East Vale and Abingdon Branch News  -  Spring - Summer  2023

We have a wonderful venue for our monthly meetings at the Wantage and Grove Cricket Club. An added attraction is the low price of beer available which helps make our meetings run smoothly! A Cricket Club member, Dave Richardson serves behind the bar. Dave is also the Wantage Town Crier and on occasion has advertised our Sack House Museum which is open one Saturday a month until early autumn. Posting notices on the website ‘Old Wantage’ has also been an effective method of increasing visitor numbers.

We have had some very useful work parties which do much valuable work in keeping the towpath in good shape along our stretch of canal. We also maintain existing structures and post the results on an active local community Facebook page. During one work party in March, we cleared the undergrowth round the tail bridge below Grove Common Lock and posted ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures. This bridge was previously reconstructed by Trust members, so we have a particular interest in it.

I think we were all amazed at the response to the Facebook posting with almost 300 likes and many positive comments about how much the work of the Trust was appreciated. There were also two offers to join future work parties!

Recently we were invited to attend a Health and Well-being event held at the Beacon (the town hall in Wantage) in acknowledgement of the positive benefits provided to the public by the Canal. The event was well attended and a great opportunity to explain to those who enjoy walking along the towpath what the Trust is about.  In addition, we signed up a new member who is now attending our Branch monthly meetings.

The dry weather over the summer causes long sections of the canal to dry out which makes it possible to remove rubbish and fallen branches from the canal bed.