Popular presenter Robbie Cumming and his boat Naughty Lass have recently been filming their voyage along the Ashby Canal.  Look out for the new series on BBC TV in 2024 to see how he got on.

FUND BRITAIN’S WATERWAYS CALLS ON GOVERNMENT TO STOP INLAND WATERWAYS FALLING INTO DISREPAIR

Britain’s unique and well-loved network of canals and navigable rivers is deteriorating because of inadequate funding. At a time of unprecedented challenges caused by the climate emergency and high inflation, government is failing to respond. Fund Britain’s Waterways (FBW), a coalition of organisations representing hundreds of thousands of users and supporters of inland waterways, is campaigning for national and local government to act now and protect the public benefit and natural capital of our waterways.

Management of Britain’s 5,000 miles of navigable inland waterways is fragmented. The Canal & River Trust (CRT) has the greatest responsibility covering 2,000 miles. It is already in a difficult financial situation with a fixed government grant of £52.6m per year until 2027. Defra was expected to confirm funding for 2028 onwards in July 2022 but has not yet made an announcement. Other waterways face similar problems: the Environment Agency is operating with £22m per year, one third of its identified requirement, and Scottish Canals has over £70m of maintenance work outstanding.

The consequences of failing to maintain waterway infrastructure were clearly shown by the evacuation of 1,500 local residents in case the dam at Toddbrook Reservoir collapsed in 2019. This event has shown the need for increased spend on CRT reservoirs of up to £25m per year, but it is as if the lessons have not yet been learnt.

The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the value of Britain’s inland waterways as people sought blue and green spaces to help recover. This was acknowledged in Defra’s own Environmental Improvement Plan, providing levelling up, economic, environmental, health and wellbeing benefits for us all.

The combined annual economic and social value of CRT waterways alone has been quantified as £6.1bn, including cost savings of £1.1bn for the NHS from active use of the waterways and towpaths.

Despite this greater understanding of their value, and the deteriorating state of the infrastructure today, the Government appears intent on significantly reducing its funding for the waterways, says Les Etheridge, Chair of the FBW steering group and National Chair of the Inland Waterways Association.

He said: “Government needs to recognise that saying they value the inland waterways is not enough to prevent their decline. Whilst we in FBW understand the financial pressures that everyone faces, the financial cuts are too deep, and adequate public funding needs to be allocated to maintain these national assets. FBW will be taking action starting with a campaign cruise in Birmingham over the weekend of 12-13 August 2023.”

The initial member organisations of Fund Britain’s Waterways include:

