Navvies 237

navviesnavviesvolunteers restoring waterwaysvolunteers restoring waterways

Issue No 237October-November

2009

Issue No 237October-November

2009

waterwayrecoverygroup

waterwayrecoverygroup

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Visit our web site www.wrg.org.uk for

NavviesProductionEditor: Martin Ludgate, 35 Silvester Road,East Dulwich London SE22 9PB020-8693 3266

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

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

Navvies is published by Waterway RecoveryGroup, Island House, Moor Rd., CheshamHP5 1WA and is available to all interested inpromoting the restoration and conservationof inland waterways by voluntary effort inGreat Britain. Articles may be reproduced inallied magazines provided that the source isacknowledged. WRG may not agree withopinions expressed in this magazine, butencourages publication as a matter of interest.Nothing printed may be construed as policy oran official announcement unless so stated -otherwise WRG and IWA accept no liability forany matter in this magazine.

Waterway Recovery Group is part of TheInland Waterways Association, (registeredoffice: Island House, Moor Road, CheshamHP5 1WA). The Inland Waterways Associationis a non-profit distributing company limited byguarantee, registered in England no 612245,and registered as a charity no 212342. VATregistration no 342 0715 89.

Directors of WRG: Rick Barnes, JohnBaylis, Mick Beattie, Malcolm Bridge, SpencerCollins, Christopher Davey, Roger Day, NeilEdwards, George Eycott, Adrian Fry, JohnHawkins, Jennifer Leigh, Judith Palmer,Michael Palmer, Jonathan Smith.Secretary: Neil Edwards

ISSN: 0953-6655© 2009 WRG

Anne

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John

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all the latest news of WRG's activities

Editorial Martin is appealing 4WAS introducing Waterways Action Squad 5Coming soon Christmas digs, the BarnDance, the Cleanup 6-7Camp reports Cotswold, Mon & Brec andWilts & Berks canals 8-17WRGBC what�s our boat club up to? 18-19Diary canal camps and weekend digs 20-22Letters Redhill, the Gipping and the Mont 23Progress a roundup of restoration progresson projects around the country 24-28Camp reports the Hereford & Gloucesterand the Ipswich & Stowmarket 29-33North West what�s a paperchase? 34News WRG EM and WRGWear 35Noticeboard who�s getting married? 36Infill with Deirdre, Jane and John 37-39

Contributions...

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

Photos also welcome: digital,slides, prints. Please state whether youwant your prints back. Digital pics arewelcome as email attachments, preferablyJPG format, but if you have a lot of largefiles it is best to send them on CD-ROM 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 238: November 1st.

Subscriptions

A year's subscription (6 issues) is availablefor a minimum of £1.50 to Sue Watts, 15Eleanor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy,Manchester M21 9FZ. Cheques to "Wa-terway Recovery Group" please.

This is a minimum subscription, keptlow so that everyone can afford to subscribe.Please add a donation if you can.

ContentsIn this issue...

Front cover KESCRG sit back and admire their brick-work at Eisey Lock (photo Bobby Silverwood). Backcover: �one careful lady owner, never raced or ral-lied� - Ju on the tractor at the National Festival (Mar-tin Ludgate) Above: laying the concrete foundationfor the chamber rebuild at Baylham Lock, Ipswich &Stowmarket Left: Gough�s Orchard Lock rebuildingin progress Below: can you guess where WRG EastMidlands are installing mooring rings? See p35

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EditorialGood news, bad news, and Droitwich

Hasn�t your canal campappeared in the camp

reports section yet?Is that because you

never sent one in?

First a thank you...

...to everyone who has sent camp reports and photos from this summer�s Canal Camps. Ithink we have a good selection in this issue and the previous one, taking in work sites allover the country and writing styles from the straightforward to the fairly inventive. Please dokeep sending them in - I was just a tiny bit disappointed that we only received one campreport from what was billed as our most important site for the summer: the four weeks ofwork at Gough�s Orchard on the Cotswold Canals. Any chance of one or two more for thenext issue? And what were all you folks at Redhill up to? I�m sure the readers would like tohear about everything that went on.

And while we�re at it, now we�re through the main camps season and into the autumnwhen the regional groups tend to get more active, how about some reports from you folks too?

Waterways Action What?

I can see the article on the opposite page raising a few eyebrows among the old hands inWRG. Who are these young upstarts trying to start a regional waterways volunteer group?Don�t they know that we�ve been doing that since before they were born? And as for thembeing part of British Waterways / TWT etc! Even giving them publicity in Navvies at all mightseem like siding with the enemy.

But my response is �give them a chance�, and even �think about whether you have anopportunity to give them your support�. OK if you�re anything like as old as me, you won�t bedoing that by joining WAS - however that doesn�t mean your group can�t work together withthem. And remember, we�ve been pushing the message to the waterways authorities aboutwhat volunteers can do for years: now that it looks like they�re starting to see eye to eyewith us (including a comment I was very pleased to hear from Vince Moran of, BW director,that �It is not for us to tell volunteers what they can and can�t do�) and to start supportingvolunteering with deeds as well as fine words, I feel it�s our duty to encourage them.

And remember, too, that WRG has always seen itself as having a co-ordinating role aswell as carrying out work ourselves - that�s why we list canal societies� work parties andpublish their progress reports; that�s why we work closely with KESCRG, NWPG and supportthe Dig Deep initiative; that�s why we lend our plant and equipment out to other groups;that�s why we published the Practical Restoration Guide. And that�s why we should work withnew initiates like WAS - and I hope the EA can come up with a volunteering initiative on itsown waterways too.

And finally remember, too, that we were all young once. And it�s a bloody good job wedidn�t take too much notice of the odd grumpy old git telling us we were wasting our time onone or two projects we�ve seen completed since then, like the Rochdale, the Huddersfield...

A cry for help

Finally, a request for some assistance with Navvies - and in particular the �progress� section.We are very grateful to Robert Goundry who volunteered in response to my appeal a coupleof years ago and now does an excellent job of chasing up and forwarding progress updatesfrom a number of waterway societies. But it would be really good if somebody could offerto help with this, to take on part of the work and help to ensure that all active restorationprojects are reported on regularly in the magazine. Please contact the editor if you can help.

Martin Ludgate

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Introducing the Waterways Action Squad

Those who are familiar with the age spectrum among our WRG North West regional groupmay raise a wry smile at the thought of somebody setting up an organisation for youngwaterway volunteers in the north west. But let�s hear about it from the horse�s mouth: one ofthe young volunteers in the new Waterways Action Squad explains what it�s all about...

Young people on board for the Waterways Revolution

Waterways Action Squad, set up by The Waterways Trust and British Waterways, with fund-ing from v and the Bank of America, aims to get more young people engaging in our water-ways. We hope to improve young people�s attitudes towards waterways and the canal envi-ronment whilst we�re at it!

Waterways Action Squad will recruit over 500 young people aged 16-25 years to volun-teer on waterways across the North West. Volunteer opportunities will cover a variety ofdifferent areas � from practical tasks like hedge-laying, dry stone walling and canal clean-upsto customer service roles including walks guides and boat skippering.

The first project undertaken by volunteers was the transformation of a graffiti coveredcanal �tunnel� (actually a long bridge) near Ellesmere Port with an impressive mural, whichhas significantly improved the appearance of the canal close to the National Waterways Mu-seum.

Vegetation clearances and litter picks are also underway on the Leeds & Liverpool Ca-nal, the Rochdale Canal and the Manchester, Bolton & Bury to improve the towpath for thelocal community. Other projects will include the creation of wildflower meadows, art instal-lations and lock and bridge painting, but the possibilities are endless.

If you�re working in the North West of England already and have a project you thinkthe young people could muck in with then please contact Emma Wright from WaterwaysAction Squad on 0151 3734392 [email protected]

Waterways Action Squad�s officiallaunch event is on Sunday 25 October2009 at National Waterways MuseumEllesmere Port. The event will includevolunteering demonstrations, naturewalks, bands on barges, street theatre,arts and crafts, plus local historyphotographs from the archives. Therewill be plenty to do for all the family(you don�t have to be a young personto come along) and entry is free if youbring this article with you. On theday, Waterways Action Squad will alsolaunch a photography competition foryoung people with the theme �Thesecret life of canals.�

For more information visitwww.thewaterwaystrust.org.uk

Mark Martin

The WASWAS all that about, then?

There�s been a lot of talk recentlyamong the powers-that-be aboutgetting more volunteers involvedin canals. Now, the talk isleading to some action...

Painting the mural at Ellesmere Port

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Coming soonChristmas camps

Your chance to celebrate theFestive Season by working on

the Wilts & Berks Canal, orthe Wilts & Berks Canal, or

even the Wilts & BerksCanal...

Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat! Or should that be the Moose? Be-cause it looks like Dave �Moose� Hearnden is going to be leading the WRG New Year CanalCamp from Dec 26 to Jan 1 on the Wilts & Berks Canal. It looks like we�ll not only have lots ofscrub to bash, opening up lengths of canal around Steppingstones Lane Bridge and Shrivenham,but we�ll also be nicking some coping stones from a railway bridge near Didcot and (weatherpermitting) cutting and relaying them at Steppingstones. Accommodation is at Watchfield VillageHall. Contact Moose on 07961 922153 for more info but please book via Head Office.

Meanwhile elsewhere on the Wilts & Berks, the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust willbe having their own Canal Camp at Seven Locks - working on Lock 2, weather permitting,and scrub bashing and stump pulling below lock 1. �Expect plenty of bonfires�, we�re told.Accommodation is at Foxham Reading Rooms as usual - cooking by Di Smurthwaite. Thecamp starts on December 26 and runs until January 3 - volunteers welcome for any or all ofthis time. Contact Rachael Banyard on 01249 892289

And somewhere else on the Wilts & Berks, as Ed Walker reports... �By thetime you see this Christmas will be just around the corner which means it�s time for theannual KESCRG/London WRG (with WRG-SW) Christmas Party dig on the weekendof 5-6th December. This year we are working on the Wilts and Berks Canal at Calne whereRachael promises us over 100m of virgin canal scrub to bash, burn and Tirfor. Accommoda-tion is the 5* East Tytherton Guide Centre which will boast all mod cons including showers,beer and cider (courtesy of Nic Bennett), the usual great food (courtesy of Bungle and Eddie)and a fancy dress party on the Saturday evening with the theme �Magic Roundabout andother children�s TV programmes�. The cost for the weekend will be £16 (not including drink)- please book on via head office using the form below.�

I would like to attend on December 5th-6th

Forename: Surname:

Address:

email: Phone

Any special dietary requirements?

I enclose payment of £16 (please make cheques payable to �WRG�) for food

If you suffer from any illness about which we should know, or are you receivingtreatment or medical supervision please attach details on a covering letter.

Signed: Please send this form to:

WRG/KESCRG Xmas dig bookings, Island House, Moor Rd, Chesham HP5 1WA

London WRG KESCRG and WRG SW Wilts & Berks Xmas party dig

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Then what?Barn Dance, Cleanup, Cavalcade

Take your partners for the 2010 WRG and KESCRG barn dance. Same location (Ben-son Village Hall, Oxfordshire) same band (Tumbledown Dick) and same price (£12 includingfood; extra charge for overnight accommodation / breakfast) as last time. More informationin the next issue, but in the meantime please note the date March 6th in your diaries. AdrianCrow has volunteered to do the ticket-selling this time: if he hasn�t already collared you atthe Reunion, look out for him at the WRG / KESCRG Christmas dig on December 5-6 orcontact him by email at [email protected] or on Tel: 07807 456235.

Coming not-quite-so-soon the WRG Leaders� Training Day. For the last coupleof years we�ve held this during the daytime on the same Saturday as the barn dance and atthe same venue, but this year we�ve decided to hold it slightly later in the year. See the nextissue of Navvies for more details including date and venue.

