Diary | Directory

Editorial Comment ~ Wendy Andrews.

Thank you to Turlough and to all the group leaders for their contributions making this is a bumper edition, the biggest ever since I took on the editorship. No room for my comments - I'll save them for next month!

Restoration Manager ~ Turlough Bamber

Springtime is Time of Change!

Peter's Retirement

First of all we say au revoir to Peter Jackman as he steps down from the leadership of the MWWP. He took over from Colin some years ago and developed the largest regular Working Party ever, so I am told. Thank you for all you have done Peter and the pleasure you have given to so many of us each Wednesday. I would also like to thank Beryl for her 'Telephone Answering Service' as we attempt to communicate with Peter! With the departure of Peter we are in search of a new leader. It is a disappointment that no one has yet come forward from within as Peter followed Colin. Come on Guys, there has to be someone!!

Tools Storage and Transport

In order to relieve some of the pressures on team leaders, it is proposed to have a securely lockable trailer in which tools can be stored and transported eliminating the need to use volunteer's own vehicles. An improved Land Rover booking and utilisation system is also being developed.

New Appointments

As reported last month, Michael Bates has agreed to take on the role of Health & Safety Officer. Michael comes from a background of H&S and is a retired Royal Navy officer. He has professional qualifications in the subject and has experience and an understanding of working with volunteers.

This month Jim Chipchase joins us as Operations Manager. Jim comes from BP having been responsible for maintenance and projects at Refineries. He does a lot of walking with the Ramblers and leads a team on the Surrey County Council footpaths maintenance. Jim will take over the role of organising the Working Parties and setting priorities with me. Both Michael and Jim are brave guys and I trust they will receive the Working Parties' full support. They are taking over not the easiest of jobs but 'hope springs eternal' that they will enjoy working with us.

Bramley Link

I am so pleased to have both Jim and Michael taking over their roles from me so that I can focus on the Bramley Link (with Chris Harrison) and the Summit (in the absence of Andy Bowerman).

We need to face some difficult decisions especially on environment issues to link up with the River Wey. Not only negotiating the access to land but also the demands of current legislation for new green field site projects through the Environment Agency, Natural England and the Planning Departments of Guildford and Waverley. Over these last 3 months I have been very much involved with the development of a Planning Partnership Agreement, which is a government management system, set up by the Department of Communities. Believe you me it is not an easy task and will become more difficult with time!!

Let me say, the successful outcome of my endeavours will be an interesting and fruitful workload for Working Parties from 2/3 years' time and onwards.

Photo Library Project ~ Wendy Andrews

We're making good progress with scanning old prints and slides on to CDs and also copying those plus more recent digital images onto external hard drives where the library resides. The next big job is to sort and categorise the pictures prior to building pages for our proposed section on the Trust's website. We're a small team; newcomers are very welcome, especially 'old-timers' with good historical knowledge of the canal's restoration. We meet about once a month for an afternoon in the Granary.

The Saturday Group ~ David Jessop

The work of the Saturday Group is not usually strenuous to the point of exhaustion but recently we admit it has been sufficient to cause a few aching muscles as we have been stretching ourselves to plant pond-edge wild flowers beside the canal at Loxwood. These include Sneezewort, Fleabane, Purple Loosestrife, Hemp Agrimony, Ragged Robin, Scullcap, Tufted Vetch, Yellow Iris, Water-plantain, Wild Angelica, Meadowsweet, Water Avens, Square stalked St John's Wort, Greater Birdsfoot Trefoil, Gipsywort and Common Meadow Rue. Lovely names and it will be lovely to see them in bloom. The plants have been grown by Michael Joseph and other members from seed collected from the meadow at Michael's home. Collecting seeds is a relaxing way to spend a warm afternoon, helped by the knowledge that they should eventually grow into adult plants and flower to brighten our canal. Thank you, Michael, for your interest, ideas and inspiration.

