ANGLIAN ANGLIAN CUTTINGS CUTTINGS Ipswich Branch Newsletter Spring 2010 No. 116 The IWA may not agree with the opinions expressed in this publication. They are, however, published as a matter of interest to our members and readers. Nothing printed can be construed as policy or an official announcement unless stated. The IWA accepts no liability for any matter in this publication. PACKARD’S STEAM TUG ‘STOUR’AND BARGES CIRCA 1890—A PAINTING BY ROBERT GALLON
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1
ANGLIANANGLIAN
CUTTINGSCUTTINGS
Ipswich Branch Newsletter
Spring 2010 No. 116
The IWA may not agree with the opinions expressed in this publication. They are, however, published as
a matter of interest to our members and readers. Nothing printed can be construed as policy or an official announcement unless stated.
The IWA accepts no liability for any matter in this publication.
PACKARD’S STEAM TUG ‘STOUR’AND BARGES CIRCA 1890—A PAINTING BY ROBERT GALLON
Spring has Sprung and Summer is on the way! After last summers ‘B-B-Que’
forecast the Met. Office is no longer issuing long–term predictions, however the
forecaster who last year did predict the wet summer is this year saying we should be
in for a good one—well after a dry April with few showers and a cold beginning to
May needing help from the central heating, we will have to see. Whatever the
weather I hope you all have a good ‘Boating’ summer.
concerns and needs of the waterways. We
will again be rolling out the SOS Banner at
Needham Lake on Sunday 4th July.
ANGLIAN CUTTINGS
DISTRIBUTION
Following on the letter sent to you all in
April may I remind you that this edition is
going to be distributed by mail, but all of
you who have registered email addresses
with IWA Head Office will also receive
notification for access to the electronic
copy on our website. Subject to a
satisfactory result future editions of
Anglian Cuttings for those who have
registered e-mail addresses will NOT be
distributed by hard copy mail—UNLESS
YOU REQUEST OTHERWISE.
May we stress that we are not concerned
about continuing to provide hard copy
editions to our members, we are just trying
to make some reduction in costs to those
who can and are willing to receive the
newsletter by email.
*********************
Finally, may I also take this opportunity of
thanking Diana and Brian for another very
excellent annual outing. All their detailed
planning and hard work has paid off again.
WELL DONE
4
CHAIRMANS’ JOTTINGS
It has been an interesting time since
my last report. Our annual dinner,
planned for January, had to be cancelled
as heavy snow made it impossible for
most of us to reach the Compasses in
Holbrook. This event finally took place
in March. Our AGM was followed by
an interesting talk and slide show by
John Finch on a canal trip to Ripon. Our
final speaker for the winter programme
was Steve Hayward, some of you may
remember him giving us a talk on a
previous occasion; well this time the
subject was Grumpy Old Boater and it
was a very interesting talk covering
many topics on boating. Steve is also
the author of 3 books, his most
memorable being ‗Fruit Flies like a
Banana‘, and he sold several copies at
the end of the meeting.
My Chairman‘s Award was presented
this year to Colin Turner in recognition
of his achievements and dedication to the
two WRG work camps held in 2009.
This also recognizes all his hard work as
restoration manager over many years. I
was also delighted to be able to make a
presentation to Mick Carter on his
retirement from the Committee as Editor
of this newsletter.
When you read this we will have been on
another coach trip and the report on how
the trip went is on page 13.
As I mentioned in the last Anglian
Cuttings, Carolyn and I now have our
own narrowboat ’Bruizer’ (see also page
14—Ed) and in April we finally brought
her to Brinklow Marina from Stewponey
Wharf in Staffordshire. We had a lovely
trip and on the way we saw Carole and
Dale Green on their boat so stopped for a
chat. Pauline and Charles came by car to
meet us at Hawkesbury Junction and we
enjoyed a lovely meal in the Greyhound.
We are now
looking forward
to boating and
perhaps seeing
more of you
along the cut.
