Working Party Updates

Margaret has been a stalwart throughout last year and this. Here, she can be seen keeping the reed shoots at bay. Paul tried throwing the v-shaped blade contraption reporting that it definitely worked well but you need to be Geoff Capes to claim it is easy to use!

The following session on Easter Monday Robert, David, Howard and Margaret helped by throwing the v-shaped blades which cut the new emerging reed shoots.

The next step is to tow the blade from the back of a boat, or at least use a boat to place it in the water without creating a splash. It is meant to sink to the bottom and cut close to the bed, often bringing up shoots which can't be seen from the surface. Fingers crossed this works!

It's been some time since we updated this page with working party information. However, things have been continuing with gusto. Much reed has been moved since the Truxor came to cut down reeds along the stretch at the top end of Lady Bay. The Grantham Canal Society helped us enormously too, by coming to cut down an overgrown Hawthorne Tree. Included here are a series of photos from the past few sessions. Thanks again to Paul Abel for organising and to the fantastic volunteers!

The article was featured on the Rushcliffe Borough Council Facebook page. Included here is the text:

Canal & River Trust received a grant to support a project clearing reeds that are dominating parts of the Grantham Canal in West Bridgford, improving water flow and enhancing habitats for wildlife. 🦆🐞
Due to access issues, clearance was not able to take place in Lady Bay last spring. We’re pleased this has now been rectified and reed clearance now underway.
The restoration works follow on from the great work done by local group WeBCan and local residents over the winter.

Paul Abel reported that the Truxor digging for the Norfolk Reed rhizomes earlier today had left lot of pieces of rhizome which are now embedded in the blanket weed on the bottom. He suggests that this is going to be very heavy to pull out, but the Truxor’s visit will help keep a clear channel through the centre of the canal.

Since the beginning of last June, Paul Abel has now organised a staggering 49 work parties!
Yesterday's gathering was exceptionally successful. Verity, Ursula, Pam & Jezz, Penny, Margaret, Cath, Patricia and Ken managed to fill & float 21 of the new bags from the towpath over to the offside - many thanks to them all.

We regularly receive positive comments from walkers on the canal about the gains made so far. However, there is still a lot to do and we will need regular maintenance parties moving forward. If you feel you could give an hour or two of your time to help improve the canal, please do get in touch with Paul Abel either by calling him on +44 7973 169820‬‬‬ or email workparties@icloud.com

Sue & Richard got to work on the culvert near Radcliffe Road Cycles this Sunday, while the larger team worked upstream clearing and bagging waste using our new (and may I say) super duper bags. The progress made was quite staggering by both parties.

Report from Richard:
We managed to get the water flowing through the culvert after removing a lot of litter as well as natural vegetation and silt. You can't really see from the photos, but there was a full bag of plastic debris and broken glass, etc. including a mudguard and a trainer, and another of unbroken glass bottles, aluminium cans, and other metal. All to be recycled. This included 2 old returnable milk bottles, one from the Co-op, which will be washed and go on our doorstep, and the other the taller, much older design. Also, some very old cans with separate ring pulls. Hopefully, we created a channel to prevent it all going in again. Thanks to Radcliffe Road Cycles for the bin bags.

Two working sessions were held last weekend. One at Rutland Road on Saturday where more clearance of weeds was undertaken. The boat served us well and is proving to be an asset. Everyone got stuck in clearing floating reeds from the water and the results are outstanding. Sunday saw another good turnout working further up the canal. Although very cold, it was great to have so many willing volunteers on both occasions and our gratitude cannot be expressed enough.
Thanks also go to Jezz Richings for arranging sponsorship from Permarock for our new collection bags. They certainly look the part and we can't wait to use them!

Having noticed an amount of rubbish, trolleys and such being dumped in the canal, Mike, Ruth & Blue, the dog spent a couple of hours with a grappling hook dragging out unwanted items from Eltham Road end up as far as Morrisons.

Undeterred by the weather, Paul, Margaret, Penny, Les and others made great progress clearing huge swathes of reed mace along the top end of Lady Bay.

Hurrah! Inflatable up and raring to go - it allowed us to quickly clear the channel of Norfolk Reed today. Thanks to Cath, Pam & Jez, Margaret, Stic, Howard, Steve & Verity & Les.

More than anticipated turned out for the working party this Sunday, which was great considering the forecast of rain and wind. Thankfully, the rain held off for the most part and three separate groups took on different areas of the canal bank along Lady Bay.

Paul had hoped to launch the boat, but an incorrect adapter to inflate it, put paid to that idea. Never one to be thwarted, Paul soon found one and later sent us the phot you see of him here.

Sometimes we don't always appreciate the work we have done, but the final photo (courtesy of Brenda Baxter) shows the swans enjoying the canal. Not being too sure of where about this photograph was taken, I asked her and was thrilled to see it was at the entrance to the canal at Gamston Bridge. It really does look tidier and the swans are clearly loving it too!

A small group today- many thanks to David, Cath & Howard. This area used to be a favourite for nesting swans before the brambles took over the bank. If we keep it clear of brambles, hopefully the swans will nest here again.

This Sunday saw intrepid volunteers getting into deep water on the canal at Lady Bay to clear a huge amount of reeds that were floating in the water in readiness of leak investigations which Paul Abel is undertaking. Paul spends many hours researching ways, means and methods of stabilising the water levels and we hope to bring you more news on this in the near future.

Thanks to Penny, Les, Richard, Margaret, Verity, Steve, Stic (and Bear the dog!).