navvies 270

waterwayrecoverygroup

waterwayrecoverygroup

Issue No 270April-May

2015

Issue No 270April-May

2015

navviesnavviesFocus on:

Monmouthshire CanalDriffield Navigation

Swansea Canal

Focus on:Monmouthshire Canal

Driffield NavigationSwansea Canal

volunteers restoring waterwaysvolunteers restoring waterways

IntroThree for 2015

IntroThree for 2015

See our Restoration Focus on p9-15 tofind out how you this summer’s canal

camps will be helping bring boats backto Driffield Canal Head (above), turn

the Swansea (below) into part of a 35mile through route and put the Mon

& Brec (right) back through Cwmbran

Van Appeal target: 4 Transits in 2 years4-5Coming soon Leader Training, WRG Trainingweekend, summer Canal Camps 6Restoration focus a closer look at theSwansea, Driffield and Mon & Brec 7-13REMPART international volunteers 14-15Camp Report February on the Chelmerand Blackwater Navigation 16-18WRG BC Boat Club News 19Diary canal camps, weekend digs, CRTand IWA one-day working parties 20-25Leaders assistants and cooks wanted 26Feedback on cooking and leading 27-31Forestry report from Grantham 32-33Progress Wendover, MB&B, Derby 34-36Navvies News 37Backfill Deirdre returns 38Outro Bowbridge Lock in pictures 39

Contributions...

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

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

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

Press date for issue 271: 1 May.

Subscriptions

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

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

ContentsIn this issue...

Production

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

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

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

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

Waterway Recovery Group is part of TheInland Waterways Association, (registeredoffice: Island House, Moor Road, CheshamHP5 1WA), a non-profit distributing companylimited by guarantee, registered in Englandno 612245, and registered as a charity no212342. VAT registration no 342 0715 89.

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

ISSN: 0953-6655 © 2015 WRG

Visit our web site

www.wrg.org.uk or find

Waterway Recovery Group

on Facebook for all the latest

news of WRG's activities

Cover Picture: Team photo taken during tea-break on the Chelmer & Blackwater Camp inFebruary - see camp report on p16. (picture by Bob Coles) Back cover, upper: WRG For-estry Team carrying out initial clearance ready for this summer’s start of major work atWoolsthorpe Locks, Grantham Canal. (David Joyner). Lower: our new toy! (George Eycott)

Two Years, Four Vans, £120,000…

We’ve now officially launched the appeal toreplace our fleet of van/minibus vehicles,although have already been busy raisingmoney for the last couple of months. £6,086has been raised so far (only £113,914 to go!)so a massive thank you to everyone who hasdonated. We would like to thank ShireCruisers who made a very generous contri-bution of £1,000.

A variety of fundraising events andactivities are currently being planned for thenext two years to help reach the £120,000.The lead time between ordering and receiv-ing the vans is six months so we are aimingto raise the first £60,000 by December 2015to purchase two of the vans to use on the2016 camps. We hope to reach the £120,000total by the end of summer 2016 for thepurchase of the remaining two vans.

The current vans have been invaluablefor the last seven to nine years, transportingvolunteers and equipment to restoration sitesacross the country. Due to their age it wasagreed that they needed to be replaced.

Appeal Round-Up

Here’s what’s been happening so far..

Walk for WRG! – An 8-mile sponsoredwalk took place in Lapworth on Sunday 22nd

February and raised over £2,500 for theappeal. Despite it being one of the wettestdays of the year, everyone made it back tothe village hall for tea and cakes. GeorgeRogers agreed to walk in a red morph suit ifhe reached £1,000 in sponsorship. Unluckyfor him (but lucky for us!) he managed toraise over £1,200. Jenny Black, Digger andAmber Jenkins also deserve credit for com-pleting the route 4 times, 32 miles in total,also in red morph suits. As a reward theywere all treated to a full roast dinner, cour-tesy of Jude Palmer’s wonderful cooking.Maybe I should’ve done 4 laps…

What’s to come

VANilla Fudge at Canalway Cavalcade(2 - 4 May) – If you didn’t already have areason to come to the IWA Canalway Caval-

cade rally at Little Venice thisyear WRG will be manning astall selling fudge. So comedown and stock up on themost “appealing” fudge you’llhave all year! Massive thanksgo to John Hill Foods (Carolynand Jonathan Smith) for do-nating the fudge free ofcharge. If anyone is interestedin helping out on the stallplease contact Jenny Black [email protected].

Droitwich Walk (Saturday19th September) – Due tothe success of the last spon-sored walk we are now plan-ning a 22-mile walk aroundthe Droitwich Ring in Septem-ber. Joining us on the walkwould be a great opportunity

Van Appeal£120,000 needed

The appeal to raise 120 grand

to replace our fleet of vans is up

and running... or at least

walking. Toby reports on some

wacky fundraising ideas...

Jenny, Amber and George on the walk - can you tell who’s who?

for you to see the Droitwich Canals fullyrestored, particularly for those of you whowere involved in the restoration of theHanbury Flight and the Droitwich Barge Lock.Accommodation will be provided at Rowing-ton Village Hall on the Saturday night alongwith food and entertainment. As the walktakes place in September we’re confident itwill be dryer than the last one! Booking willbe open later this year.

IWA/WRG Quizzes – If you, or someoneyou know, are interested in holding a quiznight to help raise money for the appeal thenkeep an eye out for our ready-made quizzesthat will be appearing on the IWA website inthe next few months. These quizzes will beavailable to be purchased and downloadedfor you to use as and when you want.

For those looking for a challenge – Ifyou want to get involved in a challenge toraise sponsorship for the appeal, look nofurther. The Grand Union Challenge is anannual event, organised by Action Challenge,which takes place along the Grand UnionCanal on Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 June.Anyone can participate and IWA is on the listof charities you can raise money for. Chooseto either walk or run 25km, 50km or even100km and raise sponsorship for the appeal.Places cost £29/£39/£49 depending on thedistance you choose and you need to raise a

minimum level of sponsorship. It won’t beeasy but if you’re up for the challenge thenthere is no better place to test your fitnessthan the well-travelled towpath of the GrandUnion Canal. For more details seegrandunionchallenge.com.

Look out for more details on…

. The return of the Barn dance

. Funky new Van Appeal T-shirts

. I Spy WRG Vans

. ‘Bitter Transit’ WRG Beer (ideas for abetter name welcome!)

We can’t do this without you.

We don’t want to ask you to keep dipping intoyour own pockets so we’d like you to help getnews of the Appeal out to as many people aspossible. We hope that many of you will helpsupport the appeal by spreading the word andmore importantly by helping to raise moneythrough your own events and activities. Anumber of crazy ideas have been suggestedalready (including baking a van sizedcake!) so let your imagination run wild.

Let me know if you’ve helped topublicise the appeal or if you have any ideasfor events or activities to help raise money.We can help you promote your ownfundraising efforts but whatever you do besure to always take lots of photos.

If all goes well thistime next year we’ll bewell on our way to pur-chasing the next genera-tion of vans to aid water-ways restoration foranother decade.

Appealing Updates

We will keep you updatedon the appeal so look outfor new events/activitiesthat will be added later inthe year. If you wouldlike any further informa-tion on the appeal visitwrg.org.uk/wrgvanappeal or contactme on Tel: 01494783453 ext. 611 or emailto [email protected].

Toby Gomm

Do you dig canals?

Support the WRG Van Appealand buy a WRG Car StickerYour car might be muddy inside and out, crammed full with steelies, a high vis and hard hats but is itreally ‘WRG ready’? For only £1.50 you can buya new, stylish, top of the range, WRGie car sticker. Not only willyour car look the part but you will also be helping to keep WRG onthe move as £1 from every sale will go towards WRG’s van appeal.

Order online at wrg.org.uk/wrgvanappeal or complete order form:

Name ________________________________________

Address __________________________________

_________________________________________

Please send ___ Car stickers at £1.50 each

I enclose a cheque for ________(payable to WaterwayRecovery Group). Please send cheque and form to WRGVan Appeal, Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, HP5 1WA.

Coming soonLots of training...

By the time you read this the

summer Canal Camps programme

will be just two months away.

But there’s plenty happening in

those two months...

Canalway Cavalcade at Little Venice: May Day Bank Holiday

In the last Navvies we included a call for Site Services volunteers for the Inland WaterwaysAssociation’s annual three day festival at Little Venice (near Paddington in London). So this isjust a final note to say that if you’re free for the 2-4 May weekend or particularly for a coupleof days before or after (to help with setup and take-down) and would like to help, pleasecontact leader Gary Summers on [email protected] or 07973 654 977.

Leaders’ Training 2015: Saturday 9th May, Rowington Village Hall

Second call for the annual WRG Leaders’ Training Day – as mentioned in the last Navvies wewill be running the morning session (from 10.30am) for the new leaders and assistants,when we will cover items more relevant to the new leaders like the camps timeline; whatHead Office can do to help; and handling camp finances. We will open the day up to every-one from lunch at about 12.30pm and will move on to cover the latest developments inhealth and safety, some details on handling the media/social networking and the latest docu-mentation to help run a camp. These are still rough plans and it is not too late to add what-ever burning subject is on your mind.

If any budding or experienced camp cooks would like to join us that would be great aswe are putting together plans for a cooks section as well.

We do ask that the experienced leaders do not arrive before 12.30pm, although I’msure some tasks in the kitchen or cleaning vans can be found for any early birds.

To book on (did I mention it’s free?) please contact Jen at head office at [email protected], Tel: 01494 783453 remembering to let her know when you’llbe there (particularly if you are planning on staying overnight) and what dietary require-ments you have. An idea of interest for the new leaders or cooks sections would also be useful.

Ed [email protected]

Training weekend, 13-14 June, Chesterfield Canal

It’s that time of year when we turn our thoughts to training. As always, we are open tosuggestions as to the sort of skills you feel you or ideally a group of volunteers may need forprojects this year. There should be plenty of opportunity for training on machinery as well asinstruction on scaffolding, levels, vans, trailers and any other skills you may wish to acquire!Please make your suggestions known soon and we will do our best to set something up.

Also if you are an instructor who has volunteered for training weekends in the past or ifyou have never been persuaded but think you could offer some expertise, please get in touch.

The Training site has now been confirmed as the Chesterfield Canal. All are wel-come, regardless of prior experience - you might want to drop in for one of the days ormake a weekend of it. Accommodation available from Friday night. Hope to see you there!

