Aegre July 2014

Aegre 139W - July 2014

Aegre No. 139 July2014

from theEast Midlands Region of


Aegre is published © 2014 by the East Midlands Region Committeeof the Inland Waterways Association for members of Leicestershire,

Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Branches.

The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the Inland Waterways Association or ofthe East Midlands Region. They are published as being of interest to our members and other readers.

Editor for Aegre: Peter Hill, 7 Lock Keeper’s Way, Louth, Lincolnshire LN11 0GQTel: 01507 602713; e-mail: [email protected]

Printing: This is the web version with lower definition pictures.Picture credits: Front cover: Dave Carnell, see page 15. Back cover: Rod Auton,see page 23. Page 3: Entry to the Louth Canal, see page 30. Other picture credits

page 28.

Chairman David Pullen, 16 Church Street, Scothern, Lincoln LN2 2UA. Tel 01673 862278

Vice-Chairman Dave Carnell, Conifer Cottage, North End, Goxhill DN19 7JX Tel: 01469 530138

Leicestershire Ian McDonald, 68 Leicester Road, Thurcaston, LeicesterBranch Chairman LE7 7JG Mobile: 07950 003383

Lincolnshire Dave Carnell (as above)Branch Chairman

Nottinghamshire Mike Snaith, Hawthorne Cottage, 70 Main St,& Derbyshire Gunthorpe, Nottingham NG14 7EUBranch Chairman

Secretary & WRG John Baylis, 215 Clipstone Rd West, Forest Town, Mansfield NG19 0HJ Tel: 01623 621208

The Inland Waterways Association: Registered Office; IslandHouse, Moor Road, Chesham HP5 1WA. Registered as a

Charity No: 212342.Tel: 0845 4501146. Website: http://www.waterways.org.uk


AEGRE

July 2014No. 139

Next issue probably to be published inNovember 2014. Contributions to theeditor (see page 2) by the end ofSeptember 2014 please.

The space on the right is for localcontact information.

ContentsCanal Societies and Trusts in the EM Region..............................4The Editor’s Flotsam and Jetsam.................................................5From David Pullen, Chairman.......................................................6News from Leicestershire...........................................................10Lincolnshire Happenings............................................................15News from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire..............................18Around the Societies and Trusts.................................................22Cromford and Chesterfield Canal Camps...................................24Mick Golds’ Retirement...............................................................25Picture Credits............................................................................28Journals Received......................................................................28New Chesterfield Canal Footbridge............................................29A Sailing Trip to Tetney Lock......................................................30Walking the Cuckoo Way............................................................32Notts & Derby Branch Meetings.................................................33Melton and Oakham Afloat........................................................34


Canal Societies and Trusts in the EM Region

Derby & Sandiacre Canal Society Chris Madge, c/o 62 Broadway, Duffield, DerbyDE56 4BU Tel: 07827 946444 www.derbycanal.org.uk

Erewash Canal P & DAssociation

Howard Smith, 1 Millfield, Kimberley, NottinghamNG16 2LJ Tel: 0115 9384129

Foxton Inclined Plane TrustFoxton Canal Museum, Middle Lock, Gumley Road,Market Harborough LE16 7RA Tel: 0116 2792657www.fipt.org.uk

Friends of the Cromford Canal Matthew Rogers, 2 Main Road, Whatstandwell,Matlock, DE4 5HE Tel: 07968 766620

Mike Stone, 7, Crow Park Drive, Burton Joyce,Nottingham NG14 5AS; Tel: 0115 931 3375www.granthamcanal.com

Grantham Canal Society

Melton & OakhamWaterways Society

Richard Booth, Sysonby Knoll, Asfordby Road,Melton Mowbray LE13 0HP Tel: 01664 503330www.meltonwaterways.co.uk

Steve Hayes, 10 Chelmer Close, N. Hykeham,Lincoln LN6 8TH Tel: 01522 689460www.sleafordnavigation.co.uk

Trent and Mersey Canal Society 10 Long Lane, Middlewich, Cheshire CW10 0BL.Tel: 01606 834471www.tamcs.org.uk

Paula Hunt, Navigation Warehouse, Riverhead,Louth LN11 0DA Tel: 01507 605496www.louthcanal.org.uk

Louth Navigation Trust

Sleaford Navigation Trust

www.erewashcanalpreservationanddevelopmentassoc.org.uk

Friends of Charnwood ForestCanal

Mike Handford, 1 Sheepy Close, Hinckley, LE10 1JLTel: 01455 611508 [email protected]


The Editor’s Flotsam and Jetsam

Normally I leave an odd item in thepages of “Aegre” as a deliberate mis-take, to see if anyone spots it. But Ireally need to apologise to readers forthe announcement of the opportunityto visit Holme Lock during repairworks by C&RT in March. For vari-ous reasons the work had to be post-poned several times (a fuller accountfrom David Pullen on page 7) so thatit did not happen. In the future per-haps we should include the standardproviso “If travelling any distance toan event, please check with the organ-isers shortly beforehand that it is stillgoing ahead as planned”.

Sometimes little steps lead forward inan unexpected way, but also give mecause for little steps of worry. Toexplain - over the past year or so wehave seen valuable advances affectingthe canals and rivers. There has beenpositive coverage on television, andnot just the Timothy West series. TheRoyal Yachting Association (RYA) ispromoting training courses for inlandskippers. More generally, journalisticmention has begun to know the differ-ence between a narrow boat and abarge - but is still confused by“house-boat”, and there was even dis-cussion of Tom Rolt’s book “NarrowBoat” at the the Hay-on-Wye litera-ture festival. But my writing here hasbeen prompted by the front page of abroad-sheet paper with a charmingpicture of a few boats on a misty canal

- on their property supplement. A sup-plement which rarely discusses any-thing cheaper than £500,000.Although they do venture north ofWatford, it is rarely beyond Oxford-shire or Northamptonshire. Theaccompanying text is reasonablyaccurate, with sensible suggestionssuch as “hire before you buy”, but thesuggested areas are ones now familiaras problems - London and the westernend of the Kennet and Avon. Am Isuffering from “dog in the manger”effect? I hope not, but does an influxof what is really money in this wayhelp the canals, in particular theC&RT, or will it drive prices in thesouth up to the extent that there is noaffordable mooring space for visitorsfrom the north. Your opinions arewelcome.

For some years now the Newsletter ofthe Lincolnshire Waterways Partner-ship has been a valuable way of com-municating their achievements andplans to a wide public - not just inLincolnshire. Their projects, led byMary Powell, have had a major influ-ence on the various rivers and canals,and even drains and becks, in thecounty. So it was worrying to learnthat they are no longer going to pub-lish after Summer 2014, issue 32.There will be an electronic version, asfor many other organisations, butdetails are not yet clear. We wish theteam every success with their future


From David Pullen, Chairman

Future Navigation on the Trent

C&RT East Midlands have an action plan including a feasibility project intoproviding boater support / training / information for boaters that are wary ofnavigating the River Trent, both tidal and non-tidal. I’m trying to take this for-ward and would welcome any suggestions or offers of help from boaters in theEast Midlands.

We may organise convoys, offer pilotage, training, free Trent Charts, livephone contact / support – that sort of thing. It would be good if this could bedone under the IWA “brand” to maintain and improve our image, but in part-nership with C&RT. Anybody with any thoughts on this please contact me bye-mail ([email protected]) or phone. See page 2 for contactdetails.

projects, and with the hi-tech newslet-ter. Anyone wishing to request a copyshould drop a postal line to Lincoln-shire County Council, FreepostRRZK-BRXK-URAX, Communities,County Offices, Newland,Lincoln LN1 1YQ.

