The Branch Work Party Team have enjoyed another productive year with the workforce exceeding 20 persons on several occasions. With such large turnouts the progress was impressive. Most of the work took place at Pewsham where we worked over 40 occasions and on other sites over 16. These other sites included Calne where scrub was cleared, with the help of Kent & East Sussex canal Recovery Group (KESCRG), Forest Farm and the A4 Crossing at Pewsham Village. Here a brown official sign depicting the Wilts & Berks Canal was erected by Wiltshire Council.

Pewsham

In July we hosted a week’s camp from Waterway Recovery Group. Here they carried out clearance work in Top and Middle Locks but it was a massive task and they have left plenty for us to do.  Preparatory work was carried out on the entrance portal of Cocklemore Brook Culvert which the MCC Workparty Team plan to complete during the next few weeks.

Several large trees that were growing near or on canal structures have been felled using tree surgeons in some positions where potential collateral damage had to be avoided. The remaining stumps were left long so that their ultimate removal was made easier. This was far removed from reality. The stumps were huge and took the team several weeks to extract using all of our winching gear and muscle leaving massive holes where once the trees stood. These stood in the way of our dredging plans for this year including the restoration of the Spill Weir below Bottom Lock. Rebuilding work of the Weir is well underway and is due for completion before stage two dredging—Triangle Wood to Bottom Lock. The canal bed for Stage 1 dredging (Triangle Wood to Winding Hole) has been cleared of trees and their roots and the masonry of Triangle Wood Culvert repaired.

We now have a secure lockup steel cabin located at Top Lock thanks to the efforts of Dave Maloney, where we now keep our building materials, hand tools and scaffolding. This saves a lot of work getting material and tools to site.

Most of the Pewsham Section has been mowed but the section south of Double Bridge remains. It is hoped to complete this tomorrow.

Forest & Queenfield Farms

The whole canal at Forest & Queenfield Farms was mowed at the end of September last year. This improved the canal’s appearance then but I expect it is well overgrown again by now. Such is the nature of things.

Calne

We have had a bit of a set back with our plans for the restoration of the Calne Branch. Our request to the Environment Agency for an extraction licence from the River Marden was granted with a maximum limit of 14 Lts per minute. This limited amount of water is unlikely to be sufficient to keep the branch in water let alone becoming a major feeder for the main line at Stanley. Because of the restriction in extraction and the fact that the water level in the Marden was not going to be raised CARP thought the expense of laying a pipe through the Town Lock was not justified. Their preferred option with their funding was to commission a replica canal boat to be set in the lock chamber as an illustration of what the lock used to look like. I prefer restoration to interpretation but without the money we have to concentrate on the main line of the canal rather than branch lines. The work started last December on Mrs Sutton’s land will be completed and rewatered as planned.

Attendance at work parties has remained high at a steady 20 on major events, with a maximum of 21 on some occasions. Recruitment also remains good with several promising volunteers joining us over the past year.

We have held over 57 work parties since the last AGM, clocked up 4635 man-hours of work and travelled over 9037 miles to attend the work.

This activity is evaluated as £63,727 in Volunteer Matched Funding.

Well done again everybody.

Douglas Harris