Bookings, suggested courses and enquiries to myself on telephone: 07719 643870after 6pm weekdays or 0191 422 5469. Alternatively email: [email protected]

Ali Bottomley

And then what?

Lots of summer Camps. See the following pages for details of three more of this year’s sites...

Three for 2015 Restoration FocusThree for 2015: an extended Canal Camps preview (part 2)

You will have received this year’s Canal Camps booklet with the last issue of Navvies. And ifyou didn’t, Head Office (01494 783453) will be happy to send you one; alternatively all theinformation is on wrg.org.uk. And hopefully quite a few of you will have already decidedwhich of this summers camps you want to book on, and send your bookings in.

But in case you haven’t, we’ve put together a series of ‘extended preview’ articles givingyou more details of the sites that we’re working on this year. Last time we concentrated onthe new and up-and-coming worksites, covering the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals; theStover Canal; the Ashby Canal Northern Reaches; and the Grantham Canal. (If youmissed it and want to read about them, issue 269 is also available to download fromwrg.org.uk.)

This time we’ve got three more projects for you. Two are in South Wales, where we’recontinuing our support of the last few years for projects on the Swansea Canal and theMonmouthshire & Brecon Canals. The third is the Driffield Navigation, where we’rereturning to what was a new waterway for us in 2014.

But that’s not all...

That still leaves several other projects that we’re supporting with canal camps this year. We’llbe running several camps on the Cotswold Canals, mainly concentrating on BowbridgeLock above Stroud - see out inside back page for a colour photo update of recent progressthere, and we aim to bring you up to date in the next issue with the Easter camp reports.

We covered every-thing that’s happening onthe Chesterfield in a 12-page special feature inissue 267 (also available todownload), where thework this year will bemainly carrying on withbuilding the new concretechannel walls below thenew Staveley Town Lock(picured, right). We hopeto bring you more newsabout the Lapal Canal,the Autumn camp site onthe Chelmer & Black-water Navigation andthe site for our annualNovember Reunion on theUttoxeter Canal in thenext issue.

And finally, we won’tbe doing anything at all toenourage you to join thecamps on the CromfordCanal. Why not? HasGeorge Rogers upset us? No, on the contrary - the camps are fully booked already.

So hurry up and get your canal camps bookings in soon, to avoid disappointment.

Chesterfield: building these walls will be one of the camps’ jobs

Mart

in L

udgate

Site No 1: The Swansea CanalWhat’s the job for this year’s Swansea Canal Camp?

It’s some fairly traditional stuff: lock repairs and bank-protection the old-fashioned way.Once again we’re returning to our regular worksite of the last couple of years at TrebanosLocks, where the main jobs will include re-pointing the chamber walls and repairing thewing walls of the lower of the two locks. Being a South Wales canal, the lock chambers arebuilt entirely of fairly thin courses of stone rather than the brickwork used on most Englishcanals, and we’ll be repairing them in original materials - stone and lime mortar.

The second main job is bank repairs on the adjacent length of canal - and we’ll bedoing it with willow hurdles rather than modern piling.

What skills are needed?

If you’ve done stonework rebuilding or re-pointing before, that’s a bonus. But there will beplenty of opportunities for volunteers to learn the skills during the week..

When is the Canal Camp?

Camp 2015-07: 18 to 25 July.

Why’s it important?

In the short term, because these are two restorable locks on a length of canal that’s still inwater, and could be a showpiece length for the restoration. In the longer term, getting theselocks and this length of canal fully restored could lead to re-excavating the piped sections ofcanal at either end of it (at the old council depot at Clydach and between Trebanos andPontardawe) which would eventually create a six-mile navigable section. And ultimately, anywork on the Swansea improves the prospects for the Swansea Bay Inland Waterway - seebelow - which aims to connect three of South Wales’ canals together to create a 35-milenavigable route.

What’s the restora-tion story?

The area where most ofSouth Wales’ canals werebuilt is sometimes referred toas ‘The Valleys’ - and almostall of the canals followed oneor other of these valleys,providing links from the coalmines and other industries toports such as Newport, Car-diff and Swansea. The Swan-sea Canal ran through theSwansea Valley, parallelingthe River Tawe from Abercrafvia Ystalyfera, Pontardaweand Clydach to reach Swan-sea Docks, at the mouth ofthe Tawe. Trebanos Locks, site for this year’s Swansea camp

Restoration FocusUnfortunately another common feature of South Wales canals was that they were very

busy in their early years, but traffic declined once the railways had arrived, and died outfairly early compared to other industrial canals. The Swansea carried its last cargo in 1931.

Even more unfortunately, being situated in steep-sided, densely-populated valleyswhere space is at a bit of a premium has tended to mean that disused South Wales canalshave often disappeared under road improvement schemes. The Swansea was no exception,with long lengths at both ends obliterated by road-building, while more of the lower enddisappeared under new buildings as Swansea expanded.

By 1981 only about five miles survived, in the middle of the canal - and that was whenthe Swansea Canal Society was formed to campaign for its restoration. A length throughPontardawe was cleared and dredged, and for some years a trip-boat operated on this sec-tion. Sadly the boat was eventually destroyed by vandals, but more recently the Society hasbecome more active again and begun looking at dealing with the obstructions (basically twopiped lengths) which divide the surviving five miles into three sections - as well as carryingout initial clearance a Godre’r-graig Locks, right at the top end of the five miles.

Earlier this year, the South Wales Branch of the Inland Waterways Association an-nounced a proposal called the Swansea Bay Inland Waterway. Rather than a new canal, thisis a joining-together of existing plans for reopenings and new links which would connecttogether the Neath, Swansea and Tennant canals. The components are:

. Restore Aberdulais Aqueduct, on the Tennant Canal near where it joins the Neath Canal

. Reinstate the link from the Tennant Canal to King’s Dock, Swansea

. Create a new link from King’s Dock to the River Tawe

. Create a new link from the River Tawe to the Swansea Canal at Clydach

Combine that with making part of the Tawe navigable and restoring the remainingunrestored lengths of the Neath Canal, the Tennant Canal and the surviving five miles of theSwansea, and you end up with a 35-mile navigation. That’s the same length as the currentlynavigable Mon & Brec, which since restoration began in the 1960s has become a popularwaterway supporting lots of boats. The same could be true of the Swansea, Neath andTennant canals.

Neath

Swansea Docks

Godre’r-Graig

Clydach

PontardaweResolven

Neath Canalunderrestoration

Swansea

Neath and

Tennant

Swansea Canal upper sectionlargely lost under new road

New cutsproposed

Canal Camp site:Trebanos Locks

TennantCanalto be restored

SwanseaCanallowersectionlost

Riv

er

Ta

we

Swansea Canalcentre sectionunder restoration

Site No 2: Monmouthshire CanalWhat’s the job for this year’s Monmouthshire Canal Camps?

We’re back at Ty-Coch Locks, on the length between Five Locks and Newport which remainsunnavigable. Leader Ralph Mills says “Work will include almost all restoration activities, fromvegetation clearance, through excavation of bywash channels, bricklaying, masonry con-struction, pointing and canal bed excavation and repair. Recently we’ve constructed a bull-nose wall from scratch, hauled out tree stumps, and restored almost completely destroyedbywash weirs. This year will be more of the same - and of course will be the best ever!”


Pretty much anything and everything! And there’s plenty of oppotunity to learn new skills.

When are the Canal Camps?

Camp 2015-10: 25 July to 1 August. Camp 2015-13: 1 to 8 August


Restoring a flight of eight locks is a major job for volunteers, even when you’ve got a full-time team on the job like the Monmouthshire Brecon and Abergavenny Canal Trust’s ‘Water-works’ project at Ty-Coch has. So it’s a real boost when we can support them with a coupleof weeks of canal camps. They’re roughly half-way through the programme of work, withtwo locks near enough finished, two well under way and one in the early stages, but thereare still three locks that haven’t been started so there’s a lot of work still to be done.

As regards the wider importance, this is all part of an exercise in nibbling away at theends of the unnavigable length of canal through Cwmbran - as well as encouraging localsupport for restoration. At the same time as volunteers are restoring these eight locks,there’s also a proposal to restore southwards from the north side of Cwmbran as part of anurban regeneration scheme. If that comes off, then once we’ve finished the Ty-Coch locksthere’s only a mile of ‘missing link’ still to be done to link them together, so boats on the 35miles of navigable canal north of Cwmbran can get right down to Newport.

And that, in turn, is a big steptowards the Trust’s goal of creating a50-mile waterway and a link to theBristol Channel. But see below...

What’s the restoration story?

You might be a little confused aboutwhether it’s the Monmouthshire Canal,the Monmouthshire & Brecon (or ‘Mon& Brec’ for short), the Brecon andAbergavenny or whatever. Well it’ssort-of all of these and more...

The Monmouthshire Canal wasbuilt in an irregular Y-shape, with amain line heading north from NewportDocks up the west side of the UskValley (it’s another of those WelshValleys canals I mentioned earlier!) to

Mart

in L

udgate

Upper gate recess wall repairs at Ty-Coch Locks

Restoration Focus

Newport

New linkplanned

Monmouthshire

Canal

To Brecon 35miles navigable

RiverUsk

Cwmbran

just past Pontypool, and the Crumlin Arm branching off westwards at Malpas and headingup the Ebbw valley.The Brecknock & Abergavenny Canal (sometimes referred to as theBrecon and Abergavenny - Brecon being the historic county town of Brecknockshire) ranfrom a junction in Pontypool up the Usk valley to Brecon, with numerous horse-tramwaysclimbing up the hills to connect it to coal mines.

For a while they prospered, but they faced competition from railways, which the Mon-mouthshire tackled by turning itself into the Monmouthshire Railway and Canal Company,building a railway parallel to its canal, and taking over the B&A Canal. By the late 1930scanal trade had ended, the canals were shut in stages (the last bits in the early 1960s) and alength through Cwmbran plus the top of the Crumlin Arm disappeared under new roads.

Running through a more rural area, the B&A hadn’t been too badly damaged and wasan early candidate for restoration; by the 1970s it had completely reopened. The Mon-mouthshire was in a worse state and restoration has been much slower, but the Monmouth-shire Brecon & Abergavenny Canals Trust persevered and got it open down as far as the topof the Five Locks just north of Cwmbran. (In recognition of the fact that the navigable routenow includes part of the Monmouthshire, it tends to get called the Mon & Brec these days.)

