SUSSEX OUSE RESTORATION TRUST NEWS
Great Progress at Isfield Lock
With the end of the summer comes the end of the restoration work that can be achieved at Isfield Lock this year. However the last six months have seen the work come on in leaps and bounds and all restoration targets have been met and surpassed thanks to the commitment of the regular working parties and the welcome dry weather that has been a feature of the summer in the southeast.
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The target for 2009 was completion of the restoration of the east wall of the lock chamber. That was achieved, using original bricks and coping stones, by early August, allowing work to continue on the restoration of the downstream east wing wall. |
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Before...(251KB) |
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Much of what remained of the original wing wall required demolition and a complete re-build. That could not be achieved until the bank behind the wall was seriously reinforced over a length of two metres, a width of one metre and a depth of over two metres. September saw the completion of this reinforcement and the rebuild of the wall, with the dedicated working parties still unable to believe their luck with the favourable weather conditions. |
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...and after (153KB) |
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The east upstream training wall then became the unexpected next target for the year. The stone wall had already been partially demolished. The bank was reinforced and back-filled and the wall rebuilt with original stone previously recovered and cleaned. During this work the ground paddle culvert was exposed, having been bricked up many years ago. The tunnel, found to be in perfect condition, was cleared of silt and a small amount of debris. |
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If you know a better hole...(141KB) |
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Now with work coming to a halt for 2009 the east side of the lock is, at the end of a very successful restoration season, completely restored. The working parties, under the guidance of Paul Morris and organised by Ted Lintott, can justifiably be proud of the amount of work achieved in 2009. The site and compound around the lock has been cleared, cleaned and secured for the winter months. (Text and photos courtesy of Terry Owen) |
| Upper east training wall (251KB) | |
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Before any 2010 working parties can resume in April a plan must be put into place as to the way forward in tackling the extensive restoration required of the west lock-chamber wall. This wall is off perpendicular from a line about 4’ 6” / 1.37m above from the invert, where there is a horizontal shear line and the wall tilts inwards. The land on this side of the lock is adjacent to the public footpath and farm track. Our original plans for reinstatement of this wall called for a concrete heel behind the wall, but we cannot make a big enough heel to suit the clay soil here within the area available to us. An alternative solution is to raise the wall in 2-leaf brickwork and pour concrete behind it, extending the concrete down below invert level as a nib and about 2 m back from the wall. This design raises the question of whether we have the workforce capacity to achieve this, even in sections. Eight people will be needed on each occasion, probably three such occasions. Estimated annual expenditure on each section of the west wall renovation is £1300.
Restoration Appeal
The Sussex Ouse Restoration Trust will require funds and commitment equal and beyond that so far required in the work at Isfield to date, with the badly damaged west wall likely to provide many additional challenges to those so far met. This makes the appeal for funding and work-party volunteers for the tasks ahead of us even more important. If you can help in any way please contact our volunteer coordinator Ted Lintott, via e-mail at tedl @talktalk.net, or by telephone on 01444 414413, or Bob Draper (contact details at the bottom of this Newsletter). Some sort of sponsorship deal with a tool-hire company or building materials firm would be especially useful!
Vision Document Launched!
The Trust's "Vision Document" was officially launched on March 27th 2007 at the John Harvey Tavern in Lewes. An excellent turn-out of 20 members and 30 invited guests joined together to listen to a short formal presentation by SORT Chairman Bob Draper. This was followed by a buffet lunch during which there was ample opportunity for members and guests to question your Committee and discuss with each other the challenges and opportunities raised by the Vision and SORT's plans for conservation and restoration of the Sussex Ouse Navigation. Invited guests included local County, District and Parish Councillors, the Environment Agency, Sussex Wildlife Trust, Sussex Ouse Conservation Society, angling clubs, Ramblers Association and many more.
The next step is to circulate the Vision as widely as possible to engage with all interested local parties. This will include individual presentations or talks where appropriate. SORT then intends to form a partnership with all the local bodies expressing an interest in moving the project forward. This will hopefully lead to sufficient funding being found for an initial feasibility study to show the engineering feasibility of the project and to prove the economic and social benefits that will derive from it. That will then allow for a full environmental impact study to be done to ensure that any works undertaken are not detrimental to the long-term biodiversity and ecology of the river corridor.
Printed copies of our Vision document may be requested
from our Secretary (see our Contacts page).
Alternatively, there is a downloadable version available in pdf format.
Please note that this is FOUR MEGABYTES in size to provide a
reasonable quality of image resolution. On a dial-up connection this will
take a minimum of 12 minutes to download.
Download via this link.
Material Copyright © 2002/8 Sussex Ouse Restoration Trust