volunteers restoring waterways
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waterway recovery group
Issue No 264 April-May 2014
Navvies Production Editor: Martin Ludgate, 35 Silvester Road, East Dulwich London SE22 9PB 020-8693 3266 martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk Subscriptions: Sue Watts, 15 Eleanor Rd., Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9FZ
Navvies is published by Waterway Recovery Group, Island House, Moor Rd., Chesham HP5 1WA and is available to all interested in promoting the restoration and conservation of inland waterways by voluntary effort in Great Britain. Articles may be reproduced in allied magazines provided that the source is acknowledged. WRG may not agree with opinions expressed in this magazine, but encourages publication as a matter of interest. Nothing printed may be construed as policy or an official announcement unless so stated - otherwise WRG and IWA accept no liability for any matter in this magazine.
Martin Ludgate
Printing and assembly: John & Tess Hawkins, 4 Links Way, Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Herts WD3 3RQ 01923 448559 john.hawkins@wrg.org.uk
Waterway Recovery Group is part of The Inland Waterways Association, (registered office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA). The Inland Waterways Association is a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee, registered in England no 612245, and registered as a charity no 212342. VAT registration no 342 0715 89.
ISSN: 0953-6655 Š 2014 WRG
Devon Council
Directors of WRG: Rick Barnes, John Baylis, Mick Beattie, James Butler, Chris Davey, George Eycott, Helen Gardner, John Hawkins, Dave Hearnden, Jude Palmer, Mike Palmer, Jonathan Smith, Harry Watts.
Visit our web site www.wrg.org.uk for page 2
Contents In this issue... Camps Preview summer camps part 2: mid July to mid August camps 4-6 Coming soon Leader Training, Bonfire Bash, Training Weekend, Little Venice 7 Dig report NW on the Pocklington (with a bit of Driffield thrown in) 8-9 Directory WRG and canal socieites 10-13 Restoration feature a 6-page special on the South Wales canals 14-19 Diary canal camps and weekend digs 20-23 WRG BC news from our boat club 24 Letters Shropshire Tub Boat Canal, and what exactly does WRG stand for? 25 Progress our regular roundup from around the country’s canal restorations 26-32 WRG NW a year in the life 33-35 Navvies News including some very important info for plant and machine operators 36 Infill including Dear Deirdre - and what exactly is the meaning of Inglesham? 37-39
Above: Cotswold Canals: London WRG concrete the top cill at Griffin Mill Lock. Below left: Grand Western reopens after breach repairs, just in time for trailboat festival in May. Below: WRG Forestry on the Cotswold near Wallbridge Lower Lock, Stroud. Front cover: WRG NW on the Pocklington, which hosts the first Canal Camp for many years this summer - see p8. (photo: Alistair Anderson). Back cover, top: Mr Mac’s 90th birthday cake (Chris Griffiths). Back cover, bottom: Forestry go to work on the Wey & Arun (John Hawkins)
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 attachments, preferably JPG, but if you have a lot of large files it’s best to send them on CD or DVD or to contact the editor first. Contributions by post to the editor Martin Ludgate, 35, Silvester Road, London SE22 9PB, or by email to martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk. Press date for issue 265: 1 May.
Cotswold Canals Trust
Subscriptions A year's subscription (6 issues) is available for a minimum of £3.00 to Sue Watts, 15 Eleanor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9FZ. Cheques payable to "Waterway Recovery Group" please. This is a minimum subscription, that everyone can afford. Please add a donation.
all the latest news of WRG's activities page 3
Camps preview Summer camps 2014: part 2
In the second part of our annual Canal Camps preview, we bring you details of camps from late July to mid August
Camps Preview Part 2: late summer 2014
Martin Ludgate
This time we’re going to give you the latest updates from the leaders of the camps in the second half of the summer camps programme. But before we do, we’d just like to remind you of three camps that we covered last time - Camp 2014-04 on 12-19 July on the Monmouthshire Canal, and Camps 2014-06 on 19-26 July and 2014-08 on 26 July to 2 August on the Swansea Canal. Why? Because they’re in South Wales, and we’ve got a Navvies special feature on South Wales restoration in this issue - see pages 14-19 to find out more about what’s happening on the canals in this area, and how you can help. Another camp we mentioned last time but didn’t tell you much about was Camp 201405 on the Uttoxeter Canal on 19-26 July. Now you may have heard rumours about WRG Forestry finishing off this canal last year: well it’s not quite true, thankfully there’s still loads of work to get stuck into, and here’s camp leader Emma Greenall to tell us about it… I’ll be leading a classic ‘something for everyone’ camp on the Uttoxeter Canal. Whether you’re a dab hand with a heritage pointing tool or just want to go mad with a machete there’s plenty to do at Bridge 70 including lime mortar repairs, regrading the bridge approaches, towpath improvements and installing wooden fencing. And to top it all off we’ve got Harri Barnes cooking! Meanwhile also on 19-26 July we have Camp 2014-07, the first of two weeks on the Cromford Canal. Let’s hear about it from leader Gavin Darby... Eager Beavers Required! The main task of our the week will be to prepare Lock 3 on the Ironville flight for surveying. Currently the old canal is a flood relief channel so we will need to dam each end of the lock and pipe the water through. Anything not part of the lock chamber will be removed in readiness for scaffolding to enable the survey to go ahead. We expect the week to be wet and muddy with lots making/moving sandbags, dam building, shovelling and carrying out the ‘silt’. I’ll be running the camp with assistance from Martin Forster, and food by Andy Ramsey. Our accommodation will be The Wharf Shed Bunkhouse, High Peak Junction, Cromford, complete with bunk beds, two lounges, dining area and a drying room. It is quite possibly the only site you could step out of bed into the trip boat! * *Statement used for illustrative purposes only. You’ll need to leave the building by the door. Please. Then Gavin hands over to Steve Harmes and Chris Colborne for the second week at Cromford, Camp 2014-10 on 26 July - 2 August. Tell us about it, Steve... The Cromford camp this year is a new site for us, we will be investigating the first of the locks at Ironville to assess the state of the chamber and canal channel. Work will include clearing the lock and canal channel, Cromford: last year’s campers check out this year’s site
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Chichester Canal Trust
John Hawkins
(plenty of mud for those who like getting down and dirty), scaffolding the lock and exposing the walls and base to survey for future work. This should keep us busy and be something a bit different as these locks have not been exposed for some considerable time. Come and spend a week in the spectacular Derbyshire countryside, help restore part of this once impressive canal, and have a ride on the new trip-boat! Now you may have heard of a place down on the Cotswold Canals called Inglesham Lock and be wondering when we’re going to get around to doing some more work on it. Well, the answer is This year at Ingleshan: dam it, drain it, check it, brick it! 9-16 August when Camp 2014-09 run by our friends in KESCRG will be starting things off again. Ed Walker’s leading, so let’s hear from him... The KESCRG camp this year will be at Inglesham lock on the Thames and Severn Canal - ‘Mk2’ and I will be leading it and it’s shaping up to be a good one. We’re the first of three week camps on the lock and we will be doing the initial dewatering, inspection and stopplank fitting tasks at the bottom end of the chamber, and continuing the brickwork at the top. We have a crack team of cooks to support us and I’m sure a few pints will be drunk in the George in the evening as well. Assistant leader Mark ‘Mk2’ Richardson adds: Experience has shown me that the Cotswold Canals Trust don’t invite us down to work unless they’ve got everything in place for a really worthwhile project; I’m looking forward to the usual great local support on this one. Oh and that bit about going down The George sounds nice, too... ...while ‘RAF Martin’ Thompson, WRG contact for Inglesham, explains how it fits in with Camp 2014-12 on 26 July - 2 August and Camp 2014-15 on 2-9 August: It’s more of an “Starship Enterprise Camp” - a voyage of discovery, pioneering the way
Staveley Town Lock takes shape. This year’s Chesterfield Camp job: link it to last year’s wall
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Martin Ludgate
for those camps to follow! Invert clearance to Lower lock entrance and condition inspection including lower wing walls, repairing as necessary, preparing and installing stop plank grooves, stop plank seals, installing utility ducts. Brickwork as described, and much, much more. Meanwhile at the opposite end of the canal system, way up on the Lancaster Canal, Camp 2014-11 on 26 July - 2 August is led by Paul Shaw. Tell us about it, Paul... This summer we’ll be returning to a 225 metre section of the canal at Stainton to complete earthworks, bank support (gabions), drainage and re-lining works. Once complete, this new section will be re-watered and reconnected to a part of the canal that the Trust uses for its trip boats. Volunteers will also be involved in towpath improvement work and vegetation clearance on a further section of the canal at Hincaster Tunnel. Next our attention turns to What’s under here? Find out on the Shrewsbury & Newport camp the Chesterfield Canal in Derbyshire for Camps 2014-13 on 2-9 August and 2014-16 on 9-16 August. Over to leader George Rogers... Dust off your trowels, knock off that old mortar from your spirit level and brush off your spot board - it’s time to lay blocks. This year we are going to be continuing the work at Staveley Town Basin and hope to able to link the wall built last year with the lock. Curved walls, straight walls, blocks and bricks - there are plenty of challenges for everyone. We’ll also be doing some earth moving, concreting and painting so there’s plenty for all. Oh, and we’ll be having a half day on Wednesday - what more could you ask for? Meanwhile down south, we’re still busy on the Cotswold Canals but on a different site for three Camps - 2014-17, 2014-20 and 2014-21 on 9-16 August, 16-23 August and 2330 August. Let’s hear what Sophie Smith, co-leader for the middle week, has to say... Martin Danks and I are looking forward to another fun camp at Brimscombe - we’re both Cotswolds veterans by now! We expect to be working on either Ham Mill or Bowbridge locks. It’s likely there will be some brickwork involved - either knocking it out or putting it back in. Martin and I are expecting to share the cooking duties and welcome anyone who fancies cooking a meal. And that’s not all: we’ve got a couple of new sites for you this year. Firstly there’s a combined Pocklington Canal and Driffield Navigation camp 2014-18 on 16-23 August - see Helen Gardner’s report on page 8 for lots of information about both waterways. And on the same week 16-23 August we’ve also got camp 2014-19 on the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals - see the Restoration Feature in the last issue of Navvies for all the news on this fast-moving restoration project. Finally the summer season ends with Camp 2014-22 on the Basingstoke Canal and 2014-23 on the Somerset Waterways, both on 30 August - 6 September. More about all these end-of-summer camps next time. Martin Ludgate with additional contributions
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Do you want to get trained in dumper driving, scaffolding or being a canal camp leader?
Coming soon Lots of training!
Leader Training Day: Saturday 10 May 2014 at Ettington I’m hoping that the information on the forthcoming leaders’ training day has not bypassed you but if it has or if you have dawdled in booking on then book on now with Jenny at head office (jenny.black@waterways.org.uk). It’s at Ettington Community Centre on Saturday 10th May (halfway between StratfordUpon-Avon and Banbury) – coffee from 10 am, start around 10.30 am (directions will be sent out beforehand). BBQ to follow, overnight accommodation is available in the hall and so are breakfast butties. You’ll need to state any dietary requirements and whether you are staying for the BBQ and breakfast the next day – also please let us know if you are staying for the WRG Committee meeting so we can provide you lunch for that. There’s no charge for the event. In terms of agenda you’ve got until 25th April to submit any thoughts and ideas (thanks for those submitted so far – feel free to submit even if you’re not planning on attending). You’ve also got until then to vote whether you think the morning should be focussed on new leaders (everyone would still be welcome to attend it’s just that the more experienced people may have heard quite a bit before) . Votes, bookings, questions, suggestions, flowers and chocolates to either Jenny or myself (helen_gardner@hotmail.com and 07989 425346) Helen Gardner
WRG Training Weekend: 7-8 June This is our annual training weekend which aims to provide training in whatever people want to be trained in - but in particular, training appropriate to what we’re doing on the summer canal camps. Suggestions already made include: dumpers, excavators, bricklaying, Tirfor winches, scaffolding, dam management, and hoists. The site hasn’t been confirmed yet but will almost certainly be somewhere in the Midlands. If you’re interested in being trained in any of the above skills or anything else - plant and vehicles, practical skills or whatever - please get in touch. And the sooner you do, the more likely we’ll be able to provide what you want. Contact Jenny at head office on jenny.black@waterways.org.uk or 01494 783453.