• Accessible Waterways Association, set up to inform, represent, and assist people who live with disabilities, impairments or accessibility issues, and who want to enjoy the inland waterways and their surrounding environments
• Association of Waterways Cruising Clubs, an affiliated group of boat clubs offering their members mutual facilities relating to boating on the inland waterways of England and Wales
• Basingstoke Canal Society, working to secure an environmentally sustainable long-term future of the Basingstoke Canal for the benefit of its users and the community
• Braunston Marina, a major centre for leisure craft and narrowboats at the crossroads of the Grand Union and Oxford Canals
• British Canoeing, the national governing body for paddlesports in the UK
• British Marine, trade body for the UK leisure, superyacht and small commercial marine industry, representing 1400+ member businesses, through regional and group specific member associations which include:
  • British Marine’s Inland Boating Association with over 100 independent companies offering river and canal holidays on hire boats, hotel boats, plus passenger trip boats and business services
  • British Marine’s Passenger Boat Association representing all sectors of the passenger boat industry, including scheduled transport services, pleasure trips, private & business hire
  • The Broads Hire Boat Federation including operators of holiday hire cruisers and day-hire craft on the Norfolk Broads
  • British Marine’s London and Thames Valley Regional Association which has over 250 members, of which over 80 operate their business alongside the non-tidal and tidal River Thames
• Chesterfield Canal Trust, working to promote the full restoration and appropriate development of the Chesterfield Canal, and to campaign for the construction of the Rother Valley Link, a navigable waterway to join the Chesterfield Canal to the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation
• Commercial Boat Operators Association, the prime trade organisation involved in the effort to sustain and increase freight carriage on our waterways for economic and environmental reasons
• DBA – The Barge Association, the club for people interested in leisure barging on the inland waterways of Europe
• Electric Boat Association, championing the interests of electric boat owners
• Fox Narrowboats, a long-established family business operating a marina in March in Cambridgeshire, providing narrowboat and day boat hire, and curating a comprehensive blog about Fenland waterways
• Great Ouse Boating Association, representing boaters on the rivers Great Ouse, Cam, Lark, Little Ouse, Wissey and associated East Anglian waterways of England
• Historic Narrow Boat Club, a not-for-profit national club dedicated to preserving the working heritage of UK canals, from the boats themselves to details of the waterways on which they travel
• Inland Waterways Association, the only independent, national charity dedicated to supporting and regenerating Britain’s navigable rivers and canals as places for leisure, living and business
• Kennet & Avon Canal Trust, the charity that restored the Kennet & Avon Canal which runs from Bristol to Reading and now operates 9 trip boats, including 4 for disabled passengers, and the world famous and fully operational Crofton Pumping Station
• Kennet & Avon Trade Association, a local trade association for businesses operating on the Kennet & Avon Canal
• Lowland Canals Association, aiming to promote the interests and well-being of boaters and other users of the lowland canals
• National Association of Boat Owners, listening to boat owners, speaking out for boat owners, representing boat owners
• National Inland Navigation Forum, a forum bringing together organisations with inland navigational interests
• Newbury Boat Company, a family-run marina within a Site of Special Scientific Interest on the Kennet & Avon Canal in Newbury
• Residential Boat Owners’ Association, the only national organisation which exclusively represents and promotes the interests of people living on boats in the British Isles
• Roving Canal Traders Association, a non-profit making organisation run to help support and promote the diverse array of existing and potential Canal & River Trust registered Roving Traders on our waterways
• Royal Yachting Association, the national governing body for dinghy, motor and sail cruising, all forms of sail racing, RIBs and sportsboats, windsurfing and personal watercraft, and a leading representative body for inland waterways cruising in the UK
• Thames MotorBoaters Association, representing owners of powered craft registered on the non-tidal Thames
• Torksey Yacht Club, a small club based at the junction of the Fossdyke Navigation and the River Trent at the ancient village of Torksey

with the stated intention of significantly widening membership to any organisation or individual with an interest in using or supporting inland waterways whether canal, river, tidal river or estuary (excluding navigation authorities).

We now have our new footpath route published on the OS Maps website for anyone wishing to walk the route. It is roughly 2.5 miles either way and should take around an hour at average walking speed in either direction. A nice 5 mile/2hr round trip.

https://explore.osmaps.com/en/route/11164008/Ashby-Canal-Trail

If you require any further information please feel free to ask any questions on our Facebook page.

Tom M., aka Droney Maloney, is resident on the Ashby Canal and has taken these atmospheric photos with his quad copter camera. You can see more of Tom’s work on the Ashby Canal Association Friends Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/210818989100866

The below photo shows the route that the new footpath will take from the top end of Ilott Wharf (where the restoration route diverges from the original route) heading into Measham.

The first part runs from the towpath, past the winding hole at the current terminus of navigation then continues to follow the old canal line up to the Gilwiskaw brook (site of the future aqueduct). The Ilott Wharf site starts the other side of the brook.

The red line is the proposed route of the new footpath (roughly following the canal restoration route) and the yellow line is where it intersects with an existing public footpath from Measham.

It will ensure that walkers have a safe, clear route between Snarestone & Measham with just one road to cross and none to walk along (aside from on the pavement over the road bridge running across the brook) and will give the public a better idea of where the canal will run in the future.

As part of a series of walks through The National Forest, local residents Carol and Richard Higgott, have made a series of entertaining and informative short films tracing the route of the Ashby Canal between Moira and Shackerstone.

You can access their footage here:

Only a small number of supporters have been members of the IWA for fifty years or more. The ACA is a corporate member and this is reflected by a logo on our letterhead.

As a thank you for our support, and in recognition of our loyalty, the ACA has received a commemorative gold-coloured plaque in celebration of this anniversary.

Both the IWA and the ACA have changed in many ways since their inception, but at heart both parties continue to ensure the protection and restoration of our waterways for our future generations to enjoy.