Chard.
5
OUR REGION CHAIRMAN
REPORTS
We try for far flung outposts of Empire
such as Holme Fen, or Wood Walton, all
of which the Commissioners do a good
job of keeping accessible, despite getting
no direct revenue from navigation.
However this year I decided we would
use the time to highlight the difference
between the Commissioners (No licence
fees) and the E.A.( Large Licence fees)
and we boated to Horseways Lock, on
Horseways channel.
For those of you who don‘t know, this
lock and the approach to it are
maintained by the
MLC, immediately
above the lock the
channel, which leads
to Welches Dam
L o c k , i s t h e
responsibility of the
E.A. Four years ago
the lock was closed
―temporarily‖ for repair and despite our
best efforts remains closed. The channel
is now a reed and weed filled ditch. The
E.A. show no sign of wanting to actually
do anything about it. We decided that
rather than just take a few photos for our
own use we would really try and get
some attention for our protest cruise. I
sent emails to a number of regional
papers and both ITV Anglia and BBC
look East.
I gave them all an outline of what the
IWA is, and what we were trying to
achieve locally, and had a response from
BBC & Cambs Times. They both turned
up, Cambs Times took some photos and
background and did their own thing, but
the BBC did a piece including shots of
us pulling a boat into the lock, footage of
the ML water and the reedy dereliction
that EA were responsible for.
The piece was shown several times on
Easter Monday and has generated a lot
of interest and comment. Undoubtedly
the E.A. didn‘t like it and it will be very
interesting to see if their attitude
c h a n g e s ,
particularly as we
intend to try to
keep the issue
going.
I t w a s
i l l u m i n a t i n g ,
talking to the 2
‗media‘ people to learn that they almost
expect us to do the job for them. Give
them as much information as you can, a
bit of ‗conflict‘ and a ‗bad guy‘ In this
case the Environment Agency failing to
do its job and they are interested enough
to turn up. Boats, and waterways with
boats on are very photogenic, and any
publicity is good publicity.
It will be very interesting to see how
much coverage we as an organisation
can generate for the National S.O.S.
cruise.
Alastair Chambers
Each Easter the Peterborough Branch has a cruise on the Middle Level system,
usually organised by myself as Chairman. The aim is usually to have a jolly but go
to parts of the system not often cruised.
6
with stainless steel ties to the original
core we found that the face of the wall
was a 9‖ repair that had not been tied in
to the original core of the wall and was
separated from the core by a dirt filled
gap that was too large for ties and too
dirty for grout to be to be effective. When
lock gates are fitted in the future the
wooden quoin, forming part of the gate
hinge, will bear against the end of this
wall, there would be a possibility that the
water pressure would cause the detached
section of wall to move.
Solution
Following separate visits by our engineer
and the council‘s conservation officer and
much correspondence between them we
were granted a variation to our listed
Restoration in Winter
Following on from the success of the
canal camps, and now with a sound base
to work from, we extended our
scaffolding along the length of the
eastern wall and continued the
demolition and rebuilding of the wall.
Problem
When we got to the point where the
engineers report stated that, for heritage
reasons, we should cease demolition and
pin the hollow sounding existing wall
7
building consent to demolish the old
repair and rebuild with original bricks
and lime mortar tied in to the core brick
work to match the rest of the wall.
Weather
This work has almost been completed up
to within two courses of the top of the
wall but the frost and high water have
delayed us for the last two months.
On one high water event a large tree
crashed into our top stop plank and
broke it, on two other occasions trees
have obstructed the mill sluice causing
increased water flow through the lock
and additional work for us to remove
them. The water has forced our
scaffolding away from the lock side so it
will need a complete rebuild before we
can use it again.
Tree removal
Whilst we have been unable to work in
the lock, we have been removing trees,
at the request of the Environment
Agency, that are damaging the road
bridge. However this work was also held
up by high water levels and two work
parties had to be called off as there was
nothing that we could do.