Grappling hooks at the ready, it�ll soon be time for the BCN Cleanup again. Butnot quite so soon as you might have thought, as this too has been delayed, to improve thechances of it not snowing on us (as it has on two of the last three) and also to avoid clasheswith Easter camps, weddings and other things. It will now be on the weekend of April 17-18and we�ll have more information for you in the next couple of issues of Navvies.

Little Venice bosses wanted It�s over six months till the annual IWA CanalwayCavalcade rally returns to Little Venice in London, but we�re already on the lookout for help -and this time it�s a bit different. I�ll hand over Dave �Moose� Hearnden who�s led the event forthe last couple of years, to explain...

Moose here, as normal I am on the lookout for willing and able volunteers, but this is tohelp organise the Canalway Cavalcade 2010, and for you budding leaders of the future to comeand have an active role on a committee, and be a voice in the organisation for a successful event.

This is your chance: instead of turning up at the festival and thinking �why are theydoing that?� �Could they not do this?� it could be that someone from outside the team whocan bring with them a fresh pair of eyes and an open mind might help to make it even bet-ter. Canalway Cavalcade has been running for a long time - over quarter of a century - butthere�s always room for improvement.

Like any committee we have a chairman, and various managers who are tasked withbeing in charge of things such as:. WOW (Wild over Waterways) which is a scheme run jointly by British Waterways, theInland Waterways Association (IWA) and The Waterways Trust, aimed at children, to givethem an interest in waterway based activities.. Commercial the event aims to raise funds to not only cover its costs but support thewaterways, and our main income is the trade side of the show, dealing with traders, who sellanything from tea towels, to scrummy fudge, to narrowboats - and we need somebody tocommunicate with these folks.. Sponsorship as we are unable to put a price on the entrance gate because it�s an opensite, we rely on sponsorship to bring in more money, either from the large companies basedin Paddington or some of the local shops etc.

Perhaps you are keen to help, but reluctant to take the step of being a manager justyet. Well nearly all the positions need a number 2 (or 3 in some cases), and more volunteersfor these positions would help the workload throughout the event.If you are interested in any of the above, and have any questions or want to put your nameforward please either email [email protected] or phone me on 07961 922153

Do you want to play your partin making Canalway Cavalcadeat Little Venice evenmore of a success?Here�s your chance...

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Camp reportCotswold Canals at Eisey

KESCRG�s SummerCamp carries on with

Eisey Lock andMK2 just aboutremembers it...

Bricklaying in good weather...

Briefly� KESCRG in the Cotswolds

KESCRG�s Summer Camp carries on with Eiseylock and Mk2 just about remembers it...

Martin has reserved us a space in Navviesand wonders what I�ve got to fill it. Hmm. I�dcompletely forgotten that The Bobster had,er, delegated the Camp Report to me andfollowing said week with a very busy workschedule combined with a 3-week DIY housemove (in the middle of which my bus �wenttech�), followed by bus-fixing, the National(mmm, onions�) and Dorset Steam Fairmight have had something to do with it*.

Anyway, as I recall, we met up on July20th (late for a KESCamp) at the superbvenue of Watchfield Village Hall (lovelyshowers, friendly �local�), �oohed� and �aahed�about glimpses of the now-airworthyVulcan** and tried the beer. The followingday, we commuted up the A419 throughFairford Air Tattoo traffic and hit the site, onthe Thames & Severn.

It was a good bunch this year (it isevery year but this was an especially well-balanced team) of all ages and backgroundsand there was rarely aquiet or dull moment.Eisey had come alongnicely after successiveministrations of brick-work by NWPG, LondonWRG and of course OurLot. The week�s projectwas to continue buildingup the offside lock wall,using the originalmethod � brickwork allthe way back � but witha facing in new brick.The bricks behind were,of course***, reclaimedfrom the demolition ofthe original wall. Thishas made an interestingchange from the mod-ern approach � concrete

backfill behind � which we�d been contribut-ing to on the Seven Locks job.

Work split neatly into 4 main tasks. Thefirst was to dumper-truck the bricks �handballed in and neatly stacked into theskip - from the compound down to the lockand then handball them all back out again.This exercise was repeated for the bags ofsand and lime. Concurrently � except whenat risk of being squashed by an oncomingdumper � another team, under the calm leadof Nic, handled the mixing of enough limemortar to facilitate the next team�s work.These were the bricklayers, led by as manypeople as we could muster with previousexperience. At the tail of the lock anotherteam could often be found pumping out thechamber and attending to the nicely-curvedwing walls. At certain times many volunteerscould be found looking up. After work, were-commuted back through to the departingFairford traffic to Watchers, tried the beeragain and partook of an absolutely top-drawer nosh-up, care of supercooks Rowenaand Kate. More beer was then tried.

Most days were a repeat of this withonly a steady decline in the number of air-

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craft and �oohing� and �aahing� at the Vulcanand varying intensity of rubbish weather tomark the progress of the week. A high pointof the week for me was Jon�s turning a rou-tine van trip to collect materials into a roadtour of the remnants and proposed route ofthe restored waterway. Another was findinga branch of Cotswold Outdoors �twixt siteand accom and the steady provision ofDOOM BAR (yes, you must annunciate thisbeer name thus) in the local inn****.

Slightly less high points? A tie betweenfailing to reverse a full water-bowser trailerdown a muddy slope, up a muddy slope and�round a corner with the dumper (it re-sponded to �a bit o� Digger lovin�) and thequick-release bucket latch which refused tore-lock (it did not respond to �a bit o� Diggerlovin� and the plant hire firm was called).And a �Canal: 1; Excavator & Ed: 0� moment.

So there�s your brief update on thesummer�s KESCamp. I�ll follow this up withsome more detail after our forthcoming digweekend, upon which I shall get the otherKESCRGies to remind me of the names of the volunteers, how many courses we laid, whatwe had for dindins on Tuesday, etc, etc, all of which I will be needing help with by now. Lookout for the full report on our website � www.kescrg.org.uk � and possibly another in our stag-

geringly irregular emailnewsletter, KESWRD.TTFN, campers!Mark �Mk2� Richardson

* Or it could havebeen the cider;see: steam fairs.

** Bomber, Avro;not Dave, Lincs.

*** �Not only is thisnot obvious, Mk2,but it�s also a badpun�, I hear youmurmur.

**** Other, ahem, highpoints were to befound in saidhostelry on cer-tain evenings.

Camp reportsKESCRG at Eisey Lock

�Jon turned a routine vantrip for materials into aroad tour of the remnantsand proposed route of therestored waterway...�

...and in not-quite-so-good weather

Progress: the wall at the end of the camp

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Camp reportMon & Brec

Dodging the rain on theMon & Brec, where the

only thing that ever driedout properly was the

quick-setting mortar...

Camp 09: Mon & Brec week 1

Shopping list:

Beer FridgeExtra pans for meals on wheelsTesco shopping listAssistant leaderRainPost cap (actually ended up unused)

Yup. We have them all. Time for the M&Bcamp 09 to begin then?

The Friday before the camp GordonBrown my very able assistant and winner ofBest Camper award came to help load afridge into the back of my car then go toTesco for the food shop. Thankfully nobodyfrom my work saw me unload a post bonkerin Tesco�s car park and then load all the coldstuff into the fridge. Indeed we got manystrange looks!

Saturday came and possibly the earli-est time to set off for a camp ever! 6am!!!Yes, Gordon and I decided to stop off for aMaccyD�s breakfast. It was possibly the last�decent� meal we would get for a few days.Now, I don�t normally say this about wrgfood but on this occasion it was me that wascooking the next 2 meals! Normally we havethe brilliant Sam and Toby cooking for us butdue to unforeseen problems they had todrop out at short notice. (For that, guys, yougot the First Great Western award for cancel-ling at short notice!) Arriving at 9am intoWales was a shock to all of us including thecaretaker at the accommodation.

After watching the ready-booked rain tofall, Adrian Sturgess turned up with thecaretaker. Not together, I would like to pointout before any rumours start! Three men anda dog bundled into Adrian�s Land Rover andheaded off to Swindon to collect the kit. Itfelt like more of us were in Adrian�s landythan there were, as people were talking onhis mountain rescue radios. Either that or thevoices in my head were telling me what Imay have forgotten to pack!

Leaving Swindon we gained a dulypresent volunteer in the name of Louise Galewho was catching a lift. Seemed rude toleave her behind! Once back at the hall therain was still raining, volunteers arrived, andI burned out my air bed pump. Lightheadedness soon came from the manualinflation of the bed. I would like to point outthat one volunteer decided to get off thetrain early and have a nice cycle ride in thesun along the canal to the accommodation. Itwasn�t sunny for long. Would the editor liketo make a comment here on how wet itwas?!?! [I�d just like to thank Gordon forcoming out with a van to rescue me and thebike before I drowned. ...Ed]

All present, we headed off to the timewarp pub that is the Philanthropic. Many adiscussion was had on whether a photo wassquare, hexagonal or 5 sided!

Sunday arrived and after Frank rebuilthis bed (seems a tradition for Frank) - whenWire-brushing and repainting the lock gates

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someone asked if he had a screw loose he replied inthe only way possible. �No, my nuts have fallen off.�After Frank put his nuts back where they should bewe headed off to the Fourteen Locks to be intro-duced to the local (Richard Dommett). A quick walkaround and then we sheltered from the rain in thevisitor centre, to see a TV screen with a history ofthe past few years of restoration - and there weresome distinctively present wrgies on the video! Whenthe rain stopped we went to the work site at BettwsLane (or Malpas) Lock. Those with wellies went intothe lock to bail water and wire brush the bottom ofthe lock chamber walls ready for repointing thestonework. For a few special people the task oflooking for a phone in the silty slop had begun. Theperson who had the phone drop off their belt hadironically said before jumping into the canal bed�ooh look, here�s a phone in case we lose one�. Ifonly they knew! Ok the phone found on the bankwasn�t any use.

Those of us without wellies had a shock withthe new quick-setting mortar. When we say quick-setting we decided to only make a small barrowloadfirst to test it out. A 5 minute downpour was longenough for us to come out of hiding and find it hadset hard! So using an empty hand wipe tub as ameasuring pot we did tiny mixes and had lots ofpeople pointing quickly before it set!

Monday I woke up to lovely blue skies whilsttaking Sandy the dog for an early morning run be-fore cooking breakfast with the kitchen fairy akaEmma Greenall. OK, OK, by the time we set off forsite it wasn�t a blue sky any more! After not poison-ing any volunteers but becoming ill myself (not fromthe food!) we had a new cook arrive. A first timecooker, Rob Daffern did a marvellous job at gettingall the food for the day into his Porsche, and atcooking the Fajitas! Mmm my favourite!

On Tuesday I can�t stress enough the brutalityof the mines in Wales! Well, that�s what our tourguide said at the Big Pit Mining Museum, where wewent in the afternoon to avoid some more rain. Inthe morning, though, we had made good progressin pointing out the fluidness (or not) of the mortarand put some effort into real pointing! We also pluggeda hole in the bank that a member of the public pointedout to us when he heard running water. In the morningwe started lock gate painting using the brand newnever-been-used scaffolding. At some point during theday we gained some FREE beer that was very kindlygiven to us by an IWA member called Mike Phillips. Wethank you Mike. Also Sandy the camp dog got a gifttoo from the other James in the form of her ownhard hat. It did the job: as she jumped into the vanit protected her head. I can�t help thinking if shecould see where she was going in the first place shewouldn�t have hit her head...

Clearing weed from the canal

Mixing the quick-setting mortar...

...to point the chamber walls with

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On Wednesday the tea towel fairy(not to be confused with the kitchen fairy)brought back our T towels all cleaned. It wasonly today that I found out she was takingsome away every day and washing, dryingand ironing them. When I sussed this outshe got a few more each day so all the ttowels on that circuit got cleaned. The Ttowel fairy is also known as the caretaker.She did go bright red from one volunteer�scomment. I won�t mention your name butyou know who you are!!!