Heading down into Cwmbran it rapidly gets even harder: in the next mile there are 15locks (many of them partially demolished) and five new bridges needed. And then there’s a1970s bypass road built along the route. So rather than just wait for somebody to come upwith the serious cash to tackle these issues, the Trust looked elsewhere for volunteer projects.These have included the top lock of the Fourteen Locks on the Crumlin Arm, the first fourlocks up from Malpas Junction towards Cwbran, the first two locks from Malpas up the CrumlinArm... and the current Ty-Coch ‘Waterworks’ project where we’re working this summer.

Meanwhile they’re pushing for an urban regeneration scheme which could get those 15locks and 5 bridges done, increasing pressure on the authorities to find a new route aroundthe bypass road. A Lottery funded scheme has restored more of the Fourteen Locks - andthe aim is to restore the Arm as far as Cwmcarn. And there are long-term plans for a newlink from to the Bristol Channel via the Crindau Brook and River Usk, to replace the old linkthrough Newport Docks, much of which has disappeared under central Newport. Finish allthat, and you’ll have a 50 milecanal linked to the outside world.

Original routelost under Newport

Crumlin Armto be restoredMalpas to Cwmcarn

Upper section toCrumlin buriedunder new road

FourteenLocks

Cwmcarn

5

3

34

Canal inCwmbranblocked bynew road

Malpas

Main Lineto be restoredMalpas toFive Locks

Five Locks

Canal Camp site:Ty-Coch Locks

To theDocks

Site No 3: Driffield NavigationWhat’s the job for this year’s Driffield Navigation Camp?

We’ve got at least three different jobs on the list for this year’s camp. Firstly there’s a con-tinuation of the work we did on last year’s ‘Driff-Pock’ (combined Driffield and Pocklington)camp, where we helped to create a towpath trail on a length of canal that wasn’t verywalker-friendly as the towpath was completely overgrown and people had to walk along theroad alongside it. There are some stumps to pull out, plus benches, nesting boxes and batboxes to install.

Secondly there’s some brickwork repairs and repointing to do at Whinhill and Wansfordlocks. And finally there may be some work at a swingbridge at Brigham.


Brickwork and Tirforing would he handy, but by no means necessary. Oh and by the way,the leaders (Colin Hobbs and Martin de Mello) say they could do with a camp cook!

When is the Canal Camp?

Camp 2015-04: 4 to 11 July


This could be the next restored waterway to be completed and reopened. I’m not saying itwill be - there’s a new road bridge needed, which will cost well over a million. But other thanthat, it really is very close to completion with all the locks restored and just a couple of muchsmaller access bridges to be raised before the Driffield Navigation Trust’s work is completed.

And most of the money to fix the road bridge has already been offered by the Lottery -but so far it hasn’t been possible to raise the ‘matching funding’ which all these grants need,and that’s the sticking point.

One good way to persuadesomebody (and we’re looking atyou, local authorities!) to stumpup the remaining dosh is to getthe canal used and popular withlocal people - so it becomes clearthat it’s a good thing to support.And as we can’t get full-size boatsonto it while that road crosses atknee-height, one very good wayto do this is to get people walkingit. Hence the project to open up atowpath trail.

It’s also very important tokeep the bits that have alreadybeen restored in a good standardof maintenance and looking welllooked-after while you keep upthe pressure for the funds tofinish the job. And that’s whatwe’re doing with the work at thetwo locks and the swingbridge.

Mart

in L

udgate

Wansford Lock, one of the sites for this year’s camp

Restoration FocusWhat’s the restoration story?

The Driffield Navigation is an interesting waterway with a complicated history. For startersit’s in three parts: it’s partly a canal, partly a canalisation of a stream called the FrodinghamBeck, and partly the upper tidal reaches of theRiver Hull. Between them they provided a routefor barges coming up the Hull from the HumberEstuary to the town of Driffield.

Over the years there were various changes -locks were added (and subtracted), river lengthswere straightened and bypassed, branches wereadded. But the usual decline following the arrivalof competition from the railways ended with thelast barges departing in 1951.

Just to complicate things, rather than acanal company the Navigation was run by a bodyof Commissioners - and their numbers weregradually dwindling as they moved away, lostinterest or died. This was a problem: the Act ofParliament to set up the Navigation had specifiedvarious minimum numbers of Commissionersthat you needed for various purposes - and thereweren’t enough of them to agree a transfer of thenavigation to the local river board.

In fact, it soon turned out that there weren’teven enough of them left to appoint any morecommissioners. By the time somebody thoughtof restoring the waterway (most of which hadfallen completely derelict) in the late 1960s therewas only one left - and he lived in South Africa.

So rather than fix the locks or the bridges,the Driffield Navigation Trust had to faff aboutwith legal stuff for several years (and at consider-able cost) before the Charities Commission founda way of sorting out the problem and appointing somemore commissioners.

But once they’d done that, they got cracking onreplacing Bethell’s and Brigham swingbridges withmodern ones, reopening Struncheon Hill, Town, andSnakeholme locks, and most recently restoring Whinhiland Wansford locks in the last 10 years - as well asraising funds for the feasibility studies without whichyou can’t do much restoration these days. Not to men-tion keeping on top of maintaining what’s been restored- including new gates for some of the earlier locks.

And finally, they’d got the Heritage Lottery Fundto allocate a million pounds for that road bridge atWansford, subject to raising the matching funding.

And that’s where they are now - and the morepopular and well looked-after the waterway is, thebetter the chance of raising it.

Driffield Navigation

Canal Campsite: Wansfordand Whinhilllocks area

Driffield

West Beckbranch

Tidal RiverHull to Hull andthe Humber

TownLock

Froding-hamBeck

WhinhillLock

WansfordLock

Snakeholme LockLow bridge

StruncheonHill Lock

Fisholme

Bethell’s Bridge

Brigham

Rempart French volunteers

If you’ve been on more than a couple ofcanal camps, the chances are that you willhave come across a few of the overseasvolunteers from mainland Europe whobetwen them have made a real contributionto WRG’s efforts over the years. Where dothey come from? How do they know aboutus? In the case of the French volunteers, it’soften via an organisation called REMPART.Fabrice Duffaud explains...

REMPART: “bénévoles” and volun-teers for the safeguard of heritage

REMPART is a French national organisationwhich has been dealing with heritage preser-vation and voluntarywork for 50 years; gath-ering together 170French associationswhich organise voluntaryworkcamps throughoutFrance in the field ofheritage conservation.REMPART memberassociations work on awide variety of culturalheritage sites: chapels,priories, castles, villages,mills... whether they arelisted buildings, or lessobvious items of herit-age.

Each site entrustedto a REMPART memberassociation is part of alocal development pro-gram and therefore notonly is it preserved orrestored, but it is alsogiven a new purpose andactually reused.

REMPART’S actionnot only aims at preserv-ing the actual heritagesite but also to promote

and preserve traditional building and restora-tion techniques. This experience with herit-age preservation is unique and has beenused to guide initiatives undertaken over thelast ten years in Tunisia, China, Romania andPalestine, with REMPART’s active support.

In our view, it would not make sense topreserve heritage without involving thepublic in a community-based project. Be-cause they are locally established, UnionREMPART member associations are all partof a cooperative action and can be consid-ered as the outcome of the life of the localcommunity in which they are located. Over50 years we estimate over 120,000 volun-teers from France, all over Europe and be-yond, have worked with REMPART’s localassociations. In average, every year 3,000

REMPARTWere do those French WRGies come from?

Introducing a French

organisation that

partners WRG

REMPART volunteers in France...

volunteers from France and abroad take partin a voluntary action with REMPART, learningtogether how to be active citizens of theworld.

Our main activity is the voluntary workcamp. Most of the work camps take placefrom July to September and last two weeks.During the work camps, volunteers learnnumerous techniques: drawing, excavations,masonry, stone carving, carpentry, coating,etc. Our associations wish to preserve an-cient techniques of restoration and use tradi-tional regional materials, but modern tech-niques are also used when it is not possibleto do it in another way. The work campsprovide the youth the opportunity to feelresponsible of the improvement of the livingenvironment. The work camps allow themalso to experience a community life and tomeet young people of different social back-grounds or countries. Beyond the workcamp, we provide volunteers the opportunity to acquire advanced techniques and pedagogi-cal skills as well. These training programmes aim to help the most motivated volunteers tobecome work camp leaders or board members of local associations.

The international activity of REMPARTis based on the idea that heritage is aborderless concept that can encourageintercultural dialogue. The relationships wedeveloped with foreign partners enable us tomake available around 50 restorationprojects in around 30 countries every yearfor 250 French REMPART volunteers whilemore than 700 international volunteers cometo work on REMPART restoration sites everyyear.

This summer, as for the last threeyears, some of the Waterway RecoveryGroup Canal Camps will welcome volunteersfrom REMPART . Through this volunteers,we are very glad to contribute to the recogni-tion of the historic canals a remarkable partof the cultural heritage of UK. We are alsovery happy to contribute to spread theknowledge of this kind of heritage which isspecific to UK and not so known in France.

Thanks a lot for hosting them andplease feel free to visit our projects inFrance. We are open to any proposal whichcould contribute to the development of closerrelations between our organisations.

Fabrice Duffaudinternational officer

Union REMPART, 1, rue des Guillemites,75004 Paris, [email protected] (left) working with WRG

Chelmer camp 14-21 February

Saturday: It didn’t start well. Petrol pump5 at the Maldon Tesco ate my Clubcard andwould not spit it out. I couldn’t shift it; thekiosk attendant couldn’t shift it; even the burlywhite van man stuck behind me couldn’t shiftit. Eventually a weapons-grade pair of plierswas produced and two of us together rippedit out – or most of it. Decided to move topump 6 and opt for ‘pay in kiosk’.

Got to Heybridge Basin eventually andwas piped aboard the Haybay barge (ouraccom) by a sloppily dressed rating claimingto be the camp leader. I decided to humourhim in his belief for the rest of the week.Introduced to Paul Ireson, the chef de galley.My very first task as camp assistant was todivide up the domestic duties for the weekand make a chart on the dry-wipe board.Picked up the keys to minibus EHP and thenecessary PPE (ear defenders) and rattled myway to Wickford station to pick up: Rod, amilitary air traffic controller who had to leaveus after just one night; Edward, a mediastudent and DofEer; Annabel, a cateringassistant from Warwick; and Teutonic repeatoffender Dan Krebs, who knows more aboutwork on the Chelmer than most people.