Planting involves the game of 'See Who Can Get Nearest to the Water Without Getting a Boot-full' at which some players are expert, others less so. The field of play is limited to the canal bank, just where it enters the water. There are few rules and no dress code. Imagination and enthusiasm help to gain points. A variety of styles of play is seen. Players at silly point defy gravity by balancing on the slope, holding on with their toes, teeth and one hand while making planting holes with a trowel. In the slips, a garden fork comes into play when the tool is rammed into the canal bank to retard the slow, but dignified, descent to the water. A third group, gully or deep extra cover, use a short ladder or step ladder. There is nothing in the rules to prevent the use of this apparatus which is securely fastened to the bank and the contestant clambers down it to water level. Points are awarded by dog walkers and other passers-by for ingenuity and enterprise. The referee can award a time penalty for players spending too long chatting to spectators, however those players with dry feet at the end of the morning get a bonus point.

Anyone can join us and play. In fact, we are always on the lookout for new blood. It hasn't been spilt so far but luckily one of the plants can be used to dress any wound. If only we could tell which one.

Loxwood Link Maintenance Unit ~ Peter Wilding

Thank you to the Monday Group and to the Winston Harwood Group for clearing up the debris from floods and gales. Half a load in May Upton was collected and taken to Brewhurst Lock for the Easter Bunny Lock keepers' fire - I half expected to see Santa appear instead of Bunny, the weather was so wintry!

With the help from the Winston Harwood Group the water meter at the Birch Copse river abstraction pump has been replaced but is still proving difficult to achieve a perfect watertight seal at the joints so more work is still to do to realign the pipes.

May I remind all users of the various combination locks to make sure they are left secured and scrambled. Roger Dimmick Lane was recently found with the padlock left open and the combination showing.

Winston Harwood's Group ~ Ron Chamberlain for David Junkison

The group has been busy this month doing various jobs of a similar nature. We did a day at Drungewick clearing and burning the large amount of flotsam that had been left by the earlier flooding. The next week found us at Brewhurst Lock, again clearing bracken and rubbish and burning it.

For the past two weeks we have been at Newbridge where, in line with English Nature requirements, some vegetation clearance has been our lot. The rubbish has once again been disposed of by burning. We shall return to this task again in due course.

Mid Week Working Party ~ Peter Jackman

Now that we are into the bird nesting season, cutting and clearing work is curtailed. Plans for removing the concrete and brick rubble from Utworth are currently unclear so work sites are yet to be identified. Since I have, with regret, resigned from leadership of the MWWP I hope a replacement will be prepared to take over soon.

Advance notice: there will be a boat trip on ZK on Wednesday 7th May for invited MWWP members. Regretfully my wife is unable to do refreshments this year, so, as it is a morning trip, departing from the Onslow Arms at 09.30, please bring your own food and drink or eat in the pub.

I would like to thank MWWP members for their support and for being what you are - a FIRST CLASS group of people. However, before the tears appear (!) I will still be part of the team?..

WTS (was TSG) Group ~ Eric Walker

At the Canal Bridge, Loxwood, March has seen the excavation on the east side of the road making slow progress. However the bridge deck should be in place by the end of April, the precast beams are currently due to be delivered on the 8th.

Usually the first job on a Sunday is to pump out the water near the B2133 works. This water is coming from up the Loxwood High Street and also runs off from the adjacent properties. With the street drains not working very well, following a particularly wet couple of days, the redundant BT and other pipes suddenly gushed water. After a respectable group of the working party spent a respectable amount of time looking down the manholes a decision was made - to go home and think about it. Lifting the said manhole cover had taken four people and of course it had to be done by numbers. 'Where is all this going?' you may well ask. The first task was to ensure the street drains were temporally connected to the canal. That was done using our workhorse the Hanix digger and some 6-inch diameter pipe given to us many months ago. After more rain at the end of March this 'fix' was proven to be successful. However to make sure there will not be a build up of water behind the bridge wall, the contractors have put in a special pipe to feed any water in that area once the bridge is finished into the canal.

The next task was to address the long-term treatment of the surface water from the High Street and that brick drain, the original brief from WSCC called a 'rabbit'. This latter, a 12-inch diameter brick culvert, starting 100 yards up the road by the shop, was taking no water from the road so it is to be treated separately, as a land drain. The final connection of this pipe to the canal will be done as part of the retaining wall between the lock and the bridge. Because there is potentially a lot of water running down the road and we wish to divert it into the canal the contractors are to be asked to install an additional gully. Generally road gullies have their own silt trap but we are going to put in an additional silt trap and an oil interceptor. The silt trap will be put in as soon as possible so as not to interfere with the contractors works when they start on the west side of the road. The interceptor will be installed as part the work once Thorne have finished.