Since the better Spring weather has
arrived the scaffolding has been rescued
from the lock and the sorting of the
rubble pile has been completed. A weeks
internal Work Camp has been arranged
for the 12th—19th July.
Colin
**************************************** Martin Bird, may be a newish name and a
newish face to us but he is not new to the
Inland Waterways—he hails from the
outskirts of Birmingham and remembers
Gas Street basin when access was through a
hole in the wall next to the old Birmingham
Canal carriers company offices. His first
experience on the canals was as a student
with a cruise over the New Year 1971 on the
Trent and Mersey which became an annual
event for a number of years.
Voluntary Housing became his occupation for most of his working life, firstly in the
South West and he came to East Anglia in 2001 as Regional Director for Sanctuary
Housing, his final post being involved with the provision of staff accommodation at
Addenbrookes hospital in Cambridge.
It was in searching the Web that Martin came across the River Gipping Trust and there
found a perfect opportunity to follow his interest in industrial archaeology, canals and
wildlife and keep fit at the same time. He soon became an energetic member of the
crew at Baylham and has now been ‗volunteered‘ to shadow Colin Turner and become
the RGT Restoration Manager when Colin takes his very well deserved retirement.
We welcome Martin and wish him well! Lewis Tyler
MARTIN
BIRD
8
River Stour Trust Restoring and conserving the River Stour Navigation
The lighters may have gone and the waterwheels no longer turn, but today the river still works for us - playing an important role in the supply of water to south Essex. In 1861 the South Essex Waterworks Company was formed to supply water to East London from the river Thames as far north as Brentwood. The water they supplied came from wells and boreholes drilled into the chalk aquifer north of the River Thames, but during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the area was developed and the demand for water grew until, by the First World War, demand was outstripping supply.
Langham Waterworks Along with the Southend Waterworks Company they looked for sources of water from further away and, in 1928, successfully promoted by Act of
Parliament a scheme to take water from the River Stour at Langham and to build a new water treatment works there. From Langham it pumped water to South West Essex, but the granting of the powers for this scheme obliged them to offer water supplies to other areas of Essex. The Langham scheme gave the company the ability to abstract 12 million gallons of water per day from the river, which started in 1932, but they expected to again face deficiencies by 1940. Stratford St Mary and Abberton Reservoir In 1935 the company obtained powers to construct a new abstraction point at Stratford St Mary to take a further 35 million gallons a day and pump it to a new storage reservoir at Abberton, along with the construction of a water
treatment plant at Layer-de-la-Haye. Construction of the 1210 acre reservoir in the valley of Layer Brook to hold
TAKING THE WATERS (Part 1)
I suspect most people who walk the meadows beside the River Stour between Dedham and Flatford delight in the timeless beauty of the riverscape John Constable loved and painted. But those paintings did not simply portray pretty scenery, they showed a working river with lighters and mills powered by waterwheels.
Tunnelling under the River
Colne
9
5,700 million gallons of water started in 1936 and continued until the war in 1939, while the pumping station at Stratford St Mary and the 11 miles of pipeline were also being constructed. The 36 inch diameter pipeline was constructed by manual labour and passed under the River Colne through a 12 foot diameter tunnel at the Hythe, east of Colchester. Later the raw water pipeline was duplicated with an even larger pipe. The reservoir construction was completed before the Second World War and the reservoir was full by the end of 1940. However, the Ministry of Defence felt it posed a risk as a landing site for invading seaplanes and, as a defence measure, 312 mines were laid across the reservoir. At the end of the war the majority of them were exploded by soldiers shooting them from the reservoir banks, but, in 1989-91, 22 mines were
exposed after dry weather when the water was at its lowest level since the reservoir was filled. These were dealt with by the Army. Hanningfield Reservoir After the war there was much rebuilding and development in Essex, further increasing the demand for water, and the South Essex Waterworks Company joined with the Southend Waterworks Company in 1950 to construct Hanningfield Reservoir and treatment works. Demand continued to grow and in 1964 shortages were again being anticipated. In 1967 the problem was solved by the construction of he Ely-Ouse to Essex Transfer Scheme [EOETS]
(continues next edition)
Susan Brown
Stratford St Mary Lock Restoration
After a very successful season last year when we completed the lower approach
channel gabion wall, RST received a letter from the Environment Agency detailing
concerns they have with the project. Negotiations
are ongoing to resolve these matters before we
can continue work this summer.
