The work of Huddersfield Canal Society's volunteers these days centres around painting of locks and general maintenance/gardening-type activities.
Trevor Ellis, who organises the team of volunteers, writes:
"Since the canal opened, our painting activities have covered most of the locks on the West Side, apart from those in the centres of Stalybridge and Uppermill, which we tend to leave to BW in view of access difficulties and the number of people around, particularly on Sundays when we work.
"One long-running saga on which I must comment is the fitting of Bridge Number Plates. Originally conceived as a volunteer activity around the time of the opening of the canal, it gradually became clear that there was no way in which we would ever get this to pass the Health and Safety requirements, given the limited equipment at our disposal. We therefore needed to negotiate with BW for them to do the fitting and to provide them with a run of plates, which proved difficult as we had set up casting and delivery on a fairly random and gradual basis to suit our work style rather than theirs.
"However, we have managed to deliver the whole run of plates for both Narrow and Broad canals to the two parts of BW, and those on the West, which were delivered first, were fitted earlier in the year. Very good they look too! We hope to see the East side plates installed over the winter.
"Our latest proposal is to equip some of the locks - those having names of good historical provenance - with name plates. BW are engaged in a consultation with interested bodies."