CUT BOTH WAYS WEBSITE ARCHIVES
The Magazine of the Lichfield & Hatherton
Canals Restoration Trust
Issue No. 31 - SPRING 2002
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CUT BOTH WAYS WEBSITE ARCHIVES
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CHAIRMAN’S column
| When Roman generals returned to the city after a victorious campaign they were awarded a Triumph. To "keep their feet on the ground" a man was employed to whisper in their ear a reminder that they were only human. I hope nobody on the Trust feels the need for this reminder and we certainly have not yet reached the triumph stage. However, the most recent developments have given cause for celebration and optimism in which all members and supporters should take pleasure. |
IWA has awarded the Lichfield and Hatherton the Kenneth Goodwin Trophy. The citation reads "awarded to the society or trust engaged in restoration ... which has made the most significant progress in achieving its objective". This is a great honour and is particularly poignant as Ken Goodwin was such a strong supporter of the Trust and was the IWA representative on its Council in the early years. We hope that the Trophy will be presented formally at the Crick Boat Show.
We have received the following message from our Vice-President: "Sheila and I are so very pleased that the L&H Restoration Trust has received the Ken Goodwin Trophy. This, I am sure, will give even more encouragement to you all ... so, all in all, the lights are very much GREEN FOR GO!! Many congratulations!!! David."
Elsewhere, there is more good news about the construction of the aqueduct near Muckley Corner. The Highways Agency is working on the Trust's behalf to obtain design drawings and costings from the road builders. Cost is our main consideration as the figures which we received some months ago were far beyond our ability to meet. We are now hopeful that we can place an order for the building of abutments and centre column as the road is built. Then we can, if funds permit, place an order for the fabrication of a steel trough to be craned in before the M6 Toll opens. The timing of all this is very critical indeed.
The re-launched David Suchet Appeal is going well and funds are also coming in from elsewhere. We have been awarded £25,000 by the Staffordshire Environmental Fund and £5,000 by Lichfield District Council but there is still a long way to go. We have made applications to grant-awarding trusts and are keenly awaiting their responses. There is a great deal to play for and, as usual, we will take this all the way to the wire.
We have enjoyed many successes in the last year and have every reason to rejoice. Yet, we must keep all this in perspective. These are small steps along the road to a final success which is many years, and many tribulations ahead. The tremendous support which members of the Trust, and the general public, showed by turning out in huge numbers for the Cannock Forum in January was most encouraging. Our restoration continues to receive national recognition from British Waterways and The Waterways Trust. We have every hope that we will be included in the national restoration programme within the next ten years. As David Suchet says, the lights are green. Even so there are long years of slog ahead but the prize is now within our grasp.
Brian Kingshott
VICE-CHAIRMAN’S NOTES
| MEMBERSHIP
The winter period is usually a quiet time for recruitment but, thanks to the continuing strong public response to the David Suchet Appeal and good results from the Canal Forum and the NEC Boat Show, our membership has continued to increase and has now reached 1142. A warm welcome to all our new members and a special thank-you to those who continue to support us each year. Your prompt renewal assists our hard working Membership Secretary to keep on top of the paper work and completing bankers orders and Gift Aid declarations helps the administration and boosts our income. We hope to see many of you at the events we attend throughout the summer. |
CANAL FORUM AT CANNOCK
Earlier in the day David and Sheila were taken to visit the BNRR construction site at Churchbridge, courtesy of Pam
Melrose of CAMBBA. There they were able to see Culvert 155 under construction and appreciate its extra height that was being
funded from the proceeds of his Appeal to give headroom for future navigation. Many photos were taken of David standing
proudly in front of 'his' culvert and waving the Lichfield & Hatherton banner. David was then whisked off to Walsall where a
full programme of visits, photocalls, press, radio and television inter-views had been arranged by Laurence Hogg to publicise
the Trust, the 'Missing Links' video and the canals of Walsall that stand to benefit so much from our restorations. Locations
included Walsall Town Wharf and BW's Bradley work-shops and Ocker Hill waterways office, before a quick meal and back to the
Theatre. David's generosity with his time and untiring enthusiasm were greatly appreciated and made an event into an occasion.
M6 TOLL
We have just heard that our initial bid for European Objective 2 funds, which builds on the money committed to the culverts
as match funding, has been approved to go forward to a full application. If successful, this will provide for consultants'
reports to fully define the engineering, environmental and economic benefits of the project and to secure some key areas of land.
