August saw a crew of 7 doing their best to paint lock 6. The poor condition of the wood on this lock along with interruptions by the heavy boat traffic made completing the task near impossible in the time available. The contribution from our latest volunteer, Derek Price, along with Sam and Mike from Galliford Try helped make the task party a success.
Our second scheduled task party was deferred to early September to avoid the bank holiday but several ad hoc task parties took place in August.
- A crew of 9, which included 4 volunteers from Galliford Try, graded the towpath below lock 4. Stone, transported to the site, was added to create a slope that would shed surface water into the canal.
- The damaged brick coping below lock 4 was repaired.
- All the lock gates were scraped to remove vegetation.
- The grounds at Midland Chandlers and the junction waterpoint were maintained.
BCS also supported three ex forces chaps who were kayaking from Manchester to London along the canals to raise money to fund a memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum. It will remember their colleagues who were lost to suicide after they had finished their service. Due to safety rules they required BCS, using workboat ‘Skippy2Sheds’, to transport them up the flight and through the tunnel.