Navvies

waterway recovery group

Volunteers restoring waterwaysNo 194 August - September 2002

WISHYOUWEREHERE?

WISHYOUWEREHERE?

Contributions......are always welcome, whether hand-written,typed, on 3½" disk (please include hard-copy)or by e-mail. Photos also welcome: slides orcolour or b/w prints. Please state whether youwant your prints back; I assume that you wantslides returned. Computer scanned photos alsoacceptable, either on disk or as e-mailattachments, preferably JPG format. Send themto the editor Martin Ludgate, 35, SilvesterRoad, London SE22 9PB, or e-mail toeditor@navvies.demon.co.uk. Press date forNo 194: September 1st.

SubscriptionsA year's subscription (6 issues) is available for aminimum of £1.50 (please add a donation if pos-sible) to Sue Watts, 15 Eleanor Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 9FZ. Cheques to"Waterway Recovery Group" please.Visit our web site www.wrg.org.uk for all the latest news of WRG's activities

In this issue:Editorial what are we restoring them for? 2-3Chairman 4Camp ReportsWilts & Berks, GrandWestern,Cotswolds, Wilts & Berks again and Cotswoldsagain 5-14Logistics waiting for a trailer 15Diary camps and working parties 16-18Letters and WRG Boat Club News 19-22Dredging how the professionals do it 23Coming soon Autumn and Christmas campsand major weekend work parties 24-25Progress in pictures 26-27WRGFT the forestry team 28Bits & Pieces including Logistics 30Noticeboard 31Backfill 32

And next time......we hope to bring you reports from all the restof the summer camps, and the latest info on theBonfire Bash, London WRG / KESCRG Christ-mas Party dig and Christmas Camps.

Plus an article about a rather unusual and lesswell-known restoration project - the Somerset-shire Coal Canal.

Contents

Editorial

page 2

Wish you were here?

So why the 'picture postcard' theme to the cover?

Well, firstly because I though it was appropriateat holiday time - and as I write this I've just gotback from aweek's 'holiday' helping to lead Camp0209 on the Cotswold Canals. And hopefully alot of you will also be spending a week on a simi-lar holiday. (But rather than send me a traditionalpicture postcard, I'd really appreciate it if you sentme a Canal Camp Report instead!)

But the main reason is because I wanted to illus-trate the fruits of our labours (not forgetting thelabours of the canal societies we have workedalongside) of the past couple of decades, as sev-eral more restored canals or lengths of canal thatwe have worked on have been completed andreopened. And quite honestly there are so manycanal openings happening at the moment thatthe '5-in-one' traditional postcard layout was theonly way of showing them all on the cover at once!

In the top left we have a photo by Harry Arnold ofthe Ribble Link - Britain's first brand-new navi-gation to be created for about a century. Ourvolunteers worked on it years ago when it seemedthe unlikeliest of pipe-dreams - we had enoughtrouble convincing people that we were seriousabout restoring derelict waterways let alone build-ing new ones - and now it's open!

In the top right corner is the Rochdale Canalphotographed by Ian McCarthy There hasn'tbeen any WRG involvement on the Rochdale fora long time - most of the work has been carriedout by contractors - but I remember muck-shov-elling in the rain in north Manchester in about1982 when hardly anyone gave it much chanceof ever reopening... which it did, on July 1st.

In the bottom left corner is a photo by me of onethat we're rather more familiar with - HanburyLocks on the Droitwich Canal, which were offi-cially opened in May.

And in the bottom right corner is another familiarcanal, although WRG hasn't worked on this par-ticular site - Brynderwen Lock on the Mont-gomery Canal was reopened to portable craftafter complete restoration by SUCS volunteers,and Harry Arnold was on hand to record it.

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But what if the restrictions are less historical orgeographical and more political. For example itis proposed that the River Stour - if restored - berestricted to unpowered craft only, to keep thenature conservationists and landowners happy.Ditto the North Walsham & Dilham Canal. Mean-while on the Pocklington we have no assurance ofany boating at all once it's finished - unless we canprove that boats are actually good for the wildlife.And when the Mont finally opens throughout, itlooks likeboatmovementswill be severely restrictedon nature conservation grounds - to the extent thatthe predicted benefits that the restored canal willbring to the local economy in the form of newjobs has been reduced by a factor of 7.

Do we say "That's OK - even if we can't boat onthem: if they're being restored, that's better than los-ingmore of our heritage by letting them fall into worsedereliction.Andwecanalwaysarguethepoliticsagainlater and hope for a more boat-friendly outcome".

Or do we say "Sorry, we restore canals for (toquote part of the IWA's aims) 'fullest possible rec-reational use'. If the best practical hope for a frag-ment of historic tub-boat canal is as a static exhibitthat's fine, but artificial restrictions on somethingthat has the potential to be an excellent pleasure-boating waterway is against our principles. We'llspend our time working elsewhere."

Or do we try to draw a line somewhere betweenthese extremes. And if so, where?

And finally...

Thank you to everyone who has contributed tothis issue - especially those who successfully gottheir Canal Camp reports in promptly in responseto my appeal last time.

We have a variety of reports this time: an alpha-betical one, another with a different author foreach day (mostly written by the nominated au-thor in the pub on the evening of that day - that'show to make sure you get it down while you canstill remember it!) and one written in the style ofTV's 'Big Brother'. (I shall never again castigateLesley for her tastes in crap TV programmes - I'lljust assume she's planning another Camp Re-port!) And although Rachael's reports are moreconventional, she does score extra brownie pointsby getting two reports into one issue!

Now it's over to the rest of you - I look forward toreading about your exploits on the Mont, Sleaf-ord, Stowmarket, Grand Western, Mon & Brec,Huddersefield, Wey & Arun, Wilts & Berks andBasingstoke... preferably before the press dateof 1st September!

Martin Ludgate

Lastly in the centre (and also pictured by Harry)is the Falkirk Wheel which opened in May, re-linking the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals - bothof which saw WRG and other volunteer work intheir earlier phases - completing the MillenniumLink restoration of the Scottish Lowland canals.

The final reason for the 'picture postcard' idea isthe slogan: "Wish you were here?"

Because all of us working on the canals mustsometimes wish that we were there enjoying therestored canals as boaters, and what keeps usgoing is the thought that one day the ones we'reworking on will have their official openings fea-tured on the cover of 'Navvies'. Isn't it?

Well, maybe. Or maybe not. Which convenientlyleads me on to the next subject...

The Scope of Restoration

This rather dry-sounding topic came up in an IWAdiscussion recently and I thought it was impor-tant enough to raise it in 'Navvies'. What it sort-of translates to is 'why do we restore canals'.

Don't worry - it's not another 'why do we do it'discussion. I realise that volunteers all have theirown reasons for working on canals - which mightor might not involve boats, along with other rea-sons such as getting out into the countryside,meeting a great bunch of people, learning inter-esting skills, drinking interesting beer or what-ever. No - what I'm talking about is the purposeof the restoration itself, rather than why individualvolunteers get involved in it.

Up to now, that has usually revolved around even-tually opening the canal to typical powered canalboats - with some debate about howmuch we wel-come other users (anglers, walkers, cyclists, na-ture-lovers) alongside the boaters. And many ofus have taken a pretty dim view of other interests(particularly nature conservationists) taking over re-storedcanals for their ownpurposeswhen thismeansrestricting the boats that we restored them for.

Finding out afterwards that we can't boat on arestored canal is one thing; what happens whenwe are asked to support a canal that we alreadyknow we won't be able to chug along in our nar-row boats once it's finished?

For example restoration work on several WestCountry canals (Bude, Grand Western, Somerset-shire Coal) has until now been largely as static -albeit important - pieces of industrial archaeology.But we have been happy to support them despitegeographical or historical limitations thatmaymakethem impractical as additions to the network.

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ChairmanMikeCan't tell usanythingbutmanages to fill a page anyway...

Chairman's Comment

OK so I know I said that the Spring issue ofNavvies was the hardest one to write, but thisone looks like being a bit tricky too.

Now this is not because things are going badly -I have had fantastic fun on all the camps andweekends so far this year and really good workis being done.

Nor is it because very little is happening - I havespent 15 hours this week alone in meetings with people sorting out "things" for the future.

No, it�s tricky because I can�t tell you about any of these "things" because for all of them they are notconfirmed because I�m waiting for a committee decision and someone or other is on holiday.AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGH!!

So I can�t tell you about the fantastic training sessions we are setting up with British Waterways andThe Waterways Trust to run through next Winter/Spring*.Neither can I tell you about the interesting developments that WoW (the new "get the kids involved"partnership) will bring to the waterways scene.

I really would like to tell you about the reopening of one of "our" canals that is due to be happeningnext year but until it�s official I have to keep silent.

Equally until the paperwork is signed I can�t tell you that we are now an official "access organisation"for the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.

So I shall have to spend my time talking about the great time I had leading a camp that was due tobe at Droitwich but started in Devon and ended up in Wales! Well I would if my wonderful assistanthadn�t beaten me to it (see this issue?). [No, the next one actually. ...Ed] Anyway at the very least Ican add my personal thanks to all those who coped with waking up and going to bed in differentcountries and worked so hard no matter where they were.

While in the personal mode I shall also thank "the Friends of Lockway", a boating group who foundthey had a few quid left over at the end of the year and so donated it to us. I know I keep going on aboutarmchair supporters but it's things like this that really do enable us to do what we do. Thank you.

I should also apologise for looking such a sulky bugger on the front cover of Navvies 193. It did givethe impression that both John W and myself were not at all impressed with with being able to gothrough the locks - nothing could be further from the truth. Again my thanks to all those who workedat Hanbury - it was a wonderful project.

It was also a pleasure to have a selection of the WRG happy abseilers call me on the mobile to sing"we�re going up and down in the Anderton Boat Lift" to me. Of course what really made it special wasthat I happened to be going round and round in the Falkirk Wheel at the time. Who would havethought that not only would an old lift be rebuilt but that they would also build a new one to rival it?

One final message of sincere thanks must go to Dan Evans our web master. Dan has been theperson who has driven all our web presence recently as well as designing and running the actualwebsite. This hard work was recently recognised when the website won a regional award for charitywebsites (more elsewhere in this issue). Well done Dan.

So that�s it, hopefully Navvies 195 will contain lots more confirmations of all of the above.

Hugs and Kisses

Mike Palmer

* Though admittedly I can tell you that the Training Weekend is confirmed for next May 10th/11th . I�mpleased to say it will be back at Hatton with all those excellent facilities.This is the first time we haveever known the date this far in advance so hopefully with all that time to organise it it will be less ofa "seat of the pants" event.

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Camp reports...startingwith theWilts&Berks'Jubilee Camp' in June...

Wilts & Berks Canal Trust Camp: 1st-9th June

The camp started off well, with weather dry, andeven some sun! We welcomed two new navvies,brothers Chris and John Barnes, who proved bothgood workers and good company.

On Saturday, we started strimming and mowingthe towpath with our "new" ride-on lawnmower atDauntsey, while Deb and Chris started survey-ing Lock 2 at Seven Locks with surveying equip-ment Deb had borrowed from Nottingham Univer-sity. The following two days we finished concretingbehind the off-side wall on Lock 3, and strimmedthe towpath from the road to Lock 5. The surveyingteam continued their work around Lock 2, finallycompleting thesurveyonTuesday, before theequip-ment had to be returned, and Deb had to getback to work for the rest of the week.

