A quintessentially rural canal, the 33 mile long Grantham traverses three shire counties
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WRG Reunion (‘Bonfire Bash’) November 4th-5th 2006
Following on from the very happy and successful ‘Bash’ in 2004, the Waterway Recovery Group (WRG) decided that, as the Grantham Canal is very central and a good canal to work on and we need the support, they would also hold their 2006 Reunion with us. As seen in the report elsewhere in this section of the website, we worked at Blue Hill Cutting last time but for 2006 we couldn’t get accommodation for up to around 200 people to be able sleep, feed and shower at the western end of the canal. Since our intense work with the ‘Bit In The Middle’ (BITM) group earlier in the year in Harlaxton Cutting, at the ‘top end ’, we had attracted the attention of St Hugh’s College in Grantham, who want to be involved with the waterway. So we managed, after months of work, to arrange for this Annual Reunion camp to be housed at their school. The Partnership had planned for us to work in Harlaxton Cutting but we had done that earlier in the year to allow the British Waterways (BW) weed boat to get right up to the A1, the limit of navigation at present. The remaining work in the Cutting is the assessment of the huge mature trees that lean over at dangerous angles and will need heavy cutting to sort them out, - too big for a weekend. We had had a meeting with the engineers at BW earlier this year and part of their work plan spread sheet showed the Knipton Feeder requiring attention. The Feeder (also known as ‘The Carrier’) is on private land belonging to the Belvoir Castle Estate and, in keeping with most things that passed through country estates, the canal builders had to run it in a tunnel for much of its length. The tunnel had been handed over to the estate many years ago and was therefore their maintenance problem but the remaining open channel was BW’s.
It was really complicated because, where bits of tunnel had collapsed, was it now classed as closed or open? The Grantham Canal Society (GCRS) met with BW in May to walk the top end, from the Knipton Reservoir to King’s Wood, to assess the situation.
An initial plan was devised. Where the animals in the field had made one section a drinking spot and as the feeder runs along the edge of a slope, as a leat, the banks had been worn down, causing a large leak. BW said they would draw up plans for a drinking area … and we worked out access for excavators and the position for the toilets etc. This initial plan was passed forward to WRG, whose camp leader travelled up from Bristol for a meeting in August to finalise the plan. BW were not at that meeting but stated that woven hurdles were to be inserted as bank sides and the mud to be dragged out over them to reinstate the banks, no sizes of the hurdles being given. We also travelled down to near Muston Gorse Wharf, to see where the feeder enters the canal. At that time of year you couldn’t see it because it was covered in hedge and bramble growth but never the less we spoke to the farmer at that point, who was busy sowing his next crop on the field we wanted access to. He very kindly said that we could go ahead and even have fires on the site; he would simply re-sow where required - what a guy! Suddenly, in the week before the Reunion, BW asked if we could replace a paddle fitted in the bank down from the reservoir outlet. I said we could, because we had done it on Lock 18, when we rebuilt that … but this was sprung on us without us being able to see what was fully involved. On the Friday evening at the school, when everyone was arriving and with people travelling from Scotland, Newcastle, Devon and even one chap from France, (complete with freshly broken arm !) I spoke to Mitch, the organiser, and said I had some fixings for the hurdles. She said there weren’t any, just wood - to which I answered, ”That’ll be interesting”. I had produced a display consisting of drawings of the sites , complete with photographs taken during the recces which, displayed together with OS maps of the area, gave the visitors an insight into what was to be achieved. I was also told that no plans were forthcoming for the cattle drink , so my plan for an escape for animals that could fall in was to be used. On the Saturday 4th, I worked at the Fosse Bridge to help finish off the Bridge 19 site from the previous week’s camp. I mixed barrow loads of mortar to enable the copingstones to be seated and allow the surrounding land to be graded. Fence parts had been delivered which would be fitted on the Sunday. We cleared the entire site and the campers went off to Grantham. I went back to Bingham to get changed and pick up my wife, Sue, and then it was off to Grantham for the evening meal. The gathering at St Hugh’s College was very professional. The school had allowed the use of an assembly hall and a sports hall for sleeping in. The main hall had just had it’s floor