Navvies 188

Navvies

waterway recovery group

Volunteers restoring waterwaysNo 188 August - September 2001

GoodNews:Lichfield & Hatherton canalsCotswold,Droitwich andW&B reports and photos

MrMacMBE!

GoodNews:Lichfield & Hatherton canalsCotswold,Droitwich andW&B reports and photos

MrMacMBE!

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 [email protected]. Press date forNo 189: September 8th.

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 http://www.wrg.org.uk for all the latest news or WRG's activities

In this issue:Editorial Good news or bad news? 3-5Chairman Where's MKP gone? 6MrMacMBE 7Camp reportsWilts & Berks, Droitwich,Cotswolds and Melton & Oakham 8-14WRG publicity wants your photographs 15Diary camps and working parties 16-18Letters What do you think of 'Navvies'? 19-21NorthwestMr Mac looks back 25 years 22-23BITM on the Sleaford Navigation 24-25Essex WRG at Droitwich 26Progress remember Over? 27Logistics big teapots wanted! 28Bits & Pieces and Boat Club news 29-30Noticeboard 31Backfill 32

And next time......we hope to bring you reports and photos fromthe rest of the summer's Canal Camps. Plus aDig Deep update and more details of the forth-coming Basingstoke Bonfire Bash and Christ-mas / NewYear events. (gosh, that time already!)

And - see page 5 - if anyone writes it for me,another in the 'restoration feature' series.

Cover photo: rebuilding lock tail walls on camp0103 on theDroitwichCanal - full report next time (Alan Lines)Inset:DavidMcCarthy ('Mr.Mac') ofWRGNorthwest was awarded theMBE in theQueen's BirthdayHonoursfor services to Canal Restoration and the Environment. Rather than wait for the official do at 'Buck House',WRGNWhad their own award ceremony at the last 'Paper chase' waste paper collection - and the traditionalfish and chip lunchwas accompanied by champagne! (JohnFoley) Below:Camp0104 volunteerswonderingexactly how the newWRG driver regulations affect them - see camp report p12-13. (Martin Ludgate)

Contents

EditorialFirst the good news......and there's plenty of it this time!To begin with, it has just been announced thatthe Birmingham Northern Relief Road (BNRR)will make full provision for future navigationwhere it crosses the Hatherton Canal, and thereis a good chance that the threat to the Lichfield Canal by the same road scheme will also be lifted.The government - after four years of refusing to reverse the bad decision by its predecessors to make noprovision for navigation, and saying that it can do nothing to help the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals -has instructed the road-building contractors to include a navigable culvert for the Hatherton Canal atChurchbridge. The adjacent culvert under the A5 is already paid for thanks to the success of LHCRT'sDavid Suchet appeal, so that leaves the Lichfield crossing. Although there is no corresponding govern-ment announcement instructing the contractors to build an aqueduct there, the Hatherton announcementbenefits the Lichfield crossing to the tune of £1/4 million - because an offer of that sum from the ManifoldTrust towards the cost of the aqueduct was conditional upon the Hatherton crossing also being provided.It remains to be seen whether the road-builders' agreement to provide foundations for the aqueduct,plus the £1/4M, plus whatever else can be raised in the meantime, will be enough to enable theaqueduct to be built in the very short timescale available. But it looks hopeful.So congratulations to everyone involved: to the LHCRT and all their supporters - including Chris Coburn,David Suchet and a lot of less well-known ones - for keeping up the pressure when it looked at times likethere was very little hope for the canals; to all the other organisations that have been involved (includingIWA, BW and The Waterways Trust who have been doing a lot of behind-the-scenes work); to the gov-ernment for finally having the decency to accept that they were wrong and to do something about it.The next piece of good news concerns the Cotswold Canals: the Thames & Severn Canal andStroudwater Navigation. Some time ago, The Waterways Trust announced that this was one of sixschemes that it had chosen for a detailed study into the feasibility of assembling funding for comple-tion of restoration. (the others being the Droitwich, Montgomery, Foxton Inclined Plane, LancasterNorthern Reaches and the proposed new Bedford-Milton Keynes canal)They commissioned BW to do the study, and the results were announced on Tuesday July 3rd, appropri-ately during the Cotswold Camp at Valley Lock that I was co-leading: basically the study has estimatedthat the canals can be restored for around £82m, and that the benefits of restoration will justify the costs.And that although it will probably take 10 years to complete the job, it should be possible for 'phase 1'(from Saul to Stroud and from the Thames to Siddington) to be funded and completed within five years.Various potential funding sources have been identified, and it looks like the Regional DevelopmentAgency may be an important partner: this is good, as their predecessors English Partnerships contrib-uted around 50% of the money for the recently-completed Huddersfield and soon-to-be-completed Ro-chdale restorations. So while there is no actual money on the table now, getting the RDA on-board andTWT firmly in favour has got to be good news for the long term prospects for the Cotswold Canals.Unfortunately this story got turned by the media into "BW are spending £82m restoring the CotswoldCanals over the next 10 years" - and I had to explain to a number of passers-by at Valley Lock that no,there wasn't 82 million quid on its way, and yes, it was actually worth us volunteers carrying on workingthere rather than knocking off on the Tuesday lunchtime of the Camp and letting BW finish the job!In fact not only is it still worth our while working there, it is all the more important that we carry onworking on 'phase 2' sites like Valley Lock, so that in five years time when boats are arriving atStroud from the west and Siddington from the east, we can show everyone the benefits of carryingon and tackling the more difficult phase 2 length in between, and convince those potential fundingorganisations that BW has identified that it would be £82 million well spent.The final piece of good news concerns the legendary "Mr. Mac" - David McCarthy of WRGNorthwest who is now Mr. Mac MBE in recognition of his services to tea-brewing and waste-papercollecting in the north west. Congratulations from the Editor and everyone else in WRG.

Now the not-so-good news...As reported last time, the Huddersfield Canal reopened to boats over the May Day weekend, after over25 years of campaigning and restoration work: the completion of 'The impossible restoration'."Hang on!" I hear you cry, "how come that's the 'not-so-good news'?"

Well, according to an article by Malcolm Barker in the Yorkshire Post headed 'Pouring money downthe drain', the Huddersfield restoration isn't terribly good news at all. In fact it's £30m wasted.Now the article in question as about as factually accurate as one would expect from an opinioncolumn in a regional rag, and one can derive some pleasure from pulling it to shreds...."Most people were carried alongwith the euphoria generated by the very idea. Few, if any, argued againstthe notion of taking a dead waterway and - by laying-on of cash - causing it to rise through its locksagain..."(Tell that to the Huddersfield Canal Society, who spent over a decade struggling to be taken seri-ously at all.)"The money flowed like water, and nobody at any time seems to have asked what would be provided as aresult. Perhaps it was just as well, because the answer seems to be precious little..."(It would surprise me if any major restoration managed to attract this kind of money without somevery careful scrutiny of costs and benefits.)"The only people able to use theHuddersfieldCanal are the tinyminority of the populationwho either ownnarrow craft or hire them for their holidays, and, perhaps, fishermen"(From what I've heard, the towpaths are busy with walkers enjoying the restored canal; also if canalboaters are a 'tiny minority' on the Huddersfield, then that is true of every other canal - does Mr.Barker think they're all a waste of money?)"The size of vessels is strictly limited, no more than 70ft from stem to stern and 6ft 10in in the beam"(So what? The size of vessels is very nearly as 'strictly limited' on the ever-popular Llangollen,Southern Oxford and Stratford-upon-Avon canals. And although the unfortunate 6ft 10in width restric-tion more-or-less restricts use of the Huddersfield to modern craft only, excluding almost all of the historicworking narrow boats (built to around 7ft beam) that are an interesting feature of other 'narrow' canals,it is not something that will prevent typical canal boaters from using the Huddersfield.)"Their progress is of necessity slow, and theweary procession of locksmay dampen the enthusiasm of eventhemost committed boatman"(Come off it! Most boaters I know enjoy locks, even (especially!) long flights of them. Some of us'committed' boatmen have been looking forward to having a go at all those locks on the Huddersfieldfor years!)...and so it goes on. A good half of the article isn't actually concerned with the canal itself at all - it isa series of complaints about the Marsden visitor centre's alleged poor quality ("no effort has beenmade to put on a display bringing out the history of the canal") and lack of facilities (inconvenientparking, no cafe). This may seem like very petty nit-picking: knocking a visitor centre that is arelatively minor adjunct to a major restoration project. And I'm quite certain that any inadequaciesthat it might suffer from could soon be put right for a small fraction of the £30m.Another criticism is of the lack of public trip-boats other than the tunnel trips - because the locks aretoo close together for the canal to be suitable for this kind of operation. Possibly true - and not a lotthat the restorers could do about it. But does it really detract that much from the value of therestoration?Well, maybe it does.Let me make my own views quite clear here - I totally support the restoration of the Huddersfield, Ihave always supported it, and think that it is a magnificent achievement and well worth £30 million.And perhaps Mr Barker is indulging in some of the stereotypical grumpiness of those from 'God'sown county', by muttering darkly about wasted money rather than be seen to be enjoying the suc-cess of the restoration. (says Martin, who was brought up on the opposite side of the Pennines!)Or maybe in amongst the uninformed rubbish that he spouts, he has a valid point concerning poorimpressions that the non canal enthusiast locals might get of the restoration: such 'minor' nigglesas poor visitor facilities and no trip boats might reasonably matter much more to them than that thelongest tunnel in the country has been reopened and that the south Pennine ring is being created.And their opinions are important, because canal restorations rarely succeed without local support,and often it is the local authorities - whose members those local people elect - who are of crucialimportance in the 'partnerships' that are the modern way to restore canals.

