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ANGLIAN CUTTINGS
Australian Canal Society Gathering 2009 at the Blue Lias
Award Winning Ipswich Branch Newsletter No. 114 Summer 2009 The Inland Waterways Association is a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee. Registered as a charity no. 212342 Registered Office: Island House, Moor Road, Chesham, Bucks HP5 1WA Tel: 01494 783453 Web: www.waterways.org.uk
Chairman Chard Wadley chairman.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk Minute Secretary Carolyn Wadley Secretary Charles Stride secretary.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk Treasurer Spencer Greystrong treasurer.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk Membership Secretary Clive Saville 01206 241623 membership.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk
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Publicity Brian Holt 01502 741345 pro.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk Social Secretary Diana Holt 01502 741345 socialsec.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk Fund Raising Lewis Tyler 01473 310381 RGTRep.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk Anglian Cuttings Editor ??????????? Pickerel Project representative editor.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk Brian Cornell 01449 721632 River Stour Trust Rep Sue Brown pickerelrep.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk RSTRep.ipswichbranch@waterways.org.uk
Clive Saville
Welcome to our new members Mr & Mrs G L & S A Coleman Mr R Hulett Dr & Mrs Shattock Mr & Mrs G W & M Whybrow Mr & Mrs G & J Cole Miss L Heuer Mr & Mrs M & C Watkins
Suffolk Norfolk Suffolk Essex Norfolk Suffolk Essex
Well, this is my last Anglian Cutttings,I have enjoyed what I have done but now it is time for a change. I wish the new Ed. all the best for the future issues. We still need input from you members out there, so send your bits to the AC email address.... Mick
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4 CHAIRMAN’S REPORT Chard
Hello to all, I hope you had a pleasant summer. Our winter meetings are fast approaching and you will find the dates for our winter programme in this edition. However, as we went to press we were not totally sure of all the speakers so some meetings will be a nice surprise when you arrive. The WRG work camps, held during the summer, at Baylham Lock went very well and much work was carried out thanks to their sterling effort. (See Spencer’s Report). I would like to say thank you to all the WRG workers on behalf of Ipswich Branch, IWA for all their help. In June Carolyn and I had a 3 week holiday in Canada with our friends Rita and Clive Saville which we all enjoyed very much. We started from Calgary and rode the Rocky Mountaineer Train through the Rockies for 2 days to Vancouver. We hired a car for the rest of the holiday covering Vancouver Island, Whistler, Jasper and Banff. We saw lots of rivers and lakes but no canals. If you like scenery and wildlife, especially Whale Watching, I can highly recommend a visit. I am writing this report for Michael to include in Anglian Cutting just before setting off for another holiday; this time a canal trip with Joan and John Finch on their nb Fringilla. We are cruising from the Northern Oxford on to the Coventry Canal then the Trent & Mersey through to the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and then back via the River Trent. We are hoping for some nice weather along the way. We are in desperate need of articles for Anglian Cuttings so if anyone has a story to tell or a memorable trip to report on we would love to hear from you. Also, if anyone knows of any companies relating to boating that would like to advertise within this magazine then please let us know. See you in October Chard.