On site we had ITV arrive. I knew thiswas due to happen so I got in a van and leftfor Bristol and left ITV to Gordon when theyarrived! Bristol seemed a much better placeto go as the fantastic, lovely, brilliant MitchGozna had cooked usTHREE meals in betweenher night shifts at work.The meals were amazingMitch. A massive thanksto you. Arriving back onsite ITV were still there.I think maybe it was thefirst time they have everinterviewed anyoneunder a road bridge,next to a lock chamberwith a storm drain justby their right shoulderand the water level risingquickly! Funnily enough

they decided to call it a wrap and come backanother rainy day. And you think I�m joking!

Thursday Ali had a big grin fromdriving the push along dumper back andforth up the tow path moving ballast as shewent. (in one direction only, obviously!) Onthe way to the camp Ali�s car Alfie who is aTriumph Herald had windscreen wiper is-sues. The dumper had no wipers to worryabout but some could have been handy I feelwhen we had a spot of the wet stuff! But allin all it was a reasonably dry day so we didsome more lock gate painting. A breakawayparty began clearing the undergrowtharound the by wash on the next lock up, TyFynnon Lock. In the evening we watched therain come down harder and harder.

Friday we chose to hold off from goingto site as we had heard it was still rainingreally hard on site. No rain at the accommo-dation though. I went to check on site andyes, it was wet and the lock and under theroad bridge had filled up to the point it tookover 4 hours to pump the water out. And itwasn�t a small pump either. I�m sure wecould have launched a boat!! We had a partyto celebrate the pointing, painting andpumping we had done during the weekdespite the precipitation!

Saturday we had a lie in and manypeople left but a few of us tried to look livelyfor week 2�s volunteers to arrive. I�m not

sure they were con-vinced were they Rob?Over to you��.

But before you sayanything Rob I wouldlike to say a huge thanksto Gordon for doing afantastic job whilst Iwasn�t feeling very well,Mitch for her superbmeals on wheels, Robfor cooking the otherdays and everyone elsefor making it a goodweek despite the rain!

James Butler�Brutality�: the trip down a coal mine

Another load of rubbish from Ty Fynnon Lock

Camp reportMon & Brec

James reports on beinginterviewed by ITV while

sheltering under a bridge, aTriumph Herald with no wipers,

and the brutality of it all...

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Camp reportsCotswolds, Goughs Orchard

Our biggest commitment to one sitethis summer was four weeks atGoughs Orchard on the CotswoldCanals. Sadly it�s onlyproduced one camp report...

Camp 17: Cotswold CanalsGough�s Orchard Lock, 1-8 August

On Saturday afternoon we all safelyarrived at Selsley Scout Hall, and straightaway began to get to know each other. Thehall sits over a deep wide valley overlookingStroud and you can see down it all the wayover the Severn Estuary to Welsh Wales. Wesaw several stunning sunsets out there dur-ing the week!

I say we all arrived; well all seemedfine until Martyn announced that our Leaderwould not be leading us until Sunday pm,but worse still we�d lost our Camp Cook andwould therefore be living on a diet of corn-flakes with cold beans on. After a moment ofpandemonium and some thinly veiledthreats, Heather and Tania agreed to start usoff, and some splendid grub was duly rustledup. That was followed by the Safety DVD,which just gets better and better for everyviewing (or perhaps the wallit�s projected onto is just a bitsmoother and whiter each timeI see it?) Then we headed tothe nearby Bell Inn, not for thelast time, whose landlord andregulars seemed genuinelypleased to see a second batch ofWRGies enter their establish-ment (Well, we could hardlyhave been any worse than lastweeks lot, could we?)

A good mix of Old Hands- who should know better, sothe DVD tells us - to three fineD-of-E-ers: Richard B, and thefriends-almost-since-birthHayley and Annie; Mike whoseparents forced him to come,and the rest of us who for onereason or another had nothingelse to do or just believed itwould be a good idea: Alan theexpert, Heather and Tania,Forestry Martyn, the otherRichard, yet another Richard,

Michael, Andy, Matt and the other Chris(that�s me) � To say nothing of the dog,Barnie, who owns Martyn.

Next day, keenly anticipated TeacherChris joined us on site on schedule, andsoon brought forth order out of chaos. Afterthat we took turns to do the cooking ofbreakfasts and suppers, two of which werefabricated magnificently off-site by Mitch andvanned in for re-heating. For the most partwe made our own lunches.

The site is approached along a boul-evard of broken bricks, hemmed in withgreat long heaps of mud and detritus re-cently excavated from the lock chamber andbridge hole. It�s nestled between the moder-ately used railway above and a tired indus-trial estate below, but plenty of trees give it areal air of rural tranquillity - that we wouldsoon be breaking!

The first and most important job ofeach day is to erect the grand gazebo and

Tania tackles a brick

page 14

get the fine new Burco going, on its pristineflight case lid for a pedestal. Instead of 10minutes of striking matches and swearing inpain from burnt fingers, it�s now merely 5minutes of click-and-wait, to get it to lightand stay alight. Meanwhile, Teacher Chris orMartyn must check the scaffold, not only incase of overnight mischief but also becausethe clips can gradually work loose and needto be tapped tight periodically.

Then it�s all hands on deck. The briefwas to remove all the failed brickwork (andlarge sections of early 20th century emer-gency repairs which had used incrediblyresilient mortar, but which were attached tonothing substantial so had to come out oneway or another � one way was to lever it offin huge chunks for breaking up later) andprepare for the new masonry to be built on asound substrate. What a great noise, a dozenof us belting away like some avant-gardepercussion orchestra, frequently punctuatedby cries of �OW!� (or similar) as a stray digitgets in the way. Note to Logistics: Please canwe include in the Brick Kit a selection ofprosthetic thumbs for the future?

At first there was some brick cleaninggoing on � pretty easy as the old lime mortarwas the consistency of thick if rather gravellycheese � but the priority was shifted towardsmaking a real dent in the lock itself as brick

supply was not going to be a problem andsome of the gang were getting a little bitdisheartened by the rate at which the �bricksto be cleaned� pile was increasing relative tothe clean pile!

But the whole week was mainly aboutchipping out those broken half-bricks toleave rows of headers outstretched to key thenew build into. Some of the loose sectionswere still topped with huge coping stones,which had to be rolled gradually backwardsinto trenches dug for the purpose behindthem. There was much levering and chock-ing to ensure they didn�t run away from us(or worse � towards us).

The weather began well, then startedplaying jolly old games with us. Tuesday wasfairly relentless rain, apart from the odddownpour, but it didn�t dampen our enthusi-asm � much. The hall�s single shower wasmore eagerly queued for than previouslythough! That night we were given an excel-lent presentation by the head of the Cots-wold Canals Trust, describing almost everystructure of note on the navigation � past,present and future.

The following day was lovely! Howeverthe boulevard of broken bricks resembled anewly re-watered section of canal, and pre-sented an entertaining challenge for the girlstrying to get to the site loo, stationed conven-

�This business is really going to the wall!�

page 15

Camp reporton the Boulevard of Broken Bricks

�The girls trying to get tothe site loo were forced tochoose between bootsfull of water ordredged mud...�

iently right at the entrance gate for easy servic-ing, but far from site. They were forced tochoose between boots full of water or dredgedmud, and generally ended up with plenty ofboth, all arm-flapping and shrieking not havinghelped their passage in the slightest! There wasalso far too much water in the lock to retrievedropped hammers, and it had to be pumpedout faster than it was pouring in over the silland through the walls, until the lower scaffoldjoints could be reached for checking.

Midweek, Annie and Hayley created afine pasta bake and a truly magnificentbread-and butter pudding! Some of us had itoutside, to make the most of a very pleasantevening, then went into Stroud for a bit ofculture which took the form of Harry PotterVI at The Apollo. We had earlier been con-sidering how to ease our toil withthe stubborn brickwork with every-thing from a focused water jet, toblast out the more stubbornstodgy mortar, to using a big disccutter; but we now saw a lovelydemonstration of how a lot ofbricks can be shifted immediatelysimply by annoying a large dragonon the other side of them)

The following evening all ofus piled into the vans for SaulJunction, to embark on nb Perse-verance for a pleasant trip cour-tesy of the CotswoldCanals Trust followed byfish and chips in theirHeritage Centre. Then itwas back to the pub fora quick game of Mo-notony.

The week endedwith yet more bricksbashed and �copers�moved! We were a bitsorry to end the campwithout laying a singlenew brick, but still had astrong sense of achieve-ment for a job well done.

So to the traditional Friday Night Barbecue inthe car park � which became something of aparty with Alan�s truck stereo for music.

Saturday: clearup and go.Chris Colbourne

Who�d have thought a canal went through here?

Coping nicely

The end-of-camp photo

page 16

Wilts & Berks CanalWRG BITM at Seven Locks

Being a BITM camp, we started with theweekend dig, with the BITM weekendersarriving on site first thing on Saturday morn-ing, the rest of the camp proper arrivingduring the day. I set the early arrivals upwith clearing fallen trees and brash aroundand below Lock 2, while Graham did thebrick formwork retaining wall for the con-creting above the towpath ground paddle ofthe lock. Adrian used the excavator �Blue� tomove spoil up from the farm to the offside ofLock 3, with David Salisbury dumpering.

Later in the morning, I went off toSwindon railway station to pick up six volun-teers for the week�s camp, and in the after-noon, together with other arrivals at BushtonVillage Hall, our accommodation, the afternoonwas spent showing them the site, talkingabout the aims and objectives for the week,and giving the safety talk. This was follow-ing by a scrumptious meal cooked by June.

We had a number of different objectivesfor the camp: tidying up and landscapinground Locks 3 and 4, scrub bashing and clear-ing fallen trees from Lock 2 down to Lock 1,rebuilding a culvert above Lock 1, brickworkaround Lock 2, and clearing around anotherculvert and a ditch in an orchard near WaiteHill Farm. There were also dredgings to bespread on Philip Smith�s field.

The work around Locks 3 and 4 occu-pied nearly everybody at some stage; therewere piles of logs (from trees cut down lastwinter) to move down from the offside of thepound between Locks 4 and 3 down to JanetNicholl�s farm to keep her warm next winter,and stacks of unused bricks to bring downfrom Lock 4 to Lock 2. There was also aflat-pack skip that was brought down to Lock2 ready to go off to be weighed in for recy-cling. Various people were trained on theuse of the brushcutter, and the whole areafrom Lock 2 up to Lock 4 was cleared.Adrian tracked Blue up from the farm, andOlly drove the dumper, to bring the remains

of �Mount Banyard� (dredgings from Daunt-sey) to the offside of Locks 3 and 4. Grahamused Blue to level off a patch beside Lock 2for the bricks from Lock 4 to be stacked,together with a pile by the roadside Thespreading of dredgings, other material andtop soil continued throughout the weekround Lock 3 and 4. We had several experi-enced dumper drivers, e.g. Ian Rutledge,David James, and Olly, and one of our new-comers, Calum, was also trained by DaveWedd to drive a dumper, along with ourlocal, Gordon Williams. We also had goodbonfires to burn the brash.

Several of the team willingly did theirshare of cleaning old bricks for use at Lock 2,and cleaning the brickwork on the offsideground paddle ready to start the reinstate-ment. We had our local work party - allexperienced bricklayers - working with us onSunday on Lock 2, and together with DavidSalisbury and Graham, the concreting wasfinished above the ground paddle culvert.

Meanwhile, Rob Brotherston, our expertculvert rebuilder, worked throughout theweek on the culvert above Lock 1. He hadalready completed the brickwork on thetowpath side, and clay was brought down topuddle above it. After scrub clearance on theoffside, he managed to get the formwork inand start rebuilding. By Thursday, when Robhad to go, he had completed that side to onecourse from the top, and he kindly gave per-mission for our local work party to finish it!

Camp reportWilts & Berks Canal

Our regional group WRGBITM led a camp at Seven

Locks on the Wilts &Berks. Rachael Banyard

takes up the story...

The lockside lanscaping crew take a break

page 17

There had been a large number of treescut down on the offside above Lock 1, andsome of these were cut up and burnt on theThursday, and on the Friday more scrub wascleared around the lock. In doing so, wefound the bottom gate recess on the towpathside, from which we can ascertain where therest of the lock is! Although there is a holein the ground, the actual position of the lockhad been uncertain, because of the amountof vegetation smothering it.