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I have no idea whether the criticisms levelled at the canal from the point of view of the non-boatingvisitor are fair or reasonable. Even if they are, it seems completely unfair that they can be used inthis way to cast doubts on the value of the entire restoration. It is totally unreasonable for me to starttelling the guys who have slaved away since the 1970s to achieve the impossible that they've cocked-up on the visitor centre car-parks. But somehow (any suggestions welcome!) we have to make surethat completed canal restorations are universally seen as being good value for money. Otherwise...Let me quote Mr Barker's final soundbite:"Here inYorkshire there is no need to feel aggrieved at themoney lavished on theMIllenniumDome. Wehave got our own version, 20 miles long and full of water."Now let's try and tell all the Yorkshire folk who've just read that quote in their paper that we want theirtown council to contribute towards another £30 million for the Barnsley Canal...Good news, or what?And still on the subject of 'is it worth it'...The editorial whinge that took the place of this column last time, headed 'Navvies: is it worth it?'generated a number of replies - which at least ensured that the letters pages were full this timewithout me having to resort to persuading characters from the serial to write for me! And I'm glad tosay that in general, people did think 'Navvies' was worth the effort.Among the various suggestions for improvements was the revival of the 'Restoration feature' series:1000-1500 word factual articles each concentrating on a particular restoration scheme, giving abrief history of the waterway, a summary of progress to date, a detailed look at the present state ofthe canal and current and planned work, and ending with the prospects for the future.I would like to revive the series, but it will depend on people writing the articles for me.The following canals were covered between 1993 and 2000...Wilts & Berks, Lancaster, Wey & Arun, Chesterfield, Cotswolds, Grantham, Ipswich & Stow-market, Barnsley / Dearne & Dove, Shrewsbury & Newport, Ulster, Somersetshire Coal Canal,Buckingham, Ribble Link, Lichfield & Hatherton, Melton & Oakham, Pocklington, Droitwich,Sankey, Bude, SohamLode,Manchester Bolton&Bury, Hereford &Gloucester, Stover,WalthamAbbey gunpowder mill canals....which means that the following active restoration projects haven't been covered...Wendover, Rochdale, Louth, Lapal, Montgomery, Foxton, Driffield, Ashby northern reaches,Chichester, Dorset & Somerset, Whitchurch, Sleaford, Grand Western, Derby, Mon & Brec,Swansea, Thames & Medway, Stour, Union, Royal....and any others that I haven't thought of! Plus several of the ones that we've covered in the pasthave made so much progress since then that they would merit a second article. And there arerestoration proposals that haven't quite reached the 'active project' status yet in terms of physicalrestoration (or if they have, nobody's told me about it!) but would still be worth writing about...Sussex Ouse, Horncastle, Liskeard & Looe....not to mention the 'new navigation' proposals...Bedford-GU, Rother Link, Sankey-L&L connection, new Liverpool Docks link canal, HigherAvon, Upper Severn...or for a bit of variety...Canal de Berry, Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, Ludwig's Kanal...and you can always propose one that nobody's suggested yet, and write about it...Kington Leominster and Stourport, Cann Quarry, St Columb, Caistor, Wisbech, Torrington,Nutbrook...Anyway that's plenty for you to be getting on with. Next press dates are 8th Sep and 8th Nov. Thanks!And finally...Apologies for the record length of this editorial. I'll fill those bloody pages if it kills me!

Martin Ludgate

Chairman?What's happened to MikePalmer? (*)

This was the page that was supposed to befull of Mike Palmer's words of wisdom, givingus the latest on how Droitwich was progressing,advancedwarning of what the next batch of Health& Safety legislation to hit us was likely to be, somethoughts on the future of canal restoration, the oddbouquet or brickbat aimed at a deserving recipi-ent and almost certainly an offer to buy every-one a drink at the 'National' at Milton Keynes....

Unfortunately, come the press date (well, actually twoweeks later,withJohnHawkinsofWRGPrint scream-ing blue murder), all that arrived was this postcard...

(*) Answer: "Nothing:he'salwaysbeen like that."

Mike getting trolleyed at Droitwich (Martin Ludgate)

So I'm afraid that's all you're getting from MKPthis time.

Hopefully by the time you read this, another fort-night of successful Droitwich Camps will see thework on Hanbury Locks nearing completion andMKP free to write stuff for 'Navvies' again.

Please help Mike finish the job by volunteering forthe September Camp - and make sure he can'tuse the same excuse again for a while!

CONGRATULATIONS...MrMacwasn't the only person involvedin canals in the North West to be hon-oured recently. Ian Edgar, long-servingchairman of IWPS (Bugsworth Basin)also received the MBE. "Well done" toIan from 'Navvies' and all in WRG.

Mr. Mac MBE

David McCarthy - better known as 'Mr Mac' -of WRG NorthWest was awarded the MBE inthe Queen's Birthday Honours list, in recog-nition of his work for canal restoration andthe Environment.

His interest in canals first aroused by a familyboating holiday in the early 1960s, Mr. Mac joinedthe Peak Forest Canal Society and helped startto clear the disused Lower Peak Forest Canal,part of the now well-known �Cheshire Ring�.

During the remainder of the �Ring� restoration he notonly laboured himself but suppliedmoral support andrefreshments to the younger volunteers. His appear-ance, bringing near infinite supplies of hot tea andonly marginally more limited ones of biscuits, was es-pecially welcome during the bitter winter of 1972/3.

After the �Ring� re-opened in 1974 he was electedto the PFCS council, serving until the Society re-organised in 1977, spawning the North-Westbranch of WRG in the process. [see p22-23 forhis own version of these events. ...Ed]

During this period he facilitated the PFCS volun-teers� progression to assisting on more distantderelict canals, again providing the all-importantback-room support. Typical was his response tothe inadequate washing facilities at the accommo-dation during one particularly dirty weekend [theDroitwich �Big Dig�]. Hemust have bought the localhardware shop�s entire stock of washing-up bowlsand boiled every kettle and pan he could find, pro-ducing bowl after bowl of clean, hot water for thereturning �navvies�. That the bowls had to be ar-ranged on the perimeter wall of a car park in fullpublic view was of minor import.

The early work was largely funded by the volun-teers� paying their own expenses but, as its scaleincreased, additional funding became necessaryand in January, 1978, he organised an experi-mental door to door waste paper collection nearhis home in Crumpsall, North Manchester.

This quickly became established and continuesto this day, over 23 years and 240 collections later.That there is paper to collect is down to his writ-ing, duplicating and delivering 1,500 newsletters3 times/year and that there are 12-18 collectorsis down to his �phoning 30-40. He also books theskips and deals with the grant claims as well ashelping to collect, organising lunch and wash-ing-up after it. In the days before skips, much ofthe paper was stacked in his garden for him totake in in dribs and drabs over the next fortnightin the group�s van. Now, a pile grows there, seem-ingly organically, during the fortnight before eachcollection and is taken to the skip in the van.

Collections to date have totalled over 2,500tonnes, making it one of the largest waste-paperrecycling efforts in the country and thus a signifi-cant environmental project in its own right.

If that was not enough, until recently he has alsoarranged the taking of the NW publicity/salesstand to events throughout the country, helpingto recruit a new generation of �navvies� while rais-ing many more thousands of pounds. This incomecannot be identified separately so it is not possibleto place an exact figure on the proceeds of hislabours. However, the waste paper collection hasraised over £45,000 so the total must comfort-ably exceed £60,000. The Beavertail, SWS, isthe most tangible current result of this effort.

For over 30 years he has been at the heart of thecanal restoration movement in NW England.Without him it is quite possible that it would nothave survived. His immense contribution to theoverall waterway movement was recognised bythe Inland Waterways Association as early as1986 with the award (jointly with his late wife,Nancy) of their most prestigious award, the �CyrilStyring Trophy�.

Malcolm Bridge

Mr.MacMBEWRG NorthWest's stalwartappears in the honours list

MrMac's "infinite suppliesof hot tea". (JohnHawkins)

CampsFirst Canal Camp at theSeven Locks flight

Camp 0106: Wilts & Berks Canal

This was the first WRG camp on this section ofthe canal. Seven Locks covers about three quar-ters of a mile, and is in three different land owner-ships - Locks 1 is 'anti', Lock 6 and 7 are cautious,and Locks 2, 3, 4 and 5 belong to a friendly owner!

The local group started some clearance work onLock 3 of the Seven Locks flight on 27th Mayafter the foot and mouth restrictions were lifted,and worked flat-out on the six weekends beforethe camp to get the site prepared as far as pos-sible. They constructed a dam at the top end ofthe lock, dug out an existing ditch to create abywash, and graded the sides back. Finally, thetowpath wall was virtually ready to start rebuild-ing on the camp, with scaffolding in place.

The lower half of the lock walls are in reasonablygood condition, but the offside wall couldn�t betouched because a grey wagtail had built her nestandwas sitting on eggs in amissing-brick hole half-way up. This could have caused a problem, be-cause two of the local inhabitants, who are anti thecanal restoration, attempted to give out a lot ofadverse publicity about the work we were doing:'ruining the wildlife and the environment' etc. Weput fence netting round the section of the wall withthe nest, andwere as quiet as possible whenwork-ing, and were pleased to find that our bird adaptedquite happily to our presence. On the second day,the eggs hatched out, and both parents flew in andout of the nest feeding four youngsters all week.

The main work was bricklaying on the towpath-side chamber wall, and clearing the area betweenwall and towpath. Richard Hignett advised ametrewide brick and concrete wall, with holes drilled inthe old brick and vertical reinforcing bar insertedto tie in the concrete backfill to the original wall.Unfortunately, it was not practical to have deliv-eries of ready-mix concrete, so it all had to bemixed on site and barrowed down ramps to thebackfill area. At one time, we had three concretemixers going full time, with relays of barrows rush-ing back and forth. By this time, the wall was grow-ing fast, with some excellent bricklaying, withmostof the team, including those with little or no ex-perience, making a pretty good fist of it.

We also had help from three of the local volun-teers who regularly work on the Foxham-Lynehamstretch. Ballast, sand, cement and bricks disap-peared remarkably fast - we got through 5 tonneseach of ballast and sand, 1.75 tonnes of cement,and 4,000 bricks were laid in six days!

A second project was clearing the towpath bankbetween Locks 3 and 2, which was stone-faced.We cleared down to the puddled-clay canal lining,and the stone proved to be mostly in quite goodcondition, despite several small hawthorns grow-ing on top of the bank, which had to be mostlymattocked out. The top 12� of stonemay have to berebuilt, and we are hopeful that Farmington Stonewho supply much of the stone for Cotswold stonewalls will donate sufficient stone to complete this.

We also cleared scrub growing in Lock 2, so thatTom Cutting, our civil engineer volunteer, couldconduct a survey. This lock is at present bisectedby the small lane providing access to the site, sobecause of the problems this may cause to re-store it, it will probably be tackled last of the fourlocks that we can work on. It is possible that theCouncil will ask us to actually move the lock fur-ther up towards Lock 3, so it will simply need abox culvert under the road.

Chamber wall rebuilding in progress at Lock 3,Seven Locks. (Ian Nicholson)

Di cleared the silt and scrub from the sill, andlittle Paul dug down 4 feet in front of it, nearlydisappearing down the hole...

Paul had alsomade an excellent job of mattockingand tirforing the stumps from the pound wall. Hewas so intent on completing this challenge, thathe was reluctant even to stop for a tea break.Having gulped it down, �Back to my roots�, heannounced. Obviously he must come from Wilt-shire instead of Essex as he thought!

We had very few accidents, considering thenumber of people working in a confined area. Kenmanaged to fall in the canal three times, and Janhad the threat hanging over him of being thrownin after insisting on singing �I�m a pink toothbrush�on the way back from the pub one night. Ken alsomanaged to upset a barrowful of muck on hisway down the ramp, but to Pete�s delight it landedright in the middle of his spot-board!

Katy the dog had a whale of a time, retrievingsticks from a soggy reedy area, and arrived backat the accommodation at the end of each dayplastered in mud, and managing to leave somedistinct paw-marks across Lynn�s bed on the wayto her own. Sorry, Lynn.

While still in his sleeping bag, Andrew had hisface washed somemornings by a big black houndtowering over him, while Viv, sitting on a chair toshave, had one side of his jaw liberally applied withdog-spit after-shavewhile he shaved the other side.The things navvies have to put up with....

