Two Vignettes
by: Buffs
Western Depot volunteers have been tasked to upgrade and
revitalise some aspects of Bonds Mill Bridge. This pioneering composite bridge
needs continual TLC to get it through to replacement as one of the projects for
phase 1B of the restoration project.
Over the next few weeks the pedestrian path will be
re-marked and the yellow warning stripe at the factory end will be
repainted. One welder and two safety
marshalls were sent to re weld a broken joint.
Marshalling requires all round awareness of the task and the
approaches of traffic on foot and wheels. During one of the non welding moments
we were graced by a family of two swans and their 4 surviving cygnets. They
approached the bridge in perfect line astern gracefully lowering their long necks
to pass under the bridge. They thwarted attempts at photography by breaking
formation to approach pedestrians on the towpath that stopped to admire the
group. It was good to see that the cygnets had grown to a good size and were
starting to show their white adult plumage. This family group is probably this
year’s clutch incubated in the large nest in the reeds at The Ocean Basin.
Forming up in the distance
4 cygnets and their parents just above the Ocean Railway
bridge in early July
If you walk the towpath between Dudbridge and Ryeford
bridges you will have noticed the canalside leat which feeds the former
factories around Ford’s wharf. WD volunteers have at various times carried out
repairs to some of the sluices which controlled the draw off of water to power
water wheels providing power in the workshops before coal, gas or electricity
did so. This leat also provides water to the canal via a flap valve when the
water levels are too high.
WD volunteers David and Chris were sent to look at the
condition of a pair of sluices behind Kellaway’s yard. The sluices are well
protected by a thick belt of brambles. The sluice gates were in good order but
the frame is showing its age and will require some work.
As they were crossing the yard one of the workers approached
them and showed them around the various water related sites across the land
occupied by Kellaway. Hidden in the undergrowth are several more sluices which
fed several buildings. There are hidden remains of structures which had supported
water wheels and further artefacts relating to water power still on the site.
This site is just one of many along the Stroudwater which
remind us of the level of industrialisation along the five valleys and the
longevity of some of the factories built to support it. It would be a shame if
this history and those who have passed it on or rediscovered it was lost before
it could be properly recorded.