Coming not-quite-so-soon: WRG Bonfire Bash, 8-9 November We haven’t quite decided the site yet - in fact there were two front-runners as we went to press - but the date is set and our annual reunion get-together for 100-plus volunteers will definitely be happening on 8-9 November. We’ll have lots more information about it including details of the worksite and accommodation, plus a booking form, in the next couple of issues of Navvies.
Final call for Canalway Cavalcade, London, May 3-5 ...and finally, if you’re free on the May Day Bank Holiday weekend or a day or two either side of it and you fancy helping out with site services at IWA’s Canalway Cavalcade festival at Little Venice in London, I’m sure Gary Summers will be delighted to hear from you. Just contact him on g.summers@summerborn.com or 07973 654 977.
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Dig Report... Pocklington Canal...
Helen Gardner reports back from a North West weekend dig and site visit to two East Yorkshire waterways...
final review of the paperwork. Once we’d established the boundaries, the chainsaws swung into action and we got the two allocated bonfires going. The bitter wind eased In March of this year WRG North-West visited very slightly throughout the morning and the the East Riding of Yorkshire and in particular sun actually came out so it was more pleasthe Pocklington Canal; a brand new site for ant than some had predicted. Radio Vixen 101 came out to interview many and for the others it’s been so long since we last visited it might as well be a new me but they also managed to grab some site. Some of us drove over in daylight on more time with Paul Waddington (they’ve interviewed him before) and John Foley the Friday and tried Pocklington’s local hostelries and the rest of us rocked up at the didn’t stand back quickly enough when another volunteer was asked for. You should Scout Hut after the scouts had finished their still be able to hear all of our dulcet tones at: Friday night meet. Some ‘red medicine’ http://vixen101.co.uk/category/listen-again/ might have been consumed, purely for meSunday was a more relaxed day where dicinal purposes you understand. The next morning the smell of cooking we concentrated on burning what we’d cut on Saturday, building the habitat piles (withbacon got us out of bed and after a relaxing out burning them – this proved trickier than breakfast it was time to head to site. Roger Bromley from the local society (PCAS) led one might imagine) and generally tidying the way and our caravan of vehicles made its up. We finally persuaded chainsaw Ian to way through a farm and across the fields to stop cutting trees down and everyone else to swing bridge 8. We jiggled the cars around stop sunbathing and we headed back to the so they were parked in a logical order (first hall for a late lunch. in last out obviously) and then did a quick CRT had come back on the Sunday site visit with Martin from CRT along with a morning to see what we’d done and were very pleased – in fact so much so that they sent us a card: anyone else been the recipient of this new method in making volunteers feel valued? The first point of the weekend was to open up the severely overgrown canal corridor but a secondary point was to catch up on what’s happening on the canal camp in the summer. For the more observant of you, you will have noticed that WRG working on the Pocklington has not happened for a while, I think the last canal camp would have been in the 1990s (though I’m sure I’ll be corrected). This year we’re back with a vengeance and WRG North West on the Pocklington we’ll be working on a stretch Alistair Anderson
WRG North-West Almost Go to Hull and Back (and so can you this summer)
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...and preview
...and invites you to consider joining WRG for a week’s canal camp working on both of them in the summer
...and Driffield Navigation
Martin Ludgate
of towpath not far from the very picturesque canal head. There’s around 400 metres of towpath that needs “sorting out” – it slopes this way and that (and it’s supposed to be level) and at times it’s very uneven. The camp will start at the end nearest canal head, do the earth works necessary and lay a surface (to be determined hopefully before you’ve read this). The Pocklington Canal towpath is well used by the locals and this will make a big difference to them. There may even be some supplementary wildlife survey work to be done if the camp is up for this kind of work. Anyone who’s paid attention to the camps’ brochure will have spotted that the week is combined with the Driffield – so, whilst I was on the Pocklington I hopped over to Driffield, met up with Phil the Bitch and we had a look at what was going on there. I (having only lived in God’s own county for 3 years when I was very young*) thought the 16 mile drive would be a desolate flat, windswept struggle – but it turned out to be uppy and downy in The terminus of the Driffield Navigation a lovely to drive kind of way; combine that with signs to destinations such as Wetwang it was amazing I made it as much smaller team on the Driffield but the far as Driffield – I could still be driving site is low tech in that it should just be brush around now following signs to bizarre cutters in use. places. Anyway – the Driffield too have the It’s looking to be a good summer in requirement for a path. In this situation the Yorkshire and for anyone who says “aren’t canal follows a busy road (with no pavethere any derelict canals in the north-east?” ment) and there is no towpath at all. The Well yes there are and we’re on two in just work for the camp is to have a small team of one camp this summer. It’s also quite near the sea, we’ve researched the pubs and I’ve people clearing a nature trail type path (through currently impenetrable scrub) heard rumours of ice cream. alongside the canal. It’s kind of exploratory Helen ‘Bushbaby’ Gardner because we just don’t know what’s in there. At the end of the week though it will make a * about 20 massive difference to the locals because at PS Many thanks to Barbara and Kath for the the moment they just can’t walk along it at all. So it’s a split site kind of camp with a catering on the NW dig.
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Directory Canal Society and WRG contacts ASHBY CANAL ASSOC Rod Smith 4 Ashby Road, Sinope Coalville LE67 3AY Tel: 01530 833307 BARNSLEY, DEARNE & DOVE CANAL TRUST June Backhouse, 39 Hill St, Elsecar, Barnsley S74 8EN 01226 743383 www.bddct.org.uk BASINGSTOKE CANAL SOCIETY Duncan Paine 52 Kings Road Fleet GU51 3AQ 01252-614125 duncanpaine@talktalk.net www.basingstokecanal.org.uk/society BCN SOCIETY Jeff Barley, 17 Sunnyside Walsall Wood, W Midlands 01543 373284 www.bcn-society.org.uk BUCKINGHAM CANAL SOCIETY Athina Beckett 2 Staters Pound, Pennyland Milton Keynes MK1 5AX 01908 661217 email: athinabec@aol.com www.buckinghamcanal.org.uk BUGSWORTH BASIN (IWPS) Ian Edgar Top Lock House, Lime Kiln Lane, Marple SK6 6BX. 0161 427 7402 ian@theedgars.co.uk www.brocross.com/iwps/ index.htm
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CALDON & UTTOXETER CANALS TRUST Alison Smedley Hazelhurst Cottage Denford, Leek ST13 7JT 01538-385388 alison@hazelhurstcottage.co.uk www.cuct.org.uk CHESTERFIELD CANAL TRUST Mick Hodgetts 31 Pottery Lane Chesterfield S41 9BH 01246 620695 chesterfield-canaltrust.org.uk CHICHESTER SHIP CT Linda Wilkinson 1 Chidham Lane Chichester PO18 8TL 01243 576701 www.chichestercanal.co.uk COTSWOLD CT Bell House, Wallbridge Lock Stroud GL5 3JS 01453 752568 mail@cotswoldcanals.com www.cotswoldcanals.com FRIENDS OF THE CROMFORD CANAL George Rogers 2 Main St, Whatstandwell Matlock DE4 5HE 07789 493967 web@cromfordcanal.org.uk www.cromfordcanal.org.uk DERBY & SANDIACRE CS Doug Flack 23 Thoresby Cres, Draycott Derby DE72 3PH 01332 576037 www.derbycanal.org.uk
DIG DEEP INITIATIVE Alan Cavender 53 Derwent Drive, Maidenhead SL6 6LE 01628 629033 alancavender@waitrose.com www.dig-deep.org.uk DORSET & SOMERSET CANAL SOCIETY Derrick Hunt 43 Greenland Mills Bradford on Avon BA15 1BL 01225 863066 derrickjohnhunt@gmail.com www.dorandsomcanal.org EAST ANGLIAN WATERWAYS ASSOC David Revill 43 Kings Road Coltishall, Norfolk NR12 7DX 01603 738648 david_gisela@hotmail.com EREWASH CANAL P&DA Mick Golds 73 Sudbury Avenue Larklands Ilkeston Derbys DE7 5EA Notts (0115) 9328042 ESSEX WATERWAYS LTD Graham Brown Paper Mill Lock North Hill Little Baddow Essex CM3 4BT 07966 375351 graham.brown@waterways.org.uk www.waterways.org.uk FOXTON INCLINED PLANE TRUST c/o Mike Beech Foxton Canal Museum Middle Lock Gumley Road Foxton Market Harborough LE16 7RA 0116 279 2657 mike@foxcm.freeserve.co.uk www.fipt.org.uk
RIVER GIPPING TRUST Martin Bird 29 Melton Grange Rd Melton Woodbridge IP12 1SA 01394 380765 restoration@rivergippingtrust. org.uk GRAND WESTERN CT Denis Dodd, Wharf Cottage Nynehead, Wellington Somerset TA21 0BJ 01823 661653 GRANTHAM CANAL SOC Ian Wakefield 0115 989 2128 ian.wakefield@ granthamcanal.com www.granthamcanal.com HEREFS & GLOUCS CT c/o The Wharf House Over Gloucester GL2 8DB 01452 332900 www.h-g-canal.org.uk KENNET & AVON CT Derrick Hunt (as per Dorset & Somerset) www1.katrust.org.uk KESCRG Eddie Jones ‘Little Orchard’ Berryfields, Fillongley Coventry CV7 8EX 0845 226 8589 eddie@kescrg.org.uk www.kescrg.org.uk LANCASTER CT Keith Tassart 24 Kings Crescent Morecambe LA3 1HX 01524 424761 www.lctrust.co.uk LAPAL CANAL TRUST 26 Loynells Road, Rednal Birmingham B45 9NP 01785 713862 www.lapal.org
LICHFIELD & HATHERTON CANALS REST'N TRUST Sue Williams, Norfolk House 29 Hall Lane Hammerwich Burntwood WS7 0JP 01543 671427 info@lhcrt.org.uk www.lhcrt.org.uk NEATH & TENNANT CS Ian Milne 16 Gower Road, Sketty, Swansea SA2 9BY 01792 547902 MANCHESTER BOLTON & BURY CANAL SOCIETY Steve Dent 07802-973228 www.mbbcs.org.uk MONMOUTHSHIRE BRECON & ABERGAVENNY CT Phil Hughes 14 Locks Canal Centre Cwm Lane, Newport NP10 9GN 01633 892167 mail@fourteenlocks.co.uk www.mbact.org.uk NWPG Bill Nicholson, 17 Clifford Rd Princes Risborough HP27 0DU 01844 343369 / 0779 1097773 bill@nwpg.org.uk www.nwpg.org.uk POCKLINGTON C.A.S Paul Waddington Church House, Main St. Hemingborough YO8 7QE 01757 638027 ROLLE CANAL AND NTH DEVON WATERWAYS SOC Adrian & Hilary Wills Vale Cottage, 7 Annery Kiln Weare Giffard, Bideford EX39 5JE Tel: 01237 477705 adrian@thewills.eclipse.co.uk www.therollecanal.co.uk
SALTISFORD CT Budbrooke Road Warwick CV34 5RJ 01926 490 006 saltisfordcanal@aol.com www.saltisfordcanal.co.uk SANKEY CANAL RESTORATION SOCIETY John Hughes 01744 600656 www.scars.org.uk SHREWSBURY & NEWPORT CANALS TRUST Bernie Jones 07971 016322 berniecjones@hotmail.com www.sncanal.org.uk SHROPSHIRE UNION CS Richard Hall 35 Tyrley Cotts Market Drayton TF9 2AH 01630 657737 hall@ostw.co.uk www.shropshireunion.org.uk SLEAFORD NAV TRUST Steve Hayes 10 Chelmer Close N Hykeham Lincs LN8 8TH 01522-689460 email: steve.hayeskyme@ntlworld.com www.sleafordnavigation.co.uk SOMERSETSHIRE COAL CANAL SOCIETY Derrick Hunt 43 Greenland Mills Bradford on Avon BA15 1BL 01225-863066 derrickjohnhunt@gmail.com www.coalcanal.org RIVER STOUR TRUST John Morris 2 Stockton Close, Hadleigh Ipswich IP7 5SH jgmorris@btinternet.com www.riverstourtrust.org