There was a hold-up on the bridge deck for Fox-ham, which we�d been hoping would be deliv-ered in time for us to erect on this camp, althoughit should be ready for our July camp. However,the road planings had arrived, and we spent twodays spreading and compacting them with a vi-brating roller, to provide ramps up to the even-tual bridge. We also puddled behind the wingwalls, covered with topsoil.

Unfortunately, the weather changed on Wednes-day afternoon, when the rain came in, and con-tinued on and off Thursday and Friday. We spenta very wet morning on Thursday clearing out anold shed and moving rubbish up to the tip, and inthe afternoon Rachael went up with Blue to dosome towpath repairs at Dauntsey. Luke and asmall gang went to Foxham to finish the ramps,and mow the towpath. Unfortunately, the mowerproved not up to the job, and packed up!

Said lawnmower, incidentally, is such a new ac-quisition for us that it has not yet been given aname, unlike all the other bits of equipment (notto mention sheds and small buildings) at Daunt-sey. �Tim� is a small digger, the large cementmixeris - naturally - �Jumbo�, �LittleWilly� is a small dumper,�Olive� is the oil store, �TheToybox� is our workshop.We have a workman�s hut on site at Seven Lockscalled �The Elephant�, and a portable store knownas �TheWendyHouse�. George �Bungle�Eycott hasaname for the lawnmower at the back of his mind,arising from a car whose back axle broke, so heis trying hard to remember it.

On Friday, we strimmed the towpath higher upbehind the pub at Dauntsey, and cut the re-growthof stumps ready for pulling, and we also broughtback (in Little Willy) a load of logs from trees cutout of the hedge. Di and I then departed for aSong & Ale Festival in Devon, while the rest ofthe team went down to Wootton Bassett to helpGeorge and Jen set up for the Waterways Festi-val on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday.

We had 10 navvies overall on the camp, althoughnot all at the same time. We were unable to bookthe Foxham Reading Rooms for the whole week,as there were prior bookings for the Jubilee cel-ebrations, so we all piled into my cottage, which

was quite cosy attimes. Di had toturn everyone outof the kitchenwhen she was try-ing to dish upmeals, but other-wise it workedquite well. DaveRudland, throughchoice, slept in atent on the lawn...

Thanks to Di forcooking, and welook forward toseeing some of thevolunteers againon the July camp.

Rachael Banyard

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Wilts & Berks Canal:this year's Canal Camp sites

June JubileeCamp atSeven Locks(mostly!)

Camp 0206 atFoxham (mostly!)report on p11-12

NWPG Camp 0207 atSummit Lock reportnext time (we hope!)

Where Camp 0208 would havebeen if it hadn't been cancelleddue to nesting buzzards!

Site for Xmas Camp atDauntsey see p22 for details

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Camp reportsGrand Western: Canal Campreport-writing by committee?

Camp 0202 Grand Western Canal22nd � 29th June

A slightly novel camp report, the idea beingthat a different volunteer each day writes an en-try in the diary. However, due to the lack of vol-unteers volunteering to do this, you will have toput up with me filling the gaps! The first day work-ing on site was Sunday...

Sunday � Nat

Sundaymorning started off with scrub-clearing andbonfires while Martin trained new recruits in the artof synchronised dumper-driving. At the northernendof the cutting,WRG�sownversionofTimeTeam(more like "Is it time for tea?" team) started excava-tion of a 19th Century farm-crossing, thought to havebeen on the site of a former stop-plank narrows.

In the afternoon the newly-qualified dumper-driv-ers along with the excavators created a ramp overthe canal using crushed roof-tile rubble over Ter-ram sheeting over concrete pipes. All was welluntil Blue blew! Meanwhile, the "is it time for tea?"team had discovered one of the stop-plankgroove stones and also a stone containing whatappeared to be a lock-gate hinge.

With the completion of the dumper ramp, we allpiled into the showers at Wellington Sports Cen-tre and the evening�s entertainment consisted ofstock-checking. [I think he means checking thelevel of the beer stocks at the pub. ...Ed]

Monday � Sally

A good sleep. Only 5.5 on the Richter scale!

Team 1: Towpath

Finished the carefully considered, strategicallyplaced ramp over the canal. An advance partyset out to persuade trees out of the way with largesharp tools, while most people topped up theirsuntan and pretended to be frustrated.

�Blue�, the digger, feeling happy and smart with anew Jubilee Clip, started to clear a dumper runalong the towpath � a generous 50cm wider thana dumper. Smashing.

Blue�s day took a downturn as the guv swungthe cab into a tree, mangled the door and brokethe glass. Smashing. From then on, the towpathwas just one long (long) party.

Team 2: Stop Gate

Neolithic farmer�s roadway was carefully clearedwith a fine brush and trowel to reveal 2 stop plankstones completewith grooves, and therewasmuchrejoicing. Jen and the digger then uncovered thecanal floor and a second unexpected sill and gateand there was much rejoicing. Two walls began toappear and headed off ominously into the mud to-wards the carefully considered, strategically placedramp, and there was much rejoicing!

Then there was Angel Delight, Star Warswith unexpected crop tops and we all livedhappily ever after and went home to bed.

Tuesday � Marian

"Right Chaps", says A (Adrian), "We cancrack on with the towpath now. Shouldhave no trouble finishing it by the end ofthe day." "Great!" say the A-Team, allthinking it will be nice to take things at asteady pace.

So the A-Team head off led by Mrs Tee(Tess) and are soon getting to grips withthe situation (i.e. realising that they havenot a cat in hell�s chance of finishing 200metres of towpath in a single day. Theirconsciences not allowing them to leaveMrs Tee doing all the work, the A-Teamplod on.The towpath begins to take shape. (Martin Ludgate)

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Camp reports"...dumping, digging, raking,dumping, digging, raking..."

Every now and again,A comes along the not verylong towpath, saying "splendid job chaps, notmuch further now." Sensing A�s deluded state ofmind, (possibly due to feeling under pressure tomeet the deadline for finishing the towpath), feel-ing sorry for him we make reassuring commentslike "Of course we�ll make it."

So the dumping, digging, raking, dumping, dig-ging, raking, dumping, digging, raking goes onand on and to cut a long and boring story short,the towpath is not finished. But, says A, "Youhave worked really, really hard. Not much fur-ther to go now. Finish by lunch time tomorrow.""Yes" say the A-Team, all thinking "You surely donot think we are going to be that gullible again?"

However, there was some excitement during theday, a local TV crew turned up (one cameramanand a very unsuitably dressed women).Theywanted to interview a couple of volunteers andto ensure this publicity opportunity was exploitedto maximum effect, a T-shirt swapping sessionensued, which the men quite enjoyed, but theladies felt a little exposed during it.

Another exciting event was the evenings Mys-tery Tour. Lots of fascinating and very technicaldetails about various industrial archaeological�things�. Then off to the pub. Brilliant.

Wednesday � Ernie

Time to congratulate the musiciansamongst us for last nights tune. The ten-ors, trebles and altos with volume variationwere superb. It was all too much for me sobefore the encore started, I slipped on myear-defenders. The deadening silence wasblissful.

During the day we did more towpath stuff.In the evening the local society entertainedus to an excellent BBQ. We got stuffed.More alcohol was consumed to aid thepass-out, but just in case this does not work,my trusty ear-defenders are beside me...

Thursday - Ian

The towpath was finally finished, thanks tosome serious excavation by Jen in the 8-ton digger the day before. This enables thedumpers to travel along the canal and willbe used to collect dredged material as theline of the canal is excavated and profiled.

In the evening it was non-stop action againas we took a boat trip down the Bridgewa-ter & Taunton Canal, accompanied by a fewtins of beer.

Friday - Ian

The last day of the camp and the weather con-tinued to be sunny and hot. So not the best dayto build a massive bonfire to get rid of all thechopped down trees, but that�s what we did. Veg-etation was cleared from the cutting, ready forthe dredging the following week.

A great week was finished off by a cryptic treas-ure hunt and a meal with some of the local canaltrust members.

All in all it was a really top week in a beautifulpart of the country. Thanks to Adrian for leading,Matt for being a brilliant cook as usual (and hissage balls!) Grand Western Canal Trust for look-ing after us, and to all the volunteers who madeit such an enjoyable camp. Same time next year?

Ian Wingfield

Above:excavation of thestop-planknarrows.(IanNicholson)Below: Ernie escapes the snoring (John Hawkins)

page 8

Camp reportsSaul Junction: an alphabeti-cal Canal Camp report

Camp 0204: Cotswold Canals 3rd-10th JulySaul Junction Boat Gathering

Here is all you will ever need (or want) to knowabout Camp 0204. For ease of reference in thefuture, it is presented in alphabetical order...

AA is for Accommodation, Anna andAlison, andAVH. Our accom changed more often than theCamp Leader�s wrg t-shirts. The closed-downschool we were supposed to have had fell throughat the lastminute�seeunder �V�. Instead,wemovedto Whitminster Cricket Pavilion, which was alreadythe �shower venue�. But on the Saturday night eventhat was out of bounds, so we spent the night inthe old folks�day room in a community centre.AnnaandAlison arePhDstudents inEdinburghwho trav-elled a very long way to be on the Camp. Both areas mad as fridge doors, and Alison is much betterthan me at hammering lamp irons in. AVH need nointroduction, but our hired Transit dropsider did, asit was so new it had not yet received its livery.

BB is for Boat Gathering, Bridge, Bar-Buildingand Bungle. The Boat Gathering is the big an-nual fundraiser for the Cotswolds Canal Trust,which was why we were there doing site services.The Bridge was a serious piece of kit, all-steel,made in a boatyard and craned-in over a small riverin order to provide pedestrian access from the carpark and campsite.Weaffixed a huge sodium lampand various bits of orange fencing to it. Bar-build-ing was one of our central tasks and seemed totake all weekend, as extra stillaging had to be builtduring open hours on Saturday lunchtime. We lev-elled off the main barrel stillages, making the en-tire marquee look decidedly wonky in comparison,and stapled some tasteful vinyl onto the counter.Bungle is a useful piece of kit that comes withSammy the generator. He will happily work nearlyall night at the top of a scaffolding pole in the driz-zle with a lamp in one hand and some cable ties inthe other. The next day, he goes off to ogle bigdiesel engines. Bungle believes that I do not singany jolly songs, only depressing ones about deadminers. This is patently untrue.

CC is for Cath, Chinese takeaway, Cable ties,Car parking and Compound. Cath was CampCook, and served up delightful dinners everyevening. Well, nearly. Because of the accommo-dation on Saturday having no kitchen, Cath wentout and ordered an enormous Chinese takea-way, for which the CCT kindly paid because ifthe disruption! Cable ties are what hold eventstogether, literally. In Bungle-world, they are ahighly valuable currency. Car parking was ofcourse on the site services menu. The weirdthing is that the first-timers we sent out to do itseemed to like it. The unsurprising thing is thatCath immediately invited them to the 'National'.The Compound is a truly magical place, a fewmiles� drive fromSaul. You name it and if you needit, it�s in there � you just need to take a big lorrywith you.

