Chiltern Grapevine
Past Issues,
Summer 2009
Glorious Tring Festival
Chairman's Ramblings
News
Situations Vacant
Ricky Cleans Up
Festival Fun at Ricky
Tring Festival is a Scorcher
Glorious Tring
Festival
Three days of success in the sun
What a difference a year (or two) makes! This year’s Tring Festival was an
outstanding success. For the first time the Festival opened
on the Saturday and was rewarded with good crowds
that were repeated on the following two days to give an overall attendance of 16,000 or
more. With temperatures soaring, there were long queues for ice cream and the beer tent
was pretty busy too.
A full programme of activities in the main arena plus entertainers, attractions and bands
elsewhere meant that visitors were fully amused.
The bottom line is that the Wendover Arm Trust can look forward to a boost to its funds of
over £40,000 which is most welcome after the disappointments of the last two years. See
inside for further details.
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Chairman's Ramblings
So far it’s been a great start to the summer season with excellent weather that has
ensured a successful start to the festivals calendar. Canalway Cavalcade in Little Venice
set the trend and both the Ricky and Tring Festivals proved to be great successes. John
Brice led Chiltern Branch’s involvement in these local events with raffles and
auctions at Ricky and the famous ‘John’s Boat Jumble’ at Tring. In total
these events raised over £1500 that we will direct towards waterway causes. Well done
John!
John was also busy earlier in the year, when he organised a Canal Clean Up at
Rickmansworth. This was organised in conjunction with British Waterways as part of their
new initiative to increase volunteer involvement. Personally, I am delighted to see this
change in approach from BW. John and I suggested that BW could make better use of
community and volunteer resources when we met Robin Evans in December 2007, so I am
encouraged to see that BW has appointed a National Volunteer Manager to support this aim.
Some boaters may consider that paying a license fee is enough of a contribution, but what
is evident is that license fees cover only a fraction of the costs of the waterways and
that something has to be done to bridge the growing gap between needs and funded
resources. In this context I also feel that the new TwentyTwenty strategy is worthy of
consideration, but clearly much has to be worked out if this is to be a viable option.
Hilary and I have continued our own waterway adventures, which most recently involved
moving NB Siesta from her base of three years at Norbury Junction to new moorings at North
Kilworth on the Leicester Arm of the Grand Union. We made the cruise over two weeks to
Good Friday and enjoyed good weather for almost the whole trip. As part of the itinerary,
we included a diversion along the Ashby and this is certainly a most delightful waterway.
The new mooring will enable us to explore new cruising grounds. During the summer in July,
we have Siesta for three weeks and are planning to cruise this neck of the waterways with
a trip into Little Venice and back, maybe with a diversion down the Wendover. Perhaps
we’ll see you en route.
On a final note, this will be my last ‘Ramble’ for some time. Hilary and I are
taking a ‘pensioner’s gap year’ from the end of August. We will be going
around the globe for about eight months followed by a few months in Europe. Mel Errington
has kindly agreed to take on the Chairman’s duties while I am away, but we are still
in need of an Editor for this illustrious newsletter. Any volunteers?
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News
IWA News
Chiltern Branch Committee has reassigned duties to its members following the AGM. These
are listed on the back page.
Sculptor Appeal: The branch is to make a donation of £100 towards the restoration of this
ex-working boat at Stoke Bruerne.
Grand Junction Region: following the IWA reorganistion, this Region has been wound up and
the residual funds of £175.50 are to be distributed equally between the Wendover Arm
Trust, the Buckingham Canal Society and the Bedford and Milton Keynes Waterway Trust.
London Region: Chiltern Branch is now part of this expanded region which operated under
the Chairmanship of Roger Squires. Early indications are that this will be a positive move
for the Branch.
New IWA website: This was to have provided improved facililties for branches. Well
it’s still in the works but the existing Chiltern website has full details of our
activities
Olympic Year: We are in the London Region so we are part of it! Consideration is being
given to how we can make a coordinated participation in this once in a lifetime event.
New members: Chiltern Branch is pleased to welcome the following new members:
Mr E G Beeson, Great Kingshill
Ms H Brockman & Mr R Meteyard,
Langley
Mrs G M Gilder, Aylesbury
Mr B Pember, High Wycombe
Mr P & Mrs D Williams, Haddenham
Mr D M & Mrs C A Brennard, Aylesbury
Dr L Bugeon & Dr O Corcoran, Iver
Mr D Carden, Chalfont St Giles
British Waterways
Restructuring: BW plans to reorganize itself into 11 units and in the process eliminate
100 jobs. The boundaries of South East and London Areas are unaffected.