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STOVER CANAL SOCIETY George Whitehead 26 Northumberland Place, Teignmouth TQ14 8BU. Tel: 01626 775498 Georgewhitehead1@tiscali.co.uk www.stovercanal.co.uk STRATFORD ON AVON CANAL SOCIETY Clive Henderson The Bridge House Church Lane Lapworth Solihull B94 5NU clive.henderson@waterways.org.uk www.stratfordcanalsociety.org.uk
WEY & ARUN CT The Granary, Flitchfold Farm Loxwood Billingshurst West Sussex RH14 ORH 01403 752403 office@weyandarun.co.uk www.weyandarun.co.uk WILTS & BERKS CT George Eycott Knowle House 1 Ham Road, Wanborough Wiltshire SN4 0DF 07771 775745 bungle@wrg.org.uk www.wbct.org.uk
SUSSEX OUSE RESTORATION TRUST Paul Morris, Farmcote Nettlesworth Lane Old Heathfield Heathfield TN21 9AP 01453 863683 sussexouse@hotmail.com www.sxouse.org.uk
WOODEN CANAL BOAT SOCIETY 173 Stamford St Central Ashton under Lyne OL6 7PS 0161-330-8422 wcbs@care2.com www.wcbs.org.uk
SWANSEA CANAL SOC Clive Reed 17 Smithfield Road, Pontardawe Swansea SA8 4LA 01792 830782
WRG ENQUIRIES, BOOKINGS, DRIVER AUTHORISATION, Jenny Morris, IWA Island House, Moor Road Chesham HP5 1WA 01494 783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk www.wrg.org.uk
THAMES & MEDWAY CA Brian Macknish Meadow View Hodsell St Sevenoaks TN15 7LA b.macknish@btinternet.com www.thamesmedway.co.uk WELL CREEK TRUST Mrs C Mansell, 1 Tramways Outwell PE14 8PZ carole1910@hotmail.com WENDOVER ARM TRUST Roger Leishman 7 Hall Park Berkhamsted HP4 2NU 01442 874536 rwleishman@gmail.com www.wendoverarmtrust.co.uk
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WRG CONTACTS
WRG NORTH WEST Malcolm Bridge 89 Rishworth Mill Rishworth, Sowerby Bridge HX6 4RZ 01422-820693 nw@wrg.org.uk www.wrgnw.org.uk WRG NW - ENQUIRIES/ PAPERCHASES David McCarthy Woodstock 14 Crumpsall Lane Manchester M8 5FB 0161-740 2179 www.wrgnw.org.uk
WRG BITM & 'NAVVIES' DIARY David Wedd 7 Ringwood Road Blackwater Camberley Surrey GU17 0EY 01252 874437 dave.wedd@wrg.org.uk www.wrgbitm.org.uk LONDON WRG Tim Lewis 5 Herongate Road, Wanstead London E12 5EJ 07802 518094 tim@timlewis.org.uk www.london.wrg.org.uk WRG EAST MIDLANDS John Baylis 215 Clipstone Rd. West Forest Town Mansfield Notts NG19 0HJ 01623 633895 john.baylis@waterways.org.uk ESSEX WRG Frank Wallder 12 Bray Lodge Cheshunt Waltham Cross EN8 0DN 019926-636164 essex@wrg.org.uk www.essex.wrg.org.uk WRG FORESTRY Clive Alderman 30 Primley Lane Sheering Bishops Stortford CM22 7NJ 07973 877380 clive_jo.alderman@yahoo.co.uk IWA/WRG STAMP BANK Steve & Mandy Morley 33 Hambleton Grove Emerson valley Milton Keynes MK4 2JS 01908 520090 mail@morleytowers.org.uk
Canal & River Trust volunteer coordinators Central Shires East Midlands Kennet & Avon Manchester & Pennine North East N Wales & Borders North West London South East S Wales & Severn West Midlands
Tom Freeland tom.freeland@canalrivertrust.org.uk Amanda Morgan amanda.morgan@canalrivertrust.org.uk Rob Labus rob.labus@canalrivertrust.org.uk Steve O’Sullivan steve.osullivan@canalrivertrust.org.uk Lucy Dockray lucy.dockray@canalrivertrust.org.uk Paul Corner paul.corner@canalrivertrust.org.uk Matt Taylor matt.taylor@canalrivertrust.org.uk Debbie Vidler deborah.vidler@canalrivertrust.org.uk John Highmore john.highmore@canalrivertrust.org.uk Alan Sumnall alan.sumnall@canalrivertrust.org.uk Murray Woodward murray.woodward@canalrivertrust.org.uk
CANAL CAMPS MOBILES (A) 07850 422156 (B) 07850 422157 'NAVVIES' EDITOR Martin Ludgate 35 Silvester Rd. London SE22 9PB 020 8693 3266 0777 947 8629 (mobile) martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk 'WRGWEAR' CLOTHING Helen Gardner 27 Broadacre Comberbach CW9 6QD 07989 425346 wrgwear@wrg.org.uk WRG BOAT CLUB Sadie Heritage 236 Station Rd. Whittlesey Peterborough PE7 2HA 01733 204505 07748 186867 (mobile) sadiedean@msn.com WRG DIRECTORS CHAIRMAN Mike Palmer 3 Finwood Road Rowington Warwickshire CV35 7DH 01564 785293 mike.palmer@wrg.org.uk WRG PLANT George Eycott Knowle House 1 Ham Road, Wanborough Wiltshire SN4 0DF 07771 775745 bungle@wrg.org.uk
SITES GROUP Judith Palmer 3 Finwood Rd, Rowington Warwickshire CV35 7DH 01564 785293 jude.moore@btinternet.com
Rick Barnes 11 Lawns Park North Woodchester Stroud GL5 5PP 07976 748345 rick.barnes@wrg.org.uk
WRGPRINT John & Tess Hawkins 4 Links Way, Croxley Grn Rickmansworth WD3 3RQ 01923 448559 john.hawkins@wrg.org.uk
Spencer Collins The Boatyard, 5 Hammond Way Trowbridge BA14 8RS 07790 017418 spencer.collins@wrg.org.uk
IWA CHAIRMAN Les Etheridge c/o IWA, Island House Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA les.etheridge@ waterways.org.uk TRANSPORT MANAGER Jonathan Smith 23 Hardings Chalgrove Oxford OX44 7TJ 01865 891 370 jonathan.smith@wrg.org.uk OTHER DIRECTORS Mick Beattie 42 Eaton Drive Rugeley WS15 2FS
Chris Davey Angle House Green Terrace Skipton BD23 5DS chris.davey@wrg.org.uk John Baylis (see above) Harry Watts 12 St John Road, Slough SL2 5EY 07889 237834 harry.watts@wrg.org.uk James Butler 7 Hawthorne Close Woodford Halse NN11 3NY 07745 256117 james.butler@wrg.org.uk Helen Gardner (see above)
Help us keep this directory up to date
If you spot any errors or omissions or know of any changes please pass them on to the editor. The next full directory will appear in issue 267, but any corrections received before then will also be included in the first available ‘Navvies Noticeboard’. Thank you for your assistance.
page 13
Spotlight on South Wales Canals which hasn’t exactly been the best news for the area’s economy. But it does mean that A quick look at our Canal Camps 2014 even if their routes aren’t all quite as splenschedule will reveal that South Wales features didly scenic as the Usk Valley, they certainly fairly prominently. We have three weeks of have their moments, as the area’s former camps on two different canals in the Welsh grim image of slagheaps and colliery winding valleys, as we did last year. And over the gear has been replaced by some very green previous few years we’d been gradually valleys. building up our involvement in the area. And where they survive, they all have So what’s the attraction? What that distinctive South Wales character – a are the local restoration groups trying narrow channel winding its way along the to achieve? And how will we be helpedge of a steep-sided valley, with low stoneing them on this year’s camps? arched bridges interspersed with locks of an To answer the first question (and to odd in-between size of around 62ft by 9ft. counter a rather negative view occasionally Two of these routes (and parts of two others) are probably gone for good (alheard that “they’re always going to be isolated canals, so they’re not worth bothering though I would be delighted to be made to with”), take a look at the currently navigable eat my words in a few years’ time!) as large length of the Monmouthshire & Brecon. (*) chunks of them have disappeared under road It’s about 35 miles long, and for most of the improvement schemes. That leaves five – but way it hugs the contour as it follows a specbefore we take a look at all of them in turn, tacular course high up on the side of the Usk there’s a general point to consider. Valley, from Brecon, down a flight of locks at As I said earlier, there’s a criticism that Llangynidr, through Ashford Tunnel, past “they’re all isolated canals” – and there is Abergavenny and on through Pontypool to some truth in that. They never linked tothe present limit above Cwmbran. It’s 35 gether or to the main English network – they miles long and isolated from the main canal provided local links from pit to furnace to network – but that doesn’t seem to deter folk: with five hireboat bases and numerous private craft based on it, it’s a popular canal. But that’s only one of the canals in South Wales. Back in the area’s industrial heyday, there were seven canals threading their way through another six of the valleys, connecting the coal mines to the furnaces and to the ports. Those heavy industries Cruising on the Mon & Brec near Gilwern have now gone – Martin Ludgate
Why South Wales?
page 14
(*) or rather: ‘navigable once they’ve fixed the current problems at Llanfoist’
a Navvies special feature port. So (barring someone building a ‘Heads of the Valleys Canal’ or perhaps a Welsh Intracoastal Waterway – or maybe inventing a 60ft by 8ft 6in boat that will fit through all those low bridges but is seaworthy enough for the Bristol Channel) they’re unlikely ever to form a single South Wales network or to be accessible to most boats from the main system. However three of those canals are the Neath, Tennant and Swansea – which if you restored them all, could create another 35mile system linked together and connected to the sea via the River Tawe at Swansea Marina. And as we’ve already ascertained, 35 miles is plenty long enough to be a viable and well-used waterway. And another of those five is the derelict southern lengths of the Mon & Brec, whose restoration would turn a 35-mile landlocked route into a 50-mile system connected to the Bristol Channel. So let’s take a trip across from east to west, looking at each canal in turn.
Narrowing the gap: Monmouthshire & Brecon canals Note ‘canals’ plural: this system was created by an amalgamation between the Monmouthshire Canal, whose two branches linked Newport to Pontnewynydd and Crumlin, and the Brecknock & Abergavenny, which connected from the Monmouthshire at Pontypool to Brecon. The Monmouthshire did all the hard work of climbing up from the coast, with over 70 locks in total on its two branches. The B&A had it easy, running level along the contour for most of its length, with just six locks (five in one flight) in the 33 miles to Brecon. So this was the length that survived in good condition and was relatively easy to restore (and went through a National Park, which helped make the case for opening it), and it reopened by the early 1970s. Gradual restoration then extended navigation south over the next couple of decades to where the locks begin at Five Locks, north of Cwmbran. Brecon
South Wales Canals Kidwelly & Llanelly Canal Kidwelly
Burry Port
Site for Camps 2014-06 & 2014-08
Swansea Tennant Canal Canal Glynneath Aberdare Pontardawe Neath Canal Briton Ferry Swansea
Aberdare Canal
Monmouthshire & Brecon Canals Merthyr Tydfil Pontypool Crumlin Cwmbran Arm Pontypridd Newport
Glamorganshire Canal Cardiff Site for Camp 2014-04
page 15
Spotlight on South Wales Canals and inland marina on the Crindau Book which will not only provide a connection to the outside world, replacing the old line through Newport which has been built on, but also provide a good reason for boaters to use all those restored locks!
