1 ANGLIAN ANGLIAN CUTTINGS CUTTINGS Ipswich Branch Newsletter Autumn 2010 No. 117 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. HAWKES MILL NEEDHAM MARKET
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ANGLIANANGLIAN
CUTTINGSCUTTINGS
Ipswich Branch Newsletter
Autumn 2010 No. 117
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.
PONDERINGS And now we are into the Autumn. Summer boating and waterway activities are
but a memory. Do not despair, we have our Winter Branch meetings with a range
of interesting speakers (see Dates for Your Diary—Page19) well organised as
always by Diana and Brian, to look forward to and, of course the longer evenings
give an opportunity for planning next years activities, boating or otherwise.
You can, of course, if you wish and have
access to a computer, always check out
the electronic version by logging on to
h t t p : / / w w w . w a t e r w a y s . o r g . u k /
regions_branches/eastern/Ipswich/
anglian_cuttings
DOUG TOMLINSON
In addition to the £1000 IWA Donation
reported on by Chard Wadley, (see
Chairman‘s Jottings—Page 4) the
Branch is indebted to Doug Tomlinson, a
past local member, who has left a
substantial gift in his will to the Branch
for the continuing restoration work of the
Stowmarket Navigation. This is being
held by the IWA until such time that the
River Gipping Trust has a specific
requirement for further funding. A
memorial seat to Doug is due to be
installed shortly, overlooking the River
Gipping near Hawkes Mill, and we will
report on this in our next issue.
CUTS & WELCHES DAM
Regrettably it appears that Government
cuts are already affecting our region with
the Environmental Agency not
undertaking the required remedial work
at Welches Dam in Cambridgeshire.
IWA are considering their response and
we will report further in due course.
Charles Stride
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CHAIRMAN’S JOTTINGS
Our winter programme starts again in
October and there are details in this
edition so you can plan to join us once
again on a Friday evening at Needham
Market Community Centre.
We attended the Needham Market Raft
Race on 4 July 2010, alongside the River
Gipping Trust to promote the SOS2010
and to make people aware of the work
we are doing with the Trust at Baylham
Lock. I am pleased to report that we had
a lot of interest and was visited by
Needham Market Mayor and his wife
who took an interest and said that they
would visit us during our week long
work party which was also in July. The
Mayor kept his promise and visited the
site on the last day of the work party and
was very impressed with what we had
achieved. He took several pictures and it
was reported in the Needham Market
Magazine.
Carolyn and I attended the National
Festival at Beale Park on the Saturday,
accompanied by Joan and John Finch,
and I am pleased to report it was a dry
and sunny day in a lovely setting. As
you may already know the branch was
awarded £1,000 from the St Ives
National Festival held in 2007 and it was
decided that we would donate this to the
River Gipping Trust. The cheque was
officially presented to Spencer
Greystrong, Treasurer to the RGT, by
Clive Henderson, National Chairman,
during the Saturday morning in the
Cressy Suite of the IWA marquee which
we all attended. It was nice to meet up
with other IWA members who I had not
seen for sometime. We visited several
stands, such as the Wendover Trust, to
catch up on restoration progress.
Following on Colin Turner‘s decision to
finally stand down as Restoration
Manager for the Gipping Trust the
Branch wished to further recognize his
achievements and agreed to nominate
him for the IWA Christopher Power
Award, only to find that we had been
beaten to it by WRG Colleagues. We,
together with The Gipping Trust, fully
supported the nomination and are
delighted that the award has been made.
That‘s all from me, hope you had a
lovely summer with plenty of boating; I
look forward to seeing you at our winter
meetings.
Chard Wadley.
Another summer almost over and Autumn waiting in the wings. It seems to have
gone very quickly but it was a good one with lovely sunny days to enjoy on the cut.
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CHRISTOPHER POWER
AWARD
The Christopher Power Fund was created by a donation to The
IWA in 1983 by Mr and Mrs Power in memory of their son
Christopher, who died at the early age of 29 in April 1981.