This was one of the biggest and most successfulcamps that I have led, owing to23navviesworking sowell as a team, and every one pulling their weight sothat itmade lifemucheasier.Our two "DofE�ers", Joyand Clare, worked really hard, and were willing to trytheir hands at anything asked of them. We were onthe surface a reallymixed bunch, of awide age rangeandnationalities -Marco andElisabetta fromTorino inItaly, Bernd from Germany ('a German with a senseof humour', someone remarked!), and Brian fromCanada,wherehe�s lived for25years,butstill retaineda lovely Irish brogue. Unfortunately, my AssistantLeader, Luke, could not attend the camp,whichmadeit a bit difficult at times to spread myself and organiseeverything, but the more experienced navvies, par-ticularly Phill and Pete, were a tremendous help.

It was Lynn�s first full camp as cook, and she madea very successful job of it, with a great variety ofmenu, every scrap disappearing. She evenwillinglytook special orders for sandwiches, which arrivedin a number of labelled packages! She prepared afantastic barbecue on the final night, which wasgreatly appreciated. Di was warned to steer clear ofthe garlic bread - the only problem was, there wassomegarlicbutter left over ina tub,and it found itswayonto the breakfast table the next morning, whereJohn found it didn�t go too well with the marmaladeon his toast. Because of the large number of sand-wiches to make lunchtimes, one person was detailedeachday to staybehind in themorningandhelpLynn,but toherastonishment half of themdidn�t evenseemto know how to butter bread! Getting the hang oflaying bricks is obviously much easier.

We had regular visits to the swimming pool andshowers in Chippenham, a good skittles matchon the Sunday night, and a visit to the cinema tosee LaraCroft, whichwas thought to be a little high-brow for navvies, with a rather involved plot. TheFoxham Inn was warned in advance that we weredescending on him, and got an extra barrel or twoof beer in.We had a visit to the RailwayMuseum inSwindon (Viv is a volunteer engine driver on theTal-y-Llyn Railway in Wales), and a drive out oneevening to see a beautiful stone bridge which hadbeen rebuilt on the Swindon section of the canalby a local volunteer, Ron Robertson, who waspreviously better known as a bricklayer...

My thanks to one and all, and hope to see youon another camp - maybe next year�s?

Rachael BanyardThe same lock seen a few years ago during ini-tial clearance work. (Martin Ludgate)

Camp 0102: Droitwich Junction Canal23rd�30th June 2001SaturdayAs leaders do, the first job was to make sure theaccommodation is ready for the arrival of the vol-unteers. This is when we found a black mould,apparently multiplying before our eyes, under thekitchen sink. Apparently the cause was a leak-ing drainage pipe... but never fear, Harry washere! Armed with an angle grinder, (the only toolto hand at the time) he set to fixing the pipe, the only problem was, as Harry said, �just getting theelectricity closer to the water�!SundayThe first task was to finish off setting up the scaffolding in Lock 3 and put in place the 'Acrow' props tostabilize the coping stones. This wasn�t without its problems: a tape measure, rachet and chisel disap-pearing into the cut. Jen was busy strimming round the lock chamber, whilst Harry played in the water.Entertainment for the evening was a trip to the 'Railway' pub. When we got back we met two newvolunteers, Chris and Will, who enlightened us on their amazing seven hour journey from London,past Droitwich, eventually ending up at Kidderminster!MondayThe temperature continued to rise and everyone was feeling a little sun burnt and tired. But still the

work went on. Richard was mixing lime mortar forBritain, ready for the brickies who started rebuild-ing the wall of the side pond. A very helpful chapfrom BW spent the morning on site training newvolunteers on the art of brick-laying.The sun beating down was being to have an effect,it seemed Sally had decided to write her diary of thecamp in the accident book! We decided to go all Con-tinental and have a siesta back at the accommodation.To make up the time we worked till about 6pm onsite, by which time all the volunteers were ready fortheir dinner. Unfortunately the huge chicken (or wasit ostrich?) legs were taking an unusually long timeto cook, for reasons that would emerge later.TuesdayWe continued our Continental theme with a break-fast of croissants and fresh orange juice.The brick-laying continued in earnest with theAndy�ssteaming through the mortar faster than it could bemixed. Meanwhile, a team got to work on demolish-ing the upper half of the lockwalls usingKango ham-mers. Phill continued to make great progress onrebuilding the steps at the side of the lock.

page 10

CampsThe first of five weeks ofsummer camps at Droitwich

If it'll support Harry, it'll probably support a coupleof coping stones! Installing the Acrow props tostablise the copers prior to removal of loose brick-work underneath. (Alan Lines)

Removal of damaged brickwork from under thecoping stones. (Martin Ludgate)

We all finished early to take a boat trip along theDroitwich Barge Canal and arrived at the accom-modation for a delicious curry. The chicken wasdone in a record 55mins this time, which could havesomething to do with actually turning on the oveninstead of just using the pilot light!After dinner there was just enough time to get backon the boat for a short cruise, expertly steered (intoeverything) by Nina, to the 'Railway' pub for lastorders.WednesdayJen was again frantically driving around collectingmaterials to keep the brick laying team happy. Anaverage 12 bags of mortar an hour were beingused, as the wall of the side pond got taller andtaller. Sally and Nina were literally up the spout,grouting the brick work inside the culvert. Adrianpatrolled the site, ready to employ anyone quietlyhaving a break in a wheelbarrow (which everyoneagreed were much more comfortable than chairs).In the evening we visited the now famous 'Tom O�The Wood' pub for the quiz. Congratulations tomy team - Em, Sally, Matt, Marcus & Jenny-, knownas the �Not Yets�, for a triumphant victory. Strangename for a team, but when I was asked if we hada name I said �not yet� and it just kinda stuck. Lady Luck was certainly on our camp that night, asAndy D won �Play Your Cards Right�. After we had all re-hydrated ourselves sufficiently, it was backto the accommodation for toast then bed.ThursdayMmmm, well, the day started well at least... The demolition of the lock walls was nearly complete.Unfortunately we did get behind schedule as the demolition team repeatedly dropped various itemsinto the cut and spent all afternoon trying to find them! First it was my camera (sorry Martin, nophotos of the camp from me), then a brush, then a ratchet, then a clamp, a rake and finally somegoggles. Many thanks to Chris and Will for retrieving my camera and especially Josh who wentabove and beyond the call of duty and jumped into the lock (well, fell in to be precise).

We visited the bright lights of Worcester inthe evening for a trip to the cinema. A smallparty of lads went to see the girly movieBridget Jones�s Diary (actually it was quitegood!) whilst the others opted for Pearl Har-bour and almost unanimously voted it as'pants'.FridayFriday saw one length of the side pond wallcompleted, Phill Cardy�s lock steps lookingparticularly flash, and demolition of the lockwalls ready for the next camp to re-buildthem.After what had been an excellent, tiring, buttop week, everyone looked forward to theBBQ and party in the evening. Many thanksto Adrian for leading a great camp and Mattfor the fine cuisine (and the little �treats�), andto all the volunteers for all their hard work.See you all again soon.

Ian Wingfieldpage 11

Repairs to the side-pond walls (Martin Ludgate)

Nina demonstrates her steering prowess on the trip-boat. Is Marcus impressed or what? (Martin Ludgate)

Camp 0104: Cotswold (Thames & Severn) Canal

�Valley Lock is falling downfalling down, falling downValley Lock is falling downmy fair WRGie�

�Steve will pull some more of it down,more of it down, more of it downCate and Dave will help it down,my fair WRGie�

�Martin will build it up again...�

...and he will teach us brick-laying!

As I sit at the Cotswold Canals Trust�s Saul Junc-tion boat-and-beer festival drinking beer (andwatching the rain), last Saturday seems a longlong time ago [�...but I can still remember howthat music used to make me smile�? ...Ed]

As the abuse to �LondonBridge�abovesuggests,wewere to startthe task of rebuildingValley Lock- one of these projects that isnearly, but not quite, so hugethat you wonder if it would beeasier to start from scratch!

However Ian and Martin�s campset to work at the top end of thechamber: rebuilding the ground-paddle chambers, the overflowweir structure and the gate re-cesses ... and the gate re-cesses...

Those of you who have workedthere before will remember thatthere are two sets of top gaterecesses, as the lock wasshortened from 90' to 72' in the1830s. Which doubles theamount of rebuilding work to bedone at the top of the lock.page 12

CampsRebuildingValley Lock on theThames & Severn Canal

As usual the camp began on the Saturday eveningwith the arrival of the volunteers, the introductorysafety talk, dinner and a stroll to the pub. Well,dinnerwas rather late because I couldn�t start cook-ing until the Hall was cleared of children�s party,but we did manage a pint or 2 in the �Bell�.

The group mainly consisted of people who hadbeen on a camp with Ian and Martin before, andobviously felt some strange need to repeat the ex-perience! Unfortunately, Selsley Scout Hut is notblessed with the shower facilitiesofDroitwich, soourmidnight sing-songs were rather limited.We also hadtospendageseachdaysharing theoneshowerwhilstwe waited for more to arrive in the car park!

Day one saw a slash-and-try-to-burn approachto the Japanese knotweed ( it had grown 10' highin a month!) so that we could at least see thechamber. Dave and others with wellies clearedthe worst of the silt and half-bricks from the spacebetween the gate recesses. The demolition crewstarted moving the first of many coping-stonesoff the worryingly crumbly wall underneath, andMartin started teaching everyone to brick-lay.

The next few days saw walls coming down (notso much pulled down as gently assisted! Kangohammers not required!), other walls going backup, and bricks cleaned in between. Dave L, Steve,Tunji, Cate, myself and Andi and others usedropes, mattocks, levers and telekinesis to movesome enormous stones out of the off-side groundpaddle chamber. From these stones we built�Lock-henge� on the top sill, as a challenge tofuture camps to get them back up on the wall.

eEx X

q q

q q

e

ExX

q qq q

e

E

xXq q

q q

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Removing coping stones... ...and putting them back again.

Alternatively, they�ll have to stay as a hazard tonavigation...

Celine, Hannah, Amy, Heather, Ray and Mikewere turning into expert bricklayers, Darryl keptmixing it up, and Paul kept cleaning bricks.

The Shower-in-the-Car-Park failed to materialiseuntil Thursday, when it proved to be unusable, sowe finally went to the Sports Centre! Otherevening entertainments included the boat trip(Thank you Neil), the Cinema, and ameeting withCamp 0103 at a pub with a skittle alley. This wasa resounding success, with the �StroudwaterStompers� thrashing the �Droitwich Dullpins� by6053 to 20! We also stole their minibus as ourswouldn�t pull uphill out of site when full ofWRGies!! Please do not believe MKP if he triesto make out that it was all his idea!

Harry and Jen turned up on Wednesday to stealvolunteers to set up the Boat and Beer Festival,but it turned out the locals had done most of thejobs before we got there!

By the end of the week we had:. built lots of brickwork and stonework on thetowpath-side paddle chamber and overflowspillway. rebuilt about two and a half of the four gaterecesses, and various other sections ofbrickwork. replaced coping stones on the towpath side,andmade a start on replacing the off-side ones. demolished unsafe walls ready for the nextcamp to start rebuilding. excavated the off-side paddle chamber, givingAndi, Cate and me lovely mudbaths!. removed cement rendering from the upper wingwalls so that we can see just how bad a statethey�re in!. installed a piling dam across the lock tail sothat the chamber can be pumped-out andcleared of silt ready for scaffolding andrebuilding of the chamber walls. cleared lots of knotweed

We�ve left a tiny bit of work for the NWPG Campto do!