Chris Byrne
Since then the Monmouthshire Brecon & Abergavenny Canal Trust’s restoration has been concentrated further south. Firstly, on opening from the junction at Malpas up the main line towards Cwmbran, restoring four locks creating a long enough length to host a couple of IWA trailboat rallies that some of you will remember WRG supporting. And secondly, on the Crumlin Arm: volunteers (including WRG) restored the top lock of the Fourteen Locks flight plus several of the individual locks below the flight, while a Heritage Lottery Fund grant has paid for four more of the Fourteen to be rebuilt by contractors. The current project is back on the main line, where the eight Ty Coch locks are being restored by a major local volunteer scheme funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and once again WRG is supporting this work with a week’s canal camp. We’ll be working on lock chamber restoration in stone and brick, and possibly also some Rebuilding lock gate construction and hedge laying. Meanwhile, there has been a recent announcement that the Welsh Assembly has agreed in principle to fund reopening from Five Locks down to Cwmbran town centre – including 15 locks and some serious engineering to rebuild flattened bridges. When both of these projects are complete, that will leave just two miles of ‘missing link’ left to restore. It’s a very expensive two miles (thanks to a new road built along it for ¼ mile in the 1970s) but the sooner we can get the lengths either side done, the more pressure can be brought to bear on those with the necessary cash to pay for it. And then what? Firstly, completion of the Crumlin Arm up to just past Cross Keys (site of our regular accommodation and the legendary Philanthropic Inn), the last few miles to Crumlin having been lost to another new road in the 1970s. And secondly, a new link to the Usk via a new combined seagoing
page 16
Martin Ludgate
work at Ty-Coch, site for this year’s M&B camp
Locks in Cwmbran planned for restoration
a Navvies special feature Two that got away: Glamorganshire and Aberdare Sadly I don’t foresee anyone reopening either the Glamorganshire Canal from Cardiff to Merthyr Tydfil or the Aberdare, which linked it to the town of that name. They’re just too completely knackered, to put it bluntly. The new dual carriageway down the valley was built along the canal route for much of its way (you can tell where the locks were when you’re driving on it, because it suddenly slopes steeply before levelling again), while industry and central Cardiff have done for other bits. That’s not to say there’s nothing left. A short section of the Glamorganshire in Pontypridd is being restored as a local amenity and relic of a canal whose contribution to the area’s past prosperity was huge. And some sizeable surviving remnants are worth exploring if you’re interested in that sort of thing - including several miles of dry channel through Aberfan, a preserved section with two locks in a country park near Coryton, an aqueduct over the Taff that’s now a road bridge, a nature reserve on a surviving fragment of the Aberdare Canal, and a lock somebody’s restored as a garden ornament!
Glamorganshire lock as a garden ornament have been reopened – three miles and seven locks from Ysgwrfa to Resolven, and six miles with four locks from Neath to Abergarwed – both including major new aqueducts. Linking these lengths together will be a high priority – and regular Navvies readers might recall that WRG volunteers not only supported the IWA Trailboat Rally at Abergarwed but carried out some initial lock clearance on the derelict section from Abergarwed to Resolven. When this link is made, it will complete a ten-mile restored length – and there’s scope for extending it at both ends. But more importantly, at Aberdulais Junction the Neath Canal is joined on the west side by…
The western trio (1): The Neath Canal The next canal west is the Neath Canal, which ran down the Neath Valley from Glynneath via Neath to near Briton Ferry. And although the last working boats stopped using it many years ago, it survived in unusually good condition (compared to most South Wales canals) because it was useful for supplying water to local industries. So when the Neath & Tennant Canals Trust was formed in 1974, its main challenge wasn’t restoring the route but persuading the canal company that it could support boats as well as carrying water. Since then, two lengths
Trailboat festival on the Neath Canal
page 17
Spotlight on South Wales Canals The western trio (3): The Swansea Canal
If the Neath Canal is a relatively straightforward restoration (other than building the world’s longest single-span concrete aqueduct, which they managed to achieve without many people even noticing!) the Tennant which runs from Aberdulais to the outskirts of Swansea is mostly even more so. Eight miles long with only one lock, no serious obstructions and still maintained for water supply to factories, the only major concern is the Aberdulais Aqueduct by the junction with the Neath Canal. This has been drained for some years, needs some serious work to make it waterproof, and crosses the River Neath at the sort of headroom that upsets the Environment Agency. On the plus side, perhaps restoring it could be combined with a flood prevention scheme. But it’s not likely to be a volunteer job. Restoring the Tennant as a branch of the Neath Canal would push the total length of waterway up to around the 20 mile mark. But even more importantly, at its west end it can be connected into Swansea Docks, now being reinvented as marinas and regeneration areas, and a potential link to…
It would be nice to report that the Swansea had also survived as a water channel – but sadly that’s only true of a couple of shortish lengths. In fact following abandonment it got knocked about pretty badly, with the lower few miles disappearing under Swansea’s expanding urban area, and lengths towards the top end being flattened for (you guessed it!) a new road. Despite that, enough survived for the Swansea Canal Society to have a crack at restoring it – and in the 1980s they dredged a couple of miles and put a trip-boat on it, cleared five miles of towpath, and got the local authority to protect the route. Unfortunately that came to a bit of a grinding halt – the trip boat got burnt out by arsonists, the restoration lost momentum, and the local authority seems to have lost interest in protecting it, because parts of it have disappeared from the new local plan. But local canal supporters are fighting to get local authority protection back, and meanwhile a reinvigorated canal society has got to work again, not only maintaining the sections already restored but also clearing
Martin Ludgate
The western trio (2): The Tennant Canal
In need of restoration: Aberdulais Aqueduct on the Tennant Canal
page 18
a Navvies special feature
Martin Ludgate
out locks further up the canal at Godre’rGraig, to make it clear that the aim is to restore the entire canal and therefore that it’s worth the Council protecting it. That’s where we came in – WRG’s volunteers did three ‘awaydays’ from the Mon & Brec camp in 2012 to start off clearance of these locks. For 2013 and our first full week’s camp, attention shifted to the surviving lengths of canal further down the valley, and we return there for a fortnight this year. We’ll be based at the two Trebanos Locks, working on replacing coping stones, rebuilding the wing walls and quadrants, replacing a brick section of the adjacent bridge with stone, and repairing the floor of a lock overflow channel. All this is aimed at the long-term objective of connecting together the surviving lengths of canal, then extending south via a new route using the lower part of the River Tawe. This will bypass the missing lower part of the canal, and connect the canal back to the former Swansea Docks. There it will Restored Swansea Canal bridge near Pontardawe meet the Tennant Canal – linking the three waterways together into a 35-mile restored system. A long shot:
Kidwelly & Llanelly Canal?
Bob Grainger
Even further west is the final major canal of South Wales: the Kidwelly & Llanelly (that was the anglicised spelling used in those days) was a rather complex route which ran along the coastal plain from Burry Port to near Kidwelly incorporating various short canals and arms before heading up the Gendraeth valley via three inclined plane boat lifts to Cwm-Mawr. In fact the last length including the final inclined plane was probably never completed, a horse-tramway was built instead, and later most of the canal was closed and used for a railway. There are, however, still traces to be seen, a short length has been restored as a local amenity (I must visit it sometime!) and I’m sure I’ve heard of a plan to do some more serious restoration work. Mind you, I’ve also heard of a plan to restore the railway (last used around the 1990s). If anyone knows anything about any of these plans, please tell Navvies! Trebanos Locks, site for the 2014 Swansea camps Martin Ludgate
page 19
Navvies diary Your guide to all the forthcoming work parties
Apr 26 Sat IWA Mcr/CRT Manchester area: Painting, veg clearance, pulling rubbish out, litter pic Apr 27 Sun IWPS Bugsworth Basin Apr 27 Sun IWA Northants Northampton Arm Apr 30 Wed IWA SNW/NSSC Wardle Lock, Middlewich: Painting, veg clearance & litter pick 10am-4p May 2-8 WAT Wendover Arm: Seven-day weekend Fri-Thu. Lining, inc concreting thr May 3/4/5 wrgNW To be announced May 3/4 KESCRG Wendover Arm May 3/4/5 NWPG Wey & Arun Canal: Hunt Park, Shalford - construction of viewing platfo May 3 Sat IWA Chester Dee Branch in Chester: Painting, weeding, litterpicking. 10am-4pm Apr 30-May 7 IWA Canalway Cavalcade: Support camp May 5 & 7 IWA Warks/CRT Grand Union Canal: Hatton, lock painting, litter pick, veg clearance & p Every Wed RGT River Gipping: Pipps Ford, or Baylham Mill Lock 9am-4pm May 8 Thu IWA NSSC/CUCT Caldon Canal: 10am-3pm at Hazelhurst Locks May 10/11 WBDCS/IWA Worcester & Birmingham Canal: Tardebigge Lime Kilns 10am-3pm each May 10 Sat WRG Leaders Training Day: Ettington, near Stratford upon Avon. See page 7 May 11 Sun IWPS Bugsworth Basin May 11 Sun WRG Committee & Board Meetings: Ettington Community Centre May 13 Tue IWA Northants Northampton Arm May 14 Wed IWA SNW/NSSC Wardle Lock, Middlewich: Painting, veg clearance & litter pick 10am-4p May 14 Wed IWA BBCW Staffs & Worcs Canal: Painting, tidying & veg clearance 10am-3pm. Kid May 15 & 17 IWA Warks/CRT Stratford Canal: Lapworth, lock painting, litter pick, veg clearance & pa May 16/17/18 wrgBITM Rickmansworth Waterways Festival: Site services May 17 Sat wrgNW ‘Paper Chase’ waste paper collection May 17 Sat IWA NSSC/TMCS Trent & Mersey Canal: Cheshire Locks. Painting & veg clearance 10amMay 21-28 Camp TB2014 Grand Western Canal - Trailboat Festival: Site services May 24 Sat IWA Mcr/CRT Manchester area: Painting, veg clearance, pulling rubbish out, litter pic May 25 Sun IWPS Bugsworth Basin May 28 Wed IWA SNW/NSSC Wardle Lock, Middlewich: Painting, veg clearance & litter pick 10am-4p May 31/Jun 1 London WRG Chesterfield Canal Jun 1 Sun IWA Northants Northampton Arm Jun 2 & 4 IWA Warks/CRT Grand Union Canal: Hatton, lock painting, litter pick, veg clearance & p Every Wed RGT/IWA River Gipping: Pipps Ford, or Baylham Mill Lock 9am-4pm Jun 6-12 WAT Wendover Arm: Seven-day weekend Fri-Thu. Lining, inc concreting thr Jun 7/8 Essex WRG Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Jun 7/8 KESCRG Cotswold Canals: Griffin/Ham Mill Locks Jun 7/8 IWA Chelmsford Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation: With Essex WRG Jun 7 Sat RGT/IWA River Gipping: Pipps Ford, or Baylham Mill Lock 9am-4pm Jun 7 Sat IWA Chester Dee Branch in Chester: Painting, weeding, litterpicking. 10am-4pm
For details of diary dates beyond the end of this list ple
page 20
Canal Camps cost ÂŁ56 per week unless otherwise stated. Bookings for WRG Camps identified by a camp number e.g. 'Camp 201402' should go to WRG Canal Camps, Island House, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA. Tel: 01494 783453, enquiries@wrg.org.uk. Diary compiled by Dave Wedd. Tel: 01252 874437, dave.wedd@wrgbitm.org.uk
ck 10am-4pm
Ian Price Ian Edgar Geoff Wood Bob Luscombe Roger Leishman Malcolm Bridge Bobby Silverwood Bill Nicholson Mike Carter
07971-444258 chairman@manchester-iwa.co.uk 0161-427-7402 ian@theedgars.co.uk geoff.wood@waterways.org.uk 07710-054848 bob.luscombe@waterways.org.uk 01442-874536 rwleishman@gmail.com 01422-820693 nw@wrg.org.uk 07971-814986 bobby@kescrg.org.uk 01844-343369 bill@nwpg.org.uk 07795-617803 mike.carter@waterways.org.uk
path work. CRT Hatton yard 10am-3pm Martin Bird Bob Luscombe h day Bill Lambert 7 Ian Edgar Mike Palmer Geoff Wood pm Bob Luscombe dderminster area David Struckett ath work. CRT Lapworth yard 10am-3pm Dave Wedd David McCarthy -4pm Bob Luscombe