DD is for Dudley, Decapitation and DaveLamen�smagicalmystery tour. Just ask the girls(see 'A' and 'L') about Dudley, the CCT�s chiefsite services dude. He�s a really nice chap ANDhe can turn sturdy female wrgies into mush at 50paces. Decapitation is a specialist subject ofAnnaand Alison, and it made me change the subjectvery quickly indeed. Dave�s tour took us to theGolden Valley and our minibus to the edge ofits envelope. We visited Chalford Lock, whereDave had led a camp working on its restora-tion [Good grief, had he really? And there wasme thinking that Ian and myself were the lead-ers on that Camp! Oh well, it just goes to showhow little I know about canal camps. ...Ed], testedthe echoes in Sapperton Tunnel and had a drinkin the timewarp Daneway Inn, where the originaledge of the canal can be found in the car park.D, by the way, is NOT for "dooberry" because Isay it too often.

EE is for Excellent weather. We had a bit ofdrizzle on the Friday night (most of whichlanded on Bungle and Dave) and a couple ofhours of rain on the last day, and the rest wasdry and often sunny. When I returned to North-amptonshire, my friends were slightly annoyedabout this, as apparently it had hoyed it downfor days.

FF is for Food.See also under 'C'. This came alongin great quantity and often featured rather seri-ous puddings. For the most memorable of these,see under 'M'.

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Camp reports"JisforJumpingintotheGlouces-ter & Sharpness Canal..."

GG is for Generator. Sammy is a useful piece ofkit that comes with Bungle. He�s blue, based ona Bedford TK, has an intriguing past in the BBCor something, and as long as he�s fed with dieseldaily, he generates all the electricity a site couldneed. Of course, if you have been to the NationalFestival camp, you will know this.

HH is for Holly and "Highest standards ofsafety�. Holly is a spaniel, and consequently, madas three fridge doors. She is brown and whiteand wherever you really need to tread with yoursize 8 toe-tectors, you will find her, unless you�rein bed, in which case she�ll find you, and lick youuntil you get up and come to breakfast. Higheststandards of safety, among other things, werewhat wrg were being credited with by a glowing,appreciative commentatator - whilst Bungle wag-gled around at the top of the slightly bent scaf-folding pole we�d lashed with BT rope to a pieceof less-than-straight, half-buried ironwork.

II is for In the water. This is where Holly wasfound, having celebrated the end of the event byjumping into the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal.

J

J is for Jumping into the Gloucester & Sharp-ness Canal. See under 'I'.

KK is for Keith. Keith was head honcho of thefundraising bar (at least £5,000 was generatedby his beer-thirsty customers) and was so happywith our work that he bought us a round in one ofhis TWO pubs. The CCT outdid him by shoutingus dinner.

LL is for Laura and Land Rover. Laura was do-ing her DofE Residential Dooberry (oops) andpresented our camp leader with a strange formto complete to prove it. Laura somehowmanagedto avoid a barrage of Essex jokes despite beingfrom Woodham Ferrers, is much better than meat hammering lamp irons in, and between boutsof heavy lifting, hammering and glass-washing,smiled sweetly at everybody, especially Dudley.Nick�s battleship grey 1960s Land Rover was animportant vehicular member of the camp given acomplete lack of red Transits on camp. I can stillhear its Rover V8 rumble even as I type this.

MM is for Mark, Mississippi Mud Pie andMercedesMinibus.Mark is me, Mk2! I attemptedsome assistant camp leader impressions, untilI realised that (a) Dave and Bungle - and oc-casionally Cath - were already doing it for realand (b) it�s not really necessary on a camp withonly 4/5 volunteers.

Mississippi Mud Pie was Cath�s most memora-ble creation. It made real Mississippi mud looka bit runny in comparison, and the only bitsthat didn�t require a mattock to attack themwere the marshmallows hidden in the choco-late sauce. No one could move for at least aquarter of an hour after finishing it, and I reckonall would have agreed that had the worst cometo the worst for anyone, it would have been adamn fine chocolatey way to go. The ratherupmarket hired Vito Minibus was another stylish,if not very authentic, replacement for a wrg Tran-sit. It was white with black glass and aircon (!).

NN is for Nick C-S and Neil Ritchie. NickCoolican-Smith was our camp leader and alsogave the impression of being vaguely in chargeof Holly, even though it was obvious that she hadher own agenda. Nick and Anna, equipped withtheAVH, some cable ties, and minor local knowl-edge, went out and did the road signage. Thisdid not stop several members of the general pub-lic from ignoring all the signs and simply drivingto Saul village, parking badly and then wonder-ing where the event was.

Neil Ritchie could have told them, but he was zip-ping around, followed by his faithful collie, co-ordinating things, including our various accom-modation venues. Thanks to Neil for finding usplaces to lay our li-los at short notice.

OO is for orange fencing. You simply cannothave an event without this wonderfully stretchy,high-vis stuff. Unless of course, you have nocable ties.

page 10

PP is for Pavilion. Whitminster Cricket Pavilion,our main accom for the camp, had vandal-proofshutters over its rather chunky opening windows.We opened them, and the windows. Cath arrivedon the scene shortly after and had an argumentwith one window, resulting in a temporary loss ofuprightness and a bruise to rival a rainbow.

QQ is for Quedgeley, and QOTD. Quedgeley hastwo things of note: an excellent, modern commu-nity centre with everything except a shower, anda Chinese takewaway as recommended by yoursmooth-talking Adrian Fry. And, er, that�s prob-ably it, but after taking a look at the wedding partyopposite, I didn�t feel inclined to stay around andfind out the rest.

QOTD is Quote of the Day. Awarded daily(noooo...), this coveted title was given to the mostmemorable thing anyone said. QOTD winnersincluded:

Cath: �No you CAN�T use the griddle � I�m using itas a storage unit�

Cath�s verdict on the commentator: �I think it�s hisineptness thatmakes him sound patronising�

Mark:�I�m off to get some double-sided tape forthese �fire point� signs�

Dave:�Why?�Mark:�You can�t stick signs to aluminiummarquee

uprights with 6-inch nails�Dave:�Watch me��

RR is for Run out. This what happens to cableties, just when you need three more.

SS is for Saul Junction, Sheriff, Snoring, andSpeedwell. Saul Junction is where the Stroud-water canal, which is under restoration, meetsthe still very active Gloucester & Sharpness ca-nal. There used to be a kind of level crossingwhere the two waterways meet, which must havebeen interesting to watch in its day. Now all that�sleft is a derelict lock on the western side. We cel-ebrated its survival by surrounding it with steelfencing for health and safety reasons. The Sher-iff wore big blue overalls with a star-like logo andlooked very important. On event days, he turnedinto Clive the Commentator and said really nicethings about wrg in between drawing lucky pro-gramme numbers.

Snoring is what often happens when very tiredwrgies go to sleep. I know this because I do notsleep well, and I often lie awake noting how thebig snorers race each other to sleep, hoping notto be the one to remain awake, unable to sleepfor the snoring. Speedwell is a rather handsomeSevern tug, built in 1968. It has a huge 300+horsepower turbocharged Ruston diesel, withcompressed air start. Bungle was near-ecstaticwhen the British Waterways man said he couldcome back later and start it up. He did, and I haveto say it sounded lovely (the engine, not the Bun-gle murmurings).

TT is for Tea, Thomas and The Trust.Not only didwe have noTransit, butalsoanon-functioningBurco.This problem was neatly sidestepped by barrowinghuge flaggons of water to the CCT�s visitor centre,boiling their Burco, and then barrowing a huge potof tea back to wherever we were working/eating.

UU and V are for ultraviolet rays. I caught a fewand as a result have a spectacular andunrecoverable farmer�s tan.

VV is for Village politics. Local people don�t takekindly to their school being closed down, and sur-prisingly, making it a wrg accom three months lateris even less popular. So on the �if we can�t have it,neither can they� principle... you know the rest!

WW is for Whitminster. Try the Forge Inn if you�reever there, but don�t take your dog indoors. Also,check out the outstandingly good taste of the lo-cals - the village is full of Land Rovers.

XX is for Xantia. I�m sure there were a few of those inthecarpark,probablywithtow-hitchesandbead-seats.

YY is for Yelp, which is what escaped from the daftclot from the marquee erectors who was workingon site with no toecaps in his shoes. It was a bigsledge hammer, so things could have been worse.

ZZ is for Zonked; see under S for Snoring.

Mark Antony "Mk2"

page 11

Camp reportsWilts & Berks: Installing thebascule bridge at Foxham

Camp 0206: Wilts and Berks Canal6th-13th July

Never has so much been achieved by so fewin so short a time...

Seriously, I was delighted with the success of thecamp, in that all the targets we had set ourselveswere finally completed by the second Saturday �even if it take until that evening, and David Jamesand Phill Cardy stayed on to help with the finish.This particular target referred to the new lift (bas-cule) bridge installation at Foxham, where thegroundwork and preparation had been the workof previous camps.

We had been hoping that the bridge might havebeen ready for the June camp, but this couldn�tbe, so we were determinednot to disappoint the nav-vies hoping to participate inits installation on this camp.The manufacture and test-ing of the bridge at thebridge builder�s workshop(Mick Gillman) were com-pleted the previous week,and it was then dismantledready for painting. Four ofthe campers started off onthe Sunday morning withthis job, all masked andgowned, and managed tofinish the first coat by theend of the day. The planwas for the second coat togo on on Monday, and in-stallation on Tuesday.WRONG...

It rained nearly all day onMonday, and on Tuesdaythe morning was washedout, and we all poured intothe minibus and headed forthe Railway Museum inSwindon. MickGillmanwasworking on a job some-where in the MidlandsWednesday to Friday, buthe transported the bridgeparts down to Foxham any-way on Tuesday, so wecould at least go ahead withpainting later in the week ifit cleared up. Fortunately,this was possible, and Mickturned up on site 10a.m.Saturday to start thereassembly, with the help ofPhill and David.

The actual installation did throw up a few prob-lems, but at least the deck was in place that day.The finishing touches were done with Mick�s helpby Phill and Rob Brotherston, who were by thenon another camp down the canal at Summit Lock.Rob had also been on our camp. What devotionto duty � and I am very grateful.

Above: Seven Locks:the last of the concrete backfill is laid. Below:'dressed to paint'. Photos by Jeremy Yearron.

page 12

Camp reports"We never had to send Katy thedog to wake the oversleepers.."

There were actually 10 of us on the camp,inc lud ing two new navv ies , bothnarrowboaters, who fitted in very well, andworked extremely hard. Young Tom wasshattered by the end of the week, but hope-fully he and Jeremy will be back for moresome time.

One of the biggest jobs on the camp wasputting in 800 metres of 3-strand barbed wirefencing alongside the towpath hedge at theeastern end of the Dauntsey stretch. Thisalso involved taking out the old wire, whichhad been stapled to the towpath trees (pre-venting Di from laying them next Autumn/Winter), and cutting back all the thick over-hanging branches and brambles.

The farmer, Philip Smith, made light work ofputting the stakes in with his Matbro tractor.It took a team two and a half days, but onceagain, the job was all finished. Philip Smithsaid it would have taken him at least threeweeks doing it on his own, so he was verygrateful.

