Cornard Lock Working Parties

Great Cornard Lock and VEC

working parties.

Note, The working parties are organised and run by the River Stour Trust. For more Details of the River Stour Trust, please follow the links to their home page. (found in the links page).

13th January 2007

A new year and still so many jobs to be done. Yet again the weather was kind to us although there was a fresh breeze when working on the downstream jetties. With about a dozen volunteers on site we were able to get many of the maintenance jobs done and a few of the finishing ones to the site as well. The steps to the lower jetty were made good with new cross rails and side rails fitted along with the steps being backfilled with hardcore to form a safe and secure set of steps. Both the upper and lower jetties were covered in wire mesh to help with the grip.

A new cover was constructed along with the mounting frame being fixed in the ground for the outside charging point, kindly donated by the Environment Agency.

The access ramp to the front of the building was modified slightly and this will now go down towards the lock and a new set of steps will lead down to the car park area adjacent to the building. This ramp is soon to be fitted with the new surface suitable for wheelchair access.

9th December 2006

Another good day was had at the VEC/Great Cornard Lock site. The main objective was to recover as much of the temporary electricity supply cable as we could and reuse this to feed the new charging point supplied by the EA. This job required the old cable being excavated, although not buried that deep this was quite an easy task, then digging a new trench from the VEC to the jetty next to the lighter. "Many hands make light work" and on this occasion that was certainly true. The surface we had to dig through was the brick rubble laid down for the construction of the VEC, not the easiest stuff to dig through. We had at least 10 volunteers today and were also visited by Francis Batten. Peter Evans passed through in his boat "I am doing a six hour run today so I can't stop for a chat, see you later". Peter is a regular on the river at all times of year and produced the presentation currently on the wall in the VEC showing pictures of one of his trips down the river. We also removed some of the weed from in front of the "restored" small jetty that was completed last month by the Sea Scouts this will make this easier to use by the many canoeists that use the river.

11th November 2006

George Whybrow organised the first of his "Second Saturday in the month" working parties. This was held at Great Cornard Lock site. There was quite a few jobs to do at the end of a successful boating season. The main objectives were to:-

Improve the access to the main upstream jetty so our trip boat Francis J could tie up "end on" so as to allow wheel chair access to the boat. This will in turn allow wheel chair users and those that can't walk across the lock gates access to the visitors centre.
A general tidy up of the site including cutting the grass and clearing the nettles.
Replacement of a wooden rubbing strake on the top landing stage near to the lock.
The restoration of a small jetty on the upstream side for use by canoeist visiting the site together with clearing this corner of the site ready for grass seeding early in the new year.
Clearance of some vegetation from the lighter to enable an assessment of work required to be carried out.
Raising and painting of the old propeller and prop' shaft.
Relocating the bricks given to us by Barrett Homes.

There was a good group of volunteers turned up to this event. It was good to see so many members working together. We were also joined by 4 of the Sea Scout patrol leaders and helpers who helped with the restoration of the jetty and painting the old propeller and prop' shaft from the steam engine driven lighter. The weather was great and the sun shone for most of the day.

We plan to be back here in a months time to finish replacing some of the facing boards on the lower jetties as well as a bit more dredging and clearance of the channel and vegetation. The date of the next working party is the 9th of December 2006.

Restoring the Jetty

Before-This whole corner of the site had become overgrown and hiding beneath it all was a jetty!

During Restoration-All the top planks were removed, one cross beam was replaced and new decking (left over from the VEC) was fitted.

Finished-Looking upstream towards Sudbury. The jetty will be used by canoeist visiting the site. It is low and ideal for getting in and out of canoes. The weed in front of the jetty will be dredged and cleared at the next working party.

Repairs to the top quay side near the lock

As you can see part of the wooden edging strip has come away and is dangerous, This was removed and a new piece cut to the right size and shape.

George and Pat carefully lower the new piece into place and refix it to the metal piles.

Dolly the Dredger

Dolly is the work boat and dredger. She was built by Roger Brown and is operated on the Sudbury end of the river.

She is a traditional spoon dredger design and takes 3 people to operate.

Painting the Propeller

This is the old propeller from the steam lighter. To preserve and show it better it has been raised up on some bricks and given a coat of paint.

Clearing the lighter

The lighter needed to be cleared of the vegetation that had taken root through the year.

Andrew and Ron got stuck in (the mud) and now the lighter can be seen again.

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