieties, IWA, local authorities and theCanal & River Trust (CRT). One of the campreports in this issue is somewhat critical ofCRT’s dealings with the camp. I make noapology for printing it, warts-and-all - afterall, what use is there in printing a reportsaying that everything went swimmingly if itdidn’t? But I also get no pleasure from this -I’m not a ‘told you so’ CRT-basher. I knowwe’ve worked well with CRT and its predeces-sor BW on many occasions. It’s deeply frustrat-ing that (especially when we have tricky ques-tions like the previous two to answer, in thecontext of not having the resources to supportall the restoration work we would like to), wewaste effort because we can’t seem to man-age to work together to run a canal camp.

But whilst the author makes it clear (andI’ve no reason to doubt him) where he feelsthe responsibility lies, there’s no harm in uslooking at whether WRG can do things bettertoo. Which is where I hand over to campleader Sophie Smith to ask the final question...

Martin Ludgate

Can WRG handle Kit C?

“I don’t think WRG can handle Kit C”, anexperienced WRGie said to me on a campthis summer. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking

about that statement since. His point was notthat WRG lacks leaders, assistants or cooksbut that there aren’t enough MUPs [‘MUP’ =‘Most Useful Person’ - an experienced volun-teer who is able and willing to take the pres-sure off the leaders by helping them withwhatever they need helping with] to goaround, now that we’ve expanded thenumber of camps we’re running to include athird circuit - in other words, running threeweek-long camps at the same time for muchof this summer’s programme.

It’s certainly true that having an experi-enced WRGie or two on your camp is veryvaluable. Having a few people around whoknow the routines and procedures of a campreally helps reduce the workload for leadersand makes it easier to delegate jobs withouthaving to explain them in detail. This isn’tonly on site. Trivial things such as fillingwater containers get done more smoothlywhen there are experienced WRGies around.

The main problem

A WRG camp can be very, very draining. It’sa tough week for any participant and it’s aserious undertaking for anyone in the leader-ship team. I find it hugely satisfying to beinvolved in running camps but I hesitate tocommit because it is so very demanding.

I’m also aware that I’m not the onlyone who hesitates to help out more becauseof the demands it places on you. In somecases people haven’t got the stamina or theholiday allowance for a full week.

I challenge the notion that WRG can’thandle the expanded camp schedule. But Ibelieve we need to think outside the box. I’vecome up with some ideas to help us stretchour experience across the expanded pro-gramme – have you any ideas to share?

‘Visiting MUPs’

My suggestion is to try and spread the moreexperienced WRGies around a bit more.What I am proposing is for experienced

WRGies to be invited to join camps for the startof the week to kick things off. It’s terrific if theycan do the full week, but having that experi-ence on hand for the first few working days isenough to get the camp off to a good start andset the tone for the rest of the week.

I propose the role of ‘visiting MUP’would last from Saturday afternoon to Mon-day night. This covers the first two days onsite, gets the camp moving and sets the tonefor inexperienced volunteers in terms of sitesafety and the domestic routine.

It’s important that we make it clearthese are a LIMITED number of spaces delib-erately reserved for part-time volunteers. Wedon’t want a situation where too many peo-ple are booking on and taking places thatwould otherwise be occupied by volunteerswho were there for the week. This wouldleave the camp unexpectedly short of people.The number of ‘part time’ roles needs to bepre-agreed with the leadership team.

From speaking to several WRGies, Iknow there are several who don’t feel able tocommit to a full week for a variety of reasons.The visiting MUP role would bring in experi-enced WRGies who don’t feel they can handle afull week’s camp for whatever reason.

‘Power Cooks’

I’ve noticed a particular lack of cooks thisyear. It’s very difficult to run a camp withouta cook because you do need that domesticsupport.

One of the Inglesham camps was inneed of a cook this year. I wasn’t able to helpthem out for the full week, so instead I

joined for two days and prepared meals forfour days. It was a tough few days in thekitchen but it meant most of the catering andshopping for the week was done and oneless thing for the leaders to worry about. I’maware other cooks have tried somethingsimilar this year too.

I’ll try and put together a proposed‘Power Cook’ plan of action so camps thatfind themselves without a cook can at leastget this boost at the start of the week if theycan rope in the support at the beginning ofthe week. I’m prepared to help out at severalcamps next year by trying this again.

‘WRG bureaucrats’

I’ve run camps without an assistant leader ona few occasions and the paperwork is aserious drain on time.

What I propose is to create a role for apart-time administrator who could swing bythe camp to handle all the necessary fridgetemperature checks and van checks, gothrough the hygiene requirements with thecook etc. This would suit some WRGies whoaren’t physically fit enough to assist with acamp but still want to help out.

Feedback welcome

All of these ideas are based on one idea: notmaking experienced WRGies commit to awhole week. Whilst it’s always preferablehave a full team over the week’s camp, thereare experienced WRGies who could partici-pate more if we removed the obligation todo so for a whole week. To respond to the

demands of Kit C, we need tospread our resources aroundbetter.

Has anyone any furtherideas for how WRG can adapt tomeet the challenges of Kit C?

Sophie Smith

Editor’s note: before all youregular leaders say so, I knowone or two of these ideas havealready been aired either at theWRG committee meeting or theleader training day, but I thinkSophie’s ideas deserve a wideraudience. Please feel free -whether you’re an old hand, anew volunteer, or whatever - tocomment on these thoughts.

The recent project to restore Black Jack’s Bridge on the GrandUnion: a fine example of WRG / CRT working well together

Gem

ma B

olton

WRG Reunion Bonfire Bash: Chesterfield Canal 8 - 9 November

We won’t say much about this here (other than to remind you that it’s happening and that ifyou want to come, then you’ll need to book on) because we’ve got a two-page spread aboutit including a booking form on pages 18-19 as part of our 12-page special Chesterfield feature.

KESCRG / London WRG Xmas dig: Thames & Medway 23-24 Nov

Led jointly by London WRG and KESCRG, but with anyone and everyone welcome to attend,this annual joint scrub-bash and festive shindig is happening a couple of weeks earlier thanusual. That’s to fit in with the availability of accommodation at a brand-new venue for bothgroups, the Thames & Medway Canal. We’ve been promised ‘a good length’ with ‘a lot to getour teeth stuck into’, working on the canal heading eastwards from Gravesend. We’re con-tinuing the work from a section that’s already been cleared and rewatered, making it a veryworthwhile project. The accommodation is at Higham Memorial Hall, School Lane, HighamME3 7JL - but as we don’t get access until 10.30pm on Friday some folks will be meeting acouple of miles away at the Copperfield pub in Gravesend Road, Shorne DA12 3JW first.

As ever there is a fancy dress party and fun & games on Saturday evening - this beingthe first time in living memory that KESCRG (which nominally stands for ‘Kent & East SussexCanal Restoration Group’) have actually worked in Kent, the theme is anything to do withKent. We’ll also be remembering the late great Brian Amos (see obituary, Navvies 226) asthis was his local canal, so bring your memories of Brian, and if any of you can bring anyhome-made wine that’s half as dangerous as Brian’s was, then, frankly, we’ll be surprised.

To book, send a cheque for £17 (pay KESCRG) to Stephen Davis, 85 Gally Hill Road,Church Crookham, Fleet GU52 6RU and remember to mention any dietary requirements.Contact Stephen on [email protected] for further information.

Cotswold Christmas Camp, 26 Dec - 1 Jan

WRG’s Christmas / New Year canal camp this year is on the Cotswold Canals, and will prob-ably involve a fair amount of scrub-bashing plus quite likely some other work too. We’ll bebased at the Stroud end of the canal, with the accommodation at the spacious BrimscombePort, and ‘RAF Martin’ Thompson is the leader. Book for this one in the usual way viawww.wrg.org.uk or contact head office on 01494 783453 or [email protected].

Wilts & Berks Christmas Camp, 26 Dec - 1 Jan

Rachael Banyard writes: We shall be holding a camp at Dauntsey from 26 December to 1January. There will be a variety of work - investigating and sealing a leak above the lockwith bentomat, levelling the towpath with an excavator, widening the towpath and replantingif necessary, felling a few trees and trimming the rest of the hedge, so bonfires...

Accommodation will be the warm and cosy Foxham Reading Rooms, and we’ll bedelighted to see anyone who would like to join us. Now that the Wilts & Berks Canal Trusthas purchased the Peterborough Arms beside the lock, we are trying to get the canal fin-ished and tidy. Please ring Rachael Banyard 01249 892289 or 07767 895244 or [email protected].

See the WRG website and Facebook group for further details of all canal camps.

Coming soonReunion and Christmas

Have you booked for the

Reunion Bonfire Bash on

the Chesterfield? If not, and

you want to come, send off

the form on page 19 now!

Focus on the Chesterfield CanalWith two camps last summer, the Reunion Bonfire Bash coming up,

plans for camps next year, weekend visits by WRG regional groups,

and regular working parties every weekend by the Chesterfield

Canal Trust’s own volunteer team, the Chesterfield Canal is seeing a

lot of attention at the moment. So what’s it all about, then?

What is it about the Chesterfield Canal?

Basically it’s a good restoration project, it’s been moving on at a cracking pace recently, withthe volunteers shifting up a gear and taking on some major projects, it’s got a good chanceof making some real progress in the future - and at the same time, it’s facing threats thatcould bring the whole lot to a grinding halt.

A good project? Aren’t they all good projects? Well, yes - I’m always wary of any ideaof ranking restoration projects in league tables. But the Chesterfield’s 46 mile route reallydoes have it all - some splendid rural wateray meandering through rural Nottinghamshire, astiff climb up to Norwood that involves more locks in a mile than anywhere else in the coun-try, lots of waterways heritage including a 2-mile tunnel (although we’re not sure exactlyhow long it will end up!), some ex-industrial areas that would benefit from the boost that arestored canal could bring, and a terminusright on the edge of the Peak District. Oh,and a long-term plan to create a new linkdown the Rother Valley and create a newcruising ring.

It’s not an easy restoration: not onlyhas it been hit by the usual problems ofroads and buildings constructed on the routesince it shut, but it also suffers from thesubsidence problems that were the downsideof the coal trade which it served. Reopeningwill include diversions, lots of new locks, anew higher summit level, and a new termi-nus. But the first of those locks is nearingcompletion, a five-mile isolated length at theChesterfield end has been restored largely byvolunteers, and another six-mile length above Worksop was reopened over a decade agothanks to regeneration funding grants for ex-industrial areas.

The ‘missing link’ still to be restored is now down to nine miles. It’s the toughest ninemiles, of course, but with support from the local authorities, heritage bodies, regenerationgroups, and of course the CCT volunteers backed by WRG, it’s set to make real progress.

Or rather, it was. I mentioned a threat on the horizon, and yes, it’s that bloody railwayagain. Now I’d be a hypocrite if I slagged off railways in general when I use them so muchmyself - after all, I don’t think Navvies would ever get finished if I couldn’t work on mylaptop on the train. But does HS2 really have to slice through five of the nine miles of theChesterfield’s ‘missing link’, flattening historic features, destroying lengths already cleared,making restoration far harder and (already) ruining CCT’s chances of getting funding grants?

Well actually there are recent signs that perhaps it doesn’t. But it’s up to us to keep thepressure on. And one of the best ways of doing that is to keep restoring the canal.

That’s the short answer to the above question. Read the following pages for the long one.

Book now for the Chesterfield Canal WRG Reunion...

Restored lock above Worksop

Mart

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A Navvies special feature

Chesterfield

Killamarsh

Worksop

Retford

Staveley

W Stockwith

Staveley toChesterfieldrestored: 5miles 5 locks

Kiveton to Staveleyunnavigable ‘missing link’including current restora-tion sites: 9 miles 14locks (orginally)

Kiveton

Worksop to Kivetonrestored and reopened in2002: 6 miles 31 locks(inlcuding 1 extra added)

West Stockwithto Worksopsaved from closurein 1960s: 26 miles16 locks

River Trentto Nottingham

River Trentto the Humber

NorwoodTunnel

The Chesterfield Canal: where is it?

If you look at the map below, you’ll see that the Chesterfield Canal isn’t one of the moredirect of waterways. It leaves the Trent at West Stockwith, heads westwards, then south-wards a little, then even wanders eastwards a little bit before finally making its mind up andheading westwards towardsRetford and Worksop. Or, toput it another way, it’s atypically early contour canalwhich followed the lie of theland, avoiding heavyearthworks where possible atthe cost of a longer route.

A very gentle climbacross north Nottinghamshiresteepens as it passes Retfordand heads for Worksop wherethe real climbing begins.Thirty locks (most of thembuilt as staircases) bring it tothe summit at Norwood,where a 2884-yard tunnel isfollowed by an equally steepdescent to Kiveton.

There the locks come toan end, and originally the canal went back to following the contours again -but when the Great Central Railway was built in the late 19th Century, toavoid the need for a large number of bridges where it repeatedly crossedthe canal’s winding route, the canal was straightened in several places.Finally, the canal begins climbing again, with five locks raising itup the Rother Valley toTapton, where it mergeswith the Rother for therun in to the terminusnot far from Chesterfieldtown centre.

DrakeholesTunnel

...note the date 8-9 November and see pages 18-19 for details

The straddle warehouse spans the canal in Worksop

Mart

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Otherwise uncredited parts of

this feature are by the editor

Focus on the Chesterfield CanalThe Chesterfield Canal: the restoration story

If the brief description of the restoration on the previous pages made it sound a trickyproject, it could have been a whole lot worse - and it’s largely thanks to the Retford &Worksop Boat Club that it isn’t.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s the Chesterfield was at a very low ebb. NorwoodTunnel had long since fallen in, a victim of coal mining subsidence, and the canal beyondhad been closed for many years. The final freight traffic on the surviving eastern part of thecanal had ended, the length leading up to the tunnel was already unnavigable, and the restlooked set to follow soon. The British Transport Commission and its successors British Wa-terways considered abandoning it.

However a few pioneering leisure boaters had started to cruise the canal (sometimeswith difficulty), they formed the RWBC which campaigned vigorously to keep it open whileBW agreed to a stay of execution, and the upshot was that under the 1968 Transport Act thesurviving 26 miles from the Trent via Retford to Worksop were classified as ‘cruiseway’(rather than ‘remainder’ - to be dealt with as cheaply as possible) and their future was se-cured.

Come the mid-1970s, attention turned to the derelict 20 miles west of Worksop. Ches-terfield Canal Society (now Chesterfield Canal Trust) was formed in 1976 to push for com-plete reopening - initially concentrating on extending the navigable length by restoring thesix miles from Worksop to Norwood Tunnel.

Unfortunately while BW didn’t actually oppose these aims, its support didn’t extend topermitting any volunteers to work on restoring this section. So despite various reports,meetings, discussions and agreements (which did have the positive benefit of preventingfurther obstructions - for example the new Worksop bypass bridged the canal with full navi-gable headroom) nothing much practical was done towards restoring it.

Eventually, in frustration the Canal Society looked elsewhere - to the isolated, long-abandoned lengths beyond the collapsed Norwood Tunnel. This part was considerably moreknocked-about and hard to restore, but at least it had been sold-off by BW so they couldn’tstop volunteers restoring it. And that’swhat happened - from the late 1980sto the late 1990s CCT (often supportedby WRG) restored and reopened thefinal five miles and five locks fromStaveley to Chesterfield, which had theadvantage of having been retained as awater supply to industry, meaning thatat least the channel hadn’t been filledin. Not that it was easy, though - anew lock had to be built to replace onelost to opencast mining.

While the volunteers were busy atthe west end, things finally got movingon the Worksop to Norwood length.Following the demise of thecoalmining industry, a special fund setup to support ex-mining areas pro-vided a source of money to reopen thislength - and the first boats reachedNorwood Tunnel’s eastern portal in2002. First boat into Staveley Town Basin, January 2012

Mart

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Restoration: the story so farAnd meanwhile the volunteers rebuilt the next length of canal at Staveley, leading to

the site of a proposed new town basin (which has now been built by contractors) as well ascarrying out clearance and bridge rebuilding in the Renishaw area.

Then it all got harder. The unnavigable gap is down to nine miles, but includes:

. Norwood Tunnel - a good two-thirds of which has been wrecked by mining

. Killamarsh - with 17 houses built on the line while the canal was abandoned

. Staveley - where a freight railway crossed the line with insufficient headroom

. Doe Lea - a major embankment across a stream, and the adjacent lengths of canal,have all suffered from subsidence

But all of these can be solved - and enineering feasibility studies have demonstrated how itcan be done. A planned diversion around the housing blocking the canal in Killamarsh in-volves two new flights oflocks: one taking the canaldown into a nearby lake,and the other bringing itback up to the originallevel. The current thinkingon Norwood Tunnel wouldsee the eastern third re-stored, then the next bitopened out into a cuttingwhere the canal wouldclimb three new locks totake it up to ground level.A further flight of newlocks would raise it to anew summit level, a farmcrossing would get it un-der the M1 motorway, anda final new set of lockswould bring it back downto meet the old route justpast the tunnel’s westernportal. A new aqueduct isproposed at Doe Lea. Andat Staveley a pair of new locks would allow the canal to drop down low enough to get underthe railway, and then bring it back up to the original level on the other side of the tracks.

And that’s what we’re doing now. WRG’s volunteers have been supporting CCT in build-ing Staveley Town Lock, the first of these two new locks, and creating the concrete channelwalls of the length between the two locks.

It’s a job that’s key to the whole restoration, for at least three reasons...

. Firstly, at the most practical level, it will extend the 5 mile navigable Chesterfield toStaveley section, and keep the whole restoration moving forwards.

. Secondly, it’s the first of what might be as many as 30 new locks needed to completethe restoration of the entire canal (making it one of the most heavily-locked on thenetwork) - so it’s building up skills that will be very useful in the future

. And thirdly, it’s vital in establishing a length of waterway in the area that’s most atthreat from the new HS2 railway. HS2? Ah yes, I was just coming to that...