I gave Adrian training on my 12-tonneJCB, and he did some spreading of the silt inFarmer Philip�s field until air got into the fuelsystem, and the digger ground to a halt. Itwas then topped up, and the fuel system wasbled, and it was up and running again. AfterAdrian departed home, Dave continuedspreading the silt, and even offered to stayon after the camp to finish it off!

Di, who initially formed our detachedwork party, had started on the Saturdayclearing brambles and nettles from a largearea along and around the ditch in the or-chard. She now knows where to go scrump-ing in the Autumn! They turned out to becider apples - could there be a future forDauntsey cider? By the time a team joinedher on Monday, there was a huge pile ofbrash for a bonfire, and a much wider areawas cleared alongside the ditch with the aimof bringing Blue in to dig out the ditch andup to the culvert. Di said that she had agreat team of bonfire burners, who ser-enaded her every day! The smaller treeswere all cut down by hand and burnt, and Iwent in with my chainsaw to demolish thefew larger trees on Thursday. The wholeorchard is extremely overgrown,and it is quite difficult to tellwhich are the fruit trees. We hadbeen told by Philip Smith, whoowns the field on the offside ofthe canal, that there was a ditchwhich was culverted under thatfield and heading towards thecanal, and the top brickwork ofthe likely culvert was visible inthe orchard. Di spent much ofthe week digging down to try tofind how deep the arch of theculvert was. The first half metrewas fairly soft sloppy soil, butthen she was faced with solidclay, which had to be prised offthe shovel. Water then startedleaking through the brickwork,

and she dug a trench down the ditch to tryand drain it off, but when this was insuffi-cient as the hole got deeper, the water had tobe bucketed out. It was Friday before shereached the bottom of the brickwork, about ametre down, but the expected arch turnedout to be not so much an arch as a level rowof bricks, with solid clay underneath, so theculvert appears to be blocked. Water is stillleaking through the brickwork, about fourcourses up from the bottom row of bricks,and we have to hope that it is not comingfrom the canal itself, since none is comingfrom the culvert. It will obviously needfurther investigation, using Blue. We havehad to do quite a lot of repairs to Blue in thelast week or so, which has reduced theamount of use possible on the camp.

We had 8 young volunteers on thecamp (6 DofE-ers), and they all workedreally hard, were good company and livenedup the camp. In fact, everyone worked hard,and we achieved a huge amount and trans-formed the whole area. Even our local�antis� must secretly appreciate the appear-ance of the area between Locks 2 to 4, al-though they probably wouldn�t admit it! Theweather was far from brilliant, but it didn�tdampen our spirits too much. We toured thebest of the local hostelries, had a cinemanight (split between Harry Potter, PublicEnemies and Bruno), a train ride and a visitto the railway museum and a skittles night,finishing with a BBQ on the last evening. Weare very spoilt in having such a fine cook asJune, who made us some great meals. Itwas a really good camp.

Rachael Banyard

Master at work: Rob and his culvert

page 18

wrg bc news

What an exciting year it has been for theboat club (so far)! It seems there have beena number of accidental boat gatherings whenmembers have met up. I think we can claimto have experienced the shortest ever whencoming to moor �Lynx� at Nantwich on theRiver Weaver and �Glenmore� and �Pendle�were just passing!

Luckily I know most members, or theirboats, but others don�t. Please display theboat club sticker you got when you joined.Should you sell your boat please remove it!If you tell me of your change of boat andsend the name of the new one I can sendyou a free new sticker. (I think you will havehad enough expense changing boats!)

The club AGM was held at the IWA�National� at Redhill. I always give advancedwarning/notice of the meeting but the finedetails, such as time and place are decidedonce we are on site. Luckily, this year, thesewere in the newsletter before the meetingtook place.

Here is a summary of the minutes ofthe AGM held at Redhill on Sunday 30thAugust at 9.00 pm in our club house in thewrg compound.

We started with a number of apologies:most noted was Roger & Heather Jeffries,who haven�t missed a �National� before. Wemissed the support they give and send ourvery best wishes. There were 15+ memberspresent when we started the meeting, therewere late arrivals but it was dark, so I didn�tsee and record them all.

The minutes of the last AGM werediscussed and then any matters arising.These included reports of the fantasticallyefficient job the secretary had done in carry-ing out all that had been asked of her at the2008 AGM (you can guess who is writingthis!) Lynn the Commode Door and Club Repreported that she must be one of the veryfew Commodores of AWCC affiliated clubswho has had no trouble sorting out theclubhouse, bar rota, arranging moorings or

cruises for club members. She has attendedAWCC meetings at Soar, Wolverhampton andStafford Boat Clubs.

The most usual things discussed include:. funding for the waterways. BW bollards. the mooring lottery. boat safety

Our excellent Midland Region Secretary,Margaret Smith stood down at the AWCCAGM and will be hard to replace.

While out and about Lynn has beenpleasantly surprised to meet several mem-bers - but be warned if you are not �flyingthe flag� she may not recognise you! Twomembers she met were persuaded to pur-chase a club burgee - still a bargain at £10 -she also has some AWCC ones for sale.

The Treasurer sent apologies and thefollowing report: The current balance in thebank is £83.80 which, when subs are in,should be in the region of £450 - £500available for donations or whatever the clubdecides, although some needs to remain inthe bank for club expenses and Handbooks,Membership Cards, Burgee Stocks etc. AWCCmembership this year was £53. This shouldleave a possible maximum of £300 for futuredonations. 2 donations were made, each of£200: one to the Shropshire Union CanalSociety for tools and materials for use on the�Mont� and one to the Droitwich Canals, asagreed at last year�s AGM.

It was proposed that subs remain at£10 and all agreed.

The Secretary reported that the clubhas 41 members and this amazingly matchesthe £410 membership received! She hadreceived letters of thanks from �The Mont�and the Droitwich restoration. She attendedthe AWCC AGM and reported on the usefuldiscussions and work that is being done. TheAWCC feels there is a need to get other �big�organisations (RSPB, National Trust, Sustransetc.) on our side regarding the repair andmaintenance of the canals. Copies of theHand Book and Alert magazine will soon be

WRG BCBoat Club report

Sadie reports from theAnnual General Meeting

of the WRG Boat Club,held at the IWA National

Festival at Redhill

page 19

available via the internet. However to accessthem members will need a password. Pleaseensure our secretary, Sadie, has an up-to-date email address for all members - thismeans YOU!

Election of officers: Jim asked ifthose in office were willing to stand again.Although we were, Lynn asked if anyonewanted to take over any of the positions so wecould have an election. However, before wewere overwhelmed by the rush, Liz proposedthat the officers remain in their posts, Gra-ham seconded this and all agreed (they said!)

When discussing future plans and nextyears AGM, there is always the problem thatdifferent groups are �digging� elsewherewhen a date and location is suggested. Itwas agreed that the best chance for mostmembers to be present will be at the IWANational at Beale Park next year. Againthere is the problem of timing, as mostpeople will be working around the site andlater at wrg dinner, the only hope is for anevening meeting (preferably well lit, says I).

As we expect to have about £300 todonate to restoration projects there were manysuggestions as to where it should go. Eventu-ally it was agreed to donate to works local tothe festival site. When available the Derby andSandiacre, Cromford and Grantham canals�restorations will receive £100 each.

The wrg silver Bowl, for outstandingservices, was awarded this year to RogerEvans for all the various, too many to list,

things he does and has done over the last 35years. Congratulations and please continueas you are Roger!

Under Any Other Business Aileen toldof difficulties she had experienced obtainingtemporary moorings at AWCC affiliated clubsin the London area. We will look into this.

It was suggested that we considerincluding caravans and campers in the club.

Sue�s sister in law had made a lovelyquilt that Sue had raffled for wrg funds. Shehad asked stall holders at the festival to buytickets and raised £200! Well done Sue. Theraffle was drawn and �Outdoor Escape�, pitchF9, won.

The meeting closed and the socialgathering continued, during this I learnedthe exciting news that club member BernardHughes has been awarded the OBE, for workwith the Fire Services and service to localcouncils. Congratulations to Bernard and Ilook forward to hearing about �the big day�,the ceremony and meeting the Queen!

I wont go on about the difficult circum-stances under which I am composing thisarticle, I just hope it gets to Martin legibleand on time, but note SUBS ARE NOW DUE.Please make me a happy secretary andcough up the £10 without me having tochase you.

xxx Sadie (the optimist) DeanPS Many thanks to Maureen wrg NW for

allowing us use of her awning, to increasemeeting space, and for all her help.

See you here next year? The last Beale Park IWA National Festival in 2006

Mar

tin L

udga

te

page 20

Please send updates to Diary compiler: Dave Wedd, 7 Ringwood Rd, Blackwater,

Navvies diaryYour guide to all the forthcoming work partiesOct 24/25 wrgSW Grand Western Canal

Oct 24-31 Camp 200923 Grand Western Canal: Nynehead Boat Lift

Oct 24-31 Camp 200924 Mon & Brec Canal

Oct 25 Sun EAWA/NWDCT North Walsham & Dilham Canal: Ebridge

Oct 31/Nov 1 London WRG Thames & Severn Canal: Eisey Lock (Dig Deep project)

Oct 31 Sat BCS Buckingham Canal: MADD (Make A Difference Day) at Hyde Lane Lock

Nov 1 Sun Navvies Press date for issue 238: including Canal Camps brochure

Nov 7/8 KESCRG Wilts & Berks Canal - Calne Branch

Nov 7/8 NWPG Basingstoke Canal

Nov 7/8 Essex WRG Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation

Nov 14 Sat wrgNW �Paper Chase� waste paper collection

Nov 15 Sun EAWA/NWDCT North Walsham & Dilham Canal: Bacton Wood Lock

Nov 21/22 London WRG Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation

Nov 21/22 wrgBITM Grantham Canal: Jungle bashing at Cropwell Bishop

Nov 21/22 wrgNW Hollinwood Canal

Nov 29 Sun EAWA/NWDCT North Walsham & Dilham Canal: Briggate

Dec 5/6 London WRG Wilts & Berks Canal: LWRG/wrgSW/KESCRG Christmas Party dig at Caln

Dec 5/6 KESCRG Wilts & Berks Canal: KESCRG/LWRG/wrgSW Xmas Party dig at Calne

Dec 5/6 wrgNW Cromford Canal: (including Christmas meal)

Dec 5/6 wrgSW Wilts & Berks Canal: Xmas Party dig with KESCRG and London WRG

Dec 5/6 Essex WRG Foxton Inclined Plane: Christmas dinner, and continuing work from Oc

Dec 12/13 wrgBITM Wilts & Berks Canal: Christmas Work Party at Calne

Dec 12/13 NWPG Thames & Severn Canal: Eisey Lock (Dig Deep project)

Dec 12 Sat wrgNW �Paper Chase� waste paper collection

Dec 13 Sun EAWA/NWDCT North Walsham & Dilham Canal: Honing Staithe Cut

Dec 26-Jan 1 Camp 200925 WRG Christmas Camp: venue to be announced

Jan 1 Fri Navvies Press date for issue 239: including Canal Societies directory

Jan 16/17 London WRG To be arranged

Feb 6/7 London WRG To be arranged

Feb 27/28 London WRG To be arranged

Mar 6 Sat WRG/KESCRG Barn Dance: Benson Village Hall

Mar 28/29 London WRG To be arranged

Apr 17/18 WRG/IWA/BCNS BCN Cleanup: note change of date

page 21

Canal Camps cost £49 per week unless otherwise stated. Bookingsfor WRG Canal Camps (those identified by a camp number e.g.

'Camp 200920') should go to WRG Canal Camps, Island House,Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA. Tel: 01494 783453.

Email: [email protected]

Camberley, Surrey GU17 0EY. Tel 01252 874437. email: [email protected].

