The Cameras Never Stopped Rolling.

It has been some time since my last blog, this is due to a really heavy workload of filming.   It is not only the blog that has been neglected, there are a hundred and one jobs that need to be finished at home and the car is begging for some TLC.   But the cameras never stopped rolling!

Over the last few months a great deal of my time has been spent on the North Walsham and Dilham canal. The progress on the waterway has been nothing short of astounding.  Since my last blog in June 2016 two of the spillways have been restored and the lower gates at Bacton Wood lock have been manufactured and installed.   Each gate weighs a little over four tons and is built to tolerance of a few millimetres, quite an achievement in itself.

Gates being manufactured

Gates being lifted into position

The gate project took nine months from manufacture to installation.   There are still outstanding tasks to be completed before the gates are in full working order.   But more of this later.

Restoring the Ebridge spillway was another major project running through the summer of 2017.  The spillway was completely over- grown until it was re-discovered in 2005.  This work has had to wait twelve years until The Old Canal Company and the NW&D canal volunteers were able to begin the restoration work.   For two weeks in August the Waterways Recovery Group set up a summer camp to assist with the project. The recovery group travel all over the country to work on canals. 
The entire project took four months to complete.

Trust volunteers installing the spillway timber frames

Waterways Recovery Group laying bricks

Over the last twelve months literally thousands of tons of sub soil have been tipped along a two mile stretch of the canal to consolidate the banks.  Some of this essential work was concentrated on the dry section between Royston bridge and Pigney's wood.  
In spite of the wettest December for years, which produced the most appalling working conditions, the banks were completed in time for a visit from BBC TV.  The crew recorded the re-watering event giving the canal some very welcome publicity.

A dumper with a load of subsoil

The JCB consolidating the bank at Pigney's wood..

Films of all three projects are being shown at the Atrium theatre.
Spencer Avenue, North Walsham. 7.00pm. April 24th 2018. 
Every body welcome!

In my next blog I intend to re-visit these projects in more detail.

No Time To Blog.

What happened to summer?
I can remember the Easter holiday quite clearly that is when I planted my potatoes. Elated by the thought that spring had arrived and the whole English summer stretched out before me.
 Next thing I know it is October and our British winter is beckoning.
There is nothing wrong with winter for it brings - fantastic brittle light -   sunlight on frost covered trees and winter visitors on the wing.   This is all very well but what of my missing summer.  For the most part my time was devoted to the North Walsham and Dilham canal and "Hathor's" restoration programme.  Both these major projects kept me occupied for three or four days most weeks.

Springtime on the canal - Brrrr.

Hathor's restoration took precedence over all the other current film projects as the June deadline loomed.  The closing stages, the work became so intense there were occasions when I put the camera down and helped out with some of the more unskilled tasks.  There are small parts of  "Hathor's" varnished interior that allows me to puff out my little chest and proudly say "I did that bit."

Hathor was on the slipway for eight months while her hull was restored then a further ten months in the wet shed for interior renovation.
All things considered the double DVD set  covers the wherry's restoration fairly comprehensively.
From "Hauling out", steaming planks, constructing the new rudder and restoring her interior cabins.

The production opens with a brief history of the vessel's design and ends with the re-launch and blessing at How Hill, "Hathor's" spiritual home. 

Although I am reasonably satisfied with the final result I was quite relieved when the project was completed.  Although probably not as relieved as the staff at Wherry Yacht Charter who had spent two years with my camera in their faces.

Repairing "Hathor's" Hull

The DVDs are now on sale, they can be purchased in Norwich from the City Bookshop, in Davey Place.   Or via http://bigskyuk.weebly.com/dvds-for-sale.html       All profits will go toward maintaining "Hathor."

Boats Return To North Walsham and Dilham.

"Never thought I would ever see that again." stated a visitor to the North Walsham and Dilham canal open day as he watched a little sailing dinghy tack in front of Ebridge mill.   

The event was organised by the North Walsham and Dilham Canal Trust on Sunday July 27th and 28th 2013.  Giving an insight into the possibilities this priceless slice of Norfolk heritage has to offer.

The little wooden sailing dinghy reminiscent of the "Swallows and Amazons" era, created a view of a peaceful bygone age, caught in the ripples of the mill pool.

