Cats are curious animals. Well, some of them are. There’s the one that played the fiddle when the cow jumped over the moon. The pussycat that went to sea with an owl in a beautiful pea-green boat. Not forgetting Garfield, Puss in Boots and, for those of you savvy on YouTube, the Keyboard Cat. My two at home however, are not so exciting… sleeping, eating and following me around the garden are the daily highlights. Despite the anticipation of scratches on our brand new sofa, they are nice companions to have around. The new leather corner sofa in our living room and its impending cat domination, got me thinking back to my university days when we did a module on domestic animals, including the history of cats. It all started with Wildcats of course, but the first evidence of a domestic cat is from Cyprus around 7500 BC. But the first illustration of a cat with a collar appears on an Egyptian tomb around 2500 BC. By 1793 BC cats, or ‘miu’ are definitely domesticated, and the animals appear frequently in Egyptian art paintings and mummies.
“You are the Great Cat, the avenger of the gods, and the judge of words, and the president of the sovereign chiefs and the governor of the holy Circle; you are indeed the Great Cat.”
Probably originally domesticated to help keep grain stores free of mice, cats quickly became very highly regarded as representatives of the Gods, with a penalty of death should you kill one albeit accidently.
Despite being demonized during the Middle Ages (cue picture of Bond villain stroking cat), there are now about 8 million cats in the UK, half of which seem to live on my street.
So what’s new, Pussycat? Let’s see what the South East Waterway’s volunteers and partner groups been up to in June…
Let’s start on a paw-sitive and go first to Oxford, where residents of The Waterways estate kindly gave up their weekend to scrub graffiti from Elizabeth Jennings Bridge.
“Fifteen volunteers over the weekend of 13/14 June 2015 – some energetic people came for the full session on both days. Plus Wayne and two helpers from CRT. It was raining on Saturday but as we were mainly working under the bridge it didn’t matter. Much harder work than people had anticipated. It took all weekend to do the Elizabeth Jennings Road bridge – so we didn’t even make a start on the Frenchay Road bridge.” Imogen Olsen
A very well done to you all. Graffiti removal is hard work, especially when there are technical difficulties with the pressure washer! But it is a definite improvement I think you’ll all agree.
A massive THANK YOU to our Volunteer Helmsmen who answered the cat call to help with a huge project to transport drama students from Stratford in London to Berkhamsted on narrow boats. After 12 months of planning and just 42 hours of rehearsals over seven days, the Stratford 2 Stratford Theatre Company took their final bow to a standing ovation at a performance for their parents, friends, teachers and VIPs at Chobham Academy. It’s been a fantastic experience for the students and the feedback they’ve received has been brilliant. Have a look at the lovely double page spread in the Sunday Express and a live interview (forward to 26:10) with the students on BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire before their second performance.
Blisworth has been awarded with a Red Wheel Plaque in recognition of the site’s important place in the industrial history and heritage of the UK. On 6th June, a ceremony was arranged by local volunteers to mark the occasion, with local dignitaries in attendance. The whole village got involved, read the full report here.
The monthly task parties run by Canal Societies and Partnerships are wielding the paint brushes at the mew-ment, with cool-cats Braunston painting locks 5 & 6 which completes the flight this year already; Banbury have painted Somerton Deep Lock and Elkington’s Lock; Buckingham painted Cosgrove Lock in advance of their Festival last weekend; and IWA Northampton have picked up where they left off last year on the Rothersthorpe flight.
Athina Beckett, Buckingham Canal Society reports:
“The volunteers continued the work of installing a pipe duct to continue the process of re-watering the Buckingham Canal. Volunteers also continued the work of clearing some of the re-growth at the A5 end of the canal started by a group of volunteers from Santander. A big thanks to Wayne for his help, we had a larger group than expected but all went well. The volunteers working alongside Wayne managed to paint Cosgrove Lock – great news as our annual festival takes place over the weekend of 11th-12th July, and 4 of them carried out a litter pick along the towpath and in Lock Lane. The rest of the group worked with me trimming overhanging branches and tidying up the towpath again to make the canal look more attractive for our festival”
Great going Buckingham Canal Society! Sounds like the works are coming along well.