The Missing

Link: 9 miles

left to restore

Navigable tothe Trent

Restored toChesterfield

Diversion planned withnew locks to avoid dam-aged parts of tunnel

East end oftunnelto be restored

Diversion planned with new locksto avoid houses built on the oldroute in Killamarsh

Original routeto be restored

New Doe Lea embankmentand aqueduct needed

New Staveley Town Basin built

New Staveley Town Lockunder construction

Another newlock needed

Norwood Locks to be restored

Camp report: Chesterfield Canal Camp 2nd – 9th August 2014

I hadn’t planned to attend a Chesterfield Canal Camp but Colin Hobbs, who was assisting,tempted me with heavy machinery.

On Saturday, volunteers arrived at the accommodation at Staveley Miners’ WelfareClub, which was a function room above a lively members’ bar (complete with cheap beerand lively karaoke/bingo nights).

A highlight of the first day was the essential and entertaining toolbox talk about thepotential pitfalls of the WRG toaster from George (Georgeous). The group then put on theirsteelies and hi-vis jackets and headed down to the site at the newly built Staveley Town Lock[see previous page ...Ed], where Camp leader Steve Baylis explained the work that would betaking place over the following week.

Planned work included blocklaying, demolition of a wall built last year (much to thedistress of George and Olivia who built it) to create a hole for a spillweir, as well as somedigger digging to create footings for side walls below the lock. A splinter group was alsotasked with finishing the steps on Constitution Hill Bridge.

After a tool count the group enjoyed bangers and mash followed by Eton mess cour-tesy of the lovely Georgeous.

Day two saw lots of training for the new volunteers which included three Duke of Edin-burgh’s Award students. Colin showed the group how to work the generator, set up themixer and mix mortar for the block-layers, and then provided a training session on using thebricksaw (all with appropriate PPE). A few of the group put on some rather attractive whiteoveralls and painted wing-walls with waterproofing bituminous paint. They did a lovely job.Demolition work also began to create space for a spillweir. The remote controlled Wackerplate also made an appearance before the tired group headed back for spaghetti and meat-

Focus on the Chesterfield Canal

Chesterfield Canal and HS2

The plans for the HS2 high speedrailway show it running on or close to the line

of the canal for much of the way from Staveley toKillamarsh. This would make it far more difficult and expensive torestore the canal, negate some work already done, and has resultedin the loss of a multi-million pound Heritage Lottery Fund grant tothe canal as a result of the uncertainty that it is causing - even thoughthis second phase of the railway won’t be built for many years.

Not only that, but the access line to a planned railway depot atStaveley is shown as crossing the canal exactly where the second newlock at Staveley is planned to be built. And yet a few simple changes tothe railway plans (basically moving it a few metres to the west) couldreduce its impact on the canal to something much more manageable.

The good news is that as we went to press, in response to pres-sure from IWA and CRT, the Government had just accepted a proposedchange to the route of the first phase of HS2 so that Fradley Junctionwhere the Coventry and Trent & Mersey canals meet won’t now beovershadowed by new railway viaducts. So the principle of amendingHS2 to reduce the impact on canals has now been established.

Will the same happen with the Chesterfield when HS2 phase twois debated? We can’t be sure. But it will surely help the arguments infavour if we get some water and boats in the canal in the meantime!

ToChesterfield

Staveley:HS2 depot onsite of newlocks

Renishaw:HS2 main linebuilt alongcanal route

Norwood

Killamarsh

Canal Camp report: the first weekballs cooked bythe lovely TinaHobbs.

Day threesaw four newDofE-ers join thegroup, who gotstuck into mixingmortar after atraining sessionfrom Colin. Blocklaying continuedin three separatelocations. Theymade progressbut there wasn’tenough singingfor my liking. Iworked on mypointing skills(and filled in thegaps...). Demoli-tion of one of thewing walls con-tinued to make way for a spillweir until a technical gremlin (relating to the Kango hammer)slowed progress. A group of the DofE-ers built and installed shuttering ready for a concretepour, before we all took a leisurely stroll along the canal back to the accommodation.

After dinner (cottage pie followed by rhubarb crumble – thanks to Michelle Baylis) themajority of the group went bowling. One of the DofE-ers, Harrison, kept bowling at morethan 20mph, much to the distress of the bowling lane speedometer. I lost. Steve won.

On day four, blocklaying, demolition and shuttering continued, and lots of earth mov-ing was carried out by Colin, in his air-conditioned digger (he dug a big hole). AndyPritchett consumed approximately eight cans of energy drink much to everyone’s concern(although he had a lovely time), leading George to ban energy substances from his Campthe following week. Chris found a traffic cone and put it on his head. Dinner included achicken and leek pie for dinner followed by bread and butter pudding.

Day five saw an early start for the group who were ready and setting up on site at8:30am. Shuttering was finished, ready for concrete pours in two separate locations andother work continued. We all particularly enjoyed Michelle’s lemon drizzle cake at break time.

The group packed up early to recharge their batteries and spend the afternoon atChatsworth House. We all bundled into the vans and headed into the Derbyshire Dales tovisit the home of the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire for a bit of culture. We admired thesculptures (!), searched for the elusive squirting tree, navigated the maze (those of us thatmanaged to find it), ate ice cream, saw the house, and sniggered at the painting of theheadless horse as well as the book about good-looking sheep. Chatsworth House providedfree entry for the group to the house and gardens so we would just like to say a huge thankyou for that. The group then headed to the scenic inland seaside town of Matlock Bath wherewe ate fish and chips, and drank questionable soft drinks full of E numbers (Although AndyPritchett seemed to be very happy once again!).

After our leisurely afternoon we were all raring to go on day six. The day started wellwith another fry-up courtesy of Georgeous. The group headed down to site and got every-

“some rather attractive white overalls” - ready for applying bitumen paint

thing set up, got some block laying, demolition, and digging underway, before enjoyingMichelle’s awesome blueberry cupcakes. Kate, Ruth and Charlene set up the table saw andcut grooves into bricks whileHarrison and Pablo mixed‘gobbo/plop’ for the blocklayers.Colin spent some more time inhis air-conditioned digger andfilled in the hole he dug earlier inthe week. Olivia joined theblocklaying team for the day andlaid more blocks than George.

After lunch a few of us hada taster session in one of thediggers. Colin gave us a briefintroduction to the controls, andthen we had a go at moving thebucket without upsetting theupright bricks that had beenplaced inside. Challenge accepted.

After a long day, the wingwalls at the bottom of the lockwere near completion and thesteps on Constitution Hill Bridgewere finished.

After showers, the grouphad chicken casserole withroasties, followed by rhubarbcrumble, jelly and ice cream ANDfruit salad. Then some of theDofE-ers set the smoke alarms offby burning popcorn and watchinga film.

Day seven was the final dayon site for the group. Despite adrizzly start to the day, moreprogress was made to the walls.One of the Chesterfield CanalTrust volunteers, Ralph, brought us Derbyshire delicacies - Bakewell tart and pudding - toenjoy at tea break. The group continued work until about 2pm before finishing for the week,posing for a group photo and eating lunch.

In the evening Chesterfield Canal Trust took a group of us on a boat trip along theCanal from Hollingwood Hub to Staveley Town Basin. Unfortunately it was pouring with rainbut that didn’t stop a few of us having a turn steering the boat (whilst getting soaked). Wethen headed back to Hollingwood Hub and enjoyed a buffet dinner with the Trust whereCCT’s Dave Kiddy won the prestigious Tool of the Week for walking outside without histrousers.

Particular thanks Steve for his leadership of the camp and sharing his port; to Colin forhis leadership, training and sharing his cheese; Georgeous for his dinner, daily cookedbreakfasts (and perfect eggs); Michelle and Tina for awesome dinners and delicious cakes;and Andy for his mystery tour of Chesterfield.

Gemma Bolton


Trowels in hand and ready to block-lay

Canal Camp report: week twoCamp report: Chesterfield Canal Camp 9th – 16th August 2014

Is it a bad omen when you walk off site on the Friday of the previous week’s camp, and itstarts to rain? It certainly felt that way – and the pictures and stories being relayed by thelocals as the evening progressed didn’t lighten the mood.

So, the start of Week Two. A hardy machine crew (hardy in terms of hours worked,clearly the cab of the excavator was quite comfortable and sheltered from the elements)were down on site to remove the earth ramp that for the last few years has been the accessinto the site. Unfortunately the earth ramp was doing a rather good job of holding back ametre of water, so the conditions weren’t quite ideal. More on that to come…

At the accommodation we had all cleared out of the main hall – a birthday party wasusing it in the evening and so for one night only we had to use the small hall. When we dida site visit, this room was in temporary use by the caretaker as living quarters and so weweren’t able to view it. However, we were reliably informed that “it’ll sleep 30”. On gettinginto the room we were rather thankful that three people had cancelled or fallen ill, and sev-eral more weren’t arriving (or could be persuaded not to arrive) until Sunday – I can onlyassume the room would sleep 30 if we used the (round) tables to form bunk beds over the17 people that did, just, manage to tessellate into the floorspace.

The lack of the main hall on the first night made doing a standard safety talk nearlyimpossible, so we did most of it on a walk around the site. The kitchen was also unavailablebut the local pub was doing 2-for-1 meals so we made use of that instead. Rather thancontort ourselves back into the small hall early we then did a bit of a tour of all the oldhaunts from previous camps – seemingly managing to gate-crash a different party at eachone (though at least this year it wasn’t a wake!)

On Sunday morning we spread out into the luxury of the main hall, all somewhatrelieved to regain our personal space. We finished the accommodation section of the talk,dished out PPE, ate and then left for the first day on site

Ah, but therein lies a problem. You see, human beings are not especially well designedfor working under water. It is clearly one of the design flaws that evolution really shouldhave solved if we are to ever get the canal network operational (and it’d probably makemaintenance much simpler). Despite having removed a significant part of the earth bundand pumped out the site, further overnight rain had flooded the work area once more (aslight levels issue means that water can’t actually drain in the direction it is supposed to…).Some people got to work heaving around a multitude of pumps, generators, cables andhoses, whilst others had to be content with doing the kit checks.

Just as it looked like we were starting to get somewhere the heavens opened oncemore and I reluctantly (OK, quite willingly) called a halt to the day and we returned to hallfor lunch. At this point we lost one of our volunteers who declared that ‘it’ll be like this allweek and you’ll never get anything done’. How wrong he was – eventually! He also missedout on the treat of the week – Christmas Dinner. Our eccentric cooking duo had got Turkeycheap at Easter, and so decided that we should have Christmas in August – complete withcrackers, table decorations and a small paper tree!

Monday dawned, the early phone call from site asking for “volunteers to man thepumps”. The weather forecast was starting to look up for the week and there was some hopethat before long we could start spending more on materials than fuel for the generators...Whilst some of us delighted in wading around thigh deep in water and mud, the majorityknuckled down to one of the slightly less interesting jobs of tidying the compound. The 6inblocks came out, the 4in blocks went in; some of the old bricks we have come to know sowell over the years building Constitution Hill were finally declared useless (a fact whichanyone who has ever tried laying one would have vouched for years ago) and came out forbackfill. Pallets were retrieved and new blocks arrived. And the site was DRY!!!

Focus on the Chesterfield CanalWell, dry-ish. Work could now start properly and so teams started with building

shuttering for the next concrete pour, blocklaying and also finding a safer way to continuethe demolition started in week one. The day was rounded off by a trip to the local bowlingalley where we all struggled to understand how Chris could be so consistently brilliant.

We awoke on Tuesday to the pleasant sound of silence (that is, no rain) and indeed thesite had remained dry. The focus for the day was to prepare for the concrete pour onWednesday – so teams were erecting shuttering (after the machines had dug the footings),tying steel for the lock and continuing the other tasks around the site. All of this was ablycoordinated by my new Assistant Andy, as I had a prior commitment with my Cromford haton and so had gone home for the afternoon. The short line above is not intended to belittlethe huge amount of effort that went on, the amount achieved that day was incredible (clearlyI should leave the site alone more often!).

And so to concreting day. Wednesday was looking like a highlight of the week quiteearly on – every day the quantity of concrete was going up until we were looking at pouringover 90m3. Whilst that might be relatively small on a major construction site it’s quite anundertaking for a group of volunteers, and so once we had finished getting the site ready wegathered around for a pep talk and a last break before the mayhem commenced. This in-cluded such vital information as ‘’this is what a clean rake looks like – make sure it looks likethis whenever you stop’’ and ‘’if there’s ever a pause come and get a drink as you neverknow when the next one will be’’. Local Dave Kiddy and I donned the white suits (havingbeen on the end of the tremmie pipe for a previous pour I (a) knew the value of the whitesuit and (b) didn’t think it fair to subject anyone else to the random nature of the concreteand the pump operator) and greeted the shiny new pump. The concrete company had senttheir brand-new-shiny-just-arrived-never-used pump, complete with a representative fromthe pump manufacturer to show them how it worked. Several executives from the concretecompany turned up (although didn’t get out of their vehicles until they’d rung the batchingplant to find out why we had no concrete yet – clearly our reputation precedes us).

All that didn’t turn up, initially at least, was the concrete! The volunteers dutifullyheeded my advice and drank lots of tea, so we were all refreshed when the concrete finallyarrived. Task number onewas to top up the locksides and pour the paddleculvert bases – that swal-lowed 60m3 before weknew it. We then movedto pouring the new foot-ing for the last remainingsection of wall on the offside. Some confusion washad here as the personordering the concrete hadspecified 30m3 for this bit– but had got mixed upwith the footing being30m long. As such weended up with a littleexcess concrete (over alorry load), but it gotadded to the paddleculvert bases and all wasgood. Building the shuttering...

Colin

Hobbs

a Navvies special featureThe arrival of a new day allowed us the opportunity to finally lay some blocks on the

new footing (the point that I had mistakenly believed we were supposed to be starting atback at the beginning of week one). The machines started to tidy up some of the mess madeby themselves and the weather, a team worked on the brick table to cut grooves into theface of thousands of bricks (although the brick table had issues so this was eventually aban-doned) and the new method for safe working on the demolition job was tested out.

The final day on site was a flurry of trying to finish some of the jobs that had beenstarted. To that end we did more block laying, painted and backfilled behind the new wallbuilt mainly during week 1 and finished (sort of) during week 2 and the demolition crewcompleted drilling a large hall through a very hard concrete wall. The machinery crewmoved mountains of earth (although leaving a mountain in place for Dave France to planthis flag on) and we once again counted tools. At the end of it all we retreated to theHollingwood Hub via the boat trip for a night of lively revelry (although everyone was sotired there wasn’t that much life to it at all) and then back to the hall for sleep – where I gotpresented with a ‘birthday’ cake to celebrate the completion of my 40th WRG canal camp.

Saturday proved that the fun and games doesn’t just extend to site. Having been toldby the hall that we needed to be out by 12 noon we were somewhat surprised by the cleanerturning up at 9am (who incidentally didn’t know we were there but had come to clean inadvance of the wedding party later that day). She was followed quite quickly by the weddingparty themselves who had been told they could come in at 9am to set up! Thanks to theconfusion the kit pack was somewhat more rushed than normal, and the reason why I stillhave a WRG fork and a soft brush sitting in a box waiting to returned to their rightful boxes.

All in all it ended up being a very good week: although slightly frustrating at the begin-ning the weather picked up and a large amount of useful work was done. The local trustwere very pleased – they’d not actually believed we’d get to the concrete pour so everythingfrom there onwards was a big bonus to them.

Thanks to everyone who contributed – all of the volunteers: Nicholas (who went for ashort drive on the Saturday and ended up in Skegness), Pete, Tina & Colin who all stayed onfor a second week, and Phil, Josh, Ju, Henry, Finlay, Robbie, Daz, Michael, Kyle, Ben and

Alistair who joined them(Ben some 5 hoursearly). To Maureen andLynne for once againproving that the kitchencan definitely be the lifeand soul of a camp (inmore ways than one). ToAndy for stepping up tothe plate as an Assistantand for managing thepeople whilst I tried tofathom out the site. To allof the locals who supportus year in, year out. Thisis a project that means alot to many of us, so wereally are thankful andhappy to work on it.

See you all nextyear? (Or perhaps earlier?)

George Rogers...ready for the concrete pour

Colin

Hobbs


Job: Scrub bashingSite: RenishawLeaders: Martin Danks & Matthew Baines

Derbyshire County Council are very keen toget this section of canal back into water, andso the aim here is to clear about 500 metresof canal. This was cleared by a couple ofChristmas Camps about 10 years ago so it’snot a think jungle, but a mix of small scruband mature trees that need thinning out toallow light into the area. Some of the chain-saw gang will be doing the thinning in ad-vance so you’ll have plenty of firewood!

Job: Scrub bashingSite: Renishaw-SpinkhillLeaders: Ju Davenport & Stephen Rice

This section is relatively untouched so thescrub is quite a lot thicker here! The middlesection of this site has lots of very estab-lished trees so this will be the focus forforestry over the weekend - but with about1km to play with there’s room for lots ofpeople!

Job: Scrub bashingSite: Norbriggs CuttingLeaders: Andy Pritchett & Dave Nash

This site is separated from the other scrubbashing areas. The Norbriggs Cutting was abranch off the mainline of the canal, andwhilst there is not currently any intention toreopen the canal there is a documented planfrom the local council to improve the foot-path, expose the canal structures and inter-pret the area – and WRG will be starting thatprocess.

Job: Demolition (careful dismantling)Site: Spinkhill NarrowsLeader: Gary Summers

This is a fascinating structure that has a total of3 outlets for water and 2 sets of stop plankgrooves. It was constructed to allow one of thepounds either side to be drained whilst theother continued to supply water to a worksnearby. The structure is currently in a poorstate of repair and the canal trust wants torestore it to its former glory – starting byremoving all of the damaged brickwork andcleaning it for future use. There might also besome scrub bashing to do alongside.

Job: BuildingSite: Renishaw Spill WeirLeader: Pete Fleming

This spill weir is adjacent to the first scrubbash area and so falls on the section of canalDerbyshire County Council want to reopen. Itis in generally good condition but there aresome brickwork repairs to be done, so brick-layers wanted here!