"Swallows and Amazons"

Just before mid-day the "Hoi Larntan" arrived and was launched from the canal bank.  "Hoi Larntan" is a skiff,  built in Thurning near Wood Dalling.

"Hoi Larntan"

She was launched at Blakeney in May this year in time for the Skiff World Championships in Ullapool.  The Coastal Rowing Association brought the skiff for a training session in the still waters of of the canal at Ebridge.

Skiff and Dinghy at Ebridge

"Hoi Larntan" is Norfolk dialect to describe a really good boat or skipper - it was also used as a derogatory term for someone who was too big for their boots.  

Both these boats can be seen sailing at Ebridge from the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnbcmT0nzPE

Visit the North Walsham and Dilham Canal Trust new site  http://nwdct.org/index.html

Learn more about the "Hoi Larntan"    http://crablakeney.wordpress.com/

The End Of Briggate Mill.

The remains of the old mill at Briggate have now faded into history and another small chunk of Norfolk heritage has been lost.  A variety of plans to convert and use the mill were put forward over the years but sadly none of them came to fruition and no reprieve for Briggate mill was forthcoming.   On October 30th this year the granary was demolished.

The End For Briggate Mill

Corn was first ground at Briggate mill in 1793, the early mill was powered by a breast shot water wheel (the wheel was removed in 1943). 
In it's two-hundred year history the mill was modified and altered many times, the original granary was destroyed by fire in 1890 and was replaced by the building which was recently demolished.  In the same year steam became the motive power which was eventually superseded by electricity.
Production ceased in 1969 and the mill changed hands a few times until it was purchased for redevelopment in 1975.   Six months after the purchase Briggate mill was destroyed by a suspicious fire.

As recently as 1983 it was proposed to redevelop the mill to generate electricity and produce paper.  But the project never got beyond the planning stage. 

Since the new millennium the mill site has survived an an attempted "land grab" and it has also been rejected as the site for a village green.   Conversion to a village green would have been a fitting memorial for the old mill instead of simply reducing it to rubble.

Falling Masonry

An early morning phone call on the 30th of October (2012) tipped me off that the old granary was being demolished.  This was confirmed on the local radio station by sounds of falling masonry.   My toast was abandoned in the toaster and a mug of tea was left steaming on the kitchen table.  Cameras and equipment were loaded in a matter of minutes and I was on my way to Briggate.  Since following the activities of the North Walsham and Dilham Canal Trust, Briggate mill has formed an imposing  backdrop to that section of the canal.  To watch it being slowly erased from the landscape in the morning mist was quite a sad spectacle.  The entire sorry episode was captured on film.

The End Of The Granary

These type of events need to be viewed with perspective - and to do this it is necessary to remove the "rose tinted" spectacles.  The granary building had become, without doubt, an unsafe structure and needed some urgent attention.  The granary was, in fact, only built in 1890 after the original granary was burned down.  A mere one-hundred-and-twenty years, which is not a great age for a building.  It was, however, a link to the ruins of the original mill, parts of which still survive - for the moment.

To learn more about the very colourful and intriguing history of Briggate mill visit the excellent "Norfolk Mills" site. http://www.norfolkmills.co.uk/Watermills/briggate.html

The North Walsham and Dilham. Part two.

Like a vision from a Jerome K. Jerome novel, three men, a canoe and a camera set off from Wayford Bridge  to explore the North Walsham and Dilham canal and paddle up to Honing lock.   Dragonflies and Swallows swooped low over the water ahead of the canoe as we made our way into the main channel.  By sheer good fortune we had picked a perfect day for our trip during  the wettest June for thirty years, bright sunlight with just a hint of a following breeze .

To see a video of our trip along the canal click here.

Great tracts of the North Walsham and Dilham canal have remained derelict and untouched for years since the last wherry traded there in the 1930's.  As nature has encroached and reclaimed the banks and water margins only small craft  are able to navigate the waterway.  This splendid isolation has created a semi wilderness and provided a truly memorable journey for those prepared to make the effort.    The canal still has a generous width at the Wayford end with enough depth to allow cruisers up to the staithe at Dilham.  Fork right (or starboard) at the Dilham turn and the old canal sets off toward Honing, Briggate, Ebridge and Bacton Wood.  Built almost two hundred years ago the canal served the mills along its nine miles.    When it was first opened the canal reached as far Swafield and Antingham but this section was abandoned and de-watered  in 1893.   Currently the only navigable sections are between Wayford Bridge and Honing lock, with a recently opened section from Ebridge mill to Spa Common.