We also poured approximately 12 cubic metresof concrete infill behind the offside lock wall onLock Three at Seven Locks, this despite our largeconcrete mixer breaking a chain, and the smallermixer having to come into use for the last cubicmetre.

One afternoon we visited Valley Lock on theThames and Severn to collect some large cop-ing stones which were not needed there, so wecould use them on the wing walls of Lock 3.

We had a couple of shower runs and swimsduring the week, plus a visit to the cinema,where we split up between 'Spiderman', andTom Cruse�s latest film, the latter being so weirdthat I can�t remember the title. I defy anyone,of whatever age, not to have found it decidedlyweird!

Di kept us well fed as usual, with plenty of stickycakes lunchtime.

I can�t remember a camp like this one where eve-ryone crawled out of their sleeping bags by the�crack of sparrows�, and we never once had tosend Katy the dog round to wake theoversleepers. Breakfast was over and done withsoon after 8 o�clock, and we were often on siteby 8:30.

Thanks again to Phill, Luke, David, Rob, Tom,Jeremy, Brian, Bernd and Di from both myselfand our local workparty.

Rachael Banyard

The 'Oxford Canal style' bascule bridge at Foxham, complete and being load-tested by the ubiqui-tous Land Rover. (Luke Walker)

page 13

Camp reportsFrom the Cotswolds (whicharen't in East Angular...)

Big Botheron theCotswoldCanals...

A live account from the "Camp 0209 House"(and lock, and bridge...)

Saturday night. The new arrivals are enteringthe Camp 0209 House (aka Selsley Scout hut)for the first time. As they settle down to watchthe WRG Health & Safety video they are notice-ably apprehensive... As there is no cook, all theinmates will have to share kitchen duties... Popu-larity ratings could well depend on havingwatched 'The Naked Chef'...

There are 25 contestants, 13 of them first-timers.Of the whole 25, only three are female - Amy,Jade and Lesley.

The accommodation is spartan for most, butMartin, Ian, Ernie, Lesley and Max have occu-pied a smaller room in the 'Rich Side' of the Camp0209 House. (on the other hand, it's right next tothe gents)

Sunday. Tunji has mysteriously been evicted at6am, before actually making it on site. The restof the contestants view their first task at Ham MillLock. They have to remove a fence, cut downtrees and dig down to expose and rebuild a bur-ied spill-weir. The first part is going OK but it issoon obvious that water is running through theweir chamber from the lock and leaking outthrough a hole in the brickwork, which makes forsticky going in the clay bed. As more earth isremoved the spoil-heap builds up, and a roughterrace is constructed on the bank above the riverfrom felled trees and pegged with stakes.

Another group is scraping down an iron-framedwooden-decked footbridge for repainting and dis-mantling the stonework of one of the wingwallsfor rebuilding, while a small team helps 'Sparky'with tree-clearing and log-chipping.

A slight cultural clash sees one group discussingRio Ferdinand's transfer fee and whether Jadewill last the week (that's the one on TV not onCamp 0209!), while the others get stuck into adiscussion of the Galilean Heresy and the open-ing moves in Chess.

Everything takes longer than we think. By thetime we've got back to the House, showered andeaten shepherd's pie and Jade's cake it's almostbedtime.

Monday. In line with the cultural divide, Jamesbuys 'The Express' and 'The Daily Mirror'. Thecontestants are learning the new game of 'Get inthe van' which has to be played at least twice aday all week.

Back on site the tasks go on, although the teamsare pacing themselves better as the funnel-shaped 'weir pan' slope down to the bywash cul-vert is completely uncovered, primer starts go-ing on the bridge and a pyramid of removedstones sits unsteadily beside a large hole wherethe bridge wing wall used to be.

An attempt is made to pump out the 'slime tub' i.e.the short length of canal between the stop-planksand a concrete dam above the gate recesses - thisis where the water is leaking into the bywash from.

Before (1): the Ham Mill Lock bywash before thestart of work on Camp 0209. (Martin Ludgate)

page 14

Camp reportsWho's that in the (canal) bed withNeil?Don'tmissthenextinstalment!

Adrian turns up with a very shiny brand-new 2"pump and successfully fools us all into believingthat he has just nipped into Pumps-R-Us andbought it with his own money, rather than fetch-ing it from the CCT compound.

Meanwhile 'Sparky' awaits the arrival of a newpart. (for his chainsaw)

In a surprise move, Sleepy Dave is evicted justafter dinner (Sweet & sour chicken followed byfruit flan) on Monday evening, following whichthere is a trip to see the site of Series 1 of BigBother last year at Valley Lock, and the TunnelHouse pub.

Tuesday. Day three in the Camp 0209 House.The cultural gap has widened as James makeshis early morning trip for the 'Independent' andthe 'Sun'.

On site, clearance of vegetation from the offsidelock chamber wall begins. The 2" pump is sup-plemented by a hired in 3" and the 'Slime Tub' ispumped-out again and some more Acrow propsinserted to support the stop-planks better.

Steve D pre-empts his expected eviction by mak-ing a late-night flit over the rooftops while the rest ofus go ten-pin bowling - whereAdrian wins his gameconvincingly, with Ian in second place. This is ratherstrange as in fact they are both still on-site till 10pmtrying (unsuccessfully) to block up the paddle-holeto stop the water from flowing through the weirchamber. Themystery is explained by the fact thatboth of their places have in fact been taken by Tunjiwho has returned to replace the escapee Steve.

Navvy instincts are developing among the newcontestants: on returning to the accommodationthere is a late-night rush for the six-slot toaster, aquick heap of toast then a flash and a bang andall the lights go out...

That's all for this episode but if you can't waitfor 'Navvies' 195 and the second episode youcan continue following the events in the Camp0209 House on ChannelWRGDIgital... (or what-ever they say at the end of a Big Brother episode -I've never actually got to the end of one withoutturning the telly off...)

'Davina' McFadyen

Before (2): the Jubilee Bridge wing wall before demolition and rebuilding started. See the next'Navvies' for the second half of the report and the 'after' photos. (Martin Ludgate)

page 15

Attack of Traileritus

Since the last issue of Navvies (surely � don�tcall me that! � only a month ago?!) things havebeen incredibly busy. So what�s new?! And it�snot going to let up for a wee while yet...

Is this article going to be in the style of anything?Well, yes it is, but it�s going to be in Just Jen styleas hectivity dictates! I really haven�t got time todo anything else justice (some would arguewhether I ever do!!) so you�ll have to put up withmy usual banter!

Typical, isn�t it? Shed-loads to do and we�re stillshed-less, not to mention one down (still!) in thetrailer department.

Needless to say, a shed really wouldn�t be ofmuch use for the amount of miles one has had tocover in order to sort stuff due to the lack of atrailer for Kit A. This should (fingers, toes, legs,T�s, everything crossed!) change soon due to saidtrailer allegedly being ready for collection. I shan�tbe holding my breath mind until I have seen itwith my own two eyes [Note to self � Rememberto pack own two eyes before setting off for Mar-ple.] judging by their previous attempts!!!!

Whilst on the subject of the new trailer I wish tosincerely thank wrg North West for their verygenerous donation of fifty percent of the trailercost.Which half would you all like? Front or back,or we could split it top or bottom if you wish?Seriously though, thank you very much � theremay just be a few teaspoons in it for you!

I would also like to thank Neil Ritchie of CotswoldCanals Trust, for the kind offer of use of their smallbox trailer if we should need it! Much appreci-ated!

So much for the summer being my quiet pe-riod!

Moving swiftly on from trailers... Aargh! If anyonementions that word again there�ll be what for, Ican tell you! ...

Before the camp season started you may havefound yourself idly flicking through the pages ofNavvies 193, and may also have come across asomewhat bijou logistical reportette towards therear. It appears that I left out the crucial words 'ifyou don�t' under the sub-title 'The Usual Gripe!'after 'the end of the week'! You should�ve beenable to work that one out though ...

The camp season is well under way by now, withmany camps having already been. Just a fewpoints to note thus far:

Some people STILL aren�t filling in their kit lists,let alone correctly (and you wonder why the kitturns up with useful thingsmissing at times!). Howmany times do I have to ask you to do this? It�snot difficult!!!!!!

Somebody somewhere has been eating coolpacks � a very peculiar diet if you ask me, butthen that�s the only explanation for the disappear-ance of every single one of them before the sum-mer! I can�t understand how you lose them ... oh,silly me! If you can manage to lose a roastingtray, a cool pack is easy peasy!

And whilst I�m on about eating, beware the evilwheelbarrow-eating dumpers!! Last spotted inDevon but they�re lurking in every town, so pleasetake care. And remember, wheelbarrows aren�tas cheap as you think they may be to replace!

My last point of note is that when you fill in thevehicle reports, if you find that any of the tyrepressures are low, or there�s a problem of somekind, can you please get it sorted as the vansdo lots of miles during a camp, particularly ifit�s a Droitwich one!!! If it�s something �big�,could you please ring Roger first just to checkand also to let him know what�s going on withhis vans.

Well, that appears to be it for now... no doubtsome gem of enlightenment or crucial need-to-know item will pop into my head shortly aftersending this to Martin but I�m sure it will wait! It�llhave to!

All that does remain though is to say a HUGE"thank you" to Womble for sorting out yet anotheryear�s successful TrainingWeekend! No small feat(but small and perfectly formed feet I think you�llfind she has!)! And Alan Lines took some smash-ing photos too (pointy, pointy!)!

Safe and Happy Digging to you all! [And whereare all my postcards and dirty photos then?]

Incompetence � riddled with more logistics thanever!

Just Jenlogistics@wrg.org.uk

Logistics"Some people STILL aren'tfilling in their kit lists..."