The ACA looks forward to continuing to support the IWA over the coming years.

The Ilott Wharf Project

For the last 2 years the ACA has been working on the Archaeology and Social History of Ilott Wharf which is on the line of the Ashby Canal, just west of where the Gilwiskaw Aqueduct once stood.

Through the generosity of Lottery players we were given a grant of £10,000, to which we added £1000 of our own money. We have also put in many hours of voluntary work.

The purpose of the project was to find out what state the underground remains of the structures at the Wharf are in, with a view to possible future archaeology excavations before the canal is restored through the site. We also did a social history investigation: who lived there, what their lives were like, and what did they do on this industrial canal site.

What did we find? Basically, because of repeated destruction and vandalism on the site, there were no remains underground which would justify excavations. We used state of the art geophysics investigations: LIDAR, magnetometry and ground radar. Whilst disappointing, this result means that we can now go ahead with restoration.

In fact, there was one small corner of the site near the level crossing on Bosworth Road where we found some remains of walls and a street lamp, so ACA members and others were able to do some supervised archaeology.

The social history investigation was also successful. We traced several people who lived on the site in both the houses there. Amazingly, we managed to identify two people from the same family who lived there 60 years ago and had completely lost touch after the site was demolished in the 1960s after which the occupants went their different ways. Just like “This is your life”!

We have a film of some of the findings on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OtQJVfg2d_g

These are some of the photos which show what we did:

This is a map of the site a few years before the closure of Ilott wharf. You can see that the left arm of the canal had already been dewatered in the 1950s when Measham town lost its stretch of canal.

The lads putting up the sign at the car park at Ilott wharf. They had previously scrapped the car park so it could be used again.

The chute at Ilott wharf in about 1965, just before demolition and dewatering of the canal back to Snarestone Wharf. The trains from Measham Mine were backed up on the siding, and men shovelled the coal into narrowboats moored on the canal.

The engine used to pull the coal wagons crossing Bosworth Road just west of the old coaching inn.

Referring to the previous steam engine photo, Peter Oakden is seen here having excavated the base of the street lamp, with even the electricity cable sticking out of it.

Trains crossing the fields coming from Measham Mine (on the horizon), heading towards Ilott Wharf.

In 1965 the canal was dewatered. Just before it happened the Ashby Canal Association was formed in order to try to stop the closure. Sadly, the ACA failed, but one of the protests was by “Prince” seen here at Ilott Wharf, having just passed the gauging station.

This house, one of two at Ilott Wharf, had been a coaching inn on the Measham to Bosworth route. It was demolished in 1965. It belonged to the Coal Board and the last occupant was a manager from the mine.

The house in the background was the Ilott House which belonged to the Midland Railway Company, which also owned the canal. The little black shed in front of it was the tally shed where canal records were kept. Also shown are the loaded wagons on the raised siding and boats waiting to be filled.

This is a view from the east side of the aqueduct looking towards the gauging station. This was around 1965 and Ilott House had already been knocked down. Margaret Goodwin, the last tenant, remembers, that whilst they liked living there, the house had no electricity or running water. It was condemned as unfit.

Another view taken at around the same time. Ilott House has been demolished. The dilapidated tally hut is still there, as is the greenhouse seen in front of the tree.

Life on the Wharf

Although life was hard, there was fun to be had for children. In the background, there is a train on the siding, and the coal shute can be seen on the far left.

Margaret and Brian Goodwin outside Ilott House 60 years ago.

The Goodwins at Ilott wharf. The gauging station is in the background. They borrowed the canoe from Bill Bradford, the local carpenter and undertaker, who lived at Bosworth Grange just east of the aqueduct.

A trio of rare photographs, which were recently posted on the Facebook page, have been presented to the ACA. They show views of Measham and its close relationship to the canal, whilst it was still in water.

A short story by the late Tom Henshaw is now available to buy  at the shop in Snarestone Wharf, or by post.

The book is a 28 page paperback and all profits made will go towards the restoration of the Ashby Canal.

The paperback costs £3.50 + £1.00 p&p. It can be bought in person at the shop, or by card over the phone by contacting Michael Wooding on 07805 602618.

Front Cover