Job: BuildingSite: Staveley Town BasinLeaders: Steve Baylis & Colin Hobbs

The focus of the camp season for the last fewyears, work is continuing apace at this site,constructing the new lock, facing the newbridge and constructing the walls to the lowerpound. There will be lots of brick and blocklaying, brick cutting and possibly machine work(though I’m not promising anything!), so forthose who don’t quite feel up to the fine brick-work at Renishaw this is the site for you!

Reunion / Bonfire Bash update: 8-9 November, Chesterfield Canal

The WRG Reunion is our big annual get-together and working party with 100-plus volunteers, also known as the Bonfire Bash - because usually we spend theweekend cutting down trees and burning them on bonfires. But this year there’sgoing to be a lot more to it besides bonfires, as leader George Rogers explains...

The reunion is shaping up well to be a fantastic weekend, so Amber Jenkins and I would liketo invite you all to join us on the Chesterfield Canal. To entice you further, the menu of jobscurrently looks like:

For the latest information see the wrg.org.uk or the WRG Facebook page...

Book now for the Reunion!Job: PublicitySite: RenishawLeader: Mandy Morley

The publicity stand will be based near to all ofthe works on the Renishaw – Spinkhill section,on the Trans Pennine Trail. The TPT runsthrough the site at Staveley and connects withmost of the sites we are working on, and iswell used by the public – so our publicity standand the Chesterfield Canal Trust’s stand will beout to promote the work we are doing and theimpact of HS2. Anyone who fancies trying theirhand at talking to the public can join Mandy.

I would like to attend the WRG Reunion Bonfire Bash on 8-9 November

Forename: Surname:

Address:

email:

Phone: Any special dietary requirements?

I require accommodation on Friday night / Saturday night / both nights

I enclose payment of £ (please make cheques payable to ‘WRG’) for food

(cost is £13 for the weekend based on £3 breakfast and evening meal, £2 lunch)

How will you be travelling to the Bonfire Bash?

Do you want to work with volunteers from one of this year’s Canal Camps or from one ofthe regional groups? If so, which camp or group?

Do you suffer from any illness, such as epilepsy or diabetes, about which we shouldknow, or are you receiving treatment or under medical supervision for any conditionYES/NO If yes, please attach details on a covering letter.

In the unlikely event that you should be injured, who should we contact?

Name: Phone:

Signed:

Please send this form to:

WRG Reunion Bookings, WRG, Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA

waterway recovery groupChesterfield reunion 2014

Accommodation: we have bookedKillamarsh leisure centre, where George saysthe main hall is “huge” so we should be ableto take as many of you as want to come.

Directions: full joining instructions will besent out to everyone who books on, includ-ing directions to the accommodation andarrangements for train or coach pickups.

Booking: Either use the form below or bookonline via the WRG webite wrg.org.uk.Please do book as soon as possible, so thecooks know how much food to buy.

...or contact head office on 01494 783453 or [email protected]

Camp 2014-07: 19 -26 July

Cromford Canal: Smiths lock. The taskis to clear a dry lock of 2 feet of silt toenable a survey

Prologue

It’s Wednesday before camp and we are at anurgent meeting. It appears that there arewhitethroats flying around and the environ-mental chappie says we must limit our accessat the tail of the lock to a 3ft wide path. Weare also told that we can’t have a hoist to lifteverything out of the lock because the wallsmight not support it. It won’t barrow out ofthe access we are allowed.

Friday night before camp there arethunderstorms. The site visit on Saturdayevening shows a ‘dry’ lock in flood andvegetation taller than many of us. The

mood is sombre.On the bright side we have excellent

accommodation. Rooms sleeping six inbunks, showers, proper kitchen, a beerfridge and a drying room. There is awhiteboard for management things, andarmchairs.

The main event

Weather report. No more rain. Hot – allweek. First task of the day, get the key to thehaulage yard allowing use of their toilets.Without this we could go no further – in factwe couldn’t go at all. There was a high riskof dropping it, so we put string through it soit could be wrapped around a wrist and usedsecurely.

There were five tons of sand waiting bythe road. They were turned into sandbagsand wheeled to the lock an hour after lunch.

Camp ReportCromford Canal

A lock chamber to clear,

nowhere safe to put a

barrow hoist, and no room

to wheel the barrows out.

Things can only get better...

The sandbag dam, with its three pipes

A nice set of wooden steps, with handrail,had been made to allow access so the sand-bags were taken down them and a dam built.Three pipes built in, as the only way to keepthe water running to the nature reserve atthe other end. We had planned for one pipebut the flow was too much. There was notenough pipe to take the water beyond thelock.

It was a good dam, made whilst inflood, with only minor leaks. The manycrayfish liked those, and made them bigger.A pump was needed to clear water in themornings and throughout the day. Sundaywas a trip to the ‘Fishpond’ at Matlock Bath.It was their inaugural ‘open mic’ night, and itwould appear we had no one with thosetalents. Some beer was quaffed.

We got on with clearing the vegetation,grappling hook and the bags the sand camein worked well in the absence of a hoist.More pipe came in good time and was put inplace. The lock could start to dry out a bitnow. Monday evening saw a trip to LeawoodPumping station, where river water from theDerwent was turned into canal water for theCromford. Not quite water into wine, butimpressive. There were a few different routesfound to finish up in the Boat Inn, Cromford.One was Sheep Pasture Incline, three quar-ters of a mile at 1:8.5 gradient. On the longroute to the Boat we were such an impres-sive body of people I was asked by a local ifwe were a walking group. We passed onepub that even your intrepid reporter fearedto enter – ladies’ darts night. Some beer wasquaffed.

By Tuesday evening the vegetation wascleared, and a trip to A&E revealed a hospitalwith free parking. We had also establishedthat the dry lock had about a dozen fish of 3to 4 inches long living in it. They were safelyre housed. A conveyor belt was delivered,but we could not fit it into the access we had.A sense of frustration pervaded as we put itto storage in the haulage yard.

Some of the group made a trip to thecinema to watch Dawn of Planet of the Apes.Others quaffed beer.

Wednesday didn’t quite follow the normfor a WRG camp. A day off. A trip to the lockwas made to meet with radio journalists –who failed to show. The rest of the day wasspent at Chatsworth House because of con-cerns over lack of hire equipment (leaders,not workers) and everyone had workedexceptionally hard to get to the stage we

were at in very hot weather. It was a restfulday and we felt the camp benefitted from it.We were refreshed and keen to start again.

There was an early evening boat tripalong from the accommodation, picked upten paces from the accommodation door andthen a ride to the Barley Mow, who we hadbooked a meal with. Unfortunately theyremembered we were coming but forgot tocook the curry. A la carte it was then. Themega burgers really were huge, and impres-sively finished off. Some beer was quaffed.

Thursday finally saw the arrival of theskip, and more wheelbarrows. There wasalso a French tricolor found flying off thegazebo. You probably guessed the key with anice bit of string was going to be droppedanyway. Today was the day we had to go tothe office and ask for the key back. Rope wasworking really well today. All day yellowbuckets were hoisted by hand full of silt andwater – mud, heavy mud. They were emp-tied into wheelbarrows to be wheeled threehundred metres away - all day. At the otherend of the lock, rocks were being rolled intothe sand delivery bags, and hoisted by grap-pling hook and rope. They were alsowheeled away. A back breaking day and verymuddy for all. We also made another ton ofsand bags. We went to a pub in Matlock forthe evening. It had a sandpit with moreimpressive toys than we had. Some beer wasquaffed.

More of the same Friday morning. Ourwinches were feeling the pace now, with theodd blister and tired arms. The haulage yardwas an asset. We enquired and were givenaccess to the pressure washer. Vans and toolswere sparkly for the next week.

It was the last night and we were off tothe local rep’s house for a bbq. This was arelaxing and enjoyable evening to finish offthe week with our new friends. What seemeda long walk towards the food was evenfurther in the dark down the towpath comingback. Food was eaten, fire was played withand a range of drinks quaffed.

I haven’t mentioned that all throughthe week we were kept going withhomemade cake and excellent meals, forwhich our thanks go to the cook, Andy.

Epilogue

Week two takes over, decamping to ratherless grand accommodation.

Gavin Darby

Camp ReportCromford Canal

In an effort to take the prize

for this year’s most novel

canal camp report, Cromford

Week 2 is recorded in the style

of a travel review website...

Camp 2014-10: Cromford Canal 27 July – 2 August

During week two we finished the work started by the previous camp. By the end of the weekwe had removed enough of the mud to allow a laser survey of the lock to be completed.

We decided to write our camp report in the style of a travel review site...

digadvisor.co.ukCromford Canal Camp Week 2 at The Scout Hut, Crich

Accommodation ***Food *****Enjoyment ****

“The mud.......”

You didn’t need to pack sun cream as the complimentary mud did the job just as well. Themud varied in consistency and colour to suit all tastes. Indeed the conditions on this campreminded me very much of a World War 1 battlefield – lots of mud, sandbags, duckboardsand loud explosions during the night. Some of the old hands said that the conditions herereminded them of stories they had heard about the mud encountered in Droitwich along time ago. One was even heard to say that the mud wobbled enticingly.....

- Savvy Navvy, UK

Leader’s Response: I fear that some of the team members did suffer from too much sunand/or mud during the early part of the week and did start to say some rather strange things.

UNITED KINGDOM

“Anyone for seconds?”

Anyone for seconds, thirds, fourths? The food was good and plentiful. Even ourassistant leader Chris was very happy with the amount of food available. Great cook(Sarah) and leaders (Steve & Chris) on this camp.

- Pat, Coventry

“Some like it hot....”

We had use of lovely new showers at the brand new site compound for the reservoirbeing built close by. However, the water was either too hot or too cold.

- Sewer Rat, Warks.

“....and some do not”

I agree with Sewer Rat, the water was much too hot.

- Crayfish, USA

“Somebody else is in hot water”

When I went to use the showers, one of the site foremen said ‘Look at the state ofthat‘. Not once but twice! I was flabbergasted. I don’t think he should speak to ayoung lady like that.

- Coral, Reef Cornwall

Leader’s Response: I agree. However, I think the gentleman in question was just sur-prised to see anyone covered in so much mud from head to toe.

Mud? What mud?

“Entente Cordiale”

Great stay! It feels good to help on a project, to experience a people and a culture.Superbly good food. (With the result that) I would like to do it again! (Translation)

- Zoe, France

Leader’s Response: Great to have such positive feedback. I hope you enjoyed the soiréehosted by George on the last night. I thought the rendition of ‘Food Glorious Food’ wasexcellent and a fitting way to remember the camp.

“Agreement about fruit cordial”

Finally, one eats well in England! (Translation)

Ann - Claire, France

Leader’s Response: Sacre bleu! (Pardon my French.) I am pleased that our French guestenjoyed the handmade sandwiches, cake, custard creams, chilled fruit cordial and yet morecake that we had for lunch as much as the rest of us. Is that a Michelin star I see on thehorizon?

“Local entertainment”

There were a lot of friendly, interested and supportive passers-by on the towpath. Backin the Scout Hut, Chris (F) puzzled us a lot

- David, East Anglia

Leader’s Response: I am not sure if David met the lady who said that we were doing agood job but that we all very smelly. Again my apologies that we arrived just too late to takepart in the wheelbarrow race in Bonsall.

“Everyone was feeling very tired by the end of the week...”

Towards the end of the week someone said that there is a general somnolence, isn’tthere?

- Cookie Sarah, East Anglia

Leader’s Response: I am sorry but I cannot be held responsible for the disturbance topeople’s sleep caused by some of our elderly gentlemen guests having to get up for a shortwalk several times during the night.

“Travel plans changed…”

Travel plans were disrupted during the camp due to the discovery of a long lost railwaystation in the bottom of the lock. Despite waiting for some time no train arrived to takeus away from the mud and debris.

- Dai Station, Merioneth

Leader’s Response: We cannot be held responsible for the reliability of the local railwayfranchise holder. Any volunteers wishing to leave early are advised to book a ticket well inadvance. [see also p41 for a picture of the ‘long lost railway station’ that was discovered inthe lock ...Ed]

Camp 2014-06 Swansea Canal

“Joy to the World”. (OK, so I’ll be honest – that’san in-joke, and for diplomatic reasons it’ll remainso [diplomatic? Navvies? Surely not?])

The problem with not delegating the writingof the camp report is that, invariably, you end upwriting it yourself. And so, some 10 weeks afterthe camp has finished I am left trying to rememberwhat actually happened! It is perhaps a sign of ourevolving times that the easiest way to do this is toread through the edits made to the site paperworkthroughout the week – the various additions,changes, removals and task briefings requested byour overseers, the Canal & River Trust (CRT).

CRT? But I thought this was the SwanseaCanal? Well yes, it is, and we were indeed invitedby the Swansea Canal Society. The Swansea ishowever, still owned by CRT, who have a duty tomaintain a water flow through the site to feedvarious industries downstream. Whilst the jobswere ones that SCS wanted to carry out, they wereonly allowed with the agreement and coordinationof CRT. The presence of up to 8 CRT staff, a fullcamp of WRG volunteers and a healthy contin-gent of locals made the whole site something of ajurisdiction nightmare!

It is because of this that I think I’ll start thebody of this report with the thanks that wouldnormally constitute the end. This is so that I canthank the truly brilliant group of volunteers,without which Ju (my glorious assistant) and Iwould have had a much more difficult week. Theirsupport and unwavering jovial nature made thewhole week worthwhile. For our entertainmentswe are all indebted to Alan Williams of SCS whoprovided us with an on-site picnic and a free curryevening (complete with coordinated singing!) –and brought beer! The local society are a fabulous,hard working and well meaning group of people,and I hope that we did you proud (and taught yousome more skills along the way!).

So, what did we do? The aim of the campwas to carry out a multitude of jobs around theTrebanos Locks. WRG started to work there lastyear (and the continuation of this has already beenreported by the much more organised leadershipteam of Bob & Katrina from week 2), repairingthe bywashes (which, incidentally, seem to becalled bi-weirs on this site). This year, SCS alsowanted to start work repairing the Lower TrebanosLock, and to that end one of their members hadpaid to have the stop planks replaced that wereholding back the water in the intermediate pound.This ensured that CRT could sign off the dam andallow us to enter the chamber. In addition, work wasto continue on the bywashes of both the Lower and

Upper locks, the rebuilding of the intermediatepound wall was to be completed and the lock ap-proach wall to the Upper Lock was to be dismantledand rebuilt (this before the changes noted above).

Day 1: The arrival saga. What a long wayaway Swansea is! It is also, contrary to popularbelief, a long way from the Mon & Brec. This wasunfortunate, as part of the (typically convolutedWRG style) logistics plan involved Bungle depos-iting a van and trailer with us and then collecting avan from the Mon & Brec to return to the Cots-wolds. With trains being rather infrequent andBungle needing to get back home in good time togo out again, I agreed to ‘nip him over’ to the Mon& Brec. That all done, I returned to the Swanseajust about in time to meet all of the new and oldvolunteers and get ready for the week ahead…The normal kit counting activities and fine dining(courtesy of our weekend cook, Mitch) werefollowed by a somewhat later than normal health& safety brief before retirement to the luxuriouswooden floor of Ystradgynlais Scout Hut.

Day 2: The setting up site saga. The firstthing that became apparent on site was that thingswere not quite as they were on the site visit a monthpreviously. A slight miscommunication between SCSand CRT had meant that SCS had done some workon the offside of the lower lock that rather alteredour intending working methods. This meant that asmall amount of head scratching (me and CRT),twiddling of thumbs (volunteers), tea drinking (all ofthe above) and, yes, rewriting paperwork (me) wasneeded before CRT could finally sign the site over tome and allow work to start around lunchtime.Thankfully the weather held out and everyone wasable to enjoy the additional bonding time.

Once work did begin teams started on thedismantling of the two sections of wall (Ju takingthe opportunity to lead the team that was destinedto get the most dirty) whilst a third team was setthe task of devising a safe, simple method forinstalling and removing the Youngman bridge thatprovided access across the head of the lock. Theirinitial ingenious systems of ropes, ladders, shoutingand waving was perhaps not the most suitable butit provided entertainment for several hours. Unfor-tunately this was the last time we used the bridge andso their creation was never recorded for posterity.

Camp ReportSwansea Canal

Highlight of the day was the mid-morning(so approximately 3rd tea break) text from ouresteemed chef that ‘we have crackling’. Nothingseems to raise the spirits of a bunch of volunteersso effectively!

Day 3: The Excavator Saga. The originalwork plan had us removing rubble and old copingstones from the lock and placing them on theoffside for future reuse (the thought being that acoping stone on the towpath side might prove justtoo tempting for a passerby). After much discus-sion about hoists and telehandlers, it was eventu-ally decided to use an excavator. The required liftingcapacity and reach had meant that we would need aminimum of an 8t machine, but the work done bySCS had rendered the offside somewhat less usableand so it was decided to risk the temptations andput all the material on the towpath side. In hind-sight it was a big shame that this decision wasn’tmade earlier because it would have meant a muchsmaller machine could have been used. As it wasthe 12t machine we ended up with only just fitteddown the track, and then couldn’t get up the slopeonto site without some serious ground distur-bance. Given that the CAT scan had revealedburied cables under the slope, it was reluctantlydecided that perhaps the excavator was a waste oftime and so it was off hired almost immediately.That wasn’t quite the end of the saga, but theremainder of the details are just too painful anddon’t really add to the story of the camp…

Whilst all this fun was going on teamscontinued to dismantle walls and started on clear-ing of the lock walls ready for repointing to begin

the next day.On Sunday, Mitch had left us all with the

taste of roast pork still lingering and so we re-turned back to the hall to welcome Debbie andSarah to continue on with the cooking. Howeverthe message to me that ‘we need to go shopping’hadn’t quite impressed the right level of urgencyand so we returned to the slightly more worrying‘we’ve got no food’. Thankfully the chip shop wasstill open and so with the addition of leftovers ameal was soon created.