Canal Camps cost £35 per week unless otherwiseBookings for WRGCanal Camps (those identifiedcamp number e.g. 'Camp 0228') should go toWRGCamps, PO Box 114, RickmansworthWD3 1ZY.Tel: 01923 711114. Email: enquiries@wrg.org.u

page 16

DiaryAug 19-29 Camp 0218 IWA National Waterways Festival - Huddersfield: Canal Camp setting-up and taAug 23-26 wrgNW The �National� (Huddersfield): Sales StandAug 31/Sep 1 LondonWRG Ipswich & Stowmarket Navigation: Creeting Lock.Sep 1 Sun Navvies Press date for issue 195Sep 6/7 Essex WRG To be arrangedSep 7/8 KESCRG Lichfield CanalSep 7/8 wrgNW Castlefield Carnival: Sales Stand (provisional)Sep 7/8 SUCS Montgomery CanalSep 7-14 Camp 0219 Grantham Canal Camp: Chamber clearances on Cropwell Bishop flight.Sep 14/15 NWPG Basingstoke Canal: Dig Deep project at St Johns. NOTE DATE CHANGED froSep 15 Sun WRG Committee & Board MeetingsSep 21/22 wrgBITM Basingstoke Canal: Bring-a-Boat weekend. Dig Deep project at St Johns. LeadSep 21/22 LondonWRG Wey & Arun CanalSep 22 Sun D&SCSG Dorset & Somerset Canal: Clearance of Fussells Balance Lock trial site near MSep 28 Sat wrgNW �Paper Chase� waste paper collectionOct 5/6 KESCRG Basingstoke Canal: Dig Deep project at St Johns. KESCRG's 25th birthday!Oct 5/6 wrgNW Aston (Montgomery Canal): �Bring-a-Boat� weekend, including wrgBC AGMOct 12/13 NWPG Wey & Arun CanalOct 12/13 LondonWRG Thames & Severn CanalOct 12/13 SUCS Montgomery CanalOct 19/20 wrgBITM Wendover Arm: Leader: Mark Gribble.Oct 22 or 23 Navvies Issue 195 Assembly: London Canal Museum 7pm onwards.Oct 26-Nov 1 Camp 0220 Lichfield Canal Camp: Leaders: Dave �Moose� Hearndon & Leonie GreenhalghNov 1 Fri Navvies Press date for issue 196 including Canal Societies directoryNov 2/3 WRG 'Bonfire Bash' - Mon & Brec Canal (see booking form enclosed with this issue)

Nov 2/3 LondonWRG Mon & Brec Canal: WRG 'Bonfire Bash' Reunion weekendNov 2/3 wrgNW Mon & Brec Canal: WRG 'Bonfire Bash' Reunion weekendNov 9 Sat wrgNW �Paper Chase� waste paper collectionNov 9/10 SUCS Montgomery CanalNov 16/17 wrgBITM Sleaford Navigation: Jungle bashing. Leader: Tony HinsleyNov 17 Sun WRG Committee & Board MeetingsNov 30/Dec 1 LondonWRG Christmas Party with KESCRG: (venue TBA)Nov 30/Dec 1 KESCRG Christmas Party with London WRG (venue TBA)Dec 7/8 wrgNW Aston (Montgomery Canal)Dec 14/15 wrgBITM Wilts & Berks Canal: Christmas Working Party Dig. Accom at Brinkworth VillagDec 14 Sat wrgNW �Paper Chase� waste paper collectionDec 17 or 18 Navvies Issue 196 Assembly: London Canal Museum 7pm onwards.Dec 26-Jan 1 Camp 0221 Basingstoke Canal: New Year Canal Camp: Leader: Dave Worthington. CuttingDec 26-Jan 1 WBCT Wilts & Berks Canal: Chrisrtmas Canal Camp: Leader: Rachael Banyard, accomm

Scrub clearance and hedgelaying near DauntseyJan 1 Wed Navvies Press date for issue 197

e stated.by a

GCanal

uk

Please send updates to Diary compiler:DaveWedd, 7 RingwoodRd, Blackwater, Camberley, Surrey GU17 0EY.

Tel 01252 874437. e-mail: dave.wedd@wrg.org.uk.

page 17

aking-down the event. Leaders: Mick Beattie & Ali Bottomley.David McCarthy 0161-740-2179 malcolm.bridge@btclick.comTim Lewis 020-8367-6227 london@wrg.org.ukMartin Ludgate 020-8693-3266 martin.ludgate@wrg.org.ukJohn Gale 01277-654683 essex@wrg.org.ukAnswerphone 01622-858329 Kescrg@btinternet.comDavid McCarthy 0161-740-2179 malcolm.bridge@btclick.comGeoff Munro 0121-561-5747 jenser@telco4u.net

m 7/8 Graham Hawkes 0118-941-0586 grahamhawkes@btinternet.com

der: Graham Hotham. DaveWedd 01252-874437 bookings@wrgBITM.org.ukTim Lewis 020-8367-6227 london@wrg.org.uk

Mells, Somerset. Derrick Hunt 01225-863066 derrick@carlingcott7.freeserve.co.ukDavid McCarthy 0161-740-2179

(see p25) Answerphone 01622-858329 Kescrg@btinternet.comDavid McCarthy 0161-740-2179 malcolm.bridge@btclick.comGraham Hawkes 0118-941-0586 grahamhawkes@btinternet.comTim Lewis 020-8367-6227 london@wrg.org.ukGeoff Munro 0121-561-5747 jenser@telco4u.netDaveWedd 01252-874437 bookings@wrgBITM.org.ukJohn Hawkins 01923-448559 hawkins@jote.fsnet.co.uk

. Towpath work and bricklaying.Martin Ludgate 020-8693-3266 martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk

) Adrian Fry 07976-640962 enquiries@wrg.org.ukor Spencer Collins 07976-084055Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227 london@wrg.org.ukDavid McCarthy 0161-740-2179 malcolm.bridge@btclick.comDavid McCarthy 0161-740-2179Geoff Munro 0121-561-5747 jenser@telco4u.netDaveWedd 01252-874437 bookings@wrgBITM.org.uk

Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227 london@wrg.org.ukAnswerphone 01622-858329 Kescrg@btinternet.comDavid McCarthy 0161-740-2179 malcolm.bridge@btclick.com

e Hall DaveWedd 01252-874437 bookings@wrgBITM.org.ukDavid McCarthy 0161-740-2179John Hawkins 01923-448559 hawkins@jote.fsnet.co.uk

g back overhanging vegetation (and burning it!)modation at Foxham. Rahael Banyard 01249 892289

Martin Ludgate 020-8693-3266 martin.ludgate@wrg.org.uk

page 18

3rd Sunday of month BCNS Jeff Barley 01543-3732842ndSunday& followingWed. BCS Cosgrove Athina Beckett 01908-661217Anytime inc. weekdays BCT Aqueduct section Gerald Fry 01288-353273Every Sunday ChCT Various sites Mick Hodgetts 01246-620695Mon & Wed mornings CCT Cotswolds Dudley Greenslade 01453 825515Every weekend (Sat OR Sun)CCT Cotswolds Neil Ritchie 01452-8540571st Sunday of month CCT Cotswolds: summit MarkWelton 01453-872405Wednesday evenings CCT Cotswolds: East end Keith Harding 01451-8601814th Mon of month, 6pm CMT London Canal Mus. Martin Sach 020-7625-7376Every Saturday DCT Droitwich Canal Jon Axe 0121-608 0296Second Sun of month FIPT Foxton Inclined Plane Mike Beech 0116-279-26571st & 3rd Sundays GCRS Grantham Canal Colin Bryan 0115-989-22482nd Sat of month GWCT Nynehead Lift Denis Dodd 01823-661653Tuesdays H&GCT Oxenhall Brian Fox 01432-358628Wednesdays H&GCT Over Ted Beagles 01452-522648Saturdays H&GCT Over Maggie Jones 01452-618010Occasional Sundays H&GCT Overwharf house fitoutNigel Bailey 01452-533835Every Sunday if required IWPS Bugsworth Basin Ian Edgar 01663-7324931st Saturday&3rdWed. IWA Ipswich Stowmarket Navigtn. Colin Turner 01473-7305862nd weekend of month IWA SBC Maesbury, Mont. Barry Tuffin 01691-670826/492nd weekend of month K&ACT John Rolls 01189-6663161st Sunday of month LHCRT Lichfield John Horton 01543 2624663rd Sunday of month LHCRT Hatherton Denis Cooper 01543-3743702nd & last Sundays PCAS Paul Waddington 01757-6380272nd 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 01483-7217103rd Sunday of month TMCA David Rouse 01474-362861Approx 15th of month WACT Mid-Week group Colin Gibbs 020-82417736Every Sunday & Thursday WACT Devils Hole Lock EricWalker 023-9246-3025Thursdays fortnightly WACT Maintenance Unit Peter Wilding 01483-422519or for general information on Wey & Arun contact their office on 01403-7524031st weekend of month WAT Little Tring Roger Leishman 01442-874536Every weekend WBCT Wilts & Berks Canal Peter Smith 01793-852883Every Sunday W&BCC Dauntsey / Foxham Rachael Banyard 01249-892289Please send any amendments, additions and deletions to Dave Wedd (address on previous page)

Abbreviations used in DiaryBCG Barnsley Canal GroupBCNS BirminghamCanal Navigations Soc.BCS Buckingham Canal SocietyBCT Bude Canal TrustChCT Chesterfield Canal TrustCCT Cotswolds Canals TrustCMT Canal Museum Trust (London)DCT Droitwich Canals TrustFIPT Foxton Inclined Plane TrustD&SCS Derby & Sandiacre Canal SocietyGCRS Grantham Canal Restoration SocietyGWCT Grand Western Canal TrustH&GCT Hereford & Gloucester Canal TrustIWA SBC IWA Shrewsbury & Border Counties

IWPS InlandWaterways Protection SocietyK&ACT Kennet &Avon Canal TrustKESCRG Kent & E Sussex Canal Rest. GroupLHCRT Lichfield &HathertonCanalsRest'n TrustLWRG LondonWaterway Recovery GroupNWPG Newbury Working Party GroupPCAS Pocklington Canal Amenity SocietySCARS Sankey Canal Restoration SocietySCCS Somersetshire Coal Canal SocietySHCS Surrey & Hants Canal SocietyTMCA Thames & Medway Canal AssociationWBCT Wilts & Berks Canal TrustW&BCC Wilts & Berks Canal CompanyWACT Wey & Arun Canal TrustWAT Wendover Arm Trust

Mobile groups' social evenings(please phone to confirm before turning up)London WRG: 7:30pm on Tues 11 days beforeeach dig. 'Jugged Hare', Vauxhall Bridge Rd,London, Tim Lewis 020-8367 6227 ore-mail wrgtim@netscapeonline.co.uk.NWPG: 9:00pm on 3rd Tue of month at the'Hope Tap', West end of Friar St. Reading.Graham Hawkes 0118 941 0586

DiaryCanal society regularworking parties

Regular monthly or weekly working parties:

page 19

LettersIs there no escaping fromWRG?

Dear Editor

I note Noel Christopher�s letter in Navvies 193and I must mention, before numbers of peoplearmed with oil cans invade the Huddersfield Nar-row Canal, that Huddersfield Canal Society haveoiled and greased the gearing and gate collarssince the start of the cruising season. This wasnot intended to embarrass BW, but to contributetowards overcoming some of the difficulties fromlast season. A second run is planned before the�National�.

Much of the work that BW have carried out is hidden from view - a large number of paddles andguides have been replaced and leaks repaired in an attempt to improve the water situation and workhas been done in Standedge Tunnel to avoid problems of damage to boats. Some progress is alsobeing made on the lack of facilities along the canal, though planning is a slow process.

BW are currently heavily-committed on the Rochdale, again working to a tight deadline for reopen-ing. Because they must focus on the major projects, I think it is inevitable that some of the problemsthat boaters experienced in the first year of the Huddersfield will resurface there - anyone expectingsilky-smooth paddle gear, well-practiced water management and sanitary stations every couple ofmiles would be well-advised to think carefully. On the other hand, if you want to pioneer a historicwaterway with spectacular scenery.....

Trevor Ellis

Also on the subject of the Huddersfield, I'm pleased to see that BW have now stopped claiming thatit would be impossibly expensive to rebuild the sections of the Huddersfield that were restored to asize that is narrower than the original 7ft-ish, and are now committed to gradually dealing with the'pinch points' so that evenually the canal will be able to take traditional working narrow boats as wellas pleasure craft built to the modern 6ft 10in standard. ...Ed

Dear Editor,

I have finally come to realise, that it is impossible to go anywhere within the UK without comingacross something to do with WRG, or WRG itself.