All in all a brilliant week, with top weather, topvolunteers, a good combination of mud, bricksand beer, and an interesting site with visibleprogress made.

Thanks to Martin and Ian and everyone whocame. We want you back!

PS anyone going to Selsley Scout Hut withCamps Kit A - none of the cooking trays fit in theoven properly. Do not attempt to do a roast din-ner for 25 in that oven!!

Dr. Liz Williamson XXX

Top: building a piling dam, the hard way! Above:rebuilding the gate recess walls. Right: Darryl'smixer crew. All photos by Martin Ludgate.

CampsThe Melton & Oakham and theDroitwich (again!)

Camps 0103 and 0108will feature in the 'CampReport' section next time, but in the meantimehere's a photographic 'taster' from these two con-trasting Camps: one showing the rapid rate ofprogress on our main site for this year at Droit-wich; the other showing the first ever Camp onthe Melton & Oakham Waterways...

Above right: a 'lift-bridge' with a difference? Thetemporary footbridge moves from Lock 3 on theDroitwich Junction Canal to Lock 2. (Alan Lines)Right: putting the finishing touches on the Lock3 sidepond. (Alan Lines) Below: by the end ofCamp0103, the removal of decayedbrickwork fromthe top 1 metre of the chamber walls of Lock 3 hadbeen completed. By the time you read this, Camps0117 and 0121 should have filled this gap with newbrickwork. (Alan Lines) Below right: the Melton& Oakham Camp started well, with the rubber-clad Marcus and Nina installing a piling coffer damin the shallow waters of the river Wreake, so thatthat part of the bed could be pumped out ready tolay the new slipway that was the main purpose ofthe Camp. (Matt Taylor) Opposite page: frustrat-ingly, heavy rain in the middle of the week turnedthe shallow river into a raging torrent - as can beseen in this group photo - flooding-out the work-site and threatening to inundateMelton just as con-struction work was due to start. (Marcus Jones)

WRG Publicity

Well - it�s all been rather busy since taking overthe reins from Helen!! First of all there was CrickBoat Show - a real scorcher on the Saturday re-sulted in me, Mandy, Steve and Glenn taking it inturns to stand outside the IWA marquee to tryand find any breeze to cool down in - a far cryfrom last year!! Lots of genuine interest so hope-fully we shall see some new faces on the CanalCamps circuit this season and a few more 'Nav-vies' subscriptions.

June saw me sat in Milton Keynes shopping cen-tre at theMilton Keynes Volunteers Conexion Fairdrumming up interest for the National WaterwaysFestival, and the end of June saw us at the Na-tional Indoor Arena in Birmingham at the InlandWaterways Exhibition. Big thanks must go toMandy, Josh, Jenny, Eli, Al, Rick, Harriet, MKP,Bushbaby and Izzy on the stand and Leo, RogerB, Roger J, Peter P, Steve, Marcus, Geezer Chrisand Mark B in the Lavender Boat. Special thanksto Josh who did a whole day extracting moneyfrom people for the Anderton Abseil, despite thefact it was his first ever dig!!

So the start of July has seen a small yet selectbunch attacking the stand with chrome polish,

giving it all a good clean, binning the reallyembarassing photos and working out what weneed pictures and text wise for the 'National' andbeyond. So if you have any shots of the follow-ing please can you send them to me:. The Lock 3 Aston swimming pool andsynchronised paddlers. Cooking. Navvies Assembly. Vans and Trailers. Over - right at the beginning. Frankton - the very first time around!!. Aston Locks - scaffolding. Fleet of vans (preferably ours). Over - Finished. Brick Cleaning. Dumpers

We really need a couple ofvery high quality shots/groupphoto�s which we can blow upto A0 size. If you think youhave the right piccie pleasesend it to me at: 3 FinwoodRoad, Rowington, Warks,CV35 7DH and I promise itwill get back to you!!

And so the next outing is the'National' over the AugustBank Holiday weekend - ifyou fancy doing a stint on thestand please let me know(01564 785293). Likewise, ifyou know of other placeswhere we can advertise, dopresentations, send thestand, then give me a call.

I look forward to the suddenrush of gorgeous photos tothe door (Joan thePostwoman may have a dif-ferent outlook, but since wemoved in she has moved upfrom a bicycle to a van!!).

Cheers,Jude Moore

PublicityJude wants your dirtyphotographs!

Canal Camps cost £35 per week unless otherwiseBookings for WRGCanal Camps (those identifiedcamp number e.g. 'Camp 0122') should go toWRGCamps, PO Box 114, RickmansworthWD3 1ZY.Tel: 01923 711114. Email: [email protected]

page 16

DiaryAug 20-28 Camp 0119 Site services Canal Camp for the Inland Waterways Association's National Wat

Leaders: Izzy Gascoigne & Andi Kewley; accommodation on-site at the FestivaAug 23-31 Camp 0120 Site services Canal Camp for the Inland Waterways Association's National Wate

Leaders: Izzy Gascoigne & Andi Kewley; accommodation on-site at the FestivaSep 1/2 Essex WRG To be arrangedSep 1 Sat wrgNW Waste paper collectionSep 8/9 NWPG Wilts & Berks Canal: Dig Deep project at Summit Lock, Wootton BassettSep 8/9 KESCRG To be arrangedSep 8/9 LondonWRG Basingstoke Canal Dig Deep project: installing backpumping at St Johns, WokSep 8/9 wrgNW Castlefield Carnival, Manchester. wrgNW Sales Stand (provisional)Sep 8-15 Camp 0121 Droitwich Canal Camp. Finishing-off works at Hanbury locks: completion of lowerSep 8 Sat Navvies Press date for issue 189Sep 15/16 wrgBITM Droitwich Canal: Bring-a-Boat weekend. Moved from Lapal Canal.Sep 29/30 LondonWRG Thames & Severn Canal: Dig Deep project at Valley Lock, ChalfordSep 29 Sat wrgNW Waste paper collectionSep 30 Sun wrg Committee & Board MeetingsOct 6/7 KESCRG Changed to Oct 13/14Oct 6/7 Essex WRG To be arrangedOct 6/7 wrgNW Tameside Canal Clean-upOct 7 Sun wrg Abseiling down Anderton LiftOct 13/14 NWPG Basingstoke Canal Dig Deep project: installing backpumping at St Johns, WokOct 13/14 KESCRG Thames & Severn Canal: Dig Deep project at Valley Lock, Chalford NOTE NEWOct 20/21 LondonWRG Wilts & Berks Canal: Dig Deep project at Summit LockOct 20/21 wrgBITM Wilts & Berks Canal: Lift Bridge at East ChallowOct 20-27 Camp 0122 Lichfield Canal Camp, working at Darnford Lane site, Lichfield. Leaders: JoanNov 3/4 wrgCBW Basingstoke Bonfire Bash - a major weekend 'scrub-bash', get-together and G

party on the Basingstoke Canal. Volunteers from all regional groups, canal caLeaders: Ian and Liz Williamson. Please book using the booking form enclose

Nov 3/4 LondonWRG Basingstoke Bonfire Bash (see above)Nov 3/4 Essex WRG To be arrangedNov 3/4 KESCRG Basingstoke Bonfire Bash (see above)Nov 8 Thu Navvies Press date for issue 190Nov 10/11 NWPG To be arrangedNov 10 Sat wrgNW Waste paper collectionNov 17/18 wrgBITM Buckingham ArmNov 18 Sun wrg Committee & Board MeetingsDec 1/2 KESCRG Wilts & Berks Canal

Xmas party dig with London WRG. Stump pulling, scrub bashing and hedge layDec 1/2 LondonWRG Wilts & Berks Canal: Xmas party dig with KESCRG (see above)

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: [email protected]. Fax: 0870-063-3713

page 17

terways Festival at Milton Keynes. Setting up and then running the largest inland waterways festival in the world.al. Cost: £40erways Festival at Milton Keynes. Running and then taking down the largest inland waterways festival in the world.al. Cost: £40

John Gale 01277-654683 [email protected] McCarthy 0161-740-2179Graham Hawkes 0118-941-0586 [email protected] 01622-858329 [email protected]

king Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227 [email protected] McCarthy 0161-740-2179 [email protected]

wing walls, backfilling, landscaping and maybe some gate installation. Leaders: Roger Burchett & Steve BarrettMartin Ludgate 020-8693-3266 [email protected] 01252-874437 [email protected] Lewis 020-8367-6227 [email protected] McCarthy 0161-740-2179Mike Palmer 01564 785293 [email protected] 01622-858329 [email protected] Gale 01277-654683 [email protected] McCarthy 0161-740-2179 [email protected] Collins 0114-2853 044 [email protected]

king Graham Hawkes 0118-941-0586 [email protected] DATE Answerphone 01622-858329 [email protected]

Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227 [email protected] 01252-874437 [email protected]

ne 'Smudge' Smith and Steve WyattGuy Fawkes Night WRG Enquiries 01923 711114 [email protected] and anywhere else are welcome.ed with this 'Navvies'.

Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227 [email protected] Gale 01277-654683 [email protected] 01622-858329 [email protected] Ludgate 020-8693-3266 [email protected] Hawkes 0118-941-0586 [email protected] McCarthy 0161-740-2179DaveWedd 01252-874437 [email protected] Palmer 01564 785293 [email protected] 01622-858329 [email protected]

ying at Dauntsey. Accommodation at Goatacre. Booking details in next issue of 'Navvies'.Tim Lewis 020-8367-6227 [email protected]

1st & 3rd Sunday of month BCG Elsecar Spencer Collins 0114-285-30443rd 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 01246-454163Mon & Wed mornings CCT Cotswolds Dudley Greenslade 01453 825515Every weekend (Sat OR Sun)CCT Cotswolds Neil Ritchie 01452-8540571st Sunday of monch 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 02961st & 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 01452-618010Sundays H&GCT Over Paul Brown 01386-443826Every 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 W&BCAG 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 TrustD&SCS Derby & Sandiacre Canal SocietyGCRS Grantham Canal Restoration SocietyGWCT Grand Western Canal TrustH&GCT Hereford & Gloucester Canal TrustIWA SBC IWA Shrewsbury & Border CountiesIWPS InlandWaterways Protection Society

K&ACT Kennet &Avon Canal TrustKESCRG Kent & E Sussex Canal Rest. GroupLHCRT Lichfield & Hatherton Canals

Restoration 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 AssociationW&BCAG Wilts & Berks Canal Amenity GroupW&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 daysbefore each dig. Usually at the Jugged Hare,Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, but pleasecheck with Tim Lewis 020-8367 6227 ore-mail [email protected]: 9:00pm on 3rd Tue of month at theHope Tap, West end of Friar St. Reading.Graham Hawkes 0118 941 0586

DiaryCanal society regularworking parties

These working parties take place regularly ona weekly or monthly basis

Letters"...what�s not so good about�Navvies� these days..."

Dear Martin

Given that you have asked what�s not so good about�Navvies� these days...

I paymymoney every year toWRGand do so gladly.Due to the extortionate costs of a) having two kidsand b) hiring a narrowboat c) second hand goatswe only get to go boating every other year or so.