Day 4: The equipment saga. We werejoined on site by CRT’s heritage adviser in theregion, David Viner. He was there to train all ofthe volunteers in heritage lime mortar works – forwhich it is helpful to have the right equipment.However, having sat for 10 months since its lastservice at the end of the 2013 camp season, theWRG generator defied all attempts to start it onthe battery or by hand. Eventually we tried so hardthat we managed to shear the rubber bearings (toptip: if you’re having to pull the starter cord thathard you’re either doing something wrong or it’sf****d. It was the latter). Thankfully the locals hadjust invested in a new generator themselves and sothis was fetched and the mixer started up.

Ah, except that the mixer was also broken.The on/off switch wasn’t latching into the onposition and so someone had to hold the switch inthroughout the demonstration mix. This not beinga long term workable solution, we were once againindebted to the local society for allowing us tochristen their very shiny new mixer once it wasretrieved from the store!

So the order of the dayfrom then on was pointing, morepointing and starting to rebuildthe two sections of wall that hadbeen dismantled. The equipmentsaga wasn’t quite over though –the burco was starting to leakgas. CRT got it fixed for usthough, so at least they couldstill drink us out of tea!

Day 5: The Speedo Saga/ The Confined Space Saga(the speedo belonging to EHP,not a rather tight pair of swim-ming trunks causing gaseousbuild up). In truth, the problemsby this point all started to blurinto one, and so I’m not sureexactly when these happened.But we’ll not let that get in theway of a good story.

Having now worked on thelock for 3 days, CRT decided it

would be a good idea to give us a toolbox talk onworking in a confined space. To that end they hadarranged with the local society to use the localvillage hall and in groups of 7 or 8 we dutifullytrotted up to the hall, up the steps, took our bootsoff and proceeded to watch a 10 minute video onBW’s processes for working in confined spaces.Whilst I can understand why CRT thought thiswould be useful, any information relevant to uswas lost amongst the vast majority that wasn’t andthe frustration of being dragged off site to watchit – less would have meant more!

The video also delayed the wonderful picnicthat was being provided by the local society –complete with tablecloths and more sorts of cakethan even I could manage (and believe me I tried!)

(The work, by the way, was more of thesame – repointing and rebuilding)

On the way home from site, EHP’s speedomalfunctioned and so Ju had to drive it back onfeel and revs whilst I kept an eye on the tacho-graph (some mental arithmetic needed there). Ongetting back to the hall we dutifully reported theproblem to Bungle, who after much discussionwith other Transit specialists (other words areavailable) phoned us back to inform us we hadbroken the van in a ‘new and innovative way’ (youcan just hear the excitement in his voice can’tyou!). It was a bit temperamental for the next dayor two and then seemed to settle down. [I wouldlike to say though that I was informed later in thesummer that this problem had already cropped upon EHP earlier in the season – Bungle didn’t knowthough so if these things happen you do actuallyneed to report them!]

Day 6: The Bin Saga. Question: how manypeople does it take to empty a bin? To give yousome guidance before you make your decision,bear in mind that we not only didn’t have the key,we didn’t even realise that it took a key… The binhad been rather full all week, and even providingour own bin bags we had obviously added to itenough that it was a bit too full. In between singingwhale music and ‘bantering’ with the locals, this hadbeen bothering Jo and so the two of us set abouttrying to fathom the mechanism to empty it. Anhour later, having completely dismantled the bin,emptied it and reassembled all moving compo-nents, we found the utility key socket that hadbeen hiding underneath the bin bag and so wereable to test that the mechanism still worked.

Aside from emptying the bin the two wallswere nearing completion and the pointing wascoming on a treat.

Being a pianist, I have been party to severalcamp sing-a-longs in the past. However I havenever actually been to one where the locals supply

two printed sheets of words! The curry eveningwas thus a particular delight of the week (even ifthe waiter did appear to change his mind as towhat dish he was holding just because nobodywanted his first offering – I didn’t know thatChicken Korma and Prawn Korma could be sosimilar…). An excellent meal rounded off bysinging (slightly dubious in words and tune),though when Gordon (local) had drunk enough tostart singing his own creations we decided that itwas perhaps time to leave!

Day 7: The Final Saga. Ah, the last day! Ihave to confess, by this point I was quite excitedby this prospect. The volunteers were fabulousand the work was progressing, but the multiplesagas were taking their toll. We largely finishedjobs off though, so not a difficult day in reality. Aphoto call, the very welcome arrival of nextweek’s leader and a final round of thanks with thelocals and suddenly the site work was over.

Before we leave site though, I’ll illustrateone point about the changing of paperwork andscope creep. On Tuesday, we were given a new jobto do (by CRT). This was to involve rebuilding anelement of wall below the Lower Lock. CRT gaveme a basic method statement which I wrote intothe rest in the evening. Having enlisted the localCRT crew to help move a very large chunk ofwood that formed part of the new wall, I was thengiven a new method statement for the same job onThursday (the wood now having been removedfrom the plan). I didn’t write this up – which isgood, because on Friday the new job was takenout of the plan altogether. And this wasn’t theonly instance…

Back at the accommodation we had a rela-tively subdued end of camp (I spent most of it inthe kitchen as Debbie and Sarah had left on theThursday). Spoons did enliven it for a timethough!

Day 8: Handover (aka The Saga To BeContinued). Ah, the end. We cleaned, we tidied,we counted, we packed. And we went HOME!!!

I started this report with the thanks, but Iwill reiterate them – without any one of you thiscamp would have been much more difficult.Thank you all for your patience, support, dedica-tion, advice, hugs and cups of tea. To the volun-teers: Hannah, David E, Jo, David H, David M,Emma, Michelle, Francesca, Daz, Camille, Joe,Mark, Olivia and Runar. To my assistant Ju,without whom I would have been lost. To mycooks, Mitch, Debbie, Sarah & the confusedwaiter. To all of the locals, particularly Martin,Gordon, David & Alan. And to CRT, for makingvolunteering so much less fun than it should be...

George Rogers

Basingstoke Canal 30 Aug - 6 Sep

This year’s canal camp on Basingstoke Canalwas a huge success against what seemed, atfirst, like tremendous odds. The local societywas intensely supportive, as were somevolunteer trainers, who joined us especiallyto get people “ticketed” quickly so as to allowthem to drive dumpers and a roller. Amongstour number there were four people workingfor Duke of Edinburgh award, two peoplewho worked full time in waterway manage-ment, a couple of boaters and a few WRGregulars, one of whom made a special andvery welcome last minute appearance to helpwith piling on the landing stage.

Accommodation was at Runways EndOutdoor Centre, a swish new building withloads of showers and toilets, proper mat-tresses on bed frames and plenty of room,set amidst a high ropes course, a climbingtower and otheroutdoor activities.

The worksite lay besideBrookwood Coun-try Park, an ex-pansive greencommon popularwith dog walkers,cyclists and ashortcut for localschoolchildren.The ‘Saturn Trail’and the ‘HyperionTrail’ both runthrough it. Twoshort sections oftowpath, one oneither side, unfor-tunately had to betemporarilyclosed to thepublic but thework we weredoing clearlyenjoyed localsupport and we

made lots of friends. Regular commutersstopped to chat. Bongo the dog rushedeagerly to help every day, but never beforemidday, and his volunteering seemed limitedto helping us with lunch.

The local society asked for a long ex-tension to an existing landing stage and atowpath resurfaced along 750 metres. As anextra, the water point cupboard neededpainting.

The Alan Flight boat acted as a bridge,an equipment store and, for the landingstage, a workplace.

The landing stage was the time-criticaltask. No one wanted it left unfinished. Thewood and the steel had arrived on site, ashad a digger, a generator, an entire medleyof drills, an air compressor and a pile ham-mer, but other than that, the landing stageextension was still on the drawing board.

The first morning was spent painting

Camp ReportBasingstoke Canal

Marion reports from a week

of towpath surfacing and

building an extension to a

landing stage on the

Basingstoke Canal

Piling in progress on the landing stage

Tony W

ynn

shed and fence preserver onto the tim-bers. Great care was taken not to spillanything on the grass. Work then pro-ceeded slowly as there were debatesabout measurements. After that, thenoise of the pile hammer was actually asource of jubilation; quickly, the steelsheet piles went in for the back of thelanding stage at intervals along the bank,and then the piles at the front of thelanding stage, alternating wooden postpiles with steel half channels, the steelhalf channels having small wooden postsinside them.

A row of wooden planks was boltedbehind the front piles, and another wasbolted to the front of the back piles. Atthe very front, two sets of wooden plankswere bolted to act as rubbing boards forboats. A magnetically positioned drill putholes in the steel to allow horizontal tie rodsbetween the front and back piles, holdingthe whole thing together. Soil was backfilledbehind the back piles. Finally, horizontaldecking was nailed across the top.

Across the canal from the landingstage was the towpath that needed resur-facing. A mini excavator scraped the topsurface of the existing track to removevegetation and provide an adhesive sur-face for the new roadstone. A brushcutter exposed passing places on one sideof the track, away from the canal side andwithout disturbing the Site of SpecialScientific Interest. Then a procession ofsmall track dumpers brought theroadstone from the pile at one end of thetowpath to the other, where it was rakedinto place and then rollered to provide asmooth surface with a very slight camberto allow runoff. With two deliveries ofroadstone every day, the dumper drivers,the rakers and the rollers hardly stoppedwork at all, but of course, the workspeeded up as the work progressed, asthe dumpers had less far to drive.

In the middle of the week, the waterpoint cupboard was repainted to lookvery spruce.

At the end of the week, the towpathresurfacing was finished just after lunch-time on the Friday. This left a load ofvolunteers to do the kit check (whichsaved a job on Saturday) and then millaround giving moral support to those stillfrantically working on the landing stage.We reached the very last six screws to be

put in the decking on top of the landingstage when – with exquisite timing – the drillran out of charge. Never mind, a freshbattery pack was brought out of another box.As soon as the ‘footpath closed’ signs weretaken down, cyclists and pedestriansswarmed along to watch the group photos.

The evenings’ entertainment included aboat trip, and, to keep the theme of stayingat an outdoor centre, a ‘high ropes’ course.But this was ‘high ropes’ with a difference,because everyone had to work with a partnerand haul each other up. People normallyquiet and timid on site romped along pullingtheir partners along too.

Derek’s food was wonderful, with freshsalad vegetables every day and some goodold-fashioned hearty favourites too. Heintroduced us to ‘cucumelons’, a hybrid be-tween a cucumber and a melon: bitesize,with a crunchy skin and juicy flesh inside.Lunch often included freshly cooked soup,delivered hot on site.

Thanks for a great week to AdrianCrow the leader, Maggie the assistant leader,Derek the cook, Adrian the digger driver,James, Mike, Michael, Martin, Tim, Tom,Rachael, Dave, Pete, Matt, Alex, Linda,Steph, Amber, Colin and Tony.

Marion Carter

Another load of stone on the towpath surface

Navvies diary WRG and mobile groupsYour guide to all forthcoming work parties

For details of diary dates beyond the end of this list ple

Oct 25-Nov 1 WRG FT WRG Forestry Camp

Oct 26 Sun IWPS Bugsworth Basin

Oct 26-Nov 1 Camp 201424 Cotswold Canals (moved from Ashby Canal)

Oct 31-Nov 6 WAT Wendover Arm: Seven-day weekend Fri-Thu

Nov 1 Navvies Press date for issue 268 (including WRG / canal societies directory)

Nov 8/9 WRG Chesterfield Canal: Bonfire Bash - WRG Reunion

Nov 8 Sat WRG Committee & Board Meetings: at Bonfire Bash

Nov 9 Sun IWPS Bugsworth Basin

Nov 15/16 wrgBITM Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation: Scrub bashing/bank clearance. To be

Nov 15/16 NWPG Cotswold Canals: Ham Mill Lock, Stroud

Nov 15 Sat wrgNW ‘Paper Chase’ waste paper collection

Nov 22/23 KESCRG Thames & Medway Canal: Christmas dig with London WRG.

Nov 22/23 London WRG Thames & Medway Canal: Christmas dig with KESCRG

Nov 23 Sun IWPS Bugsworth Basin

Dec 5-11 WAT Wendover Arm: Seven-day weekend Fri-Thu

Dec 6/7 Essex WRG Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation

Dec 6/7 wrgNW Cromford Canal

Dec 6/7 London WRG Extra dig on the Cotswold Canals

Dec 7 Sun IWPS Bugsworth Basin

Dec 13/14 wrgBITM Wey & Arun Canal: Christmas Work Party. Scrub bashing at new site at

Dec 20 Sat wrgNW ‘Paper Chase’ waste paper collection

Dec 21 Sun IWPS Bugsworth Basin

Dec 26-Jan 1 wrgBITM Wilts & Berks Canal: Christmas Camp at Dauntsey.Leak sealing with Bentomat, levelling & widening towpath with excavat

Dec 26-Jan 1 Camp 201425 Cotswold Canals: Christmas Camp. Scrub bashing. Leader: ‘RAF Martin

Jan 1 Navvies Press date for issue 269

Jan 17/18 London WRG Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation

Jan 17/18 wrgBITM To be arranged

Jan 25 Sun WRG Committee & Board Meetings: Rowington Village Hall

Feb 7/8 London WRG Wey & Arun Canal

Feb 21/22 wrgBITM To be arranged

Feb 28-Mar 1 London WRG Cotswold Canals

Mar 1 Navvies Press date for issue 269

Mar 15 Sun WRG Committee & Board Meetings: Rowington

Mar 21/22 London WRG Chesterfield Canal

Mar 21/22 wrgBITM To be arranged

Apr 18/19 WRG/BCNS/IWA BCN Clean Up - more details in next Navvies

Apr 18/19 wrgBITM To be arranged

Canal Camps cost £56 per week unless otherwise stated. Bookings

for WRG Camps identified by a camp number e.g. 'Camp 201424'

should go to WRG Canal Camps, Island House, Moor Road, Chesham

HP5 1WA. Tel: 01494 783453, [email protected]. Diary compiled

by Dave Wedd. Tel: 01252 874437, [email protected]

ease contact diary compiler Dave Wedd: see top of page

01494-783453 [email protected]

Ian Edgar 0161-427-7402 [email protected]


Roger Leishman 01442-874536 [email protected]

Martin Ludgate 07779-478629 [email protected]


Mike Palmer 01564-785293 [email protected]


e confirmed Dave Wedd 01252-874437 [email protected]

Bill Nicholson 01844-343369 [email protected]

David McCarthy 01706-214696

Bobby Silverwood 07971-814986 [email protected]

Tim Lewis 07802-518094 [email protected]


Roger Leishman 01442-874536 [email protected]

John Gale 01376-334896 [email protected]

Malcolm Bridge 01422-820693 [email protected]



t Whipley Dave Wedd 01252-874437 [email protected]

David McCarthy 01706-214696


Rachael Banyard 01249-892289 [email protected], tree felling, bonfires, etc.

n’ Thompson 01494-783453 [email protected]



Dave Wedd 01252-874437 [email protected]











Every Tuesday BCA Basingstoke Canal Chris Healy 01252-370073

Once per month: pls checkBCNS BCN waterways Mike Rolfe 07763-171735

2nd & 4th w/e of month BCS Basingstoke Canal Duncan Paine 01252-614125

Thursdays Sep-Apr BCT Aqueduct section Tim Dingle 01288-361356

2nd Sun & alternate Thu BuCS Buckingham area Athina Beckett 01908-661217

Every Mon and Wed CCT Cotswold (W depot) Ron Kerby 01453-836018

Every mon am Thu pm CCT Cotswold (E end) John Maxted 01285-861011

Various dates CCT Cotswold Phase 1a Jon Pontefract 07986-351412

Every Sunday ChCT Chesterfield Canal Mick Hodgetts 01246-620695

Every Tue and Thu CSCT Chichester Canal Malcolm Maddison 01243-775201

Every Tue & Wed C&BN Chelmer & Blackwater John Gale 01376-334896

Every Friday ECPDA Langley Mill Michael Golds 0115-932-8042

Second Sun of month FIPT Foxton Inclined Plane Mike Beech 0116-279-2657

Thu and last Sat of month GCS Grantham Canal Ian Wakefield 0115-989-2128

2nd Sat of month GWCT Nynehead Lift Denis Dodd 01823-661653

Tuesdays H&GCT Oxenhall Brian Fox 01432 358628

Weekends H&GCT Over Wharf House Maggie Jones 01452 618010

Wednesdays H&GCT Over / Vineyard Hill Ted Beagles 01452 522648

Thursdays H&GCT Herefordshire Wilf Jones 01452 413888

Every Sunday if required IWPS Bugsworth Basin Ian Edgar 0161-427 7402

Every weekday KACT/CRT Bradford on Avon Derrick Hunt 01225-863066

2nd Sunday of month LCT Lancaster N. Reaches Keith Tassart 01524-424761

Every Wed/Sat/Sun LHCRT Lichfield Terry Brown 01889-576574

3rd Sunday of month LHCRT Hatherton Denis Cooper 01543-374370

Last weekend of month MBBCS Creams Paper Mill Steve Dent 07802-973228

Two Sundays per month NWDCT N Walsham Canal David Revill 01603-738648

2nd & last Sundays PCAS Pocklington Canal Paul Waddington 01757-638027

Every Wed and 1st Sat RGT Stowmarket Navigtn. Martin Bird 01394-380765

2nd Sunday of month SCARS Sankey Canal John Hughes 01744-600656

1st Sunday of month SCCS Combe Hay Locks Derrick Hunt 01225-863066

Last weekend of month SCS Stover Canal George Whitehead 01626-775498

2nd Sunday of month SNT Sleaford Navigation Mel Sowerby 01522-856810

Every Thu and Sat SORT Sussex Ouse Ted Lintott 01444-414413

1st weekend of month SUCS Montgomery Canal David Carter 01244-661440

Every Tuesday morning TMCA Thames & Medway CBrian Macnish 01732-823725

Every Sunday & Thurs WACT varied construction Eric Walker 023-9246-3025

Mondays (2 per month) WACT tidying road crossings John Empringham 01483-562657

Wednesdays WACT Tickner's Heath Depot John Smith 01903-235790

Wednesdays WACT maintenance work Ray Pick 01483-272443

Sundays mainly WACT Loxwood Link Kev Baker 02380-861074

Thursdays WACT Winston Harwood Grp Tony Clear 01903-774301

Various dates WACT Hedgelaying (Oct-Mar) Keith Nichols 01403-753882

1st w/e of month (Fri-Thu)WAT Drayton Beauchamp Roger Leishman 01442-874536

If you have any additions / corrections / deletions to this list, please sendthem to Navvies diary compiler Dave Wedd (see previous page)

