Field Trip Follow Up

On the Morning of the 15th October, twenty or so of us gathered in the Canal Road area of Newtown and set off in search of clues and traces along the 'ghost' section of the Montgomery Canal between Newtown and Pwll Penarth. We were a varied group including geologists, historians, poets, artists, canoeists and the generally curious.

We started at the remains of the last bridge, just before the mysterious and now filled in canal basin. Joining the dots from there we followed the line of the canal taking in the sites of missing bridges, the canal-influenced architecture, the pump-house and a missing lock, hidden canal-side sheds and bridges.

Stopping at spots where the aura of the canal as a living, industrial entity was still at its most concentrated and potent, I supplemented the power of the imagination with images of artefacts I have come across in archives and museums during the residency.

Most of us on the walk were familiar with the route we took, but we attempted as a group to strip away our habitual responses and look in a different way. Contributions from geologist Andrew Jenkinson and Kate Lynch, Heritage Officer from the Canal & Rivers Trust, added insights from other angles.

 

Standing by the Pumphouse looking at images of its engines and chimney before it was removed.

At the end our walk and talk evolved in to a well-earned chat and sip at Newtown Market Hall.

Beautiful Beams

Progress on the Monty Canal Modelling Kit! I've moulded the first miniature 'fish-belly' bridge beams, making it possible to model one of the Monty Canal's signature bridges. They are a very satisfying shape to pull out of the mould, and on this scale a lot easier to handle than the original cast-iron ones...

Like the bricks, these have been cast using plaster with added iron - so they are almost authentic! The red colour gives them a look of rusty rather than fresh cast-iron.

Ta daaa!

I found a few volunteers after the Canal Field Trip last Thursday to try out the new components.

 The model below ended up with an unorthodox but intriguing staircase detail.

Bridge model with unorthodox staircase detail!

Spider Stitches & Bulrushes

I'm getting ready to meet up with a group of stitchers from the Llanymynech area on Friday, to start designing a collaborative textile piece for the Montgomery Canal. 

Last weekend I visited the National Waterways Museum in Gloucester, and found some nice examples of stitching by canal boaters. These belts using 'spider stitch' were apparently made for the boatmen by their daughters.

Last time I met up with the group we talked about designing applique motifs inspired by canal flora and fauna, and someone mentioned bulrushes. Minutes after leaving that meeting I came across some lovely bulrush specimens near Llanymynech and took a few photographs for future reference...

Newtown Canal Field Trip 15th Oct

Heritage Open Day Llanymynech

I held an Open Studio at Llanymynech Heritage Area on 13th September. It was a chance to talk to volunteers and local residents I had met earlier in the year about progress on the residency. I explained how the canal-modelling workshop I held in Spring has developed in to the idea of a Montgomery Canal modelling kit that will be available to loan after the residency. 

It was also a chance to seek people to get involved in a new stage of the project - designing and making a textile artwork for the canal. After conversations with Joan Zorn of the Llanymynech Limeys, it looks like I have struck gold as apparently there are quite a few avid quilters and stitchers in the area....

Open Day, Open Studio

Re-making The Monty

In August I finally made a trip to see the Ellesmere canal yard and have a look in the 'Pattern Shop', a room about which I had heard much and was very curious to explore.

The yard itself is great, with a dry dock and a huge maintenance workshop (see below) of which I am extremely envious. What artist doesn't dream of a studio so well equipped and cavernous? The crane outside is also pretty impressive. 

The yard is an interesting mixture of buildings still in use for their intended purpose, such as the dry dock, where a narrow boat was being repainted, and spaces such as the weighing house that look as they would have done the day people downed tools in the 1930s.

The maintenance workshop / Mega-studio

Next to the maintenance workshop, the original blacksmith's shop is still in action, occupied by blacksmith Rowan Taylor who shares it with a selection of relics and artefacts from canal engineering days. 

One such artefact is this pattern for an iron fire-box. These were used in the little lock-keepers huts to keep warm when there was no adjacent lock cottage. They are temptingly reminiscent of parts from a giant meccano set.

Pattern for an iron fire-box

And now to the Pattern Shop! This was something of a pilgrimage for me. I love mouldmaking and casting and had been told there were many of the original designs or 'patterns' for moulding all sorts of components on the Montgomery Canal. 

This is indeed the case, and what follows are glimpses of a treasure trove of wooden patterns, carved in to all sorts of unlikely shapes that would be more recognisable in metal, but are somehow made strange by their conversion in to this mellow material.

 

Patterns for all sorts of components: handrails to gearing to depth measures...

There was a sense that you could put all these parts together to create a wonderful, completely wooden world.

The wooden treasure trove

Some particularly nice gearing and cogs

Rather than speculating wildly (although that would be fun) I am going to find out more about the patterns and their uses at the Heritage Open day on September the 12th and will post some more images of specific curiosities then.

Until then I will leave you with an image of the wooden pattern for the handrails on the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. If you've ever walked across this aqueduct you'll agree they are crucial, with a lot riding on their durability. The gaps between the rails are rather wider than I would like, but it adds an extra thrill, and it's good to know they can always make more...