The Sunday group have also spent some time flattening a lot of aluminium cans to recycle them. It turns out these are not very popular with the metal dealers from whom we get the best price because sometimes people put in a few steel ones to add weight! However aluminium in any other form is trading very well at present, copper is better. Any waste metal contributions are welcome as a potential for fund raising.

The making of concrete copings and blocks for use at Devils Hole lock has continued at the Tickners Heath depot and will continue on Thursdays over the next little while.

One other job to be done this coming month is to clear the rubbish from the slipway access lane at Drungewick.

Monday Working Party ~ Nick Wood for John Empringham

Our two March meetings have concentrated on the restored section helping Peter Wilding who seems to have too much work and not enough help. We collected and burnt all the fallen branches and trimmed the brambles between Drungewick Bridge and the lock as well as making a start on burning the cut reeds piled on the bank, although we had less success with these as they hadn't dried out sufficiently. During our second session of the month we strimmed and cut branches round Brewhurst lock and built bonfires ready for the Bunny cruises, unloaded the workboat, cut and strimmed the undergrowth at the site of the water pump and tended 'our' lawns at the Onslow Arms.

More remains to be done and we still have Loves Bridge to complete. In addition, as spring is almost here, the grass has started to grow on our nine regular sites. So we shall be meeting on 31st March, 7th and 21st April to 'keep on top' of our commitments.

Visiting Groups at Tickners Heath March 8th/9th ~ Bill Nicolson

A combined team of 12 members of NWPG and 7 members of the WACT Summer Camp team spent a weekend at Tickners Heath working on both the canal and in the depot. Tasks completed included the fitting of three stop planks in the weir in Sidney Wood, the felling and removal of two dead trees on the canal south west of the Tickners crossing and the removal of a recently fallen tree on the other side of the road. We also built a concrete bag retaining wall on the non canal side of the run off sluice at the road crossing and back filled it with clay. Hopefully the work here will hold this time. In the depot a team completed the brickwork on the new generator house whilst the chippies set up the shuttering in preparation for casting the concrete roof. This will be a real bunker! Accommodation was at Winterton Hall, Plaistow and the talk was of possible future work for our keen visiting group weekend teams.

Tickners Heath Depot ~ Colin Gibbs

My apologies for not being around for the past 4 or 5 months. Andrew and Richard have been keeping an eye on things and no doubt David has been a regular visitor. I've had various phone calls with queries 'do we have this' and 'did you know that'? Many thanks for keeping me up to speed. Graham Hawkes has asked if anyone has seen one of the Newbury Working Party's mattocks lying around at Tickners or elsewhere. Please let me know if you have any info on its whereabouts.

Hedge Laying Group ~ Keith Nichols

The coup de grasse / coup de hedge (I don't do French either! Ed)

Greetings from the Hedge Laying Team Office, which, this week, is the Three Compasses. First of all an errata for last month: ref my thoughts on Michael Joseph's resignation 'I hope that before anyone clears?' should have read 'I hope that before anyone cheers they should stop and think?' which changes the context some what.

The 27th/28th/29th February was spent continuing on the hedge with the Friday seeing 2 Chinooks, 1 Black Hawk (at head height!) 1 Lynx and 5 Pumas and then the Royal Flight Helicopter.

March saw a further eight visits. Why did I worry about it getting too warm? I forgot about the vagaries of the British climate. The last day, Friday 21st March, the temperature went from 12?c to 8?c then 14?c then 7?c and finally 1?c at 17.30. However most of the day was spent in sunshine which saw three of us finish the laying and binding - then, just as we were packing up, a horrendous hail storm hit us - what fun!!

So apart from some titivation and clearing up of debris that's the 410m of the Harsfold hedge completed.

A great sight was seeing a Barn Owl inspecting our work for about half an hour. Out of approximately 200 walkers passing us whilst we have been working there, the only comment that wasn't full of praise and admiration was from one 'lady' who said that she hoped we weren't removing all the blackberries - what can one say!