Geoff Wood reports on IWA Northampton‘s month:
“Now the weather has improved we will re-start the painting of the Rothersthorpe lock flight. I think we got down to about lock 10 last year. We are also going to continue with the vegetation clearance at Lock 17. We have arranged for CRT to supply a petrol mower and the Branch will use its 2 strimmers. There will be raking and other vegetation clearance to do including the cleaning of the block paving. If we get sufficient numbers we can clear the vegetation on the by-pass weir at lock 16.”
Lock 17, where the Northampton Arm meet the River Nene, is looking claw-some these days! Have a look at the photos from the last task party there.
IWA Northampton are also in the final stages of planning for the Festival of Water on August bank holiday. They are looking to borrow Volunteer Lock Keepers to help with the passage of boats through the Rothersthorpe flight. If you would like to help, please let me know.
In Stoke Bruerne, the Canal Partnership have been far from pro-cats-tinating, with a general tidy up of the main central areas of the village, including the Museum Green, car park and Top Lock area as well as keeping in check any ‘straying’ vegetation along the towpath and the woodland walk.
Also spotted out in Stoke Bruerne this month were Dutch Push Boats that had come across from the Netherlands on a lorry and were craned in at Limehouse. They are travelling up to Birmingham and then, back via the Oxford to London. Great spot, VLK Steve Mapson!
Our VLK’s (Volunteer Lock Keepers) have also been saving water this month by purr-suading boaters to share locks, as Soulbury VLK Craig Bakin reports:
“As water levels were quite low Monday, Tony & I asked some boats to wait Monday afternoon i.e. locks in favour and doubling up. Boats seemed ok about the slight delay and we managed to save quite a bit of water, which will hopefully help with the low levels”
The Hillmorton VLK’s have sent in the super report about what’s been happening on the North Oxford. Read it here (Hillmorton report). To whet your appetite, it contains orchids…
Down near Tring Reservoirs, Ron Wem, one of Dunstable & District Boat Club’s longest standing members, has now completed the refurbishment of mileposts 52 and 53. The club installed these back in 1993! A great little project, thank you Ron, they look meow-nificent.
You can find these mile posts to Braunston along most of the Grand Union Canal, and at Braunston Historic Boat Rally, Marsworth VLK Ian Wilson found the source…
Whilst there, Ian also found Timothy West and Prunella Scales, who are well known canal lovers.
Also feeling paw-leased with his findings, is Rickmansworth Waterways Trust and Lead Volunteer Mark Saxon, who proudly proclaims:
“The one piece we missed last year BUT I got it this year! We are Himalayan Balsam free!”
Well done Mark, great to have a success story in the eradication of this invasive plant species.
ESRI, our corporate volunteers in Aylesbury, have been back out for their third task day down the Aylesbury Arm. This month they completed the backfilling of soft bank protection, repaired another section of bank with sand/cement bags, and painted High Bridge footbridge & Lock 16. Great work all – it looks so much better down there now, purr-fect even. Volunteer Lena Wolf says:
“I really enjoyed last Thursday. And always have a smile on my face walking along that bit of the canal now seeing the changes both groups made.”
Always busy and making progress, is Wendover Arm Trust who have produced a photo timeline of their progress on restoring the Wendover Arm to date. Well worth a look at this here (WAT UPDATE).
And finally, a massive THANK YOU to Wayne Moore, who, having completed a very successful 5.5 months secondment into the Volunteer Leader role, has retuned to the GUS Construction team. I know those of you that met Wayne will recognize what a good job he did and join me in wishing him all the best.
Also, John Highmore completed his four-month secondment in the role of National Volunteering Communications Manager and returns to the South East Waterway as Volunteer Development Coordinator. Welcome back John! And Miriam Tedder (me) has also completed her secondment and returns to Volunteer Leader position, and on 6th June married Craig to become Mrs. Miriam Linforth.
Thank you to all you for your continued hard work and dedication to improving the Grand Union and Oxford canals. It’s great to see so much happening each month and that we continue to engage new communities.
I can hear my cats mewing for their dinner now, and if they leave the sofa alone, I’ll treat them to a turn around the garden too…
South East Waterway Volunteering Blog 
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