Canal Boat — February 2018

canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat February 2018 65

RESTORATION

of several miles leading from the edge of

Grantham westwards onto the 20-mile

Long Pound. Dredging and bridge

reconstruction could then extend this

further west, and help to make the case for

the major funding needed to build a new

link back to the Trent, where the original

line into Nottingham has been built on.

THE EAST

The eastern counties haven’t featured a

great deal in WRG’s activities recently –

but with one notable exception being the

Chelmer & Blackwater Navigation. As a

working navigation rather than a

restoration, the work is rather different –

involving lock and towpath maintenance.

So why is WRG helping to maintain a

waterway, rather than letting the

navigation authority get on with the job?

Well in this case, that authority is in fact

WRG’s parent body IWA, which took on

running the waterway in 2005 as the only

way of saving it from closing and being

sold off after the original company went

bankrupt. Unlike most waterways it

receives no regular public funding, so the

only way to keep it going and put it back in

good condition involves a great deal of

volunteer support – including WRG.

A second site in East Anglia is the River

Waveney, where WRG is returning to

Geldeston Lock following a first Canal

Camp in 2017. The lock at the head of the

tidal river was in poor condition and in

danger of collapsing, but although there

are no immediate plans to reopen it as a

navigation work it is a historic structure

and could be used to display the historic

sailing wherry Albion on what was

originally its home waters.

It’s a tricky job, made more difficult by

the effects of the tide, and flood water

coming down the river in wet weather

(which last year conspired to disrupt two

days of the week’s camp) – but the WRGies

are returning with a better knowledge of

the issues, and hope to finish the first wall,

ready to start the second.

And if the weather makes things tricky

again? Well, perhaps one more camp

should do it...

WRG and

Canal Camps

Waterway Recovery Group was founded in

1970 to provide a resource of volunteers,

equipment and support which could boost the

efforts of canal restoration projects being led

by local societies and trusts all over Britain.

Supported by its parent body the Inland

Waterways Association, WRG runs between

20 and 30 week-long Canal Camps (working

holidays) every year, mostly in the summer,

as well as supporting several mobile groups

(regional based groups plus the specialist

Forestry Team) which run weekend working

parties all year. There is no membership of

WRG, but volunteers keep in touch by

subscribing to the magazine Navvies (named

after the original workers who built the

canals), as well as via the WRG website and

social media. New volunteers are welcome,

irrespective of previous experience.

See wrg.org.uk for more information.

Shrewsbury &

Newport Canals

Lichfield &

Hatherton Canals

Open waterways shown in blue

WRG Camp sites shown in red

Other restoration schemes

or proposals shown in grey

Grantham

Canal

Lancaster

Canal

Derby

Canal

Cotswold

Canals

Swansea

Canal

Monmouthshire

& Brecon Canals

Wey & Arun

Canal

Chelmer &

Blackwater

Navigation

River

Montgomery Waveney

Canal

CB
Coping with the tide at Geldeston Lock

Towpath maintenance on the Chelmer