This makes our only ways of feeding our boatingdesires to subscribe to the relevant magazines(they can pay if they want to advertise), walk thetowpaths when ever we can, meet up with thefriends we used to go boating with in the days BC(before children) every year at the IWA and, yes,read �Navvies�.

I know that the whole point of WRG is the seriousside of restoration, repair and maintenance and Iam truly grateful for all of the hard work but it mustbe said that one of the best things about getting mycopy of Navvies is the smile factor it used to deliver.

Janet Shipstone is right. Health & Safety: veryimportant; being professional: very important; en-joying what we do and having a laugh in life... es-sential.

Given that most of the subscribers to �Navvies� arewell and truly into the boaty scene, the people giv-ing up their time are not only giving their time, butpaying for the privilege and boating is meant to befun then let�s have some fun.

Never has there been an example printed aboutWRGies being in charge of plant, equipment or ve-hicles whilst unfit through drink. Never has therebeen a report of any injury being caused by the so-cial side of things.

Every trade has it�s funny side and most have in-housemagazines describing some of the antics, andit must be said that if I told you the �hilarious� storyabout what happened atmywork the other daymany,many people would be offended. If you heard theone about the argument in the control room aboutthe �person looking like...� followed by a twentyminutediscussion on who is who in the various soaps youwould lose all faith in the profession. But you didn�t(and I�m not telling), it made us smile, it made uslaugh, it made us feel good.

The same must be said for �Navvies� the WRGiesget cold, hot, wet, cut, bruised, scratched & tired.They are entitled to some fun and I�d like to readabout it please.

I applaud all of the WRGies for their continued ef-forts, when my kids are old enough to either comealong with us or be left at home whilst my wife and Iattend camp we will support WRG in a more activeway. Until then I subscribe to �Navvies�, I support asmany of the local groups I can at the IWA and I jointhe IWA.

Steev Stamford

Dear Martin

I Just receivedmy copy of 'Navvies'. Good stuff, but Ididn�t realise there were such stringent physical up-grade requirements on theWRGies. See coverPhotoof 3-legged 4-armed girl. I suppose this really is anecessity: 3 legs for chasing mini-bus to get to PUB.4 arms to drink and/or carry all the required pints.

I suppose these extra bolt-on�s may even be usefulto the WRGie working on a canal...

ByeKeith Davies

Hi Martin,

I�ve just finished reading the latest �Navvies�, includ-ing your item on page 4. I don�t pretend to have anyanswers to the points that you are raising, so I won�ttry and provide any. However, I hope that you maytake some comfort from a message of support.

I have been a subscriber since 1976 (edition 62),and whilst the style has changed slightly over theyears (as you would expect), to my mind it still re-mains one of the best magazines that I have seen(it always jumps the queue on the �to read� pile), andlongmay it continue thatway. As forwhy numbers aredown, I think these things go in cycles, hopefully an-other year or so and numbers will be heading backup again. This seems to hold true of most of theorganisations that I have belonged to over the years.

For a number of reasons I have been inactive for anumber of years, so I am not really in a position toprovide copy; however,my experienceof trying to runawebsite for an owners' club is similar to yours: peopleseem happy to read, but getting them to provide eitheradvance information on events or follow-up reports canbedamnnear impossible (�It startsat1pm�wasonecon-tribution: well, that will bring them flocking in, won�t it?)

Youaskwhatdowewant toread in �Navvies�. Personally,I�ve been happy with the sort of material that you havebeen covering in recent years. Dig reports are always agood staple, the serial usually puts a smile on my face,and some of the technical articles are interesting. Whatcouldbe in there that isn�t? Mindful that someonehas towrite it, I�m wary about making suggestions.

Keep up the good work.

Kind regardsAdrian Simpson

Dear Martin�Navvies� is it worth it?I hesitate to put finger to keyboard as my last mis-sive to your august organ brought howls of anguishfrom all �over� the West Country but as the sign inmy local has it �Your cry from the soul has touchedmy heart, now p� off and stop bothering me!�To answer your question literally� yes, of course itis. Where else would you get 32 pages (or more) ofwell written and exceptionally edited verbiage all forthe princely sum of £1.50 a year?I don�t actually know why your readership has de-clined to its 1988 level but how about a few of thefollowing having some bearing on the matter?It is probably fair to say that the drop in readership isclosely aligned to the reduced number of new vol-unteers. I do not have access to the numbers butthe cancellation of some camps last year, the im-possibility of attracting newworking members to ourown project (Ipswich IWA) and the nation-wide cel-ebrations when a camp gets some new blood makethe inference pretty clear.For too long both IWAand WRG have been living onpast glories. Thesavingof theStratfordCanal,ASHTAC,Big Digs etc. caught the public imagination and in turnproduceda surge in peoplewilling to get involved in res-toration projects. The main workforce for our modernequivalents (Montgomery, Over) has been drawn fromour existing supply and the projects have not resulted inwidespread publicity or an increase in volunteers.We are competing with several other organisations forthe same limited resource. SUSTRANS, the NationalTrust, theWoodlandTrustetalareall trying togetpeopleto volunteer to do similar jobs to us but with the over-whelming advantage of having particularly effective ad-vertising campaigns and large amounts of cash. I wouldlove toknowtheprofileof the typeofpeoplewedoattract� perhaps some scope for research in this area so thatwe can target our limited resourcesmore effectively.The urge to do something before we lose any morewaterways is somewhat tempered by the fact that theGovernment has pumped more money into waterwaymaintenance and restoration over the past 4 years thanat any time in the last 50.Why volunteer to get wet, dirtyand cold digging the silt (I nearly used a rudeword then)out of the bottom of a lock when someone has paid aJCB driver to sit in a nice warm cab and do it the easyway. Indeed, there is a school of thought that says weshouldn�t bother anymorewith our restoration efforts,as BW will take it all on anyway.I�ve been to 5 or 6 canal campsover the years, all led by�Mucky�MickBeattieandIenjoyedmyself immenselynotleast because Mick organised everything so effectivelyBUT I can see various aspects of our camps that couldcausenewcomers to havedoubts about returning.First, the drinking � yes I�m as bad as the rest but wereally do need to think about the imageweproject to theoutsideworld. Idonotsuggest thataCampleadershouldbe required to take on the responsibility of telling a 50year old what he can and can�t drink but we should atleast develop a policy onwhat is and isn�t acceptable.

Once adopted, that policy should be well publicisedand enforced. I for one don�t find it at all funny to seethat various members of BITM have been bannedfrom a local pub.Secondly, noise at night.Mick did his best to createa �lights out, no noise� scenario after 11 pm but it wasverydifficult to impose. Iwell rememberonenightwhenone of the locals from theCricketClubdecided itwouldbe great fun to start playing the piano at 2 o�clock in themorning. Now I always used to use earplugs (I used towakemyself with my own snoring) but it even wokemeup.Incidentally, thebuddingRichardClaydermanseemeda little put out when I offered him my opinion of hisplaying. I know of at least 2 people who simply left thecamp because they couldn�t get enough sleep.Thirdly, the accommodation.Asan ex-Scout leaderI don�t have a problem with roughing it and I have theappropriate equipment but a newcomer facedwith thedaunting prospect of a floor of the local Village Hall, acold tap and no showers might well be saying �Notagain thank you�. It might mean increasing the cost ofthe camp to choose better accommodation but thiscould be preferable to losing another volunteer.Now what about the magazine itself?There are still far to many �in-jokes� in both the CampReports and various other parts of 'Navvies'. It is asymptom of an inward-looking organisation thatnames are used that may bewell knownwithinWRGbut mean absolutely nothing to anyone not closelyconnected. Even in issue 187, which had very fewreports, names such as Marcus, Tenko, Graham &Rick appearedwith no explanation of who they were.We must be seen to welcome newcomers and notturn them away from the clique of WRG regulars.I believewe should give consideration to using colourprinting in Navvies. Not the simple one colour job asused on the cover but some proper colour photos andsomeheadlinecolouron thereports.Thiswill clearlycostmorebut perhapswecould thenpersuadea few firms togiveus someadvertising revenue, especially if wecouldoffer colour for their adverts. In any case, £1.50 per an-num is a ludicrously small amount. I know we keep thecost down to make it affordable but kids these daysspend more than that in a day onmobile phone calls.What about some �mini-biogs� of the great and goodin WRG. I�d love to know more about Mike Palmer(facts, not vile rumour and innuendo) and some ofthe other luminaries on the Board of Directors. Per-haps some of the lesser known people could bepersuaded to tell us how they got involved withWRGand what they do in the real world.How about getting some feedback from the �one timeonly� volunteers? This might mean making somephone calls to get the real picture and then publish-ing some of the answers. Who knows, we might be-gin to understand some of the decline in readership.I would like to see more articles about the history of thewaterwaysweare trying to restore. I�vealways found theones that have been published in the past extremely in-teresting. It helps to put theworkwedo into perspective.I imagine every local society has an historian in its ranksthat could be persuaded to contribute an article.

I know we�ve had articles about bricklaying but whatabout some of the other things we do?For example, I�ve got a half-ton coping stone thatneeds lifting, the tree roots removed and then re-laid. I don�t have any mechanical means of lifting it,so how do I do it? I need to manufacture some stopplanks. What sort of timber do I use and what sizeshould it be? I imagine the answers will be in themanual that�s just been issued but a �user-friendly�article in Navvies could be interesting.Finally, what�s good about Navvies as it is?I think Bankside is brilliant. The author knows justwhere to direct his (her?) barbs and clearly has afinger on the pulse of the bureaucracy inherent inmost of the official bodies connected with the inlandwaterways.The size and layout are just right. Our editor is to becongratulated on his skills with his DTP package. Itcertainly makes reading �easy on the eye�.Despitemy reservations about some of the �in jokes�,Camp Reports are still an essential part of Navvies.The point of our existence is to restore waterwaysand a report on how we got on must be worthwhile.I would simply ask the authors to think abouttheir audience. That audience consists of not justthe 30 people who were at the camp but also theother 2070 people who get a copy of Navvies.The incident where Charlie (or Fred or Bill) had aninteresting encounter with the toaster might havebeen one of the funniest things you ever saw butprobably leaves the rest of your readers cold. Actu-ally, it was probably Bill Crockett because I remem-ber back in �96 or was it 97� Sorry, I got carriedaway then!That�s it. I hope this letter will provoke responses -as Martin says �constructive and helpful� if possible� but basically anything goes. I won�t be offended(well not very much) but don�t be surprised if I re-spond in kind.

Spencer GreystrongDear MartinOf course it�s worth it! I never cease to be amazedby your ability to get �Navvies� together every coupleof months - not just the editor but those others whowrite all this stuff.Some of us actually like to know how WRG is pro-gressing in its endeavours: what new crackpot ideasit has for yet even more absurd restoration projects;how it is single-handedly training the core of theBritish construction industry; how it argues all yearthat Over can�t be finished by the contracted date...then does so with time in hand for a visit to the pub- we need to know these things.There is also a need for a sense of history. It�s nogood WRG making history by its good works with-out recording that history before someone elsewritestheir own distorted version of it for you. �Navvies�provides the necessary facility to get the storystraight and in your own style - indeed, the style isitself part of the history.