It is �normal� while driving the motorways to see a WRG van, or WRGie going to a camp/weekend.

However, we spent a week on the canals over Easter and and while trying to find a good mooringplace (good area, nice and quiet) due to the quickly fading light, came across the tones of a certainPalmerette, as we found the hall acting as host to the Droitwich camp (not so quiet!).

To finish things off, I thought I would relax and watch some television - and guess what? Yes within2 minutes of the beginning of the programme starting, Tom & Rachel and Brian Carr (who looked asif he had spent numerous hours beforehand getting his make-up and hair just right!) appeared onscreen, while doing the 24hr BCN Challenge, followed by Helen and Chris Davey having a discus-sion. The programme changed issues, and stupidly I thought that was that! No, not such luck! to topit all Dave Penny appeared (clearly had been to the same make-up caravan as Brian) while on aweek camp on the H&G. Once again good reference was made to WRG, including the showing ofmore �famous� WRG faces, not forgetting your own.

It is good to see that the publicity and hence awareness of WRG continues. I do however lookforward to receiving the next issue of �Navvies�, so that I can try to ensure the impossible and getaway from anything to do with WRG for at least one month!!

(For those that want to know - the programmewas �WaterWorld� on the Home& Leisure Discovery Channel).

RegardsMark Scoble

Dear Martin,

While I totally agree with your sentiment for the caption on page 30 of issue 193 ("...exactly what Little Veniceis all about" - the Pool full of boats.) If one looks closely only half the Pool appears to be full of boats...

Now I remember a time when it really WAS full of boats (early morning mist swirls around, and in thebackground the sounds of Navvy songs swell up; my hair changes back from grey to brown and getsten times longer). We�re now back in 1980!

I had the dubious privilege and pleasure of being the berthing master at the 1980 'National'. Oh Iforget the exact numbers, too much ale swilling, but let�s settle for around 650 boats. Anyway, word wasout that after the 'National' we were going to have a Rally, an impromptu gathering. So much more funthan spending a year and half having meetings, telephone calls, (no email back then!). It was simply"here�s the place, see you there." The place was the end of the Lea (or should that be Lee ) Navigationin Hertford. We packed the basin and all I can recall was everyone sitting on the top of their boatswith beer in their hands having a right old time. Sometime during the proceedings, John Thorneycroft(Was that his name? Help me someone!) who along with Sue(?) ran the cinema boat on Duke, wasrunning around the place looking for some sheets (he must have been cold that night). Anyway,don�t recall who had some, but the next thing we knew, the sheets were hanging down over a bridgeparapet and John had yanked his projector out of the cabin and on top of the roof. We all sat therein the evening with friends, family and beer watching a film (forget the name) al fresco.

Apologies about the rambling preamble but the "success" of this event caused Jim McDonald to call meup several nights later and ask me if I was interested in organizing another Rally - this one for C.A.N.A.L.- the Campaign for Action on Navigations And Locks. For you younger folk, this was a time when WRGand BWwere not exactly best buddies. Wehadcausesback then, because.... oh,whocan rememberwhy?Jimsaid, could I "fill thebasin?"Er, I guess so, I�ll get thewordout but I can�t promiseanythingafter the 'National'whether I�ll get one boat or a hundred. Jim said he would be handling the press and TV side of things. Wellcome the day, we really did fill the basin. People came from everywhere to show their Members of Parliament(andanyoneelsewhowould listen) just howwe felt about theway thewaterwayswere (not) being treated! Wewere jam-bloody-packed, nowhere to swing a tiller. There were boats tied up outside the Pool at all threeentrances. Somehow the trip boats made it through - we couldn�t stop waterway traffic could we?! Wehad a field day with the radio and TV (got it on video somewhere at home).

So thanks Martin, for helping an old hand relive some great times.

Still supporting you all from Northern CaliforniaJeremy Frankel (ex London WRG)

Dear Martin,

You mention a flashback on the Monty: here�s one from the LMSR days...

Two friends of mine were taking a canoeing holiday along the Severn (above Newtown) and theMonty in May 1941. They reached the Aston flight. The lock keeper issued them a ticket for theircanoe. One of them noticed that the date of the last entry in the lock keeper�s book was 1936, andremarked that he hoped this wasn�t a full-time job...

YoursRoger Wilkinson

Was that the last official passage throughAston locks? When will the next one be? Probably next May. ...Ed

Dear Martin

Navvies Production and �other thoughts�.

Following on from Martin�s Editorial in the last edition of Navvies the �Production Team� would like tore-iterate several of the points raised by him, particularly regarding getting all articles in before thepress-date, and not just hanging on until the end. This can cause further delays, if certain aspectsneed to be clarified, or if any of the machines break down.page 20

These press dates are set well in advance in order to assist anybody whomay wish to F.A.R.T. (see page3 edition 193); I am also getting short of leave, and we would much rather be out on a Canal Camp or onother activities that we may be involved with: it can all be fitted in provided that the dates are all adheredto; or be prepared for Martin to leave out your article, no matter how important you think it may be.

A few years ago, when the assembly took place in Finchley, and also during the early times at theCanal Museum the complete magazine was collated, folded, stapled and put into envelopes andstamped (the horrid old �licky� kind) during the evening. But then we managed to buy a second handcollating machine; which greatly cut down the time and boredom in producing Navvies, and alsomoved onto self-seal envelopes. During this time we would usually give about 2 weeks notice to thepeople who attend the assembly and I would have completed at least the majority of the printing.

But now I find that I am confirming the assembly date with the Canal Museum and carrying out the�phone around� before the artwork has reached the platemakers which gives us about ten days, withany luck; to get it completed. And also since we purchased a small booklet stapling and foldingmachine the bulk of the production is completed. Although we now have the machinery we still needthe original lead times in order to ensure the set dates.

Yes, I would agree that the assembly evening is far less demanding then it used to be, but none the lessit still very important. Themore observant may have noticed that we have nowmoved away from stampsand are now franking the envelopes prior to us delivering them to I.W.A. Head Office in Rickmansworth.

One final point re WRGPrint is that, like everybody within WRG we are all volunteers and are notemployed by I.W.A. nor anybody else.

On a more personal note I would like to add that I generally agree with the majority of the pointsmade in the letters by Steev Stamford - sorry about the colour of the renewals, but at least younoticed it; and Mike Rennolds regarding �armchair supporters� and �ages�, etc. Yes, give it a go. Sowhere have you booked for this year Mike?

And finally, referring back to Martin�s Editorial in issue No. 193 (sorry Martin, mine is not as good asyours): if your Navvies Is Completed Early then you must Fart A Report Today.

John Hawkins

Dear Editor,

We were delighted to read your Chairman�s Comments (Navvies No.192) regarding BW�s new, smil-ing attitude to restoration groups.

However, this change of heart is not so recent and we are surprised that BW is still occasionallymisunderstood.

During the years of Mr. Fletcher�s management BW has become a carefully structured businessenterprise, efficiently run on sound commercial principles. Like any properly orientated company,this involves the usual two fold business plan. Viz:

. Increase revenue. Decrease costs.

A cursory glance at the boating press soon reveals that boaters have been aware of the first part ofthis plan for some three years. Once certain minor obstacles had been removed, like the WaterwaysOmbudsman, BW were able to exercise their monopoly position to introduce a more realistic licencecharging scheme. This scheme, known as �Rip Off Boaters By Escalating Rates Yearly� (or ROB-BERY for short) has proved highly successful and is now also to be applied to mooring fees. Hereat the Office of Fair Fees for Canal Users and Transporters (or OFFCUT for short) we receive avariety of comments on these charging systems; some of them complimentary.

BW�s attitude to restoration groups falls on the other side of the quoin. Carried out by BW, restora-tion work would be a costly exercise which the boaters could probably not afford; however if the workwere undertaken by unpaid volunteers, which in turn could even attract external funding, then clearlythe option becomes more viable.

page 21

page 22

Letters...and the WRG Boat Clubnews...

No forward thinking company should miss the op-portunity to expand its business at someone else�scost. BWmay have been a little slow to grasp thisprinciple since no policy statement has yet beenissued, but we understand an internal memo, dueto be leaked later this month, encourages employ-ees to adopt a helpful attitude to volunteer groups.This directive has been christened �the DAYLIGHTmemo�, perhaps because it radiates the sunshinewhich MKP experienced at their show but moreprobably because its content is summarised as

�Dig All You Like, It Generates Higher Turnover�. Or, in business terms, the bigger the System, thebigger the revenue base.

Under this integrated DAYLIGHT ROBBERY policy, BW is rapidly turning to profitability, a situationwhich must benefit the waterways. Amongst other things, as charges increase and the wholesystem goes up-market, we expect to see a better class of people on the water: no more hippycommunes on the bank, no more retired old gentlemen pottering around and getting in the way, nomore live-aboard old ladies with their dogs, no more smelly old wooden boats puffing smoke and steam;just immaculately painted all-steel and glass, electrically driven corporate narrow boats, Tupperwarecruisers dripping chrome and flags, and smart hotel boats with those cargoes of dazed expressions.Canals for all! (Well, all who can afford it.) Andrew Arthurson�s, the ex-auditors, estimate that BWwill be sufficiently profitable to go public by 2008, by which time they will have acquired EA, movedtheir headquarters to Golden Square, introduced the only (by then) employee pension scheme tiedto final salary and may, possibly, have dredged the moorings at Gayton Junction.

Is it any wonder they smile?

Yours truly,Baillie Bridges

OFFCUT

WaterwayRecoveryGroupBoatClubwrg bbc newsFirst and very important the working weekendon the Basingstoke. This is on 21/22 Septem-ber. At the time of writing this we are in a�Chicken and Egg� situation as it is hoped thatwe can negotiate favourable rates for RiverWeyand Basingstoke licences. This is very difficultas we have no idea how many members areplanning to bring their boats there, and somemembers wont decide until they know the cost!For those not able to make it to the Basing-stoke there will be another fun packed week-end of work for you to attend by boat. Thisone is organised by wrg NW on the Mont andis on the first weekend in October.Members that I have spoken to had a good(tiring) time on the BCN challenge. Unfortu-nately I missed out on that again this year. If Ican�t get my boat there for next year�s chal-lenge (the river Nene can be moody) will somekind soul take me on as crew please?I also had to miss Middlewich this year, oh woe,woe and thrice woe. I gather that it went verywell, as usual. Quite a fewmembers were thereand WRG NW had their stand.

Here is an opening for members, to write aboutany of the many openings that are taking placethis year, that they get their boats to or through.We all want to know about using these bits ofwaterway that noble folk spend so much time, skilland energy restoring. I have been by boat (notmine) on The Falkirk Wheel, which was excellent,but no way can that be described as restoration!The club AGM will be at Huddersfield. I needideas as to what award we should enter forand, of course, win!

XXX Sadie Deansadiedean@vizzavi.net

Stop Press: the latest on the Basingstoke isthat licence rates have been negotiated. Thosetaking boats on the canal just for the weekendof the dig can have a free trip. Those that wishto leave their boat on the Basingstoke theweekend before the dig and take it away theweekend afterwards can have a licence to dothat for five pounds. There is also a licencerequired for the river Wey. I have been toldthat a transit licence will cost four pounds oneway, eight for a return. For a boat over 41ft 3days will cost £22: 7 days £43: 21 days £65.There is a 10% discount for National Trustmembers.

page 23

Rochdale Restoration � dredging.