Work parties have been busy all winter with
maintenance tasks including enlarging the
operating area around a gate beam at Cornard
Lock, although the late winter floods prevented
them dredging the lock entrance as planned.
Trusty received new batteries and cushions
while Rosette starts the season with gleaming new blue paintwork and red anti-fouling,
and a new canopy roof. The boats and tearoom are now working and we look forward
to welcoming many visitors to the river this summer.
The Trust have a number of events planned for the Summer months. The major dates
are listed in ‘Dates for your Diary’. For further details please see the Trust Website
http://www.riverstourtrust.org
10
The Lee & Stort
—
A View from
America
Part 2
Continuing the story of our American friends, Dan & Sharon, voyage up the Lee &
Stort last year. This year they are due back in May and a trip onto the Lancaster
Canal is on the agenda. Hopefully I can persuade Sharon to do a further report.
Continuing up the Lee, we did stop at
Waltham Abbey and walk around. Quite
interesting. Seems that King Harold
built the church (OK, would you believe,
HAD it built?) in 1060 before he became
king. He was crowned king in 1066 and
then went off to the Battle of Hastings
and was killed. This town, however,
plays up King Harold big time. Rather
fun! The church was VERY interesting
and quite old. There's been a church
there since around 700 AD. This one,
though, is the one King Harold
built. Later it had a very large abbey
attached to it which, of course, Henry
VIII had torn down. The townspeople,
however, were clever enough to point
out that the church was theirs so only the
abbey par ts were destroyed.
The rivers over here have been used for
transportation of goods (and people) for
1000-2000 years depending upon who is
telling the story. BW says 1000 years,
everyone else over here (tourist info
places, brochures, signs, etc.) all say
2000 years. Whatever, it's a LONG
time! Dan says he wasn't born yet.
We ended up mooring on lock bollards
at dusk for the night as we couldn't get in
anywhere else. They were either totally
full (mostly "crap" boats permanently
moored), too shallow for us to get in to
the side, or too high for a narrowboat--
the sides of the moorings came out over
our gunwales and would have scratched
our sign-writing! So...we kept going and
moored after the lock. We got up extra
early and left so that we wouldn't
interfere with anyone who wanted to use
the lock...not that we were too worried as
there aren't a lot of boats moving up
here. They are all moored--rather
permanently from the looks of them.
The River Stort is lovely. It meanders
like a canal--with LOTS of curves which
delight Dan. He seems to really like to
steer the boat thru all these curves! The
locks are 13' wide so will only take one
narrowboat at a time. Several signs
telling us things we might like to know
were along the way beside the locks.
Otter poo is called "spraint"--who
knew?? But then, who cares? However,
we thought it was interesting that it had a
11
"real" name! We've not seen any otters
but they're nocturnal so we probably
won't. They live 3-5 years; have 2-3
cubs per year; and eat fish, crayfish, as
well as birds and frogs.
Hay in one of the fields has been grown
in that field for over 600 years--1 crop
per year --with no chemicals.
Osier beds were along one
portion. These are small willows grown
with the permission of the
king. Branches were broken off them to
make baskets.
G (red hand) D signs were over a couple
of the houses. A sign at one of the locks
said the GD stands for George Duckett
(originally George Jackson--didn't say
why he changed his name, just that he
did) who was the co-founder of the Stort
navigation and the red hand stands for
the Red Hand of Ulster (which
supposedly denotes the Irish county of
Ulster). The signs we saw always had
dates in the late 1700's.
