Issue No. 76 Summer 2012 1 EXCITING NEWS! Bourton Meadow Planning Permission has now been APPROVED!! BCS is going in the right direction! With the permission of British Waterways we have recently changed the sign at the Cosgrove end of the Buckingham Canal from ‘Disused’ to read “Under Restoration”. (Inset right: the old sign) Preaparing the Lock for Lock Gates LOCK RANSOM 21st & 22nd July 10am - 6pm Cosgrove Lock 2 Weekly and Short Break Holiday Hire Adverts in the Navigator 4-8 berth self drive Luxury Narrow Boats We welcome advertisements in the Navigator to assist funding. Rates are as below. Payment is required before copy date. Cheques made payable to “Buckingham Canal Society”. 33% reduction for 3 issues. • Whole Page: £16.00 • Half Page: £10.00 Excellent Boats on a Beautiful Canal • Quarter Page: £6.00 • Inserts: £7.50 Cruise the Ouzel Valley, villages of Northamptonshire and waterside parks of • Back Page: £22.00 Milton Keynes Our base at Linslade is within weekend reach of the Waterways Museum at Stoke Bruerne or the Chiltern Hills and Aylesbury. Choice of exciting one or two week cruises Visit us on Facebook and “LIKE” including the River Thames. Also ‘Waterside Cottage’ (sleeps up to 11) set in the boatyard our page. Here you will find our grounds. The Wyvern Shipping Co Ltd most recent photos along, with Rothschild Road, Linslade, Leighton Buzzard, Beds, LU7 2TF updates on events and work parties. Tel: 01525 372355 Fax: 01525 852308 www.canalholidays.co.uk Email:[email protected] Advertise Here - see above for details Editorial 3 Dear Readers, Welcome to the Navigator Summer 2012! It has been an exciting few months since issue 75 with planning permission approved at Bourton Meadow and a wonderful result with our Localgiving.com fundraising. We are celebrating the great work that our volunteers do in this issue with several articles written by the volunteers themselves. You are all what make the charity great! With a new membership leaflet and a new sign for the canal at Cogrove we are moving firmly towards a more professional image for the Society and the canal. We are working hard on the new website and new publications to make the Society a charity that looks like it means business. All photography in this issue is © Richard Alan Lewis unless otherwise stated. As ever all comments on this issue gratefully received. Richard Lewis (Your Editor) In This Issue Page 4-6 Work Party Report Page 6-8 Chairman’s Chat Page 8 BCS Social Evening Page 9-10 Why bother?... Page 10-11 Working Groups and Training Weekend Page 12-13 My First Work Party Page 13-14 Donating Online Page 14 BCS Canal Heritage Walk Page 15 Cosgrove Canal Festival Page 16-17 Readers... Meet Brian Page 18 Countdown to Cosgrove Festival Page 18-20 BCS The Beginning - Part 2 Page 20-23 Membership and Partnerships Page 24-25 Advertising With Us and The Next Navigator Page 24 Upcoming Events Page 25 Work Party Dates Page 26 Meet the Committee Page 27 Contact the Commmittee Work Party Report 4 Hyde Lane Work for the summer months is planned for all four of our sites, but at the present time the work parties have moved to the Nature Reserve where the lock gates we received from the Northampton Arm await installation. Work has already started to remove the very thick, dense mud from the bottom of the lock chamber. This work is being carried out by hand, a real navvying job - good fun if you enjoy mud! There is also quite a lot of re-pointing work to be carried out in and around the lock and this is proceeding well in spite of the weather. We have been helped by a group of volunteers from the National House-Building Council (NHBC) who joined us on three separate occasions working with our volunteers. Having extra people on site always helps with the workload and the groups enjoy themselves and spread the word about the Society, and our volunteers get to work with different people which provides an exciting mix. If anyone knows of a company or a group of students who you think might be interested in joining us for a ‘team building’ day do contact us. 5 As well as the work on the lock chamber another very muddy task is the removal of the reeds from the bed of the canal. Considerable amounts were removed last year but unfortunately some of these have re-grown and the feeling is this is a task we will have to tackle each year. Once removed and with the channel opened up again, and especially with the amount of rain we have had lately, we have a ‘canal in water’ again. The hedge laying and wildlife habitat