Back on board were four more DofEawardees: Katie (Student engineer and la-crosse goalie); Rory (Overhead Linesmanworking with 400kV power distribution); BenL (Business Analyst and winner of the campbest-trimmed facial hair award); and Ben W-J(Student chemical engineer and willing buttof most of Rory and Ben L’s jokes). Alsosettling in on the Haybay were the Ipswichcontingent of Lee Reynolds (Telecoms) andseasoned pro John Geary.

After captain Crow’s introduction andbriefing I managed to fire up the boat pro-jection system in order to screen the health& safety DVD, a video production that makesthe Open University programmes of the ’60slook cutting edge. However, those funkyguitar stings must have hit the mark sinceI’m sure I saw one young camper donning

full PPE to operate the toaster (I may havedreamt that bit). Bangers and mash fordinner followed by an ingenious and delicioustrifle. Most took early to their bunks with asmall dedicated contingent deciding to supportthe local brewing industry at the Jolly Sailor.It’s tough, but someone has to do it.

Sunday: After an early breakfast in cloudy butmild weather we drove first to Hoe Mill lock forkit check and transfer of required tools to thevans, followed by a warm welcome to theChelmer & Blackwater Navigation delivered byRoy Chandler, Chairman of Essex Waterways.Then to Sandford lock to load kit on to theRaider-style boat for transport upstream to thefirst work site, a short walk up the claggytowpath. Helen Dobbie joined us on site,resplendent in her favourite purple.

Work for the week was scrub-bashingaround the towpath - mainly low scrub withthe odd stand of willow and brambles. Thebonfire took a while to coax into life but,once established, good clearing progress wasmade in increasingly spring-like weather.

Two DofEers were trained on brush-cutters and hedge-trimmers, the first two ofmany during the week, and all were briefedon keeping the towpath clear for half-termjoggers and walkers. A tremendous start tothe week’s work, helped along by Paul’sdelicious apple cake. Off site at 16:30,having stored the kit in the garage atSandford lock, and back to Heybridge forgrilled lamb and several veg, showers andrelaxation after a strenuous first day. In amasterstroke, Annabel bought some flowersfor the dining table, and effectively took theedge off the ‘school canteen’ ambience,softening the effect of the plastic tables andharsh fluorescent lighting. Several morepublic-spirited campers did their duty byliberating a few pints of the local ale.

Monday: Cap’n Bob runs a tight ship and sowe were off promptly and on site by 09:20in mild and dry conditions. Paul and Helenjoined us on site today, along with Adrian

Camp ReportChelmer & Blackwater

First Canal Camp of 2015, and it’s

over to the Chelmer & Blackwater

Navigation in Essex for some

scrub-bashing, ten pin bowling,

and limerick-writing...

Crow. This gave us a jollycrew including two Bobs,two Bens and two Crows(first line of a Limerick?*),along with Michael(lengthsman) and Eve(assistant lengthsman)from Essex WaterwaysLimited.

The plaintive buzz ofchainsaws filled the airand loads more clearancegot underway just as soonas the Burco ignitionceremony was completed.Clearance teams rapidlymade progress towards acouncil team coming theother way surfacing thetowpath. First rain ofweek fell towards the end of the afternoon.Finished the planned work for the day andleft site early in worsening weather.

Off to the cinema in Chelmsford afterdinner. Initial interest in Fifty Shades of Greywaned considerably when a rumour spreadthat it was a documentary about canal campleaders. Both Roberts saw the StephenHawking film, The Theory of Everything; allthe rest Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Tuesday: Perfect clear sunny day with astunning sunrise astern. On site, we movedfurther upstream to get away from councilworkers and cleared several small stands ofwillow. Remains of Monday’s firewheelbarrowed along the towpath to the newsite. Fire soon roaring away and consumingeverything. Marshmallows toasted withvarying degrees of success.

Off site at 16:30 for an evening ofpasta bolognese and half-price-Tuesday tenpin bowling. Rory took the honours with ascore of 130+. Marks for best style, how-ever, went to Edward: a run up inspired byNorman Wisdom playing a drunk, and a two-handed delivery of the ball which looked tobe based on Shane Warne’s googly. Effec-tive, though, hitting the middle of the targetmore often than not. Unfortunately forEdward, the usually efficient shoe filingsystem failed to return his shoes so he leftwith a pair of bowling shoes on his feet andthe promise from the lady in charge to reim-burse him for the cost of a new pair. Twogames of bowling and a new pair of shoesfor £6 – not bad! Bob took Edward to

Chelmsford next day and replaced (shoes,not Edward).

Wednesday: Another perfect day weather-wise – cloudless with a brisk wind. Muchgnashing of young (and not-so-young) teethwhen the Wi-Fi on the Haybay stopped work-ing. Someone late paying the bill, apparently.

On site we moved even further up-stream to near Barnes Mill lock for moreclearance work. Lee heroically soldiered onthrough the after-effects of the half-price barat the bowling the previous evening, al-though he was occasionally to be seenslumped in the undergrowth. The increaseddistance to the ‘facilities’ required a specialboat service schedule [insert your own ‘PoopDeck’ joke here].

Another roaring fire was nurtured,helped by strong wind from the north.Evening entertainment was a quiz and appro-priate refreshment in a packed Shaw Farmpub at South Woodham Ferrers. Had to raidthe dining room for chairs and rearrangemuch of the pub furniture in order to fit ourtwo teams in. Katie, who had left earlier forinterview in Manchester Uni, promised tokeep her phone on in case we needed helpwith chemistry questions. Our teams, ‘TheWrgies’ and ‘The Scrub Bashers’ came 2nd and3rd! We’d recommend this evening to futureChelmer camps: really well organised with afriendly and helpful professional quizmaster;but get there early!

Thursday: Yet another wonderful sunriseand beautiful crisp morning. The team, now

completely unabashed byscrub, fell to with a venge-ance, and the odd bow sawand slasher.

A fresh wind onceagain fanned the flames andstrengthened at the end ofthe morning with cloudbuild-up exactly as theweather forecast predicted.Showers became heavy rainand Head of Decisionsmade one - and it wasgood. Cleared site afterlunch and were back onboard the Haybay at 15:20for a lazy afternoon inworsening weather, antici-pating our trip to theCAMRA Beer and Ciderfestival that evening at KingEdward VI Grammar School(KEGS - geddit?). Huge fishand chip meal from localchippie enjoyed by all, afterwhich John volunteered to be the DesignatedDriver for the evening. There was a stickymoment at the festival entrance when itlooked as though beards might be compul-sory, which would have excluded four of us.Managed to blag our way in (it was a closeshave) to sample some of the interesting aleson offer, including: Irwell Works brewery’s‘Costa del Salford’ [Citrus and tropical fruitwith medium bitterness and a dry finish];Purple Moose brewery’s ‘Dark Side of theMoose’(!) [Hoppy and bitter with roast under-tones, some malt, fruit and a dry finish]; anda spicy 12% abv Belgian number called‘Silent Night’ [Don’t get it on your clothes].Humble writer, always careful to get his five-a-day, opted for a Flemish raspberry beer[tasting notes from leader: “Ugh…tastes likeAlka-Selzter”]

Friday: Cloudy but mild with light souther-lies. Loaded boat as usual at Sandford andtook one van of campers to the site for theday, alongside Barnes Mill lock. Team effi-ciency now very impressive and the requiredclearance achieved before a late lunch break.No fire today, the felled stuff being draggedacross to the offside and left for the localvolunteers to burn in the following week.Edward did sterling work as a human trafficlight, controlling the one way working overthe narrow lock tail bridge. Off site at 15:30

and home via Hoe Mill lock for kit check andtrailer loading.

The call of the local pub proved irresist-ible after another fine meal cooked by Paul.By the early hours the boat was full of JollySailors after a cheeky lock-in until 01:30!

Saturday: Breakfast at the usual time ofquarter to eight - in spite of hangovers -after which we set about the clean-up opera-tion. Tearful farewells intermingled withyawns and promises to keep in touch. Sub-sequently Rory created a Facebook page tohost the photos. facebook.com/groups/380013732170905/

Paul left for home at 10:30 in the qui-eter van via a station drop-off at Wickford,leaving the salty old sea dog to drive himselfhome to Crow Towers in the van ordinaire. Igot only as far as South Mimms servicesbefore the first nap attack, eventually cross-ing back to the fashionable side of Offa’sDyke late afternoon, with a mangledClubcard and happy memories of my firstvisit to the Essex Riviera.

Bob Coles

* Two Bobs, two Bens and two CrowsEach had quite a sensitive nose.

When armpits turned sourThey jumped in the shower

And came out as sweet as a rose.

WRG BCNews from our Boat Club

WRG Boat Club News

Firstly, and most important, comes informa-tion about boat safety. Beware of carbonmonoxide poisoning - of course you all haveCO and smoke alarms fitted? (well if not,contact me as I have a list of those recom-mended by a BSS examiner). Risks occurthrough incorrect installation or servicing ofheating and cooking appliances, surely we areaware of this. Other sources of CO can be fromyour boat engine or perhaps a neighbouringboat, nearby barbecues, generators or gasbottle appliances BUT have you considered therisk of using damp firewood? Apparently thiscan cause carbon monoxide emissions thatsneak up on you when the fire is shut down.No problem at all on your usual scrub bashingbonfire but a killer when within a boat. Beware!

I did once see the amazing sight of aboat with the roof on fire. The occupants hadstacked wood all over the roof, includinground the chimney. This wood had obviouslygot heated and a stray spark had ignited it! Ihad to knock on the boat and my question‘Excuse me but do you know that your roof ison fire?’ was met with disbelief. We helped toclear the roof and left them to sort things out.

Today I attended the Association ofWaterways Cruising Clubs AGM on behalf ofthe club. Oh what fun I had with the paper-work as all the relevant documents for thiswere sent by email. I don’t have a computerso had to use my mobile phone to accessthem. Well you know how I get on withtechnology. We moored at Penkridge and, byvisiting the library to use a computer, I man-aged to read most of the reports and printout the agenda and minutes from the previ-ous AGM. These mostly consisted of thingsthat were ‘read and on file’ so I shall need toaccess these for the minutes from this year’sAGM. It would seem things will be publishedin the next issue of Alert, so once I get acopy I will forward it to all the members whohave given me an up to date email address -those members who haven’t please do!

Meanwhile here are some snippets andthoughts on the meeting....

One boat club resigned from AWCC mem-bership on the excuse that their members onlycruised on rivers not canals! Oh dear what aboutclubs on the Nene, Weaver etc where some of themembers’ boats are too wide for narrow locks. It’sa good job not all clubs think the same, as manyAWCC members make use of the facilities thatare provided by other member clubs.

