43 Oaks Drive, Colchester,
Essex CO3 3PS

E-mail: alan-faulkner at lineone.net

In the EASTERLING February 2010 issue...
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AGM Sunday 18th April 2010. Sunday 18 April saw the officers and a party of members of the Association take to the train, as a prelude to the annual meeting which, this year, was held based on the Nene Valley Railway at Wansford Station, off the A.1 road north of Peterborough. Whilst the river Nene is alongside the railway here, sadly there was no possibility of a trip boat being available. Instead members boarded the 11.50am train and after a short delay to hitch on a steam locomotive to the rear of the carriages, a diesel engine towed the train westwards through a tunnel to Yarwood Junction. The diesel was detached and the steam engine now took over and we returned eastwards through the tunnel first to Wansford and then along the line to Ferry Meadows, Orton Mere and Peterborough NVR stations. This takeover drill was necessary as the railway is not allowed to push the carriages but must always tow them from the front.

At Peterborough the steam engine No 73050 appropriately named "City of Peterborough" ran around to the front of the train and hauled us back to Wansford in time for a preordered lunch served aboard a railway coach positioned alongside the main station building. After the meal everyone repaired to an upstairs room for the formal AGM, which was accompanied by an illustrated account of the work on the North Walsham and Dilham Canal. During the proceedings we were delighted that both Michael Lyons, a long standing member of the Middle Level Watermen's Club, and Christopher Black, one of the leaders of the NW work parties, were elected as new directors of the Association. At the same time we were sorry to have to announce that Leslie Heaton has given up his directorship having served for over 40 years, firstly on the committee of the original unincorporated association, and subsequently as a director of the present company. The business of the AGM over, we moved on to a meeting of the Council to which everyone was invited to stay. Whilst discussing the Fens Waterways Link, Ivan Cane gave an illustrated presentation showing some of the problems that need to be overcome to create the link between the South Forty Foot River and the river Glen and reporting on his recent trip on the Glen. And the need to safeguard the course of the route to the east of Peterborough through to the river Nene was highlighted and included the logic of using Car Dyke as part of the route.

SLEAFORD: Construction of the new slipway at Eastgate Green in Sleaford, where an old loop in the navigation re-joined th Slea, began in 1 February, made good progress and there is to be a grand opening ceremony on Saturday 3 July.

A trip boat is being borrowed to enable the Slea Navigation Trust to offer short journeys on the isolated stretch of the river as part of the celebrations. At the same time the new hydraulically-operated lifting bridge will be also formally opened. Although largely installed installed at the end of last year some modification were needed to ensure it operated properly and these snags had been sorted out by the end of March enabline it to be operated more easily. This all reflects great credit on the SNT.

GREAT OUSE: Significant Improvements have been carried out at Willington Lock where new upsteam and downstream landing stages have been installed, whilst there is a new upstream stage at Castle Mills. These stages have been constructed to a high standard with a estimated lifespan of 50 years, and have galvanised steel frames and piles, non-slip mesh decking and ramps rather than steps. Elsewhere the guillotine gates at both Bramton and Offord have been refurbished. New actuators, which control the operation of the gates, and new gearboxes, chain sprockets, bearing and shafts have been fitted.

PROMOTING THE BROADS: On 23rd February the largest campaign ever to promote the Broads as a leading tourist destination was launched at the Boat and Caravan Show at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. The Broads Authority joined forces with the Broads Tourism Group and using the slogan "Enjoy the Broads" a record 175,000 copies of a glossy 24-page brochure has been designed to attract holidaymakers and this is being widely distributed. Since then it has been announced that 500,000 Euros of European funding has been made available to promote green tourism on the Broads over the next three years. An immediate benefit will be the launch of the Broads Authority's new tourism website ( www.enjoythebroads.com ). Other areas will improrving interpretation and visitor facilties between Ludham Bridge and How Hill, the establishment of a conservation fund to which visitors will be encouraged to contribute to fund enhancement products, an increase of the the number of of electric charging points points and the promotion of the Green Tourism Business Scheme.

SWAFFHAM BULBECK LODE: The picture would appear to indicate the boat proceeded some way up the lode, but in fact the picture is a spoof as the Environment Agency's alterations to the top gate prevented it being raised more than a few inches, thus prohibiting boats from using this statutory navigation. The lode is some 3¼ miles long with no other lock apart from at the entrance. Two footbridges, a former railway bridge and a pipeline cross before Cow Bridge carrying a road in Swaffham Bulbeck reached. The lode, which finishes at Commercial End in the village, was first recorded in 1279 but is probably Roman in origin. The Tuesday Night Club also visited Bottisham Lode and we will include pictures of this trip in our next issue. The club seem to concentrate on visiting as many of the little known and little used waterways as possible. For some reason, however, they appeared not to know about Soham Lode, as this was not mentioned in their report.

NORTH WALSHAM AND DILHAM CANAL: At Ebridge the situation has been transformed in that the dredger WEASEL has started from just north of the mill pond with the intention of dredging right through to Bacton Wood. At present the mill pond has not been touched, due to the lack of a site to deposit the dredgings. The machine has been purchased by the Old Canal Company from a marina operator and was originally owned by the British Waterways Board. It took 13 hours to get the machine to Wayford Bridge as it has not got a very powerful engine but once there it was lifted onto a low loader and taken to Ebridge. Here, in a two-stage operation made necessary by the need to avoid the power cables, a 70-ton crane lifted it into a prepared hole, ready to start work.

ETC.

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