Dave has a long association with the canals. After a couple of school holidays on the Broads, his family had a week on the Llangollen Canal in 1965, a much quieter experience than nowadays!
His parents eventually bought a narrowboat, which was moored at Braunston for nearly 30 years. Holidays on Bittern meant a relaxing week, enjoying the waterways of the south Midlands. Usually we feel we must be busy doing something, but this gave us a wonderful excuse to just sit, do nothing, enjoying the peace and beauty of canals, the wildlife and the history.
Our daughter studied environmental science and joined the university conservation society. While living with us for a while, she volunteered with the Mongomery Wildlife Trust. Soon we both started volunteering as well on local nature reserves.
Adopting a nature reserve
When the Canal and River Trust took over the canals and started up volunteer groups, we quickly joined the roving Friday group. We were out with them practically every Friday on the Montgomery and the Llangollen canals.
A feature of the Monty is the creation of nature reserves along its length. These have been created to mitigate against disturbance to the rare aquatic plants, as the canal is restored. As well as working around the towpaths on both canals, we spent time at various reserves along the Monty. But as a group, we could not visit the all reserves, as regularly as they needed. So in 2016 we adopted the Wern Claypits Nature Reserve.
We are now responsible for the maintenance of the reserve, following a Canal & River Trust management plan. We work there regularly throughout the year, with monthly work parties involving both members of the Friday group and local residents.
During the pandemic, we had many people visiting the Claypits. They had often only recently realised it was there and would comment how much they enjoyed their visits. Finding the towpath and our reserve a wonderful place to relax, soak up nature, enjoying the plants, birds and peace.
We love volunteering on both the towpath and all the reserves. We enjoy the camaraderie of our Friday group and have made some very good friends. The local Canal & River Trust staff are a very friendly group of people, who appreciate any help we can provide. The last ten years have been very rewarding, meeting new people, learning new skills or just enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the waterways.