We mentioned in the last issue thetransfer of a dumper truck from Sleaf-ord Trust to Chesterfield. Followingup on the “tools of the trade” of canaltrusts and societies, we have a contri-bution (Page 34) from Melton on theirwork boats. The Mole in particularseems a very useful gadget. I wonderif they have registered the design?

Later in this issue David mentionspossible plans for encouraging navi-gation on the Trent. Some readersmay remember that we reviewed JohnLower’s excellent small book called

“Narrow Boat on the Trent” in theNovember 2007 issue of “Aegre”. Ifyou would like to see it and no longerhave that issue (shame!) it is on theIWA web site at:www.waterways.org.uk/branches_regions/east_midlands/aegre_online_archive. This topic is also relevant toEA’s wish to get more usage of theBlack Sluice - see Dave Carnell’sreport on page 16.

No solution came up for our old pic-ture last time of (?) dredging on theWitham. Any more ideas?

More notes from the editor are scat-tered throughout this edition, but herejust best wishes for the remaining sea-son, and hoping that river and canallevels are neither too high nor toolow. Peter


Past navigation on the Trent -Holme LockEarlier in the year there was anxietyabout the problems with Holme Lock,and the serious delays resulting,although some maintenance hadalways been planned . Here for yourinformation is some of the back-ground. Pictures of the work inprogress from John Baylis:

C&RT original message: A stop-page is required to investigate andrepair a problem with the bottom lockgates at Holme Lock.

C&RT update on 23/12/2013: The East Midlands team haveextended the closure to the 29thMarch. The works are required asone of the bottom gates has droppedby 50 mm and there could be anumber of reasons for this. The bot-tom of the gate is fixed in positionwith a ‘pintel and cup’ arrangementand the investigation and repair workis likely to be focused on this area.The timber around the cup, which sitswithin the gate, could have rotted

allowing the pintel to push the cupinto the gate; the pintel could havesheared, or the lock floor around thepintel could be damaged causing thepintel to drop.

C&RT update on 20/03/2014: The floor of the lock downstreamof the bottom gates suffered a failureresulting in a large ingress of water.We believe that weathering overmany years of the Mercia mudstoneunderlying the concrete floor has cre-ated sizable voids. These voids haveallowed the passage of water to theunderside of the lock floor. Theremoval of the water from the lock tocarry out the works to the gate createda pressure head resulting in a force onthe lock floor that has caused thedamage. Our estimate at this stage isthat the works could take up to the16th May.

C&RT update on 16/05/2014: You will be pleased to hear that theworks to Holme Lock will be substan-tially completed today as planned.From Wednesday 21 May the lockwill be back to normal, with a lock


keeper on from 9:30 am to 5.30 pmand user operated outside of thesehours.

From David Pullen to Sean McGinley

Hi Sean,Good news that Holme Lock is finallyopen again!The prolonged stoppage has certainlycaused tremendous inconvenience toboaters, particularly from East Mid-lands and nearby areas such as York-shire and Central Shires. The Trent isthe major navigation artery for ourregion and when it is closed it dam-ages boating, both leisure and com-mercial.

Whilst we realise that there were sig-nificant unforeseen circumstanceswhich caused the prolonged stoppageto carry on well into the start of themain boating season, we feel that adifferent planning approach to work,on the Trent structures in particular,would have reduced the risks of thelong stoppage.

We are of the opinion that any workon the Trent should be initiallyplanned to begin at the start of thewinter maintenance programme. Werealise that these major structures can-not be inspected below water levelwithout a stoppage so it would be lessrisky to have the stoppage early in thewinter to mitigate the significant riskof finding serious problems (as in thecase of Holme Lock). If the workstarts early in the winter and signifi-

cant problems arise it does at leastgive some latitude with less risk ofaffecting the main boating season.Regards, David Pullen

From: Sean McGinleyDavid, Thank you for the email.Ideally we would have started thework in November, for the very rea-sons you give. Holme Lock was not inour original plan, but after noticing areduction in performance of the gatelast summer we changed our plan inlate July, cancelling works at Wisetonon the Chesterfield Canal to accom-modate it. The amount of pre-sitework needed to carry out a stoppageon the Trent is quite immense and toget on site in November from a start-ing point of the end of July would notbe possible unless we had also can-celled the stoppage at Misterton tofree up the one engineer we had atthat time. It was therefore simply theonly choice we had in a difficult situa-tion.Regards, Seán McGinley, WaterwayManager – East Midlands

Meeting with Irven Forbes at Envi-ronment Agency Lincoln. 6 May2014

David Pullen, IWA East MidlandsChairman, and Dave Carnell, IWALincolnshire Branch Chairman metIrven Forbes for informal discussionson EA navigations and future EA or-ganisation.


The meeting was primarily aimed atfinding out to what extent the reportedcuts in EA navigation funding on theRiver Thames would be repeated inEA “Anglian Region” (as it existedprior to the current re-organisation).The risk of the Anglian navigationsbeing separated from the other EAwaterways and transferred to C&RTis also an issue of concern to IWA.

Future Organisation

EA in England is being re-organisedinto 3 “Hubs”; South (at Bramptonnear Huntingdon), North (Leeds) andWest (Bristol). Anglian Navigationswill be line managed by the South hubeven though the previous NorthAnglian region (mainly Lincolnshire)is now in the North hub. This isbecause there are no EA navigationsin the North. Irven will remain at Lin-coln and will continue to manage theAnglian Navigations and report toBrampton. This consolidates ALL EANavigations management into theSouth Hub. I specifically asked Irvenabout the possibility of the AnglianNavigations being separated from therest (“divide and rule”!). Irven saidthat was definitely not on the agendaand that EA would steadfastly resistthis. (My interpretation is that consol-idating navigation management in theSouth Hub is “circling the wagons”to keep lines of communication shortwithin the navigation teams). Irvenalso claimed that Navigation was oneof very few teams that are beingallowed to operate “pan Hub”. It will

be interesting to see how splitting lineand functional management in thisway works out because funding forIrven’s navigations will presumablybe through the North Hub?

There will be 3 navigation managersreporting to the South Hub; Anglian(North), Anglian South and Thames.

Funding CutsWe mentioned the dramatic fundingcuts that have been reported forThames Navigations and asked howthis will reflect in Anglian Naviga-tions. Irven stated that all the revenuefunding cuts for the Thames will befound from reducing seasonal staff.He did not necessarily agree that 26%was the funding cut on the Thames.

Anglian region navigations has a rev-enue funding cut of 48% (£1m downto £520k). There will be no staff cutsand the deficit will be accommodatedby:

· Increase in boat registrations*· Increase in licence fees· 15% reduction in mainte-

nance· Reduction in central cost con-

tribution (overheads!).

*Although approximately 200 regis-trations were “lost” to the Cam Con-servators, (who now register theirown boats and share the revenue withEA), this has been offset by a similarincrease in EA registrations, mainly


on the Great Ouse. This despite the year on year licence increase of around4.5%!

Black Sluice Lock and NavigationBlack Sluice Lock is still being repaired following flood damage from the tidalsurge in December 2013. Therefore Black Sluice Navigation remains closeduntil the lock is repaired.We also discussed the possibility of a boating event on the Black Sluice atsome future stage when the new slipway and facilities are complete at Hub-berts Bridge.

Welches Dam Lock

EA has now established ownership of all of the drain connecting WelchesDam Lock with Horseway Lock. EA owns one bank and an Oxford collegeowns the other. This is the drain which leaks water into the surrounding farm-land when water levels are maintained at navigable depth. Various solutionswere discussed and Irven stated that EA were still interested, in principle, insome sort of volunteer-led management of the lock and the drain if a suitablemanagement regime can be agreed.