Wayford Bridge

 Our plan was to paddle from Wayford Bridge to the lock at Honing a popular trip for canoeists and the most accessible.   For the first mile or so the canal is fairly wide with overhanging trees, in spite of this prolific canopy  the canal flows beneath an open sky.  Lush green trees confused with blue sky and white clouds reflected in the water and rippled past the canoe as we headed west.   Fallen trees floated out  into the water anchored to the banks by their roots, there was ample clearance to pass them by on these wider sections of the canal.

Fallen trees anchored by their roots.

There are very few man made features along the this stretch of the canal, once the noise of traffic is left behind at Wayford bridge there is a sense of remoteness, of glorious isolation.   We were travelling back in time to the days of the wherries where no clocks or timetables held sway, only wind and tide. 

Our little canoe glided over the water toward Tonnage bridge where a toll keepers cottage once stood.  Every cargo on the canal had to pay tolls at this point with few exceptions.   The original Tonnage bridge collapsed in 1980 but was rebuilt in 1982 with a grant from the Broads Authority. 

Tonnage Bridge

 "Tonnage Long Reach" so named by the early watermen is the stretch of water leading up to Tonnage bridge.  This is a particularly picturesque section of the canal, it was like paddling through a John Constable landscape complete with long horned highland cattle wallowing in the shallows.   It is not difficult to understand why there is resistance to parts of the canal being renovated, who would want to share this idyllic stretch of waterway with the chattering masses if they did not have to?

Onward beyond Tonnage bridge great floating rafts of water-lily's slip beneath our canoe. Lush reed beds line the banks punctuated by overhanging tree branches that gently break the surface of the still water.
The canal winds through open country passing lush, rolling pastures.  Crows call out from a distant wood while a host of dragonflies fly alongside us, the only sounds are birdsong and the rippling water flowing out behind the paddles - priceless!

Around half distance the canal begins to narrow dramatically, the encroaching reed beds grow tall on both banks and threaten to choke the channel.   Decaying trees line the margins their skeletal remains stand stark against the sky.   The breadth of the canal recedes until there is barely enough room to continue.  The reeds stand taller than our canoe, whispering to us as they chafe the gunwale of our little craft as we push through   them.   

The Canal Narrows Dramatically

The channel is so narrow we begin to wonder if we will  be able to complete the trip.  Then to our relief the waterway begins to open out again. Small patches of  foam drift downstream warning us that Honing lock is ahead.  As we get closer to the lock the sound of rushing water grows louder and louder and the surface becomes increasingly turbulent.    Around one last bend and the old lock hoves into sight ending what has been a really enjoyable paddle.

Honing Lock

The impressions and views expressed in this article are solely my own and may differ to the views of  land owners and other interested parties along this beautiful canal.

 

The North Walsham and Dilham Canal. Part One.

Eighteen months ago I knew very little about the North Walsham and Dilham canal.  It was merely by chance that I stumbled on the EAWA website and saw a notice asking the volunteers to meet at Briggate mill for one of their fortnightly work parties   I thought it would be a good idea take a camera along and see what was going on.  I expected to see a handful of people in wellington boots armed with shovels and forks.   What I did not expect to see were two excavators and a hydraulic tipping dumper, all of them on caterpillar tracks.  By the time I arrived, at about ten o'clock, every machine and volunteer was industriously beavering away.    The task for the day was to continue excavating the old Briggate mill pool, work which had been started many months before.   The chain saws whined as they cut through the fallen trees that blocked the channel where wherries had once moored.  The excavators removed the tree stumps and widened the channel. This was surgery of a serious kind.  It has to be said the area was very boggy and cut up quite badly,  it was this unedifying spectacle that had alarmed some local people.  Now twelve months on the scars have healed and the area is a picture of peace and tranquillity - a beautiful spot to just sit and relax.  The whole place is alive with wildlife, the star turn are undoubtedly the pair of Egrets who fish there regularly. 