info.warwickshire@waterways.org.uk 01394-380765 restoration@rivergippingtrust.org.uk 07710-054848 bobluscombe@btinternet.com w.lambert@ntlworld.com 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk 0161-427-7402 ian@theedgars.co.uk 01564-785293 mike.palmer@wrg.org.uk geoff.wood@waterways.org.uk 07710-054848 bob.luscombe@waterways.org.uk 07976-746225 david.struckett@waterways.org.uk info.warwickshire@waterways.org.uk 01252-874437 bookings@wrgBITM.org.uk 01706-214696 07710-054848 bob.luscombe@waterways.org.uk 01494-783453 enquiries@wrg.org.uk 07971-444258 chairman@manchester-iwa.co.uk 0161-427-7402 ian@theedgars.co.uk 07710-054848 bob.luscombe@waterways.org.uk 07802-518094 london@wrg.org.uk geoff.wood@waterways.org.uk info.warwickshire@waterways.org.uk 01394-380765 restoration@rivergippingtrust.org.uk 01442-874536 rwleishman@gmail.com 01376-334896 essex@wrg.org.uk 07971-814986 bobby@kescrg.org.uk roy.chandler@waterways.org.uk 01394-380765 restoration@rivergippingtrust.org.uk 07795-617803 mike.carter@waterways.org.uk
pm rough Bridge 4A
orm
ck 10am-4pm
Ian Price Ian Edgar pm Bob Luscombe Tim Lewis Geoff Wood path work. CRT Hatton yard 10am-3pm Martin Bird rough Bridge 4A Roger Leishman John Gale Bobby Silverwood Roy Chandler Martin Bird Mike Carter
ease contact diary compiler Dave Wedd: see top of page
page 21
Navvies diary
Mobile groups' socials: phone to confirm London WRG: 7:30pm on Tues 11 days before dig. 'Star Tavern' Belgrave Mews West, London. Tim Lewis 07802-518094 NWPG: 7:30pm on 3rd Tue of month at the 'Hope Tap', West end of Friar St. Reading. Phil Dray 07956 185305
Canal societies’ regular working parties Every Tuesday BCA Once per month: pls check BCNS 2nd & 4th w/e of month BCS Thursdays Sep-Apr BCT 2nd Sun & alternate Thu BuCS Every Mon and Wed CCT Every mon am Thu pm CCT Various dates CCT Every Sunday ChCT Every Tue and Thu CSCT Every Tue & Wed C&BN Every Friday ECPDA Second Sun of month FIPT Thu and last Sat of month GCS 2nd Sat of month GWCT Tuesdays H&GCT Weekends H&GCT Wednesdays H&GCT Thursdays H&GCT Every Sunday if required IWPS Every weekday KACT/CRT 2nd Sunday of month LCT Every Wed/Sat/Sun LHCRT 3rd Sunday of month LHCRT Last weekend of month MBBCS Two Sundays per month NWDCT Every Thu & Sat, Apr-Sep SORT 2nd & last Sundays PCAS Every Wed and 1st Sat RGT 2nd Sunday of month SCARS 1st Sunday of month SCCS Last weekend of month SCS 2nd Sunday of month SNT Every Thu and Sat SORT 1st weekend of month SUCS Every Tuesday morning TMCA Every Sunday & Thurs WACT Mondays (2 per month) WACT Wednesdays WACT Wednesdays WACT Sundays mainly WACT Thursdays WACT Various dates WACT 1st w/e of month (Fri-Thu) WAT
Basingstoke Canal Chris Healy BCN waterways Mike Rolfe Basingstoke Canal Duncan Paine Aqueduct section Tim Dingle Buckingham area Athina Beckett Cotswold (W depot) Ron Kerby Cotswold (E end) John Maxted Cotswold Phase 1a Jon Pontefract Chesterfield Canal Mick Hodgetts Chichester Canal Malcolm Maddison Chelmer & Blackwater John Gale Langley Mill Michael Golds Foxton Inclined Plane Mike Beech Grantham Canal Ian Wakefield Nynehead Lift Denis Dodd Oxenhall Brian Fox Over Wharf House Maggie Jones Over / Vineyard Hill Ted Beagles Herefordshire Wilf Jones Bugsworth Basin Ian Edgar Bradford on Avon Derrick Hunt Lancaster N. Reaches Keith Tassart Lichfield Terry Brown Hatherton Denis Cooper Creams Paper Mill Steve Dent N Walsham Canal David Revill Sussex Ouse Ted Lintott Pocklington Canal Paul Waddington Stowmarket Navigtn. Martin Bird Sankey Canal John Hughes Combe Hay Locks Derrick Hunt Stover Canal George Whitehead Sleaford Navigation Mel Sowerby Sussex Ouse Ted Lintott Montgomery Canal David Carter Thames & Medway C Brian Macnish varied construction Eric Walker tidying road crossings John Empringham Tickner's Heath Depot John Smith maintenance work Ray Pick Loxwood Link Kev Baker Winston Harwood Grp Tony Clear Hedgelaying (Oct-Mar) Keith Nichols Drayton Beauchamp Roger Leishman
01252-370073 07763-171735 01252-614125 01288-361356 01908-661217 01453-836018 01285-861011 07986-351412 01246-620695 01243-775201 01376-334896 0115-932-8042 0116-279-2657 0115-989-2128 01823-661653 01432 358628 01452 618010 01452 522648 01452 413888 0161-427 7402 01225-863066 01524-424761 01889-576574 01543-374370 07802-973228 01603-738648 01444-414413 01757-638027 01394-380765 01744-600656 01225-863066 01626-775498 01522-856810 01444-414413 01244-661440 01732-823725 023-9246-3025 01483-562657 01903-235790 01483-272443 02380-861074 01903-774301 01403-753882 01442-874536
If you have any additions / corrections / deletions to this list, please send them to Navvies diary compiler Dave Wedd (see previous page)
page 22
Navvies diary Canal & River Trust ‘Towpath Taskforce’ working parties The following is the list of the Canal & River Trust’s regular volunteer working parties. These are on navigable canals, carrying out tasks such as vegetation control, hedge maintenance, painting and litter clearance. All volunteers welcome. 4th Thursday of month Bath 3rd Thursday of month Devizes 2nd Thursday of month Newbury Every weekday Bradford on Avon Weds and Thurs Droitwich 1st Saturday of month Fradley 4th Thursday of month Gailey 3rd Saturday of month Lapworth Alternate Tuesdays Leicester 3rd Saturday of month London 3rd Saturday of month near Selby Alternate Fridays Stoke Every other Wednesday Tamworth 4th Saturday of month Tipton Every Tuesday Wigan 4th Saturday of month Manchester 3rd Thursday of month Welshpool 2nd Friday of month Huddersfield 1st Mon & Wed of month Hatton Last Sunday of month Hawkesbury 2nd Saturday of month Aylesbury 3rd Thursday of month Cheshire
Kennet & Avon Rob Labus Kennet & Avon Rob Labus Kennet & Avon Rob Labus Kennet & Avon Derrick Hunt Droitwich Canal Suzanne Byrne Trent & Mersey Tom Freeland Staffs & Worcs Murray Woodward Stratford Canal Murray Woodward Grand Union/Soar Tom Freeland Grand Union/Lee Becky Williams Selby Canal Lucy Dockray Caldon / T&M Tom Freeland Coventry Canal Tom Freeland BCN Murray Woodward Leeds & Liverpool Katie Jackson Ashton / Peak Forest Steve O’Sullivan Montgomery Canal Paul Corner Huddersfield Broad Claire McDonald Grand Union Canal Murray Woodward Coventry/Oxford Miriam Tedder Grand Union Miriam Tedder T&M/Macclesfield Hazel Mayow
07711-403479 07711-403479 07711-403479 01225-863066 07900-276544 01827-252010
see below see below 01827-252010 07799-436816 07767383736 01827 252010 01827 252010 see below 07500823753 07887 684707 see below 07920295943 see below 07775 543990 07775 543990 07920 466237
Contact details for CRT Towpath Taskforce working parties: All CRT volunteer co-ordinators can be contacted using email addresses of the form firstname.surname@canalrivertrust.org.uk, for example rob.labus@canalrivertrust.org.uk for the Kennet & Avon Bath, Devizes and Newbury working parties. For those where no phone number is given above, either use email or try the national CRT enquiries number 03030 404040.
Abbreviations used in Diary: BCA BCNS BuCS BCS BCT ChCT CBN CSCT CCT ECPDA FIPT GCS GWCT H&GCT IWPS KACT
Basingstoke Canal Authority Birmingham Canal Navigations Soc. Buckingham Canal Society Basingstoke Canal Society Bude Canal Trust Chesterfield Canal Trust Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation Chichester Ship Canal Trust Cotswolds Canals Trust Erewash Canal Pres. & Devt. Assoc. Foxton Inclined Plane Trust Grantham Canal Society Grand Western Canal Trust Hereford & Gloucester Canal Trust Inland Waterways Protection Society Kennet & Avon Canal Trust
KESCRG LCT LHCRT MBBCS NWPG NWDCT PCAS RGT SCARS SCCS SCS SNT SORT SUCS TMCA WACT WAT WBCT
Kent & E Sussex Canal Rest. Group Lancaster Canal Trust Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Rest'n Trust Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal Society Newbury Working Party Group North Walsham & Dilham Canal Trust Pocklington Canal Amenity Society River Gipping Trust Sankey Canal Restoration Society Somersetshire Coal Canal Society Stover Canal Society Sleaford Navigation Trust Sussex Ouse Restoration Trust Shropshire Union Canal Society Thames & Medway Canal Association Wey & Arun Canal Trust Wendover Arm Trust Wilts & Berks Canal Trust
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Boat Club WRG BC news March 2014 First and most important news is that we have decided, by majority of those that expressed a preference, to have our annual get together and AGM at the Shackerstone Festival – 6-7 September. So please get on line for details and maybe an application form. Better still volunteer to help. They will appreciate help with setting up the weekend before and, if work isn’t completed, during the week prior to the event. The work will include marking out the site, erecting fencing and notices. During the festival help is required with entrances, checking or issuing tickets/arm bands. Free entrance to festival will probably available to those helping for a set time. They may also need help clearing up after the event. Please let me know if you are able to attend. On 15 March I will have attended the AWCC AGM and will pass on members views (those I have received), most especially our opinions about the required increase in Clubs’ contributions to AWCC funds, as agreed at our AGM, I quote from the minutes AWCC had been in contact concerning their need to increase boat clubs’ contributions to funds. The number of options was outlined and it was agreed that an increase of £10 per club per annum was preferable, and easier to administer, than a levy on the number of members. I will report back on what transpires at the meeting. While there I intend to collect our AWCC Handbooks and will, by now, have distributed them to those that requested one. If you were expecting one and haven’t yet got it, please let me know. ‘Water Water everywhere but not’ - on the Middle Level! Most of the area that is under the control of the Middle Level Commissioners, (where I live and keep Straw Bear during the winter months), is below sea level. Many people have assumed that we are troubled by floods and the boat will be at risk of being on the land when the waters subside. This is very far from the truth as water levels round here are efficiently controlled. In fact when a lot of water is expected I have found the boat to be dragging the bottom for a short while. The commis-
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sioners have a delicate balancing act to keep enough water to allow for navigation but not too much so that when a lot arrives there is a risk of flooding. Recently we spent a very interesting day visiting the new pumps (opened 2011) on the Middle Level Main Drain*. The whole system is very impressive and most efficient. We were all reassured that water controls around here are in safe hands! We also learned that the fact that the drainage network was started in the 1600s and has been managed locally since then (and not by any government) has been a great contribution to the success! On the subject of the Middle Level and related Waterways, I wonder how many of you remember working on the restoration of the lock at Horseways (owned by The Middle Level). This lock leads to a channel that goes to Welches Dam lock (owned by the Environment Agency). I’m sure more of you will remember working there! This leads to the Old Bedford River. Sadly the whole channel has fallen into disuse and the locks abandoned. The Environment Agency has erected a dam across to prevent leakage into or from the channel. They have no intention of restoring this and thus a section of waterway is now unusable. Members of Peterborough IWA have tried hard in the past to get permission to work at Welches Dam but all in vain, I fear they have given up the fight. The Middle Level Commissioners own Horseways lock but see no point in maintaining it as it leads nowhere – and who can blame them. I have boated along the channel and the Old Bedford often in the past and think it is a sad loss! Please let us know of any such happenings in your area. The river Nene is still in flood so until that gets out of others’ beds and back into its own bed we will be unable to start towards the canals. I hope that things are going well in your area and that many members will be at Shackerstone. Plan your cruising around this please! xxx Sadie Heritage 07748186867 – sadiedean@msn.com * this trip was organised by the Middle Level Watermans Club, of which I am a member. (We also visited the Denver Complex owned by EA so I was apple to have a ‘plug’ for the restoration of Welches Dam.) Do you belong to any other boat clubs? If so we may need to know in case it is decided levy club membership of AWCC by number of members. We will cross that bridge should we come to it but please consider the question, thanks.