Mind you I still see a place for regular complaints -to keep everyone on their toes... and if they were allas hilarious as Janet Shipstone�s (187) all the bet-ter. Perhaps she could save us all some effort, andno doubt add considerably to the joy of life, by writ-ing a letter of complaint for each edition.With very best regards

Tim BoddingtonDear MartinJust read the latest edition of �Navvies� and notedyou comments about lack of content from authors.In the old days there used to be a series of regularfeatures picking a project and summarising recentprogress. Perhaps you could reintroduce this: thiswould especially enable projects that do not regu-larly feature WRG visits to get some press abouttheir project. (e.g. until this year�s camp on theWendover little was said about it, yet it has beenvery busy creating the Great Wall of Tring).Regards

VaughanWelchJust a fewbrief comments - you'vealreadyhadenoughof my opinions in the lengthy editorial column...Youcan'tpleaseall thepeopleall thetime:(compareSteevandSpencer's letters). To those new people who are inon the in-jokes, it can help make them feel part of theWRGcommunity. To thosewhoaren't, it canmakethemfeelmoreofanoutsider. Yes,weusetoomanyfirst-namesand nicknames that many readers don't know; on theotherhand, itwouldbeadrag ifeverycampreporthad toeither explain exactly who everybody is whose name ismentioned, or avoid mentioning people by name at all.We need to get the balance right, and it's not easy.Few people actually pay the minimum subscriptionof £1.50. I don't believe much money would bebrought in by raising it to (say) £3. If we wanted toprint 'Navvies' in colour, we'd probably need to findsponsors. In the past we have had a policy of no com-mercial advertising in 'Navvies': time to review this?Yes, we have been concerned about volunteer num-bers on Canal Camps over the last couple of years,and yes we have been doing our best to get morefeedback and to act on it. But (a) it's not as bad asSpencer suggests - it's not quite national rejoincingwhen a new volunteer turns up, and there have beenencouraging numbers of first-timers from previousyears returning, (b) we were beginning to think thatthings were on the way up again - although the diffi-culty in establishing the effect on this year's book-ings of the late publisihing of the Camps booklet plusthe Foot &Mouth epidemicmake it difficult to gauge,and (c) soliciting feedback is another place wherewe have to get the balance right - or else we'll get areply along the lines of "I came here for a holiday - Ididn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!"Yes - I would like there to be more factual articlesabout waterway restoration projects and technicalarticles about restoration methods in 'Navvies'.PLEASE somebody write me some!OK that's my two-pennorth. Over to you...

The editor

NorthWest"Mr. Mac" looks back to aquarter-century ago...

WRG NorthWest: how it all began...

During the course of a phone conversation withJohn Foley a few days ago, I remarked that Icould, whilst stood washing the dishes, talk tomyself and compose some of the finest prose inthe English language, equalling - if not surpass-ing - that of SirWinston Churchill. However, cometo write it down and it's gone! I even tried usingthe cassette recorder but all I got on tape wasthe clatter of dishes!

Occasionally, just occasionally, I CAN put pen topaper and something decent flows from my flu-ent hand but ALL the Magnificent phrases whichhad been in my mind only minutes - nay seconds- before have gone like the flashes of lightningwhich are about even as I write on this last Sat-urday of Wimbledon...

All this is not really in response to Martin's pleafor more copy - its been in mind for two or threemonths but the extended press date has removedall excuses.

We are always told that the worst conflicts arecivil wars where Father and Son are on op-posing sides. This always comes to mind whenI recall the events at this time in 1976 for it wasthen that I heard the first rumblings of what I per-sonally choose to call The Second Great PeakForest Canal Society Mutiny.

Following the grand re-opening of that same ca-nal in March 74, the enthusiastic young mem-bers of the working party, still straining at the bit,decided to repay the Debt of Honour by going toother sites - particularly those whose membershad come to help us. This was fine to begin withbut the Society membership had dropped overthe next two years from its Peak (!) Of 750 to 350and the Treasurer announced that there was nomore money left to subsidise the working party.It was also pointed out that strictly, the Memo-randum & Articles which governed the Company(Limited by guarantee) only allowed us to workon the canals we now call the 'Cheshire Ring';therefore we could not legally work on the - then- infant Rochdale or Huddersfield Societies'projects.

There seemed to be no way out of this impasseso it was thought by these keen young diggersthat, rather than let the PFCS gently fade away,the solution would be to wind it up in an orderlyfashion with its few assets (one old sludge pump,a clapped out dumper and a few rusty hand tools)be given to the Huddersfield Canal Society - to-gether with the remaining members, who couldchoose to stay or go at renewal time.

All of these arguments - and many more - werethe subject of regular morning slanging matchesbetween yours truly and my fine Son & Heir -Ian, 'Big Mac'.

Some select few of you have been honoured bybeing received at the stately pile calledWoodstock (A recent note from a wealthy taxexile in the IoM has wondered if it will now berenamed BLENHEIM in view of recent events!)but for those of you yet to be favoured, I shallexplain that the room the Family has always calledThe Kitchen and referred to by others as The Liv-ing Room (perhaps shortly to be renamed TheMorning Room) has two smaller rooms leadingoff the same wall, the first being the very con-venient facility or cloakroom; the second beingthe Kitchenette.

I therefore ask you to imagine Father shaving awayin the cloakroom whilst Son is shovelling away athis huge bowl of cornflakes in the kitchen whereMother is cutting butties for both. The two menshouting the latest arguments which they hadthought up over the previous 24 hours and goingat it hammer-and-tongs until firmly told by Herselfto SHUT UP. I kid you not: this went on for weeks!

At the time of the 'National' that year (was it Pe-terborough?) I recall seeing a group of conspira-tors lurking behind a big marquee, furtively look-ing round - like lads puffing their first ciggy - andporing over a copy of the Memo & Articles whichthey had somehow managed to obtain. The ar-guments at home were by this time becomingmore subdued as each pondered the merits ofthe other's arguments.

The A.G.M. of the P.F.C.S. was usually held inSeptember and by then it had been decided bythe Mutineers to put forward the motion to windup the Society in a seemly & orderly mannerpossibly transferring everything to the Hudders-field and this was calmly &methodically proposedby the young Chris Griffiths. John Charles Palmerthe father of our two made a wonderful speechin support but when put to the vote it was re-jected - whereupon Chris jumped up and an-nounced with a flourish that a newNORTHWESTbranch of theWaterwayRecoveryGroupwouldcome into being on the 1st January 1977!!

NorthWest"...a logicalmovewhichwill giveus greater corporate strength..."

Until I started to write this screed I had alwaysthought that North West was the First branch ofWRG but on looking at 'Navvies' No. 63 (Decem-ber 1976) the 'Next Time Out' column shows notonly London WRG but Cambridge WRG as well.In his editorial, our glorious founder GrahamPalmer wrote of the Gloomy Financial Situationbut he went on:

"...there is good news on the formation of NorthWest which is the culminationofmy long feltwish - alogical movewhichwill give us all much greater cor-porate strength - I am happier for the future now..."

I Wonder if he'd still be as happy??!

Chris Griffiths wrote in the same issue of theaim: "to bring together all the Floating volunteerlabour in the North West to form an efficient (sic)workforce capable of assisting where the needis greatest." It was also intended,Chris went on, "to revive enthusiasmfor Restoration in the North Westwhich seems to have died some-what..."

Perhaps themost telling phrase is that"North West will be modelled on andvery closely associated with WRGwhilst remaining an autonomousbody."

Those writing in magazines shouldtake care of any prophesies!! I alsosmile now because we alwaysseemed to fall over ourselves to doeverything like 'Central' (as wecalled it ). This occasionally led tosome stupid decisions / actions butgood sense eventually prevailed!

Today there are only THREE of thefounding members active in NorthWest - John Palmer, BarryMcGuinness and yours truly. We andMANY others have had a great senseof achievement from the many tasksaccomplished . Above all, we've hadmuch fun and had the company ofmany splendid folk.

Not everyone left the PFCS to joinWRG. A small contingent had seenan isolated plot alongside the AshtonCanal (universally referred to as 'TheLand') and they formed the AshtonCanal Carriers which has prosperedso much that a magnificent boatyardnow exists there, all thanks to a dedi-cated few, amongst them the late andmuch respected Dave Brown.

As some of you will recall, the PFCS lingered onuntil comparatively recently being wound up onlya few years ago.

It had built up a wonderful name and reputationand that is why Son and I had argued so muchover our rushed breakfasts!

David 'Mr Mac' McCarthy MBE

WRGNorthWest announces its arrival to an unsuspecting world in'Navvies' 63, December 1976.

WRG BITM...at Haverholme Lock on theSleaford Navigation

BITM on the Slea.

The Rugby Club is magnificent accommoda-tion, if no one else is using it! The 8 BITMitesrather rattled about in the enormous space. Thekitchen is of a good commercial standard if a bitshort of fridge space: with the bar closed our �hon-esty box� stock took up most of the space. Stevethe manager couldn�t be more helpful.

The distance travelled meant that everyone, ex-cept we East Anglians, was pretty late on Friday,and it�s even a 90-minute journey for us. Nevermind, we had a nice session in the bar with Nor-man Osbourne, his wife and son and BarbaraMackey of SNT before anyone else arrived. Thelift made getting our catering kit to the first floorkitchen a doddle when our van 'WNE' arrived.

After Graham�s usual excellent breakfast (and Bar-bara�s delivery of tea in bed), we managed, unusu-ally, to get to site quite close to 09:00 - even beforetheSNTvolunteers.ThesitewasHaverholmeLock,where the camp in 2000 had scrub bashed andcleared the bywash. Our job was to put in a tempo-rary bridge and to concrete the bed of the bywash- or as much as we could do in the time.

SNT work party leader, David Turner, their engi-neer David Pullen and their safety officer DavidCarnell had got all the jobs and materials sorted,with the help of SNT volunteer and local farmerthe above mentioned Norman acting as trans-port gofer.

The bridge, designed by D.C, came in kit formand was assembled and launched across to thetop of the lock in good Sapper form whilst D.Pand Dave Wedd started setting out the bywashand constructing the shuttering. Once the heavyjob of bridge launching was complete, MarkGribble and yours truly, with Nigel Baker ondumper, started moving the 11 tonnes of aggre-gate the customary ¼ mile from the road accessto the mixing position, whilst the others carriedon assembling the walkway, hand rails and footboards on the bridge. The artistry of Barbara Hand Stella Wentworth fitting the walkway was ajoy to behold. The bridge being only a few feetabove the crest of a weir with a foot of water run-ning made sure that anything dropped was a miledown the river in no time; my pipe on Sundayproved this point!

By 16:00 the bridge was complete, the shutter-ing and reinforcement for the first pours in place,all the aggregate moved, a near tonne of cementto hand and all the plant ready. Mixing and pour-ing commenced. Unfortunately by that time allus old fogeys were in need of zimmer frames -the youngsters totally knackered. However westarted mixing and pouring, the bridge quicklyproved it's worth and one mixer could not keepup with the barrow team, with John Cheesbroughin front. The second mixer was brought up andby 18:00 the first pour was complete.

