Newsletter Issue 9 June 2013

Work starts on Pipps Ford by-wash Work on re-instating the by-wash at Pipps Ford has commenced

with great gusto, and with the help of willing RGT volunteers, seen

here removing a tree stump from the old bridge wall. .

Full report inside

ANNUAL GENERAL

MEETING

7.30PM THURSDAY 13TH

JUNE 2013

NEEDHAM MARKET

COMMUNITY CENTRE Guest Speaker Dr Charles Beardall

Area manager for the

Environment Agency

Hard Working

Bunch As a newcomer to the River

Gipping Trust it has taken me a

while to get to grips with its inner

workings.

Your trustees are a hard working

bunch, they do not just sit around

drinking tea and coffee and

chewing the fat. They are involved

with a host of activities that are the

heart of this thriving organisation. Some of them give up their

own time to give talks to interested groups and organisations.

This provides a valuable source of income. Others attend local

events to promote the Trust. Others get their hands dirty work-

ing on restoration projects and coordinating the many hard

working volunteers. Liaison with Environment Agency and

Local Authorities also comes within their remit especially on

restoration issues.

Then there is administration, our Secretary receives countless

emails and letters all which require answers .This also involves

keeping the Trustees up-to-date with all that is going on. The

Treasurer keeps the RGT on the straight and narrow and

spends a considerable time sourcing tools, equipment and sup-

plies for restoration projects. The Trustees are also embarking

on achieving our goal of bringing navigation back to a stretch of

the River Gipping. What’s more as volunteers they all enjoy it.

LES HOWARD

RGT ANNUAL ACCOUNTS prepared by Spencer Greystrong Hon Treasurer

New Bridge for Pipps Ford

Although the start of the year was unusually wet and then very cold, we kept our

Wednesday work parties running through the bad weather thanks to regular

breaks for hot tea and an almost continual bonfire, thanks to clearing some

unwanted Leylandii trees from around the river bank!

Our latest project to re-instate the old by-wash around the lock at Pipps Ford is

now well under way. This by-wash channel, which is in fact the old river bed, will

need to be fully functional when we return this stretch of river to navigation.

Over the years the channel has become partially filled with silt and now only sees

water at times of flood.

The original bridge over the old river course has long since disappeared, and has

been replaced at some time with a rubble causeway, partially blocking the old

water course. The weir that controlled the water level above the lock has been

removed, although traces of the old brickwork remain. We now intend to replace

the old bridge , remove the modern causeway and open up the full length of the

A model of the new bridge that will span the by-wash at Pipps Ford made

by Graham Greatrix.

river bed, before re-instating the weir at a later date. This winter we have taken

out a number of trees that had grown up through the old bridge abutments and

are now demolishing the remaining brickwork as carefully as possible in order to re-

use as many of the historic bricks as we can in the re-build.

While all this manual work has been going on, Colin has designed the new bridge

along the lines of the Mathematical Bridge over the

Cam at Cambridge, albeit it on a slightly smaller scale.

We plan to source the timber from White House Farm,

Great Glemham again, and to use their facilities to set

out and pre-fabricate the bridge. We were a little sur-

prised at our last work party, when Mr.Greatrix and his

son Simon, the landowners at Pipps Ford, arrived at

the site hut with a scale model of the proposed bridge.

What was especially surprising was that even though they had not seen Colin’s

final drawings, the model matched our proposals in all but a few details.

The next steps involved getting a digger and dumper on site to clear out the silt and

remove the remaining tree stumps, then laying the concrete base for new bridge

abutments and weir. As you will see from the photographs on the opposite page

work is well under way. Due to the base being at river level and the site having a

high water table there is an ingress of water which requires pumping out before

work can commence. Once the brickwork reaches about one metre staging will be

installed to minimise pumping out.

Back at Baylham, the high water levels this winter have prevented any progress

with the installation of the new sluice gates. We had hoped to use a temporary

coffer dam to seal off the working area, but this has not proved possible, We will

return to this project in the summer, once the machine work at Pipps Ford has

been completed and the water levels have stabilised.

In the meantime, work parties continue every Wednesday and first Saturday of the

month at Pipps Ford

Martin Bird

Project Leader

May 2013

These pictures show the various stages involved with creating the base for the

by- wash and weir at Pipps Ford. The flooding is shown bottom left and the base

can just be seen below the surface of the water.

OUR OWN DISPLAY AT THE

MUSEUM OF EAST ANGLIAN LIFE

The River Gipping Trust has been given permission to put up a display at the Museum of East Anglian Life in Stowmarket. It traces the history and importance of the River Gipping through the ages. There is also a section of the display about the work of the Trust. This is an integral part of the educational role of the Trust. Visitors to the museum can also pick up the two river Gipping walks leaflets as well as more information on the River Gipping Trust. It will even help with our membership drive.

EDITOR: LES HOWARD 406 Woodbridge Road Ipswich IP4 4EH

01473 712696 les.jan@hotmail.co.uk

The views that are expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the views of the River Gipping Trust or its Trustees.