Mitch Gozna 07768-525469 [email protected]

01494-783453 [email protected]


David Revill 01603-738648 [email protected]

Tim Lewis 07802-518094 [email protected]

10:00am Athina Beckett 01908-661217

Martin Ludgate 020-8693-3266 [email protected]

Eddie Jones 0845-226-8589 [email protected]

Graham Hawkes 0118-941-0586 [email protected]

John Gale 01376-334896 [email protected]

David McCarthy 0161-740-2179



Dave Wedd 01252-874437 [email protected]

David McCarthy 0161-740-2179 [email protected]


ne Tim Lewis 07802-518094 [email protected]

Eddie Jones 0845-226-8589 [email protected]

David McCarthy 0161-740-2179 [email protected]

Mitch Gozna 07768-525469 [email protected]

tober. John Gale 01376-334896 [email protected]

Dave Wedd 01252-874437 [email protected]

Graham Hawkes 0118-941-0586 [email protected]

David McCarthy 0161-740-2179



Martin Ludgate 020-8693-3266 [email protected]




[email protected]


Aileen Butler 01494-783453 [email protected]

page 22

Once per month: pls check BCNS BCN waterways Mike Rolfe 07763-1717352nd Sunday & alternate Thurs BCS Buckingham area Athina Beckett 01908-661217Anytime inc. weekdays BCT Aqueduct section Gerald Fry 01288-353273Every Sunday ChCT Various sites Mick Hodgetts 01246-620695Every Tue & Wed C&BN Chelmer & Blackwater John Gale 01376-334896Every Saturday DCT Droitwich Canal Jon Axe 0121-608 0296Last Sunday of month EAWA N Walsham & Dilham David Revill 01603-7386484th Sunday of month ECPDA Langley Mill Michael Golds 0115-932-8042Second Sun of month FIPT Foxton Inclined Plane Mike Beech 0116-279-26572nd weekend of month GCRS Grantham Canal Colin Bryan 0115-989-22482nd Sat of month GWCT Nynehead Lift Denis Dodd 01823-661653Tuesdays H&GCT Oxenhall Brian Fox 01432 358628Weekends H&GCT Over Wharf House Maggie Jones 01452 618010Wednesdays H&GCT Over Wharf House Wilf Jones 01452 413888Weekends H&GCT Hereford Aylestone Martin Danks 01432 344488Every Sunday if required IWPS Bugsworth Basin Ian Edgar 01663-7324932nd Sunday of month LCT Lancaster N. Reaches Paul Shaw 01524-356851st, 2nd, 4th Sun + 3rd Sat LHCRT Lichfield Sue Williams 01543-6714273rd Sunday of month LHCRT Hatherton Denis Cooper 01543-3743702nd & 4th Sundays NWDCT N Walsham Canal David Revill 01603-7386482nd & last Sundays PCAS Pocklington Canal Paul Waddington 01757-638027Every Wed and 1st Sat RGT Stowmarket Navigtn. Colin Turner 01473-7305862nd Sunday of month SCARS Sankey Canal Colin Greenall 01744-7317461st Sunday of month SCCS Combe Hay Locks Bob Parnell 01225-428055Most weekends SHCS Basingstoke Peter Redway 01483-721710Last weekend of month SCS Stover Canal George Whitehead 01626-7754982nd Sunday of month SNT Sleaford Navigation Mel Sowerby 01522-8568101st weekend of month SUCS Newhouse Lock Mike Friend 01948-880723Every Tuesday morning TMCA Thames & Medway C Brian Macnish 01732-823725Every Sunday & Thurs WACT varied construction Eric Walker 023-9246-3025Mondays (2 per month) WACT tidying road crossings John Empringham 01483-562657Wednesdays WACT Tickner's Heath Depot John Smith 01903-235790Wednesdays WACT maintenance work Peter Jackman 01483-772132Wednesdays WACT Loxwood Link Peter Wilding 01483-422519Thursdays WACT Winston Harwood Grp Tony Clear 01903-774301Various dates WACT Hedgelaying (Oct-Mar) Keith Nichols 01403-7538821st w/e (Fri-Tue or Fri-Wed) WAT Drayton Beauchamp Roger Leishman 01442-8745362nd Thursday of month WAT Drayton Beauchamp Pete Bowers 01255-504540Every weekend WBCT Wilts & Berks Canal Rachael Banyard 01249-892289

Abbreviations used in diaryBCNS Birmingham Canal Navigations Soc.BCS Buckingham Canal SocietyBCT Bude Canal TrustChCT Chesterfield Canal TrustCBN Chelmer & Blackwater NavigationCCT Cotswolds Canals TrustDCT Droitwich Canals TrustEAWA East Anglian Waterways AssociationECPDA Erewash Canal Pres. & Devt. Assoc.FIPT Foxton Inclined Plane TrustGCRS Grantham Canal Restoration SocietyGWCT Grand Western Canal TrustH&GCT Hereford & Gloucester Canal TrustIWPS Inland Waterways Protection SocietyK&ACT Kennet & Avon Canal TrustKESCRG Kent & E Sussex Canal Rest. Group

LCT Lancaster Canal TrustLHCRT Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Rest'n TrustNWPG Newbury Working Party GroupNWDCT North Walsham & Dilham Canal TrustPCAS Pocklington Canal Amenity SocietyRGT River Gipping TrustSCARS Sankey Canal Restoration SocietySCCS Somersetshire Coal Canal SocietySHCS Surrey & Hants Canal SocietySCS Stover Canal SocietySNT Sleaford Navigation TrustSUCS Shropshire Union Canal SocietyTMCA Thames & Medway Canal AssociationWACT Wey & Arun Canal TrustWAT Wendover Arm TrustWBCT Wilts & Berks Canal TrustW&BCC Wilts & Berks Canal Company

Mobile groups' socials(please phone to confirm)

London WRG: 7:30pm on Tues 11 days before dig. 'StarTavern', Belgrave Mews West, London. Tim Lewis 07802-518094NWPG: 9:00pm on 3rd Tue of month at the 'Hope Tap', Westend of Friar St. Reading. Graham Hawkes 0118 941 0586

Navvies diaryCanal societies� regular working partiesAmendments to Dave Wedd (see previous page)

page 23

Lettersto the editor

The National, theGipping, the mystery ofthe moving building atWelshpool - and not onesingle mention of dogs!

Dear Martin,We have just spent a most enjoyable day at the National. Once again the organisation

and preparation of the site by WRG was quite outstanding.Thea & I go to many shows (agriculture, country and waterway) of all sizes throughout

the country during each summer and the IWA Festival is without a doubt the most profes-sionally put together. We notice so many little things that others miss which go to make theshow that much better.

Well done WRG, once again, and always, a first rate job!Regards

Tim Boddington

Although we appreciate Tim�s kind comments I feel we shouldn�t forget the efforts of the�blue shirt� IWA volunteers who work alongside WRG�s �red shirts� at the National ...Ed

Dear MartinMay I through the letters column express the profound thanks of the River Gipping

Trust to WRG, both London and national, for their outstanding efforts over the last 2months. Hopefully there is a report elsewhere in this magazine detailing what was involvedin the restoration of Baylham Mill Lock on the River Gipping and you will know from yourown visit just how much was done in such a short period.

We old people from the Trust�s working party might have completed the work ourselvesbut it would probably have taken us a couple of years rather than the 6 weeks it actuallytook WRG.

We now have another historic structure saved for posterity and, even better, we are onegiant step closer to seeing the navigation open again. You can all feel justifiably proud ofyour achievements.

Thank you.Spencer Greystrong

Treasurer, River Gipping Trust

Dear EditorThese days I have to admit to being mainly an armchair supporter of canal restora-

tion. One reason is that my doctor would probably have me certified and locked up just forthinking of battling away with a shovel; my wife would have me locked up without a doubt.But that doesn�t stop me wanting to join you at the reunion.

That is, until I saw the photos on the back cover of Navvies No 236 of work inprogress on the Mont in 1969. Now I know I don�t have that level of ability or passion, forit�s a fabulous job done. But I�m puzzled as to why a nice solid looking building should haveto be taken down and rebuilt on the opposite bank. Do tell.

I noticed an absence in the reunion of any mention of Welsh rain. A surprise for some?Regarding the photograph on page 39. This appears to show the determination of Mr

Bungle in not calling for assistance of a mouse or a spider in unravelling a much tangledweb.

Keep up the good work pleaseRon Shackell

OK I admit it - my pic of Welshpool was taken looking the opposite way from the original! ...Ed

page 24

ProgressGrand Union Wendover Arm

The Wendover Arm Trustfind enough time off from

relining their canal toexplore the remains of a 200

year old pumping station

Wendover Arm

The July Working Party was very success-ful and we were able to profile the 1 in 3slope at the bottom of the Stage 1 mooringwall and cover it in Bentomat matting andconcrete blocks.

The August Working Week (actuallynine days) was also very successful as wehad a virtually dry nine days and have nowcompletely finished the restored canal (waterand plants excepted) to the east end of themooring bay as well as being well advancedwith the next 15 metres of bank lining andbulk excavation ahead of this.

Looking Ahead there are now about150 metres of Stage 1 left to profile and linein order to complete Stage 1 with a tempo-rary bund at the end. Our aim is still tocomplete this in 2009, weather permitting.

The aim for the September WorkingParty was to complete bulk excavationdown to top of pipeline capping for the restof Stage 1 in order to leave the way clear forprofiling and lining during the rest of theyear. Weather permitting we also hope tohave cut a large supply of Bentomat lengthsto complete Stage 1, then on the Monday itwas intended to pour the first base of theStage 4 mooring bay at Bridge 4, to allowPete and his gang on Thursday to strip andre-assemble the formwork for the secondbase.

On the October/November/Decem-ber Working Parties, as we have 150metres of Stage 1 to complete, the aim is tocomplete 50 metres of bed and bank liningat each of these seven-day work parties. Thiswill be entirely dependent on the weatherand availability of volunteers but it would be

Laying Bentomat bank lining

Phill

Car

dy

page 25

a great achievement to complete the stagebefore the weather turns against us in thewinter.

Whitehouses Old Pumping StationOne of our members, Professor TimothyPeters, is leading the investigations into theformer pumping station at Whitehouses(decommissioned in 1836) and will in duecourse be reporting his findings and recom-mendations on preserving the site. Earlierthis year Timothy Peters and Barry Martinmade an investigation of the site and Barrywas able to take some photos of the under-ground chambers on the site. These are fullof brick rubble, no doubt from the demoli-tion of the two cottages some time afterWorld War II.

Timothy Peters has been following upthe history of the men who constructed theoriginal pumping station and has had valu-able information from local sources. Weawait with interest his findings in due course.

In June Timothy and I visited the sitewith Industrial Archaeologist Barrie Trinderwho is an expert on old stationary steamengines. One conclusion we reached was thatan initial excavation to a depth of, say twofeet over the site is going to be the best wayof determining the general layout of build-ings and other structures. This will need tobe under expert archaeological supervisionand it is hoped that a group interested in thiskind of work can be found as the Trust�svolunteers cannot be spared from restorationworks for this task. There will be the prob-lem of where to store excavated material thatneeds to be retained for further examinationor re-use.

Another development that has takenplace was a survey on the 19th August by theBW Underwater Team to determine wherethe shaft leading down to the heading toWilstone Reservoir is located. They found theshaft just under 10m from the paddle gear atright angles to the canal near the cherry treeand covered with a concrete slab.

The good news is that the shaft, bricklined and approximately 1.5m in diameter,appears to be in good condition � after over200 years!

The area has been fenced off to preventthe public straying onto a hazardous site

For more information about our worksee the Wendover Arm Trust websitewendovercanal.org.uk.

Roger Leishman, Restoration DirectorTel:01442 874536

The completed mooring bay

Unused since 1836: old chamber under theformer Whitehouses pumping station

Mar

gare

t Lei

shm

anBa

rry

Mar

tin

page 26

ProgressSussex Ouse Navigation

Next we head down toSussex, where SORT areprogressing with Isfield

Lock despite the job beingharder than they expected

SORT volunteers rebuilding Isfield Lock

Sussex Ouse

With very little interruption from inclementweather on scheduled workdays this sum-mer, work by the Sussex Ouse RestorationTrust has progressed well at Isfield Lock onthe Ouse Navigation.