Building the temporary bridge over the head of Haverholme Lock... (Stella Wentworth)

WRG BITM"...accommodation well up tostandard and satisfying work..."

Site was cleared and a little after 19:00 we wereback at the Rugby Club - the stairs were a bitdifficult.

However after a couple of beers and an invigor-ating hot shower life returned, Graham�s mag-nificent dinner served in best buffet style wentdown a treat as did a drop of scrumpy and a littlered wine. No one felt like moving so a trip to thepub was held over, bed beckoned - there was nosnoring!

Bright and earlyish on Sunday we were back onsite with mixers and barrows in action almostbefore dawn, well 09:30, and the second pour inprogress (the female team placing the concreteshowing us all how to do it) whilst the shutteringteam prepared the third. Reinforcement of SNTvolunteers arrived, Ernest and Izzy, and joinedin with a will. With adequate quantities of tea andorange cake and date slice, prepared by the fairhand of Stella, the third pour was started with awill. The teams rotated informally, i.e. peoplegrabbed the nearest empty barrow or unusedshovel, the 'craic' was great and the SNTs andBITMites formed a great team.

Unfortunately BITM�s chairman believes he mayhave upset the cake maker as she threw a bar-row complete with concrete at him - luckily forthe barrow it did not miss and therefore was un-damaged. [untrue - if I�d thrown it, the barrowwould never have slid so gracefully down theramp! But I�m very relieved it wasn�t damaged....Stella]

Decision time approached, as did lunch, the ag-gregate left was not really enough to be certainof finishing the fourth pour, so it was decided todeclare a truce when the lunch arrived and toclear site early so that the long distance travel-lers could get home before midnight.

Lunch arrived, bacon and sausage butties byBarbara Mackay with salad by Graham, morecake by Stella and tea by A. N. Other. A nice littlesocial event to round off a great weekend.

Altogether one of the nicest BITM weekends, agood team, both us and them without that feel-ing, good humour, accommodation well up tostandard and satisfying work.When can we comeagain, SNT? How did they arrange the privatefly-past of the Battle of Britain Flight?

Tony Hinsley

...so as to be able to barrow concrete across it...(Stella Wentworth)

...to lay the concrete base for the bywash. (JohnCheesbrough)

EssexWRG...on their first ever visit to theDroitwich Junction Canal

Essex WRG at Droitwich

Considering how long the Droitwich scheme hasbeen running, this was surprisingly our first visit,and we were booked for a joint dig with NorthWest wrg. There was the promise of varied workon a site containing a flight of locks.

On arrival at the pub, we knew we were at theright place, because parked outside was theJohnmobile and trailer, but a lack of familiar facesinside was explained when we found out Johnand Dave had gone off to find food. We weresoon met by others; Mike and Jude (Mike wasleading the weekend, but would be at work), theElm Park Gang and a van full of North West allsoon started to improve the �Railway�s profit line.We were to have 23 residents, plus various tran-sient visitors, for the weekend.

The hall was a guide hut not far from the railwaystation, and there were various rumbling noisesall night, although which were trains and whichDave�s snoring it was difficult to tell. The kitchenwas somewhat rudimentary, with a Burco whichtripped the electricity, and cooking was by meansof the KESCRG cooker powered by an externalgas cylinder. The toaster was installed directlyunder the smoke alarm, a fact which we discov-ered half-way through toasting the first slices.

Saturday dawned uncertain in the weather de-partment, but after a rain shower it brightenedinto a sunny afternoon. Two main areas of workwere on offer; scaffolding out the lock and con-creting round a heavy duty plastic pipe which hadbeen installed to replace a collapsed by weir cul-vert.

The scaffolding experts were Jim Lamen, whohad done a bit of scaffolding about 30 years ago,and I, who had done the theory on a health andsafety course but hadn�t actually wielded a scaf-folding spanner. The kit of parts arrived on theback of SWS and were duly delivered to site overthe hedge. We duly set to, generally followingwhat had gone before (always a dodgy move!).We were helped when a cunning hydraulic pumpdevice was used to drain the somewhat deep lockinvert.

By contrast, the concreting ganghada slightlymorestraightforward job, the main problems being therather long distance between the mixer and wherethe concrete was needed and delivering the con-crete down a steep slope without delivering thebarrow too. Other, smaller, gangs worked on wingwall rebuilding and the dreaded brick cleaning. Thewrg excavator �Blue�was on site following the train-ing weekend, allowing Malcolm a training sessionand me to gain experience in what I couldn�t do atBasingstoke � go up and down slopes.

Sunday dawned bright, but with a cool breezewhich later dropped to produce a hot afternoon.The scaffolding gang had a shock when they dis-covered there was a plan of how to erect the scaf-fold � and were shown it! All suddenly becameclear about the wood which had been deliveredwith the scaffolding poles; it was for bracing thewedges the scaffolding feet had been laid on (re-member the deep invert?) to the centre stand-ards (standard = vertical pole � I said I knew thetheory). Also, thediagonal bracingon theplandidn�tquite match what had been installed. It was de-cided to concentrate on getting the feet firmly onthe ground and let someone else worry about thestuff above water level another weekend.

Work then proceeded in similar vein to Saturday�soperations, with the return of anything not naileddown to the DCT compound near the accommo-dation at the end of the day. It was soon time tohead back to the hall, clean up, return the bat-tery to the smoke alarm and head for home.

Steve Morley

"delivering the concrete down a steep slope with-out delivering the barrow too" (Martin Ludgate)

Progress...at Over Basin? Where'sthat then?

It ain�t all Over...

Although Over basin on the Herefordshire &Gloucestershire Canal has largely goneunmentioned in the last few editions of Navvies,work continues on the site with three sizeableH&GCT working parties each week tackling bothroutine maintenance and major construction.During June, efforts were stepped up, when, aspart of their work camp, the H&GCT built muchof the water supply infrastructure for the canal.Centrepiece to this is the 10m deep, 2.5m diam-eter reinforced concrete pump shaft, which willfeed water from the River Leadon to much of theGloucestershire end of the canal.

Excavation of the pump shaft and associatedchannels saw the freshly refurbished Volvo 6-wheel dumper back in action, with material be-ing tipped to create a 37 space car park and noisebunds at the entrance to the site.

Marcus Jones

Above: excavating the hole for the pump shaft.Left: cutting the hole for the inlet pipe in the firstof the concrete rings that will form the pump shaft.Below right: craning-in the 2.5m diameter con-crete rings. Below left: view down the completed10m-deep pump shaft, with the inlet just visibleon the right. Photos by Adrian Fry.

page 28

Logistics"...feel free to whinge... bet-ter still sack me, PLEASE!"

Monkeys...

Well, no surprises, no-one has sent me any sug-gestions (of any nature � clean or otherwise!!)for this �Whose 'Navvies' is it anyway?� logisticsarticle so yet again I�ve had to come up with astyle myself � no prizes for guessing where thisone�s headed!!

It�s funny but when the camp season starts, thingshere (and 'here' is anywhere these days!!!) at Lo-gistics tend to ease off and we can usually relax alittle with the knowledge that the kits are out thereand not �here�. So what has altered this for 2001?One can�t help feeling the f*ck-up fairy has over-stayed her welcome and could really do with bug-gering off sharpish! Mind you, she has certainlybeen helped along the way. No sooner do thingsget replaced or fixed than stuff gets lost or brokenjust to motivate the perpetual battle of keeping thekits in reasonable repair. Thank you so very muchto all contributors (a hint of sarcasm?Surely not?!!)!

On the subject of replacing stuff, I would like to ask(with somewhat dubious feelings of a successfuloutcome!) if anyone has a fridge freezer or twothey�d like to donate to canal camps kits. We arealso severely lacking inthe teapot departmentand it�s proving a littletricky trying to find re-placements that are ofsuitable size and ro-bustness! So if anyonehappens to amblingaround their local armysurplus store (don�tbother if yours is An-chorSupplies inRipleybecause theirs aretiddly!!) and spots tea-pots fit for a horde ofthirsty navvies(Hmmm� a collectiveof navvies? Now whatwould that be?) at areasonable price thenpleasegivemeashoutand I may well detailyou to go buy!

On new additions, I would like to thank Dr Liz forthe brightly coloured knife rolls which she hasnow completed. Smashing! But please remem-ber the knives are still VERY sharp! I must alsothank Mr Mac MBE (Congratulations!) for his rareinsight into thewhereabouts of several mainstreamkit teaspoons � well, they had to end up withNorthwest sooner or later! Again, any informa-tion on locations of stray kit is much appreciated.

I�m increasingly getting the feeling there are sev-eral things I said I would do but haven�t yet whichis a bit of a worry! This is due mainly to the factthat my brain at present appears to resemble 222and 422 (go on, check that kit list if you�re on acamp!). This in turn is due mainly to yet anotherupheaval and Logistics has gone mobile for thesummer. Any post or queries to that nice youngman, Ian, atHeadOfficewho should hopefully havesome idea of where I�ll be! [Thanks, Ian!] I will alsobe able to pick up e-mails if you want to do it thetechnological way but don�t expect an immediateanswer! If there is anything I�ve said I�ll do anddon�t appear to have done yet I won�t be offendedif you politely remind me. Normal service willhopefully resume come the autumn (at whichpoint I will not take hassling reminders kindly!)!

Finally, if you experience any difficulties that youthink may have been caused by a logistical fauxpas then feel free to whinge (you know the reac-tion by now!)! Better still sack me, PLEASE! You�llbe welcome - my travelling bags are alreadypacked!

Just [email protected]

Mobile Logistics � Not as static as we used to be.

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Anderton Abseil latest: sponsorship reaches £1282.Viv Thorpe knocks Martin off pole position!If you haven't already sponsored one or all of our volunteers to abseildown England's last remaining boat-lift to help pay to restore it, please doso now using the enclosed form, or see theWRGweb site www.wrg.org.uk.

page 29

Bits & pieces...including the WRG BoatClub news

Ribble Link volunteers wantedWork is finally in progress on building the RibbleLink in Lancashire - there will be a article in the nextissue - but in the meantime the Ribble Link Trust arekeen for any volunteer assistance they can get.

If any of the regional groups have any weekendsspare, or have any cancellations in their programmeor can squeeze an extraweekend in, please considerworking on theRibble Link: a brand-new navigation.

Please contact Spencer Collins on 0114 2853 044 ore-mail [email protected] if you can help.

WRG Boat Club: the BBC NewsWell things are loking up after the F&M stoppages.Sadly, with closures and flooding, some of the ear-lier rallies were not so well attended, but I gatherthey were successful.

I went by boat to the festival at Wendover wherewrgBITM were doing site and services. The firstthing I learned was that BW (or someone) hadchanged the name to the �TringCanal Festival�, I didn�teven know there is a Tring Canal. Those that hadbeensupporting the festival for years didn�t thinkmuchof the change of name. All the money raised fromthe festival goes toward restoration of the Wendo-ver Arm, making the whole thing worth supporting.

