Well
17 volunteers from the Waterways Recovery Group turned up on the weeklong
summer camp from 23rd to 30th July and worked like Trojans on
Steppingstone
Bridge
. They were accommodated, fed, watered and decontaminated (mud, mud,
glorious mud!) in Watchfield village hall.
Over
the eight days the bridge site was pumped out, (we have dams either side),
and all the below waterline brickwork, which was in remarkably good
condition considering it’s been there for 200 years, was repaired and
repointed. A start was also made on restoring two of the abutment walls and
hundreds of bricks were recovered and cleaned for re-use.
This bridge was collapsed in, on purpose by the local council, in the 1950s
for safety reasons. However, before it was a 2 feet diameter pipe was
installed to allow water to flow beneath it for drainage purposes.
Unfortunately for us the bottom of the pipe was way above the bottom of the
canal (at least 2 feet!), and as
Stainswick
Lane
Lift
Bridge
at the other end of this section is completely infilled and as the section
is mostly in a deep cutting there is always a couple of feet of water
trapped between the two bridges thus making restoration projects difficult,
to say the least! That’s why the restoration of this bridge is so
important to us. We have discovered, to our cost, that the council made an
extremely good job of installing the pipe, even if it is a couple of feet to
high, with massive foundations and headwalls made of concrete which must
have been left over from war time bunker construction.
Luckily for us some of the wrgies set about removing it with gusto and
whilst the water/mud level was low, the 18 inches thick concrete foundations
and the 12 inches thick headwalls were broken up with a jackhammer, an
extremely arduous task.
Then low and behold below the concrete foundations they discovered the
original bridge parapet copingstones, neatly laid in line as foundations to
the foundations, no wonder it was 2 feet too high! When we have some lifting
gear on site we will remove them for use on the finished bridge. They will
weigh several hundredweight, each! Take a walk down to the site to see for
yourselves. Branch members will be carrying on with the restoration and with
a London WRG weekend camp in November confirmed we should see some real
progress this year. Well done WRG,
where would we be without you!
Anyone
is welcome to join in! Contact our workparty leader Chris on 783776. (More
details on the WRG website http://http://www.wrg.org.uk/)
As
always we failed yet again to keep up with the extraordinary growth of weeds
along one of the towpaths, this meant that they got out of hand and almost
cut off pedestrian access. This then required a super-human effort by a
local branch workparty to clear the way; lets hope the hot dry weather will
stunt further growth! All our paths are currently open.
Shrivenham
Village Fete was a rather grand affair this year to celebrate its 25th
anniversary. We set up the Trusts second stand and it received plenty of
interest, especially the cast iron W&BC notice recently found in the
garden of the lock-keepers cottage at Longcot. It was kindly lent to us, by
the finder, for display at the show. We plan to help with its restoration
and hope to have a good photo of it for the next Dragonfly. You will have to
wait till then to see what it says! Worth waiting for though.
Be
forewarned and book up – The West Vale Canal Group Annual Quiz, (not
your normal quiz, a real challenge! Great fun and hot supper included), has
proved so popular that it has become Bi-annual, is to be held as usual in
the Bowls Club, on November 12th.
Don’t
be among the disappointed, last November several latecomers had to be turned
away! Register your interest!
Alan Norris
Branch Chairman