David

News from LeicestershireI write this whilst on the Macc justpast Bollington hoping the forecastdeluge fails to materialise, and gladwe were not planning on going downthe Soar and Trent this week!

For the Leicester Riverside Festival Ihope that many of our members alongwith a large crowd were able to enjoythe events the City Council arrangedand especially a good number ofboats for people to see. As I said lasttime we have not been able to mustera group of members to set up ourstand and to promote the IWAamongst the public. It is our ferventhope that next year we will be able to

have a presence there on the towpathon the Mile Straight at the heart of thewaterside action.

I understand that the LoughboroughCanal Festival was as popular as everwith towpath users, though I haveheard that boat numbers were down. Ihope that this successful annual eventwill continue into the future and thatwaterway users and boaters will con-tinue to support it. There is a goodchance I shall be able to be at boththese events next year as we are onour valedictory cruise this summerand should be living ashore withinLeicestershire next May and June.


Over Easter the Historic Narrow BoatClub held a very successful meetingat Foxton with good weather. Weheld a very pleasant and enjoyablequiz night there shortly before, thefinal meeting of our “social” year,and were delighted to be joined by afew non-members as well as otherIWA members who had arrived byboat. We started in the Museum withMary Matts standing in for MikeBeech who had another appointment.

Mary gave us a very interesting talkabout the development of the locks(which opened 200 years before) andthe Inclined Plane. I feel pretty surethat everyone who heard Mary learntseveral new facts at least, and we fol-lowed this by studying the new dis-plays closely as we tried to completethe quiz Andrew had prepared. Afterhis excellent Xmas quiz this contin-ued the standard, in particular in theway he hadn’t put PTO or some suchat the bottom of the page!!! Some ofhis questions were very cleverly com-posed so that most of us thought weknew what we were being asked,except we weren’t. Keep up the goodwork Andrew, and for those of you

who haven’t tried oneof his quizzes make adate to catch one, youwill enjoy it. We com-pleted our evening inTony & Mary’s pubenjoying a drink andsome excellent sand-wiches.

For everyone else, do go along andspend time looking at all the new dis-play material, it is a great littlemuseum and deserves our support.

John Evans and I attended the firstmeeting of the Catchment Area Part-nership for the Soar which was for allthose with an interest in the water thatflows into the Soar and how it is man-aged, except C&RT didn’t attend!! Itwas an interesting meeting, where Imet people I hadn’t seen for sometime and the interfacing was useful,but John and I felt that the River SoarGrand Union Partnership covers theissues well. Nevertheless it is impor-tant for the IWA to be represented.Later there was a major meeting ofthe Partnership, held in the ratherpalatial surroundings of City FootballClub stadium, where there was a goodand varied group present. We havebeen pushing hard for improvedboater facilities in Leicester, as wellas for the old Mill on the Soar justdownstream of West Bridge to berestored following the fire thatdestroyed its roof. At the RSGUPmeeting we had a great presentationabout the joined-up work that has


been undertaken at Atherstone, withvery evident enthusiasm. I also wasintroduced by Beryl to Darren Green,the C&RT manager for CentralShires, and moved forward the possi-ble method of providing the facilitiesin Leicester, having already raisedthis with several people from Leices-ter City. Funding is, as always, thebig issue but I was able to introducethe person from Central Shires who isclever at finding money to the personfrom the City project responsible forthe Mill restoration funding, theMayor having already acknowledgedthe possibility of incorporating pon-toon moorings and a services blockwith the restoration. The Branch havebeen trying to get this ever since wewere founded, perhaps we may suc-ceed at last. These meetings can be aplace where there is a great load ofhot air given out, but John and I werevery glad to have gone to them. I alsoasked the Mayor if he would like tocome and give a talk about plans forthe waterway through Leicester thiscoming season. As he is a member ofthe Branch he said he’d be delightedto come and he will be speaking atour AGM in February 2015.

Improvements on the cut - and theseare just my personal observations. Ihave moaned for some time in UserGroup meetings about cutting of thetowpath but also about controllingoverhanging vegetation. On our tripfrom Debdale over the LeicesterSummit we were delighted to findthat the navigable width is now much

improved. Our delight will be evengreater if the planned dredging takesplace and helps to control the growthof reeds that so greatly reduces navi-gable width.

During our cruise I have spoken to allthe volunteers that I have seen help-ing to work locks or undertake main-tenance and it is very heartening tofind that so many of them had previ-ously had nothing to do with thewaterways other than enjoying walk-ing or cycling, yet now they aredonating their time to the future of thewaters.

This neatly brings me on to my nexttopic, VOLUNTEERING, and ourplanned Big Bash. We are currentlyworking to bring together a largegroup from across the city & county.We are working with Alison Smed-ley, our National Volunteering Co-ordinator, Leicester City Council’swaterspace team and with Tom Free-land, the local C&RT Volunteer Co-ordinator, to get this event out toattract as many people as possible tocome along and join in on October4th. Details have still to be confirmedat this time but some of the effort willbe based near Lime Kiln lock. Wehope to include work from boats aswell as on the ground.

As we are working to attract membersof the general public to join in, wewill also want to establish our Branchgazebo and stand with a few peopleable to work it, to tell people what is


going on and all about the IWA. I dohope that we can count on a goodnumber of you joining us and helpingto improve the waterway as well asawareness of the IWA.

Leicester Council’s “GreenLife Boat”is working again, except that sadlythe old BW work flat had reached thepoint where it was beyond economicrepair. Fortunately Adrian’s team puttogether a successful bid for a suitableboat. I circulated to those of you whohave given Head Office permission touse your email addresses, details ofthe programme of sessions with theboat, I hope you received it and con-sidered volunteering.

Events are being arranged for tacklingHimalayan Balsam and also FloatingPennywort. I hope that they will notbe curtailed by the flooding of theSoar. Some of these efforts have beenin association with Aylestone Mead-ows Appreciation Society, but anyonecan join in. The next is:Tuesday 22nd July – 10am to lunch-time. Meet at Leicester Rowing Club,Upperton Road, LE2 7AU to clear theinvaders between Freeman’s Meadowand St Mary’s Mill Locks.Contact: Tom Freeland on 01827252010 or 07789 033435 or by [email protected]

I mentioned Tom and the C&RT Vol-unteering he is arranging with us, butevery alternate Tuesday activities takeplace around Leicester. Every volun-teering hour undertaken is logged by

C&RT and can be set off againstother funding, attracting in even moremoney.

Future Meetings are in the pipeline,being arranged by Andrew & Debbieafter their very successful series lastyear. Meetings will be at The GateHangs Well, Syston at 7.30 on thesecond Thursday of October, Novem-ber and February and April. TheXmas event is to be another BuffetQuiz and will be at Wanlip ChurchHall. Our hosts love cooking so theyhave said they will cater for us there!Please reserve these dates in yourdiaries/calendars and keep in touchwith our pages on the IWA web sitefor any last minute info. I hope wewill have more good turnouts thiswinter series, and if you could con-sider bringing a raffle prize every sooften it would be wonderful.

Our raffle at our meetings is neededto cover the costs of our meetings.The donation we ask for at the doorjust about covers the cost of hiring theroom, but our speakers generally askfor a donation towards their charity orcause, sometimes towards their travelcosts, and it is our raffle that helps topay for this. Obviously if one of usgives the talk, costs are lower, but areprobably of less interest. The morepeople we can get along buying raffletickets, the better.