David Beckham & Victoria (Posh Spice)
have a small "place" in Sawbridgeworth
they call "Beckingham Palace." We
supposedly came by it, but because there
are so many leaves on the trees, we
apparently missed it. Anne Boleyn also
had a place here given to her by Henry
VIII...but they don't seem to tell where
that was. Strange!
We've seen lots of red hemp nettle--It
looks a lot like tiny orchids. Something
we think is blue comfrey plus bind weed
seem to be all up and down this
waterway. Not much else blooming
although once in awhile we've seen a
bright spot of yellow. Dandelions,
however, are still prolific in the grass
around the locks. Surprisingly, we've
seen very few birds other than coots and
swans. A few moorhens, a few
cormorants and a few magpies. Not
much else of ANY kind. Very few
ducks and even the Canada geese are
rather scarce. We've seen two herds of
sheep--one on the "hill" on one side of
the river and one huge herd that were
ALL laying down. We've never seen
EVERY sheep laying down before. And
an unusual herd of cattle that even had
some of the belted Galloways (look like
giant Oreo cookies). So...it's been
interesting. I should also say that the
back gardens (back yards) along the river
have been VERY well tended--and most
are quite lovely...a real pleasure to see as
we float by.
The Lee Navigation goes north out of
Limehouse and forks left as the Lee and
right as the River Stort. We chose to
fork right first so will retrace our path
tomorrow (14 miles/15 locks/7 hrs) and
go over onto the rest of the Lee. That
part of the Lee should take about 3 1/2
hrs in each direction--but we intend to do
a little exploring so it will take slightly
longer. And then we'll re-trace our path
back down to the London area. Actually
we're only 28 miles or 40 min. from
London right now. Hard to believe we're
that close when it's taken us so long to
get here! -
Sharon
12
The lower Paterson Estate section is
extensively used by canoeists from Bank
Boats and for Canoe Trails. Following
requests from frustrated canoeists the
EAWA, in consultation with Mr A
Paterson, has been clearing the section
above Honing Lock to Dee Bridge to
allow a further length to be used, and the
North Walsham Canal Co are now
allowing canoeists to travel upstream to
the restored and dredged Honing Staithe
Cut. The Canal Walk formed here as a
diversion from Weavers Way is being
well used and gained a ―Highly
Commendable‖ certificate in the NNDC
Worthwhile Projects Awards 2009.
Further upstream at Briggate, the
undercutting of the eastern lock wall has
made it too dangerous to work beside,
so, on behalf of the NWCCo, work
parties have concentrated on marking the
boundaries of the former mill pond;
clearing the choked pond of trees and
reeds allowing dredging to start, with the
aim of restoring water and pond life – to
complement the proposed common land
that the villagers are hoping to establish
around the derelict mill itself.
However, the greatest thrust has
occurred along the top 2 miles, for here
the NWCCo have sold the canal to a new
owner the ―Old Canal Company‖. The
directors of the OCC aim to re-water the
pound above Bacton Wood Lock to
enable water to return to the restored
mill. Towards this aim, much of Bacton
Wood lock has been rebuilt by the
company with work parties assisting
with the removal of bricks (8.5 tonne on
Sunday 11/4/10 alone) and further
upstream they have been clearing the
canal bed of trees and shrubs in the
Royston Bridge area. Another thrust this
year has been with the clearing of
overhanging and bedded trees along the
stretch above Ebridge towards Bacton.
The OCC then bought the ex BW
dredger ―Weasel‖ and launched her into
the millpond at Ebridge, with the aim of
dredging the ―tree cleared‖ channel up
towards Bacton Lock.
Work parties are held twice a month on
Sundays – and dates, reports and news
will be found on the EAWA website at
www.eawa.co.uk - or by phoning the
work party organiser David Revill on
01603 738648.
Ivan Cane
North Walsham & Dilham
Canal – Restoration Progress April 2010
Over the past eighteen months there has been considerable progress on the North