Restoration Work camps or 'Canal camps'

The organisation of summer work camps had a profound effect on the progress of restoring locks at St John's and at Woodham. Not only because of the volume of work achieved by 50 or more volunteers working full time for a fortnight, but also because of the detailed planning and organisation put in by Mike Fellows and Ken Parish.     Waterway recovery group had organised smaller work camps at Deepcut and Brookwood locks in the early 1980s. These led to the Canal Society's first camp at St John's in 1983, supported by a strong contingent from the Kent and East Sussex Canal Restoration Group. Plant and materials were supplied by Surrey County Council. Mike Fellows and Ken Parish     Culvert sections for by-pass weir During restoration nearly all the locks were fitted with by-pass weirs. These did not exist previously, but enables the water levels in the adjacent pounds to be self-regulating without the need for a lock-keeper. Each lock required about 50, 2ft diameter, 5cwt pipes laid under the towpath from above the head of the lock to an outfall below the tail.

Lock 7, the bottom lock of the St John's flight required a dam constructed to keep out the water, the black smelly mud and silt removed from the chamber, the original brick invert concreted, as well as a ladder installed. Lock 7, St Johns     The most prestigious job undertaken during the second work camp, in 1984, was the piling of 164 yards of the towpath bank between Locks 10 and 11. A new deeper recessed pile was used, each of which was 10ft long and weighed 1cwt.     To insert the piles required a 'gate' consisting of two big baulks of timber, separated by the thickness of the piles and long enough to take 4 piles at a time.     This was cantilevered out over the canal and weighed down with around 20 piles to keep it rigid.     The last two locks to be restored were Locks 2 and 3 at Woodham.   BACK

Last updated February 2006; orig: April 1988