Work starts on restoration

IT WAS 10 years ago that the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust (SNCT) was formed, with the objective of re-opening the canal route from Shrewsbury to Norbury Junction on the Shropshire Union Canal.

After a long wait prisoners from Stoke Heath Prison did some preparatory work for the Trust at Moss Pool Bridge, close to the A41 near Newport, Shropshire. They removed all the ivy and undergrowth from the bridge and recovered the bridge's capping stones from the bottom of the canal bed where they had been pushed by vandals some years ago.

Original plan abandoned

In the process of removing the undergrowth they discovered that a tree root had managed to penetrate the stonework, three courses down, and had cracked the mortar and lifted all the stones above. The original plan to replace the capping stones had to be abandoned until a way could be worked out to remove all 17 stones, take the tree root out and then replace and re-mortar them with lime mortar

The Trust's regular monthly Newport work party met recently at the Black Hut, a former canal warehouse at Newport Wharf. A group of volunteers, including Kevin Taylor and Paul Boston from the Norbury & Newport Canal Restoration CIC group, were despatched to the Moss Pool Bridge. There, led by Steve Evans with his JCB and Fred Cooper, the SNCT's expert mason, they set about the task of taking the bridge wall apart, removing the tree roots and then rebuilding it.

It was heavy work, but with great enthusiasm and lots of elbow grease, the group managed the complete job within the day. Rain at the very end just precluded re-pointing the external faces of the stones, which was done at a later date