The restoration of the east wall in thelock chamber and gate recess has beencompleted. Coping stones are back in placeand the grass seed, perhaps optimisticallysown along the newly levelled lock side, hasgrown to complete a satisfying picture.

So by July work moved along to theeast lower wing wall. It was soonapparent that the work requiredwas more extensive than wasoriginally anticipated. This sectionof the lock chamber wall requiredcomplete demolition down to thewater-line, revealing an old andpoor quality repair and a fairlyserious fault line south of the gaterecess and with brickwork literallycoming away in workers� hands. Itwas also necessary to remove thesoil behind the wall down to thesame level, to establish the trueextent of the damage and repairsrequired.

Not daunted by the taskahead, the re-building began and astrengthened �plateau� level wasestablished. The placing of a verylarge coping stone on the newwing wall end tested not only theingenuity but also the physicalstrength of the team.

August has seen the gradualrebuilding of the wing wall. It hasbeen strengthened as it is nowbuilt with an increase in thenumber of leaves of brickwork anda back-fill of spoil and hardcore tohelp take the pressure from thebank above off the new wall.

With work parties forced toabandon the site by the end of

September due not only to the possibleworsening weather conditions and daylightavailable but also the presence of shootingparties on the Sutton Hall Estate, the pres-sure was on to complete the task. Howeverwith good weather and a regular attendanceof volunteers over the next four weeks theTrust remained optimistic.

Extra help is always welcome on thesite, remotely situated alongside the RiverOuse, and anyone interested in joining theregular Thursday and Saturday work parties,now or in the future, should contact TedLintott on 01444-414413 or [email protected]

page 27

Progress...and the River Gipping

Finally, Spencer Greystrongreports from the River Gipping,otherwise known as theIpswich & StowmarketNavigation

River Gipping: Baylham Lock 2009

The Trust has only been in existence for 2years but before that the Ipswich branch ofIWA had produced some plans that wouldsee a major step forward in the restorationof the Ipswich & Stowmarket Navigation.Colin Turner was persuaded to come out ofretirement one last time and take on the roleof Working Party Organiser so we decided togo ahead.

The work at Baylham Lock involvedtaking down 15 metres of lock wall, remov-ing 60 cubic metres of soil from behind thewall, breaking out and removing 10 cubicmetres of concrete from the invert, reform-ing the invert at its correct level using 10cubic metres of new concrete, rebuilding thelock wall, pouring another 15 cubic metres ofconcrete behind the wall and finally replacingthe soil behind the wall. All this to be donein 6 weeks commencing July 12!

Because the River Gipping is very proneto flooding it was essential that the work wascarried out as quickly as possible and in thesupposed driest time of the year. To get thework done we asked WRG if they couldprovide two full camps, one at the start andone at the end of the period. We also askedLondon WRG if they could run aweekend camp between the two.Luckily both organisations said �yes�so using Roy Sutton�s engineeringreport and recommendations, Colinstarted the detailed planning.

Although we needed to removethe old concrete from the bottom ofthe lock Roy advised us that if we didthe whole lot in one go there wasevery possibility that the wall next tothe mill could start sliding into thelock bringing a 200 year old listedstructure down with it. Our 2 year oldTrust would probably not grow up tobe 3 years old if that happened so thework had to be done in three stages.That meant that the replacementconcrete could only be poured 6

cubic metres at a time, left to set underwater (because we couldn�t keep the sitetotally dry for 6 weeks) and then pump outagain and start the next section.

During the first camp the weather wasglorious and the first team from WRG underleader Liz Wilson [see report in Navvies 236]managed to get everything ready for theFriday concrete pour in plenty of time. Be-cause the lock has numerous springs we hadto construct a concrete sump and attachplastic pipes to it which would eventually runthe length of the lock and feed all the springwater to the sump. These pipes had hun-dreds of holes drilled in them; they werethen surrounded by gravel, covered with apolythene sheet and finally covered with a50mm layer of concrete. I made that soundeasy but they also had to remove all the oldconcrete and then dig down 200 mm andremove thick glutinous clay before they couldstart putting in the pipes.

Come Friday, the day of the concretepour, we had the dumpers standing by (thesite is only accessible over two bridges withan 8 tonne limit on each so the ready-mixhad to come in ½ a tonne at a time in thedumpers). Colin had made it very clear thatthe lorry had to be with us by 9.30am. Fi-

Setting up for the concrete pour, first week...

page 28

nally at 10.30 it arrived at exactly the samemoment as a torrential downpour. The rainitself we could have coped with but the riverfilled up so fast that it started flowing in thewrong direction back into the lock! Franticwork with sand bags wasn�t enough so wewatched helplessly as one of the carefullyformed edges of the invert started slidingdown into the centre of the lock. A disap-pointing end to the camp but when wephoned Roy Sutton to explain what hadhappened things didn�t look quite as black ashe reckoned we could recover the situationduring the next WRG camp.

Next was the London WRG weekendand they carried on the work of breaking upand removing the old concrete from theinvert. Colin�s original plan had been for ourown group to do a concrete pour after Lon-don WRG had gone and before the nextcamp but it became obvious that we did nothave the required manpower for such anoperation. We therefore decided that LondonWRG would remove all the old concreteduring the weekend but we would use Acrowprops across the top end of the lock belowthe cill to support the wall whilst we waitedfor the next camp. We realised that this wasplacing a huge burden on that camp (two 6tonne concrete pours in one week) but Edwas leading that camp; he was with LondonWRG and he agreed to take it on.

The deal with Ed was that the Trust�slocal work force would complete the blindinglayer before he arrived with his team. Unfor-tunately we needed stop planks at the lowerend of the lock to avoid another flood. Thistook up all our time so when he turned upon Sunday [see camp report, p31] hisfirst task was to get the site cleared,lay the pipes, the gravel, the plasticand the blinding.

I switched on all the pumps sothat we had a dry work area by 8.30.This time the ready-mix lorry arrivedat 9.30 as requested and the concretepour was complete by 12.30. Thatincluded vibrating and tamping to thecorrect profile. We now had to leavethat to set before we could carry onwith all the other jobs.

One of those was to try and putright the damage caused by the rainduring Liz�s camp. We needed to cutout the new concrete to the pointwhere it was at least 200mm thick overthe full 3 metre width of the pour

(around 3 sq metres) then refill with freshconcrete to the correct profile. This cut- outhad to be taken down to the original blindinglayer so we hired in a hydraulic breaker.

On Wednesday we removed the Acrowprops and started shifting the old clay andbricks. This was an even longer job as thespoil that had been removed on Sunday hadsimply been dumped in the area that wewere going to pour on Thursday. We hadsome pretty mucky people come Wednesdayevening. On Thursday yet again I arrived at6.00 am for the pumps and yet again theconcrete pour went exactly as planned.

By Friday a significant part of the lockwall had been rebuilt, several tonnes ofconcrete had been poured for backfill and theinvert was complete. Our local group can nowcomplete the job without the time pressures.

I must record my admiration for theleaders and crews on all three camps. I�vedone a few camps in my time and I think the2 one week camps were models of how acamp should be. They had a mixture of agesbut everyone got on so well. If a job neededdoing, it got done; the leaders didn�t have tochase after people.

What can I say about London WRG thathasn�t been said on numerous occasions be-fore? Thank the lord we�ve got a group ofexperts like you willing to share your expertise.

It would be invidious to select just one ortwo names so I will say on behalf of the RiverGipping Trust THANK YOU ALL. You�re hardwork has meant another lock on the Ipswich &Stowmarket Navigation has been saved.

Spencer GreystrongTreasurer, River Gipping Trust

...and the end of the final week: job done!

page 29

�Making a Mark in the Park�H&G Aylestone Park, Hereford

As the renegades of CC1309 headed out oftown, the dust (mud) had hardly settledbefore the CC1609 Park Posse rode in tofollow the well trodden tracks of their pio-neer counterparts. The iron horse, stagecoaches and new fangled horseless carriagesdelivered this band of trowel totting navviesto the homestead known as Yarkhill villagehall. The coffee pot was still warm as thebunkhouse floor was quickly filled. Intro-ductions were made, including the queens ofthe chuck wagon, Stella and sister Marion,our local settler volunteer camp cooks.Homestead rules and safety briefing quicklyfollowed before the group mounted the twohorseless carriages EHP & SAD and headedoff to view their mark in the park beforesundown. Careful not to make cabriolethorseless carriages the height restrictionbarriers were dutifully opened and closed allweek to prevent unwanted travelling bandsfrom settling in the park. There was no needfor a hitching rail, there were no cowboys inthis outfit! After chowing down on a sub-stantial meal, the group headed off to a localsaloon, alas only later to find they�d run outof beer, much to the chagrin of seasonedbrewing aficionado�s Kim & Brendan. Anearly return to the homestead ensued.

Sunrise on Sunday the happy band ofdivided up into working parties, bricklayingon the slipway with �Trowel slinger� Hawkinsruling over the long wall with Tom scoutingout the ramp end of the wall. Fast trowelFrank moseying along on the short wall withAndrew in brickie support made up the coreretaining wall bricklaying party with guestappearances� from the Posse leader. Deputyleader ��Shorty� Danks (aka �Ickel� Martin)led a party off to extend the foot trail along-side the canal; careful of the �big yellowthing that hisses� that lurked below thesurface (high pressure gas distributer main!).A scouting party was sent off to high groundto make good picnic table bases cast the

previous week. The arrival of the Spaldingstagecoach from the east brought Jodie &Millie complete with massive bedroll and astore and a half of clothes complete with alovely pink valise to join the gang. Mean-while back at the homestead Little Runningin Mud Davenport from the NWWRG tribeand Debbie �Dog whisperer� Curtis awaitedthe arrival of the Park Posse. More massivechowing down ensued

Monday, in between showers workprogressed on all fronts, with Little Runningin Mud leading the pioneer party up tohigher ground in search on new picnic tablebase sites. In a true leader privilege to

Camp reportHereford & Gloucester Canal

Meanwhile, way out inthe Wild West ofHerefordshire, TrowelSlinger Hawkins and thegang are gathering...

The leader is quite clearly out of his depth

John

Haw

kins

page 30

Camp ReportsHereford & Gloucester Canal

�The bowling alleyoperators located us on theground floor to reduce the

risk of structural damageto their emporium�

change your mind, a rather dubious finishedconcrete base, having been lovingly land-scaped by Lynn, Charlie, George and thegang was declared fit for hardcore and wasduly broken out by Ben, Charlie & Steve.�He�s not a leader he�s just a very naughtyboy� became the day�s cleanest sledgingremark! The ace shuttering team of Charlie& George set about re-accomplishing theformwork for this location and began settingset up the other bases on the hill side. Anon-site mix to order concrete delivery pro-vided the mass-concrete backfill to the brick-work retaining wall built in the previousdays, the path team coming back to assist inthe raking effort. Again evening chow timewas feast to behold, Rob B you missed outon an eating challenge! An evening trip toOver basin was lead by Deputy Danks as thenaughty boy did leader type stuff at thehomestead.

Tuesday was more of the same. Themuck & bricks duo of Brendan & Kimmpandered to our brickie demands withoutquestion and back chat(Note for MKP, goodlabourers are hard tocome by but we hadthem!). Fast trowelFrank was so moved headopted Brendan, whowas later �branded� tolet people know whohis master was! Ben &Steve received trainingfor operating the 7.5tonne dumper. IckelMartin in betweenorganizing wagonmasters to deliversupplies to site, pro-gressed the swervingfoot trail under thecaution from the �manwho watches big yellowpipe that hisses� that�we were being ob-served from afar�.