There is good news also on the Lichfield Canal crossing for which the Highways Agency have recently issued a contract
variation for construction of the two abutments and centre column support for the aqueduct. The Manifold Trust have kindly
varied the conditions of their grant to allow us to commit much of their funding to these substructure works. So we have now
in effect secured 2½ of the 3 most critical motorway structures and our fund-raising continues urgently for the aqueduct
trough. There has been an encouraging response with over £25,000 already donated or pledged to the renewed David Suchet
Appeal and most welcome grants of £25,000 from Staffordshire Environmental Fund and £5,000 from Lichfield District Council.
The target, however, is £250,000 so there is much work yet to do but we are receiving valuable help from The Waterways Trust
and with the ever increasing level of public interest and support we remain hopeful of succeeding.
UNLOCKED & UNLIMITED
Recent re-opening of the Huddersfield Canal and Anderton Lift and imminent completion of the Rochdale, Ribble Link and
Scottish canals, along with work on the Kennet & Avon and Chesterfield canals make this a very special year for waterways
revival. The next tranche of 9 fast-track schemes are to be restoration of the Cotswolds, Droitwich, Montgomery, northern
Lancaster, and Manchester Bolton & Bury canals, Bow Back Rivers and Foxton Inclined Plane, along with new waterways in
Liverpool and Bedford to Milton Keynes. These are mostly schemes with substantial funding on offer or active local authority
support, so it was no surprise that the Lichfield & Hatherton did not make the list this time round, but we were mentioned
first amongst the up-and-coming schemes being considered for tranche 3. It is now up to us to work hard to ensure that the
benefits of our restorations are better recognised by the major funding agencies and to consolidate our partnerships with
local authorities so that we can be first in the queue next time.
LAND AND PLANNING ISSUES
An unsung activity that is vital to our progress is maintaining contact with land-owners and exploring possibilities for
purchase or lease and, although much of this is inevitably long-term or confidential, there are occasions when we can indicate
progress. One area that we are now discussing is the possibility of obtaining permission to restore the canal and towpath
between Locks 25 and 26 at Tamworth Road. This currently forms part of the garden of The Cottage but its owners, Mr & Mrs.
Attwood are Trust members and have generously offered to consider relinquishing part of their lease back to the Lichfield
City Council who would be willing to include it in the area licenced to the Trust for restoration. Legal, financial and
engineering details are still being discussed but we have already secured some of the funding needed from the Conduit Lands
Trust and are hopeful of being able to reach agreement before long.
Phil Sharpe MARKETING REPORT The year started with the Canal Forum at The Prince of Wales Centre, Cannock on Wed 30th
January 2002. Thanks must go to our Vice President David Suchet and his wife Sheila for drawing such a large crowd, and all
the other speakers and organisers who helped to make it such a successful evening.
Sat 2nd / Sun 3rd February saw members of the L&H Sales team at the Shared Ownership show at Braunston Marina. Thanks to
Trish and lan Humphries, Lyn Evans and May Brown for turning out on such a cold and wet week end.
February 15th to 24th found the Sales team at the N.E.C. Boat, Caravan & Leisure Show, led by Bob Williams. We had an
excellent response from members volunteering their help to run the stand, and wish to thank all those who gave us their
valuable time. On Sunday 17th, the Show was attended by David and Sheila Suchet. David spent most of the afternoon signing
Missing Links videos, and talking with visitors to the stand. There were 24 new members and 15 renewals.
The Brick Appeal got off to a good start as did the Grand Prize Draw. This year the First Prize is
a week's holiday on a four berth narrow boat given by Jannel Cruisers of Burton-on-Trent. Lyn Evans was in top form selling
the most tickets in a single day. Our stand space was twice its normal size, the extra cost being sponsored by Teddesley Boats,
Streethay Wharf, Pritchard Holdings and Laurence Hogg Productions. See our links page for more on these sponsors.
All in all a most successful 10 days.
On Sat 9th March, Derek & Margaret Beardsmore organised a fantastic 70's/80's Night with a fish & chip supper at the
Grangemoor Working Mens Club in Burntwood. We danced to music from the band ' Pedigree ' (to book them contact Steve Partington
07946 852077) which was a huge success. Many thanks to Derek & Margaret and all who helped to make it such an enjoyable evening.