piles that were made last year have been tidied up (see previous page with Helen working with NHBC volunteers) and weeding has taken place around the saplings that were planted over the last two or three years, most of which have survived. There is still plenty of work to do at this site and again plenty of opportunities for other companies to volunteer with us. Cosgrove . At Cosgrove, where the vegetation was cleared from the canal bed, we have now We have been helped by a group of volunteers from the National House-Building reached agreement with British Waterways (BW) to dismantle and rebuilt the flood Council (NHBC) who joined us on three separate occasions working with our sluice nearer the A5 end of the canal. BW will be supplying the bricks and mortar, volunteers. Having extra people on site always helps with the workload and the etc free of charge and this will save a considerable amount of money for BCS. Our groups enjoy themselves and spread the word about the Society, and our volunteers thanks go to Jeff Whyatt and Neil Owen and the rest of the team at BW who are get to work with different people which provides an exciting mix. If anyone knows helping with this project. We have also been given permission to take down the of a company or a group of students who you think might be interested in joining rather broken fences, which straddle the towpath and replace them with gates, us for a ‘team building’ day do contact us. which should prove to be of great benefit to walkers particularly those with dogs. The Montgomery Canal Society have been using a new type of liner for their restoration work and we have been in touch with the manufacturer and a site visit was arranged. The new material looks very promising and we hope to use it for the earth bunds at Cosgrove. Little Hill Farm At Little Hill Farm as the footpath is not open to the public we will be clearing and trimming the hedges and footpath through August and September so that they don’t get completely overgrown again. Bourton Meadow At our Bourton Meadow site, whilst we are trying to secure funding to re-line this section of canal volunteers have been keeping the canal bed and footpaths strimmed with extra work parties arranged to carry out this work. Stowe School are also working at Bourton Meadow and have cleared the drainage ditch that runs along the top of the site and will be working on the canal bed until the end of June. 6 So there is a variety of work being carried out over the next few months but there is still much to be done. Again my thanks go to our grand group of volunteers who are making everything happen. Athina Beckett - Work Party Organiser. Chairman’s Chat A lot of exciting events to report this quarter. BCS has recently joined ‘Local Giving’ which is a way for people to donate online via our website on localgiving. com/buckscanal From time to time they run ‘Match Challenges’ where if people donate to the Society on a Challenge Day the money is doubled. Details about these Challenges will appear on our web site from time to time so please keep checking, as this could be a great money earner for us! We have recently updated and reprinted our membership leaflet and here I would like to thank Richard Lewis and Kirsty Willette who designed the new graphics on the leaflet (see right). Our thanks also go to Buckingham Community Foundation who funded the new leaflet. Strimming As mentioned on the cover - The signpost by Cosgrove Lock now reads ‘Buckingham Canal under restoration’. This is an important step in recognition of our restoration efforts for the Buckingham Canal. Restoring Canal Heritage for Future Generations www.buckinghamcanal.org.uk registered charity no 10729241 7 The other exciting news is that our planning application to re-water Bourton Meadow has now been approved. There are several conditions which still have to be met and the Committee is working on these at present, but this is a very large and positive step forward to restoring this section of canal. Our Open Day at Cosgrove Village Hall took place on Sunday 22nd April. Invitations were sent out to all local residents, and all the local boaters moored on the Grand Union Canal and Buckingham Arm also received an invitation. The Barley Mow pub and the shop at Cosgrove Leisure Park also displayed our posters. The day went very well with those who attended being very interested in the plans on display. Everyone was asked to leave a ‘comment’ in the signing-in book and I can report that no negative comments were received.