November 3-5, 2023
“Shropshire has supposedly had the wettest October for 120 years. But unlike Canute, we just about succeeded in holding back the water during this month’s work party”, said project manager Tom Fulda.
“Parts of the channel typically starts filling with water in December or January. Not so this year. But thanks to pumping during the week before and throughout the work party, first with one, then two and eventually three pumps, we managed to keep this area dry enough for activities to continue. ‘Dry’ would be a misnomer – though more of that later. This report starts with the results of the water testing carried out last month.”
As has previously been reported, the testing established that some form of waterproofing will be required in certain areas but possibly not all the way as the other test area did hold water. Repairs to the channel bank in August appear to have been successful and there was no leakage past the embankment. The results will be reviewed with CRT and the design and specification finalised with the aim of commencing channel restoration works early in the new year.
- Removing clay dams for future reuse.
- Completed wharf wall.
With the decommissioning of the water tests and the removal of the three clay dams it once more cleared the channel for machine operation, so it was full steam ahead to remove the surplus stone and generally clear the area ready for the coping stones to be placed onto the newly repaired wall.
Many of the existing coping stones can be reused but a good number have degraded and generally disintegrated over the centuries so replacement, hand-tooled copings have been sourced, funded by a generous grant from the Association for Industrial Archaeology. One stretch was completed but a further 70 metres remains, and this will now wait till next year when water levels in this part of the channel once again become manageable.
One of several activities planned for the winter is hedge laying and in preparation, a quantity of dead wood (saplings and small trees) was removed from the hedge to the bonfire area and piled around the stump ready for future burning.
We are always looking for new volunteers and members. Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer or just finding out more should see shropshireunion.org.uk for details, dates and contacts.
Any donation you can make will help restoration efforts.