Christopher had a passionate interest in canals and narrowboats,
especially those powered by steam. He was a member of the
Kennet and Avon and Wey and Arun Canal Trusts and was
founder member of the Solent and Arun Branch of the IWA.
The Fund provides an annual prize to the Person, Society or Trust
which, in the opinion of the judges, has made the most significant
contribution to the restoration of an amenity waterway. The Prize
is not given every year but in 2010 IWA has made two Awards.
CITATION Colin has been the most instrumental figure in
progressing the restoration of the Ipswich and
Stowmarket Navigation, holding the title of Restoration
Manager since 1999. He is a long-standing member of the
IWA Ipswich branch, and founding member of The River
Gipping Trust - the organisation devoted to the restoration
and re-opening of the Ipswich and Stowmarket
Navigation. Under his leadership, the restoration of two
locks has been successfully completed, including the
complex Baylham Lock, a Grade II listed structure. He
has project managed and site-managed the work with very
little in the way of external funding or labour, but with all
the hurdles and pit-falls a construction project is subject
to. He has held negotiations with local councils, English
Heritage, the Environment Agency, wildlife bodies and
riparian owners. He has organised WRG canal camps, put
in planning applications, argued with officialdom and
spent a huge number of hours just being on site,
contributing to everything from partnership building, to
technical design, to actual donkey work. This would be a
tough task for anyone, but now at the astonishing age of
84, Colin continues to be a huge inspiration for all who
are lucky enough to work with him.
Clive Henderson—IWA National Chairman
2010 AWARD WINNER
COLIN TURNER
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puddle clay and silt. We had to separate
the clean brick rubble from the clay and
silt by hand, before we could dispose of
it, a long tedious and painful job!
However, the machines made light work
of removing the rubble (thanks to JT Few
for offering a free tip facility) and we
were then able to use them to re-fill the
excavated area behind the East wall and
place the coping stones roughly in
position on top of the newly completed
brickwork.
The Eastern lock wall is now nearly
complete and the earth bank behind the
wall re-profiled to match its original
Restoration over the Summer
Most of our Summer efforts have been
spent at Baylham Lock itself.
W e r e c o v e r e d
quickly from the
damage caused by
high flood levels
early in the year and
have pressed on
successfully with
the rebuilding of the
Eastern lock wall.
The last coping
stones are now
being bedded into
place and the final
effect is very
impressive. Even
our local planning
officer has commented on the quality of
the brickwork.
Progress with the rebuild was helped
greatly by a week‘s concentrated effort
in July. With the use of two dumpers
and an excavator hired for the week we
cleared the small mountain of brick
rubble that had been placed at the rear
of the site. The rubble had originally
been used to provide a ramp to provide
access within the lock during the Work
Camp last year and was mixed with
I would like to start by giving a hearty vote of thanks to Colin
Turner, our previous restoration manager, for all his efforts on
behalf of the Trust. Colin stood down from the post in the Spring
after successfully guiding the restoration activities of the Trust for
many years. Colin has been a great source of help and advice to me
RESTORATION
REPORT
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appearance.
We have also rebuilt the bridge parapet
wall where it had been damaged by tree
roots and topped it off with a semi-
circular parapet to match the old bridge
structure. The area below the bridge
where the trees had been removed earlier
in the year has been cleaned off to reveal
a brick paved area which appears to have
been a loading wharf/waiting area for
barges visiting the mill.
In between work at the lock and at the
request of local residents and with the
support of Needham Market Town
Council we have cleared an area of
overgrown scrub opposite Hawks Mill
and this area is now being maintained by
one of our members.
Future Restoration Work
We plan to spend the rest of the summer/
autumn low water season completing
the pointing of the East wall at
Baylham, carrying out work to the
damaged cill and then removing the
scaffolding before the winter floods hit
us again.