The Easter Boat Gathering was held at the home of Eric & Doreen Wood, at Whittington Wharf. What began as a Coffee Morning
& Bring & Buy sale, snowballed into something resembling a full blown rally. Thirty boats attended, including boats from the
Ash Tree, Greyhound and Stafford Boat Clubs. On Saturday the sun shone and the event was well attended. Easter Sunday morning
was wet but didn't dampen the enthusiasm for the Easter Bonnet Parade. Eric presented the Golden Windlass Award to John Lynes,
now retired from his job as Lock Keeper on the Trent and Mersey Canal at Wychnor.
We are still looking for volunteers to help on the L&H stand at the IWA National Boat Festival at Huddersfield, this
coming August Bank Holiday. Please contact Michael Brown Tel, 01543 302908.
Mike Brown
The Canal Forum that we held in Cannock at the end of January was a great success and some of the publicity it achieved
is reported elsewhere in this issue. The Prince Of Wales Theatre was packed with over 400 people to hear a series of
presentations by the Trust supported by British Waterways, The Waterways Trust, Inland Waterways Association and Waterway
Recovery Group speakers, all emphasising the growing successes of waterways restoration and regeneration. Progress with
protecting the routes from the BNRR was of particular interest to an enthusiastic audience who were able to look at the
displays and besiege our membership and marketing stands in the interval. Our Vice-President David Suchet spoke inspiringly
about his commitment to our project which was acknowledged by the award of Honorary Life Membership to both David and Sheila.
Construction of the M6 Toll (formerly BNRR) continues apace and our two enlarged culverts for the Hatherton Canal at
Churchbridge and above Walkmill Lane are now nearing completion. It will be a future project to fit them out with internal
walls and towpath and to link them to new channel sections, but at least we have secured the vital 'holes' under the motorway
through which the canal can now be restored.
'Unlocked & Unlimited' was the title of a major conference held in London in March which Brian Kingshott and I were able
to attend. Subtitled 'Building Partnerships for New Waterways' and presented by British Waterways and The Waterways Trust, it
both celebrated the success of recent and current waterway restoration schemes and set their agenda for even more restoration
in the future. After years of steady but slow progress, waterway restoration and the regeneration it brings is now fast
moving, and BW committed themselves to a second major tranche of schemes over the next 5 years or more with several future
phases to follow.
Land and planning issues have arisen recently in connection with the review of the Lichfield District Local Plan and the
proposed Southern By-pass. The By-pass will provide some of the land needed for the parallel diversion route of the canal but
we are exploring with the District and the County Highways engineers how it may make a fuller contribution. Meanwhile, an
Urban Capacity Study and Housing Strategy review for Lichfield has identified three sites on the original route of the canal
in the City for possible housing development. This has highlighted the need for securing the diversion routes as part of a
fully protected restoration route in the Local Plan as now recommended by Government, and we have been discussing this with
the District and City councils.
Chairman of Marketing Group
Press & publicity this time covers the period 11th January to 5th April 2002, although a late
entry in our cuttings album was an Express & Star article from the end of December headed "Helpers flock to canal project",
recording the work of the Canal Camp volunteers including one from Germany. Waterways World for March also showed a picture
of WRG volunteers working on the "Towpath trail at Lichfield".
Our member Bob Barnes-Watts from Devon telephoned me about some more publicity I had missed; an interview that David Suchet
gave on Radio 5 Live in November. Bob had e-mailed the programme with a suggestion for questions on the Lichfield & Hatherton,
which David was more than happy to talk about. So much so that canals then dominated the interview, as David later recounted
to us when we met him for the Forum in January. Another publicity coup!
BNRR News from CAMBBA, Issue 3 reported "Good News for Canal Society" about the go-ahead for the enlarged culverts at
Churchbridge following "successful campaigning" by the Trust, and hopes for work on the aqueduct. David's support for our
re-launched fund-raising appeal for the aqueduct was also high-lighted as "Poirot star's urgent plea for canal cash" in the
Express & Star, and the same paper interviewed him about his career and involvement with canals in "Footsteps of a supersleuth" in March.
The generous donation of a canal boat holiday by Jannel Cruisers as first prize in the Trust's Grand Prize Draw was publicly
acknowledged by David Suchet at the NEC Boat Show and prompted articles headed "Canal restoration fund boosted by star
prize - Top actor's leading role" and "Canal praise" in The Lichfield Mercury.