Anglian region of the EnvironmentAgency do not make use volunteers. This Iam very aware of as I live in the region andwe want to reopen the route betweenHorseway Lock and Welches Dam but EA are,to say the least, uncooperative. Some of usremember working on the restoration ofWelches Dam many years ago. Although thechannel between the locks leaked it wasnavigable on selected weekends for someyears before it was closed and dammed off.

The Midland Region report containedglowing reference to both our record ofdonations to restoration projects and toLynne’s volunteering. A pat on the back forus is in order I think.

One worrying report was that there areplans to allow unpowered craft to useSaltersford and Barnton tunnels. As youknow there are bends in these and no clearview through, any small unlit craft could easilybe hidden in the dark and the potential foraccidents is quite scary. Boaters have pointedthis out and voiced objections. This is stillongoing so please add your voice to theobjections to this potential safety hazard.

The Technical Officer emphasised that ALLincidents must be reported, even near misses, soa comprehensive overview can be made. Manyaccidents are avoidable if boats have the rightkit in the right place and those on board arefamiliar with it and trained in using it.

Boat Fire Safety week is 25th to 31st ofMay, as a club we can’t organise an event butdo go to one if you can. You can get goodadvice and usually a free smoke alarm!

There will be a Gas Safety week 14th to20th September - more details later.

Now for a club notice - our AGM will beheld at sometime over the August BankHoliday weekend at Northampton.

Please fly our flag and try to visit as manyrestored bits of canal as you possibly can.Perhaps we could award the wrg bc bowl forthe boat visiting the most ‘new’ bits?

After including all this safety advicemaybe I should sign off as...xxx Auntie Sadie [email protected]

Navvies diary WRG and mobile groupsYour guide to all forthcoming work partiesApr 18/19 wrgBITM Cotswold Canals: Bowbridge Lock, Stroud

Apr 17/19 London WRG BCN Clean Up: Birmingham

Apr 25/26 wrgNW Cromford Canal

Apr 25 Sat IWA/CRT Restoration Workshop: ‘Getting it on the Map’ talk/discussion at Digbeth

May 1-4 NWPG Wey & Arun Canal: Hunt Park

May 1-7 WAT Wendover Arm: Seven day weekend Fri-Thu

May 1 Navvies Press date for issue 271 (including WRG / canal societies directory)

May 2/3 KESCRG To be arranged

May 9 LT2015 Leaders’ Training Day

May 10 Sun WRG Committee & Board Meetings: Leaders Training Day on Sat

May 15-17 wrgBITM Rickmansworth Waterways Festival: Site services (open to public on Sa

May 16/17 London WRG Cotswold Canals: Bowbridge Lock, Stroud

May 16 Sat wrgNW ‘Paper Chase’ waste paper collection

May 20 Wed wrgNW Ad Hoc Meeting

Jun 5-11 WAT Wendover Arm: Fri-Thu, includes Restoration Open Day on Sun 7th

Jun 6/7 London WRG Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation

Jun 5/6/7 NWPG Wey & Arun Canal: Hunt Park

Jun 13/14 KESCRG To be arranged

Jun 13/14 TW2015 Training Weekend - Chesterfield Canal

Jun 20/21 wrgBITM Somersetshire Coal Canal

Jun 27 Sat wrgNW ‘Paper Chase’ waste paper collection

Jul 1 Navvies Press date for issue 272

Jul 3-9 WAT Wendover Arm: Seven day weekend Fri-Thu

Jul 4/5 Essex WRG Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation: Annual BBQ on Sat evening

Jul 4/5 KESCRG Ashby Canal: Joint dig with London WRG

Jul 4/5 London WRG Grantham Canal

Jul 4-11 Camp 201504 Driffield Navigation

Jul 4-11 Camp 201505 Cotswold Canals: NWPG’s annual camp

Jul 4-11 NWPG Cotswold Canals: NWPG’s annual camp

Jul 11-18 Camp 201506 Cromford Canal

Jul 18/19 wrgNW Chesterfield Canal: Staveley (provisional)

Jul 18-25 Camp 201507 Swansea Canal

Jul 18-24 Camp 201508 Cromford Canal

Jul 18-25 Camp 201509 Cotswold Canals: Bowbridge Lock, Stroud

Jul 25-Aug 1 Camp 201510 Monmouthshire Canal

Jul 25-Aug 1 Camp 201511 Chesterfield Canal

Jul 25-Aug 1 Camp 201512 Cotswold Canals: Bowbridge Lock, Stroud

Jul 26 Sun WRG Committee & Board Meetings: Rowington Village Hall

Jul 31-Aug 6 WAT Wendover Arm: Seven day weekend Fri-Thu

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

for WRG Camps identified by a camp number e.g. 'Camp 2015-02'

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

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

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

Dave Wedd 07816-175454 [email protected]

Tim Lewis 07802-518094 [email protected]

Malcolm Bridge 01422-820693 [email protected]

h Jenny Black 01494-783453 [email protected]

Bill Nicholson 01844-343369 [email protected]

Roger Leishman 01442-874536 [email protected]

Martin Ludgate 07779-478629 [email protected]

Bobby Silverwood 07971-814986 [email protected]

Ed Walker 01494-783453 [email protected]

Mike Palmer 01564-785293 [email protected]

at 16 & Sun 17) Dave Wedd 07816-175454 [email protected]


Barry McGuinness 0161-681-7237 [email protected]

Mike & Liz Chase [email protected]





Womble 01494-783453 [email protected]

Dave Wedd 07816-175454 [email protected]

Barry McGuinness 0161-681-7237 [email protected]

Martin Ludgate 07779-478629 [email protected]


John Gale 01376-334896 [email protected]



01494-783453 [email protected]




Malcolm Bridge 01422-820693 [email protected]







Mike Palmer 01564-785293 [email protected]


Every Tuesday BCA Basingstoke Canal Chris Healy 01252-370073

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Every Sunday ChCT Chesterfield Canal Mick Hodgetts 01246-620695

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

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

Every Friday ECPDA Langley Mill John Baylis 01623-633895

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

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

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

Tuesdays H&GCT Oxenhall Brian Fox 01432 358628

Weekends H&GCT Over Wharf House Maggie Jones 01452 618010

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

Thursdays H&GCT Herefordshire Wilf Jones 01452 413888

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Most days, please contact WACT Wey & Arun Canal David Daniels 01483-505566

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

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

Navvies diary canal society regularsCanal societies’ regular working parties

CRT towpath taskforce Navvies diary

Abbreviations used in Diary:

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

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

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

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

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

Canal & River Trust ‘Towpath Taskforce’ maintenance working parties

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

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

Mobile groups' socials: The following groups hold regular social gatherings

London WRG: 7:30pm on Tues 11 days before dig at the 'Star Tavern' Belgrave Mews West,

NWPG: 7:30pm on 3rd Tue of month at the 'Hope Tap', West end of Friar St. Reading.

Apr 24 Fri IWA NSSC Macclesfield Canal: Congleton Station project. Veg clearance. 10am-

Apr 25 Sat IWA Chester Shropshire Union Canal: Chester area, painting & veg clearance. 10am-

Apr 26 Sun IWA Northants Northampton Arm

Every Wed RGT/IWA Ipswich River Gipping: Pipps Ford, or Baylham Mill Lock 9am-4pm

May 12 Sun IWA Northants Northampton Arm

May 13 Wed IWA BBCW Staffs & Worcs Canal: Painting, tidying & veg clearance

May 21 Thu IWA NSSC/TMCS Trent & Mersey Canal: Cheshire Locks. Painting & veg clearance. 10am-

May 22 Fri IWA NSSC Macclesfield Canal: Congleton Station project. Veg clearance. 10am-

May 26 Tue IWA NSSC/BPT Burslem Arm: Luke St, Middleport, Stoke on Trent. 10am-3pm

May 30 Sat IWA Chester Shropshire Union Canal: Chester area, painting & veg clearance. 10am-

May 31 Sun IWA Northants Northampton Arm

Jun 9 Sun IWA Northants Northampton Arm

May 10 Wed IWA BBCW Staffs & Worcs Canal: Painting, tidying & veg clearance

Jun 20 Sat IWA ManchesterVenue T.B.C.: Greater Manchester area. Veg clearance, etc. 10am-

Jun 23 Tue IWA NSSC/BPT Burslem Arm: Luke St, Middleport, Stoke on Trent. 10am-3pm

Jun 27 Sat IWA Chester Shropshire Union Canal: Chester area, painting & veg clearance. 10am-

One event you won’t see mentioned in the diary or reports this time is the BCN Clean Up, because it

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

...and other one-day work Navvies diaryFor WRG canal camps and working parties see pages 22-23

in pubs. Please phone to confirm dates and times

London. Contact Tim Lewis 07802-518094

Contact Phil Dray 07956-185305

12:30 Bob Luscombe 07710-054848 [email protected]

4pm Mike Carter 07795-617803 [email protected]

Geoff Wood [email protected]

Martin Bird 01394-380765 [email protected]


David Struckett 07976-746225 [email protected]

4pm Andy Hellyar-Brook 07926-204206 [email protected]

12:30 Bob Luscombe 07710-054848 [email protected]

Steve Wood 07976-805858 [email protected]




David Struckett 07976-746225 [email protected]

4pm 07710-554602 [email protected]

Steve Wood 07976-805858 [email protected]


happens between this issue going to print and being pubished. Report and pictures next time.

WantedLeaders, assistants and cooks

Would you like to be

part of the leadership

team on a canal

camp? Now’s your

chance...

Be part of the team...

WRG’s leadership teams are responsible for making sure each canal camp is a fun-filled,enjoyable experience – they run the canal restoration site, organise social activities in theevenings, and ensure that everyone is still smiling by the end of the week!

Without our army of volunteer leaders, assistants and cooks, Canal Campssimply wouldn’t happen.

The good news is that despite this year’s canal camps programme being finalisedslightly later than usual, we have already recruited leadership teams for most of the camps.However we still need to find volunteers for the following roles:

Leaders

Swansea Canal Camp 18th-25th JulyCotswold Canals Camp 18th-25th July (we have an assistant and cook already in place!)Lapal Canal Camp 8th-15th AugustLapal Canal Camp 15th-22nd AugustAshby Canal Camp 15th-22nd August (we have a co-leader looking for an outgoing fellowco-leader!)

Assistant Leaders

Swansea Canal Camp 18th-25th JulyLapal Canal Camp 8th-15th AugustLapal Canal Camp 15th-22nd August

Cooks

(If you’ve been a camp you will know thecamp cook is the most importantperson!)