It only remains for me to say a 'Big Thank You' to the MWWP for supplying us with stakes and binders, to 'Mrs Bucket' for their help, to Dave Kersley for moving materials to the site and last but not least to all the chaps in the team for putting up with my weird sense of humour. PS The 'boss' came down with me on 2nd March and cast her critical eye over things and said 'It'll do' - thanks Penny. She did end up with a sore hand and shoulder after cutting the tops off 140 odd stakes so I got my own back.

So, what for next season? Drungewick area perhaps?? Cheers All, mines a pint!!

Educational Project Infoposts? ~ Don Gibson

The proposed installation of an Infopost? at Southland Lock remains 'proposed'. I will have to await developments, as time goes on. There are other things to do and I give a short list below:-

1)Up-grade leaflet dispenser at Devil's Hole Lock to an L.W. (Luminati Waycon) Acrylic outdoor type; this will reduce the number of leaflets being damaged by rain, but will be done when I have completed the modifications for security improvements, an ongoing project. DHL is also the subject of a request by Mr. Keith Grant of Nyasa House, Kanagawa-Ken, Japan to sponsor a second Infopost? at Devil's Hole Lock. He has already sponsored one at Northlands Lift Bridge. His request is in hand and GX Signs have agreed to do a one-off plaque.

2)Repair, or, if unsatisfactory, replace plaque at Drungewick Lock and Bridge. The first and only accident I have had with installations.

3)There are a number of sites where the dispensers need up-grading to L.W. dispensers. This and the other repairs and replacements will only be done when the better weather arrives!

Administration ~ Colin Gibbs

Working Party attendance forms for the first quarter are now due. (I've already received the Newbury weekend figures - many thanks to Graham)

I'd be delighted to receive figures of hours worked on the restoration side, by individuals, over and above those recorded in the group situation

Working Party Diary for April/May/June 2008.

If you do not attend regularly, please contact the site manager before joining a work party.

Usually first & third Mondays of the month - 'Mrs Bucket' - Keeping Up Appearances,- Details from John Empringham

Most Tuesday mornings - Maintenance sessions at Tickner's Heath Depot - Check with Colin Gibbs

Every Wednesday; - Mid-Week Working Party, - Check with Peter Jackman or Alison Saville for confirmation

Every Wednesday - Loxwood Link maintenance,- Contact Peter Wilding

Every Thursday & Sunday - Mainly construction work. Meet at the Onslow Arms, 09.30. - Contact Eric Walker for details

Every Thursday - Winston Harwood Group. - Contact TBA for details.

Some Saturdays - Conservation and Maintenance - Get in touch with David Jessop

April 19th Annual General Meeting - Cranleigh Village Hall

May 18. Loxwood Small Boat Rally. rallies@weyandarun.co.uk

May 24. Celtic Twilight (Whisky tasting cruise) Contact WACT office to book

May 28Pirates and Princesses (half term event for children) Contact WACT office to book

Working Party Directory.

WACT Office, General enquiries, 01403 752 403 email: office@weyandarun.co.uk
Wendy Andrews, W P News Editor, 01403 752 170 email: wendy_andrews@weyandarun.co.uk
Turlough Bamber, Restoration Manager, 01483 421 305 email: restoration@weyandarun.co.uk
Eric Walker (Loxwood Area) 02392 463025 email: eric_walker@weyandarun.co.uk
TBA (Mid-week Working Party) 01483 772132 a.m.saville@btinternet.com
John Empringham, (Mrs Bucket) Keeping Up Appearances, 01483 562657, email: john@empringham.com
Ron Chamberlain (Winston’s Group) 01293 532 715 ronchamb@tiscali.co.uk
Tony Clear (Winston’s Group) 01903 774 301 penny.clear@btinternet.com
Peter Wilding (Loxwood Maintenance) 01483 422519, email: peter_wilding@weyandarun.co.uk
Colin Gibbs (Tickners Maintenance) 020 8241 7736 email: colin-gibbs@blueyonder.co.uk
Lawrie Wraight (The Winston Harwood Working Group) 01903 721404 email:Lawrence17@tiscali.co.uk
Bill Nicholson, Visiting Groups, 01844 343 369, email: bandsnicholson@tiscali.co.uk
Graham Baird, Brewhurst Lock Reconfiguration, 01403 262 515, email: graham@gbaird.plus.com
Don Gibson Educational Projects 01903 201375 email:doncanalgibson@hotmail.com