Better known to WRGies as a regular CanalCamps leader and the former Logistics supremo,here Mick Beattie describes what he does in hisdaytime job, which is also concerned with canalrestoration and maintenance...

The contractor Land & Water have done the ma-jority of the dredging on the Rochdale Canal. Youmay recognise the name from work undertakenby the company around the canal network or be-cause of the very large long reach excavatorsthe company is known for or because Land &Water are the main sponsor of the 2002 CanalCamps brochure.

Dredging - the removal of material from a water-course to achieve a pre-determined depth - canbe approached in different ways. Traditionallydredging is done with floating equipment - dredg-ers - but can also be done bankside or with anexcavator in the canal bed. All three of thesemeth-ods have been used on the Rochdale Canal.

DredgingClearing silt from the RochdaleCanal

Land & Water have used four of the company�ssix split pontoon "dredgers" on the project. Thepontoon part of the dredger is in two sections,which lock together with slide couplings. Oncetogether a small (6 to 7.5 tonne) excavator istracked or lifted on and the track motors discon-nected and the hydraulic services used to powerthe "spud" legs of the pontoon. The pontoons ofLand & Water, like most boats, are named. Anunusual event occurred during the restoration inwhich, due to an unplanned change of drivers,the pontoon 'Thistle' was driven by a man fromScotland, 'Leek' by a Welshman and there wasan Irish driver on the pontoon 'Shamrock'!

Bankside dredging was done with a JCB JZ70long reach excavator that has an out reach ofover 9m, the excavator was tracked along thetowpath and loaded mud hoppers which aremoved by a tug to the unloading area. On onesection a JCB JS130 (13 tonne excavator) whichwas fitted with a raised turret was tracked intothe canal bed. The raised turret kept the workingpart of themachine and the driver out of the water.Most of the dredged material from the restora-tion was taken off site in sealed wagons to go totip, however on some sections a geotextile bar-rier was installed on the offside of the canal anddredgings were disposed of behind. This barrierhelps protect the canal side and will grow overwith reeds and grasses as well as providing adisposal area without the added cost of roadhaulage and tip costs.

Mick Beattie

Above: JCB JS130 long-reach excavator withraised turret, tracking along the offside bank un-der the watchful eye of a banksman. Below:dredgings disposed of behind geotextile barrieron offside. Photos by Mick Beattie.

page 24

Coming soonDetails of this year's finalfive Canal Camps...

Camp 0218 - the National Waterways Festival19th-29th August

By the time you read this the main summer Ca-nal Camps season will be coming to an end, andCamp 0218 at Huddersfield will be just begin-ning. As usual there will be plenty to do to sup-port the world's biggest inland waterways event,and I'm sure Mick Beattie and Ali Bottomley willwelcome any last-minute bookings, even if youcan only help for a couple of days - especially

just before or during the actual festival weekend. And the almost-end-of-camp party on the Tuesdayevening will have a 'Wild West' theme this year (it's in West Yorkshire, you see!) so it's time to dust-down your spurs and ten-gallon (37.8541 litre) hats or your feather head-dresses and moccasins,saddle-up your horse and load your six-shooters!

Camp 0219 - Grantham Canal: 7th-14th September

Then in September it's the first Canal Campfor several years on the Grantham Canal,working on a new site: a flight of three locksatCropwell Bishop. Initialweekendworkpartiesincluding a visit by BITM in July have revealedmore about the state of the locks and the clear-anceanddemolitionof unsoundwallswill con-tinue during the September camp.

Camp 0220 - Lichfield Canal:26th October - 1st November

Our October camp is scheduled for the Li-chfield Canal, doing some more towpathbuilding on the Tamworth Road section ofthe canal, and the leaders are Dave 'Moose'Hearndon and Leonie Greenhalgh. Notethat this camp finishes on the Friday so you(and the vans, trailer and kit!) have got timeto get to the Bonfire Bash (see opposite page) that weekend.

Camp 0221 - Basingstoke Canal: 26th December - 1st January

Once again we head for the deep south for New Year, spending another week cutting down andburning some more of Pete Redway's seemingly-inexhaustable supply of overhanging vegetationfrom the banks of the Basingstoke Canal. This time it looks like we'll be working on the offside bankin the St Johns area, and we'll get a chance to play with some tugs and barges as that's the easiestway of accessing the bank there. Dave 'Daddy Cool' Worthington is this year's Camp Leader and theaccommodation will probably be at All Saints Church Hall, Woodham, the same as last time.

Dauntsey Christmas Camp - Wilts & Berks Canal: 26th December - 1st January

Also taking place over New Year is the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust's Canal Camp at Dauntsey. Thework will be scrub-bashing and hedge-laying on the section of canal east of Dauntsey Lock, theaccommodation will be at the Reading Rooms, Foxham, and the leader is Rachael Banyard.

Bookings

Bookings for all the above Canal Camps except the WIlts & Berks Christmas Camp should go to HeadOfficeusingtheusualCanalCampsbookingform(available fromheadofficeoronthewebsitewww.wrg.org.uk),and any enquiries should go to Head Office by phone on 01923 711114 or e-mail enquiries@wrg.org.uk.

For theWilts & Berks camp, enquiries and bookings should go toRachaelBanyard on 01249 892289.

Cropwell Bishop Locks, site for the Grantham Camp, re-ceiving attention fromWRG BITM in July. Photo by GNA.

page 25

Coming soon...plus some weekend eventsthat youmight be interested in...

But there's a lot more happening over the nextfew months besides Canal Camps...

BITM Bring-a-boat weekend - Basingstoke Canal21st-22nd September

The annual working party organised byWRGBITMandaimedat thoseWRGieswithboats (even if they'reonly gravy-boats!) takes place on the BasingstokeCanal this year - contact Dave Wedd on 01252-874437 or e-mail bookings@wrgBITM.org.uk formore details. And see the WRG Boat Club news on page 22 for information about special arrange-ments (i.e. cheap licences!) for boaters visiting the Basingstoke to take part in this work party.

KESCRG Siver Jubilee dig - Basingstoke Canal: 5th-6th October

Our friends in KESCRG - if we've got any left (only joking, Ken!) - will be celebrating 25 years in thecanal restoration business this autumn, and are heading back to where it all started as an offshootfrom Kent & East Sussex IWA back in the late 1970s when restoration of the Basingstoke Canal wasgetting into full swing. All volunteers are welcome whether or not they are regular KESCRG volun-teers, but they would especially like to see some of the people who were involved in the early yearsof the group. Contact Eddie Jones on 07850 889249 or e-mail eddie@jazzfm.com for more details.

And it looks likely that a week's extra camp will take place in the run-up to that weekend, to completethe bywash construction work at Deepcut top lock that was left over after the summer camp due tothe job proving much more complex and difficult than anticipated. (Don't they always!) This will beorganised by Eddie Jones and Pete Redway as a Surrey & Hants Canal Society operation, but asusual anyone is welcome to take part in any or all of it, especially people with construction knowl-edge and/or experience. Contact Eddie if you're interested.

WRG 'Bonfire Bash' - Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal:2nd-3rd November

This year's annual November get-together and work-partyfor everyone - whether canal campers new or old, peopleinvolved with WRG and other regional groups, canal societyvolunteers or 'none of the above' - takes place on the spec-tacular Fourteen Locks flight at Rogerstone, on the CrumlinArm of the Monmouthshire Canal near Newport in SouthWales. Adrian Fry and Spencer Collins are the organisersand have set a typically ambitious target of scrub-clearancearound and in all 14 locks plus some possible rebuilding workon the top lock.

We will have a bonfire and fireworks 'do' on Saturday nightbut please don't bring your own fireworks as for insuranceetc. reasons the organisers are supplying all the fireworksthis year and have included this in the cost of the weekend -which is still exceptionally good value at £10. Contact Adrianon 07976-640962 or Spencer on 07976-084055 for moreinformation, and use the enclosed booking form to book in.

KESCRG / London WRG Christmas Party dig: 30th November - 1st December

As this issue goes to press we don't actually have a venue for this annual end-of-year shindig andmajor work-party, but we're looking at various options and hoping to try somewhere new. By the nextissue of Navvies we should be able to bring you details of the site chosen. (In fact if your canalsociety fancies hosting a big-ish weekend dig (50-plus volunteers) that weekend and has suitablework and accommodation, why not get in touch with Eddie Jones on the above phone number?)What we do have already is a theme for the Saturday night party... 'Star Trek'! So set your phaserson 'stun', and get ready to boldly go where no navvy has gone before!

There are 14 of them, mostly in stair-case pairs, and we've got a weekendto clear them all out! (John Hawkins)

page 26

Progress...in pictures.

The St Johns backpumping scheme on the Basingstoke is progressing, and should have made furtherprogress by the time you read it thanks to the KESCRG camp. On a London WRG and KESCRG jointweekend in June, the ground around the outfall weir is being landscaped (above left, photo by MartinLudgate) and the pipeline is being extended down towards Lock 10 (above right, Martin Ludgate). OntheWey &Arun construction of the new LoxwoodAqueduct by contractors is under way (below, WACT).On the Somerset Coal Canal, Midford Aqueduct has been under restoration (opposite top, AdrianTuddenham) and there will be a report and more photos next time. Restoration is about boats too(opposite middle, WCBS): the Wooden Canal Boat Society is appealing for volunteers to 'boat sit' theirhistoric boats - which include 'Forget me not' and 'Lilith' seen here on a recycling run on the AshtonCanal - i.e. to stay on the boats in the evening or overnight and show people round them at the weekend.If you are in the Manchester area and can help, please ring them on 0161 339 8721. Lastly, down on theWilts & Berks, progress continues at Summit Lock, with the lock tail seen after the last London WRG ./KESCRG weekend in July (opposite bottom left, Martin Ludgate) and ready for the main concrete pourfor the new lock tail bridge during the NWPG camp (opposite bottom right, NWPG)

page 27

page 28

Plans are being drawn up for the Autumn /Winter season...

Work on the Foxton Inclined Plane is beingfinalised with British Waterways as we speak,possibly running a camp in late September /early October. Contact Tenko or Sparky (de-tails on the Noticeboard page if your Ed re-members!) Foxton Inclined Plane Trust con-tact is Craig Greenaway, phone no 01858565844 (home).

We are hoping to have the services of a horse-snigger: you surely all know what makes ahorse snigger?!?

WRG Forestry engineering have plans in handto erect a hand-operated aerial skyline (con-sisting of a Tirfor winch, polyprop rope, pulleys,winches, two conflake packets, 18 fairy liquidbottles and half a dozen sheets of sticky-backed plastic...) to aid in extracting timber upthe 1-in-4 slope to the storage point.

Work is being closely monitored by BW, EnglishNature and English Heritage and will adhere to apretty comprehensive risk assessment. All saw-and machinery-operators must be in possessionof updated NPTC qualifications to be forwarded toBW and the Forestry Commission for licensingpurposesbefore theevent. Pretty strict, but prettysafe. If this type of planned work doesn't appealto you, I'm sorry but that's the way it has to be.