Driffield Navigation Camp 4th-11th JulySwansea Canal Camp 18th-25th JulyMon and Brec Canal Camp 1st-8thAugustLapal Canal Camp 8th-15th AugustLapal Canal Camp 15th-22nd AugustAshby Canal Camp 15th-22nd AugustStover Canal Camp 29th August-5thSeptemberGrantham Canal Camp 5th-12thSeptember

Want to know more?

Why not call Becky Parr (part of the WRG Leadership Team) for a chat on how you could getinvolved? - 07932 158758 or email [email protected]

Could this be you?

Feedback...on food

Yet another of our

volunteer cooks shares

her views on her own way

of catering for a bunch of

hungry canal campers...

Cooking on Canal Camps

Following the articles published in thelast two issues, here’s yet another takeon being a canal camp cook. As usual,we should stress that this isn’t intended to bea prescriptive ‘How you should do it’ typepiece, more an insight into one way of doingit, which will hopefully be of use and interestto those thinking of volunteering as a campcook.This time it’s by Anne Lilliman...

Entry to the kitchen is request only, unlessyou are cook’s helper.

If I am cooking I am not working onsite as well. I am happy to fetch/ buy anddeliver items for site, but not work on site.

I co-ordinate all timings for meals withthe leader, or assistant leader.

It is a good idea to take someone withyou to do the first main shop. as you mayneed two trolleys for food.

Breakfast: Before I go to bed I try and getall the saucepans and grundy tins andspoons and serving tongs ready. I make surethat I have the eggs, bacon, sausages, beansand tomatoes in a fridge nearby.

If the kitchen equipment is kept in thesame room as the sleeping volunteers thenthey appreciate the lack of disturbance earlyin the morning.

Checking the kitchen at night meansthere are no surprises in the morning, towash up before/ while cooking.

I like cooking breakfast but do notmind if I have help.

I will get up about 6.45a.m. for 8 a.m.breakfast then turn on the oven, griddle,kettle and Burco (make sure it’s full!) for theearly morning campers.

I cook sausages in the oven, bacon on thegriddle or under the grill dependent on oven.

I do not do tea in bed.

Lunch: I am not a fan of ‘make your ownsandwiches’. Reasons:. Volunteers are not allowed in the

kitchen wearing their site clothes. They willbe handling sandwich making stuff wearingtheir site clothes.. If anyone is unwell during the week if Ior my helper has only been preparing thefood, then we can safely say that it is not thefood that has made the volunteer unwell.. Also I like to take the lunch to site witha homemade cake, possibly soup and top upmilk, tea, sugar and coffee supplies if neces-sary. I also have my lunch on site.. As a volunteer who sometimes workson site, I like the idea of someone else mak-ing my sandwiches. If I make my own I haveto eat them, if the cook makes them I canchoose at lunchtime how many and whichfillings.

Evening Meals: Pasta with meat and veg-etables is a good standby. Dependant onoven space I usually cook on top e.g.evening meal on top and pudding in theoven. Sometimes I cook the main meal inthe oven and then prepare the pudding andput in the oven to cook just before I servethe main evening meal.

I usually decide on the first three mealsbefore the dig, but I am not averse to chang-ing my mind if I see meat on special offerwhen I go shopping.

I enjoy making different meals forvegetarians and volunteers with special dietsor allergies.

When I did my bank holiday cookinglast year I had a volunteer in the morning tohelp prepare the lunch, shop and make acake. When we went to site I brought an-other volunteer back with me, and after ashower and change of clothes they helpedprepare and serve the evening meal.

Note do not forget that it is also yourholiday; make time to stop for a break tohave a drink to keep you hydrated. If theweather is hot and you are spending most ofyour time in a hot kitchen it is easy to be-come dehydrated.

Most of all, enjoy!Anne Lilliman

Experience of a 1st timeweek’s Camp Cook

OK, I am not the complete novice at cookingfor WRG as I have previously done mostLondon WRG dig breakfasts that I attend andI had done the occasional evening meal on asmall weekend camp. However, I was askedto fill the void of the cook for the Feb ’15camp on the Haybay.

I had previously attended the cooks’seminar held in 2012 at the Leaders’ TrainingDay, and using the notes from the outputand asking for some guidance from MariaHearnden, I planned my stint. As I am anearly riser I planned to follow Helen’s scheme[see Navvies 268] of letting the camp volun-teers to do their own sandwiches.

Task 1 was to speak to the volunteerswho had noted their likes & dislikes on theirapplications. I was lucky that I only had twovariants which meant only an avoidance ofuncured pork in the evening meals and asingle vegetarian.

As I was on the Haybay barge, I couldnot do a bulk buy of food due to the lack ofspace on the boat. This would mean regularshopping trips. Lesson 1 was to see if therewas any additional storage space available.

Arranging to arrive at midday to meet

Bob Crow, we unloaded the ‘coffin’ (camp kitstorage box) to find out what food was instore. We also received a bonus from theowners of the accommodation when they lefta large amount of fruit, veg, bread, marga-rine and tubs of hummus. (However, 6kg fora single veggie is an excess).

I used the shopping leaflet from thebooks notes along with what I know I re-quired for the first two days meals. I tookalong one of the volunteers to help with theshopping. Lesson 2 Ensure that you havecoins or tokens to use the trolleys.

Saturday’s meal was mash, sausagesand peas with a chocolate trifle, but neither Inor the volunteers read the notes on makingthe trifle, so it was more a chocolate luckydip. Lesson 3 Read instructions beforestarting preparations yourself or ensuresomeone else reads them.

Sunday started with the breakfast andwhile it was cooking I prepared and cookedthe apple slice.

As I planned that the evening mealwould be a roast, this meant lots of peelingof the potatoes, carrots and swedes.

With the weather being fine and stayingon the Haybay, this meant I could sit on theback deck doing the task and enjoy the viewand allow certain adventurous sea birds

some scraps. I also made a jellybut followed the instructions fora camp of 25 instead of the 14.The jelly would still be on theavailability list until Friday.

The veggie dish was bakedmushrooms with Mozzarellacheese and I arranged forAnnabel to set her own garliclevel.

On Monday I spent themorning on Site and returned toprepare the shepherd’s pie. Itried an experiment of frozenmash but found that quantityrequired and size of pots neededdid not lend itself to consistentquality of the mash. The veggie

Feedback...on food

A regular breakfast cook on a

weekend group’s weekend work

parties, but he’d never cooked for

a whole week on a camp before.

So how did Paul get on?

The Haybay barge, the accommodation for the week

dish was a cheese and mash bake.On Tuesday I was on site again in the

morning but returned to prepare the eveningmeal which was going to be chicken pieswhich the whole camp could eat, so noadditional meal to cook. However, I learntthat occasional visitors may have dietaryrequirements not known to the cook until themeal is served.

Wednesday I completed the last of theshopping for the camp and started to pre-pare the evening meal of SpaghettiBolognese. Although the quantity was good Ifelt that I had overdone the meal due tostarting it too early.

On Thursday we had decided that theevening meal was to be Fish & Chips, so theorder was placed with the shop and I at-tended site all day. It was found that thelocal shop’s standard portions were generallywell sufficient for all the group and the localseagulls had an evening treat of surplus.

On Friday the site work was possiblygoing to be mobile, so I stayed on the boatand prepared for the evening meal. I hadpreviously sorted out the quantities for themeat course and had therefore not done anyadditional shopping when it was confirmedthat an additional person was having anevening meal. This meant that I had toimprovise a meal for myself.This was resolved by me havingthe remaining chicken pie alongwith half the vegetarian dishwhich was a repeat of Sundaysbut this time I set the garliclevel.

The sweet course after-wards was to finish off all theprevious sweets which wereleftover during the week alongwith the flan prepared on theprevious day. So bowls of jelly,flan, ice cream and cheesecakewas in evidence.

My success during the week:The apple slices, the vegetarian

dishes and not losing faith in myself

Minor mishaps: Some as noted above butthe two most notable were the sponge cakeand the fruit flans. But I hope I managed toallay them by the triple decker sponge cakefilled by all the jam and cream from thecoffin and the bottom of the broken flancase.

Conclusions: I was lucky that it was a smallgroup and that I had the cooks note to helpand guide me. Also I know the kitchen fromprevious weekend digs and therefore knowits quirks.

If I can offer any advice, it is that likeHelen, Maria and Di have previously said,Cooking is easy if you plan ahead and havethe confidence to make mistakes and learnfrom them. With a larger group and moredietary variants I could have struggled buthaving that first experience means I am nowmore well prepared. So if you are asked havea go, seek advice from the past cooks andenjoy the camp as you are part of the team.

I made a statement at the sponsoredwalk that I had survived the week cookingand the response from certain people was“Yes but did the volunteers?”

Paul Ireson

Feedback...on food

“Cooking is easy if you

plan ahead and have

the confidence to make

mistakes and learn

from them.”

The Haybay barge, the accommodation for the week

I’m just not hardcore...

I see that summer 2015 will have three kitsworking over the summer months - a kit Cwill be based at Brimscombe Port. Great!Volunteers want to help and restorationprojects want our expertise. Hooray.

But... last year I ended up having along correspondence with various peopleabout whether or not I’d be OK to take onmy first camp leadership after a few years ofexperience and a couple of assists. I even gotto arm-wave at Amber for an entire after-noon (she’d only been in the job three days,poor lass) about the problem of how some-one like me gets to lead. I was told severaltimes and by several people that there is aproblem recruiting camp leaders.

So: now we have several more camps,and still not enough leaders. I want to lead(really), but haven’t yet been able to do so.What’s the problem?

Well, I’m just not hardcore.I’ve done just about one camp a year

since 2003, plus a few weekends and severalreunions. That’s it. I have limited DriverAuthorisation (vans and pedestrian rollers,since you asked - we’ll come to that in a bit).I might be able to do 2 weeks a year (oneleading, one not), but much more is notreally going to happen. I really like WRG, Ienthuse about us to others, and I want to doa bit more - but I also do other things.

If you, dear reader, book onto severalcamps a year, never miss Christmas camp,and your Significant Other likes no betterNew Year than that spent in a random villagehall, if you’re authorised as an operator ontwelve categories and you’re an instructor onsix, have memorised all single mortar mixesin all the work of all the locks in the UKunder restoration, then you are truly thehardest of the hardcore and I bow to yourwisdom, O great one.

But there aren’t enough of you to runall the camps.