Dear Martin In your fascinating article about the Shrewsbury & Newport you mentioned the Shropshire Tub-boat Canal. Some readers may be unaware that some of the canal remains in water, particularly the section at Blist’s Hill Victorian Museum at Ironbridge. This runs from a point adjacent to the car parks along to the Hay Inclined Plane although the final piece is leaking, according to the museum. From the bottom of the incline the Coalport Canal remains in water as it passes the Coalport China Factory. I am just an interested party (until I retire that is) but I think a small volunteer input could put this whole section back in order and possibly it could be extended past the car parks where a further section remains watered. Even in its present state it is a lovely facility. It is true that parts of Surviving length of the Shropshire Tub-boat Canal in the museum the system have been obliterated and I realise that the museum is a Dear Martin Why were those at winter camps surprised private body but it would be good to see by this winter’s rain? It was predictable - and some cooperation so that repairs could be will be in 2021. About every seventh year done and a boat trip added as an additional South America’s west coast Antarctic Current attraction at the museum. I hope efforts are fails, the Pacific Ocean gets too hot, and made to secure as much of the tub boat worldwide weather goes crazy. The UK gets system as possible. months of incessant rain each seventh year. Kind regards Unfortunately the East London Line and Robert McMillan Thameslink rail services continued to use the Croydon Canal through the wet weather, but Dear Martin further south groundwater wetted Brighton Imagine my surprise when I read that a Line track and buggered up the signals. government think tank has recommended Croydon Canal Restoration Group therefore the task of infrastructure deliverance for the British leg of the Tour de France should go to intend to extend their dredging to Brighton. Meanwhile the A22 has been a side arm for Manchester based WRG! six weeks. Well, I know Mr Mac’s tea urn holds a Meanwhile in South London the River place of high esteem throughout the canal Wandle looks like the navigation intended in system, but the £4.5 million they are 1666 (16 & 17 Charles II Chapter 12). This asking to do the job won’t half buy a lot of Act has provision to appoint new proprietors tea bags! Apparently there’s another outfit calling if the navigation isn’t finished by 1671. They themselves WRG down by the Bridgewater at never started. The second action on this would be to demolish Wandsworth’s Arndale Castle Street who do barriers and things, but I’m sure that it’s nowt to do with Centre shopping mall... Yours till weir all locked up! them. Alan T Moody Cheers Croydon Canal Restoration Group Pete Yearsley
Letters
Martin Ludgate
...to the editor
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Progress
Our report of progress on restoration projects begins with a roundup of the Shropshire Union Canal Society’s work on the Mont over the last year
SUCS on the Montgomery Canal
was pumped through Redwith Bridge into the watered section of canal, an operation 2013 must rank as the most productive in lasting two working days using four pumps. the history of the Society’s restoration efforts. This, together with surveying and some It was a year of remarkable progress in other enabling works, set us up for the which all of the targets set early on were sterner tasks to come. achieved or exceeded. The first week of March saw the start of The principal target was to finish both the new monthly ‘two part’ format with a six the channel shaping and the lining operaday long shaping work party. The particitions along the whole length between pants were half a dozen or so machine drivbridges 83 and 84 before the end of the ers, surveyors, first aiders/welfare personnel restoration season. This was a pretty ambitogether with an impressive array of diggers, tious aim given that there were still 250 dumpers and pumps. The most eye-catching metres of channel to be shaped and the neck item was a 14 tonne digger, which had the end of 300 metres of channel still to be power and reach to shape the offside bank lined. It was realised right from the off that slope in one operation. Aided by dry, but there was no hope of achieving the target very cold, weather a 100 m section of bank using the working practices of past years. was finished in one and a half working days, The main problem hitherto had been the a process that would have taken probably ten conflicting demands on plant and labour of times as long using the smaller 3 tonne the shaping and lining operations, with the machines. Also for most of the week the result that neither worked as efficiently as Society’s digger was working to reduce the they could. To overcome this separate work adjacent channel base to just above grade. parties for the two operations were held, and Six days of work transformed the appearance this more single-minded approach overcame of the channel and the early indications were most of the former problems. The other that the new working practices were delivernotable feature of the work parties was that ing. This notion was reinforced by the March the volunteers worked longer and more lining work party which took place a fortefficiently than in previous years due, in no night later. During this a full complement of small part, to the use of some innovative bits volunteers lined 34 metres of channel, easily of equipment. beating the previous best of 25 m in a weekHappily the winter hedgelaying work concluded in January allowing the planned February slot to be switched to preparatory work for the restoration effort. The weather in the first two months of 2013 was a continuation of monsoon conditions that caused so much trouble during the 2012 restoration campaign. The rainy season had deposited an estimated 800 cubic meters of water in the channel giving almost navigable depth between the bridges and before any work could start this lot had to be The 14-tonner shaping the offside bank removed. The bulk of the water All pictures by SUCS
Shropshire Union Canal Society
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‘Secret weapon’ - the SUCS block chute end. This work party turned out to be notable for another reason, namely, being the last in which blocks were transported by dumper along the bed of the canal. During the weekend tests were made on the Society’s ‘secret weapon’ – a home-made block chute – which allowed blocks to be transported along the top of the bank and delivered to the channel base without damage to the shaped channel bottom. Wading around in mud was to be a thing of the past, but would it work? Volunteers for the April shaping work party arrived at a site resembling a Christmas card scene with snow and ice very much in evidence. The weather was bitterly cold throughout the weekend but, crucially, it was also dry which greatly aided the cause. The 14 tonner was on site again and made short work of the shaping of the offside bank between tip slope and the compound. The other earthmoving operations concentrated on the base of the channel which was now beginning to resemble a canal from bridge to bridge. The April lining work party must go down as one of the most remarkable in the Society’s history. Not only did it smash the record for most lining in a weekend, established the previous month, but it did so in freezing conditions with an average of only 15 volunteers on site through the weekend. The block delivery chute turned out to be a spectacular success. It was used to deliver blocks from a dumper located on the top of the bank and into the lined section of the
channel. In this way the lining gang were always working off the previously laid section of channel. And, wow, did this speed things up! We completed 38 metres for the weekend before we ran out of materials, and still had time to do some work on the land drains. To give some idea of how much things had accelerated, the total of lining for the two work parties in 2013 was exactly 50% of the total for the whole of 2012. Maybe the target was achievable.... The May Bank Holiday weekend saw the third and final shaping-only work party. The weather once more proved in use co-operative. Dry conditions assisted progress and at close of play the entire offside bank was shaped, and only 130 metres or so of channel bottom awaited final shaping. So, all the major earthmoving was finished. The May lining work party saw a further major landmark achieved with the remaining 25 m of channel lined to complete the lining at the Pryces Bridge end of the site, and 25 m of the base laid at the other end of the site in preparation for the next month’s effort. June saw the record for the length of lining laid in a weekend broken yet again. There were two major contributory factors to this success - a lot of preparatory work and some very substantial reinforcements on the first day. The reinforcements were in the form of 16 members of JATCC 394 Course based at RAF Shawbury. The trainee air traffic controllers really entered into the volunteering spirit and worked very hard all day to shift a prodigious amount of blocks into the section of channel adjacent to the compound. With the Society volunteers lining the base of the channel, and our visitors completing the sides nearly 60 m of channel was finished during the day, comfortably breaking all records. This result could not have been achieved without the help of the RAF volunteers and such were their efforts that, as they left the site, they received a spontaneous round of applause from the Society members present. The result meant that it was now possible to stand on the end of the lined channel bed and see the lined channel at the other end some 100 m away.
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To publicise this award the Society were asked to put on a special ‘work party’ for the benefit of the BBC cameras. There was a healthy turnout of volunteers (photogenic or otherwise) who both demonstrated the use of the block chutes and gave a series of interviews. The viewers of BBC Midlands Today were treated to this televisual epic a The channel with waterproof liner installed and blocks laid on it few days later. With a Alas the gap remained at 100 m during view to the future, survey work started in July due to one of the recurring problems of November on the Pryces Bridge to Crickheath the restoration – non-delivery of the lining section. This included inspection of some of material. The lining gang thus spent the the watercourses around the canal and makwhole weekend doing the essential, but ing a start on establishing levels at important unglamorous, job of grouting the large area locations along the section. of blocks which had already been laid. DelivThe inspections highlighted the extent ery of the liner enabled normal service to be to which nature has reclaimed many of the resumed in August and the lining gang areas which were cleared during the Society’s worked wonders to reduce the gap to 65 m. previous work on the length, and the sheer By the end of September it was 40 m and by magnitude of the task ahead. That however, the end of October it was reduced to 20 m. is for the future. There was now only one more work party to Although a number of jobs remain to finish the lining, but this story has a happy be done – notably grouting, rip-rap, landending. scaping, and hedges - SUCS Council agreed The rains came back with a vengeance that the completion date for the Redwith to in October and so the November work party Pryces length will be 12th May 2014. It is kicked off on the Friday with yet another likely that there will be an official opening frantic day-long pumping session. However some time later. The Society also plans to come Saturday, dry weather and a full comhave an event for all of the volunteers who plement of experienced block layers ensured have worked on the section. Both promise to that the gap between the unlined sections be memorable occasions. was remorselessly closed. By mid afternoon So, a year of remarkable progress, and on the Sunday the job was finished. We had one that will doubtless get an honourable done it. mention in the history of the Society. DeThe other big news in October was, of tailed monthly accounts of the restoration course, the award of a Heritage Lottery Fund work can, as always, be seen on the Society first round grant to CRT for work on the website www.shropshireunion.org.uk. We Montgomery. This will be followed by a have had a lot of fun doing the work and we second round application which, if successlook forward with more than usual anticipaful, will include funding for the Pryces Bridge tion to 2014. to Crickheath section. David Carter
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Next it’s up to the Derby Canal where the Derby & Sandiacre Canal Society started the year with some hedge laying at Draycott
Progress Derby Canal
2014 Gets off to a good start
Pictures by DSCS
The first working party of the new year at Draycott brought us a sharp frosty start. 12 Derby & Sandiacre Canal Society volunteers turned out to brave the weather, but as the morning progressed the sun came out and shone on us. This week’s aims were to continue the good work on hedgelaying (top picture) from both sides: the two teams are getting nearer to eachother, cutting and clearing as they went, hopefully we can complete this work before the birds start nesting in the Spring. A third team worked on widening and strengthening the access bridge (bottom picture) over one of the water culverts that assist with drainage from the adjacent fields. This work was required to allow a more heavy duty tractor to cross to undertake periodic grass cutting. It was pleasing to see how much use the local population of Draycott make of this walk way, with lots of local interest being shown. Additional help with this project is always welcome. We generally meet every other Sunday, please see our work party diary on our website http://derbycanal.org.uk.
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Chesterfield Canal
Progress
As well as the current work on the new Staveley Town Lock (which we reported on in the last Navvies) and the behind-the-scenes negotiations regarding the HS2 railway, the Chesterfield Canal also has five miles of isolated restored navigable canal from Staveley to Chesterfield that needs looking after. Recently Derbyshire County Council, which owns this stretch of the canal, has paid for another new set of lock gates, this time for Dixon’s Lock (lock number 4). This is the third set of new lock gates on this section in three years - another clear demonstration of the Council’s commitment towards the canal. The pictures show the gates (from Hargreaves) being delivered via an access track specially cleared by Bolsover Woodlands Enterprise, being craned in, and the Canal Trust’s tripboat John Varley becoming the first boat to use the new gates.