In November (busy month - so what's new?) atrip to the Wey & Arun is planned, with moredead-limbing on the Loxwood Link Extenstionproject and possibly more charcoal-burning. (it'sgoing like.... well.... like hot charoal!)

Andavisit toWelshWaleson theMon&BrecBonfireBash - that reminds me I must ring Spencer to seehow his Welsh Language is coming along... boyo!

In December it's back to the Cotswold Canalsto finish off jobs that I'm sure will be left over fromthe summer camp - having Neil Ritchie's sched-ule close by as I write. New Year on the Basing-stoke and a work-schedule from Pete Redwaythat resembles the Cotswold one - are these twocomparing notes?

Next time - a look at legislation: trees and thelaw. Bet you can't wait. Well, you're going to.

That's it - there is no more.

Graham 'Sparky' Robinson

More on alien invasive plants...Having taken part in an Environment Agency workshop on aquatic alien invasive weeds I wasinterested in the article in Navvies 193 from the Forestry Team on two of the better knownaliens, Giant Hogweed and Japanese Knotweed.

Another species that is taking over the banks of rivers, streams lakes, garden ponds and ofcourse canals is Himalayan Balsam, (impatiens glandulifera Royle or impatiens roylei Walp -try getting your tongue round that after a few jars!)

Workers on canal camps can help control these weeds by knowing what they look like and thebest way of disposing of them.

To this end the EA have produced a booklet containing all the info plus colour pics. Copies ofthese booklets are freely available from most EA offices.

Other invasive weeds are aquatic and are taking over watercourses. These species are WaterFern (azolla fillculoides) ,Parrot�s Feather (myriophyllum aquaticum), Floating Pennywort(hydrocotyle ranunculoides) and Australian Swamp Stonecrop (crassula helmsii).

Another leaflet containing colour photos and giving the best method of destroying these isavailable from BW, English Nature or the EA

Dave Carnell

page 29

Bits & pieces

Dan Evans accepting the regional award for charity web sites and a cheque for £2000 in the e-commerce awards for the WRG web site. Photo by Paul Starr

Pardonmy French?Apologies to Rachel Parr for getting her namewrong in the last issue. She is of course still calledthat, and French is only the surname of her hus-band Danny. Is that OK Rachel? Now will yousend me a Camp Report from your Mont camp?

And another apology...The Map of the Caldon Canal last time I inad-vertently labelled Planet Lock as 'Engine Lock'and Engine Lock as 'Planet Lock'.

That's right - the editor is on a different Planetfrom the rest of you...

PUWER rulesPUWER is the Provision and Use of Work Equip-ment Regulations 1998 and it's another piece ofHealth & Safety type legislation that affects usand all those other canal restoration groups us-ing equipment such as dumpers and forrklifts.

All new equipment has had to comply withPUWER since 5 December 1998. Older equip-ment was given a four year transitional periodwhich expires later this year.

PUWER requires dutyholders to take action toprevent risks of injury by, for example, the retro-fitting of roll-over protective structures, fallingobject protective structures, seat restraintssuch as seat belts and driver visibility aids likemirrors.

'Safe use of work equipment - Provision andUse of Work Equipment Regulations 1998:Approved code of practice and guidance' (HSERef. L22), ISBN 071761626 6, is available for£8.00. Or contact our head office for more in-formation.

And more on rules...Just a reminder, now that there are more andmore volunteers with post-1997 driving licences:these licences do not cover you for towing anytrailer if the maximum allowable gross weight ofthe trailer and the towing vehicle adds up to iver3599Kg.

As the WRG Transits are 3500Kg maximum ontheir own, that means towing any trailer at alltakes you over the limit. If your licence is post-1997 you will have to take an additional drivingtest if you want to tow WRG kit trailers with WRGvans.

WRG kit trailers?Yes. Trailers. Plural. We now have two. I'vejust heard from Jen that she's finally taken de-livery of the replacement for the kit 'A' trailerthat was stolen last year.

page 30

Bits & piecesWant to host a Canal Camp in '03?We're already starting to plan for next year's Ca-nal Camps programme. So if your involved in acanal society and are interested in having aWRGcamp in 2003, you need to make contact with ussoon. And if your society is going to the NationalWaterways Festival in Huddersfield, the best wayof making contact with us is to turn up at theWRGpublicity stand (in the IWA marquee) and ask tospeak to Jude Moore.

Also coming next year...We've decided that since the Race Night at Li-chfield was such a success, we're going to haveanother one. See future editions of 'Navvies' formore information.

TheGranthamCanal in September......is not just the site for a Canal Camp, but alsothe venue for an evening fund-raising entertain-ment called 'Pop goes the century' in ColstonBassett village hall in which 'The Bakelite Boys'will attempt to perform 100 songs in 100 min-utes celebrating musical landmarks of the last100 years.

Tickets (£7:50 each) are available from: Phil Johns,19ColstonRoad,CropwellBishop,Nottingham NG123BJ. Cheques to 'Grantham Canal Joint Member-ship'. Or turn upon theCamp - theevent is at 7:30pmon 12th September, the Thursday of the Camp.

Another new work site?...or actually rather an old one. Some of us re-member working in the 1980s on the length of pre-served Shropshire tub-boat canal in the Blists Hillmuseum. Well it could do with some more workdoing on it. If you're involved in one of the regionalgroups and looking for weekend worksites, con-tact Pete Stoddart on 01952 583003 (daytime) oremail petestoddart@aol.com.

Congratulations...(1) to Steve Beckett and Helen Davies of Lon-don WRG on getting married recently.

(2) to John Fletcher on becoming the new na-tional chairman of the IWA who is due to takeover from Richard Drake this autumn. Or maybeit should be congratulations to Richard on find-ing somebody to get rid of the job to?

Sits. Vac.Helen and Chris Davey have announced that thisyear's BCN Marathon Challenge Cruise was thelast one that they would organise. Any volun-teers to take over? Email Chris & Helen onchris@c-h-davey.demon.co.uk.

The Anderton Abseilers receiving their Gold Sponsor plaque for raising over £10,000 between them towardsrestoration of the Lift, and about to have a ride on the lift on John & Jan Horton's boat 'Minnow' (Harry Arnold)

page 31

Directors of WRG:

John Baylis, MickBeattie, Malcolm Bridge,Roger Burchett,Spencer Collins,Christopher Davey,Helen Davey,Roger Day, RichardDrake, Neil Edwards,Adrian Fry, JohnHawkins, Jennifer Leigh,Judith Moore, MichaelPalmer, Jonathan Smith.

Secretary: Neil Edwards

VAT reg. no : 788 9425 54© 2002 WRGISSN 0953-6655

beconstruedaspolicy or anofficial announcement un-less so stated - otherwiseWRG and IWAaccept no li-ability for any matter in thismagazine.Waterway Recovery Groupis a division of InlandWater-waysEnterprisesLtd.,asub-sidiary of the Inland Water-ways Association (a regis-tered charity).Inland Waterways Enter-prises Registered office:3 Norfolk Court, Norfolk Rd.Rickmansworth WD3 1LTTel : 01923 711114Registered no 4305322

Navvies ProductionNavvies ispublishedbyWa-terwayRecoveryGroup,POBox 114, RickmansworthWD3 1ZY and is availableto all interested in promot-ing the restoration and con-servation of inland water-ways by voluntary effort inGreat Britain. Articles maybe reproduced in alliedmagazinesprovidedthat thesource is acknowledged.WRG may not agree withopinions expressed in thismagazine, but encouragespublicationasamatterof in-terest. Nothing printedmay

Editor : Martin Ludgate35 Silvester RoadEast DulwichLondon SE22 9PB020-8693 3266

Subscriptions / circulationSue Watts15 Eleanor RoadChorlton-cum-HardyManchester M21 9FZ

Printing and assembly:John &Tess Hawkins4 LinksWay, CroxleyGrnRickmansworth, HertsWD3 3RQ 01923 448559hawkins@jote.fsnet.co.uk

NoticeboardContacting the chairman:Mike Palmer, 3 Finwood Rd,Rowington, Warwickshire CV35 7DHTel: 01564 785293e-mail: mike.palmer@bbc.co.uk

Moving house...

VivWest has moved to:16 Water View Park, Leigh, Lancs WN7 4JSTel: 01942 680414(Viv says that despite the name of the street, shecan't see the canal - but she can see the tops ofthe boats passing... and can anyone who knowsher and happens to be passing by boat pleasegive her a call and keep in touch.)

Ali 'Womble' Bottomley has moved to:53,RedgraveClose, St. JamesVillage,Gateshead,Tyne &Wear NE8 3JD. Sorry no phone yet.

SueBurchett'smobile phone number is:07973 771196 and her email issue@wrgbitm.org.uk

AndChris&HelenDavey are inHebden, notHebdenBridge. It's theother sideofYorkshire. Sorry!

S t a m p sw a n t e d

Send used postagestamps, petrol coupons,old phone cards, emptycomputer printer ink car-tridges to IWA/WRGStamp Bank, 33 Ham-bleton Grove, MiltonKeynesMK42JS.Allpro-ceedstocanal restoration.

TheWRGCanalCamps mobilephones:

07850 422156 (A)and

07850 422157 (B)

Directory updateAfraid there were a few errors and omissionsin the Directory last time...The contact details forWRG Forestry Teamare: Graham 'Sparky' Robinson,Springwell, Spark Bridge, Ulverston,Cumbria LA12 7ST Tel: 01229 861317; alsoDave 'Tenko' Johnson Tel: 0161 2787663.The new contact for theWilts & BerksCanal Trust (note also the name change -formerly the Wilts & Berks Canal AmenityGroup) is George 'Bungle' Eycott, 36Grange Court, Boundary Road, Newbury,Berks RG14 7PH Tel: 01635 569449 , mobile07771 775745 email bungle@wrg.org.uk.The Barnsley Dearne & Dove Canals Trusthas a web site:www.barnsleydearnedovecanals.org.ukThe contact forWRG Boat Club is SadieDean 236 Station Road Whittlesey Peter-borough PE7 2HATel: 01733 204505Mobile:07748186867 email: sadiedean@vizzavi.netNext full directory in issue 196 - updates to theEditor by 1st November please.

THANKYOUThat's a 'big thank you' from Womble to allthe instructors at the Training Weekend!

Backfill

page 32

Seen at the BW Ribble Link offices:

It seems like BW have taken Mr Baillie Bridge'sthoughts (see letter p21-22) to heart and aremaximising their revenue by renting-out parkingspace for wheelbarrows. Thanks to JohnHawkinsfor the photo.

Meanwhile on the Caldon......I gather that the locals are having to thinkcarefully about the wording of any publicitymaterial for their plans to reopen the finalstretch of the Leek Arm, to avoid any possibleconfusion...

"No, you misunderstood me, I said 'our first prior-ity is to get the canal to Leek'..."

From the Insurance Claims dept:In this, the wedding season, let the following ex-tract from a claims form submitted to AXA be awarning:

"I pulled away from the side of the road, glancedat my mother-in-law, and headed over the em-bankment straight into the canal."

Seen by the new Ribble Link locks:

"

"No, no you idiot, I said I wanted some big woodenbollards by the lockside!"

Thank you to Harry Arnold for the photo.