When I was nobbled by Jenny a fewyears ago for leading and then finally

thought “Well, why not?” I turned up to myfirst Leaders’ Training Day (LTD), somehowexpecting that this might be a day devoted totraining leaders. I soon realised that wasactually a day devoted to reminding experi-enced leaders to do their accounts properlyor going through exercises on fun things likeorganising drivers, Health & Safety anddealing with problem people.

All good stuff, but not helpful for train-ing new leaders. I have since done twoassists, both with experienced leaders whodid all the hard bits (i.e. accounts) and es-sentially ran things while I helped run splitsites and drove the van to get shopping orchips. Again, all good stuff, but not really antraining as such.

At one LTD, I did ask about info fornew leaders and one reaction was that, nothere wasn’t much content for newbies be-cause that would put off the veterans. I’mgoing to stick my neck out and say that theexisting Leaders’ Training Day might beputting off newbies.

Leaders’ Training Day is great - but it isvery difficult for a newcomer to ask ques-tions in a large group alongside experiencedleaders who want to get this session over bylunch and have a chat... yes I know we’reencouraged to ask any question...

LTD as it stands is not enough. So (Ihear you ask) what would be enough? Well(thanks for asking) here are my suggestions.

Leader inductions: A day in whichone or two people take a small group ofpotential leaders (6 or so, no more than 10)through all the important points step-by-step. Yes, including those that bore theveterans. A small group induction wouldhave a much higher chance of explaining thefull process from start to finish, in order. Iknow it’s more work, but I think it wouldrecruit more “softcore” - like me.

“Apprentice” assistants: Campleadership teams where it is understood thatthe assistant will be involved in all aspects ofthe camp organisation (including the boringbut essential bits and that the experienced

Feedback...and Camp Leaders

Should we have ‘apprentice

assistants’? Should we have more

training for new camp leaders?

Here’s what one volunteer thinks.

What do YOU think?

through the camp due toillness) is a leader with aserious logisitical problem.

I think that WRG is, inmany ways, a very effectiveorganisation - that’s why Icome back every year. How-ever, I also think that leaderrecruitment and trainingcould improve.

If you have any better -or even just different - ideas,then let’s hear them. If youthink everything is just fineas it is, tell me why I’m beingtold that we have a problemrecruiting enough leaders.

Peter Lister

We ran Peter’s articlepast Ed Walker, who’s takenover as organiser of theLeaders’ Training Day. Hisresponse to Peter’s individualsuggestions is as follows:

New leaders induc-tion/training: happeningthis year! It’s something wehave been aware of for awhile and we are planning ontailoring some of the Leaders’Training Day for new leadersand assistants (see articleelsewhere in this issue and inthe last issue)

Plant training: WRGhas run the training weekend most years foralmost the last 20 years and this can betailored to cover the needs of this year’scamps. This is a good point to get across tothe new leaders though.

Apprentice leaders: this looks like agood idea and would probably formalisewhat happens already on many camps

Ed Walker

Navvies would like to emphasise the pointmade by Peter in his final paragraph: If youhave any better or different ideas.then let’s hear them. The various ‘Feed-back’ contributions in the last few issues ofNavvies on the subjects of cooks, leaders,and the annual Reunion have been very useful,interesting and thought-provoking. Please keepthem coming. We are always open to sug-gestion and criticism, and will do our best topublish whatever you send. The Editor

leader will explain everything as they goalong. It’s great to see an experienced leader“just doing” various things; the leaders Ihave assisted for have run their camps well,but it’s difficult to actually see all that goeson. “Yes, sorry, I know you’re busy, couldyou just go over that once more...”

It occurs to me that the 2015 Cotswoldcamps would be a good environment forexplicitly running leader apprenticeships asthe kit doesn’t go on tour and BrimscombePort is in many ways easy to run.

Off camp plant training: If 50 or100% of my annual camp time is as a leaderor assistant, I can’t really do much planttraining. Especially if the only instructor isthe other assistant/leader!! Yes, I know thatone can’t “lead from the seat” - but a leaderwho can’t get stand-in to fill a dumper whilethe only authorised operator is off trainingsomeone else (the other having left halfway

Cotswold: a good site for ‘apprentice assistant’ leaders?

WRG Forestry on the Grantham27 Feb – 1 March Lock 15

I am reliably informed that if “Ta Clive, Yourhumble co-ordinator ”was going to write thereport then it would quite probably be asfollows:

Had breakfast, went to site, cut downsome trees, made some bonfires went backto the accommodation!

Although the above sentence is correctI know a lot more happened on each day,starting with me (‘American’ Martin) beingthe first to arrive at the accommodation, theMemorial Hall in Cropwell Bishop, at 17:00on the Thursday evening. After a phone callto Clive (our humble co-ordinator) I calledthe local, Ian, and went round to his houseto pick up the key for the hall.

I was ‘Billy no-mates’ for quite a whileuntil John Hawkins turned up and we set theplace up for the rest of the team to arrive.

John had forgotten to bring the baconand sausages, left over from the previouscamp, out of his freezer. Ju then phoned RAFMartin, who had gone to Morrisons to gethimself some food, she requested he buysome bacon and sausages for the next morn-ing’s breakfast. There was some discussionon what size sausage she required!!

As it turned out when Clive arrived hehad all the provisions for the weekend in theback of his van. These had been purchasedby his better half Jo.

Friday Breakfast was cooked by RAFMartin. I was his helper although, with only10 to cook for all I did was make him a cupof tea and open some tins of baked beans.RAF Martin had missed the last camp so hehad to catch up with a lot of banter from therest of the team and it started whilst he wascooking breakfast.

The locals had already done a lot of scrubbashing on both sides of lock 15 so we couldget on build bonfires and cut down trees. The16 trees to be felled and logged were up to700mm in width. The felling of the treesstarted after we had the safety briefing.

Lu and Daz started a bonfire on thetowpath side of the lock. The non-towpathside bonfire was started after posts had beenerected to place safety tape to denote theedge of the lock. There were a few piles ofcuttings on the non-towpath which did re-strict the movement on that side of the lock.RAF Martin started the fire on the non-tow-path side of the lock.

The wind was very strong on the Fridaymorning and this fanned the fires and wehad “horizontal flames” at the base of thefire. This meant there was no fire at thecentre of the fire but the bottom 6 inches ofthe fire burnt through. Both bonfires sufferedfrom this until the wind dropped a bit afterlunch and both fires started to burn properlyand we started to burn the piles of cut wood.As usual there was some debate about whohad the better bonfire. Some might say thattwo Martins make good bonfires.

Stephen stripped down his chainsaw asthe chain had become loose. In the process asmall cog got lost in the mulch on theground: looking for a needle in a haystackhad nothing on finding this. After a talk withthe local to ascertain the local supplier,Stephen purchased a replacement part onSaturday morning.

When we got back at night I ‘foolishly’asked who was cooking. It appeared thatthere were volunteers to prepare but nocook. I thought, how hard could it be tocook spaghetti Bolognese for 15 people?Whilst stirring the spaghetti bolognese a lotof cars started to arrive in the car park. Itturned out that the hall was double bookedfor the Cubs. It did conjure up the thoughtof a lot of WRGies in shorts acting as cubscouts!

The cooking didn’t go that smoothly,firstly I didn’t use a big enough pan so stir-ring in the mushrooms became a challenge. Idid too much spaghetti. I now know onemug of spaghetti per person. The cooking ofthe garlic bread didn’t go that well either, thetop tray of garlic bread in the oven wascooked with some burnt bits and the second

Forestry...on the Grantham

Woolsthorpe Locks on the Grantham

Canal will become a major

construction site for us for the next

couple of years. But first, WRG

Forestry went in to clear the site...

tray needed more cooking. The pudding wasbought apple pies and after asking did theywant them hot or cold I did half hot/coldwith cold custard.

I didn’t receive any complaints: notsure if they kept quiet to ensure they werenot volunteered for cooking the Saturdaynight meal, or the meal was OK. Not all thespag boll was consumed and RAF Martinsuggested that it could be made into soupfor lunch the following day, I said I thoughtthat was a good idea.

Amber had bought a new helmet thatneeded to be assembled, this was interestingto watch, including not wanting the neckprotector fitted.

Mark 2 had brought two containers ofCastle Rock ‘Harvest Pale’ which was con-sumed over the weekend. It was rathergood.

RAF Martin cooked breakfast on Satur-day morning and I cut up the chicken for theevening meal.

Back on site new bonfires were startedon both sides of the lock to minimise thedistance that the cut wood had to be movedto the fires.

I went back to the accommodationbefore lunch to make the soup. When I gotback I found Paul Shaw had turned up tojoin us. Robert was finding it hard going inthe afternoon as he appeared to blunting afew chains.There was somedebate aboutwhether he wasworking hard orsomething else!

Theevening meal oflemon chickenand rice, mixedfruit lattice withcream or coldcustard wasn’tas hard to cookas the previousnight. RAFMartin sug-gested we cookthe chicken onthe griddle, thiswas very suc-cessful. The ricewas individualportions of boilin the bag. Not

knowing how much water to put in a pan for16 portions was a challenge.

Amber, Squeezy, Mk2 and Adrian allwent to the pub to watch the Welsh Rugbygame. Amber was concerned that Waleswould loose and the guys would take themickey. As it turned out they did a lot betterthan England the following day!

After RAF Martin had cooked breakfastwe packed all the kit away and we left forsite just after 9 am. The wind again wascausing a problem in that it kept changingdirection. This meant it didn’t matter whereyou stood to put wood on the fires you weregoing to be surrounded by smoke. Therewere a lot of “smoked WRGies” by Sundaylunch time.

Squeezy had to climb a tree on thenon-towpath side of the lock to fell it. Thoseof us working on the towpath side thoughtthat either Squeezy had got bad dandruff orit had starting snowing wood chippings. Itwas not possible to take a picture of thewood chippings floating across the canal butSqueezy did get a great aerial picture of thelock and surrounding area [see back cover].

We had a productive and enjoyableweekend. I’ve just seen a post on Facebookthat stated we did collectively over 950 hoursof work. We also left a load of cut wood thatthe locals will be able to sell to raise revenue.

Martin Hacon

Squeezy Tom and Amber sizing-up a job

Grand Union Wendover Arm

Wendover Arm Trust’s January andFebruary Working Parties: Despitenational forecasts of appalling weather inJanuary this did not come to pass and wecontinued with the lining of the canalchannel through Bridge 4A. We were alsoable to continue with excavation for con-tinuing the pipe capping (installing aconcrete cover over the buried pipe thatcurrently carries the water supply alongthe bed of the drained length of canal) inStage 3 and clear an area for tipping thespoil in Stage 4 between Whitehouses andBridge 4. The annual trimming of thetowpath hedge on the towpath side atLittle Tring was also completed.