5 Australian Canal Society Gathering, July 2009
The 8th gathering of the ACS was held on the 12 July 2009 at the Blue Lias, Stockton. Six boats and 48 people attended on a glorious Sunday. We all enjoyed a very good roast dinner and an entertaining afternoon. For my sins I was the organizer and started by welcoming everyone to the gathering before introducing Jan Roden, President of the ACS, to start the ball rolling by telling us about events down under. Clive Henderson, National Chairman, then updated us on the progress of the IWA. The highlight of the afternoon was a talk given by Liz Payne, Chairman of the Cotswold Canals Trust, showing us the progress of the restoration with a PC presentation. After her talk Jan asked Sandy Paton, Sea Lock Keeper at Carron, Scotland, to present Liz with a cheque for £100 towards the restoration of the Cotswold Canals on behalf of the ACS. This money had been raised by raffles held at the ACS meetings and Sandy had donated some of the waterway prizes. We were pleased to have many Aussies in attendance especially as some, such as John & Anne Colville and Martin & Sue Smith, had arrived by boat. David Stevenson, Audrey Smith and John Fletcher, all who had been National Chairman in the past, were also present. John Fletcher was accompanied by his new wife Kate and baby Abi who was the youngest member present. The oldest member to attend the gathering was Sonia Rolt who has recently celebrated her 90th birthday. You may have already read that next year will be the centenary of Tom Rolt’s birth and there are celebration planned which I am sure will include Sonia Rolt so we look forward to hearing more. On the Monday Jan, Carolyn and I helped all six boats through Stockton Locks and on there way and we returned to Suffolk by car. I would like to close by thanking Brian Stafford and Jane, his daughter, for looking after us and making us welcome at the Blue Lias. Chard
6 River Gipping Trust – Baylham Lock 2009 The Trust has only been in existence for 2 years but before that the Ipswich branch of IWA had produced some plans that would, if they worked, see a major step forward in the restoration of the Ipswich & Stowmarket Navigation. When we saw the plans there were one or two members of the committee (me included) who felt that we didn’t have the experience to take it on. However Colin Turner was persuaded to come out of retirement one last time and take on the role of Working Party Organiser so we decided to go ahead. In essence the work at Baylham Lock would involve taking down some 15 metres of lock wall, removing around 60 cubic metres of soil from behind the wall, breaking out and removing around 10 cubic metres of concrete from the invert, reforming the invert at its correct level using 10 cubic metres of new concrete, rebuilding the lock wall, pouring another 15 cubic metres of concrete behind the wall and finally replacing the soil behind the wall. All this to be done in 6 weeks commencing 12th July! Because the River Gipping is very prone to flooding it was essential that the work was carried out as quickly as possible and in the supposed driest time of the year. More of that later! To get the work done we asked WRG if they could provide two full camps, one at the start and one at the end of the period. We also asked London WRG if they could run a weekend camp between the two. Luckily both organisations said yes so using Roy Sutton’s engineering report and recommendations, Colin started the detailed planning. Although we needed to remove the old concrete from the bottom of the lock Roy had advised us that if we did the whole lot in one go there was every possibility that the wall next to the mill could start sliding into the lock bringing a 200 year old listed structure down with it. Our 2 year old Trust would probably not grow up to be 3 years old if that happened so the work had to be done in three stages.
7 That meant that the replacement concrete could only be poured 6 cubic metres at a time, left to set under water (because we couldn’t keep the site totally dry for 6 weeks) and then pump out again and start the next section. During the first camp the weather was glorious and Liz and her team from WRG managed to get everything ready for the Friday concrete pour in plenty of time. Because the lock has numerous springs we had to construct a concrete sump and attach plastic pipes to it which would eventually run the length of the lock and feed all the spring water to the sump. These pipes had hundreds of holes drilled in them; they were then surrounded by gravel, covered with a polythene sheet and finally covered with a 50mm blinding layer of concrete. I made that sound easy but Liz’s camp also had to remove all the old concrete and then dig down 200 mm and remove thick glutinous clay before they could start putting in the pipes. Come Friday, the day of the concrete pour, we had the dumpers standing by (the site is only accessible over two bridges with an 8 tonne limit on each so the ready-mix had to come in ½ a tonne at a time in the dumpers). Colin had made it very clear that the lorry had to be with us by 9.30am. Finally at 10.30 it arrived at exactly the same moment as a torrential downpour. The rain itself we could have coped with but the river filled up so fast that it started flowing in the wrong direction back into the lock! Frantic work with sand bags wasn’t enough so we watched helplessly as one of the carefully formed edges of the invert started sliding down into the centre of the lock. A disappointing end to the camp but when we phoned Roy Sutton to explain what had happened things didn’t look quite as black as he reckoned we could recover the situation during the next WRG camp. Next was the London WRG camp and they carried on the work of breaking up and removing the old concrete from the invert.
