At the beginning of March the Uttoxeter Canal had a visit from the WRG North West regional group.  It was the first time that we had hosted a WRG visit since pre-Covid, and we were pleased to be able to return to using the excellent Greatwood Hall community centre in Tean for the accommodation.  On site lots of useful vegetation clearance was carried out by a small band of keen and enthusiastic volunteers who had travelled from across the country for the weekend. 

On the Saturday the volunteers worked around Carringtons Lock – completely clearing all the brambles that had grown up around the lock and the pumping station core stones, and removing a number of the very large tree stumps that had been left after WRG Forestry did the tree clearance around the lock a good number of years ago now.  The wooden posts between the lock and the roadway were given a further coat of paint (by our very own Knobsticks editor, Roger, and proof-reader, Margaret, no less!).  We were fortunate enough to have a WRG Forestry chain saw operator with us for the weekend, Paul, who usefully tidied up a number of fallen trees over the weekend. 

On the Sunday work moved to around Bridge 70, which was removed of weeds on and around the bridge, some fallen trees were removed from the line of the canal above the bridge, and some vegetation removed from along the line of the footpath. 

Our thanks to all the WRG North West volunteers, who seem keen to return so we hope that this will be the first of a regular visit from them once or twice a year.