re-varnished and was covered with a cardboard carpet. The dining hall had a kitchen attached and the catering section was coping well with the demand for some 150 meals. At the usual scream of “grub”, there was the scramble for a very nice meal of chilli and rice with peas and sweet corn, followed by another scramble for crumble, sponge or trifle. The couple who attend every WRG event with their silk screen-printing equipment were busy printing a range of sweat, T or polo shirts, with various designs produced specially for the occasion. On the Sunday, Colin and I went to Knipton to view the paddle components delivered for the requested replacement. After great amounts of inspection and measuring it was decided that the new equipment was standard lock furniture but the paddle installed was bespoke. We decided that we could easily do it but it would require a complete clearout and a former built, into which we would install reinforcement and then cast vibrated concrete before fitting the new, smaller, paddle. Direct replacement was out of the question because one touch with a crowbar to remove the old mechanism would have caused a total collapse. We made our way along the site to look at the cattle drink, which, having no plans available, was very impressive - the gang having done an excellent job. You must realise that the underlying ground in the Knipton area is iron ore, so it is very hard: I even think that the feeder is lined with clay to stop leakage. We walked onward to where one group were trying their hardest to install the planks instead of the proposed hurdles.
It was a massive task coupled with the hard ground and was very tiring work. The excavator , which really should have been dredging and back filling, had to lend a hand pushing posts in. Also there was a total ban on chain saws even though many people were trained and ticketed, so each post being four feet long and only pushed into the ground a small way, all needed cutting off to size - no mean feat.
The next stop was really welcome; it was Mr Mac’s mobile tearooms. For those of you who don’t know him, he is an older person who loves canals and wants to be part of them but as he can’t do a lot of physical work he bought a VW camper and set it up for making drinks and he travels all over the country to WRG events supplying tea and biscuits. He is so appreciated that his name was put forward and he was made an MBE, one of the people who truly deserves it. Carrying on across the lane , we approached the place where the culvert comes into an open channel, which at this point had been covered by fallen dead trees.
Fallen rotten trees are fairly easy to cut but fallen non-rotten trees are like sawing steel - so with the ban on chainsaws, the excavator had to be used to snap the branches to allow removal, which was another waste of expensive excavator time. Needless to say, Rachael had driven the excavator along the narrow bank and dragged out all the mud and debris and deposited it so well you couldn’t see it down the bank. Further along there had been a breach where a Poplar tree had fallen and taken the embankment away. This had been piped but had been leaking badly and now, being uncovered, showed us where the damage was. A load of clay had been delivered to plug this leak temporally but had been dumped one field away and upon inspection it was found to be almost rock , so it couldn’t easily be used. Next to this section they were trying to lay the timber but were having less success and what should have been a side to the watercourse was looking like a fence because the materials were just too big and couldn’t be cut. A visit was made to the east Muston of Muston Gorse Wharf, where the feeder enters the canal. The channel is a deep ditch, well overgrown with hedge and brambles, which the group had been trying to remove.
They had managed to get half way but the ban on chainsaws prevented them from finishing. In fact, if a tractor and hedging attachment had driven along the whole section, the lot could have been cut in one run leaving just the removal and burning… but it was not to be. There was another site, at Oddhouse Farm near Owthorpe.........
....where the people who prefer tree cutting were carrying on along from where the 2004 ‘Bash ’ was held and we, as a society, had been working, to finally clear that section ready for water to be allowed in - if there is any left in the canal, to fill it .
Overall it was a great weekend, which could have been better if it wasn’t for all the bans, wrong material and lack of drawings - which were as no fault of WRG or GCRS. Our thanks must go to WRG for their good planning and large turn out of people. Also to the farmers for allowing us on their properties … and I suppose BW for supplying the materials, even if they left a lot to be desired. If only they had spoken to us early on, a really good plan could have been devised. Photos by Peter Stone |
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