8 Colin’s original plan had been for our own group to do a concrete pour after London WRG had gone and before the next camp but it became obvious that we did not have the required manpower for such an operation. We therefore decided that London WRG would remove all the old concrete during the weekend but we would use ACRO props across the top end of the lock below the cill to support the wall whilst we waited for the next camp. We realised that this was placing a huge burden on that camp (two 6 tonne concrete pours in one week) but Ed was leading that camp; he was with London WRG and he agreed to take it on. The deal with Ed was that the Trust’s local work force would complete the blinding layer before he arrived with his team. Unfortunately we were unable to do so as we decided that we needed stop planks at the lower end of the lock to avoid another flood. This took up all our time so when he turned up on Sunday his first task was to get the site cleared, lay the pipes, the gravel, the plastic and the blinding. I arrived on site at 6.00 am on Monday to switch on all the pumps so that we had a dry work area by 8.30. This time the ready-mix lorry arrived at 9.30 as requested and the concrete pour was complete by 12.30. That included vibrating and tamping to the correct profile. We now had to leave that to set before we could carry on with all the other jobs. One of those jobs was to try and put right the damage caused by the rain during Liz’s camp. Roy told us that we needed to cut out the new concrete to the point where it was at least 200mm thick over the full 3 metre width of the pour (around 3 sq metres) then refill with fresh concrete to the correct profile. This cut- out had to be taken down to the original blinding layer so we hired in a hydraulic breaker. The less said about that infernal machine the better. Suffice to say that the hire company gave us a 15% price reduction following our complaints. On Wednesday we removed the ACROs and started shifting the old clay and bricks. This was an even longer job as the spoil that had been removed on Sunday had simply been dumped in the area that we were going to pour on Thursday.
9 We had some pretty mucky people come Wednesday evening. On Thursday yet again I arrived at 6.00 am for the pumps and yet again the concrete pour went exactly as planned. By now one or two people had been sending photos to Liz with various comments like ‘This is how you do it properly.’ I gather she responded somewhat testily. By Friday a significant part of the lock wall had been rebuilt, several tonnes of concrete had been poured for backfill and the invert was complete. Our local group can now complete the job without the time pressures. I must record my admiration for the leaders and crews on all three camps. I’ve done a few camps in my time and I think the 2 one week camps were models of how a camp should be. They had a mixture of ages but everyone got on so well. If a job needed doing, it got done; the leaders didn’t have to chase after people. What can I say about London WRG that hasn’t been said on numerous occasions before? Thank the lord we’ve got a group of experts like you willing to share your expertise. It would be invidious to select just one or two names so I will say on behalf of the River Gipping Trust THANK YOU ALL. You’re hard work has meant another lock on the Ipswich & Stowmarket Navigation has been saved. Spencer Greystrong Treasurer River Gipping Trust
10 IWA Ipswich Branch meetings 2009/2010 Please note that due to availability of our room at the Needham Market Community Centre some meetings are NOT on the second Friday of the month. All meetings start at 7-30 unless otherwise stated and non-members are more than welcome. There is no charge for attending the meetings but we hold a raffle to offset the room hire costs as well as selling tea and coffee in the interval. Friday 9 October 2009
David Stevenson, former IWA National Chairman and President of the Foxton Incline Plane trust will give a talk about the Foxton Incline Plane.
Friday 20 November 2009
Keith Froom will be telling "The Story of the Mid- Suffolk Light Railway"
Friday 11 December 2009
Christmas social evening with mince pies and sausage rolls etc. (NOT Fish and Chips)
Friday 8 January 2010
Dinner at The Compasses, Holbrook. Meals to be booked in advance by the December meeting. Menu, price and time to be confirmed (seating limited)
Friday 19 February 2010
Branch AGM and talk by a member.
Friday 12 March 2010
Talk by Steve Haywood, the original “Grumpy” boater and author of the best selling books “Fruit Flies like a Banana” and “Narrowboat Dreams”
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IPSWICH BRANCH 36th ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Notice is herby given that the AGM of the Ipswich branch of the Inland Waterways Association will be held at the Needham Market Community Centre, School Street, Needham Market at 8 p.m. On Friday February 19 2010 AGENDA 1. Apologies for absence. 2. Approval of the minutes of the 2008 AGM. 3. Matters arising from those minutes. 4. Chairman’s report. 5. Treasurer’s report and presentation of the accounts. 6. Adoption of the accounts. 7. Statement of committee size. 8. Election of committee members. 9. Regional Chairman’s Report.