On the matter of finances, thebranch’s Leicester Line leaflet is verypopular and I was delighted to hear


that our Region Chairman always picks up the latest copy. We distribute over2000 copies a year through metal boxes spaced along the line as well as otherplaces along the line. In previous years when we held 7 or 8 meetings a yearwith larger audiences as well as displaying our stand at festivals where wemanaged to sell a few items we had been given, we had a reasonable incomeeach year and were able to fund the printing of our Leaflets. Would that thisbe the case now. We urgently need to find ways of funding its publication aswe need a new print run. If any of you have any good ideas, please pass themto me. Currently we don’t wish to do a full revamp and are considering seek-ing sponsorship from businesses alongside the line that are mentioned on theleaflet. Please think and suggest.

Ian

Future Meetings

All meetings are at 7.30 pm unless otherwise stated and at The Gate HangsWell, Syston.

Thursday 9th October. Alison Smedley will talk about Historic Narrowboats,and her cruises.

Thursday 13th November. Brian Williams will give a talk on the CharnwoodForest Canal that was deferred from last February.

Thursday 11th December. Christmas Party at Wanlip Church Hall. Our jointSocial Secretaries have undertaken to produce another buffet following theone they created last year. Bring your own drinks and there will be anotherlight hearted but brain stretching quiz.

Booking for this, with pre-payment, is essential. A booking form will beavailable on our web page and those of you that get our emails will be sentone by the end of September. If you don’t receive these, please contact Ianand request one.

Thursday 12th February 2015 at 7.15 Branch AGM. Member Sir PeterSoulsby will talk about the plans he and the City have for the water-space inLeicester.


With funding contributions from theSlea Navigation Trust, the IWA, EastAnglian Waterways Association andan anonymous benefactor, largeamounts of silt were removed fromthe channel leading to Taylors Lockon the River Slea.

Picture above by Mel Sowerby. A "simple" exemption under thewaste disposal legislation allows forsilt with low pollution to be disposedof to the bank. Approval from the EAand the adjacent land owner allowedthis operation to go ahead in time for14 boats to spend the May Day BankHoliday weekend at South Kyme andjoin in the village activities. Theweather was perfect and boats wereblessed by the Bishop of Lincoln, whoalso had a boat ride from the moor-ings towards the church for Sundayservice. See our picture on the frontcover. Left to right. Jean Morris,Churchwarden; Rt Revd. Christopher

Lowson, Bishop of Lincoln; Revd.Mike Rose, of South Kyme; Pat Tay-lor, founder member of SNT; anddaughter Sue Sowerby. Picture byDave Carnell.

The Parish Council has now regis-tered ownership of land for the water

access point toallow canoes anddinghies to launch,and moorings forlarger craft. CanoeEngland have sup-plied a number ofdesigns for consid-eration, and groundreinforcement forthe approach to themoorings is to beconsidered.Bank erosion in the

village is also a problem due to fluctu-ating water levels. Some propertieshave lost two metres of land. Meet-ings by the Parish Council, SNT, IWAand the EA are considering optionsfor soft bank protection.

The EA are to lose a further 1,400jobs by this October. The RegionalManagerial level is to be removedwith Areas reporting directly toNational Level. This reduction inmanpower impacts on other projects,such as the Boston Tidal Barrierwhere completion, despite the TidalSurge flooding, is not planned until2019. The works on the Fenland Link

Lincolnshire Happenings


will be on-going for another five years. The Fen-land Link works at Hubberts Bridge to providea slipway, water, and toilet pump-out facilitiesare due to be opened shortly, some two yearsbehind schedule due to other bank protectionworks.Picture above by Shirley Rogers.

Concern about the lack of boats visiting the Linkhas been voiced by the EA, who are requestingassistance in promoting its use. There have beena number of factors during 2013/2014 to takeinto consideration; two large jack-up barges areworking in the tidal Haven reinforcing the flood

protection works and par-tially restricting naviga-tion; there has been lackof manpower to man thelocks and to re-establishthe agreed communica-tions procedure betweenthe three authorities con-cerned.

At Bardney Lock, on theRiver Witham, a largeredundant swing bridge

has caused safety accessproblems on the off-side ofthe chamber for manyyears. This is to beremoved by C&RT in theforeseeable future andtransported to a site on theGrantham Canal. Picturebelow by Dave Carnell.

For many years there hasbeen a lack of visitor moor-ings in Brayford Pool. TheBrayford Trust now alsomanages the formermarina moorings and hasmoorings available forfive visiting cruisers andthree narrow-boats.Subject to funding becom-ing available, floatingmoorings will be installedadjacent to the east wharfwith some older fixed onesnear the Harbour Master’sOffice converted to float-ing.

http://www.dougwalking.co.uk/


Canal walks for Help forHeroes.Doug Hamilton-Cox, intrepidwalker and fundraiser, arrived inSleaford on Tuesday 13th Mayhaving completed the latest sectionof his challenging tour of the Brit-ish internal waterways nationalnetwork by adding the SleafordNavigation to the long list ofcanals that he has walked.He set off from Chapel Hill at10.30 to walk along the river bankto South Kyme where he met localresidents before striding out againtowards Sleaford where he arrivedat 4.00pm.Doug explained, “I am a 70-yearold ex-soldier who with my wifeSue set out five years ago to raisemoney for our wounded troops viaHelp for Heroes. We undertook ashort 150 mile walk from ourhome on Dartmoor to WoottenBassett in Wiltshire. This was sosuccessful that the following year we repeated the exercise with a 250 milestroll from home to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham, the first port of call forour wounded returning from Afghanistan, again with great success. I had nowdeveloped a severe case of itchy feet, so in 2011 decided to do the ultimateand final walk of John O’Groats to Lands End. Mission accomplished but Istill couldn’t settle. So I am now half way through my Final Challenge ofwalking all of the 2500 miles of canals in the U.K. Sue and I have raised£82,000 to date and aim to make it £100,000 before we finish.”David Pullen and Steve Hayes of Sleaford Navigation Trust accompaniedDoug on his walk and the photo shows Doug and David with Chris Hayes,Chairman of the Trust, outside Navigation House in Sleaford at the end of thewalk. Picture by Steve Hayes.More information about Doug and Sue's travels can be found onhttp://www.dougwalking.co.uk/

From Dave Carnell

http://www.dougwalking.co.uk/


As I write the warmer weather is uponus and the summer holiday and boatingseason beckons. I hope you get thisedition before setting off for that muchdeserved break. On the local water-ways front Holme Lock on the R. Trenthas just reopened after a long mainte-nance stoppage. So those with boats inthe east are now finally reconnected tothe main network and the upstreamriver cruisers can get downstream ofNottingham once again. You canalmost feel a palpable sense of relief!

Looking back, our AGM went well. Aspreviously mentioned Brian Whitestood down as acting Chairman and Iput myself forward to fill those shoes.At the following committee meeting Iwas officially appointed as your chair-man. I hope I have the skills to do agood job but only time will tell. If youhave any concerns or ideas forimprovements please do get in touchand share them. With the current short-age of funds every idea to improve thewaterways from whatever quartershould be aired and considered As wellas the usual business we were pleasedto welcome David Pullen, our newRegion Chairman. He gave a summaryof current IWA actions and concerns,including Festivals and HS2, as well asan interesting account of flood issuesand defences in the Boston and widerLincolnshire area. It is also great toreport that a new volunteer has taken upthe role of Social Secretary. AngelaDunham has kindly volunteered, andalong with husband David has already

designed a programme for the next sea-son. With a fresh pair of eyes the pro-gramme should appeal to many – seethe details later in the magazine.

