Driffield Canal

The Driffield Navigation Amenities Association was founded in 1969.

In the September 1972 IWA Bulletin the following article was published:

The Driffield Navigation

This little-known but attractive Yorkshire navigation should be one of the simplest and cheapest of waterway restoration projects. However, the legal complexities facing the Driffield Navigation Amenities Association would daunt Merlin the Magician. Alan Biggin, the energetic Secretary of the D.N.A.A., describes the history of the navigation and the Alice in Wonder land sit uation which must be overcome before restoration and repair work can be started.

The Driffield Navigation was conceived by a group of businessmen in Driffield in the late 1700s, to link Dnffield and the Wold country with the Humber ports, and beyond. At this time Driffield was a small place, with Kilham being the main market town - it still would be were it not for this Navigation.

Yorkshire KeelOpposite: A deep-loaded Yorkshire Keel sails before afollowing wind on a northern waterway. The Keel was the workhorse of the Driffield Navigation for many years. Note the port-side leeboard in raised position and the quant-pole laid across the stern-rail.

An Act was passed through Parliament in 1787, authorising the formation of a Board of Commissioners, and for work to commence on the building of the Navigation. This was duly commenced by William Porter, and in 1810 and 1817, two further Acts were passed to enable further works to be carried out.'... but that the said Navigation still remained defective and insufficient by reason of Shoals and Obstruction in the said navigation and river and of the crooked course of the same river ...' This allowed the river to be by-passed between Seven Hills and Goodhall Clough (Hempholme Lock to Bethel's Bridge) and the new cut made, and further for West Beck to be straightened out to Corps Landing. This latter was never completed. These Acts also gave powers for the Commissioners to borrow capital, to raise tolls from commercial craft on the Navigation, payments for the use of the locks and bridges, and the general administration of a commercial undertaking.

There were 98 Commissioners appointed, who bought shares in the Company. These Commissioners consisted of people not only from Driffield, but from a large area around, and included many representatives of the Clergy. The Annual Meeting of the Commissioners was to be held each May, at the Bell Hotel, in Driffield. A quorum to consist of eleven members for policy decisions, and seven for decisions regarding maintenance, etc. These Acts of Parliament are still in force, and the administration of the Navigation would be bound by the terms of these Acts. With the decline of commercial traffic in the 1940s, the then Commissioners began to fail in their duties in that they failed to reappoint a new Commissioner upon the death or retirement of an existing Commissioner. The last meeting at which a quorum was present was in 1949, and the last recorded meeting to be called was in 1952.

Since then there has been no effective legal control over the Navigation, to the detriment of the locks, bridges, etc. This has now come to the stage where two bridges, at Hempholme and Brigham, are in a dangerous condition and in considerable danger of collapse if used by heavy traffic, which can hardly be avoided. As these bridges are essential to the livelihood of the landowners living on the west side of the Navigation, it is essential that effective control over the Navigation be reinstated.

There was, until earlier this year, one Commissioner alive, but living abroad. The Department of the Environment decided, however, that this man did not form a quorum under the meaning of the Act and therefore could not carry out any duties pertaining to the Navigation. Now this last Commissioner has died. The Yorkshire Ouse and Hull River Authority have drainage rights over the waterway and are also responsible for the maintenance of its banks, although the landowners adjoining the Navigation are owners of the land to the water's edge.

Driffleld LockWater cascading over the top gates of the disused Driffleld Lock at the head of the Driffield Navigation. (Robert Shopland.)

Over a period of many years,' attempts have been made to appoint new Commissioners but with no success, as there is now no person with any legal powers to have them appointed. The Driffield Navigation Amenities Association was formed at the instigation of Brigham Sailing Club in 1968 to make a further effort to clarify the situation. Since then our efforts to bring order to this unreal situation have been unceasing, with hundreds of letters passing between us and the various authorities, the House of Commons, etc. The only course of action open to us appeared to be the promotion of a further Act of Parliament which would cost us around £3,000 if unopposed and many times that amount if there was opposition. However, a further Q.C.'s opinion advises us that new Commissioners might be appointed through the Charity Commission and this is now being investigated. We hope that this will be the answer to the dilemma.

Meanwhile, the length of towpath from Hempholme Lock to Bethel's Bridge has been registered as a Public Right of Way by the East Riding County Council at the instigation of the Ramblers' Association and it is hoped to have the remainder registered on the definitive map in the near future.

There are several pieces of land adjoining the Navigation which belong to the Commissioners - the most notable being Frodingham Quay, Corps Landing, and the portion of land from Brigham Bridge to the field gate on the east side of the waterway. These "landings" were used for the loading and unloading of the barges which used to trade on the Navigation. These barges, or keels, travelled under sail up the full length of the waterway from the Humber ports and sometimes from places further afield. When one views the Navigation with its many twists and turns, the handling of a sailing barge in such confined waters seems a remarkable feat.

The Driffield Navigation is seven miles long and has five locks, each 61 ft. 6 ins, long and 14 ft. 6 ins, wide. The first lock, at Hempholme, is a tidal lock off the River Hull, 20 miles above Hull itself. High water here is approxi mately 2+ hours after HW at Old Harbour, Hull. The other four locks on the navigation are Snakeholme, Wansford, Whin Hill and Driffield. All of the locks are in need of repair or replacement, except Hempholme, which has a new pair of steel top gates. The lower gates are wooden and in poor repair but will work if carefully handled - the gate paddles are not operable but leakage is sufficient to empty the lock! The present limits of navigation from the River Hull are Hempholme or Bethel's Bridge for larger craft and Snakeholme Lock, four miles further inland, for smaller craft. The Brigham Sailing Club and the Scow Club use the Navigation between Brigham and Hempholme for sailing.

The Amenities Association now consists of representatives of the Brigham Sailing Club, the Brigham Scow Club, Ramblers' Association, angling associations, T.W.A. and many independent boat-owners and other people interested in the waterway. We hope that soon we. shall have the solution to our legal problems and be able to commence work on making the waterway navigable through to Driffield once again.

We welcome all visitors to Brigham and hope that they enjoy their visit. Should you feel interested enough to support our aims you are invited to contact me at the Country Stores, Brandesburton, Driffield, East Yorkshire - telephone Leven 241. Visitors to Brigham who are interested in the work of the Amenities Association are invited to contact Mr. W. Turner who lives at the bungalow just up the hill from the canal. Mr. Turner has known and sailed on the waterway for many years and has also built many of the Brigham "Scows" which sail on the lower part of the canal.

Ports Creek

In May 1963 the following item appeared in Bulletin 68:-

One of the more fantastic closure proposals now before the public is the threat by the Portsmouth City Council to fill in much of the vast tidal waterway which separates Portsea Island, on which the city stands, from the mainland. The course of events follows a familiar order. During the second world war, a road causeway was built to supplement the previously existing road bridge. It was built under Emergency Powers, and subject to the implication that it would be removed at the end of the emergency. Needless to say, it never has been removed, despite repeated plead-ings and petitions from the aggrieved boating community, rapidly growing in number. Through the causeway runs a kind of pipe, down which it is possible for very small craft to make the transit at exactly the right state of the tide. Officialdom has refused even to enlarge this dismal and inadequate conduit. Moreover, during the war, junk was heaved into the Creek elsewhere, in order to impede the enemy, and now serves manfully to impede the mere boatman. Mr Herring, Robert Aickman and Councillor W H Evans

Officialdom, of course, has its reasons. In full glory, the present scheme is to fill in part of the Creek in order to accommodate the route of a new motorway. The re-mainder of the Creek would (quite officially) 'be allowed to dry up', a savoury prospect indeed. Remonstrance, and the production of alternative solutions to the road problem lead, as usual in these cases, merely to the bringing up of new objections, held up to that point in reserve until the battle heightens. In this case, the further objections to keeping the Creek in water are that, first, the City Council has in mind to reclaim a large area at the northern end of Portsmouth Harbour to the west of the Creek, and second, to reclaim an even larger (though vaguer) area of Langstone Harbour to the east of the Creek. The one quite unthinkable thing is boats. If the scheme goes through, they will have to go out to sea, which many of them are not equipped to do.

The photo shows Mr Herring, representative of the local boating community, Robert Aickman and Councillor W H Evans of Portsmouth near the Western entry to Ports Creek

You might think it is an odd policy for the leading local authority of the area where in all Great Britain boating is most rampant and growing fastest and most famous throughout the world; but, of course, it is simply the traditional British policy.

Nor is boating all. The waterway separating Portsea Island from the mainland originally ran to the north of the present route. The present route was the creation of Lord Palmerston's military experts, who built the famous forts on the Portsdown Hills, and who fortified the north shore of Portsea Island in similar style. The Portsea Island ramparts are now in great measure a peaceful and attrac tive public green, the prettiest and quietest place in all Portsmouth, some might say. Among those who have said something like it of late, are Sir Hugh Casson and Mr. Betjeman, who have spoken up in the current dispute. For, naturally, this peace and quiet and green will no longer do: despite cries of rage, the City Council have already voted in favour of bartering much of it to a person who wishes to construct a skating rink, a kiddypool (using a scrap of Ports Creek), and other modern attractions. City Councillors expressed the view that these things were more in harmony with the tastes of'youth'. It is a secondary point, but they are almost certainly wrong in this, and no one has taken a poll of 'youth' anyway. This is a case of money, we feel, rather than of service. Ports Creek<

Councillor W. J. Evans, who is putting up a splendid fight, had a talk with Major Grundy at the Boat Show. Subsequently, Mr. Hutchings and I have visited Ports mouth, inspected the site, and had a discussion, under the good offices of Alderman Birch, with the City Develop ment Officer and the City Engineer. Subsequently again, I was among those who spoke at a very successful Protest Meeting in Cathedral House on 29th March. All three Portsmouth Members of Parliament appeared. Brigadier Clark took the Chair; Mr. Geoffrey Stevens opposed the official scheme with great eloquence; and Sir Jocelyn Lucas lent support. Other speakers were Mr. Michael Dower of the Civic Trust and a lady from the C.P.R.E. Probably most important of all was Councillor Evans's lucid vision of what the Creek could be like if the world were good and wise; and inspired suggestion, since being followed up, that it be rehabilitated as the Dunkirk Memorial Channel. The local press has been exceedingly friendly to the view that the Creek should be kept; and Coundillor Evans's Dunkirk project was reported in The Times, appropriately, on St. George's day (which is also Shakespeare's birthday, and probably David Hutchings's as well).

Another of our Council Members lending a hand has been Mr. Macfarlane, who visited the area at an early point, and kindly delivered a topographical report.

We may conclude for the present with an extract from a letter sent to us by Mr. Stevens, M.P.: 'I entirely agree with what you say, and I assure you that I shall do everything possible to convince the planning authorities that the Creek should be reinstated.'

River Alde

In May 1966 Bulletin 76 carried the following item:-

Illustrated reports appeared in the Ipswich Evening Star on November 26th and in the Suffolk Mercury for December 5th, con-cerning the arrival of the first loaded barge to navigate the River Alde for twenty six years. The motor barge Atrato arrived at Snape Wharf carrying 100 tons of bulk barley for Snape Warehousing Ltd. A Director of the firm, Mr. G. Gooderham said that the voyage had been made as an experiment to see if the river was fully navigable for this type of traffic "which is more economical than road trans-port."

The Atrato crossed the bar at the mouth of the river at 9.30 on a Thursday morning, arriving at Snape Wharf shortly after 1 p.m. having covered the 21 miles of waterway without serious difficulty.

Until the outbreak of the last war, barges regularly brought coal and barley up the river. To celebrate the successful completion of the experiment, champagne was provided for a number of guests and workmen at the nearby Plough and Sail Inn, which is owned by the firm which made the order. Within a short time of the boat mooring at a newly dredged berth by the quay, its cargo was being mechanically unloaded by suction apparatus direct into storage bins. Mr. Gooderham said that he was more than pleased with the trip, and hoped to repeat such voyages up the Alde from time to time.

Tooleys Boatyard

Tooleys Boatyard at Banbury has a serious claim to have been in at the conception of the modern waterways movement. Without the reputation for craftsmanship of the Tooley family, Tom Rolt would have gone elsewhere to have 'Cressy' adapted for his project of long-term cruising.

The yard itself had a forge, dry-dock and lean-to workshops and stores on a site which is described in Nigel Crowe's English Heritage book 'Canals' as "cramped, triangular and authentically messy". It was one of the last examples of its type on the connected waterway system. It remains the only surviving evidence of the terminal basin built by the Oxford Canal Company at Banbury when it ran out of money in 1778 .... 27 miles (and twelve years) short of Oxford.

From 1990 " 2003 IWA Oxfordshire branch was prominent in a campaign to stop this historic site from being swamped by the buildings of a new shopping centre extention for Banbury. We were hoping to achieve a balancing act of continued commercial operation whilst retaining some aspects of the condition it was in at the end of the second world war. This was just before the final decline of the 'number ones'.. who survived on the Oxford rather longer than elsewhere.

After many delays the Banbury redeveloped and extended town centre opened and Tooleys Yard had a new tenant and the campaign closed. It was a bit of a struggle .. and IWA did not get all it wanted.

THE CAMPAIGN

Firstly, thanks to earlier IWA involvement, the boatyard site had TWO 'Scheduled Ancient Monuments' " the Forge & the dry dock itself " and this was a 'thorn in the side' of the developers. Their original intention was to 'preserve' the forge as a shopping kiosk, and the dry dock as a flowerbed.

Planners asked the developers to provide an Archaeological Assessment which was delivered by Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit in Dec 1989 (revised 1991), which - although it contained some inaccuracies when dealing with Tooleys Yard and was a bit light on the IWA / rebirth of interest in canals - was a comprehensive review of the Shopping Centre development site.

We wrote letters in 1994, got the support of Oxfordshire's Director of Museum Services and Tony Conder at Gloucester. We encouraged two 'Open Day's at Tooleys as part of our campaign (FEB. & MAY 1995), and the people of Banbury supported us well. The Council then went forward with a lottery bid to assist their Museum to re-locate alongside the Canal and incorporate what was to be preserved of Tooleys yard. IWA shared in the funding of the Architectural Competition (1995) to choose the designer (although the documents did not always acknowledge this) and we tried again to influence the brief.

However, developers were still sure that activities in an "untidy, dirty, noisy boatyard" were incompatible with shoppers' needs and resisted any call for 'living together'. Compulsory purchase of a huge area of land for shopping purposes by the District Council followed in August 1995, although IWA appeared at the enquiry to point out that the adopted local plan excluded all the boatyard land from its 'shopping' notation and record their objection to the compulsory purchase of any part of the yard. Unsurprisingly, the Inspector found for the Council / proposed development and against the IWA! However, British Waterways, as owners of the site, resisted the complete wiping out of the yard and encouraged a Section 106 agreement (linked to the huge planning permission for the shopping centre) which included clauses that allowed many boatyard activities to take place

We held a Canal Weekend (May 1996) which was hugely supported by the public and some of the local Councillors. The lottery bid was eventually 75% successful (1997) but once the contract was let nothing further could be changed " although we tried - especially about the roof over the dock .. withdrawing promised IWA funds in support because it did not do what it said it was going to do.

IWA believe the museum lottery bid succeeded partly because of the presence of Scheduled Ancient Monuments on Tooleys Yard side of the canal, although the artefacts to do with the Civil War and Banbury Industries were also relevant!

We kept the canal in the publics' eye, firstly getting one of the new bridges needed by the development to be named for Tom Rolt (1999) and then the IWA AGM (2001) was held in the Mill at Banbury with a huge attendant boat gathering. "By popular demand" this boating event has been successfully repeated in the autumn each year since (e.g. 9th October 2005).

BBC Radio Oxford transmitted a 'one hour special' on New Years day 2003 concerning the Oxford Canal, Banbury, Tooleys and Tom Rolt!! It has been rebroadcast since.

IN THE EVENT

The whole boatyard site has been reduced in size by about one-third, although there is a small additional 'undercroft' (without windows) which is available for whatever the operator wishes to put in it " currently a chandlery and selling books and waterway paraphanalia.

The line of the back warehouse wall, which had supported the various 'lean-to' sheds, has been re-instated in 'shopping centre friendly fire"proofing concrete' and three of the 'lean-to' sheds were taken away and re-instated almost as they were. The larger free-standing corrugated-iron-clad workshop was reduced in height / size and squeezed underneath the 'waterways gallery' which spans the canal. However, the belt-driven pulleys and most of the machinery that was in this 'belt-shop' at the time British Waterways took back the lease have been reinstated and reconnected " although an electric motor is the motive power. None of this is obvious from the canal towpath, and health & safety requires that you have to book an accompanied tour if you want to see.

As far as the dock itself is concerned, the most obvious disaster is the roof. Earlier pictures show there were TWO roofs probably of cheap old corrugated iron. A fixed one was near the stop-planks sitting on four pillars (the pillars have been retained), and a second one was on a wooden frame which rolled on rails so that it could be adjusted to protect the work going on at the other end of the variable length of boats (this has been re-instated but is not on rails). Since the war (!) bits of wooden primary school wall were re-cycled to provide the protection we all recall under another corrugated iron roof. Now new glazed side walls allow glimpses of what is going on inside (ever stopped at a building site?) but the glass extra protection glass protection is put in place when welding takes place. George Tooley would, no doubt, be puzzled by such extrovert activity.

Exhibits in the Waterways Gallery of the Museum are quite fair about Tom Rolt, the IWA and its involvement in 'saving' the South Oxford from closure in 1955, but has a large amount of empty building space that could be filled with other more robust 'exhibits' in the future. It probably suffered from lack of funds at the end of the project.

The DEVELOPERS hated the canal in 1990, the OPERATORS of the Shopping Centre are now finding that they gather a lot of trade from users of the canal " and have been very supportive since 2002!! BOATERS rarely stopped before the re-developments "when discussing the changes one was quoted as saying "Banbury welcome? .. pigs fly?" " but it is now a recognised destination for hire-boats from the Braunston area, and has long lengths of towpath mooring rings which encourage overnight stays.

Go have a look... it is halfway along the Oxford Canal Walk from Oxford to Coventry... or go by boat or car.

This article was written by Brian Roberts and is published with his kind permission

Inland Shipping Group

In 1971, concerned that the IWA did not adequately embrace the freight carrying function for which the canals had been created, a four person group, chaired by Charles Hadfield met and formed the Commercial Carrying Group with the aim of shaping a policy 'towards a future for inland shipping.' The group expanded in number and expertise (engineers, barge operators, academics) and became the Inland Shipping Group, a committee of the IWA Council. The Group's first major publication, Barges or Juggernauts? (1974) was followed a year later by Report on Continental Waterways (1975), a comprehensive study of the administration of waterways in Europe which drew attention to the potential for increased use of the waterways for freight in Britain.

As a result of an ISG proposal at the Freightwaves '75 conference a National Waterways Transport Association (NWTA) was created to bring together the wide range of parties concerned with waterborne freight - navigation authorities, operators, engineers, unions etc. The ISG engaged in activities concerned with protecting, promoting and publicising waterborne freight, ensuring the proper recognition of inland waterway transport in local and regional planning and increasing general awareness of inland shipping both within the IWA and also more widely. The ISG produced a series of fact sheets and contributed to media presentations on water transport. The arguments for freight movement by water were brought together in British Freight Waterways - Today and Tomorrow (1980) and this provided a framework for campaigning and attracted considerable media attention.

Some main areas in which the ISG has been actively involved include :-

1. Ensuring the publication of meaningful statistics on domestic waterborne freight (there were none before 1982 but are now published annually).

2. Obtaining funding for waterway freight operations - Freight Facility Grants, (originally only for rail transport were extended to water transport and have been enhanced in recent years), seeking equity in appraisal and funding of competing modes with water transport still at a severe disadvantage.

3. Encouraging greater government attention to water freight and more effective integration of the government departments involved.

4. Arguing the case for safeguarding the wharf facilities without which there can be no water transport. Since 1997 London has provided a model which could with benefit be extended to other freight waterways.

5. Pressing for the creation of a national, umbrella organisation to take the place of NWTA. ISG was represented on the government's freight study group which recommended the creation of a water freight forum and resulted in 2003 in the creation of Sea & Water, a government funded water freight promotion group embracing, inland, coastal and short -sea shipping interests.

Sea & Water has effectively taken over a number of ISG's campaigns and developed others and with professional staffing is able to produce newsletters, fact sheets and comprehensive data bases and organise seminars in a way which for ISG was impossible. An IWA response has been for the ISG to be renamed as the Inland Waterways Freight Group and to continue as a sub-group of the IWA's Navigation Committee. There is still much for the IWFG to do and it works closely with Sea & Water, the International Navigation Association and the European River Sea Transport Union. It is still very much concerned with working to overcome lack of awareness of the potential, and an all too frequent negative approach to the development of waterborne freight.

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