Another thing I learned was the power of the fluo-rescent yellow jacket: Wow! Don one of those andit�s like something out of Harry Potter (OK I readkids� books). I immediately became a combinationof a fount of all knowledge and an über stumphenführer! [I think she means 'übersturmführer' - somekind of German military captain - but alternativelymaybe 'überstrumpfenführer', who I guess would bethe person in charge of stockings. ...Ed] People ask-ing questions and accepting the answers as irrefu-table, as were any requests or instructions to them.Too much of this and I would start thinking that Imade sense! I also learned the dangers of address-ing Mike as �Our Leader�

The accomodation at the �Wendover Bash� was ei-ther as usual at the scout hut or, for a change, on aboat. The organisers offered me a mooring by thelock, where the digging wrgies were, and couldn�tunderstand that I prefered to be by themill and nearerto my breakfast One boater was given some flourand was very noble and made some bread from it,to share amoung the needy.

It was a very successful and enjoyable weekend.Lots of money was raised and everyone had noth-ing but praise for the new bridge. It will be evenbetter with water under it and wrgbc boats navigat-ing it, oh and others of course!

WRG BC In the SMITE! There was a mini boat clubgathering at the InlandWaterways Exhibition, at theend of June when the boats of members attendingwere moored together.

WRG were doing the lavender boat and as the �do�was meant to be very high profile a TV interviewerplus cameras travelled with the first one. A gentle-man boat club member* (who owns and works anumber of farms in Northamptonshire) was askedwhy he volunteered for such a job. He explainedthat it was his son who had volunteered him, but asit was amore pleasant occupation thanmucking outthe pigs he didn�t find it that distasteful. BW hadkindly provided the tug SMITE for the lavender boatand many noticed their thoughtfulness. However,some who didn�t understand what the lavender boatwas, frowned at a member�s explicit explanation.[see also back page ...Ed]

STOPPRESS...Bring-aBoatLatest:Theplannedweek-end 15/16 September will NOT be at Selly OakThe lat-est is that it will be at Droitwich, mind you that is just thelatest I�ve heard but you will be the first I communicatewith, once released, should it be changed again.

Coming soon: the Ian Chambers style boat gather-ing, the type of get-together most suited to our club.A date and venue will be fixed. There will be noforms, no booking, no informatiom.

The format is that you then tell everyone that it iscancelled, and they say �Who cares? We are com-ing anyway�. You tell callers that it�s not on and theysay, �Well we�re coming and we�ve told everyone weknow to come.�And they do.

WRGNW have a stand and have to be browbeateninto confessing that they do in fact have someUncleJoe�s Mint Balls. Eventually they get them out fromthe hiding place and are forced to sell them to you butonly because of persistence and the fuss and atten-tion caused. Other groups could adopt this new ver-sion of the �hard sell�. Lots of boats crowd there and agood time is had by all. There isn�t the usual B awfulmess to clear up on the field on the Monday either.Seems a good way to have a boat gathering to me.

See you all, well lots of you, at Milton Keynes. Whataward shall we go in for this year?

XXX Sadiee-mail [email protected] Tel: 07748 186867

PS It has been suggested that boat club memberstry to get boats to the Bonfire Bash on the Basing-stoke in November - if the canal's open then. Seemsan excellent plan to me. More on this later.

*yes it is possible to be both

Bits & PiecesComing soon...The 'Silver Fox' Camp on the Droitwich

Camp 0121 on September 8-15 will be putting thefinishing touches on Hanbury Locks, with RogerBurchett and Steve Barrett leading. But that doesn'tmean you have to have grey hair to volunteer for it(so Marcus you can put away that grey wig!) - allvolunteers welcome, and we hope to get all themainlock restoration work finished. And for the final week-end 15-16 September we've got the Bring-a-boatweekend dig (see previous page) to help us.

The October Camp on the Lichfield

It wouldn't be a real Canal Camps season without aLichfield Camp, so Joanne 'Smudge' Smith andSteve Wyatt will be leading a week of work at theDarnford Lane work-site from 20 -27 October.

The Basingstoke Bonfire (& Beer!) Bash

This takes place on November 3-4, and combines amajor working party with a Guy Fawkes 'do' on theSaturday night and a chance to meet up with every-one else in WRG - and KESCRG too.

Pete Redway of the Surrey & Hants Canal Societyhas promised us "up to 30 miles of scrub-bashing" -the entire offside bank of the canal to clear. So weneed lots of people to come and chop trees down -because we only have a weekend to do it in!

This weekend is for anyone who has been dig-ging at all on this summer's Canal Camps. Why notkeep that promise to keep in touch with your fellowcampers, and get them all along?

This weekend is for anyone who has been dig-ging with any of the regional groups this year - yourchance to find out what the other groups have beenup to!

This weekend is for you even if you've bever beenout with us at all, but fancy seeing what we do... orfor your friends / family / other half to see what youget up to and join in...

So come along - you might just enjoy it! Fill in thebooking form in this 'Navvies' and send it off today!

By the way, the great 'how much beer do we need'debate is starting to get ever-so-slightly heated (un-like the beer, we hope!) so please book early so weknow how much we really need... and avoid a 'dry'end to the festivities.

Doctor Liz Williamson

Christmas already?

LondonWRG and KESCRGwill as usual be gettingtogether for a major weekend working party andChristmas party on December 1-2.

This year the venue is the Wilts & Berks Canal, andthe work will be stump pulling, scrub bashing andhedge laying at Dauntsey. Accommodation will beat Goatacre village hall, and there will be furtherdetails and booking information in the next 'Navvies'

...and so to 2002...

The NewYear Camp this year is on the Basingstokeagain, (or 'TBA' for short!) and Clive Alderman willbe leading it. Although officially it runs from De-cember 26th to January 1st, if enough volunteersare interested in spending Christmas itself on aCamp, we may start a couple of days earlier. Book-ings for this Camp should go to the usual Head Of-fice address. (see diary pages)

Lost propertyIf anyone lost a navy blue sweatshirt on Camp 0104on the Cotswolds could they please contact Ian &Liz on 01844 351549.

Remember this place?

That's right - it's a watercolour by Garth Allan of therestored Over Basin. You can buy Christmas cardswith this picture on them - with the proceeds goingto support the Hereford & Gloucester Canal resto-ration. Individual cards are 65p each and packs of5 cards are £3. Orders for over 100 cards will bepackaged and dispatched free. Also available as anotelet (for the same price) and as a coaster at £1.25each or £6 for a pack of six.

Please contact Penny Shetliffe on 01432 820623.

And finally......apologies from the Editor for no 'Bankside' episodethis time due to lack of space. And thanks to every-one who has helped to cause this lack of space bycontributing to 'Navvies' recently. Please keep send-ing in those camp reports, and I hope to see most ofyou in the beer tent at the 'National'. Cheers!

Martin

Directors :

John Baylis, MichaelBeattie, Malcolm Bridge,Roger Burchett, RayCarter, Spencer Collins,Christopher Davey,Helen Davey,Roger Day, RichardDrake, Neil Edwards,Adrian Fry, JohnHawkins, JenniferLeigh, Judith Moore,Michael Palmer,Jonathan Smith.

Secretary:

Neil Edwards

VAT reg. no : 285 1387 37

Nothingprintedmaybecon-struedaspolicy or anofficialannouncement unless sostated-otherwiseWRGandIWAacceptnoliability foranymatter in this magazine.© 2001 WRG ltdISSN 0953-6655Waterway Recovery GroupLtd is a subsidiary of the In-landWaterwaysAssociation(a registered charity).Registered office:3 Norfolk Court, Norfolk Rd.Rickmansworth WD3 1LTtel : 01923 711114Registered in England no1599204

Navvies ProductionNavvies ispublishedbyWa-terwayRecoveryGroupLtd,PO Box 114, Rickmans-worth WD3 1ZY and isavailable to all interested inpromoting the restorationand conservation of inlandwaterways by voluntary ef-fort inGreat Britain. Articlesmaybe reproduced in alliedmagazinesprovidedthat thesource is acknowledged.WRG may not agree withopinions expressed in thismagazine, but encouragespublicationasamatterof in-terest.

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 [email protected]

TheWRGCanalCamps mobilephones:

07850 422156 (A)and

07850 422157 (B)

NoticeboardThe Book AuctionSuccessful bids for the auction in the last'Navvies' - with corrected lot numbers (sorry!)...

S t a m p sw a n t e d

Send all your used post-age stamps, cigaretteand petrol coupons andold phone cards to IWA/WRG Stamp Bank, 33,Hambleton Grove,Emerson Valley, MiltonKeynesMK42JS.Allpro-ceedstocanal restoration.

MOVING HOUSEHarrietRenniehasanew school term-timeaddress:Staff Hostel, National Centre forYoung People withEpilepsy, St PiersLane, Lingfield, SurreyRH76PW.Newmobile phone: 07855 452788e-mail address: [email protected]

page 31

We apologise for the late arrival......of the new online WRGwear page on the WRGweb site, due to operational difficulties in theSussex area.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Directory update:Clive Reed of the Swansea Canal Society lives at17 Smithfield Road, Pontardawe, Swansea SA8 4LA

tel: 01792 830782Full directory of WRG and canal societies will nextappear in 'Navvies' 190 (press date 8th November)

All updates to the editor please.

Fridgeandcookerfreetogoodhome:bothonlyapprox18monthsoldandlittleused,locatedBeckenham(SouthLondon):Gascooker, (naturalgas)4burnerswithmainsignition,oven/grill.Fridge,230v,fitsunderworktop,approx500mmwideContactBobKeaveney,Tel:02086585896

1 £322 £16.503 £16.504 £165 £18.506 £247 £108 £89 £13.5010 £911 £812 £7.5013 £914 £12.5015 £1016 No Bid17 £4

18 No Bid19 £620 No Bid21 £322 £2.5023 £324 £225 No Bid26 No Bid27 £428 £5.5029 £7.5030 £9.5031 £732 £8.5033 £10.5034 £8.50

35 £1036 £15.5037 £7.5038 £11.5039 £10.5040 No Bid41 No Bid42 No Bid43 £1044 No Bid45 No Bid46 No Bid47 £6.5048 £6549 No Bid50 No BidTotal £429.00

Backfill

Well, what do you expect if you provide the Lavender Boat crew at theInland Waterways Exhibition with a boat called 'Smite'? (Steve Morley)

Accommodation for a KESCRGdig?

(with thanks to Dave Miller for the photograph)

Root canal work?As mentioned on page 28, Viv Thorpe has nowreplaced the editor at the top of the league tablefor sponsorship raised for the Anderton Abseil.

So why are people so keen to pledge money onViv's behalf. I wonder if perchance it might be in anyway connected with his occupation as...a dentist?!?

"Pass the extra-large pliers please, nurse... no,we won't bother with any anaesthetic... oh, bythe way Mr Smith, I was just wondering if you'dlike to sponsor me..."

What's in a name?Following the recent discus-sions about the fictional char-acters in the 'Bankside' serialwho are named after brew-eries, I'd like to point out thatthe all the letters in the let-ters pages this time are genu-ine - including the one fromTim Boddington... honestly,he's a real person!

And finally......by way of a change fromhaving to try to explain the'in-jokes' in camp reports topeople who weren't there,Jen tells me that the only peo-ple who failed to understandthe jokes in her last WRGNAdig report were people whowere there. I suppose thesemust be 'out-jokes' then...

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Navvies 188

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