L&H and Chesterfield... Despite the weather, Lichfield & Hatherton Canals restoration Trust’s volunteers have continued regular work at Tamworth Road, especially on Pound 27 which is being prepared for watering in the summer. This will be as far as the recently constructed narrows by the entrance to the water-activity hub which is planned by our neighbouring land owner. Remedial work continues on locks 25 and 26. We have launched an appeal to pay for puddle clay which will be used to line Pound 27 as the synthetic material under test has stilnel failed to reach the standard we require. We have also given some attention to the section from Fosseway Lane to the Lichfield bypass. On the Hatherton we have inspected the Redrow development at Churchbridge and have found it to be compliant with our needs. We took the opportunity to investigate the site of the navigable culvert we will need under the Cannock Chase railway, where our options are very difficult and the terrain very challenging. The imminent installation of overhead line equipment (OHLE) with the forthcoming electrification from Walsall to Rugeley makes it vital for us to inform Network Rail of our requirements. On the Lichfield Canal the existing OHLE greatly limits our options for getting the restored canal under the Lichfield to Birmingham line. We are still in close touch with HS2 Ltd and are working hard, in association with IWA and CRT, to ensure that our route at Capper’s Lane is protected. Changes could occur at short notice, even during construction. There are also serious implications for our friends at Lichfield Cruising Club. No decision has been announced on the application by travellers to develop a site close to the Lichfield Canal Aqueduct. At the top of the flight we are making plans to sell Top Lock Cottage, hopefully at a price which will enable us to dispose of the expensive mortgage commitment. Anyone with an interest should approach David Dixon or Bob Williams. Brian Kingshott
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Pictures by Chiesterfeild Canal Trust
Lichfield & Hatherton Canals
Cotswold Canals: First steps at Bowbridge
Progress
While WRG and other visiting groups have been concentrating on completing Griffin Mill Lock and starting Ham Mill Lock, the Cotswold Canals Trust has started work on the next lock down from Griffin Mill, Bowbridge Lock. The Trust reports... On Saturday 1st March the pound above Bowbridge Lock was drained to enable work to start on the restoration of the lock. It was a bright sunny morning that illuminated the first steps of the restoration. An ingenious pulley system was used to raise the paddle on the towpath side (upper photo). And it worked! It only took a couple of heaves on the pulley chain to identify that, whilst the old lock gear above ground had long since disappeared, the wooden paddle below, which has held back the water for so many years, was thankfully still attached to the lifting mechanism. Stroud Angling Club Members were on hand to relocate stranded fish upstream to the canal at Thrupp. Once drained, the area around the top of the lock was inspected and found to be in remarkably good condition (centre photo). The wharf wall above the lock on the towpath side will be repaired as the original timber foundations have long since disappeared. Before re-watering, stainless steel channels will be fitted into the existing stop plank grooves in the brickwork. This will ease the fitting and removal of the stop planks. Once this work has been comThis picture shows workers at Bowbridge on 6th pleted stop planks will be fitted to December 1974 in the early days of the restoration. keep the chamber dry whilst the main Trust founder Mike Ayland stands in the foreground. lock restoration work is carried out. Do you recognise anyone else, or even yourself, in The canal will be refilled in two to this picture? If so, please get in touch with the editor three months time. and we’ll pass your information on to the Trust. Pictures by CCT
...and Cotswold Canals
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Progress Montgomery Canal at Pant
Our roundup ends as it began - on the Montgomery Canal. This time Bob Dewey looks at a project to remove an old railway blockage at Pant
moving the embankment to allow the canal to be restored. Nevertheless, as far as we can Avid readers (who are they?) may recall that tell the massive stone abutments remain I have been working on a project to remove intact and it would no doubt be a small a large railway embankment which was matter to put the iron girders back and reoconstructed across the Montgomery Canal pen the line. many years ago. It is located between The embankment was heavily overbridges 88 and 90 (Mr Nicholson says begrown and CRT consented to us digging tween bridges 88 & 91) at Pant on the dry down to uncover the abutments to allow us section approximately halfway between the to show whether the fill material could be lengths of reopened canal at Llanymynech removed without causing the village of Pant and Maesbury. We do not know the date the to slide down the hill into the canal. Digging bridge was removed and replaced with an into compacted railway ballast is an absolute embankment, but it must have been after the pain and we did not get far but all looked 1936 closure of the canal and before the well. The CRT ecologist allowed us to rerailway closed in 1965. It created an obstruc- move the trees and WRG Forestry paid us a tion to navigation (obviously) but also meant visit in mid March. A 45 year old sycamore is that the towpath was blocked. Later, steep quite a sizable tree to fell but it was achieved flights of steps were built to allow people to without incident. In the last weekend of cross over. March before the little birdies have started to The Cambrian Railway Society are busy make plans to build their nests in the trees, restoring part of the line further north but we removed all the rest of the trees and due to the presence of houses, roads etc, most of the undergrowth. they have accepted that they are unlikely We were delighted that everyone who ever to be able to restore the line south of stopped to talk to us was hugely supportive Pant and they have not objected to us reof our efforts and thought it looked so good now the site was clear. So now we await final agreement from CRT to dig down into the material and clear it away. A local farmer is willing to take the material for use on his farm, so we just need a small group of machine operators and bankspersons (?) to get the project moving forward. (oh, and if anyone has a 360o excavator (7 tonne- ish) which is lying idle, we would love to hear from you. Many, many thanks to all who have helped with the project thus far. Clearing the embankment (bridge abutment just visible left) Bob Dewey Bob Dewey
Report from the Mont
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John Hawkins looks back on twelve months of WRG North West digs, paperchases, festivals, and a rather special birthday...
WRG North West
A year with wrg North West
A year in the life up late on, so that at least the marquee wasn’t wet when packed away. A reasonable amount of money was raised. July was a busy month; starting with work at Hollinwood on Pinches Farm footbridge. There was quite a lot of brickwork that needed attention: bricks to be replaced and many more to be re pointed and then the capping stones to be replaced. Also during July the sales stand was taken to the National Festival in Cassiobury Park, Watford. Although the weather was very good the expected crowds did not attend and this meant that the takings were well down. September was originally planned for another visit to Hollinwood, but this had to cancelled due to circumstances beyond the control of WRG NW. Some folks joined a work party on the Manchester Bolton & Bury. Saturday was mainly spent clearing up around the Meccano bridge and picnic bench areas. The area is attracting more visitors
Pictures by John Hawkins
We’ll start with the 2013 May Day Bank holiday long weekend which was to be a joint dig with Essex WRG on the Grantham Canal. The main task for the weekend was to remove lots of willow stumps that were growing in the bed of the canal. The local canal society had arranged for the hire of a small 360o excavator to assist with the job. The first problem was that we couldn’t open all of the barriers that are across the very well maintained towpath and so some tools were put into wheelbarrows and the Tirfors etc put into my car. Good progress was made with the stump removal using the Tirfors and the machine; getting the machine down into the canal bed was quite easy, but getting it out was rather a different matter. This was achieved with the aid of the Tirfor. Whilst stumps were being pulled other folks were kept busy pollarding some other willows in readiness for the stumps to be pulled out at a later date. In some places the water was over wellie depth so care had to be taken, particularly after the stumps/root balls were pulled out. The month of June meant the customary visit to Middlewich with the sales stand. Unfortunately the weather was less then ideal although on the Grantham Canal: clearing scrub from the canal bed Sunday it did dry
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and creating good publicity for the society. This section of canal is possibly going to be re-watered fairly soon. The ‘Operation Starburst’ Manchester area clean-up took place in October. WRG Northwest supported the jointly-run event by supplying a minibus and driver and also arranging the accommodation for those people travelling from further afield for the weekend. Various tasks were undertaken at several sites on the Ashton Canal, Lower Peak Forest and Rochdale canals. In early November a small group were busy on the Montgomery Canal at Lancaster Canal: removing stumps from the bed near Sellet Pant. The project was centred around the bridge where the the level of the canal to be established. The Cambrian Railway once crossed the line of machine was later used to expose some the canal on a bend. Bob Dewey had an old roots that were being Tirfored and to pull photograph which showed the area before out some of the smaller stumps/saplings. any of the trees had taken root. The task Sundays work was much of the same with was to find the stonework of the old bridge the addition of the installation of the new abutments in order to determine their condi- stop planks at Stainton Crossing Bridge. One tion, so that the way forward could be side of the bridge is in water and the planks planned for the removal of all the rubble that have been renewed and their integrity has had been dumped. Several parts of the wall been established, the earth dam that curwere exposed and its condition documented, rently retains the water can be removed. but as the day drew on, the incessant rain And on to 2014: Unfortunately the put an end to the work for the day. Despite year didn’t start too well when the planned a gloomy forecast, Sunday was a beautiful visit to the MB&B had to be cancelled. day. Working in the bright sun, several more February was to be a return visit to the metres of stone were exposed. During the Uttoxeter Canal, although on this occasion a Sunday afternoon the site was made safe as different work site and accommodation for it is a very popular walking path. Some folks NW. There is a full report for this weekend from WRG Forestry were due to visit in on page 34 in the last edition of Navvies March 2014 to remove several large trees (263). that are growing out of the embankment, The first weekend in March, apart from followed later in the month by a further visit the usual paperchase, was the date that had from NW. [See also page 32 ...Ed] been set aside to celebrate David ‘Mr Mac’ Staying in the spacious Borwick and McCarthy’s 90th birthday. The North Cheshire Priest Hutton village hall for our Christmas Cruising Club premises were booked for the meal weekend dig, the work was to be on evening. About 60 people attended for a pie the Lancaster Canal working in the Stainton supper, with gateaux to follow. Maureen had Crossing area. Several jobs were organised, been very busy in her kitchen and had proclearing vegetation along the Hincaster Tunduced the birthday cake, which looked very nel Horse Path, Tirforing out stumps from much like the NW sales stand. [See back the dry canal bed and also using a 3-tonne cover photo ...Ed] A few people slept over 360o excavator that been hired by the canal in the NCCC whilst others were either in their society to expose the clay bed between Sellet camper vans, Malcolm’s boat or had booked Hall Bridge and Well Heads Lane in order for local B & B’s. A very good evening.
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The March dig was on the Pocklington Canal (as it stated in the NW newsletter “go towards York, turn right, carry on for a bit towards the sea!”). A Canal Camp has been arranged for this summer and the weekend was to prepare the site for the pending Camp. However the area of work was changed slightly because the local canal society had already scrub bashed the area for the Canal Camp and so the work was still scrub bashing but a little further down the canal at ‘swing bridge number 8’. The task was to clear a wider area for the towpath and Uttoxeter Canal: Bridge 70 emerges from the undergrowth also open out the side of the canal so that more light could get to the water. Getting the fires going wasn’t too much of a problem with the strength of the wind that was blowing across the land. [See page 36 for a full report of this dig and details of what’s happening on the camp there this summer ...Ed] Finally, as usual throughout the year the NW sales stand was transported around the country and the ‘paperchase’ waste paper recycling collections still took place in the Crumpsall area. New volunteers are welcome on WRG NW digs: information about WRG NW can be found on their website, email www.nw@wrg.org.uk or look for contact numbers in Navvies. John Hawkins
Yes, it really is edible! Mr Mac’s 90th birthday cake in the shape of the WRG NW sales stand
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Navvies News Plant operators note! Motorised plant and agricultural vehicles: important notice If you use Plant or Agricultural Equipment then you need to read this… Navvies who use motorised plant (e.g. excavators, dumper trucks) or agricultural vehicles (e.g. tractors, ride-on mowers) need to be aware of the requirements of section 143 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 as amended by The Motor Insurance (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations 2000. This requires that third party motor insurance is in place in respect of agricultural equipment and moveable plant when either is used on the public highway or in a public place – even if just to cross from one side of a road to another, or along a public path to access a work site. The key considerations are (a) what items of equipment need this cover, and (b) what is defined as a ‘public place’. Types of Equipment: The legal requirement for third-party Motor Policy cover is for any vehicle or piece of machinery that moves under its own power in a public place. Obvious examples are tractors, dumper trucks, excavators on wheels (such as a JCB Loadall or Backhoe Loader) and ride-on motor mowers. Less obvious examples are track-laying plant such as excavators, trench-diggers and cranes. The determining factor is whether such equipment is able to move horizontally along the ground under its own power. Public Place: There is a common misperception that motor policy cover is just required on metalled road surfaces. This is not the case. The ‘public highway’ extends not only too metalled and unmade roads, but also to any public path (e.g. footpaths, bridleways and byways) or area. The legal requirement for cover also includes any permissive paths and other land where the public is generally allowed to walk and access. In summary this means that Motor Policy cover is required where agricultural vehicles or motorised plant are used in the following areas (unless they are closed and fenced-off for the duration of works):
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(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)
Public footpaths and bridleways Permissive paths (where there is no right of way, but the path is available to the public) Tracks and driveways to private premises, which delivery drivers and visitors would normally use Land over which there is a public right of access (as defined by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act) Commons and other access land, over which the public are traditionally allowed to pass or use
Consideration may also need to be given even for use in the following areas: (f) (g)
Unfenced land adjacent to (a), (b) or (d) Any area that is not fenced off to prevent public access
There have been a number of legal cases over the years that have set precedents for where there is a legal requirement for Motor Policy cover:
. . .