Navvies diary canal society regularsCanal societies’ regular working parties

CRT towpath taskforce Navvies diary

Abbreviations used in Diary:

BCA Basingstoke Canal AuthorityBCNS Birmingham Canal Navigations Soc.BuCS Buckingham Canal SocietyBCS Basingstoke Canal SocietyBCT Bude Canal TrustChCT Chesterfield Canal TrustCBN Chelmer & Blackwater NavigationCSCT Chichester Ship Canal TrustCCT Cotswolds Canals TrustECPDA Erewash Canal Pres. & Devt. Assoc.FIPT Foxton Inclined Plane TrustGCS Grantham Canal SocietyGWCT Grand Western Canal TrustH&GCT Hereford & Gloucester Canal TrustIWPS Inland Waterways Protection SocietyKACT Kennet & Avon Canal Trust

KESCRG Kent & E Sussex Canal Rest. GroupLCT Lancaster Canal TrustLHCRT Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Rest'n TrustMBBCS Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal SocietyNWPG Newbury Working Party GroupNWDCT North Walsham & Dilham Canal TrustPCAS Pocklington Canal Amenity SocietyRGT River Gipping TrustSCARS Sankey Canal Restoration SocietySCCS Somersetshire Coal Canal SocietySCS Stover Canal SocietySNT Sleaford Navigation TrustSORT Sussex Ouse Restoration TrustSUCS Shropshire Union Canal SocietyTMCA Thames & Medway Canal AssociationWACT Wey & Arun Canal TrustWAT Wendover Arm TrustWBCT Wilts & Berks Canal Trust

2nd Saturday of month Audlem Shropshire Union Glenn Young see below2nd Saturday of month Aylesbury Grand Union Miriam Tedder 07775-5439904th Thursday of month Bath Kennet & Avon Steve Manzi 07710-175278Alternate Thursdays Blackburn Leeds & Liverpool Matt Taylor 07780-2229771st Sunday of month Burnley Leeds & Liverpool Matt Taylor 07780-2229773rd Thursday of month Cheshire T&M/Macclesfield Steve O’Sullivan 07887-6847071st Saturday of month Chester Shropshire Union Glenn Young see belowAlternate Saturdays Chorley Leeds & Liverpool Matt Taylor 07780-2229772nd Tuesday of month Churnet Valley Caldon Canal Barry Keight 07919 5605823rd Thursday of month Devizes Kennet & Avon Steve Manzi 07710-175278Weds and Thurs Droitwich Droitwich Canal Suzanne Byrne 07900-2765443rd Saturday of month Ellesmere Llangollen Canal Glenn Young see below1st Saturday of month Fradley Trent & Mersey Tom Freeland 01827-2520104th Thursday of month Gailey Staffs & Worcs Murray Woodward 07808-7867721st Mon & Wed of month Hatton Grand Union Canal Murray Woodward 07808-786772Last Sunday of month Hawkesbury Coventry/Oxford Miriam Tedder 07775-5439902nd Friday of month Huddersfield Huddersfield Broad Claire McDonald 07920-2959431st Thursday of month Knottingley Aire & Calder Nav Lucy Dockray 07767-383736Alternate Thursdays Lancaster Lancaster Canal Matt Taylor 07780-2229773rd Saturday of month Lapworth Stratford Canal Murray Woodward 07808-786772Alternate Tuesdays Leicester Grand Union/Soar Tom Freeland 01827-2520103rd Saturday of month London Grand Union/Lee Becky Williams 07799-4368163rd Thursday of month East London Lee & Stort Navs Becky Williams 07799-4368163rd Tuesday of month West London Grand Union Canal Becky Williams 07799-4368164th Saturday of month Manchester Ashton / Peak Forest Steve O’Sullivan 07887-6847071st Thu and 3rd Sat Maunsel Bridgwater & TauntonSteve Manzi 07710-1752782nd Thursday of month Newbury Kennet & Avon Steve Manzi 07710-175278Alternate Wednesdays Preston Lancaster Canal Matt Taylor 07780-222977Alternate Fridays Sefton Leeds & Liverpool Alice Kay 07825 1963653rd Saturday of month near Selby Selby Canal Lucy Dockray 07767-383736Alternate Wednesdays Skipton Leeds & Liverpool Matt Taylor 07780-222977Alternate Fridays Stoke Caldon / T&M Tom Freeland 01827-252010Every other WednesdayTamworth Coventry Canal Tom Freeland 01827-2520104th Saturday of month Tipton BCN Murray Woodward 07808-786772Alternate Thursdays North Warks Tom Freeland 01827-252010Every Tuesday Wigan Leeds & Liverpool Matt Taylor 07780-2229773rd Thursday of month Welshpool Montgomery Canal Glenn Young see below

Contact details: All CRT co-ordinators can be emailed at [email protected], eg

[email protected] for K & A. If no phone number given, use CRT Tel: 03030 404040

Canal & River Trust ‘Towpath Taskforce’ maintenance working parties

Navvies diary IWA branches...Inland Waterways Association and other one-day working parties

IWA branch abbreviations BBCW = Birmingham, Black Country & Worcestershire; Mcr= Manchester;Other abbreviations: CUCT = Caldon & Uttoxeter Canal Society; IWPS = Inland Waterways Protection

Oct 26 Sun IWA SY&D Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigation: Canal Cleanup at Tinsley.

Oct 28 Tue IWA Northants Northampton Arm

Nov 1 Sat IWA Chester Shropshire Union Canal in Chester: Painting, weeding, litterpicking.

Nov 2 Sun IWA Warks Grand Union: Canal Cleanup in Warwick: 10am-1pm

Nov 3 & 5 IWA Warks/CRTGrand Union Canal: Hatton, lock painting, litter pick, veg clearance &

Every Wed IWA Ipswich River Gipping: Pipps Ford, or Baylham Mill Lock 9am-4pm. Also Sat 1

Nov 9 Sun IWA Northants Northampton Arm

Nov 13 Thu IWA NSSC/CUCT Caldon Canal: Location & task TBC 10am-3pm

Nov 15 & 20 IWA Warks/CRTStratford Canal: Lapworth, lock painting, litter pick, veg clearance &

Nov 15 Sat IWA NSSC/TMCS Trent & Mersey Canal: Cheshire Locks. Painting & veg clearance 10am-

Nov 22/23 IWA BBCW Worcester & Birmingham Canal: Canal Cleanup at Bournville

Nov 22 Sat IWA London London Canal Cleanup

Nov 25 Tue IWA Northants Northampton Arm

Nov 28 Fri IWA NSSC Macclesfield Canal: Veg clearance & litter picking, Congleton Station

Dec 1 & 3 IWA Warks/CRTGrand Union Canal: Hatton, lock painting, litter pick, veg clearance &

Every Wed IWA Ipswich River Gipping: Pipps Ford, or Baylham Mill Lock 9am-4pm. Also Sat 6

Dec 6/7 IWA ChelmsfordChelmer & Blackwater Navigation: With Essex WRG

Dec 6 Sat IWA Chester Shropshire Union Canal in Chester: Painting, weeding, litterpicking.

Dec 7 Sun IWA Northants Northampton Arm

Dec 11 Thu IWA NSSC/CUCT Caldon Canal: Location & task TBC 10am-3pm

Dec 16 Tue IWA Northants Northampton Arm

Dec 18 & 20 IWA Warks/CRTStratford Canal: Lapworth, lock painting, litter pick, veg clearance &

IWA reports a successful ‘balsam bashing’ season with 150 volunteers tackling the invasive weed

NSSC = North Staffs & South CheshireSociety; TMCS = Trent & Mersey Canal Society; RGT= River Gipping Trust; CRT = Canal & River Trust

...and other one-day work Navvies diaryFor WRG canal camps and working parties see pages 20-21

Mobile groups' socials:

The following groups hold regularsocial gatherings in pubs. Pleasephone to confirm dates and times

London WRG: 7:30pm on Tues 11days before dig at the 'Star Tavern'Belgrave Mews West, London.Contact Tim Lewis 07802-518094

NWPG: 7:30pm on 3rd Tue of month atthe 'Hope Tap', West end of Friar St.Reading.Contact Phil Dray 07956-185305

10am-1pm Mavis Paul 07725-464611 [email protected]

Geoff Wood [email protected]

10am-4pm. Mike Carter 07795-617803 [email protected]

Brian Bayston 01926-831508 [email protected]

path work. CRT Hatton Yard 10am-3pm [email protected]

Nov. Martin Bird 01394-380765 [email protected]


Alison Smedley 07779-090915 [email protected]

path work. CRT Lapworth yard 10am-3pm [email protected]

4pm Bob Luscombe 07710-054848 [email protected]

David Struckett 07976-746225 [email protected]

Stefanie Preston 01494-783453 [email protected]


to Hightown Bob Luscombe 07710-054848 [email protected]

path work. CRT Hatton yard 10am-3pm [email protected]

Dec. Martin Bird 01394-380765 [email protected]

Roy Chandler [email protected]

10am-4pm. Mike Carter 07795-617803 [email protected]


Alison Smedley 07779-090915 [email protected]


path work. CRT Lapworth yard 10am-3pm [email protected]

Navvies DirectoryApologies for the non-appearance ofthe full Navvies directory of WRG andcanal society working party contactdetails, which normally appears inevery third issue.

We hope to find space for it inissue 268, so in the meantime if youhave any additions, deletions, newcontact details, changes of adress orother updates, please send them to theeditor by 1 November if possible

Thank you.

Caldon 40 celebrations 26-29 Sepand Uttoxeter towpath build

The Caldon & Uttoxeter Canal Trust [CUCT]stalwarts Julie Arnold, Alison Smedley &Steve Wood informed me that they wereplanning a day of celebration on September28th to commemorate the 40th anniversary ofthe re-opening to navigation of the CaldonCanal. They then asked me if I would assem-ble a small ‘Canalway Cavalcade-like’ festivalteam to help with all the usual site servicestasks throughout the weekend; and whetherthe same team would be able to “pop back”to Bridge 70 on the Uttoxeter, to extend thetowpath towards the bridge, the one thatwas built on Emma Greenall’s July WRGCamp. How could I refuse?

London WRG and WRG North Westresponded to my call for help: MartinLudgate, Alan Lines, Aileen Butler, AdrianSturgess [plus wacker plate] plus my usualteam of assistants Nigel Lee, Pete Flemingand George Rogers; together with Ju & Daz‘Davenport’, John Foley, Malcolm & BarbaraBridge, David Wild, Robin Stait, Andy Jones& Natalie Jewell, Paul Shaw & LyndaBeresford, Ian Rutledge; and from IWA HeadOffice we were joined by Amber Jenkins andToby Gomm. We even had the pleasure ofRoy Sutton who had a kip and did somewashing up en route between ‘jobs’.

Apart from putting up banners & signsand some gazebo & Herras fence wrangling,we spent most of Saturday building towpath.Hand-dig the existing dirt track and level.‘Wack’ the earth. Install 3m parallel lengths ofedging board with pegs & nails. Check levels.Lay Terram barrier material and back fill with20mm MOT aggregate, ‘wacking’ as you go.Cut off and trim excess material for a neatfinish. No dumpers and no diggers, just handtools, wheelbarrows and hard graft.

Our CUCT Restoration Manager SteveWood set us the challenge of reaching an oldgateway in a disused stock fence – I paced itout at 27 metres. By the time we ran out ofTerram, we had laid 42 metres and shifted

16 tonnes of aggregate by hand. The tow-path now ends in the ‘shadow’ of Bridge 70and is complete.

After returning the trailer and otherborrowed kit, we all adjourned to the RedLion in Cheddleton for the evening: goodfood, plenty to drink and an excellent liveband, plus a jive demonstration from ourown ‘strictly tandem couple’ Paul & Lynda. Itwas a late night for us all, especially Toby‘Captain Oates’ Gomm, who for some reasondecided to go walkabout star gazing betweenmidnight and 1am. Luckily an ‘emergency’text from Amber, who did manage to gethome from the pub first time, woke him upfrom his moonlit kip in a meadow adjacentto the canal and he managed to find his wayback unaided.

Sunday dawned early for us as weswitched from ‘dig’ mode to ‘festival’ mode -the main day of the weekend and lots to do.The site was centred where the Caldoncrosses the main road to Leek fromCheddleton at Bridge 42.

Imagine a standard cross demarking 4quarters with the canal running vertically andthe road horizontally.

Above Bridge 42, the NW quarter con-tained Bridge Cottage, the location for theGrand Anniversary Draw and used for safestorage of kit. The NE quarter included thevisitor moorings, the winding hole, the work-ing Flint Mill museum and its car park, thelocation for the exhibitors including CRT, theTrent & Mersey canal Society, RSPB, ChurnetValley Living Landscape Partnership, SevernTrent Water, together with loads of WOWactivities. We also had the information tent andthe CUCT sales gazebo on that side as well asboat trips operated by charity boat Beatrice.

Below Bridge 42 the centrepiece for there-enactment ceremony was lock 13, the toplock of the Cheddleton locks. In the SWquarter in the garden of the Red Lion, therewas a CUCT historic display of photos andother memorabilia associated with the canal,artist & author Trevor Yorke’s tent as well as‘year of the boat’ artist Rob Pointon, whosketched the scene live on his easel by the sideof the lock throughout the ceremony – veryimpressive. In the SE quarter we had the maincar park from which we operated a minibusshuttle service to transport the VIP guestsfrom their arrival point in Leek to the lock-side for the ceremony. We also parked up thefire engine (until it got a ‘shout’ and rapidlydeparted, sirens wailing!) and had a display

Caldon 40Celebration and dig

tent from Staffordshire CC Cycling Team.Highlights of the day included among

many others, a parade of historic boats, alock operating demonstration by the Stokeon Trent Boat Club, an open air service byReverend Michael Etheridge (which includedmusical accompaniment from an electricorgan, guitar and drum kit) and the ringingof a quarter-peal of bells at St. EdwardsChurch to mark the occasion.

Roger Savage [IWA North Staffordshire& South Cheshire Branch] conducted theceremony which took place in the lockaboard Beatrice and which included speechesfrom Richard Parry [CRT Chief Executive]and Julie Arnold [CUCT Chairman].

Other attending dignitaries included IanDudson, the Lord-Lieutenant of Staffordshire,a local Industrialist, former High-Sheriff andsignificant canal fund-raiser; and Harry ArnoldMBE, award winning waterway photographer &journalist, IWA Vice-President, co-founder ofWRG and who was of course, among theselect group of attending original canal re-storers wearing the specially commissionedbadge which read: “Here before in ’74".

The event was recorded for posterity byIWA / CUCT official photographer Mike Arnoldand covered by the Leek & Post Times, theChurnet Valley Speaks community audioproject, Moorlands Radio and the Sentinelnewspaper. [And our back cover pic ...Ed]

So as you can imagine, lots and lots ofwalking and talking, interaction with thepublic and all the standard festival duties:fetch & carry, gazebo and fence wrangling,chairs & tables, cyclist management, trafficcontrol, crowd control, stacking & packing,banners & signs, trailboards, hand-ballingexhibitors, minibusdriving, litter picking andrubbish collection, safetysupervision, boat han-dling, liaison with fireservice, police serviceand first aid cover; andall the usual troubleshooting, problem solv-ing and incident man-agement. My thanks toAlison Smedley MBE[CUCT / IWA] and KenMarek [Stoke on TrentBoat Club] for theirconstant liaison through-out the day together

with Rupert Smedley [NB Joshua] who kindlyprovided a very useful water-taxi for peopleand equipment during the de-rig process.

Just before you think all that was ex-hausting enough for one trip, in additionthere was also an evening of archive canalfilms at the Foxlowe Arts Centre in Leek,hosted by CUCT on the Friday night; and notto overlook the IWA open meeting and AGMwhich took place at the same venue duringthe day on Saturday!

It was a series of ‘firsts’ for me. It’squite unusual in itself to be present at the re-opening of a restored canal never-mindcelebrate the 40th anniversary of such a rareevent. The first dig I’ve attended or ledwhich combined canal restoration and festi-val management in one weekend; and thefirst time I’ve experienced a ‘festival-in-a-day’- much more challenging.

However, the weather was very kind tous throughout, the event was well attendedby the local community and the whole week-end was an unqualified success.

The sheer number of organisations thatcombined to work together on this and theamount of hard work carried out by every-one was astonishing; and I would like toespecially praise the aforementioned CUCTTeam who organised and hosted the event –the contribution they made is so significantit’s difficult to fully appreciate.

My sincere personal thanks are ex-tended to everyone who contributed to sucha fantastic and rewarding weekend - may wego on to celebrate the re-opening of manymore canals in the future!

Gary Summers

Towpath work in progress on the Uttoxeter Canal

ProgressWendover Arm

Our regular roundup of

restoration progress

around the waterways

kicks off with the

Wendover Arm...

Grand Union Wendover Arm

During the weekend of the Wendover ArmTrust’s July working party we were able toinstall the Brooman family’s bench seat placedin memory of John Brooman, our late Treas-urer and regular volunteer dumper driver.

John’s sons, Richard and Edward joinedour working party to lay the concrete baseand fix the bench seat in memory of theirfather. The Trust’s volunteers provided thebase as their contribution to the memorial.