Adding, a new fangled heavier than air ma-chine with big whirly thing on top mightdrop out of the sky and men from its bellywould come and tell us that we were on topof a big yellow thing that hisses. So muchpressure it would be easy to overlook thethinner red cable, that sparks, makes yourhair stand on end and smell of burnt toast,which was close to the work site! Suffice tosay services location and protection was akey element of the safety plan. An evening�sbargain deal ten pin bowling in Hereford,saw �Dead eye� Tom being the high scorerclosely harassed by �Sharp Shooter� Steve.Given the variations of the bouncing bombtechnique on the 1st floor lanes by the previ-ous week campers, the alley operators lo-cated us on the ground floor to reduce therisk of structural damage to their emporium.

Wednesday was concreting day for twopicnic table bases, might have been three butthat is another story. Must try to get theodd Sherpa or two on Aylestone Park campsto transport equipment up the hill, but we

Progress on the bricklaying

page 31

Camp reportsHereford & Gloucester Canal

�It was a testament to thewhole hearted enthusiasm,commitment and work ethicthat makes the WRGexperience what it is�

did laugh as we wheel barrowed the pokerand the plate compactor up those slopes.However the view from the top did compen-sate for the breathlessness, pink faces andmuscle cramp! The laughter was as loud asthe ace shuttering team when they re-con-structed a third base formwork, practicemakes perfect, with lovely views, and youget to burn off those calories from the excel-lent evening meals! Jeff a local volunteerassisted with the long wall as trowel slingerHawkins, who graciously extended his stay,had departed the previous night for newterritories�. Many thanks to �Bouncer� a localcanine that not only runs around in circles ona lovingly finished wet concrete slab, butsigns its name and those of its two humanminders, hope it realizes that cement canburn your skin.

Thursday: brickwork was completed,Jodie & Millie with Rachael & Hattie com-peted to be the �pointing sisters� supportingTom Coleman on the brickwork under thebeady eye of Fast trowel Frank. Debbie &Lynn were trained on operating the roller in

between being in the raking team with Ju,Andrew, Tom, the deadly duo�s, and the restof the posse not having a go on the bricklay-ing. Late in the day the �naughty boy� wasable to get the 360 swing shovel in to startprofiling the slipway slope. Timber pathedging to the car park end was cut andinstalled by the team.

Friday: George, free from his shutteringduties consolidated the effort to set out theslipway profile. As time run out the type1sub-base was placed and compacted leavingthe site ready for blinding and pavementconcrete on another weekend visit. Concretewas poured for the final two seat bases withpicnic table/seat combo�s being placed onearlier slab bases. It was a heartwarmingmoment for all the team to see a local resi-dent to use the first seat installed on the highviewpoint, and payback for all the toiling up& down the hill. With a van & trailer goingon the long trek to the east, that eveningchecking out back in the kit was entwined inthe preparations for a stonking BBQ. Thanksto Julia, a local volunteer who collected Ed &Nigel from Gloucester station. With Eddeparted with van & trailer an exhaustedteam settled down for a relaxing evening.

Just one more day would have seen thepavement slab in, but over 200 meters of1.8m wide footpath, 5 picnic table bases,slipway walls and profiled slipway sub-baseconstructed by the combined effort of Camps13 & 16 was a high commendable achieve-ment. Given the wet weather experienced inthe first week, availability of bricklayers andthe spread out site it was a testament to thewhole hearted enthusiasm, commitment andwork ethic that makes the WRG experiencewhat it is. Many thanks to Fred, Lorraine, Sue(the cook) and Camp 13 folks, to MartinDanks my assistant leader, sisters Stella andMarion (our cooks), Charlie for the acebreakfasts and every one of Camp 16 volun-teers, you were great. Hopefully see you oncanal camp or site soon. The Party van will�rock� again next year!

Martin �Naughty Boy� Thompson

Quotes from the camp:

�My first time on the H&G; 18 odd people and me!�

�We are the pointer sisters for the wallWe also learned to lay bricks n�allBack to the compound in a wheelbarrow trainWithout us on camp it won�t be the same�

�Serial rakists and psychopaths, trifle and cheese.Wicked week, can�t wait for the next�

�I have enjoyed the weeks� bricklaying and maybeone day I will have my own gofer just like Frank!!�

�I enjoyed mixing with Kimm, dreaming about custardbut most of all being Franks gofer�

�Shuttering, shuttering and more bloody shuttering�

�An awesome week with awe inspiring characters�

�Loads of fun on big toys, digging and dumpingup a bloody big hill�

�Great week(s), will never be forgotten. It will be recalledforever in my now necessary therapy sessions!�

page 32

Camp report:Ipswich & Stowmarket Navigation

�It should havebeen simple,

except that thelock is built on anatural spring...�

Ipswich & Stowmarket CampBaylham Lock, August 8-15

Itinerary

Sat: ArrivePub

Sun: Dig out rubble and lay binding layerfor section of lock floorBowling

Mon: Concrete pour (6 cubic metres)Brewery tour

Tue: Dig out rubble in last section of lockSwimming/Spa

Wed: Continue digging out rubble and layfinal binding layerCinema

Thu: Concrete pour (6 cubic metres)Boat trip

Fri: Tool cleaning/sorting, scaffolding,brick laying etc.Barbecue

Sat: Leave

As you can see above Ed and Nigel�s plan forthe week was really quite simple: clear outthe lock and finish laying a concrete invertfloor (curved to help hold thewalls in place). In addition tothis there was some moreconcreting to do behind thewalls, some bricklaying, somecorrection of Liz�s camp�sconcrete (not their fault � theweather was evil), a littlebricklaying and some excavat-ing. In parallel Harri excelledherself in the kitchen produc-ing ever more food � wesoon learned when it wasgoing to be a hard day asthere would be porridge aswell as a fry-up for breakfast.

None of this was aproblem for our hardy groupof new and more experiencedvolunteers. In fact we were

so efficient that one afternoon a lot of uswent to visit the rare breeds farm and an-other a van full went back to the hall early!!By Friday morning we were cleaning andpacking tools whilst quietly ignoring Colinthe local�s suggestion that we might want toroot through the spoil pile looking for wholebricks to salvage.

The work in the lock was back-breakingall week, leading to Andy and Brian shockingus all with their endurance � in contrast Iwas so knackered I was being sent to washtools after Monday�s afternoon tea break.Luckily Kim appointed herself in charge ofmaking everyone take a break and drinkwater regularly, so no-one actually expired.The job itself was moving all the rubble toone side and putting the shuttering, drainagepipes and blinding layer in place. Thendumper-full after dumper-full of concretewas poured in from the top of the lock.

After this we had to manually shift theconcrete into position, vibrate it and tamp itinto the correct curve � after which we real-ised there was too much concrete and Ellieand I formed an amazing bucket chain to getthe concrete Andy and Brian were hurriedlyshovelling into buckets back out of the lock

Pouring the first section of the new invert

Nig

el L

ee

page 33

and into the section being concreted behindthe walls (Note to Ed � less concrete perbucket is faster as we are then capable oflifting them onto the scaffolding). Thisprocess (without the bucketing) was repeatedwith the next section of lock over the follow-ing three days. It should have been simpleexcept the lock is built on a natural spring sowe had to keep all the pumps going until thelast possible moment underneath the plasticliner as we poured concrete all around. Assoon as they were turned off the water levelsbegan to rise and we all watched in trepida-tion in case the concrete washed away.

Meanwhile Ed, Adrian and Tony re-moved the bit of Liz�s concrete that had beendamaged by flood water, using the Kangohammer (which leaves impressive bruises ifyou brace it against your knee) then filled thehole again with some of the excess concretefrom the main pour (barrows-full this timerather than buckets). Up top, Anne and Jennydid a superb job at putting up shuttering thencleaning and roughening up the concretesurface ready for the next layer of concrete(ably mixed by Max). This was an ongoingjob with several sections being done over theweek. Elanor was our excavator driver-in-chief, however Adrian and others also had ago once trained. Gordon did some minibustraining and Martin some dumper training.Other toys in use were the steel saw, vibratorand Kango hammer, so by the end of theweek we were a well-trained bunch.

When feeling like a break from theheavy work, Andy also did some bricklayingand taught Kim and Ellie. This went welluntil Rob and I were sent to make the mortar� apparently there is a difference betweensand and aggregate. Something to do withthere being rocks in it I think�

Our evenings were filled with the excit-ing activities outlined above, thoughthroughout the week various members of thegroup declined the evening activities in fa-vour of a little extra (and much needed)sleep. We went to the pub the first night,whereupon Max a local dog whipped Elanoracross the back of the legs and flourished hisstick at her. We did not return.

At bowling Tim showed us all his skillat bouncing the ball off the barriers whilst Iscored a record seven total misses in a row(unlike Tim�s group we had the barriersdown) leading to the suggestion that Ishould try thinking of various annoyingpeople as I bowled. This had a massive

effect leading to a relatively respectable scoreby the third game. Bowling was followed onWednesday by a brewery trip, I won�t say�tour� as the word tour implies the place islarge enough that you have to move to seeeverything. This was not the case, in factyou could still see most things whilst sat onthe loo due to the ill fitting door. The lack oftour did not make the visit any less entertain-ing and we did manage to ascertain that thebrewer owns his own home, likes cats, andreads the Independent � so off you go, Sophie!

By this time Max found himself readingthe same sentence twice he was so tired,reading the same sentence twice he was sotired, so it was good that the next eveningplans were was a nice relaxing visit to thespa, followed by the cinema the next night(Note to self � pick a shorter movie nexttime) and finally a boat trip. On the lastnight we had a barbecue back at the accom-modation and gave out prizes � to Andy andBrian for being like Wind-Up toys and justkeeping going, to Max for services to con-crete and to Kim for being our MUP.

All in all it was an excellent week and Irecommend Ed and Nigel�s camps and Harri�scooking to everyone.

Helena Howarth

Putting right the damage from �Liz�s flood�

Anne

Uns

eld

page 34

WRG NWWhat�s a paper chase?

Cameron explainsthe truth behind

the slightly crypticentries in the

Navvies diary...

Raising funds for WRGNW

Have you ever wondered what the words�paper chase� that appear in the Navvies diarymean? Cameron Abercrombie explains...

Every 6 weeks or so a few volunteers ofWRG North West wake up one early Saturdaymorning, some from afar, some local tonorth Manchester, and descend onCrumpsall, home to the very popular andloved Mr Mac for the paper chase. We startoff at The Cleveland, a local pub that allowsus to use their car park to hold a huge10 ton container wagon. We thenbreak off into groups of 2-3 and driveoff in cars with trailers or in our be-loved van GCW and collect paper, card,old books - anything really that startedlife as a tree to fill up our containers. Isay containers because at around 11am asecond container comes along as by thistime we�ve filled the first one!

The first container wagon isopened topped and there is normallyme and a couple of others climbing upa hill of paper to really pack tight all wehave gathered. You can often hear MrMac shout �let�s build a new wall� refer-ring to us building a wall from boxes tostop it all falling forwards! Then an-other van load turns up, and bags afterbags after bags of paper and card getthrown up to us to empty filling thecontainer even more! By the time thefirst container is full, all of �us� doingthe emptying have rather sore backs sowe opt for driving about collectingwaste paper and the others start to fillthe second container. All this work isbuilding up our appetites...

Then the best bit - Fish �n� chips,Mr Mac does a �roll call� �who wantswhat� he�ll ask and taking it turns toshout to him our order, he soon drivesoff to the local chippy with that longorder of food for all the hungry wrgies.After dropping the order off, he headsback to his house putting the kettle on

and gets ready for the onslaught. Whilst wetidy up and close the container wagon doorsone of us drives off to the chippy to collect theorder and we all head back to Mr Mac�s forsome well earned food � we pay £1 for thefood and the rest is subsidised by WRGNW.

At the end of the day it�s a great gettogether, a useful fund-raiser for the water-ways, we have fun and a laugh � and that�swhat it is all about!