2020 Strategy: As reported on the front page BW has started consultation on proposals to
move the organisation into the ‘third sector’.
Moorings Policy: There are new proposals from BW, but it seems that lack of enforcement of
existing rules is a bigger issue.
South East User Meetings: The next events are on 5th October at the Mill Arts Centre in
Banbury and 8th October at the Village Hall in Foxton.
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Situations Vacant
The following positions have become available due to Peter Winter taking off for a year.
If you would like to play a more active role in the Branch please contact Peter or Mel.
Newsletter Editor
IWA Chiltern Branch seeks an editor for the Chiltern Grapevine newsletter, which is
published three times each year. The roles of creating the text copy and compiling the
document for publication could be shared between two people.
IWA Representative to WAT
This role provides the link between the IWA and the Wendover Arm Trust. It involves
attendance at WAT Council meetings and the provision of reports to IWA Restoration
Committee. This is an interesting opportunity for you!
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Ricky Cleans Up
New BW Volunteering Initiative Gets off the Ground
Volunteers from the Inland Waterways Association Chiltern Branch and the Rickmansworth
Waterways Trust, together with British Waterways and DEFRA took part in a Towpath Tidy to
tackle the problem of litter on the Grand Union Canal. The efforts by local volunteers was
part of a nationwide programme of canal clean-up events that are organised around the last
weekend in March, ahead of the main summer visitor and boating season. Towpath Tidy will
bring wildlife and environmental benefits as well as providing a welcome boost to the
year-round work carried out by British Waterways.
This however was no ordinary Towpath Tidy, because this was one of the first projects
resulting from a joint initiative rolled out by British Waterways to the Inland Waterways
Association in January 2009. The aim is for volunteer groups to work under BW supervision
to do selective maintenance work such as painting, cutting back towpath vegetation and
graffiti removal. This mans that making all the health & safety arrangements is
handled by BW. It was through the IWA that I nominated Rickmansworth to get the treatment,
and in doing so we became the partner to BW for this project.
The plan was to smarten up the area around Batchworth Lock with a coat of paint, including
the Chess Lock, the Iron Bridge and all the bollards and other canal side hardware, in
fact if it didn’t move we painted it. We also had other teams doing a towpath litter
pick from Stockers Lock to Lot Mead Lock. We had two days to do it, and make a proper job
with a rub and scrape down and two coats of paint, while dodging the showers. It was a
tall order, but the volunteers were enthusiastic and determined to finish the job, and we
did.
The project was attended by Tony Hales, BW Chairman; Jeff Whyatt BW General Manager
Southeast and Murray Geddes Business Development Manager plus other BW staff. There was
also a contingent from DEFRA headed up by Helen Gosh Permanent Secretary Chair of
Management Board.
I have done many canal clean ups in my time, but never in a month of Sundays did I ever
expect to see the BW Chairman, and the Permanent Secretary of DEFRA working alongside us
with a paint brush in their hands. In fact all the dignitaries put in a full days work and
treated it as a team building exercise.
To sum up the event, Jeff Wyatt said he was amazed how much we got done, and was very
satisfied with the result. Jeff also asked me to pass on his and British Waterways thanks
to everyone who attended the Towpath Tidy.
John Brice
Waterways Events.
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Festival Fun at Ricky
Another Success for Rickmansworth Waterways Trust
Another fantastic Rickmansworth Festival ended with a weekend enjoyed by all –
despite high winds at times meaning no Spitfire flypast as originally planned.
More than 20 bands were heard this year, both old and new. And there was a record number
of narrowboats on display too, around 120, admired by the thousands who came by. Ricky is
now widely regarded as the best boaters event in the South East.
Martin on Quisisana, the historic cruiser which took part in the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation,
was definitely kept busy with people wanting to know the boat’s story .
The vintage bus on Sunday also proved popular with frees ride on a Routemaster from the
station to Batchworth – all thanks to our friends from the London Transport Museum.
Regulars returned as always with the environment fair, Sovereign the Shire horse, the
medieval cooking, living history display and former working boat Rogerat Batchworth Lock.