At the AGM it was also an honour topresent the Champion Webster cup toRosemary Gibson. This is awarded to aperson who has made an outstandingcontribution to waterways in the localarea. Rosemary is the lynch pin for theGrantham Canal Society (GCS) in pro-moting the canal to local communitiesand schools. Many will know that theGCS have a display stand which is usedat local Shows and Fairs to promote thecanal and recruit new members, but fewwill realise the extent of its use. Northe dedication, time and effort thatrequires. Not only to attend theseShows but also the huge commitmentthat goes into all the pre-event organis-ing, preparation, planning, setting upand then all the dismantling and stow-ing away for next time, which Rose-mary (assisted by Tony Jackson) carriesout with quiet determination. Theseactivities, coupled with many a presen-tation to Women’s Institute’s and U3A(University of the 3rd Age) etc. groupsacross the area, again with all the asso-ciated preparation, planning and organ-ising seemingly going unseen makeRosemary the worthy recipient of thisaward. Well done.

In March we joined forces with the Ere-wash Canal Preservation and Develop-ment Association (ECP&DA) to cleanup the Erewash canal. The two day

News from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire


event left the canal between Cotmanhayand Sandiacre, a length of about fiveand a half miles, looking muchimproved following the removal of lit-ter from the towpath and submergedand floating rubbish from the canal.C&RT supplied two work boats, withstaff to operate them, on both days. Atug and pan travelled down the canal tocollect bags of litter and items of rub-bish pulled out of the canal by volun-teers working ahead on the towpath.

This was followed by the work boat“Bollin” with volunteers on board pick-ing out waterborne litter and rubbishfrom the offside of the canal. As theteam passed through each lock, volun-teers also cleared debris from the by-washes.

ECP&DA volunteers took the lead onthe Friday, with about 30 volunteers,turning out to pull rubbish out of thecanal between Cotmanhay and GallowsInn Lock. On the Saturday IWA mem-bers formed the majority of the 25 vol-

unteers who turned out for the clean upbetween Gallows Inn Lock and Sandia-cre Lock. The usual assortment ofshopping trolleys, bicycles and tyreswere pulled out, along with much uni-dentifiable and miscellaneous rubbish.Over 50 bags of towing path litter werecollected on the Friday alone and at onepoint on the Saturday afternoon a smallgroup of tenacious volunteers collectedsome 8 bags of rubbish from just oneblocked culvert by Pastures Lock.

By the end of Saturday the pan waswell loaded with all the rubbish fromthe two days’ work. Two intriguinghighlights were the retrieval of a veryshiny motorbike and a large tractor tyre.The Police were notified about the bikeand came to take it away, mentioning ithad only been missing for a week. Abig thank you goes to all 55 volunteerswho made the event such a success andas one of those on “Bollin” scoopingfloating debris from the canal surfaceand bringing up the rear I can vouch-safe for the great satisfaction you get


when you look behind and see the pris-tine canal being left after everyone hasmade the effort.

Earlier in the year branch memberswere invited by the Friends of Crom-ford Canal to a cruise on their new tripboat, Birdswood, in recognition of thesupport given to purchase the boat lastyear. 22 folks therefore boarded theboat at Cromford Wharf on a balmyMay evening and were treated to a sce-nic trip to High Peak Junction and back.It was a wonderful evening enjoyed byall and made special by the commen-tary of the crew and the whisper-quietelectric propulsion system. I wouldthoroughly recommend a similar trip toothers, a quiet cruise through aUNESCO World Heritage Site in a sce-nic part of Derbyshire with a tea shopon the wharf opposite the mooring, hardto beat.

Further south the Derby and SandiacreCanal Trust are also extremely active atthe moment and have submitted a bid tothe Heritage Lottery Fund. The bidcovers all the work needed to openapproximately 750 metres of the DerbyCanal from its junction with the Ere-wash Canal through Cockayne’s Bridgeto a new winding hole alongside San-dringham Road. This will include therestoration of Lock Lane Bridge and thetwo locks that lie between there andCockayne’s Bridge. Also included inthe bid is the preservation of theremains of the Boat Inn, a former canal-side tavern, currently lost in the under-growth, plus the funding of a series ofeducational and community involve-ment activities, needed to meet the Her-

itage Lottery Fund award criteria.

As is usual with HLF applications thebid is in two phases, a Developmentphase award and a Delivery phaseaward. Match funding, supplemental tothe HLF bid, is also part of the project.In round numbers the Trust are apply-ing for a development phase award of£185k and a delivery phase award of£1.3M., a total of £1.5M. However, forthe bid to be successful additionalmatched funding is also required andplans are in place for this. If successfulwith their bid, £185k will be initiallyawarded to embark on a £2.0M(approx) project to bring 750m of thecanal back to navigation, directly con-nected to the Erewash canal at Sandi-acre.

As I write the Heritage Lottery Fundare assessing the application, but as youread this the result should be known.My fingers are crossed. So much timeand effort has been put in by a dedi-cated band of people, I really hope theyare successful.

In a similar vein the Grantham Canalare close to submitting their phase 2(delivery phase) bid to HLF for the set-ting up of a heritage skills training cen-tre at Woolsthorpe, coupled witheducational and community involve-ment activities. It is planned to submitthe bid by mid-August. If successful thevarious training courses will result,over time, in four locks being fullyrestored. This would complete the fullrestoration of the whole Woolsthorpeflight of 7 locks and mean that 6 milesof canal would be ripe for navigation


from the 20 mile pound to the A1.There will still be barriers to full navi-gation, such as vegetation clearanceand dredging, but hopefully that will begrist to the mill of the Society’s workparties.

Looking towards the summer we areplanning to raise funds for WaterwayRecovery Group to enable them tocomplete the purchase of a new excava-tor. The main activity will be a LockWind at Derwentmouth Lock on theTrent and Mersey canal at Shardlow onSaturday August 2nd. Branch memberswill operate the lock on behalf of boat-ers passing through in return for a smalldonation. We therefore need volunteersto help operate the lock on the day.Training will be given for those notalready experienced in operating locksso please don’t be shy about gettinginvolved. Either contact me or send ane-mail [email protected] forfurther details and to confirm your par-ticipation.

Then in the following month we areplanning a canal clean up on the Not-tingham and Beeston canal starting atMeadow Lane Lock and working westtowards the city centre. This followson from the work started last Septemberat the Beeston end working east into thecity centre. Final planning has still to becompleted as I write but C&RT haveagreed to provide work boats and crewto transport and finally dispose of therubbish. Everyone is most welcome toparticipate, so please come and join in.Once plans are finalised it is expectedthat we should meet up at Meadow

Lane lock just off London Road in Not-tingham at 10.00 a.m. on Sunday21st September where towing path litterpicking and grappling the canal bedwill commence and then head westtowards the city. For further informa-tion please contact Alison Smedley,IWA Branch Campaign Officer 07779090915,[email protected].

Looking ahead to the Social calendar,on Friday 17th October IWA NationalChairman Les Etheridge will be joiningus to give a presentation “Taking IWAForward”. This is an opportunity for allto quiz the National Chairman on thefuture of IWA and its role within theoverall Waterways movement. Is therereally a long term role for two nationalcharities (Canal and River Trust plusIWA)? Come along and discuss orraise any issues on your mind. On Fri-day November 21st there will be anenlightening illustrated talk by RobertNeff (general manager of MerciaMarina) “The Berth of a Marina” (don’tyou just love the play on words!)describing the planning and construc-tion of a large marina and the continu-ing growth and conservation over thelast six years. Then on Friday Decem-ber 19th it will be our Christmas Socialwith a sharing buffet. So put theevening of the third Friday in the monthin your diaries and see the calendar ofevents at the back of this magazine. Docome and join us, everyone is mostwelcome, I look forward to seeing youthere.

Mike SnaithPictures from Archie Roberts


Around the Societies and TrustsThe trips with nb Birdswood on the Cromford Canal began last year, and wewish them well with getting the full length of trip going this year, helped by thenecessary dredging, and also the great step of introducing horse-drawn trips. Ifyou would like to book a trip, please call Mike Kelley on 07552 055455 or [email protected] steaming dates at Leawood for the second half of 2014 are August2/3,/24/25, October 4/5 and November 1/2.. All being well, trips by horse-boatwill also be running on those days.