The target of completing the profilingof banks, lining them with Bentomat water-proof matting, laying the concrete blocks andcoir rolls on both banks up to Bridge 4A wasachieved, bar short gaps adjacent to thebridge where a transition from normal banksto bridge narrows is required.

Apart from the excellent work by ourown volunteers we also have to thank KESCRGwho put in a valiant effort on the Saturday oftheir weekend visit in August to lay the con-crete blocks and coir rolls. I am told that, asbad weather was forecast for the Sunday, theyworked like beavers very late on the Saturdayto ensure that the work was completed.

Whitehouses: As already mentioned,KESCRG worked over the weekend followingthe August working party and finished all thebrickwork etc. they could at Whitehousespumping station site, pending CRT complet-ing their work on the water control mecha-nisms. It is to be hoped that CRT will com-plete their work by Easter 2015 so that KES-CRG can make a date for around May tocomplete their brickwork. We are all veryimpressed with the quality of KESCRG’s workand are very grateful for their contribution tothe restoration of the Wendover Arm.

The brickwork is not complete at the farend pending CRT building a manhole adja-cent to the old settling tank but you can see theweir and collecting channel in front as well asthe new piers that will support the metal safetygrid that will cover the tank and enable thepublic to view the water control in operation.

KESCRG also erected two information

boards for the nature trail/footpath leadingto Whitehouses.

These were designed and procured byRay Orth. The first is at Bridge 4 at the en-trance to the footpath and the second, whichexplains the water control operations of thefuture, is at the viewing area at Whitehouses.

Finally we have to thank Mike Wrightand his grandson who spent two days cuttingback the vegetation, mainly nettles, that wereoverhanging the new path. Many thanks toyou both.

New volunteers welcome, contact de-tails as follows:

Roger Leishman, Restoration Director01442 874536, [email protected]

Approach to Bridge 4A all finished (above)State of progress at Whitehouses (below)

Pic

ture

s by R

oger

Leis

hm

an,

WAT

Lichfield and Hatherton canals

Progress on the Lichfield Canal at theTamworth Road work site (on the outskirts ofLichfield) is still impressive with the newwinding hole approaching completion. At-tempts to use a synthetic liner in Pound 27(below the locks) have largely been abandonedand the team has been preparing to use puddleclay. This move is popular with friends of theTrust and there has been a steady flow ofdonations to the “Feet of Clay” appeal.

Our volunteers are now busy for threefull days each week and numbers continue togrow. The range of available skills is veryimpressive. The footpath from the A51Tamworth Road to Cricket Lane is popularand is in increasingly popular with wheel-chair users. This is all part of opening upthe Heritage Towpath Trail along the wholeroute from Huddlesford to Ogley.

We are also actively re-establishing theroute across Muckley Common which willprepare the section between the A5 and the

A460 at The Boat inn. Further on towardsOgley we have been talking to landownersand to the owners of the M6 Toll motorway.We have been studying ways to reinstate theCranebrook Culvert, which was removed bythe builders of the motorway despite strongpressure from the Trust. Raising publicawareness by establishing a walking route isnow seen as vital. Meanwhile, we are waitingfor decisions on the alignment of HS2 atHuddlesford.

On the Hatherton we have determinedthe precise location of the tunnel which willbe required under the Chase Line railwaywhich will soon be electrified. Discussionswith both Cannock Chase and South Staf-fordshire Councils has been very helpful aswe work to ensure maximum protectionunder their district plans which are approach-ing their final stages. Renewed suggestionsof the building of a northbound link betweenM6 and M54 will be carefully monitored tosee if this will give an opportunity to get thecanal back under the M6 at Calf Heath.

Staffs &Worcs Canalto GreatHaywood

Staffs &Worcs Canalto Stourport

Hatherton Canal Lichfield Canal

Wyrley &EsssingtonCanal

Daw End BranchTo Wolverhampton

M6 M6 Toll

CoventryCanal toFradley

CoventryCanal toCoventry

HuddlesfordCalf Heath TamworthRoad site

Ogley

Original routedestroyed byopencast mining

Proposeddiversion

Muckley

LichfieldCannock

Lichfield and Hatherton Canals

ProgressLichfield and Hatherton

Next we head for the

Midlands, where the

Lichfield and Hatherton

Canals Restoration Trust

continues to make progress

ProgressManchester Bolton & Bury

The Manchester Bolton & Bury CanalSociety’s August working party was held atNob End Locks, Little Lever, Bolton, where 16volunteers busied themselves in showery andblustery conditions over two days.

Jobs completed included clearing thetowpath and path around the breached areaof canal, which had become overgrownduring the summer making it difficult forwalkers and cyclists to pass along. TheMeccano Bridge picnic area and gardens werealso given a clean up.

The major exercise was to clear seriousgrowth of vegetation from the locksides, aspart of the Society’s Phase 2 restoration plan,following the construction of the MeccanoBridge as Phase 1. This plan involves thelocks being uncovered, partially excavatedand the lock sides landscaped to give animproved view of the area and in preparationfor future restoration.

By the end of the weekend a great dealof vegetation had been removed by thevolunteers asthey workeddown the area,revealing awhole new viewof this signifi-cant lock con-struction, whichis a majorfeature on theManchesterBolton & BuryCanal.

Goodprogress wasagain made onthe Society’sSeptemberworking party,also at the NobEnd Locks.

The objectwas to continueto uncover thelower half of

the flight of six locks and the group of 16volunteers worked over two days to reachthe bottom of the locks, where they start theclimb from the Salford to Prestolee section,up to the Bolton and Bury sections. The locksraise the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal bya height of 20 metres in just 200 metres.

This major exercise involved clearingextensive growth of vegetation from thelocks area and its sides. Working Party Of-ficer, Stuart Hammond, commented “Thishas been another successful weekend, whereour group of volunteers have worked hard touncover a part of the canal that has not beenseen for many years.”

For details of forthcoming workingparties contact working party officer StuartHammond [email protected] 07734 099 075.

For more information on the Societyplease see our website www.mbbcs.org.uk orlook for Manchester, Bolton and Bury CanalSociety on Facebook.

MBB volunteers clearing the side of Lock 5

MB

BC

S

Lettersto the editor

...on Mr Mac’s 90th

birthday, and a strange

and unidentified

structure on the

Somersetshire Coal Canal

Dear Martin

Somerset Coal Canal: Mystery Structure!

WRG BITM were on the Somersetshire CoalCanal in September on a section that hasbeen recently dredged. A fine wharf wallhad been discovered, and it is thought thatwas a colliery nearby where the coal hadbeen brought down by tramway. Close tothis a beautiful stop plank narrows structurewas uncovered with lovely curved walls ateach end. The stop plank grooves wereclearly defined, and about 2 ft. along on thetowpath wall from the groove was a strangestructure which puzzled us, and we would loveto know its purpose, if anyone has any idea.

At the base of the wall was a stone,about 15-18 ins. Square, and on either sideof it were wooden posts about 3 ins. Thick,the same height of the stone. Across the topwas a wooden lintel, the same thickness,extending a couple of inches into the wall oneither side to support it. The stone and thewood were set in flush with the rest of thewall, and the whole thing would have beenwell below water level. We examined thewall on theopposite sideof the canal tosee if wecould find anyfitting thatmight offer anexplanation,but the wallthere wascontinuous,neither wasany post holeor its like inthe stonefloor of thenarrows.

Anyideas please?

RachaelBanyard

Dear MartinMay I crave an inch or two of space to sendmy most sincere thanks to the many WRGieswho sent me good wishes on my 90th birth-day. Malcolm and Barbara Bridge plus other‘connivers’ from WRG North West arranged awonderful party at the North Cheshire Cruis-ing Club and even aged to keep it in the darkuntil the last moment! Our member Maureenproduce yet another masterpiece of the cakemaker’s art, which even had my likeness inthe ‘Mahler Hayley’ display boards, all enoughto forgive the fact that she hails from Yorkshire!

As I often tell people, the top half ofme is as usual - it’s only from the waist downthat the troubles assert themselves.

Now that I’ve taken up residence in mylittle bungalow, visitors - even if covered inmud - will be very welcome, and I even havetwo bedrooms in the roof as well as a size-able conservatory in which weary WRGiescould find space!

Truly, you are a great bunch!David ‘Mr Mac’ McCarthy

My apologies for the delay in publishing MrMac’s letter ...Ed

What was it? The strange Somerset structure, with remains of timber removed

Mart

in L

udgate

Camp ReportCotswold Canals

Last time we brought you camp

reports from Inglesham. This

time its the turn of the other

main current Cotswold volunteer

site at Bowbridge, above Stroud

Cotswold Canals: 9 - 16 August

‘Heavy Rain’, ‘Storms’, ‘High Winds’ and ‘Am-ber Weather Warnings’ to name a few of theominous forecasts that were floating out ofmy radio as I made my way down to Stroud.As always British weather seemed to beheavy on our minds. Nick (My lovely co-leader) had pre-warned me about the fore-cast; I had however decided to go for theslightly more optimistic approach until Iheard the radio on the Saturday morning.

Being as unpredictable as always, wedidn’t see a single hint of the weather thatwas set to come. It did however form a basisfor many a camp discussion on the first fewdays. Not to say that the weather was sun-shine all week, I very much wish I could saythis. It drizzled and bucketed down occasion-ally throughout the week but the sun wasalways just around the corner.

And so our week begins:Thanks toMoose and Martin Thompson the Saturdaywent incredibly smoothly with the Vans, SiteKit and Kitchen equipment arriving all byaround noon. Being overly prepared, havingmet Nigel at 8am, we were all set to go bymidday so Nigel, Martin and Alan headeddown to start pumping Bowbridge Lock out.

I would like to take this opportunity to

thank my cooks for the week as withoutthem all stepping in last minute the campwould not have run as smoothly. Firstlythank you to Harri for shopping for us on theSaturday and setting us up with breakfast forthe whole week, dinner for the first night andfor a fair few lunches. Also to Maria forpreparing the Saturday night’s dinner so Icould go down to site with all the volunteersand to Jude for cooking for us and setting usup for the rest of the week, your food andcake as always was scrumptious.

I also have to say ‘well done’ and ‘thankyou’ to Alex for cooking a lovely spag boland to Amanda for helping a lot for theFriday night BBQ.

Now on to Sunday: Sunday was areally great start to the week. Everyonecracked on with the jobs at hand and we hada really successful day. A group of us, thanksto Alan Lines and his trailer driving-capabili-ties, brought down the scaffolding fromBrimscombe whilst clearing the willow thatNigel was chopping up and taking that backto Brimscombe. Others worked hard blocklaying to create a dam to funnel waterthrough a pipe that was hopefully going togo out through the lock chamber, under thebridge and out the other end. Unfortunatelyfor us the flow of water coming down was

Cotswold Canals Phase 1A:

Stonehouse to Brimscombe

Stonehouse

Brimscombe Port

Stonehouse toBowbridge: mainlybeing restored bycontractors, mostlycomplete

Bowbridge to just belowBrimscombe: mainly beingrestored by volunteers(CCT, WRG, KESCRG,NWPG); target end of 2015

Bowbridge Lock:current project

Griffin Mill Lock:nearly complete

Ham Mill Lock:current project

Gough’s OrchardLock: finished

very fast so it took rather longerthan expected. Martin worked tire-lessly with the pump to try and getit to work to maximum efficiency.

Jude had arrived whilst wewere all on site so we came back tothe lovely smell of home cooking.That evening I had been taskedwith finding a skittles alley butunfortunately failed in that theywere either closed or non-existent.I was however adamant we wouldfind a nice pub, which we did even-tually come across. When we re-turned Rob had started a jigsawpuzzle, with a very captive audiencewatching and lending a hand.

Lucy and Jane had joined usthis evening and Chris was due tocome the following morning.

Monday: RAF Martin left usin the morning. We continued withthe dam, completing the other halfand inserting the pipe. Everyonestarted digging trenches and hopedthe pump would begin to work itsmagic on the gallons of water inthe lock chamber. We continued todrill a hole through the dam wall sothat the pipe could fit through andthen be eventually attached toscaffolding.

Amanda helped Nigel and Alan with theTirfor showing pure determination through-out the day, not wanting to give up. By theend of the day Amanda had definitely hadthe better of the stump.

Trenches were dug ready for copingstone removal.

That evening we headed to the cinemato watch inbetweeners 2 whilst Alan intro-duced Jude to ‘Bob’ and the puzzlers contin-ued. Nigel unfortunately left us this eveningto re-join the world outside the camp. It wasgreat to have both him and RAF Martin forthe first few days.

Tuesday: due to the water situation (avast amount) and lack of pump strongenough to pump out the water in the lockchamber a team moved onto block-laying,making a start on what was going to be thenew wall along the towpath (which hadcollapsed in early spring due to bad weather).Andrew, Stan and Karl started on that whilstTony mixed cement for them; it was a greatteam which continued to work well through-out the week. We were able to train a fair

few volunteers on block-laying which wasgreat. Rob and Chris carried on paddlingaround the dam blocking of any leaks andthen Rob went to lend a hand on the wall.They all had their eye on finishing the threelayers of blocks needed by Friday.

We continued digging the trenchesbehind the wing wall coping stones in orderto remove these safely so that we couldreplace the mortar. Once the trench was dugAlex, Thibaud, Ben and Caitlin started clear-ing vegetation and then the removal of thecoping stones began.

The larger silent pump arrived, andimmediately died on us as soon as the Sykesengineer had disappeared around the corner.Luckily he came back reasonably quickly andnot only did he fix the pump but after a chatwith Nick and Alan he promised to visit ourwebsite and sign up to a camp next year!

We were finally able to get into the lockchamber as instead of a day’s pumping it wasjust under half a day. It suddenly becameclear that the contractor that had been con-tracted to get all the silt out of the bottom of

Some people managed to get just a little muddy...

the chamber had not managed it, and as westepped in in our waders we were engulfedup to our thighs in silt. It was definitelygoing to be hard going.

A trench was dug behind the copingstones on the offside wall of the lock cham-ber, ready for when the scaffolding waseventually going to be put up. We startedclearing some bricks and got a team goingon cleaning those.

Tuesday evening we had a lovely boattrip with Fish & Chips. Everyone really en-joyed it and had a go at working the locks sothank you very much CCT!

Wednesday: Whilst Jon P started toerect the scaffolding with the help of Amanda,Thibaud and Caitlin, we were on our way tobegin the dismantling of Bowbridge lockback to sound brick and mortar.

Once the trench was dug and the scaf-folding up we lifted the copers off the brick-work and rolled them back as far as theycould go. Alex, Thibaud and Caitlin thenstarted taking any loose brickwork down (notgoing too far back due to the copers stillbeing above) and clearing the vegetation offthe wall. Ben and Lucy did the same from thescaffold tower on the nearside wall.

The block laying team continued onmaking great progress. Jane was being givena course in block-laying so an additionalmember was added to their team.

Lucy, Jane, Jude and Chris sadly left usthis evening so our numbers were dwindlingon the run up to the last few days.

Wednesday evening a few of us droveup to Inglesham to collect some sandbags sowe could start making a dam to try to controlsome of the silt so that we could (or the nextcamp could) start putting the stop plankgroves in. It was a fruitless task on theThursday (See Camp report from week threeon best methods of doing this).

Thursday and Friday carried onmuch the same as the previous days. Thurs-day morning was fairly tense as we awaitedBen’s arrival to breakfast with the results ofhis A level exams. He had done so well and Ihope he’s having an amazing first term.

On Thursday evening Martin Danks andChris Byrne joined us and we went down toSapperton Tunnel to show our campers andthen headed to the very quaint pub rightnext to it whose name escapes me. [TheTunnel House ...Ed]

Eventually on the Friday we receivedthe pipes that we needed to divert the water.We fitted what we could for the next camp;however we were still two short so weweren’t able to get it under the bridge, andthe problem of the water being in the lockfell unfortunately on the next week’s camp.

Our block-laying was completed, soallowing week two to dive straight into layingstone on the wall.

It was a great camp, I would like to saythank you to my many cooks and also to allthe volunteers who made mine and Nick’sfirst time of co-leading thoroughly enjoyable.

Amber Jenkins

Preparing for reinstating coping stones

Bowbridge Lock 16-23 August

We were the jam in the sandwich at Bowbridgethis summer; taking the middle of threeplanned camps at the site. Martin Danks andI chose to co-lead, ably assisted by ChrisByrne who heroically spent most of the campup to his neck in lock silt. We were also fortu-nate to have Mick Lilliman as Most UsefulPerson. His experience and skills were par-ticularly invaluable as we had a large numberof new faces to support over the week.

I was impressed yet again with howsmart and stoical the Duke of Edinburghvolunteers were. We had six in total this timeand they coped very well with the work andadapting to WRG life, with some real starsemerging through the week.

We needed level heads andstrong shoulders to take turns doingdifficult and potentially hazardouspipe work down in the lock. Ourmain task for the camp was to divertwater round Bowbridge lock by run-ning a water pipe through the lockand along 25 feet of mud-filled cul-vert. We did manage this… for about40 minutes. It was very disappointingwhen one of the pipes split just as wecompleted the water diversion, takingus right back to square one. Chrisand his team labored in deep silt allweek trying to find a solution so itwas a frustrating result. It was veryuseful to have level-headed volun-teers such as Stuart and Alex fordemanding work like this.

A small team completed someexcellent work replacing copingstones around both wing walls, fol-lowing only a half day training byAlan Lines. We had a couple ofFrench volunteers, Thibaud andCamille, who chiefly drove this workforward together with Will, Tom andPatrick. This was quality work safelydone which we were very pleased with.

There had been a towpath

collapse by Bowbridge a few weeks beforeour camp and Mick led a team repairing thisby sorting and cleaning stones and thenlaying them using OPC mortar. We weresatisfied to complete a full course of about30 yards of stone that will have given aconsiderable boost to the work of Cotswold’sown towpathing team as they continue withthe repair. Mick was particularly pleased withD of E Poulami who did good work on thisall week.

