John Guyler reports . . .
The second pre-work stage for the Beggarlee Extension took place over six days, from 31st August to 5th September with the Waterway Recovery Group (WRG). This was the third visit by WRG to Beggarlee this year. Their work this time concentrated on the 900mm headwall chamber which, as you look towards the A610 bridge, is on the left.
Three of the original walls (back and two sides) of the structure are being used to make the chamber; these walls are from when the A610 road was built.
The fourth wall, at the front, was constructed by WRG using a wooden back backboard securely fixed into place, then a structure of enforcing rods was built and concrete poured in.
A pipe had already been fixed into place joining the original pipe in the headwall and this protruded through the new chamber wall.
Benching out was finished, this is at the exit of the pipe and is a form in the concrete which follows the contour of the pipe to be fixed, and supports the attached pipe.
The gulley from the chamber was dug out by digger, gravel laid, level of flow established and pipes fitted and laid on the gravel.
Pipes were lowered into place by the digger and, with a great deal of effort by FCC and WRG workers, fitted to the other pipes previously fitted, progressing along to meet the pipework from the 600mm chamber which had been laid previously. That was as much as could be done by the WRG due to build been being delayed by the non-delivery of the pre cast top slab of the inspection chamber and the connection pre-cast pipe-work to join the two pipes together for the water to run down to the river Erewash.
The pre-cast parts were promised by the manufacturer for the start of this particular build, but they failed to deliver, which meant that there will have to another building session to finish off. This was planned for early November, but at the time of writing at the beginning of November, an inspection of the area was to be undertaken due to the amount of rain we have had; the ground may be too soft for the heavy machinery and the river may be at a high level. With part of the site being the flood plain for the Erewash, this may cause the work to delayed. The digger required to lift the specially made top slab is a minimum of 22 tons, so this could cause problems. If work is delayed, it will be early next year before any further progress is made.
After WRG went to their various homes in London, Manchester, Cheshire and other far flung places, the FCC volunteers carried on for a further three days compacting earth, dressing the area, making it safe and looking reasonable. The last job was to make all the chambers and pipe terminals safe with fencing. One job which they were able to complete was filling the original gullies and opening up the drainage pool on the other side of the track.
WRG are part of the Inland Waterways Association and have their own magazine called Navvies. In the August–September issue there is a lengthy report of their visit in July to Beggarlee, putting the pipework in and building the first chamber, the 600mm. The article, goes into detail of working and the problems encountered, with much technical jargon.
What I did pick up was the fact they were billeted at the Ironville Social Club and they have their own cook, who is very much appreciated. On the first day of the work party, he did a proper shop in the local Co-op. For their meal that night, he served up a lasagne, with seconds and thirds (he had made rather a lot!), with fruit salad for afters, which was declined; they went to the bar instead.
Next day after work, they went back to their billet and had jacket potatoes and a chilli that bore an uncanny resemblance to the lasagne of the previous evening (How much did he make?); this time they ate the fruit salad.
One of the WRG group had a shock when he was inside a large diameter pipe dressing it, he met a dog coming from the other end. Who owned it and where it went is still a mystery.
At that work party they were using a generator to power, amongst other things, the concrete mixer, which proved very unreliable; they finished up mixing the concrete by hand as it was quicker. The upshot of that, the FCC are now the proud owners of a brand-new generator, for the concrete mixer and other portable tools, funded by a grant secured by Marsha Miles Consultancy.
There was a visit on site, whilst FCC and WRG were working on the 900mm headwall, of Broxtowe councillors; they were shown around the site by FCC Chairman David Martin and a number of other FCC trustees. From the feedback of the visit, they were very impressed with the professionalism of the site, considering it was all done by volunteers.
WRG gave 545 hours with 120 travel hours for the September work party, with the FCC volunteers giving 474 hours and 54 hours travel. The combined total of volunteer hours on all aspects of the Beggarlee project (excluding planning hours, which I still have to calculate) up to the end of September 2023 is 3,420 hours.
Thanks to Ian Hutchinson , Malc Chisnall and John Barker for help compiling this article. Also, acknowledgement to the WRG magazine Navvies, from which part of this article was taken.