The Derby and Sandiacre Trust have produced an excellent historical summaryon the Derby Canal by Doug Flack, who edits their journal “The Packet”. A largesection is devoted to reminiscences of the Boat Inn at Sandiacre and the one-timelandlord Albert Lovett. As there has been recent discussion in the press aboutimposing a minimum price for alcoholic drinks, I feel a short quotation may berelevant.

Lovett was fined £9 4s for selling beer at 6d a pint, when the maximumprice provided by the Beer (Prices Description) Order 1918 was 4d.

This is a very interesting compilation, and anyone wanting a copy could contactDoug via their web site at www.derbycanal.org.uk.

Work parties continue at Draycott and Borrowash. Indoor meetings are planned tocontinue on the fourth Tuesday of the month at the Wilmot Arms, 49 Derby Road,Borrowash DE72 3HA. The next will be on the 2nd July and 23rd September.

Sleaford Navigation Trust continue with their work parties (usually second Sun-day of the month, call 01522 856810). A major effort at surveying the nature ofthe silt problem at Taylor’s Lock, coupled with friendly negotiations with Envi-ronment Agency, South Kyme Council and landowners, resulted in the necessarymajor dredging operation. See Dave Carnell’s report in Lincolnshire Happenings.They hope to have a full set of pictures in their next SNT Journal.

Louth Navigation Trust held their well-attended AGM at the Navigation Ware-house, where Stuart Sizer, local historian, gave a very interesting account of thestory of the canal, also fitting it into historical context. The Trust now has a newChairman, Roger Subden, and a Project Manager, Harry Cutts.

A new departure for the Trust was a sailing expedition to the estuary entrance ofthe canal to test future access feasibility. Perhaps not strictly an inland water, but agood step forward. See the report on page 30.


The Chesterfield Canal Trust have a very full programme lined up for this sea-son including highlights of:- Trip boat Seth Ellis doing trips from the Hop Pole on Welham Road, Retford,For all trips, ring 07925 851569.- Trip boat Hugh Henshall doing trips from the Lock Keeper pub in Worksop. Forall trips, ring 01246 477569.- Trip boat John Varley doing regular trips from Tapton Lock in Chesterfield.Ring 01246 551035 for bookings.

On our back cover a picture of the new foot bridge (see page 29) with a team all“on board”, and the Seth Ellis with the teamof volunteers in a clean-up from Retford.

The Charnwood Forest Canal Friendsreport increasing interest, and good relationswith Shepshed Town Council. There is hopethat a review of the National Forest bounda-ries will include the Ashby Canal to MarketBosworth and part of the Charnwood ForestCanal.

Member Michael Handford, who has a long-standing association with the StroudwaterCanal, has written two interesting books onthe subject. “The Stroudwater Canal - A His-tory”, and “The Stroudwater Navigation” areavailable from Amberley Publishing atwww.amberley-books.com.

At the Grantham Canal Society, Bridge is now back into circulation and it ishoped that we will be publishing regular updates.The Society is now preparing for a busy period ahead with more lock rebuild-ing and general infrastructure improvements being put in place. This gives anopportunity for volunteers to get involved in the many varied and interestingjobs canal restoration work requires.We need volunteers who are either qualified or prepared to be trained in vari-ous skills, particularly as canal-craft skippers or plant operators. These oppor-tunities would particularly suit IWA members or anyone wishing to gain workexperience. Many other aspects of maintenance and upkeep of this beautifulcanal also need volunteers, so if you are interested then please visit our web-


site, www.granthamcanal.org, where you will find full details.Corporate days, such as that enjoyed recently by Loughborough UniversityHuman Resources Department, where they did a re-painting day, are alwayswelcome and provide a valuable service to everyone involved.Our trip boat, “The Three Shires”, continues to be an important source ofincome and provides an enjoyable opportunity to those who wish to escape fora few hours and relax in an attractive and tranquil setting. Trips are very rea-sonably priced, please see our website for full details.

Steve Swann, June 2014

Cromford and Chesterfield Canal Camps

IWA’s Waterway Recovery Group (WRG)runs a programme of unique week-long res-idential volunteering opportunities, knownas ‘Canal Camps’ designed to restore thederelict canals of England and Wales totheir former glory. Volunteering with WRGis a great experience for anyone who lovesbeing outdoors and enjoys meeting peoplefrom different backgrounds and of differentages (18+). WRG offers volunteers a fan-tastic chance to learn new skills such asbricklaying; stone walling; machine opera-tion and restoration techniques! Each weekcosts £56 which includes food and accom-modation. WRG have 25 Canal Camps, twoClean-up weekends and a Big Dig alreadyplanned for 2014, along with over 40 week-end volunteering opportunities allowing

volunteers the chance to get involved in various activities from lock restora-tions to towpath improvements.

This year WRG are visiting Derbyshire and carrying out restoration work onthe Chesterfield Canal and Cromford Canal. Why not get involved … or comealong and see what WRG are up to!On the Chesterfield Canal the dates are 2nd-9th August and 9th-16th August. Thework will continue with work started in 2013, helping to complete the con-struction of the canal wall below the Staveley Town Lock. Volunteers willspend the two weeks building the wall using concrete blocks, with some addi-

http://www.wrg.org.uk/


Mick Golds’ RetirementIn May, Mick Golds retired as Working Party Organiser of the Erewash CanalPreservation & Development Association, a position he had held since 1971.

Following school in Ilkeston just after the Second World War, Mick served hisapprenticeship as a bricklayer, following which he worked on a number oflocal projects such as the chimney at Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station andsome of the bridges on the M1 Motorway in Leicestershire and Derbyshire.During this time he met and married Carole and they lived at first in a caravanat Diseworth. They became interested in boating through borrowing a friend’scruiser and shortly moved into a new house near Potters Lock on the ErewashCanal in Ilkeston, where they still live.

The Erewash Canal was one of the waterways suggested for closure under theTransport Act 1968 and in order to oppose the abandonment of navigation theECP&DA was formed that same year with a number of anglers, boaters andthe Midlands Branch of the Inland Waterways Association. One of theECP&DA’s first projects was to oppose the demolition by BW of SandiacreLock cottages; the local authority stopped the demolition and BW suggestedthat if they wanted the cottage they should maintain it. Mick and Carole oftenwalked along the canal and one weekend they met some of the ECP&DA vol-unteers on the towpath. The original ECP&DA Working Party Organiser hadadvertised in the local press for a builder to take charge of the work on Sandia-cre Lock Cottage. Mick was the ideal man for this job and before long tookover as Working Party Organiser. The proximity of the canal persuaded themto buy a narrow boat, and if they could keep the canal open it would provide amooring almost at the bottom of the garden. Electra was purchased in 1971and fitted out by Mick and Carole, has since been lengthened twice, has been

tional brickwork required. There is also block laying to be completed in thelock chamber.

On the Cromford Canal the dates are 19th-26th July and 26th July – 2nd August.Previously WRG have focused on the northern stretch of the Cromford Canaland this year work will move south to start investigations on the IronvilleLocks. Work will include clearing the lock chambers and the channel between,exposing the base and walls, and scaffolding the chamber so that surveys canbe carried out. More details can be found on the WRG websitewww.wrg.org.uk

From Jenny Black

http://www.wrg.org.uk/


seen on most canals in the countryand still cruises the system exten-sively.

