Water depth, bottom conditions, bank profile and other features should be assessed carefully when the work is planned. See also the information on plankways and organising group work.
Using a spade
- Clean, sharp-edged digging tools work better than rusty dull ones. In sticky ooze or clay the small trenching spade works well, but heavy-duty garden spades are best for most conditions. Dip the blade in water occasionally to help keep material from sticking to it.
- Choose a work area on which to concentrate. Start near the edge where the spoil is to be removed and work outwards, to avoid trampling the uncleared area, churning it up and making it harder to dig.
- Cut down with the spade and work along, keeping a clean edge. Where there are several layers of sediment such as leaf-mould on silt on ooze, cut out each layer step-fashion. Be sure to cut to the desired bottom material before moving on.
- Learn to recognise the true bottom material and avoid cutting too deeply. Puddled clay may be red-brown, yellow, blue or pale grey and is hard to shovel. Watch out for any signs of a gravel, stone or brick lining over the clay. A natural bottom of gravel may grade less perceptibly into the deposited sediments, but as long as you have removed the thick smothering ooze and silt the job is done. In peat, the bottom may be difficult to recognise, and being soft, is easily disturbed. Peat is spongy and fibrous, whereas silt and ooze are composed of superfine particles.
- In loose sand or gravel a shovel is quicker to use than a spade. Compacted sandy or gravelly soil should be loosened first with a mattock. A shovelling board is useful for clearing stones. Any flat piece of sheet metal or plywood will do, placed on the bottom and butted up against the edge of the material to be cleared. Cut down and pull the material onto the shovelling board, and then scoop up the material from the board.
- The average person can throw the first metre or so of spoil onto the bank. Beyond that, a wheelbarrow team will be needed.
Using buckets
A bucket chain is one of the easiest ways to remove muck where you have plenty of volunteers. Supply adequate buckets, of the heavy-duty rubber type. With teams of four people, one can shovel, two pass in chain, and one empty.
As the distance increases, or the mud becomes too sticky to easily move about in, more people will be needed to make a chain. Take care when passing from one to another, and move your feet rather than reaching too far, to avoid possible back injury. The buckets should only be half full.
If the mud sticks in the buckets when they are emptied, add some water in the bottom each time before filling.
Shovel and wheelbarrow teams
With efficient team-work, this system moves the spoil more quickly than using buckets. The optimum is a barrow and barrower for every two shovellers, the shovellers being stationed either side of the barrow run.
There should be enough barrows so that an empty one is always ready to move into position as soon as the one in front is full. It is useful to have a cross-plank to support the barrow while it is being filled, thus giving the barrower a rest.
Pushing barrows is exhausting, so switch positions frequently. Barrows can be helped up banks with a hook and rope.
Always check the planks are well seated and free of stones and mud, to make barrowing easier. If the bank is not suitable for a circular run, or it is important to minimise bank disturbance, an ‘in and out’ system can be used.
