Newsletter Issue 8 November 2012
BAYLAM SLUICE GATES TAKE SHAPE Deep in the Suffolk countryside an intrepid group of RGT volunteers under
the expert guidance of Raymond Hopkins has hand built a new set of sluice
gates for the old mill at Baylam. Our photo shows Ray sitting proudly in front
of the gates. More details in project leader Martin Bird’s report on page 3.
Miss a meeting
at your peril It certainly pays to attend RGT
committee meetings as I have
recently found to my cost. For
business reasons I recently
missed a meeting, it was only
later when I received the minutes
that I discovered that I had
been delegated the enjoyable
task of editing the River Gipping
Trust Newsletter.
I will endeavour to follow in the footsteps of previous editors
and keep you up–to–date with all our activities. Taking over
from Lewis Tyler will be a hard act to follow. Lewis has done a
superb job in editing this publication for a great number of
years. Fortunately he is still maintaining a very active role
within the Trust and no doubt we will be publishing contribu-
tions from him in coming issues. He and Mitzi lead such a
hectic lifestyle it is small wonder they can fit all their activities
into the average day.
As a newcomer I am absolutely amazed at the achievements
of the Trust which has been brought about by the enthusiasm
and commitment of the members. There are some exciting
projects in the pipeline and we will bring you up to speed as
they progress in future editions of this newsletter. Contributions
and suggestions are welcomed.
LES HOWARD
PROJECT LEADER MARTIN BIRD REPORTS
We have recently taken delivery of the
new sluice gates and framework for
pending installation behind the mill.
Having working sluice gates in position
will be one step nearer the restoration
of this interesting group of buildings,
including the mill, the lock and the
waterway itself.
The frame and gates have been
constructed at White House Farm, Little
Glemham by members of our regular work parties from English oak sourced
from the farm . The work has been supervised by Raymond Hopkins and the
workshop and storage facilities have been provided by Jason Gathorne-Hardy,
the farm owner , artist, and conservationist, who recently won an award from the
RSPB for his contribution to conservation in farming. For most of us who have
been working on the gates this has been our first experience of working with such
massive timbers and has been a bit of a learning curve but very interesting to see
the whole process from tree felling to finished construction.
Spencer Greystrong and Raymond Hopkins working on the gates.
Virtually everyone involved in the building of the new sluice gates.
Martin Bird’s report continued
Back at Baylham work has started on
preparing for the installation of the
sluice with bank clearance around
the old sluice and removal of the old
decayed timber frame. Water levels
in the river are somewhat higher
than usual, following the wet sum-
mer, and this may delay the
Installation of the new frame for a
while. The bank clearance has how-
ever revealed the remains of an old
eel trap and associated outbuilding, installed we think in the 1950’s by the then
mill owner in a deal with a jellied eel merchant in the east end of London.
The work immediately adjacent to the lock chamber at Baylham is now nearly
complete. The final construction work involves the re-laying of a brick surface be-
low the old bridge. This has been started , but progress depends on having the right
number of people with the right skills all available on the same day.
Meanwhile over the Summer the main work party successfully completed the work
to the Pipps ford overbridge, with all four flank walls re-built, the deck cleared, new
wooden handrails constructed and the exposed metal beams treated. The land
owner is keen to see the work here extended to return the immediate area around
the lock to its historical setting and we have now made an application to the Envi-
ronment agency for the further bye-wash work , weir and footbridge that would
make this possible. With the need to get these approvals in place, we won’t be
doing any further substantial work here until next Spring.
Back at Baylham, we recently had a visit to site by the senior trustee of the land-
owner that owns the lock and its surrounding area, and he has expressed an inter-
est in restoring the mill itself to working order. Whilst work on the mill would be
both outside our Trust’s remit and experience, we have offered our assistance
with any work required to clearing the channel above and below the mill and I’m
sure any individuals who wanted to get involved with the restoration on a personal
footing would be very welcome.
Inspecting the sluice at Baylam Mill
The River Gipping Trust: The Past,
Present and Future of our River
This is an outline of a talk given to the Suffolk Branch of the Historical Association by Lewis Tyler and Gerry Crease of The River Gipping Trust. They focused on the contribution of the River Gipping to the local economy and community from the late eighteenth century.
Not many of us associate Suffolk with the great era of canal-building in England serving trade and commerce, but we now know that this phase of early industrial development did not leave the county untouched. The transformation of the River Gipping into the Stowmarket Navigation took place in the 1790s and, contrary to East Anglia’s reputation as ‘flat country’, required the construction of fifteen locks to enable the movement of barges in both directions along this sixteen-mile stretch of waterway.
Local landowners and others with a commercial interest in the economical transport of natural and other products put up the money for the project and the Navigation first opened in 1793. Along its banks was a succession of water-powered mills (at least two for making paper) and other enterprises now having direct access to the Orwell estuary and the wider world of coastal trade. Barges sailing up-river carried coal, gun cotton, beer, hops, slates and other cargoes, in-cluding manure soil from London streets for agricultural use.
The project was not without problems, however, and the extensive flooding in 1794 delayed the full opening of the Navigation until 1798. The railway arrived in 1846 and the waterway no longer had a monopoly of transporting goods cheaply in bulk. After that, it faced inevitable decline – not least due to relatively high ongoing maintenance costs – and the end of commercial operations was in sight by the 1880s.
The twentieth century was a bleak period for the Ipswich and Stowmarket Naviga-tion and with no income to meet their maintenance liabilities the Trustees wound up the business in 1934 and the river later became impassable. However, in the 1970s the Ipswich branch of the Inland Waterways Association began restoration work and The River Gipping Trust has been carrying on this pioneering work. It is now possible to walk much of the route of the Navigation from Ipswich dock to Pickerel Bridge in Stowmarket.