12 The Birmingham Canal Navigation Society (BCNS) Explorer Cruise Last year Diana and I signed up for the BCNS Explorer Cruise, we had such a good time that we decided to join them again this year. If you have ever felt you wanted to visit the quieter, less used parts of the BCN, but you were unhappy doing so alone then this is for you. Next year the plan is to hold the cruise a bit earlier in the year, hopefully June. If you would like to join them full details will be on their web site http://www.bcn-society.co.uk/ nearer the time. This year’s cruise started at the top of The Curdworth Flight on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal (B&F) with 23 boats gathering there on the Monday evening for a short briefing on what would happen over the next few days. Start times were allocated on a very voluntary basis; we elected to go at 10 am. whereas the early birds wanted to be away at 6 am, this was to avoid everyone arriving at the Minworth locks at the same time. Brenda the organiser would be coming up the rear to ensure everyone was OK. On the morning of Tuesday August 11 at 10 am. we were away; one slight hiccup was that the 9-30 am. boat was facing the wrong way and had to do a 3 mile trip to wind, so we were away about an hour before he returned and Brenda had to wait until he came back before she could set off. BW had been informed of our plans and had 2 operatives at the Minworth Flight to ensure everything went smoothly; in addition another two gentlemen called Aiden and Albert were there to help. These two gents spend their spare time helping boaters through the Birmingham locks. Brenda and the other boat both caught us up as we worked up the flight. Once clear of the locks we continued along the B&F until we reached Salford Junction where we took the second canal on the left, which is actually still the B&F, and up the Aston Flight of 8 locks, Again Albert and Aiden were on hand to assist. The only problem we had encountered so far was to ride up on an obstruction under Rocky Lane Bridge. At the top of the flight we turned a very sharp left onto the Digbeth Branch and found a number of our party, plus two boats that waiting here to join us, all moored at the University. We should all have been at Digbeth Basin, but reports of a lack of space lead to some people, including us, mooring early. Because we had moored early for the night we had to leave an hour earlier on the Wednesday to catch up and needless to say it was bucketing down with rain.
13 We went into Digbeth Basin, also known as Typhoo Basin, for a look round before following the others down the Grand Union to Bordesley Junction, here we should have turned left but we actually went into the first lock of the Camp Hill Flight and had to reverse out and correct our mistake. We were now on the Birmingham and Warwick Junction Canal and had the flight of 5 Garrison Locks to do. This would take us back to Salford Junction, again BW were on hand at the first lock to ensure everything went smoothly and Aiden had stationed himself further down to help on his way to work. At the end of this canal is a disused stop lock that was built to stop the canal companies stealing each other’s water. At the junction it was another left turn, this time on to the Tame Valley Canal and up the 13 Perry Bar locks to our second overnight mooring at the top of the locks. Thursday was quite a short day, so Graham on nb. Jannock and I decided that when we reached Rushall Junction we would wind the boats and reverse the halfmile back to the M5 aqueduct. We took a photo or two to record the event and then came back to Rushall Junction and followed the rest up the 9 Rushall Locks to our overnight mooring at the Longwood Boat Club. Here we enjoyed a good fish and chip supper on the towing path in the evening sun. The evening entertainment was provided by Kevin Day, one of our group, singing canal songs and playing his guitar. Friday was another lock free day, we made our way to Brownhills on the Wyrley and Essington Canal to do a bit of food shopping at Tesco and fill with water at the BW service point. Then we winded and make our way first past Catshill Junction to join the Anglesey Branch, followed by Ogley Junction, where the Lichfield canal used to come in, to Anglesey Basin for the night. This is the most northerly point of the BCN and we moored up in groups of about 6 for an informal BBQ evening. Next morning it was off down the Wyrley and Essington as far as Pelsall Junction where we all ate out at The Finger Post. Before mooring up we decided that a trip to the end of the Cannock Extension was called for.
14 To wind at the end it is necessary to put your bows into the mouth of the dry dock, where they request that you rope your boat round so as not to form silting in the mouth of the dock. Sunday morning we set off to finish the Wyrley and Essington Canal, last year this trip took us about 8 hours with several visits down the weed hatch, this year we did it in five and a half hours with no trips down the hatch, although we had to give several blasts of reverse to clear debris from the prop. The Floating Pennywort is still growing strongly along this section of canal. We turned right at Horseley Junction and moored for the night opposite the old Broad Street BW offices on a stretch of mooring that is not accessible from the outside world. Some of our fellow travellers were moored at the top of the Wolverhampton 21 locks and others double moored on the towing path opposite us, the remainder spent the night inside the basin at the back of the old BW offices. After eating onboard we went for a drink at the Great Weston Public House. To get off our mooring we had to get the boat opposite to drift across the cut to act as a ferry to bring us across to the towing path, this procedure had to be repeated when we returned home to bed. If you ever visit Wolverhampton a trip to this pub, with a very good selection of beers, is strongly recommended. Monday was the last day of our cruise and after winding in the basin we all chose our own route to get to the Titford Pump House, the headquarters of the BCNS. We decided to follow the Old Main Line on the Wolverhampton level as far as Oldbury Junction and then turn very sharp right to climb the Crow flight of locks. These locks are slightly unusual, as apart from one pound where a branch used to run off the flight under the towing path, the towing path side of the pounds and the edge of the locks are all in line, giving the boaters a straight run through the flight. The Pump House is just at the top of the flight, but we continued up to the top of the Titford Canal and into the Titford Pools to wind before mooring above the Pump House for the night. We finished our cruise with a BBQ at the Pump House and more entertainment from Kevin and another member of our crowd, who also sings and plays the guitar. You can read our day-to-day diary of this trip by visiting our on-line Blog at http://nbharnser.blogspot.com/ and looking in the August section for The BCNS Explorer Cruise 2009
15 Branch Annual Outing 2010 Next years annual outing is coming together well. The date has been finalised for Saturday and Sunday 15/16 May 2010 and the hotel booked. We will be staying at the Holiday Inn, Sandiacre, Derbyshire on a Dinner, Bed and Breakfast basis, unfortunately we won’t have a swimming pool this year. On the Saturday we will be visiting the Crich Tramway Museum http://www.tramway.co.uk and on the Sunday going for a cruise on the River Trent aboard The Nottingham Prince http://www.princessrivercruises.co.uk followed by a visit to Woolaton Hall http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1037 Here you will be able to take lunch in the cafeteria and for a small charge have a conducted tour of the hall. Again we hope to be using a coach from Turners of Essex with Paul as our very capable driver. Details are still to be finalised but the cost should be in the region of £100 per person and the main pickup points will be Colchester and Copdock. The coach will be travelling along the A14 and we can pick up on route at suitable points by prior arrangement.
Following out successful sponsorship of the Real Ale Bar at Canalway Cavalcade this year, Boatshed Grand Union has come up with a new initiative to sponsor the IWA. Boatshed Grand Union is the Inland Waterways Office of Boatshed, the worlds largest Boat Brokerage. We operate on the Grand Union, London Canals and the Lee and Stort, as well as Oxfordshire, Herts, Cambs and Beds. We are constantly looking for more boat owners to benefit from our cutting edge technology and traditional style service. We will donate £100 to IWA funds for every boat introduced to us by an IWA member that we subsequently list and sell. All members hve to do is get the consent of the boat owner to introduce them, then phone or email Phil Bassett at Boatshed Grand Union with the name of the owner and contact details. Members can also gain the donation by introducing their own boat for sale. As soon as we sell the boat the donation will go to the IWA. Boatshed Grand Union is also looking to recruit agents to start their own business listing boats for sale in their area. Phil Bassett Tel:01923 275139 Email: Phil@BoatshedGrandUnion.com Web: www.boatshedgrandunion.com
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Working party dates Working parties are held at Baylham Lock from 0900 to 1700 every Wednesday and the first Saturday in the month unless that Saturday is in a Bank Holiday weekend, the work party will then be held on the second Saturday. Colin Turner
Interesting web sites Ipswich IWA web site http://www.ipswich-iwa.co.uk http://rivergippingtrust.org/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/ipswich_iwa/ . http://www.waterways.org.uk http://www.harnser.info http://www.iwapeterborough.org.uk http://www.broads-society.org.uk/index.php?page=home http://www.thegreenbook.org.uk/home/home.asp http://www.riverstourtrust.org/ http://www.goba.org.uk/ http://www.waterscape.com/ http://www.savethewaterways.org.uk/ The IWA may not agree with the opinions expressed in this newsletter but encourages publications as a matter of interest. Nothing printed can be construed as policy or as an official announcement unless otherwise stated. The IWA accepts no liability for any matter in this newsletter