Private Forecourt (Trigg v Griffin 1969) Privately owned land abutting on unfenced public footpath and used as the car park of a private club (Pugh v Knipe 1972) Private driveway on farm used by delivery vans and the farm’s few visitors (Alston v O’Brien 1992)
So what does this mean for the average volunteer? The relevant site organiser or land owner will be responsible for ensuring that the necessary Motor Policy cover (not just the standard third party cover for work sites, or ‘owned and hired-in plant’ cover) is in place. This applies whether the equipment is (a) owned by WRG, or (b) owned by the host organisation or landowner, or (c) hired-in, or (d) loaned / brought along by another volunteer. If, as site leader, you are in any doubt about the insurance cover, check with Head Office (either Jenny Black or Neil Edwards). If you are not sure that motor cover is in place then don’t use it, or let anyone else use it, on a public highway or public place. If you plan to drive or operate any motorised plant or agricultural equipment on a public highway or in a public place (as defined above), then (a) you need to have a
driving licence with the right entitlements for what you are driving , (b) you need to be authorised to operate it (either the WRG driver authorisation scheme or waterway society equivalent), (c) a (verified and recent) copy of your driving licence needs to be held at Head Office, and (d) you need to be over 25 unless you have specific authorisation from IWA Head Office. If you are under 25 and in any doubt about the latter, then you probably don’t have the authorisation. [Note: not all these conditions apply for walk-behind equipment such as motorised barrows and walk-behind mowers]. If you think you might be asked to operate plant or agricultural equipment on a work site, it is a good idea to get (a) to (d) above sorted well beforehand. It is unlikely to be able to be sorted in on site, especially at the weekend. Why do we need to bother with this? If (probably after any sort of accident or incident) you are found to be driving without the right insurance and permissions, then the situation is just the same as driving your car on a road without insurance, and the consequences for you are likely to be just the same. If there is anything in the above article that you don’t understand, or want to know more about, then contact Jenny Black (wrg@waterways.org.uk) or Neil Edwards (neil@waterways.org.uk) at Head Office.
Apologies... ...from WRG Print. As several people have already commented some copies of Navvies 263 went out with a couple of blank pages. The first plate that I set up on the printing machine just would not run properly, I also had some difficulties with the stapling folding process; so my apologies for any problems that have occurred. If you have an incomplete copy, and would like a complete edition, then please ‘phone or email me to request a copy. Please state your address because I don’t hold the database with that information. (You could put the blank paper to good use as a shopping list; or possibly write your own Camp or news report on it - something along the lines of “The last WRG Camp on the Mont”, “All bridges on the Oxford Canal now repointed”, or even - “Its been reported that WRG has now taken over the operation of the Canal & River Trust...”)
Seriously, could I also make an appeal for people to assist at the Navvies ‘stuffing evenings’. These days it usually takes only about a couple of hours, because it’s just a matter of putting a completed magazine into an envelope and sticking on labels - no more hand collating, licking of envelopes and stamps etc - but we could still do with a few more volunteers. Thanks as ever to the London Canal Museum for the continuing use of their facilities and also to the folks who regularly turn up at the Canal Museum to do the stuffing John Hawkins
Trad skills for young boaters The Roger Lorenz Trust (set up in memory of a lifelong boating enthusiast) to offer young adults (age 18-30) the chance to learn traditional boating skills is to be launched at the Stratford River Festival on 5-6 July. As Roger’s wife Stef says “There are so many ex-working boats owned by people in their 50s and 60s but few young people have the appropriate skills to maintain and steer them”. The new group aims to put this right, with Roger’s original broad boat Neptune available to provide training in steering, mooring and vintage diesel maintenance on weekend courses with participants staying on the boat. The Trust hopes, in time, to offer an NVQ to participants. Contact Stef Lorenz on 0161 707 0588 or 07825 447 029 for more details.
Thank you ...to IWA Ipswich and Lichfield branches for donations of £1000 and £200 respectively towards our new excavator. Also to an IWA benefactor who has chipped in a generous £4000. As we went to press, Jenny Morris and three other head office staff were about to undertake the Acheman Challenge quadrathlon to raise funds for the digger pictures next time.
Congratulations ...to Emma Nash and Dan Evans on the arrival of Josh Finley Evans on 25 March; and to Lynette and Rob Daffern on the arrival of Albert William Daffern on 26 March. Also best wishes to Paul ‘Mole’ Cattermole and Pamela Giles on their forthcoming wedding.
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Stop froghalling and don’t be such a dauntsey... What sort of a bugsworth are you?
You could be forgiven for thinking that some of the names of our canal worksites sound like something more than just obscure names on an out-of-date Ordnance Survey map. And you’d be right. Here are the little-known meanings of some of these words and phrases... Dauntsey: someone easily put off by the enormity of the task in hand. “Don’t be such a dauntsey, of course we’ll get the canal open one day” Cropwell bishop: [archaic] specialist mediaeval barber serving cathedral communities. “You look like you’ve either been to the cropwell bishop or standing too close to the bonfire.” Griffin Mill: a source of unlikely stories (such as might involve mythical things). “You heard that the next Navvies was going to be early? That story sounds like a product of the griffin mill to me.” Bugsworth: a person who needlessly concerns him or herself with overzealous application of hygiene rules. “You want us to clean our shovels before we use them to toast our sarnies on the bonfire? Honestly, what sort of a bugsworth are you?” Aston: to really deeply ingrain. “That mud is really astoned into my trousers.” Foxton: to nearly but not quite fix something, leaving it more difficult for someone who does know what they are doing to fix it. “I thought you’d fixed it.” “No, more foxtoned it, but I’m sure Phil will fix it next weekend.” Eisey: polluted with tea leaves, limescale and other grot. “That last cup of tea was absolutely eisey. When was the Burco last descaled?” Froghall: to rummage in a bag or other container to find something at the bottom, avoiding the need to empty it all out. “Are you froghalling for the last egg sandwich?” Dunsfold: an elaborate and precise style of storing household linen. “You haven’t got time to dunsfold the tea-towels, we’ve got a concrete delivery on site in half an hour.” Brimscombe Port: an extra-large glass of fortified red wine. “Anyone for a brimscombe port, or shall we head for the Navigation Inn straight away?” Soham Lode: a large quantity. For example: “Best get on site soon, we’ve got a soham lode of bricks to lay” Inglesham: (from ‘inglenook’ and ‘sham’) the type of fake ‘heritage-look’ fittings used in tacky refurbishments of old inns by big pubco chains. “Is the Old Boat any good these days?” “No, not since Punch Taverns ruined it with a load of inglesham.” Drayton Beauchamp: someone who has higher hygiene standards than normal. “Where’s the handwipes?” “Ooh, you’ve gone all drayton beauchamp!” (see also Bugsworth) Crumpwood and Loxwood: like the mythical 150 words for snow, there are lots of words for types of scrub. Crumpwood is green whippy shrub eg alder or willow, tricky to burn and takes a lot of cutting into small pieces to avoid it all just bouncing off the bonfire. Loxwood is typically blackthorn, bramble and dog rose, impossible to get onto the bonfire without losing gloves, small tools, or skin. “Shall we let Tim look after the bonfire?” “No way, it’s all crumpwood and loxwood, he’ll never get it going.” Stratton: from the singular ‘Stratta’ - the footprint of any verminous creature, for example cockroaches, rats or silverfish. “I’m not sleeping in there, it’s full of Stratton”. Ashton Keynes: the Victorian inventor of a process for industrial-scale cider production. Also a great philanthropist who built almshouses for Fallen Woman. Survived the charge of the light brigade and was later knighted by Queen Victoria. “I say, I don’t think this pub has changed a bit since Ashton Keynes’s day. But no doubt some bunch of bugsworths will come along and fill it full of inglesham soon.” Pewsham: a bad smell. “Blimey, what a pewsham! What on earth were you drinking in the Ship Inn last night?” Daisy Nook: a ‘better offer’. “Is Sarah coming on the next dig?” “No, she’s got a chance of some daisy nook.” Latton: someone or something that is annoyingly late. “If you hadn’t been such a latton at the showers we wouldn’t have missed the start of the film.” Alternatively “That last batch of mortar was a right latton: I missed out on all the egg sarnies.” Crickheath: the state achieved by hoarders’ spare bedrooms, most garages, green sheds, and occasionally shipping containers “It was such a crickheath in there that I had to use grappling hooks and a safety
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harness to find the spare strimmer head” Sellet: somebody who can empty a crickheath and make money from it. “I’ll say this for Mr Mac, he’s the best sellet in WRG” Canal Head: a waterways obsessive. “And not content with wasting every weekend and evening on that ridiculous canal diggers’ magazine, it’s his day job too. What a canal head!” Woolsthorpe: now superseded by the Australian English ‘daggy’ - the grotty bits of fleece that have to be trimmed off before the shorn fleece can be sold, usually from around the sheep’s backside. Interestingly there is still an unclaimed prize of 50 guineas, offered by a Mr Joseph Montague in 1836, to be awarded to anyone who finds a use for these. “Ted, you might have trimmed the woolsthorpe off before you barbecued the lamb!” Baylham: an item of apparel used in an emergency to move water or other liquid. Hats, boots & bras work well. Pants don’t work. Some socks are better than others. “I think we’d have sunk the workboat in the tunnel if it hadn’t been for Vicky using her bra as a makeshift baylham” Ham Mill Lock: an early phonetic alphabet developed by British radio operators during the 1930s. The HML phonetic alphabet helped make radio transmission clearer even with poor reception, but used terms considered obscene. Only three of the phonetic letters are non-offensive: H, M and L - hence the name. A story (possibly apocryphal) describes how a young Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth), then a subaltern in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, was sent to support a radio operator in 1945. The operator had to give an urgent transmission but was too embarrassed to use HML phonetics (which began Arse, Bogey, Cock...) in front of his future monarch. With great presence of mind, he made up a cleaner version on the spot which began Alpha Bravo Charlie... The army later adopted his version when it became clear the royal family weren’t going to stop joining the army, and it gained wider acceptance as the NATO phonetic alphabet. Some older radio operators persist in using Ham Mill Lock, which is why the army encourages early retirement. For obvious reasons we won’t give an example of this. If you want to hear one, just listen in on the WRG 2-way radio channel at the point when it becomes clear that the fencing job isn’t going to be finished before the festival bar shuts... Rogerstone: the muffling effect of a large beard on voices, especially when communicating via telephone or radio. Origin thought to be military, and one of the reasons RAF pilots sport ’taches rather than beards. “Sorry, I can’t hear you for the rogerstone, can you give me that again in ham mill lock? Over.” Welches Dam: a worthless oath, indicating a complete lack of concern. (*) “I’m afraid I simply don’t give a welches dam if the Philanthropic Inn’s run out of low alcohol lager” (*) In the heirarchy of things that one wouldn’t give, it ranks roughly midway between a monkey’s toss and a flying foxtrot (**) (**) ‘Foxtrot’ is of course the Alpha Bravo version, rather than the Ham Mill Lock version... This has been a Dr Floodbush-Smith production. With thanks to The Meaning of Liff for the original idea
Dear Deirdre I’m a lady looking for a relationship and there are two single men my own age in my local group, both equally handy. One renovated a cottage from a derelict state; the other converted a scrapped wooden barge into a comfortable houseboat. Both are excellent carpenters, electricians and plumbers. One has better welding experience; the other is a qualified chainsaw operator. Which would be the best romantic match for me? - Jennifer, West Ruislip
Deirdre writes You’ve neglected to say what they’re driving. I’d advise you to check how much boot space they’re packing before you rush into a decision; it’s no use having a boyfriend who can’t take a generator to the repair shop for you. If they’re roughly equal in that respect then you might also look into the following: how much they can lift, how tall a ladder they own, the range of hand tools at their disposal, experience with boilers, and whether they have contacts in the building supplies vending industry and/or can get discounts at Screwfix.If they really are equal in all respects then you’ve no choice but to make a decision based on looks and personality.
And finally... From The Star of Kenya “A 38 year old man from Makueni County was arrested by members of the public after he was caught having canal knowledge with a goat.” A misprint, I feel. It clearly should have been “canal knowledge with a boat”. Yes, that’ll be it, I’m sure...
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