"Lichfield trust's Muir Hill dumper Muriel is looking for good home" was an article in Old Glory magazine, which did
indeed lead to our venerable machine finding a suitable retirement home. Meanwhile, BW Monthly reported on "Help for
historic hedges" and the partnership with our volunteers in restoring the hedge on the Hatherton Canal. Navvies magazine for
Feb-March publicised plans for the WRG fund-raising 'Race Night' at Lichfield and their help on site and with the Walk.
The 3rd series of the excellent 'Water World' programmes on Central ITV was broadcast on Tuesday evenings from 19th
February and the first episode gave us some useful publicity. Sequences of rebuilding work at Lichfield Lock 26 and of
David Suchet signing photos at Crick were shown, along with a map to illustrate our BNRR campaign. An explanation of the
Government's instruction to build the culvert at Churchbridge was accompanied by an impression of the completed portal and
canal. A lengthy sequence on the celebratory reception held in London paid tribute to many of those who had assisted and
David explained the significance of the decision. The need for further funding for an aqueduct over the motorway was also
illustrated with an artistic impression of the structure in use. These serious messages were enlivened by introductory shots
of Progress crossing the Channel and closed with Chris Coburn sporting his now notorious yellow sou'wester !
The Canal Forum at Cannock and associated events generated masses of publicity for the Trust in February and I know that I
do not have copies of everything that appeared, so if you can fill any gaps we would be grateful. A whole host of papers
carried similar pictures of David on a boat at Walsall Town Wharf holding a magnifying glass to a copy of our video The Missing
Links. The Walsall Observer titled it "David's supporting role" and the Walsall Advertiser had "TV star Suchet on the case".
"Sleuth Gates" was the awful pun in the Birmingham Evening Mail whilst the Express & Star amused us with "Suchet great way to
travel - Star cruises in to launch new video". The Forum and the day's activities, including David's visit to see construction
work on 'his' culvert, were reported and pictured in "Suchet sees for himself" in Waterways World and in "Celebrated culvert
finally installed" in Canal Boat & Inland Waterways for April.
The 'National significance' accorded our two restorations by the new IWAAC Report (see CBW30) prompted several articles in
March including "Canals report boost" and "Report boosts plans to restore canal link" in the Express & Star. "More cash to go
to canals plan" was the optimistic interpretation of The Lichfield Post and "Canal plan gets national status" in the Lichfield
Mercury was accompanied by a picture of Trust members lined up on the towpath wall at a special photocall.
Our membership of Lichfield District Tourism Association has led to inclusion of the canal route on the official tourism map for the District with an entry giving visitors information on the restoration in both the 'Lichfield District Visitors Guide 2002' and 'Days Out in Lichfield District'.
Finally, a grant offer of £25,000 from Staffordshire Environmental Fund for the aqueduct was announced under "Schemes to
benefit from funding boost" in the Express & Star, which also reported "Canal work hope of tourist boom" describing £110,000
worth of waterfront improvements at Brownhills being undertaken in anticipation of the reopening of the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals.
Phil Sharpe
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WORKING PARTIES : MAY - SEPTEMBER 2002 |
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LICHFIELD CANAL
Regular Lichfield work parties are held on the first Sunday of each month from 10 am. working on rebuilding Lock 26 at
Tamworth Road.
Some additional Saturdays or Sundays are also worked and most Wednesday evenings over the summer, as well as occasional
weekend visits from WRG groups. Contact Peter Matthews on 01543-673127 or John Horton on 01543-262466 for further details.
For Tamworth Road Lock 26 (SK 130 083) take the A51 south out of Lichfield, the site is on the right past Cricket Lane. Park by Lock 25 and walk past The Cottage to the entrance track for Lock 26, but please note that the access is across private land and should not be used except on organised work parties.
Monthly work parties: Sundays: 5 May, 2 June, 7 July, 4 August, 1 September.
Wednesday evenings: Work on most Wednesday evenings at Lock 26 is due to resume in May for the Summer. Please check with Peter Matthews to confirm dates and times.
WRG weekends: Sat/Sun 15/16 June - Newbury WPG, Sat/Sun 7/8 September - Kent & East Sussex CRG
HATHERTON CANAL
Regular Hatherton Canal work parties are held on the third Sunday of each month from 10 am. working mainly on towpath
and hedgerow maintenance with some tree clearance. Contact Denis Cooper on 01543-374370 (work) for the meeting place.
Monthly work parties: Sundays: 19 May, 16 June, 21 July, 18 August, 15 September
ALL SITES:
Hard hats and basic working tools can be provided as necessary, although you are welcome to bring your own.
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