Following a visit to look at the futureprospects of the canal by the InlandWaterways Amenity Advisory Coun-cil, set up under the 1968 Act,IWAAC suggested that a terminus atLangley Mill was required to providea safe haven and mooring for visitingboats. The ECP&DA decided that thebest way forward was to restore Lang-ley Bridge Lock, where the CromfordCanal had an end-on connection withthe Erewash Canal, and to restore theGreat Northern Basin of the Notting-ham Canal just above the lock. Mickwith his know-how and contacts wasalso ideal for this project, acquiringconcrete blocks and other materialsfrom various local sources. Mick andCarole have always been very socia-ble and encouraged a large group ofenthusiastic volunteers to join in. Thelock was cleaned out and re-gated, theGNB dredged out and the swingbridge repaired, all for a cost of under

£1,800. It was opened in May 1973.

After this, Mick was one of the smallgroup of the original volunteers whoformed Langley Mill Boat Company.This led to the progressive extensionof the navigable length of the Crom-ford Canal above Langley BridgeLock and the building of the dry dockand mooring facilities. Over the pastfew years Mick has led the ECP&DAin further work to extend the Crom-ford Canal as part of the restoration ofa proposed opencast coal site.

Since 1973 Mick has held almostweekly work parties at Langley Millto look after the lock, moorings andbridge, which were only leased fromBritish Waterways, and to help inextending the Cromford Canal. TheECP&DA has established a firm pres-ence at Langley Mill with a well-stocked workshop and tool stores.With advice from various BW herit-age managers, Mick has organizedcontinued work on Sandiacre LockCottages, and in 2013 the ECP&DA

Green’s Lock work party 1969


was highly commended for its workunder the Canal & River Trust Water-ways Renaissance Awards. Otherlocal heritage projects were the resto-ration of the Nottingham Canal TollOffice and the installation of back-pumping round Langley Bridge Lockincluding restoration of the redundantLangley Sewage Pumping Station.

Not content with the work at LangleyMill, following the restoration of theBasin Mick started taking theECP&DA on away working partiessuch as the Droitwich and Basing-stoke WRG “Big Digs”. GrahamPalmer was aware of Mick’s prowessas a bricklayer and Mick worked on anumber of the Wilmcote Locks andby-washes during the 1970’s “Strat-ford Blitzes”. Then in 1981 when Iwas looking after the Frankton Locksrestoration for Graham Palmer, Mickstarted to bring along the ECP&DA

working parties, when we largelyrebuilt the walls on locks 1-3, thebricklaying being aided by SheffieldIWA and the Trent & Mersey CanalSociety. Graham’s view of Mick’sbricklaying was that “his hands wentlike butterflies’ wings”. Some of thefinal away work on the Montgomerywas on helping to rebuild the walls onsome of the Aston locks and therebuilding of Cobblers Lock on theRiver Slea.

Mick decided to finish working forothers as part of “a two and one gang”and in about 1995 he started workingfor himself and Carole was hislabourer. In this period, as well asdoing walls and extensions for theirfriends, they also rebuilt Dixon’sLock on the Chesterfield Canal, re-built the parapets on two accommoda-tion bridges on the Derby Canal andworked for BW. In 2013 Mick and

work at Langley Mill 2013


Journals ReceivedWe are very pleased to acknowledge copies of journals from various canal andriver societies and trusts. They include “The Portal” from Friends of the CromfordCanal; “The Packet” from the Derby & Sandiacre Canal Society; “The Cuckoo”,from the Chesterfield Canal Trust; “The Bridge”, from Grantham Canal Society;“Sleaford Navigation Trust” journal; the “Melton and Oakham Newsletter”; and“The Wharfinger”, from Louth Navigation Trust, as well as “Navigation” fromour neighbours at West Midlands, the “Easterling” from our Eastern neighboursthe EAWA, and “Endeavour” from Northampton Branch. Anyone interested inreceiving a copy of one of these journals should contact the relevant address givenon page 4. For “The Cuckoo” contact the editor John Lower at 92a Tapton ViewRoad, Chesterfield S41 7JY.

Picture CreditsWe are most grateful to all of the following, who have contributed photo-graphs or other illustrations to enhance this edition of Aegre: Ian McDonald;Dave Carnell; Mike Snaith; John Baylis; Rod Auton; and as noted for specificarticles. Some photographs in this issue are licensed under the Creative Com-mons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Licence. To view a copy of thislicence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/. The author con-cerned is on page 11 (Hilofoz).

Carole were awardedthe Richard BirdMedal for services tothe Inland WaterwaysAssociation and inSeptember this yearthey celebrate theirGolden Wedding.Mick has done a greatjob over the years buthis expertise will notbe totally lost as hewill continue to moni-tor the work at Sandi-acre Cottages.

From John Baylis and Mike Harrison; pictures from Carole Golds and JulieArnold for Waterway Images


New Chesterfield Canal FootbridgeThe deck of Constitution Hill Bridge was fitted on 11th April. It crosses theChesterfield Canal just below Morrisons in Staveley at Mill Green.The deck was built by Beaver Bridges of Shrewsbury. It was designed andpaid for by Derbyshire County Council, which owns and maintains the canal inthis area. The bridge abutments were built by the volunteer Work Party of theChesterfield Canal Trust, with help from the Waterway Recovery Group.The bridge will be open to the public after some minor fittings, such as thehandrails. There was a formal opening ceremony at the Chesterfield Canal Fes-tival on 28th June.

This is the latest step in the restoration of the canal, which has seen a flurry ofactivity recently. Wing walls are being built for the tail bridge at StaveleyTown Lock. The section of canal at Renishaw is being cleared out, the leak isbeing plugged and it will soon be refilled with water.

On top of all this, the first houses are being built at the £310 million Watersideproject in Chesterfield, with a start on the next 300 houses and the first canalworks being expected this summer.

Chesterfield Canal Trust Publicity Officer, Rod Auton, said “All this activitydemonstrates that it is just a matter of time before our beautiful canal is fullyrestored. We know that we have massive public support. We are very gratefulto Derbyshire County Council and to the Waterway Recovery Group, butabove all we salute the incredible work done year after year by our volunteers.(Picture of the bridge in place with the team on our back cover. Ed)


A Sailing Trip to Tetney Lock

Saturday 12th April and after a long winter without any sailing I’ve been keen toget back out on the water. Due to the weather and strong winds of forces 5-7 fore-cast, we found we were the only willing partakers for a weekend sailing. With myfriend and willing crew Pete we set off from Gibraltar Point near Skegness in themorning on my boat Floozy and decided it was an ideal opportunity to explore theLouth Canal on the seaward side of Tetney Lock.

Pete had never been to Tetney, so he was keen to try somewhere new. After fivehours sailing along the coast in brisk winds we finally made it to the HumberEstuary. We turned in, heading for Haile Sand Fort, which is a good waypointabout a mile east of the channel entrance to Tetney Haven.

Once we had arrived we soon picked up the entrance to the channel, which takesyou towards the beach at Humberston, then through the moorings of the Humber-mouth Yacht Club and towards the marshes and canal entrance.

The channel is quite poorly marked with plastic drums as buoys, but is still fairlysimple to navigate with only a few shallow spots on the way. We arrived at thecanal entrance just under 2 hours before high water, so lined the boat up with thetraining walls and headed in. Once inside the canal the depth drops at least a metrecompared to the channel across the sand in Tetney Haven. We had a constantdepth of between 2.0 to 3.0 metres all the way along. The canal up to the oil pipe,which is the limit of navigation, is straightforward to follow with only two tightbends on the way. These were no problems at all, as we kept to the outside of thebends and had plenty of water under the keels. On one bend the depth finder read3.6 metres of water!Below: Motoring into the canal

The wind had strengthened considera-bly, so we decided to try and find some-where sheltered to anchor for the night,within the canal. I remembered the mudbank where we are looking at putting amooring pontoon on the west bank. Ourrequirements were to find somewhereflat for the night, so the boat would dryout straight and also somewhere we

could climb off the boat and walk to the pub! This we achieved, as we nudged theboat on to the mud near the oil pipe where it’s flat, making sure the keels were far


enough on so that the boat wouldn't drop back into the channel and there would beenough water to float off again on Sunday morning.

