The Story of the Rebuilding of the Upper Avon Navigation by John Grundy (RCHS Book Awards 2020 Judges Report)
The final award this year is made to a rather unconventional publication to which the judges have decided to award a Special Prize.
The story of the rebuilding of the Upper Avon navigation by John Grundy, privately published by David & Alison Higgins
At the time of the awards this book was out of print. However, it has been reprinted and copies may now be ordered from the author using this order form: Upper Avon Story
Following the restoration of the Lower Avon river navigation from Tewkesbury to Evesham and the southern part of the Stratford Canal, the missing link in the waterways network was the Upper Avon navigation from Evesham to Stratford-upon-Avon. A Trust was formed, and David Hutchings, who had played a corresponding role in the Stratford Canal restoration was appointed Project Manager. With a staff of three (a crane driver, a welder and his secretary) he achieved the reopening of the navigation largely using voluntary labour, working parties from prisons and borstals and the army. Plant was donated or hired. The engineering was kept as simple as possible because of the use of unskilled labour. Nine new locks were built, each unique to suit the donated gates available and the local ground conditions. No attempt was made to restore what little remained of the original infrastructure. Weirs and water levels had to be rethought. A huge amount of dredging proved necessary and the disposal of the dredged material was one of the biggest and most expensive problems faced.
In addition to the engineering aspects, David Hutchings had to negotiate with landowners, the drainage authority and the various tiers of local government, overcoming concerns about new weirs and increased flood risk, invasion of private property by city-dwelling boaters and a myriad of other issues, not to mention fundraising.
John Grundy was a trainee design & technology teacher and due to the involvement of some relations in the project, was persuaded to write his university dissertation about the restoration. This lay in an attic for some 40 years until a chance conversation made David Higgins aware of its existence. David had already been concerned to create some sort of memorial to David Hutchings, who had died in 2005. He therefore had the dissertation and supporting documentation professionally scanned, printed and bound, with copies placed in appropriate archives and libraries as a resource for future historians and researchers.
After introductory chapters on the history of the navigation (already documented at the time of writing by Charles Hadfield and others) the bulk of the dissertation is a detailed chronological account of the work carried out and the day to day issues that had to be dealt with. After four years of planning and negotiation, work on the ground commenced in November 1968 and culminated with a formal reopening by HM the Queen Mother in 1974.
John Grundy was a diligent researcher. The supporting documents include his correspondence with those from whom he sought information – David Hutchings himself, Robert Aickman (who declined assistance because he was ‘already in touch with two people who say they are writing books about our project’), innumerable local government officials, river and drainage authorities, archives, newspaper and magazine editors, the list goes on. The number of replies he received offering no assistance or referring him elsewhere is testament to the author’s persistence. There are transcripts of previous legislation, going back to the order of 1635 allowing William Sandys to make the river passable, and a 19th century legal judgement about abandonment. There are many maps, plans and diagrams and photographs of work in progress and work completed, also an album of press cuttings.
This is not a conventional history book. One judge remarked that it looked like the contents of a filing cabinet but it is also a unique record of history as it was being made. Those two other books mentioned by Aickman never materialised and the judges felt that the combined efforts of John Grundy and Mr & Mrs Higgins to tell and publicise the story were deserving of recognition by the Society.
At the time of the awards this book was out of print. However, it has been reprinted and copies may now be ordered from the author using this order form: Upper Avon Story. The cost is £45 plus £10 for post and packing. All enquiries should be addressed to the publisher, by email, at upperavonstory@gmail.com.