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Swindon Branch News
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Monday, 03 May 2010 19:38 |
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Over 20 people joined Ray Aldridge (Chairman) and other members of the Swindon Branch of the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust to mark the official opening of the towpath along the Moredon section of the North Wilts Canal.
The group met at 11am on Saturday May 1st and were guided along the opened up towpath from Cheney Manor, along the River Ray Valley, behind Nova Hreod School, to where the footpath emerges on Purton Road. At various locations along the route Ray stopped to give information on the history of the canal, the work that had been done as part of the BBC Breathing Spaces project and the future possibilities for restoration.
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Melksham Calne and Chippenham News
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Monday, 05 April 2010 00:00 |
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Canal enthusiasts defied the weekend weather to offer a different view of a popular park.
The local branch of the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust arranged scenic boatrides as part of Calne's Easter activities on Saturday afternoon.
Members of the public were taken on a short trip from Chaveywell Bridge to the edge of the Bowood Estate and back again, raising much-needed funds to support the charity's local restoration campaign.
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Trust News
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Sunday, 07 February 2010 13:01 |
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The March 2010 edition of Waterways World contains a 4 page article on the restoration of the Wilts & Berks Canal.
Entitled 'The Big One' it describes "Britain's longest restoration of 67 miles of rural narrow canal. An impossible dream? Perhaps not, as Richard Fairhurst finds"
The full article can be found in Newspaper Archives section of the website.
Further details about Waterways World can be found from their website: www.waterwaysworld.com |
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Abingdon News
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Friday, 11 September 2009 19:56 |
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RWE npower recently donated 80 tonnes of Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA) from its Didcot A Power Station to the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust to create the approaches to a bridge as part of the waterway restoration project. Then, seven volunteers from the company's Generation Aggregates department donned wellies and hard hats and shovelled the ash to build the slopes up to the rebuilt arch bridge, connecting the bridleway over the canal at Steppingstone Lane in Bourton,Oxfordshire. The power station supplied the ash via RWE Power International, which manages all sales of ash from RWE npower.
David Catley, group head of Generation Aggregates within RWE npower and team leader for the volunteering project, said the group gained more than just aching muscles from the day, as he explains: "It was great to be involved in the restoration as the canal has been derelict for nearly a century; it was once an important link in the national waterways network and will, again, provide wildlife habitats, cycle ways and routes for walkers along the towpath and, eventually, the fully restored canal for narrowboats."
The Trust approached Didcot A after discovering that ash is often used as engineering fill material and, due to its properties, would be a sustainable alternative to primary aggregates such as clay. Ash has been used on various major engineering projects from RWE npower's stations including the M4 at Mereoak, Ridgmont by-pass and Celtic Manor. John Rainford, Didcot A Power Station Manager, says: "This is an extremely beneficial project. The canal runs very close to the power station and we are delighted to support the local community in returning the canal to public use."
Re-using ash in projects such as this is an environmentally-friendly and sustainable destination for it. Martin Buckland, the Director and Chairman of the Abingdon branch of the Trust, says: "The involvement of RWE npower in this project has been extremely successful; we are set to complete this final stage of the project in the very near future." |
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Melksham Calne and Chippenham News
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Tuesday, 27 April 2010 19:05 |
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FUNDRAISERS took a last look at an empty canal-bed before it is filled with water for the first time in more than a century.
The Wilts & Berks Canal Trust held its annual sponsored walk on Sunday morning, following the former line of the waterway from Chippenham to Lacock.
Around 150 people enjoyed the four-mile journey through open countryside and past the remains of locks, dry-docks and cottages.
Some groups took up the challenge to walk the route while carrying boats of all shapes and sizes, from small models up to inflatable dinghies - and even a Viking longship left over from a school play!
Later this year, the charity hopes to start engineering work to fill most of the stretch with water as part of its ongoing restoration campaign.
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Trust News
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Sunday, 21 March 2010 10:08 |
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 As of 8th March 2010 the office for the Wilts & Berks Trust has moved to a new location.
The Office is now located at Spittleborough Farm on the A3102 between Wootton Bassett and Junction 16 of the M4 (see map below).
The postal address has also changed to:
PO Box 3630,
Swindon,
SN4 4AN
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East Vale News
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Sunday, 20 September 2009 00:00 |
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This year, after a gap of a few years the Canal Trust had a stand at the annual Uffington Show held on the Sunday and Monday of the Bank Holiday weekend. The weather for the most part stayed kind, although we did worry about the wind on the Sunday evening!
There were lots of activities going on including, in the air, wing walking on biplanes ( hair-raising!) and the highlight of the day the restored Vulcan bomber doing a circuit. On the ground there were otters to look at, horserides, sporting activities, dressage displays, trade stands aplenty and a beer tent!
We had one of the Trusts marquees ( the other was at the IWA National and also used Mike's gazebo as store tent and a place to put a table for Wild on Waterways activities for the children. The canal display brought forth much comment from people who remembered the canal in their childhood especially in Swindon as well as offers of assistance and useful information. We are in the planning stages of restoring a footpath bridge at West Challow and is was highly fortuitous that we were visited by someone who remembered the bridge before it was demolished and culverted in 1948. As a result we now know that we are restoring a flat bridge ( originally a lift bridge) rather than an arch bridge.
Thanks to the team for manning the stand ie Phil Logue, Mike Matthews, Chris Naish and Martin Buckland ( and also for transporting the displays and equipment)" |
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Trust News
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Tuesday, 01 September 2009 00:00 |
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It was with some trepidation that we approached the IWA 2009 National Waterways Festival, held this year at Ratcliffe-on-Soar.
After the mud at St. Ives in 2007 and the terrible ground conditions at Autherley (2008) we hoped that the law of averages would come into play and bless us with a dry Bank Holiday weekend. And it did, either that or the organisers did a lot of praying. We arrived at the site with the displays on the Friday in order to set up and to be ready for the Saturday opening. Several of the team were already there waiting for us as they had booked into the Festival camp site earlier in the week.
Although it was a bit windy (the end of a trans-Atlantic hurricane) the ground was nice and dry. It was probably the largest Festival site I have ever seen. All these sites tend to be a bit unique. This one was held in a large field alongside the River Soar in the shadow of the eight looming cooling towers of the power station. The weather was good to us all weekend with just a little bit of rain on Sunday afternoon - not enough to cause any problems.
It was a very successful Festival. Look out for a full write up of the show in the next edition of Dragonfly.
For more photos of the event have a look in the Photo Galleries. |
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