There is very little tidal flow this far up the canal, as it’s nearly up to the SeaLock. Once the tide has filled the main channel and starts covering the mud-flatsthe flow actually starts running back out very slowly and the water just rises in thecanal. This lack of flow makes mooring much easier.

Floozy dries out on the mud bank nearthe oil pipe

So after a good day’s sailing and a bitof an adventure up the canal we man-aged to step off the bow using myfolding boarding ladder and enjoyedour walk to the Crown and Anchor atTetney Lock for fish and chips,

washed down with a few pints of well-deserved beer. This was followed by apeaceful night’s sleep in this lovely quiet spot.

So what have we learnt from the trip to Louth Canal? We proved how easy it is tonavigate the canal and with a few more marker buoys and beacons marking thebanks and channel approaching the canal it would be very easy for boats to use.On large spring tides the banks completely flood increasing the importance ofmarking the channel. Except on the smallest of neap tides the tidal range makes itpossible to get in and out. I estimate around a 5.8 metre tide minimum wouldserve. The large amount of space along the bank would make it possible for 40 to50 boats to moor, the best way being bows towards the bank. With access to thebank via a simple mooring pontoon it is really possible to open this part of thecanal up to visitors, and with publicity, increase visitor numbers.

The whole experience of visiting the canal by boat was amazing thinking we werefollowing the same channel as hundreds of vessels full of cargo on their way toLouth many years ago and once again I thought to myself with a few like-mindedpeople and a bit of support it is really possible for our canal to be open again.

Text and pictures by Jonathan Baines, by kind permission of the Louth Navi-gation Trust, April 2014.

See top of page 3 for a picture of the canal entrance looking seaward with port-hand beacon and Haile Sand Fort in the background. Ed.


Walking the Cuckoo WayMembers of 7th Retford (St Swithun’s) Scout Group haveonce again risen to the challenge and have walked thelength of the Chesterfield Canal, along The Cuckoo Way.

On Saturday 15th February, a group of two adults (Kennyand Andy) and five young people set off in Chesterfieldwith the aim of walking to Kiveton by tea-time. FromStaveley through to Kiveton Waters, the canal is no longerthere, but they followed the route of the canal through lotsof mud along the country footpaths. They reached Kive-ton Waters by 4 pm and were transported back to Retfordto the Scout HQ for their overnight stop.

On Sunday, the group set off after breakfast and weretaken back to Kiveton Waters, then walked through Shire-oaks to The Lock Keeper at Worksop. Freya and Ellenchose to retire here after doing about 19 miles of the walk.The group was then joined by Callum, aged 15. They con-tinued to walk towards Ranby where Matthew’s mum andbrother met them with bacon butties. The group continued to walk to Retford fortheir overnight stop.

Another night in the Scout Hut and the group set off again by car, this time to bedropped off in West Stockwith where the canal meets the River Trent. The groupnow consisted of Matthew, Callum, Alyce, Bertie, Bertie’s mum and Kenny. Theyfollowed the canal back through Misterton, Gringley-on-the-Hill and on to Drake-holes for lunch. They continued to Clayworth, Hayton, Clarborough and finally thehome straight into Retford.

Matthew, Alyce and Kenny did the entire walk of 46 miles. Callum did 27 miles,Ellen and Freya each did 19 miles and Molly walked 15 miles. Bertie, aged 7, is thestar of the group covering about 25 miles as he had a couple of short rides in the car.Andy and Justine each did about 15 miles. Matthew was sponsored to complete thewalk and he has raised over £200 for MacMillan Nurses – the final total is still to beconfirmed.

In case you think this sounded like hard work, Matthew, Callum, Molly, Bertie andtheir mum, as well as Kenny, all came out and walked from Clarborough to Retford,including some of the canal again on Thursday evening with the Cub Scouts. Thescenery along the canal is fantastic. It is all well kept and the information boardsfound along the route are very interesting.

From Kenny Newstead


Notts & Derby Branch Meetings

The Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Branch of the IWA organises a series ofpublic meetings. We are hoping to attract lots of new faces to the meetings andhave arranged a very interesting and varied group of speakers. Non IWA mem-bers will be very welcome to attend.

Meetings are held on the third Friday of the month throughout most of theyear. Indoor meetings are held at 7.45 pm at Rushcliffe Arena, Rugby Road, WestBridgford, Nottingham NG2 7HY. This is not far from the A60 (LoughboroughRoad) and the Arena entrance road is roughly opposite Greythorn Drive. Don’t bealarmed by a barrier at the entrance - they will let you out again.

It would take about 25 minutes from M1 Junction 24 up the A453, Clifton trafficand road-works speed limit permitting. For SatNav equipped vehicles try52° 55.328’ N, 01° 08.673’ W, or SK 57610 36424. Note that Rushcliffe LeisureCentre is a different place. Further information about meetings can be obtainedby email :- [email protected]

Friday, October 17th 2014“Taking IWA Forward” - an illustrated talk by Les Etheridge (IWA NationalChairman) concerning the future role of the Inland Waterways Association.

Friday, November 21st 2014“The Berth of a Marina” - an illustrated talk by Robert Neff (General Manager,Mercia Marina). Planning and construction of a large marina plus the continu-ing growth and conservation over the last six years.

Friday, December 17th 2014Christmas Social and sharing buffet.

Friday, January 16th 2015“Mikron Theatre” - an illustrated talk by Peter Toon of the Mikron TheatreCompany, covering the background to a travelling theatre company and theplans for the coming season.

Friday, February 17th 2015Annual General Meeting. Followed by an illustrated talk. Details to be con-firmed.


Melton and Oakham Afloat

From Mick Clowes: The Melton and Oakham Waterways Society (MOWS)owns three boats with three contrasting uses.

First comes “The Water Rat” their eight-seater trip boat. Based on a trailableWilderness shell it is fitted with side seats and extra glass for maximum obser-vation. An eco-friendly electric motor provides quiet, efficient power for thecrew of two. Used on weekends during the summer months, it has provedpopular with both locals and visitors alike.

Secondly, the society hasa general runabout“Badger” (on the left)with a standard outboardwhich was purchased sev-eral years ago from theBuxworth Basin group. Itis a steel flat-bottomedpunt about 4.5 metreslong with a transom forthe outboard at either end(very useful!). Her gen-eral duties include littercollection and rubbishremoval, but she is a very

stable work platform when pruning overhanging trees. On occasion she hasbeen loaned to Melton’s Town Estate for vital bridge maintenance.

Last, but certainly not least, is the work horse of the group “Mole” (notice acertain theme here?). This boat employs a similar punt-like shell, but is muchmore heavy duty. Sporting four outrigger arms (with associated river-bedfeet), a Hiab fully articulated arm and a Kinschoffer clam-shell bucket, thewhole plot including Z-drive is driven via a hydraulic pump powered by aKubota diesel. Her conversion was effected by Bardon Truck Services innorth west Leicestershire and, despite the fact that they had never built any-thing like this before, the lorry technology has translated well, making hereasy to use and ultra-reliable. She rides well on her heavy duty trailer and canbe towed by a four by four vehicle. In her two years of use she has movedthousands of tons of silt and debris, opening up the waterway ring in Meltonand moving the Society’s aspirations to stage a trail-boat rally forward.


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The Mole in action.

Aegre July 2014

Documents

Transcript of Aegre July 2014