Starting the Big Clearup

Over the last few years through various difficulties such as not having enough volunteers, me having health problems and then the covid pandemic, certain areas of the WCBS have got into a mess. It's now time to make them unmessy! A big clear up is in order, particularly at the boatyard and aboard "Elton".

Poor "Elton" has always been the Cinderella of our fleet and when we didn't have enough time to sort out the metals collected on recycling trips etc, they  got dumped into "Elton"s hold. The idea was that they'd get sorted when we had time, but somehow that time was never found. A couple of times "Elton" sank and the additional sludge left after each inundation didn't make the job look any more attractive.

We decided to set up a working party to get it cleared, and the date selected was today.

At about 9 AM I extracted "Elton" from her place in the museum arm and shafted her across the canal. I tied her right next to the junction where we could work on the bank without risking conflict with passing towpath users.

Joe, the tree surgeon, was visiting from deepest Cumbria and, having been warned about the task in hand, brought some appropriate tools. At first it was just me and Joe. I bagged up aluminium cans in the boat and handed to Joe any items that needed stripping down. We bagged up separately the different categories of metal.

Soon Aaron arrived, then Kim. They took over working in the boat, Joe carried on stripping metal. I was kept busy carrying full bags of metal over the bridge to the trailer and advising on the different grades.


As the light began to dim we started to tidy up. We'd made a good big hole in the pile aboard "Elton", though plenty remained. I think we'll need two more sessions to completely clear it. There was little room to spare in the trailer. On Monday it will all be weighed in, along with more bags of aluminium cans that have been donated by the towpath litter picking teams.

I shafted "Elton" back into her place in the last of the daylight. Every scrap from the bank had been cleared away.

To my mind recycling is something that we all need to be doing as part of our duty to look after the planet that sustains us. We need a shift in attitude. So many people still see the things that they no longer need as so much rubbish that they just want to be rid of. In fact, much of it is valuable material that can be recycled so that less new stuff has to be ripped out of the Earth.

"Elton" is our youngest boat, having been built at Rickmansworth in 1937 for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company, mostly running between London and the midlands carrying a wide range of loads. As the Cinderella of our fleet she needs a Prince (or Princess) Charming to look after her and spruce her up. If you would like to volunteer for this role please get in touch via the comments.


Restarting work on "Southam"

"Southam" is one of our younger boats, built by Walkers of Rickmansworth as a butty in 1936. She finished carrying work in 1962 and in 1965 was motorised and converted. She had a second life as a pleasure boat and residential craft until she sank on Braunston Puddle Banks in 1992. We bought her off British Waterways who had raised her and taken her to Hillmorton, where she sank again. After carrying out some repairs she housed a series of live in caretakers and did lots of work towing on recycling trips and on an epic trip to Lincoln to collect timber for "Hazel".

Various repairs have been carried out over the years. She's the best of our unrestored boats. In 2019 we replaced most of one side. 2020 was supposed to be the year when we sorted out the falling apart cabin, but because of that nasty virus, 2020 didn't really happen.

The engine fitted in 1965, a 3.8 litre BMC Commodore, was pretty much worn out, but a similar engine, hardly used.  was donated by Tameside College. Stephan, our engineer has rebuilt it and transferred the marinising parts.

Now work has slowly restarted on the boat. Nessie has been armour plating the stern end ready to receive the engine.



This will give the stern end the strength to carry on until we have the resources to rebuild it.

Today I went off in "Namaste" the trusty Land Rover to Whiteheads timber reclamation yard, on Coalpit Lane in Bardsley. I prefer to use reclaimed timber, partly to avoid waste, but also because it's often better than new stuff. I had a long chat with the boss who, like everyone else and his dog it seems, is thinking of moving on to a boat.

They hadn't got much in but I managed to get these excellent boards for cabin building.



Because there's so much else to do it will probably take a long time to get "Southam" up and running. When she is back in service she'll be able to give "Forget me Not" a rest from towing "Hazel" and "Lilith", She'll be able to provide accomodation for volunteers who want to stay and will be able to fly the WCBS flag at waterway events. One possibility is to kit her out as a floating craft shop. All we need now is time, money and skilful volunteers.