                                                             Snowy Egret
                    ( Photograph courtesy of Mike Baird - creative commons licence.)


Click the link below if you would like to see a video of the Egret fishing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rrANidG0hQ&feature=plcp

Before 1810 the river Ant was only navigable as far as Dilham but on May 5th 1812 an act of parliament allowed the river to be canalised.   However work did not begin until 1825 and the canal was not formally opened until 29th August 1826.   The waterway was nine miles long from Dilham to Swaffield boasting six locks which raised the water level by some fifty eight feet.  Each lock was designed to allow wherries to pass through them providing their maximum dimensions did not exceed fifty feet in length, twelve feet six inches in  beam and a draught of no more than three feet when laden.      The water source for the canal came from the Antingham ponds but there was never quite enough and there was constant friction between the Mill owners and wherrymen who both felt their need of the available water was the greater..

Freight on the canal included  flour, grain and bone-meal being transported from the mills along the canal to the port of Great Yarmouth. Building materials, manure and marl were brought in the opposite direction.  Coal never became the lucrative cargo that the share-holders of the canal had hoped it would be.   Colliers continued to unload coal on the beaches at Happisburgh and Cromer and from there it was brought overland by horse drawn waggons denying the canal significant income.

Tolls for all freight carried on the North Walsham and Dilham were collected at Tonnage bridge.  The bridge  collapsed in 1980 but was replaced true to its original design in 1982 with the help of a grant from the Broads authority.



Attempts were made to improve trade on the canal with the introduction of pleasure boating.
Edward Press a miller at Bacton Wood, (who later bought the canal),  owned  five wherries he converted some of them  to pleasure wherries and operated them out of his yard at Ebridge.

Ebridge Today

It was the East Norfolk Railway that signalled the beginning of the decline in the canal's fortunes when the line from Norwich to North Walsham was opened in 1874.   As a direct result of  diminishing returns the section of canal from Swafield lock to Antingham was abandoned in 1893.  Buried in Swafield church  is the grave of  Jack Gedge skipper of the "Gleaner". His headstone is inscribed "the last wherryman", he died in 1989 aged one hundred, a gentle reminder of the halcyon days on the canal.

Jack Gedges Headstone at Swafield

 The canal has changed hands many times, one of the most notable was the purchase by Edward Press who paid £600 for the canal in 1886.  A lawyer named James Turner was appointed to pay off the shareholders but he decided to keep the money for himself and absconded with the funds.
 
The North Walsham and Dilham escaped the great flood of August 1912 with relatively little damage , unlike the Aylsham navigation which was totally wiped out as a navigable waterway.   For the NW&D the only notable flood damage was a major breach in the bank at Bacton Wood and part of the road was washed into the canal at Ebridge.   None of the flood damage was severe enough to halt trade on the canal although the breach at Bacton Wood was never repaired successfully as there were never sufficient funds due to falling revenue.

Honing Staithe Today

 In 1921 Cubbitt and Walker bought the canal and formed the North Walsham canal company.
Trade continued on the North Walsham and Dilham - day books from 1923 show that six wherries hauled 2,300 tons of  grain and fertiliser.     By 1931 only one wherry was left trading on the canal, the "Ella", she completed 83 trips and moved 1,600 tons.  In 1934 "Ella" left Bacton Wood with a cargo of barley,  the very last load ever carried on the North Walsham and Dilham.
("Ella" was the last trading wherry to be constructed - built at Allens yard at Coltishall in 1912)

Restoration Work at Bacton Wood

The North Walsham and Dilham has a colourful past but what of its future?  The aim is to restore as much of the canal as possible to a navigable waterway, progress has been spectacular in the short time I have been following the project.  The enthusiasm of the volunteers is truly astonishing, whether they are up to the waist in muddy water or working in reedbeds infested by stinging insects their progress is unstoppable.    I believe the old canal is destined to become a priceless example of reclaimed heritage which will be enjoyed by generations to come. 

The EAWA are always pleased to welcome any folks who would like to be involved in this ambitious and exciting project.  For more details visit their website   http://eawa.co.uk/walsham.html

To see a video clip of progress on the NW&D http://youtu.be/Dji1tQdZ22w