The Trust hopes to help manage maintenance of sections of the towpath and has restored some of the locks, except for replacing the gates. In the foreseeable future it hopes to offer leisure cruises along a stretch of the Navigation passing through four locks from Needham Market to Baylham.
In a series of articles to be featured in
forthcoming editions please enjoy…
COLIN TURNER’S REFLECTIONS ON HIS LONG
INVOLVEMENT WITH THE IWA AND RGT
It was my intention to retire on completion of the work at Baylham Lock. However, when my wife was diagnosed with serious health problems in June 2010 I decided that I could not give the attention needed to the restoration work and it was time for me to retire.
Martin Bird had volunteered to take over as Restoration Manager for the trust and for some time had been shadowing me to see what the job entails so that we could achieve a smooth take over. Unlike the somewhat fraught circumstances under which I took over from my predecessor.
1999.
In April 1999 I had only been on the committee of the IWA for a few months, as a committee member with no specific duties, when the sudden resignation of our then Work Party Organiser left the committee with several problems. The most pressing was the final organisation for a Waterways Recovery Group canal camp that had been arranged for July/August. This ideally required the presence of a committee member on site throughout the week, I was the only committee mem-ber without work commitments, so I was ‘gently persuaded’ to take on the job.
The organisation remained fraught to the day before the start of the camp be-cause although all the arrangements were made or confirmed in good time, the brand new Somersham Village hall that had been hired to accommodate the camper remained without a cooker until the Friday before the campers were due to arrive on the Saturday. There had been some delay in the payment of a grant that was to pay for it, in the end the lady who took the booking paid for it with her personal cheque so that they could honour the booking.
Saturday arrived and the campers were duly impressed with their accommoda-tion, probably not so impressed with the work that we had planned for them. The work was to remove about a metre of wet, black silt from the bottom of Creeting Lock, I have never seen so many dirty volunteers, one of whom, Liz Wilson, a first timer, was to feature prominently in later Gipping canal camps. Despite the dirty nature of the task the camp was a success with a lot of work done and the even-ing activities enjoyed by all. Photos of these activities can be seen on the RGT web site. www.givergippingtrust.org.uk
During 1999 we had a visit from the Anglia T.V. Take it On team who made a video of our activities, this can be seen on the RGT web site. www.givergippingtrust.org.uk
The removal of the silt revealed the extent of the damage to the lower lock struc-ture. It was decided that we needed an engineering survey to determine the work required to make a lasting repair. A survey was carried out by Roy Sutton BA(Eng),MSc,CEng,MICE Hon. Consulting Engineer for the IWA. To be continued...
Creeting lock before the major restoration work started
Showing both ends of the by-wash for the lock at Creeting.
Creeting Mill before it burnt down in the 1930’s
ANNUAL GENERAL
MEETING
7.30PM THURSDAY 13TH JUNE
2013
NEEDHAM MARKET
COMMUNITY CENTRE Guest Speaker Dr Charles Beardall
Area manager for the Environment Agency
IWA Ipswich Branch forthcoming meetings Friday 14th December 2012 Mike Davies will be giving an illustrated talk about his book "Essex and
Suffolk Boatyards and Boat builders"
Friday 11th
January 2013
Fish and Chip Supper and Social Natter. Arrive early to order food
All meetings start at 7-30pm unless otherwise stated Community Centre, School Street, Needham Market, non-members are more than welcome
TALKS LIST FOR
2012 & 2013
Tuesday
8/1/13
Capel St Mary Countryside
Club Capel St Mary
Methodist Chapel
Monday
14/1/13
Needham Market WI Needham Market
Community Centre
Monday
11/2/13
Old Newton & Gipping WI Old Newton Village
Hall
Friday
15/2/13
Martlesham WI Richards Room
Community Hall
Thursday
21/02/13
Woolpit History Group Woolpit
Monday
11/3/13
Woodbridge Methodist
Ladies Friendship
St Johns Road
Woodbridge
Thursday
4/4/13
Capel St Mary Ladies Club Capel St Mary
Library
Monday
8/4/13
Bramford Trefoil Society Guide & Scout Hut
Bramford
Tuesday
9/7/13
Baylham Church Baylham Village Hall
Wednesday
09/10/13
Stour Valley U3A Constable Memorial
Hall East Bergholt
Tuesday
19/11/13
Wickhambrook History Soci-
ety WI Hall
Wickhambrook
Looking very good, Pipp’s Ford bridge completed summer 2013
Part of the old lock gates found in the river by the bridge at Baylam. It will be removed from the river in 2013 when it is hoped a major clearance operation will take place around the mill area.
Photo round up
Work to complete the mini quay by the
bridge at Baylam is nearing completion. Rain is no deterrent to RGT volunteers.
The new sluice gates for Baylam Mill prior to dismantling for transporting on Dale’s truck to Baylam. Work on installing the sluice is due start in the next month.
Work has already started
on removing the remains
of the old sluice gates at
Baylam. Chard Wardley
can be seen here cutting
out the top bar. An
attempt to move the
massive uprights by wa-
ter met with a less than a
successful conclusion.
A knotty problem still to
be resolved when it
comes to removing the
last upright !!
EDITOR: LES HOWARD 406 Woodbridge Road Ipswich IP4 4EH
01473 712696 [email protected]
The views that are expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily
the views of the River Gipping Trust or its Trustees.