The mixer rarely stopped all week,alternating between OPC and lime mortarmixes. Will and Mike emerged as particularlyefficient mix masters in this position. Wemanaged to get training from the local Trustto use a jack hammer and volunteers took it

Putting copers on the wing wall at Bowbridge Lock

All p

hoto

s by B

ill

CCT

Camp Report...and the Cotswold again

Week two carries on the good

work at Bowbridge, rebuilding

the towpath wall above the lock,

reinstalling coping stones, and

wrestling with a water pipe...

in turns to remove damaged brickworkfrom the main lock chamber walls.

Socially it was a camp that con-stantly changed as we were providingB&B for a number of familiar WRGfaces attending the Saul festival andother projects. Martin and I felt thatexperienced WRGies were a little out-numbered by inexperienced hands,which made things a bit harder work aswe tried to establish domestic and siteroutines. This situation improved laterin the week as we were joined by peo-ple with more experience of camps.These included Valerie (Tasterella) whomade her usual contribution to thesocial cohesion of the camp by drawingeveryone into the conversation.

Midway through the week wewere joined by Christine and Mike, acouple who’d enjoyed their first campso much on the Lancaster canal a fort-night previously that they signed up fortwo half weeks of camps. Mike took aturn on the mixer and Chris made a good job of ‘polishing’ the towpath vegetation. Theywere both a great help back at the accommodation making things shipshape. HamonStewart dropped by for the day and was shameless exploited by myself and Martin for theshort time he was there, completing the site kit check amongst other things.

We were initially without a cook for the week but were lucky to get assistance frommany directions, including Filippo who cooked several meals and did sterling work at break-

fast time, and my own mumwho pitched up with somegigantic Shepherds’ pies for us.We also sourced some goodlocal ice cream from Winstonesat their factory just above theworksite. On the last eveningthe French volunteers Thibaudand Camille made a terrific mealincluding cheese, crepes,saucisson and an excellentratatouille and an apple tartetatin and we were joined bylocals Bill, and Jon Pontefractand family for dinner.

The lack of domestic sup-port from a dedicated cookmeant volunteers such as Filippoand Andy were dragged all overGloucestershire in search ofsandbags, floor cleaner andother sundries! Later Andy did avery good job of cleaning backat the accommodation, which intrue WRG style we left cleanerthan when we arrived.

Sophie SmithProgress with the towpath wall above the lock

Fun with mud and pipes

Camp ReportThe ‘Driff-Pock’ camp

Pocklington and Driffield Canals

Appropriately enough for a camp split acrosstwo canals, we’ve also got two camp reportsfor Canal Camp 20014-18. So we’ve inter-leaved them together. Over to Kieran first...

I first heard about the Waterway RecoveryGroup through the Duke of Edinburghwebsite. As I was searching through the listof Approved Activity Providers, I found WRGnear the bottom of the list. The low price of£8 a day lured me in, and as I read more, Iended up choosing the Driffield Navigation &Pocklington Canal as my chosen residential.Not only was the location relatively easy toget to, but the work looked fun, and twodifferent sites should provide variety in case Igot bored. Luckily for me, there was nochance of that happening.

When I arrived at the accommodationalong with the rest of the group, it turnedout we were in the equivalent of a 5* hotel...

Now let’s hear from Hari...

If you’re reading this then I’m sure that you will beaware that WRG Canal Camp accommodation“can best be described as basic”. During our stayin one of Pocklington School’s boarding houses,the privilege of which usually costs pupils inexcess of £20,000 a year, basic meant having twolounges equipped with Sky TV (movies, sports andall), pool tables, sofas and air hockey. More signifi-cantly though, for those who have been on previ-ous camps and endured sleeping in a sleeping bagin a room with twenty others and travelling else-where for showers, there were beds galore (evensingle rooms for some) and bathrooms down thecorridor. So lying in my bed that first night afterhaving enjoyed a meal cooked by an amateur chef,Monique, (apparently this luxury is standard acrossthe WRG camps), a trip to a local pub and watch-ing the highlights of Manchester United lose toSwansea (some things remained the same), Icounted myself very lucky at having transferredmy booking from the Cotswolds.

Our mornings began with a wake-up call of

“Morning, campers!” delivered with much gustofrom the newly ordained WRG canal camp leader,Colin Hobbs. As a student on holiday from univer-sity for 15 weeks, the sudden re-emergence ofquarter to 8 starts came as quite a shock to mysystem but was thankfully alleviated with the aidof large fried breakfasts. For the work that was tocome on the first two full days, I can say in hind-sight that I really needed the energy from thosebreakfasts; as much as I could get as a vegetariananyway.

As a first for WRG there were two sites onthis camp...

At first I worked on the Pocklingtonsite, with Colin as the leader. Whilst it onlytook 5 minutes by van to get there, thepresence of a digger, required us to walk fora total of an hour there and back due to itsslow pace. Before we had arrived, a stumpgrinder had been through already, cutting upoutreaching tree roots and creating a muchsmoother towpath, although we still had alot of work to do. Whilst two of us choppedaway at the hedge to allow the digger to getpast, the others used rakes to flatten andspread out the path, making it wider. Whilstwe aimed for 3 metres, in places it wasn’tfeasible. The digger was invaluable, allowinga lot more dirt to be shifted in the time wehad. Alongside some parts of the path weplaced down wooden boards with stakes tohelp prevent the path from eroding into thecanal. In some ways we were punished forour success, as the more work we did, thelonger it took to actually get to the site, untilon the last day, it took longer getting thereand back than it did to actually finish off thework! At one point the stump grinder had tobe called again to clear some roots to allowthe digger to pass, and it was quite cool tosee a remote control engine cut its waythrough, although we did have some workraking the earth flat after it had gone past.

The one that I was sent off to first, DriffieldCanal, was half an hour away from the accommo-dation and the task set was an ambitious one.Using the slashers, saws, loppers, rakes and bushcutters at our disposal we were to carve a path

Finally up in East Yorkshire, a

canal camp that combines the first

week on the Pocklington Canal for

some years with the first ever on

the Driffield Navigation

through the thick undergrowth next to the canaland create a nature trail for the public. I found thejob most satisfying when I was at the front of thegroup and taking on the role of Indiana Jones:hacking through the impeding nettles, bramblesand overhanging branches to uncover new walk-able path. Every hero needs a good sidekickthough doing the less glamorous work and thisinvolved some of us at any one time using theother bush cutter and rakes to go back over thedecimated shrubbery and complete its demise bytaking out anything left standing and tossing it toone side. Despite the tiring work and the everincreasing long walk back for tea breaks, oftenlugging extraordinarily large branches behind us,the team cleared over 300m of path over thecourse of the week! This achievement was wellrewarded through daily gifts from members of thelocal canal societies such as chips and hand-picked

fruit stew as well as visitsfrom the press including theDriffield Times and Post andthe Hull Daily Mail.

On Wednesday Imoved to the DriffieldSite, at Whinhill Lock,where we were usingbrush cutters and chop-pers to clear away hedgesand branches to clear apath alongside the canal.We had to be extra carefulat times due to the factthat we had to keep thepath at least 1 metreaway from the road, andthe fact that the pathcould dip sharply at timestowards the canal. How-ever this ended up beingmy favourite part of thework over the week. Itwas a lot easier to seehow far you had reachedfor one, and it was verysatisfying using the brushcutters on stubborn setsof brambles, althougheveryone ended up get-ting stabbed at least once!At first, clearing awayloose foliage was rela-tively easy, resulting in alarge pile of debris just tothe side of the start of ourpath. However, as thepath grew longer, it be-

came necessary to create piles further alongthe path as well, as negotiating some partsof the path were getting too difficult, espe-cially when dragging a 8-9 foot branchalongside you.

While it initially seemed that Driffield wasthe site that took longest to get to, affectionatelycalled “the dark side” by us, I found out on theremaining four days of work that while the Pock-lington canal was a tantalising 3 minute driveaway, getting to the site itself involved a 20minute walk with a 2mph digger. The objective atPocklington shared the simplicity of Driffield inthat all that was required was to widen the tow-path by a foot or so. This though required a greatdeal of work in soil being lifted by the digger fromone side of the path to the other and then two orthree of us raking behind it to even out the sur-face. On the narrower stretches of towpath we

On the Pocklington: levelling the path surface (above)and installing the wooden towpath edging (below)

Colin

Hobbs

Tra

cy H

ow

art

h

even had to hammer in wooden posts andnail them to planks to keep the newlyadded soil in place (Natural Englandersdon’t worry - we covered up said boardswith earth to maintain the natural ambi-ence of the nature). While we were nottreated to the luxuries of the Driffieldgroup, we did have a great deal of assist-ance in the labour from members of thePocklington Canal Amenity Society whodid a lot of work with a stump cutter andrakes which enabled and supported ours. Inparticular we were grateful for the enthusi-asm of Dick who with his dead-pan hu-mour and help kept us motivated andcheerful through what was quite a monoto-nous task.

One highlight I and others on thecamp enjoyed was the amount ofsupport we received from the locals.Every day, someone would be comingalong the footpath and remarking onhow well we were doing. The Driffieldworkers (or the Dark side as it wascollectively known) even got broughtfish and chips once. Members of thePCAS or the DNT would sometimesappear and help us out with some ofthe work.

While our days were spent workinghard, Colin and co-camp leader Jenny‘Digger’ Morris came up with inspired ideasfor our evenings which were well supported by theexcellent facilities in the boarding house and manycold ciders and beers. Among these was a trip to apub quiz where knowledge of: dog breeds namedafter Croatian provinces (Dalmatian), 20th centuryConservative party leaders who never quite madethe cut (William Hague), and anagrams of histori-cal figures (galore – Al Gore) was of vital impor-tance. Both teams that we entered got past the30/40 mark but my team, the Young Mouts,(cunningly derived from Old Mout – my drink forthe evening, a kiwi flavoured New Zealand cider)managed to pip the other by a point with the helpof veteran quizzer Chris Finn. The evening afterthe quiz proved to be quite peaceful with a narrowboat trip down Pocklington Canal, cuppa included,in which we all got to have a go steering the boat.Despite moments of veering dangerously close toeither bank, due to the confusion of pushing thetiller bar left to turn the boat right and vice versa,we made it safely back to shore.

It was the final evening though that wasmost memorable with a barbecue outside theaccommodation that, along with providing someexcellent vegetarian food in the form of grilled

Preparing to deal with the Driffield’s undergrowth

mushrooms with halloumi and bean burgers, was anice opportunity to meet up with the members ofsocieties associated with both canals and reflecton the work carried out as well as thanking themfor their assistance and support. A great deal wasachieved on this camp that will enable the localcommunities of Driffield and Pocklington withsuch rich histories surrounding their canals toenjoy them even more in the future. As well as thelocal societies’ members, this camp could not havehappened without the organisational and leader-ship skills of Jenny and Colin, the efforts ofMonique in keeping us well fed and the entireteam of twelve which worked very well together.We will be back; if not for more work then for aholiday!

I would particularly like to thank Colin,who was an amazing camp leader, alwaysready to joke or work, and Jenny, who wasassistant leader and who led the Driffield site.

Overall, this was a thoroughly enjoy-able experience, and I look forward to doingit again sometime.

Kieran DeSouzaHari Prabu

The Shackerstone Disaster

We were all set to go to Shackerstone for theFestival and the boat club AGM - in fact wewere on our way - when on the 22nd AugustI received a message from the Canal & RiverTrust saying that, due to a recent agreementwith Natural England, all visitor and casualmoorings in the area were suspended andmooring would only be allowed on particularsections between bridges 46-53. Thesespecific moorings had been identified and Ishould contact the Festival organisers.

The organisers said that just that weekthey had got a problem with the mooringsand were very restricted to the number ofboats able to attend. In effect the mooringswere full. They urged those booked to workat the Festival to arrive as soon as possible.One couple we know, who were booked towork, got there over a week before theFestival and were moored a mile from thesite! Obviously there was no point in pro-ceeding further so I informed as many clubmembers as possible and we turned back.

Why was this happening? There hadbeen no problem before and this is the 10thyear of the Festival.

Natural England INSISTED on restrictedmoorings at this year’s Festival and the impo-sition of certain conditions “to prevent dam-age, from anticipated boat movements”, toaquatic plants that grow at the edges of thecanal. These plants have grown there whileboats have been travelling and mooring on thecanal, why will they suddenly suffer? Boats andwildlife have coexisted for over two hundredyears, it’s pollution that kills wildlife not boatmovements. Why have CRT allowed EnglishNature to dictate these draconian terms? Whatright have they to “move on offenders”?

Is a canal, a navigation, part of a trans-port system or part of a narrow pond andnature reserve? For what reason are weworking so hard to restore canals?

Who is paying for the 200m ‘nico-spanning’ which has been erected?

Will there be any compensation from

English Nature for the loss of revenue from theFestival as there will be less boats attendingand many will be too distant from the site?

Why do I call it the Shackerstone Disas-ter? Well it certainly seems disastrous to me!

If this indicates the way things aregoing the future doesn’t look good.

Editor’s note: without wanting to detractfrom the general (and fully justifiable, to mymind) miffed-ness of the people who hadboated considerable distances to be atShackerstone, I hope Sadie doesn’t mind meadding a little further information.

It appears that someone from the localangling club, which has (rightly or wrongly)long been unhappy at its fishing being inter-rupted by the annual festival, waited untiljust a couple of weeks before the event tosend in an objection to NE, on the groundsthat the boats mooring for the event wouldcause serious damage to plant life in thecanal. NE felt the need to act on the com-plaint, and gave CRT a long list of require-ments including no double mooring. CRTarranged a meeting with NE, and got agree-ment to a less draconian list of requirements,subject to the Nicospan temporary protectionbeing installed - but clearly it still had amajor effect on mooring space.

My distinct impression is that CRT werefairly hacked-off about an issue that blew upvery quickly as a result of a last-minuteintervention by the anglers at a time whenkey staff from all the organisations con-cerned were away on holiday, and that theyhope to reinstate the usually good relationsbetween CRT and NE which have seldom ledto this kind of issue in the past on the navi-gable network. Note the last four words -sadly the same can’t be said about the canalsunder restoration, where there’s a long his-tory of obstruction by nature interests. Thelatest being an application by CRT for per-mission to relocate newts to allow a canalsociety to carry on its volunteer work on acanal restoration project - which NE sat onfor four months, and then refused.

WRG BCNews from our boat club

A three-page extended article

from WRG BC, including the

story of the Shackerstone

Disaster, and a report from

the AGM that never was...

WRG Boat Club News

The AGM – see ‘The Shackerstone Disaster’to clarify what didn’t happen!

No one disagreed with the accuracy ofthe minutes from the previous AGM.

There were no matters arising.The club officers’ reports have been

circulated to those members for whom Ihave an accurate email address! For theothers these will be attached here.

Allocation of funds/donations. – it hasbeen suggested that we/I ascertain if theAshby Canal Association made a loss on theShackerstone Festival and if this will affectfunds for restoration. If we can donate fundsto be used for materials or plant to aid resto-ration, some of the money could go there.Please let us know of your preferences fordonations.

Elections – well no members haverushed up to offer to take on any of the jobsso I assume all are happy for those in officeto carry on. (PLEASE suggest somebody tojoin our ranks!)

The Roger Jeffries Trophy aka TheBowl – well, I hope you toasted all the other

club members as nobody was actuallypresent! I toast you all, so loyal are ourmembers, considering this AGM is ‘incompe-tence at its best’ par excellence!

Future Plans – it has been suggestedthat we could gather at IWA’s gathering atNorthampton in August next year. Againplease let us know your feeling about this orof any place where we could gather mem-bers together.

There was no other business (so far).I cannot say the meeting was declared

closed seeing as it either never opened or isstill ongoing!

Officers’ Reports follow...Sadie Heritage

Commode Door’s Report: First I apolo-gise for missing this year’s AGM.

I am at the bi-annual Canal Festival atMaesbury Marsh on the Montgomery Canalwhere we held our AGM 2 years ago.

This year Sadie is holding the ‘virtual’AGM on the Ashby Canal. We hope to circu-late reports from the committee to membersprior to this and enable you to send anycomments to us.

After the trouble at Shackerstone (see oppo-site) it’s good to be able to bring you somemore cheerful news from the Ashby, whereboating WRGie Colin Hobbs happened to bearound to snap the next restored length of thenorthern reaches all ready for rewatering and(inset) the first water going in a few days later.

We need to think where/when to holdfuture AGMs as there will no longer be Na-tional Festivals at the end of August. Let ushave your suggestions.

Our last AGM was at Huddlesford Junc-tion on the Coventry Canal in the clubhouse.

I hope you have all managed someterrific boating this year with the summerweather being kind to us (so far). I havebeen out and about in the North West toEllesmere port Boat and Sea Shanty gather-ing at Easter and the IWA campaign rally atChester which was very well supported anda chance to meet other club members.

The role of Commode door is not verydemanding. Sadie does all the hard work. Iwould like to say a huge thank you to herfor all she does for the club especially writingan article for Navvies each issue. I often geta phone call asking if I have any ideas aboutwhat we could include in the news letter anddespite me being no help at all she alwayshas something relevant to publish. SadieTHANK YOU from me and I’m sure this isalso from everyone else.

Wearing my other hat/t-shirt as AWCCrep, I attend the Association of WaterwaysCruising Club meetings. They are probablythe largest group representing the interest ofboat owners and private moorings and lobbyCRT and parliament on our behalf. AWCChas been working hard for us this year onissues of cycling on towpaths and mooringmanagement.

I regret I could not attend the AWCC50th Rally at the Black Buoy Cruising Club.Erica our Midland Region Secretary keeps uswell informed and you can find out what’sgoing on by logging onto AWCC website andreading Alert.

I think one change I have witnessedrecently is the greater emphasis on usingvolunteers on our waterway. WRG stillmakes a huge contribution to restorationand there are also plenty of opportunitiesto become involved through local IWA/CRTand canal societies. Have any club mem-bers joined in work parties, clean ups,painting, and litter picking or HimalayanBalsam bashing?

