Words and picture originated from reports submitted by John Guyler Nov-Jan.

A total of 644 volunteer man-hours were expended in this period on the below projects

Picture shows volunteers canal embankment stone retaining wall on the Aqueduct Cottage to Gregory’s tunnel stretch

November 2024

Lower Harshay: Volunteers continued clearing an area along the fence to plant new whips to form a hedge. Willow trees continued to be cleared from the channel. Volunteers then planted tree whips and the heavy gang continued to pull willow out of the channel.

Forge site: A Tree was cut down that was leaning across the footpath, on behalf of Friends of the Forge.

High Peak Junction: Volunteers finished painting the old weighbridge office the window shutters, door, guttering and barge boards are all painted – gable ends were not painted because we did not have a safe method of reaching the apex. Three coir rolls were retrieved from the canal channel and fixed into place on the bank.

December 2024

Lower Hartshay: FCC teams continued clearing vegetation and pulling willow trunks from the canal. Four hundred and fifty whips have now arrived and require planting.

Sawmills: a memorial seat for Gill Hurst at the Gauging Narrows was installed -the seat was in memory of Gill’s husband David, who was a great supporter of the Cromford Canal, a friend to the FCC and the Chair of a community action group at Bullbridge.

Ambergate: FCC Volunteers removed sixty-two barrowloads of pulled reed to disposal. The area is now clear of pulled reeds.

Lower Hartshay: Volunteers completed the clearance of willow from the canal channel, most of the work was to clear the area of pulled tree trunks by chopping with a chainsaw into manageable sizes. The wood was then placed into piles to form habitat refuges. Planting whips for the new hedge was completed.

January 2024

Blackbridge at Jacksdale: FCC volunteers worked with colleague volunteers from the Friends of the Forge finished to install the last piece of the handrail on the steps that the FCC work party installed previously.

Pinxton weir: A large amount of wood from chopped fallen trees was cleared by FCC volunteers, including a number of trees that had come down in the wind over the last couple of months – the Boat Inn received a large amount of the wood for their wood burner. There are a number of dead trees that will either fall in high winds or will need taking down in the future. Blanket weed was also cleared from the canal channel and two large bags of litter were also picked from whole length of the in-water section.

Aqueduct Cottage to Gregory’s Tunnel at High Peak Junction: A large team of FCC volunteers had the very difficult job of clearing the canal embankment stone retaining wall of vegetation and small trees for surveyors to gain access. Access to the site was about 100m from the railway aqueduct towards Gregory’s tunnel, the work party had to clear the access drive down to the flood plain of the River Derwent, this in itself was a task, but with a good number working it was soon cleared enough to go down. The working area itself was very difficult, not only was it overgrown with thick brambles but there were numerous trip hazards caused by previously felled trees which had been left were they fell. We had several volunteers who fell down and had to be rescued by others. The work party managed to clear about 30m of the stone wall and a large number of fairly large diameter previously felled logs. The wall itself was very sound in places but some small sections where trees had grown up through the stone, was collapsing. A wall survey has to be undertaken as part of the general survey of the stability of the entire canal embankment – the reason for the clearance. They are several more work parties possibly required to finish the clearance.