The two trip boats were fully booked showing visitors the pleasure of a canal trip between
locks. And the boater’s Tug of War was its usual mayhem and mischievousness!
It was a great success overall, with thousands raised to support Rickmansworth Waterways
Trust’s schools education programme. Festival Director David Montague commented
“My heartfelt thanks go out to the dedicated team of volunteers who worked all year
and for such long hours over the weekend to make this possible. I can now hopefully now
look forward to a few more restful nights’ sleep before we start the whole cycle
again for 2010!”
The boaters competition winners were:
Boaters Tug of War: Clover (Saturday) and Kestrel (Sunday)
Longest direct journey: Flint, 140 miles and 139 locks from Alverston.
Best dressed pleasure boat: Cherie, owned by Eric and Sally Naylor
Best dressed working boat: Joint winners working tug Pacific owned by John Pattle and
restored FMC Joshua butty boat Fazeley owned by Mike Pinnock Jnr.
Most Meritorious Award for truly exceptional restoration: Lucy owned by Peter and Irene
Boyce, a partly restored wooden butty boat built by Samuel Barlow in 1952.
And IWA Chiltern Branch played its part as well, operating from the boaters tent. A raffle
for a well-stocked stocked hamper of inebriating bottles raised £485 to be split between
the Rickmansworth Waterways Trust and the Wendover Arm Trust. Meanwhile the auction of a
Buckby Can generated a further £85.
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Tring Festival
is a Scorcher
Mary Lillford reviews this year’s event
Oh thank goodness - three days of glorious weather. It was good to have the festival as it
is supposed to be, bustling with people, lots of things going on, queues at the ice cream
van and lots of lovely money changing hands.
The switch to a three day event was made in the hope that at least one day would be fine
and so I guess the additional two days of sunshine were a bonus.
The crowds estimated at over 16,000 meant that all the attractions were well attended and
business with the traders was brisk.
This year John’s Boat Jumble was ideally placed right next to the entrance to the arm
and had people rummaging through all the stuff all day every day.
We started with an amazing amount of goods, including many donations from Barry Martin as
he cleared house prior to moving to Newbury. I had been collecting all year and provided
approximately one car load. Someone asked if there was anything left in my home. The
answer is “not as much as there was”. Mind you I have already put the first item
in the box ready for next year.
Some fascinating equipment was donated including a battery operated railway lamp which was
capable of showing red/amber/green as well as a “clear” light. I am happy to
report that we were able to get a decent price for it. We had two identical large items
for sale. One which roared off the stall but the other one seemed to be unsellable. On the
last day we had a rush of blood to the brain and decided that it was not selling because
no one had cleaned it. I volunteered.... Before I had finished I had sold it!
By the end of the third day, there wasn’t that much to pack up and that meant that we
had raised a record £1016 for waterway projects.
During all this activity, the Chiltern Branch mascot (Merlin) was present and competed in
the “Have a go agility” event.. After his usual mad “corgi five
minutes” (all corgi’s do this) he settled down to complete the course and
collected a red rosette. This year I managed to take a video of him competing. This will
be on show at one of our meetings. Probably Christmas or the AGM.
Elsewhere on site, The Wendover Arm Trust Marquee was there with volunteers explaining
what the restoration was all about and work done to date. They really have done a great
deal of work this year and progress is coming on in leaps and bounds. Yet there is of
course still a great deal to do.
A new attraction this year was minibus trips to see restoration work in progress at
Drayton Beauchamp. These proved to be very popular and without exception the visitors said
that they were amazed at what was being undertaken. Mind you this meant that the
restoration volunteers had to be on their best behaviour while under the gaze of the
public!
As ever, it was particularly encouraging to see how many boats were moored along both
sides of the canal. They made a colourful show and are an integral part of the event. It
just wouldn’t be the same without the boaters.
Restoration Progress
The good weather over recent months has been a great boost to the restoration teams. Good
progress has been made at Drayton Beauchamp where the mooring bay is now complete. In
addition further sections of the bank were profiled with Bentomat lining laid on the banks
and bed.
With the help of a team from KESCRG a start was made on the mooring bay by Bridge 4.
While there is much good news, the bad news is that Trust store at Tringford Pumping
Station was broken into and several items of equipment were stolen. Hopefully,
replacements can be obtained prior to the next work parties.
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