Peter Scatchard - New East Vale and Abingdon Branch Chairman
For the past decade, I’ve been deeply involved in transforming our hectare of tussocky land on Cumnor Hill, Oxford and its motley collection of agricultural buildings that had seen decidedly better days into a 3-home commune for me and (almost) 50-year-wife Val, our two 40-something sons and their wives and offspring (our grand-daughters o.c.) – task now accomplished (well, largely – there’s never really a definitive end-point to such projects!), I had started to give thought to how I could usefully occupy my time, besides rebuilding Norton motorcycles, sorting and digitising about 10,000 35mm colour-slides from when cameras were CAMERAS, rather than computers with a lens, finishing a novel I’ve started and am now stalled over, and trying to pack seeing as much of the world into my remaining active years as possible, by long-haul flight incl. to our much-loved New Zealand or in our cherished motorhome closer to home.
Then, a Light-Bulb-Moment – “well, another round of W&B activity could serve very well”, so here I am, thanks largely to the failure of others to peep over the battlements, but hey-ho, I feel my ‘victory’ was more unequivocal that The Donald’s back in 2016. So, for better or worse, you’ve got me as Chairman for at least another 11 months.
Having no idea I was going to perform this task, Val and I had previously planned a Final 2020 Flit away in the motorhome, a two week tour of Middle England, so immediately post-election there was no time to address the Chairman’s role for a wee-while; and on return to home, what greeted us was a flooded bathroom above, a water-logged oak dining table below, and soaked flooring throughout the kitchen, that’s taken almost a week to resolve.
But hey, I’m there now, so it’s time to buckle down and start easing myself into a not-unfamiliar W&B role – as the Minutes allude to, in about 1986, having bought and restored Canal Farmhouse in East Challow, I formed the original East Vale Branch of what was then the Wilts & Berks Canal Amenity Group, an organisation that ‘Dare Not Speak Its Name’ as a canal restoration organisation for fear of startling too many horses, or more likely being laughed out of the room. I lasted in that position for about 5 years, before being ‘kicked-upstairs’ to Chair the whole W&BCAG until standing-down-time in around 1996, to hand over to the late lamented Sqd Ldr Tony Davy, largely through pressure-of-work at Hitachi’s European disk-drive-division, travelling throughout Europe including the then-opening-up old Soviet bloc, plus to the USA and of course Japan.
During my final years as W&B Chairman, we had the Allen & Harris Survey conducted for us (a big thank-you is still due to that organisation’s charismatic boss, Dowell Conning), and opened-up a dialogue with Thames Water regarding their proposed Abingdon Reservoir that would subsume around 3 miles of original canal-course across Cow Common and Steventon Field. ‘Twas here that the W&B first came across David Cook, now our main professional advisor on water and reservoir matters, a clear case of Game-Keeper turned Poacher (or v.v. dependent on your view-point)!
Now, around a quarter-century since I relinquished my W&B posts, the reservoir is STILL only a twinkle in the eye of course – a problem and an opportunity still, that we need to be prepared to deal with as and when it arises. En-passant, I note from the evidence of my eyes the ‘reservoir-threat’ as it’s perceived by many, perhaps quite understandably, has done little to dampen the demand and supply for houses in the East Hanney area, despite oft-expressed fears of planning blight, given the number of housing-estates being hauled out of the (flat) ground there.
I also need to announce that the Board of Trustees recently approved the merging of the Abingdon and East Vale branches into the shiny, new, ‘improved’ and snappily-named Abingdon & East Vale Branch of the Wilts & Berks Canal Trust – once CV-19 restrictions are lifted, I can see no reason why the combined branch shouldn’t continue to meet socially at Hanney, as this is probably nearer, certainly quicker to get to, for the occasional Abingdon members than for some Wantage-area ones!!
In addition to acquainting myself with you, the members, I must equally acquaint myself with the issues, the problems and opportunities our project faces, including viewing them for myself, on the ground. To that end, I’m drawing up a winter-long programme of site visits along the entire line of the canal. Some of the priorities will be geographic - ideally, I’d start at Abingdon and work my/our (Val will be accompanying me on many of these peregrinations, I think!) way south and west - but some will be prioritised opportunistically. For instance, there are currently issues on the Wantage Town Arm and at Childrey Wharf, and there’s a review meeting at Shrivenham Canal Park in West Vale branch’s area I’ll take advantage of. And I have a meeting at Wichelstowe with our CEO Gordon Olson to see for myself for the first time the rather magnificent-looking works that have gone on there over the past decade or so, and to be briefed on the (hopefully!!) up-coming M4 crossing that’ll put some real ginger into our project to link Thames and K&A!!!
As Branch Chairman I am automatically a member of the Trust’s Executive, where matters affecting the entire project, not just ‘our’ local ones, are discussed and actioned – I see a significant part of my role as being a two-way bridge twix the branch’s concerns, opportunities, problems etc and those of the whole project, bringing resources to bear where they can have maximum impact. But also to act as a central point for our local team to make decisions through, to agree priorities, programme activities and best operate as a team, reconciling the many different ambitions, talents and availabilities volunteers can bring to the party, hopefully forming a cohesive group of like-minded people all pulling in the same direction – it’s very important that we ENJOY what we do, in giving up our spare time to contribute to what by any stretch of the imagination is a Herculean task. I only hope I’m up to the tasks ahead of us in these regards, but it’s a cause Val and I have an emotional commitment to, and are pleased to be returning to.
And locally, we do of course have plenty to occupy ourselves with a renewal of the Elms Farm section twix Wantage and Grove, the Stockham section with the need to maintain the canal’s ‘rights’ throughout the house-building programmes there, and on-going work on the East to West Challows section, and even beyond over to the Childrey New Road, including the wharf there.
And don’t forget, hands, face, space, and let’s hope we all manage to steer clear of CV-19 until the (Oxford???) vaccine (CV-V21??) comes charging to our rescue!
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Peter Scatchard |