Relining to Bridge 4A was com-pleted at the February working partydespite the setback of having a dumperbreak down after having unloaded 2 cubicmetres of concrete and about to returnfor the second 2 cubic metres from theready-mix lorry. This breakdown onWednesday morning also trapped anexcavator so things came to a completehalt. Fortunately Hardings, our ready-mixsupplier, was able to deliver the second 2cubic metres to another customer but ittook Wednesday mid-day until Fridaymorning to get the dumper operational.Our thanks to those who extended theirworking week to the Friday to enable theconcreting to be completed.

Excavation of the bed ready for pipecapping continued with the spoil beingtipped in Stage 4.

One thing that has been a continualsore that I have written about before isthe whole question of manning workingparties. We still get too few volunteerssome days and too many other days. Thisyear we are embarking on a long run ofpipe capping and little else. The excava-tion work requires a team of, say, sixincluding two excavator drivers and oneor two dumper drivers. Those not driving

ProgressWendover Arm

Down on the Wendover Arm

they’re persevering despite the

weather, welcoming visitors from

Project Hereward in the Fens, and

looking at their Arm from the air...

will be trimming out the final excavation and fixing the screed boards, DPM and reinforce-ment mesh and helping with the ready-mix pours when we need two to shovel and two toscreed off.

So, to finalise, I ask volunteers to nominate the days they are coming such that thereare six on site every day and not turn up unannounced to find there is no work for them.

The way ahead with Restoration: Recently there has been growing concern over ourability to keep our restoration going purely on a volunteer basis. We are looking at the possi-

bility of using contract assistance withsome of the work.

Project Hereward: At the workingparty on Saturday 7th February we had avisit from five members of the ProjectHereward group intent on restoring theHorseways Channel in the Fens led by theirChairman, Roger Sexton. This channellinks the 40ft and 16ft drains with the OldBedford River with a lock at each end.

If you are a member of IWA there isa letter “More on Welches Dam Lock” onpage 45 of the Spring 2015 issue ofWaterways that outlines the problem inmore detail. It seems that the Environ-ment Agency, who is presently responsi-ble for this waterway, is not being veryco-operative!

The channel is about 2½ miles longand leaks. The group had heard aboutour expertise in lining a leaking canal andasked to come and visit our work to learnall about what they are faced with. De-spite an overcast day it was dry and wetrust that we gave them all the informa-tion they require.

Editor’s note: we will carry a restora-tion feature on the Project Herewardscheme in a future issue of Navvies.

Aerial view: Finally, some of our read-ers will already have seen this aerialphotograph on the web site that wastaken from a drone above Bridge 4A but Iam including it for all to see. I feel that itis a very appropriate picture as it illus-trates the length of canal in Phase II thatstill remains to be restored; from Bridge4A to the winding hole at Little Tring,1,300 metres or 1,408 yards in oldmoney. It also illustrates how a contourcanal has to wind its way along a fixedlevel – in the case of the Wendover Arm,all the way from Wendover to BulbourneJunction.Roger Leishman, Restoration Director

01442 [email protected]

Derby & Sandiacre

The Derby & Sandiacre Canal Trust hadapplied for Heritage Grant funding to theHeritage Lottery Fund to restore approxi-mately half a mile of the canal, from thejunction with the Erewash Canal at Sandiacrethrough to Sandringham Road. HLF rejectedour application as it lacked sufficient localcommunity engagement and learning oppor-tunities for the public to learn about theheritage. We had mistakenly assumed thatseeing the canal restored was an opportunityfor the public to see it and learn about itwithout overtly spending more money onlearning. We also had too many “roundnumbers” in our costings as we had been ledto believe that at a phase 1 application ourcosts could be +/- 50% and that they couldbe refined during the development phase;however on review it is clear that the HLF arelooking for much greater accuracy at thetime of the phase 1 application.

To address this we will be applying for

ProgressThe Derby and the MB&B

Our regular report of progress on

restoration projects around the

country’s waterways continues

with the Derby and the

Manchester Bolton & Bury...

a much smaller Our Heritage grant applica-tion. This is to:(1) Gain community engagement;(2) Excavate one of the lock chambers to

determine the level of damage by theinstallation of post closure services andlook at any “archaeological” finds thatmay be in the lock chamber; and

(3) Undertake some smaller engineeringstudies to allow a more accurate costingof the restoration to be undertaken; then:

(4) Prepare resubmission of a full HeritageGrant Bid.

To progress this we are currently progressingrecruitment of a consultant to help with theapplication processes and the communityengagement. We will then look to use a mixof professional and volunteer resources toundertake 2 and 3.

Chris Rees FitzPatrick07757 979271

Director and Treasurer,The Derby and Sandiacre Canal Trust

www.derbycanal.org.uk

Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal

The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal Society is continuing to reveal more of the sixPrestolee Locks at Nob End in Little Lever (Bolton). We have already cut down about 40trees, and we have agreed plans with the Canal & River Trust to aim to dig out the locksand create safe public access routes during 2015.

Navvies NewsJohn’s a hero!

John Hawkins of WRG Print, responsible forprinting Navvies and also a long-servingvolunteer with canal camps and the WRGregional groups as well as RickmansworthWaterways Trust, has been presented with aHeroes of the Waterways award. These arenew awards presented by the Canal & RiverTrust which aim to “celebrate and recognisethe long service of volunteers who haveworked to support the canals and rivers”.

Our congratulations to John. Very welldeserved.

Moving house?

If you move house, please remember to tellWRG so we can update your Navvies sub-scription, Driver Authorisation and othercontact details. And please note that if youare also a member of our parent body theInland Waterways Association, then bothWRG and IWA need to be notified.

Calling van drivers...

If you ever park up one of the WRG vanssomewhere where it isn’t likely to be movedfor some time, please remember to leave thehandbrake off - otherwise the brakes mayseize, and can cost a lot to fix. We’ve justfound out exactly how much.

New excavator

The Volvo EC27 excavator bought to replaceWRG’s old excavator ‘Blue’ has now beendelivered - see photo on the back cover. Seethe last issue for full details of the new ma-chine; see the next issue for information forrestoration groups wanting to use it.

Buy a picture and help the Shrewsbury & Newport at Wappenshall

Pictured (right) is one of seven canal scenes created by artist AlanReade in support of the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals and de-picting places along the route of the canals. They are available asprints from £8 each by post from Smith York Fine Art Publishing,Jackfield Tile Museum, Ironbridge, ShropshireTF8 7AP (Tel.01952 883461). £5 from every print sold will be donated to theAppeal fund for a £1.5m project to restore and convert historicwarehouses at Wappenshall Junction into a Visitor Centre andCommunity Hub. The Appeal hopes to raise £0.5m match-fund-ing for a £1m Heritage Lottery Fund grant already secured by theShrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust – see sncanal.org.uk

Congratulations...

...to Gary Summers and Julie Arnold on theirengagement. Also to Alyssa Campion andRob Prokic on their wedding; and toSamantha Hemmings-Smith and DavidDaniels on their wedding.

Stanley Holland R.I.P.

We are sorry to have to bring you the sadnews that veteran volunteer and occasionalNavvies contributor Stan Holland has died.One of his more unusual contributions to thewaterways was that he wrote a WRG versionof Jerusalem, performed variously at festi-vals, by Mikron Theatre, and late at night inlicensed premises where navvies gathered.We offer our condolences to his family andfriends, and reproduce his words in full...

And did that pound in Brindley’s timeWind among England’s valleys green?And was a noble flight of locksOn ev’ry lovely landscape seen?But then the railway giants cameWith soot and smoke and fire and flameAnd they despoiled the waterwaysTo England’s everlasting shame

Bring me my boots and grappling iron!Bring me my mighty JCB!Bring me my spade - Oh ecstacy!Bring me my gallon flask of tea!I will not flinch from seas of mudNor will my sludge-pump idly standTill we’ve restored the waterwaysThrough England’s green and pleasant land.

Infill

“Yes, but George, are you sure it’s level?”

Dear Deirdre Can you tell the Nav-vies team they’ve made some mistakesin printing the latest WRG diary. Itlooks as if we’ve 44 weekend digs sched-uled at Bowbridge Lock on the CotswoldCanals this year, and several dozenweeks’ camps – surely that can’t be right!Deirdre writes This is in fact correct: allefforts are focused on Bowbridge for theforseeable future. Learn to enjoy it. Dear Deirdre It’s not easy for me toget to the Cotswolds, can I book on acamp in Wales instead this year?Deirdre writes Yes, but some parts ofWales have been moved to Bowbridge forsafekeeping. Dear Deirdre I’m frightened. Lasttime I got in a van with Martin Ludgatehe drove all the way from WaterlooStation to Bowbridge reading a news-paper at the wheel. I think he’s gettingdangerously familiar with the route.Deirdre writes That’s nothing - he had aTV fitted on the dashboard, the last I heard. Dear Deirdre Are we allowed to goanywhere that isn’t Bowbridge this year?Deirdre writes No, just shut up and doBowbridge.

And finally...

All together now, “Awww....”

WRG Forestry found a suitable heart-shapedtree to mark Julie and Gary’s engagement(see Navvies News) on St Valentine’s Day.They would like to point out that it’s not likeBlackpool rock - the writing doesn’t go all theway through....

...my thanks to the Chelmer camp for thisEssex-themed alternative Navvies cover.

Spotted at Staveley..

..and built a block retainingwall above it

OutroBowbridge

OutroBowbridge

The Easter Camp finished cut-ting-out on the towpath side...The Easter Camp finished cut-ting-out on the towpath side...

...and built a block retainingwall above it

A brick chain deliversmore supplies for thenext stage of rebuilding

A brick chain deliversmore supplies for thenext stage of rebuilding

We also concreted the top cill...We also concreted the top cill... ...and removed the old gates...and removed the old gates

Plenty of progress at ourcurrent main worksite onthe Cotswold Canals atBowbridge Lock. In thispicture taken at the be-ginning of March we werestill cutting out old brick-work on the towpath sidebut had started rebuildingthe offside wall.

Plenty of progress at ourcurrent main worksite onthe Cotswold Canals atBowbridge Lock. In thispicture taken at the be-ginning of March we werestill cutting out old brick-work on the towpath sidebut had started rebuildingthe offside wall.

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