Worse on the tidal Trent

SHOULD Jimmy Lockwood (The uninviting Trent) really want to experience the total lack of facilities on the Trent, then he should have carried on through Newark—sorry, he can't now as CaRT has closed it—on to the tidal, writes Jake Leatheridge.

And it was the tidal Trent that those at CaRT wanted more boaters to experience, but I say don't bother, and I speak from bitter experience having used it six times now.  And in case you are wondering why so many times if it is so bad, it is because the Yorkshire canals put those in the Midlands to shame, with their breathtaking Pennine scenery, and like I believe the editor, I appreciate such as the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and the Standedge Tunnel in addition to going 'over the top' on the Rochdale and Leeds & Liverpool canals.

Stuck on sand bank

But back to the Trent and the start at Cromwell Lock, where you have no say whatsoever in when you want to leave, you are in the hands of the lock keeper.  Then like many others thinking I know what I am doing, end up stuck on a sand bank for hours above Torksey, waiting for the tide to rise to free the boat, having well studied the Trent Boating Association's excellent booklet of the river's aberrations, then of course thinking I know it all, cutting corners where I should not. Luckily it was a higher tide later, so the boat floated off after a bit of rocking.

It is a safe haven at Torksey, where it seems you always have to wait for the right tide—then off you go, with 26 miles at the front of you before you reach Keadby, [pronounced Kidbie] and hope that the ship Jan IV is not moored just above the entrance.

Gainsborough

But back to the journey, and should you have any reason to stop—as I did once—you have the floating pontoon at Gainsborough, and the hell of a job getting to it, for the tide is still running and you have to turn into it and fight to get to the side, not helped by the amount of silt piled up against the wall.

Otherwise there is nowhere unless you want to attempt to get in to Stockwith on the Chesterfield Canal, and that's 14 miles from Torksey, and no easy matter.

Keadby

Then it's Keadby Lock and the ship. This is moored away from the bank, which allows a very fast flowing stream funnelled between it and the wall, and hits you as you enter the lock. So depending how you approach and the strength of the tide, you have the choice of being slammed against the lower wall or if you have too much power, crashing straight into the upper wall—take your pick.

I believe that the ship no longer moors at the lock, so now you just have the tide to contend with, but it can still be hair raising.

It is something of a shock to those more used to the canals just how wide a river can be, with the safety of a bank should anything happen, nowhere at hand, and on a tidal with its widely fluctuating height, absolutely nowhere to moor.

And in fact it is not safe to moor, as if tied to anything solid, there is the risk of the boat being hung-up should the tide go out or the boat flooded should it rise.