Idle Thoughts

David Hymers

More about the Tree

WE LEFT Bath on Friday morning, having abandoned our trip to Bristol because of the tree blocking Weston Lock. Before we left that location on Thursday afternoon we noticed that the bus company had managed to get a crane in to deal with their share of the tree and judging from the noise there were a couple of chainsaws at work. I rang British Waterways at Gloucester to tell them this, since it was fairly obvious that the crane was in a position to deal with their tree as well, but little interest was shown.

When we went up Bath locks I was horrified, but not surprised, to find that there was no notice anywhere advising boaters of the problem, although by this time the blockage was nearly 48 hours old. The boats we met coming the other way had no knowledge of the problem; just how difficult is it to pin a notice to Bath top lock giving the information? We are now (Saturday) at Bradford-on-Avon and there is no notice there either. They can find the manpower to put up bits of paper warning about cills, but emergency stoppage warnings appear to be beyond them.

Bath Deep Lock

THIS lock is an amalgamation of two original locks and thus about 20 feet deep. The bottom gates must be amongst the biggest in the country not to be mechanically operated. Nevertheless, they are relatively easy to move, despite having fairly short balance beams. They are certainly easier than Stenson Lock or Lock 3 on Braunston flight. If they can get it right here, why not there?

The odd thing is that the bottom gate footboards are placed inside the lock, for no obvious reason, since there is space for them in the normal position. This means that not only have you to keep a close eye on the cill, you have to watch the other end as well and this is a lock in which more than one sinking has happened. There is a warning notice but this is very oddly phrased and for an ascending boat, which is in the most danger, wrongly placed at the tail of the lock.

Bath Deep Lock with notice in the wrong place

The other peculiarity is that there are several paddle openings along the length of the lock, which means that if you are a single boat going up the consequence of opening the paddle on the same side of the boat will be a rapid slamming to the other side of the chamber. This does need a warning notice.

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The Avon tree

THE tree blocking the Avon below Bath came down about 4pm on Wednesday. According to one of the stuck boaters part of the same tree fell the other way onto three bendy buses (now very bent buses) parked in the First Bus depot which occupies the lock island. The tree branches that blocked the cycle path which runs along the towpath have been cleared, presumably by the highway authority. British Waterways have done nothing.

Gone are the days when British Waterways men with a chainsaw would have a fallen tree moved in hours...

I phoned the number given for the Devizes office and got someone who told me that the job had been assessed as being beyond British Waterways resources. A contractor was called in who was busy elsewhere, but would come and assess the situation this afternoon. I later rang the Gloucester number and asked to speak to whoever was in charge of removing the blockage; he was in a meeting. It then became clear that I was speaking to the same girl as earlier; apparently the Devizes office is closed and its number is diverted to Gloucester.

We have been assured that we will be telephoned with an update before 5pm, by which time the tree will have been down for 24 hours and the hire boats will not be able to make their return times.

I have been delayed by emergency stoppages before, notably the time we got stuck in Spon Lane Top Lock, and have always been impressed by the speed and efficiency of the British Waterways response. Not this time. All the job requires is a workboat and two men with a chain saw—at a pinch they could use the front of our boat and hire the chain saw from the very nearby hire shop.

Some of the boats going nowhere

I have just been telephoned by a British Waterways official who tells me that the blockage will not be removed until Monday at the earliest. Apparently it is essential that the tree be removed by a crane, since simply cutting a passage through the surface blockage risks leaving branches embedded in the canal bottom, which will then be an obstruction.

British Waterways' own floating crane is busy with a different problem at Semington and would take two days to get to Weston, hence the need for a contractor, who will bring a crane to remove the tree from the bank. The contractor cannot get his kit into position until the risks have been assessed and access agreed, hence the delay until Monday.

Since we had to be in Bristol by Friday in order to attend a wedding, we will have to make other arrangements and a major object of our summer cruise is aborted. At least we are better off than the boats trapped on the Bristol side of the blockage, most of which are hire boats due to change over at the weekend—a big problem for the operators.

Nose to tail

The ultimate 'green' boat

FROM Bradford-on-Avon to Bath Top Lock, a distance of several miles, boats are moored virtually nose-to-tail the whole way. All but a handful have current licences, but most of them look fairly permanent. My 'slowing down past moored boats', never very good, is tested to the utmost. A couple of them were the ultimate green boats, complete with turf roofs. Another one seemed to built largely of old pallets and yes, it did have a licence.

Different boat building technique

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Kennet & Avon condition improved

I HAVE read the recent complaints about the condition of the Kennet & