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Droitwich Canal 1973 Big Dig


max's son

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At the end of October it will be the 45th Anniversary of the "Big dig" that was

the first major work party on the Droitwich canal, 500 volunteers took part

and cleared trees, dug trenches.

 

Would todays health and safety prevent an event like this happening today?

I was 13 at the time, let loose with a bill hook.

 

 

1973.JPG

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22 minutes ago, max's son said:

At the end of October it will be the 45th Anniversary of the "Big dig" that was

the first major work party on the Droitwich canal, 500 volunteers took part

and cleared trees, dug trenches.

 

Would todays health and safety prevent an event like this happening today?

I was 13 at the time, let loose with a bill hook.

 

 

1973.JPG

WRG have organised many big digs since than with anything up to a thousand people attending. Such digs can still happen but with a lot more paperwork involved ☹️

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I was there too - age 15 - on the Sunday only, as part of the BCN Society Work Party Group, which then met almost every Sunday.

 

We were given the sisyphean task of digging muck from the bottom of the heavily silted channel and depositing it up the bank for others to move further up to be taken away. Most of the wet sticky mud came straight back down again and I very soon reached the conlcusion that mechanised dredging would be much more effective, though it mght not have the same publicity value as hordes of mud covered volunteer navvies!  

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I was too young for away working parties in those days. My brother went as part of PFSC mobile which of course was to become WRG North West a few years later.

I did however spend lots of weekends at Droitwich, including the Go With Noakes weekend, and my wife first got involved there when she was seventeen.

It was amazing when we eventually went up the canal by boat, but what amazed me was how short the canal was. We seemed to spend ages in the  back of a landrover or transit van getting to site from Droitwich, and never knew where we were.

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In 1978 a group of volunteers from the Manchester Region sponsored by the BBC ‘Go with Noakes’ programme cleared about two hundred tons of silt from the chamber of Mildenham Lock 5 on the Droitwich Barge Canal. John Noakes arrived in new overalls Wellingtons and hat. The producer eventually persuaded him to enter the lock but was not happy with his pristine appearance. After a whispered word with the navies it was arranged for someone to slip and fall on him so he emerged in the right colour. The Canal Trust members were not happy when the programme was described as on a Lancashire Canal
Which one are you then Captain Birdseye?
 

john noakes.JPG

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3 hours ago, max's son said:
In 1978 a group of volunteers from the Manchester Region sponsored by the BBC ‘Go with Noakes’ programme cleared about two hundred tons of silt from the chamber of Mildenham Lock 5 on the Droitwich Barge Canal. John Noakes arrived in new overalls Wellingtons and hat. The producer eventually persuaded him to enter the lock but was not happy with his pristine appearance. After a whispered word with the navies it was arranged for someone to slip and fall on him so he emerged in the right colour. The Canal Trust members were not happy when the programme was described as on a Lancashire Canal
Which one are you then Captain Birdseye?
 

john noakes.JPG

 

And for those who may be a little confused, Mildenham Lock is now known as Lock 3.  Back in the day the DCT numbered the locks from 1 at Ladywood to 8 at Hawford, but when BW reopened the canal they decided to number them from the other end!

:banghead:

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I spent most of the weekend in the dredging tip which was the field next to the lock with a very young Mike Palmer and a couple of other people. We managed to tip a sloppy bucket of mud next to Mr. Noakes covering him with it.

I remember the sequence where he was driving the crane, which was in fact turned off and they interposed footage of the crane moving between pictures of him in the cab with a soundtrack of the engine running.

He came over for tea with us all in the accommodation looking very clean. He didn't eat much so I don't know whether he had already had had food at his hotel. 

 

The reason why it was said to be in Lancashire was that in the programme he went for a trip on NB Spey which is owned by some of the working party members. While at Marple talking about the then recent restoration they talked about work being done on the summit of the Rochdale canal and asked if he would like to come on a working party. The only thing being that the next convenient working party was on the Droitwich so, I presume for the sake of continuity the Droitwich moved to Lancashire.

 

That is my memory of how it happened. I wonder if there is a copy of the programme anywhere out there it would be fun to see it again. 

 

As an aside, for David Mack and others from that era, the girl that later became my wife spent the summer of 1982 in Droitwich doing the catering for the work camps and subsequently came up to the Cold hole party that year which was how I met her.

 

Edited by captain birdseye
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I have been unable to find a copy of "Go with Noakes" The Cheshire ring the BBC seem to keep it to themselves removing up loaded copies

 

I am glad you enjoyed the canal Tonka and It took years of hard work and lots of persuasion to achieve

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