This is my fourth year as a volunteerlock keeper on the River Trent but I have notseen any club members yet this year. I stillhave some WRG Flags available at only £10.This enables us to recognise you when outcruising.

Lynne Cater

Treasurer’s Report: The current bankbalance (statement 5 August) shows thebank balance at £213.87; there is onecheque outstanding for £50 making theclosing balance for the year £163.87.

With 2014/2015 subs now due, we canexpect a healthy balance of about £550.00 byNovember time; this is when all subs haveusually been received. Income for the yearamounted to £423.50 with expenses of£378.64 (this included a donation to the Li-chfield & Hatherton Canal Trust of £200). TheSecretary only claimed for postage, effectivelydonating all other expenses to funds.

Donations have now been made of over£4,200 to various canal projects of which alist is available.

Accounts have been sent to the Secretary,who will email to anyone who requests a copy.

Ann Smart

Secretary’s Report: The club membershipis at present 40, that is usual, but the mem-bership fluctuates a little, we do have someleaving and some joining. A couple of mem-bers left without letting me know i.e. theyjust stopped paying the standing order (tch!),others have joined us. If you know of anyboating WRGie wishing to join us please givethem my email address, postal address orphone number so they can text me.

I have ordered some more membershipcards so look out for the new design thisyear. Last year I sent out your new cards outwith the famous(?) Club Christmas Card.This meant that the Christmas Card cameearly but the membership cards a bit late,but also the club saves on postage!

I attended the AWCC AGM at StaffordBoat Club last March. It brought home to mehow important our membership of the AWCCis – not only for the help other clubs give to usbut for the vital role AWCC plays in supportingboaters on a national scale with both the Gov-ernment and Canal and River Trust.

All our news is usually imparted viaNavvies but this year I have sometimes hadto communicate via email for some things ofa more urgent nature, if you think youmissed out on this PLEASE let me have yourup to date email address.

Remember our club motto – incompe-tence at its best – and the fact that technol-ogy and I do not get on too well. Thank youfor putting up with my bumbling about foranother year.

xxx Sadie Heritage

TrainingNote the date: 13-14 June

Reporting on a successful

plant training weekend on

the Wilts & Berks and

looking forward to some

more training next year...

Training Weekend 2014

I had been thinking of running a trainingweekend for the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust,and when I mentioned it at our RestorationCommittee Meeting, George Eycott (Bungle)asked if I could include an evaluation of twoexcavators which WRG were thinking ofpurchasing. These were two Volvo ma-chines, one with the zero tail swing and onewith the standard swing.

I approached Rapid Hire, who hadloaned us free of charge an excavator anddumper last year, to see if they could supportus again this year, which they agreed to dosubject to machines being available. Weagreed on a date of 13th/14th September.Jenny Black arranged for the Volvo machinesto arrive, complete with their representativeto explain their capabilities to George andmyself.

The next task was to entice sufficientinstructors to come along, namely HamonStuart, Martin Thompson, Bob Airey, DaveWedd, Adrian Sturgess, George, Digger(Adam Morris) and myself. Dave and Adrianstayed at my cottage for the weekend. In

the end, over the two days, we had 27 vol-unteers, which included Ron Kirby and sixvolunteers from Cotswold Canal Trust, whobrought over their mini-excavator.

Although we didn’t get an excavatorfrom Rapid Hire as their machines were latereturning from hire, in all, we had the choiceof three excavators for training, a 4-wheeldrive dumper, a 2-wheel drive dumper andtwo tractors with different mowing attach-ments. We set a marquee up on my gardenlawn, with a Burco running all day for tea orcoffee, and Di supplied lunch for those whorequired it.

The weather was on our side, and the27 volunteers achieved passes in 39 catego-ries. The instructors worked their socks off,and were pretty hoarse by the end of theweekend. Trainees came from as far afieldas Northampton and Hereford & Gloucesterin addition to the Wilts & Berks and CCT.

Rachael Banyard

...and 2015...

We have decided that after not running theusual full training weekend in late spring orearly summer this year, we are going to runone in 2015.

We don’t have details of the site yet, butwe do have a date: the weekend of 13-14June 2015. Note it in your diaries, and lookout for more information in future issues ofNavvies, including the usual appeal for peo-ple to tell us in good time what they want tolearn (be it machinery operation, vehicledriving, construction skills such as bricklay-ing, first aid or whatever) so we have thebest chance of being able to plan it.

And we would, of course, very muchappreciate it if our instructors can keep thatdate clear.

Leader training

We do hope to run another leader trainingday in 2015 - probably around May. Moreinformation in future issues.Coming back in ’15 - the WRG training weekend

Mart

in L

udgate

Driver Authorisation update

What were we doing 10 years ago?The “Right Tool for the Right Job” appeal was in full swing, this was the hugely suc-

cessful appeal which paid for a massive investment in equipment and vehicles.We were running GCW, VOJ, SAD (the original huge 17 seat one), and RFB (the origi-

nal one) as our camps vans, and Jonathan found some mug to buy NJF off us.There was a canal camp report by ‘Just John’ in Navvies that was entirely fictitious, and

only ONE PERSON noticed!Mr. Mac was 80.wrgSW was launched.Bungle won the novice trophy for boat handling at Little Venice, while wearing a bear

costume. A picture of which my work colleagues still occasionally produce to this day.Talking of Cavalcade, it was the last year KESCRG ran the site services for the event.I was helping the team at Claverton rebuild the WRG KL15 crane (and I still get asked

about it now).Jonathan sold Eddie’s Land Rover to Adrian (obviously, it was still Eddie’s Land Rover

even two owners later).There was a photo shoot for the WRG calendar (yes, that one) – see Navvies 204 for

out-take pictures.The National Waterways Festival was at Burton on Trent (the first time), where it was

very wet and we were towing in most of the traders. (except the bar truck which we had todrag in with a Tirfor).

Other camps were on the Hereford & Gloucester, Cotswolds, Wilts & Berks, GrandWestern, Wey & Arun, Mon & Brec, Caldon, Basingstoke, Lancaster, Lichfield & Hatherton,and Grantham Canals – hmm, some things don’t seem to change.

Also, we decided that we needed to sort out our databases: believe it or not, at thattime if you were involved in WRG your address was recorded in three different databasesheld by three different people in three different counties– The Navvies subscriber list, theDriver Authorisation system and the Camps Database. So when you moved it could be chal-lenging to make sure your WRG post arrived with you and not your parents, uni digs, exgirlfriends etc. And woe betide someone doing something as obscure as getting married andhence changing their name, address and wanting a joint Navvies subscription.

As part of the database work, we made the decision to refresh the Driver AuthorisationScheme – yep, the current DA scheme is 10 years old this year. Still reading? Good, I havejust got to the point… Those of us who were involved at the time will probably remembersitting around Jonathan’s dining room table, and in the back of GCW and various other moreimpromptu meeting places, going through all the DA forms we received.

We have had a number of queries about the scheme recently so we thought itwas a good opportunity to go through the categories and clear up misunderstandings.

The Categories

It is important to note that the categories are cumulative, so if you have 1c, you also have1b and 1a. For fun I have included in brackets at the end the number of people who haveeach category. The DA scheme is recognised and used for all WRG camps and local groupsas well as some canal societies (for example Wilts & Berks Canal Trust). Some local societiesrun their own equivalent scheme which may or may not accept a WRG card.

Driver authorisationThe categories explained

As the WRG Driver

Authorisation

Scheme reaches 10

years since its last

major revamp...

1a – Goods vehicles up to 3.5t gross vehicle weight (DVLA Category B on your driv-ing licence). An example of this is the new Iveco panel van used by WRG Plant and seen onthe Mon and Brec this year. Other more specialist hired-in vehicles under this category couldinclude tippers/pickups etc. Though if it has more than three seats it comes under passengercarrying – see category 2. [107 operators, of whom 17 are instructors]

1b – Goods vehicles up to 7.5t gross vehicle weight (DVLA category C1). An exampleof this would have been the WRG Beavertails (now sold) or larger trucks that we have hiredin for the National Festival in the past. Note that just because your licence has this categorydoes not mean you should apply for it unless you have the relevant experience. Also, thereare additional regulatory restrictions on drivers of these vehicles now (e.g. drivers’ CPC) andas we no longer have a vehicle covered under this category it is unlikely that we will approvefurther applications. [28 operators, of whom 7 are instructors]

1c – Rigid HGV’s (DVLA category C). Big trucks that don’t bend in the middle. Includedfor completeness but unlikely to receive applications. [3 operators, of whom 0 are instructors]

1d – Articulated HGV’s (DVLA category C+E). Big trucks that do bend in the middle.Included for completeness but unlikely to receive applications. [3 operators, of whom 1 is aninstructor]

2a – Minibus up to 9 seats (DVLA category B). Confident van drivers over 25 canapply for this category; it is strange how much more stressful driving a van can be with 8‘helpful’ passengers offering advice…. Note that the number of seats includes the driver, soonly 8 passenger seats. [70 operators, of whom 4 are instructors]

2b – Minibus up to 17 seats (DVLA category D1). Same comments at 2a but more so,only available to drivers who passed their car driving test before 1997 (after that date newlicences did not include this category) or who have undergone a further driving test to in-clude minibuses. Note that in general if you are applying for category 2 and your licencecovers category D1, then you would normally apply for 2b rather than 2a. [97 operators, ofwhich 24 are instructors]

3a – Four wheel drive up to 9 seats (DVLA category B). Used to be known as LandRovers but other makes considered! [19 operators, of whom 5 are instructors]

3b – Four wheel drive up to 17 seats (DVLA category D1). As 3a but with morepassengers (Land Rover used to make a 12 seat Defender for example). Only available to driverswho passed their car driving test before 1997 (after that date new licenses did not include thiscategory) or who have undergone a further driving test to include minibuses. Note that ingeneral if you are applying for category 3 and your license covers category D1, then youwould normally apply for 3b rather than 3a. [45 operators, of whom 11 are instructors]

4a Site trailer. A trailer primarily designed for use on site being towed behind a site vehi-cle (dumper/ tractor etc.). [34 operators, of whom 4 are instructors]

Conveniently we have run out of space just before category 4b, which simply consists of theletters TBC (presumably ‘To Be Confirmed’) - I bet you can hardly wait for part 2 next time...

Driver authorisationthe categories explained

...George ‘Bungle’

Eycott clears up

some confusion

about what the

categories mean

Congratulationsto

Helen Gardner and Graham Raeburnon the arrival ofDominic John

on 5 September weighing 8lb 3ozto

Helena and Krzysiek Rosieckion the arrival of

Rozalia Anneon 1 September weighing 8lb 4oz

toLouise and Ben Tingay

on the arrival ofAbbeygail Harriet

on 12 October weighing 7lb 9.5ozand to

Izzy and Andrew Rutteron the arrival of

Lucy Rachelon 13 October weighing 6lb 6oz

and finally toRichard Worthington and Rowena

Gaskellon their engagement

Dial-a-camp

To contact any WRGCanal Camp:

07850 422156(Kit ‘A’ camps)07850 422157(Kit ‘B’ camps)

Stamps

wantedSend used stamps,petrol coupons, phonecards, empty computerprinter ink cartridges toIWA/WRG Stamp Bank,33 Hambleton Grove,Milton Keynes MK42JS. All proceeds tocanal restoration.

Contacting the chairman:

Mike Palmer,3 Finwood Rd, RowingtonWarwickshire CV35 7DH

Tel: 01564 785293

email: [email protected]

Apologies......for having to hold a couple of items over till

next time owing to lack of space. One of the re-

sults of running 30% more camps is that you get

30% more camp reports! Speaking of which, thereare still a couple of summer camps that haven’t

sent in camp reports. Come on, don’t be shy!

Moving house

David and Jenny Worthington have movedto 41 Fenton Place, Porthcawl CF36 3DW

Roger and Sue Burchett have moved to TheCottage, 9 The Old Vicarage, Vicarage Road,Bishopsworth BS13 8EX

If you move house, don’t forget to tellNavvies

Thanks

to Chris Griffithsof Stroudprint for

continuedassistance with

Navviesprinting

Datesfor your diaries

BCN Clean Up: 18-19 AprilTraining weekend:

13-14 June.More next time

Coming soon...

...in the next issue, the Camps Brochurefor 2015, part two of Bungle’s epic onDriver Authorisation, and a Reunion report

InfillThe search for dullness goes on...

Toolbox TalkOpening a bottle of cider/beer

It came to my attention during the Driffield /Pocklington canal camp that a tool that lookslike nothing more than a corkscrew can alsobe handily used as a bottle opener. I there-fore felt obligated to share this knowledge tothe wider canal-loving populace.

1. There may come a time when yourequest a bottle opener andinstead of the usual (seefigure 1.) you are pre-sented with a wingedcorkscrew (see figure2.). Do not panic.

2. While the corked end of thecorkscrew appears particularlyinviting do not (I repeat DONOT) place the corkscrew ontop of the bottle cap in thefashion of opening a wine bottleat risk of arousing general mirth.

3. Instead, place the top end of the wingedcorkscrew, where you would hold it ifopening a wine bottle, around the bottleneck but just beneath the bottle cap withthe piece of metal protruding from thering coming into contact with the cap.

4. From this position, lift the bottom endof the winged corkscrew upwards (thebit in which the actual corkscrew bit isenclosed) and exert a gentle pressureon the cap which should lead to a sharppop and the cap coming free. If toomuch pressure is exerted from leveragethe cap may fly off towards anotherdrinker/diner. If this occurs, move topick up the cap and as doing so with acurt nod of the head apologise pro-fusely for one’s clumsiness.

5. Place the now opened bottle to lips andenjoy the cool, refreshing taste of what-ever beverage you have chosen to tickleyour taste buds (salutary greeting withother drinkers optional).

Hari Prabu

fig 1

fig 2

In search of dull canal names

David Mack has responded to my editorialchallenge to come up with uninspiring realwaterway names on a par with Gas StreetBasin, the Dismal Swamp Canal and India’sBoring Canal Road...

Rather closer to home than your Indian andAmerican examples, the Greasbrough Canalconjures up images of a grimy northernindustrial waterway, even if its alternativename of Earl Fitzwilliam’s Canal soundsaltogether more classy. This 1.5 mile 4 lockcanal branching from the River Don belowRotherham succumbed to railway competi-tion around 1840, although a short lengthremains in water.

WRG Training?

Meanwhile the volunteers from Camp 10 onthe Cromford Canal (see pages 22-24) sentthe above photo (captioned ‘Sod the camp,we’re getting the train’) showing themselveswaiting on the platform of the railway stationthat they’d salvaged from the canal.

Cook safely, folks...

Finally, Sophie from London WRG showedhow seriously she takes the concerns withinWRG about appro-priate food safetywhen she pro-duced thesehome-made safetygingerbread men,complete withhard-hats and hi-vis waistcoats.

On bottle openers,

dull canals,

railway stations

and food safety

concerns...

Tess Hawkins (1947 - 2014)

When someone dies after a long illness we are hard pressed to know what to say, or evenwhat we ‘should’ feel. Tess’s death reminds us that conflicting feelings are normal at timeslike this. Those new to WRG in the last 8 years will never have met Tess and may even beunaware of her existence unless they are assiduous readers of Navvies, in which her namealways appeared alongside John’s under Print and Assembly, even during her illness. Thiswas entirely appropriate as it was Tess, trained as a bookbinder and then working in theprinting industry, who originally suggested that she and John take on WRG Print when Mikeand Meg Day had to give up. Perhaps it should stay there.

Tess’s life was so intensely active that being stopped dead in its tracks by Pick’s Disease,a rare early-onset dementia, was a terrible blow. She had so much more to give to family,friends and the various organisations she supported, and with her death we have really losther twice. However, we are left with many happy and perhaps inspiring memories - marshal-ling Andrew and Tracey (then both under 10) on site and in various village halls during the‘Stratford Blitz’ in the late 70’s, helping Carol Rowe run the Sales Stand a little later, cateringat some of the Reunions (including the 1991 ‘Big Dig’) and later joining the occasional CanalCamp and rather more weekend digs run by most of the local groups. If that wasn’t enough,as Tracey reminded us at the funeral (did everyone manage to get in?), she was ‘Brown Owl’for the local Brownie pack and a dedicated canoe instructor, something, like driving, shecame to relatively late in life.

While focussing on Tess. we should not forget John’s part in keeping her a real part ofthe family, and of WRG, by visiting, feeding, watching over her interests, and taking her(and others - he became one of their minibus drivers) on outings from her care home,Chalfont Court in Rickmansworth, where she was so well looked after for the last 7 years ofher life. Not just doing all this, but keeping those who knew her informed of her progress -or, sadly, the opposite - while continuing to print Navvies and being the MUP on more CanalCamps than most of us will attend in our entire lives. We hope that the strong WRG presenceat Tess’s funeral was a comfort to John and that he has many more caring friends withinWRG who, for whatever reason, were unable to be there.

Compiled by John Foley and Malcolm Bridge

John Hawkins adds: Our heartfelt thanks to everybody who came to Tess’s funeral, all verymuch appreciated by all of the family - the number of people attending really amazed us.Please accept our apologies if we didn’t get to speak with you during the afternoon at theHalfway House – we just ran out of time.

There is a Unit based at UCH in London that is carrying out research specific to thelesser known dementias (Tess had Pick’s Disease) and should you wish to make a donationthen please send it to James Peddles, 10 Moneyhill Parade, Rickmansworth, Herts. WD37BE and made payable to ‘National Hospital Development Foundation’.

After everybody had left the pub we were deliberating as to what to do about the fam-ily wreath in the shape of a kayak. Rather handily, the river that runs along the back of thepub was often paddled by Tess; and so we’ll leave the rest to your imagination!!

John, Andrew and Tracey

The photographs opposite were taken by John Hawkins on various waterway working par-ties, and are from a large selection of pictures of Tess that he put together as a slide show atthe Halfway House pub.

Tess HawkinsAn appreciation

navvies 267

Documents

camp reports cromford

camp reports cotswold

silvester road

moor road

eleanor road

driffpockplus camp reports

directors of wrg

wrg bc