During the earlier tree removal below
the bridge we discovered that the
brickwork to the training wall has been
damaged by tree roots and, subject to
water levels we hope to repair this
before the winter.
Over the winter period when work
within the lock chamber will be
prevented by high water flows, we
intend to re-visit Bosmere lock to carry
out scrub clearance, revisit Creeting
Lock for some sapling removal and carry
out further work on the waterside
adjacent to Baylham.
Martin Bird
****************************************
TRUST NEWS There has been steady progress with the River Gipping Trust since my last report.
The main item of note is that Colin Turner has now handed over the reins as
Restoration Manager to Martin Bird – it had been Colin‘s intention to complete the
work at Baylham Lock before his retirement, but Margery‘s health dictated the earlier
change. We extend our grateful thanks to Colin for all his hard work over the years,
and send him and Margery our good wishes and look forward to continued restoration
progress under Martin‘s guidance.
We aim to raise the profile of the Trust even further and increase the general public‘s
awareness wherever possible– the latest example was an interview with our Secretary
on the Breakfast Programme of Ipswich Community Radio.
Shortly we will be undertaking our Winter Programme of PowerPoint Presentations –
amongst those booked are to the local National Trust Group and the Ipswich Society. If
you know of any organisation who would like a visit, please let us know!
We welcome Martin and wish him well! Lewis Tyler
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River Stour Trust Restoring and conserving the River Stour Navigation
The Ely-Ouse to Essex Transfer Scheme [EOETS] Drainage of the Fens had begun in 1630 when the Dutch engineer, Cornelius Vermuyden, dug a system of drains and sluices, and constructed the first Denver Sluice across the Ely-Ouse to exclude tidal water while allowing excess water to run out to sea at Kings Lynn. Main feeds to the Ely-Ouse river are the Cam, Lark, Little Ouse and Wissey. The present Denver Sluice gates were
rebuilt in 1834 by Sir John Rennie, who was also the engineer for the River Gipping and Chelmer and Blackwater Navigations. For the new scheme, modifications were made at Denver to allow water which would have gone to sea to be diverted
to fill the reservoirs at Abberton and Hanningfield. The water diverted at Denver is drawn off at the Blackdyke Intake near Lakenheath into an 8 foot diameter, 12 mile long tunnel which terminates at Kennett, where it is pumped via a 6 foot diameter, 9 mile long pipeline into the River Stour at Kirtling Green, near Newmarket. Some of this water is drawn from the Stour at Wixoe to be pumped 6
miles to the River Pant (becoming the Blackwater). This massive undertaking also required the building of 10 new automatic control gates on the Stour and one on the Pant. The transferred water travels over 90 miles to Abberton or Hanningfield Reservoirs, with about two-thirds of this distance via existing
TAKING THE WATERS (Part 2)
Continuing the history of the River Stour and it‟s involvement with Essex water supplies.
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watercourses. The Denver abstraction licence limits the amount of water which can be transferred to Essex to a maximum of 100 million gallons per day. It also requires a minimum volume of water to be flowing past Denver before any transfer can take place. The scheme is owned and operated by the
Environment agency. Since the 1970s South Essex Waterworks Company, Southend Waterworks Company, Suffolk Water Company and Northumbrian Water Limited have merged, retaining Essex & Suffolk Water as a trading name. Today Essex & Suffolk Water is responsible for supplying drinking water to 1.8 million people in South Essex including Southend, Basi ldon, Witham, Chelmsford, Barking, Dagenham and Redbridge, and in a way that conserves and enhances the environment. Although water supply has doubled in the last 50 years, the last serious drought in 1995-97 demonstrated the need for increased sustainable water resources for Essex, where there is still insufficient availability to meet existing demand in a prolonged dry period. With Essex being the driest county in the country with less rainfall than Jerusalem, the situation is predicted to worsen as demand increases with a growing population, and climate change takes effect. (To be Continued)