Cameron Abercrombie(I�ve been a wrgie for exactly 1 year this Saturday)

Money raised by WRGNW doesn�t just go to sup-port WRG - they are seen presenting cheques atRedhill to the Chesterfield and Lichfield & Hather-ton groups in support of their current appeals

page 35

Navvies News

WRGWear: WRG logo clothing

Lots of people are still sending in the form from the Navvies months ago so to save you alldigging through to work out what issue it was here�s the order form again. Send the orderwith a cheque (made payable to WRG Canal Camps) to WRG Wear: 33 Victoria Road,Northwich, CW9 5RE, I send the money off to one place and the order off to the supplier(who then sends off to you without me being involved in that bit). So that�s why the moneymay be cashed either before or after your stuff arrives and why I won�t know if it�s been sentand gone missing. Please allow 28 days for delivery but contact me if it hasn�t arrived or ifyou have any other questions: [email protected] or 07989 425346. Thanks.

Helen GardnerPS I don�t do the tshirts with the list of camp dates on the back: they come from head office

Indicate number required of each size

Item S M L XL XXL Price Total

Printed large WRG logo red tshirt £8.00

Printed large WRG logo black tshirt £8.00

Printed small WRG logo red tshirt £8.00

Printed small WRG logo black tshirt £8.00

Printed small WRG logo red sweatshirt £13.50

Printed small WRG logo black sweatshirt £13.50

Embroidered small WRG logo red poloshirt £11.50

Embroidered small WRG logo black poloshirt £11.50

Embroidered small WRG logo red fleece £23.50

Embroidered small WRG logo red rugby shirt £25.00

Name:_______________________Address to be delivered to:_______________

__________________________________________________________________

Contact phone and/or email address:___________________________________

WRG EM out and about

The WRG East Midlands group based aroundthe Erewash Canal has been active recentlyfitting boat mooring rings at two locations inthe East Midlands.

On the River Trent in Nottingham 45rings were installed on the embankmentoutside County Hall for Nottingham CityCouncil; this completes the improvement ofthe Embankment moorings started someyears ago. As well as being a popular casualmooring this area is the main mooring sitefor the Nottingham Riverside Festival inAugust. In addition to fitting the new ringsbent and damaged rings were removed.

On the Witham Navigable Drains moor-ing rings were fitted for the Witham FourthDistrict Internal Drainage Board at CowbridgeLock (pictured, page 3) and for the EA on theMaud Foster Drain in Boston on the PacketBoat Steps by Maud Foster Windmill. WRG EM install mooring rings on the Trent

page 36

Contacting the chairman:Mike Palmer

3 Finwood Rd,Rowington, Warwickshire

CV35 7DHTel: 01564 785293

email: [email protected]

Online Navviessubscriptions

You can now take out or renew a Nav-vies subscription online via the IWAonline shop website. The address is:

https://www.iwashop.com/ecommerce/proddetail.asp?prod=nav1

Stampswanted

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

Dial-a-camp

To contactany WRG

Canal Camp:07850 422156(Kit �A� camps)07850 422157(Kit �B� camps)

NOTICEBOARD

Congratulationsto

Dan & Emma Evanson the arrival of

Toby Dylan Evanson August 17 weighing 8lb 8oz

also toLeonie Greenhalgh and Ben O�Donohue

on their weddingand to

Alice Bayston and Antony Carveron their engagement

Thanks......to Chris Griffiths of Stroudprint for

his continued help with printing

Change of addressMark �Mk2� Richardson has moved to:

80 Byron RoadWest Bridgford

NottinghamNG2 6DX

If you move housedon�t forget to tell Navvies

The Survey

If you haven�t already voted in thelatest WRG survey for your favouriteand least favourite WRG work sites

there still might just be time

http://tiny.cc/awesome_sites

Results - and the theme for the nextsurvey - will appear in Navvies 237

Directory update

The entry for the Dig Deep Initiativein the Directory in Navvies 236 was

out of date. It should have said:

Alan Cavender, 53 Derwent Drive,Maidenhead, SL6 6LE

01628-629033

Next full directory in issue 239

What?Nothing about dogs this time?

Sorry!

page 37

InfillWith WRG�s own agony aunt

Have you an embarrassingpersonal problem thatyou�d like to entertain theNavvies readership with?Then write to Deirdre!

Dear Deirdre, I've just found outI'm pregnant. How late in my termis it safe for me to continue digging?Deirdre writes: Worksites aredangerous, unsanitary places and thework frequently involves heavy lifting;for that reason I'd recommend to beon the safe side and leave site whendilated 3cm, maximum 4cm, and defi-nitely when the head crowns. Thatway, if you push hard, you can be backon site before the mortar goes off.Congratulations!

Dear Deirdre, Help! I've lost mydriver's license (turns out beer isn'ta soft drink after all). Any advice onhow I can get to digs?Deirdre writes: Hi there. Youcould thumb a lift from a WRGie wholives near you, but be careful who youchoose. You're only 5 miles from 'Trac-tors' Tony Tatton; approach him for alift only if you're interested in discuss-ing pre-war threshing technology forhours whilst caught in a 15 mile tail-back on the M4. Then there's Vern'Vole Campaigner' Vickers: he's a greatdriver but you'd better have at least amild enthusiasm for the conservationof small indigenous mammals beforeyou get in a car for a lengthy journeywith him. Angling Andrew Andersonhas heated car seats, but you'll haveto hear all about his fly fishing esca-pades. I wouldn't even bother to ap-proach Larry 'Landrovers' Lane, forobvious reasons. National Rail Enquir-ies can be reached on 08457 48 49 50.

Dear Deirdre, my flatmate barelyleaves the house except to go towork. She doesn't own a pair of flatshoes and the last time she took ex-ercise was her school sports day. Ireally feel getting out in the fresh airwould do her good - how can I per-suade her to come digging with me?

Deirdre writes: over the years anumber of methods have been at-tempted to drag reluctant friends,partners and spouses along on digs.Experience has proven that the mostfail safe method is to lie to themabout what to expect. Conjuring upvisions of en-suite accommodation,hunky young male volunteers and lightgardening work by crystal-clear watersis the best way to lure new volunteersalong. It is imperative you do notmention cold linoleum floors, TescoValue mince or grumpy locals.

Have you a question for Deirdre? Write tothe editor or email [email protected]

The right tool for the wrong job?

Our picture shows Louise on the Mon & Breccamp using a stiletto shoe to hold the mortarfor pointing stonework. Do you have anysimilar pics of unusual working practices toentertain the readers? (or for conspiracy theo-rists, to undermine WRG�s reputation nexttime BW comes snooping around trying tocatch us out) If so, send them to the editor.

page 38

InfillOh no, not Jane & John again!

J

�Do you knowwhat �the right

bra for theright job� is?

John doesn�t...�

The Jane and John Stories episode 4: Jane and John go to the National

Jane and John have decided to take a break from real wrg work, they have bookedonto the National. The national is a big event with lots of boaters who, although theyalways moan about how nobody goes there because it�s not like it used to be, also moanabout the queues caused by all the boats. There is also lots of mud, which means lots oftoys to pull stuck things out with. John likes toys, especially if they have big engines.

This year the National is in a windswept field in the East Midlands. The East Mid-lands is the home of a particularly useful local called Jim Baler-twine. As well as beingthe local, he also runs the stores and has a number of stock phrases including �we don�tkeep those�, �I can only let you have 10 cable ties at a time� and �We have just closed, youwill have to come back in the morning�.

Jane and John arrive on site late in the evening. They lay out their bedding andthen go to the eating tent where John joins in discussing such important subjects as themerits of JCB over Merlo telehandlers, why V8 engines should be fitted as a default to allvehicles, the correct part number for the police specification rear Land Rover suspensionand which National had the best mud for getting stuck in (for reference, Salford, unlessyou are really old in which case it was Wakefield). These discussions continue late into thenight until the beer barrel runs out; for some reason when this happens the discussionsdie down and everyone goes to bed.

The next morning Jane and John get ready for a day on site.�Don�t forget your wrg key� says Jane.�Don�t worry� replies John �I have it attached to my belt�.�Now behave yourself and don�t get into any trouble� says Jane as she sends him

out on site.John goes to the leader and asks what needs doing.�Ah, morning John. Can you drive one of the small tractors and plough in some

water pipe?�John likes tractors, especially old ones. He grabs some keys and persuades one of

them into life then sets off across the site to where a group of people are making suresome spades don�t fall over by leaning on them. Laid on the ground is a large bluepipe, John lines the tractor up and begins to plough a trench to put the pipe in, butunfortunately the plough keeps getting stuck. After a while Uncle Chill pulls upalongside with the bigger tractor.

�Having trouble John?� Asks Uncle Chill.�Yes, I keep getting stuck� replied John, �Can you help?��No problem� says Uncle Chill �unhitch the plough and move over�.John helps switch the plough to the bigger tractor and Uncle Chill soon has the

water pipe buried. Once this is done John is asked to go and help the telehandler by beinga banksman. The telehandler is being driven by �Paul the Puppy�. Paul is unloadingtrucks of various pallets but for some reason the forks won�t stay up in the air.

�Would you like me to have a look and see what the problem is?� asks John�Yes please� replies PaulJohn looks under the back and soon spots a loose hose connection leaking oil. Once it

is tightened up the forks are working properly again.�There you go� says John �That should make life easier�.�Thanks John� replies Paul �lets get these last couple of pallets off and then we can

go back for a tea break�

page 39

Jennifer�s designated driver againtonight. She didn�t exactly volunteerfor it, but there�s no-one else who candrive the van. Apart from Pete, ofcourse, who�s got his ticket, but hesaid something about his knee playingup, and Paul�s Landrover�s got kit allover the back seats and they could allhave fitted in Jon�s car but for theterrible smell of old dog. She doesn�treally mind but alcohol does makeJon�s endless boating stories easier tosit through. Maybe someone else�lltake a turn tomorrow. Meanwhileshe�ll have another diet coke...

WRGieotypes No 11: The Designated Driver

John and Paul finish unloading the truck and then Paul sets off back to the com-pound with the telehandler. John starts walking back and on the way stops at the �Guildof knot tiers� stand. There are a number of displays of different knots, standing therelooking at them is Helena Twitterlot. Helena rides horses and she shows John a knot sheuses for tying up her horse in the evening. Just as John starts practising he gets a call onthe radio.

�John from wrg1, John from wrg1, can you go down to the moorings and look into aproblem with the pontoons please?�

Helena offers to go along with John to look at the problem.�You go and stand on the pontoons� says John to Helena �I�ll look from the bank�.Helena walks out onto the pontoons, they bounce around as she walks along. Do you

know what the �right bra for the right job� is? John doesn�t..... Helena stops walking as herfeet are getting wet.

�The pontoons are sinking� says Helena�Hang on a minute while I try tightening the clamps� replies John. He gets out

his scaf spanner and leans down to check the clamps are tight. He gives each one aturn and they try again.

�It�s no good John, we need more clamps� says Helena as her feet get wet again�Oh well, it�s lunchtime anyway, lets go back and have some food�. They set off back

to the accommodation. As they go they see one of the telehandlers sat in the field with abucket full of wood chip. The telehandler isn�t going anywhere because someone let it runout of diesel. Do you think wrg2 is a silly boy?

John arrives back at the accommodation as sees Jane. Jane has had a hard morningbanging in poles with a post cap.

�Where have you been?� asks Jane�I�ve been having a great time� replied John, �Unfortunately for the first job my

equipment wasn�t big enough to pull, luckily Uncle Chill was available, his equipment issuperior to mine and he has had a lot more practise, he pulled with no trouble at all. ThenI helped Paul, he couldn�t keep it up but I gave him a hand and it was soon sorted withoutneeding professional help. I met Helena Twitterlot and she showed me some knots sheuses for her evening hobbies but just as we started practising together we got called away.She came along to give me a hand and no matter what I did she kept going down, evenafter I tweaked the nuts myself. Oh I see you have spent the morning post bonking, has itbeen fun?�

See Jane pick up the post cap, see the post cap fly.Poor John.....

page 40

????

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Navvies 237

Documents

silvester road

moor road

eleanor road

directors of wrg

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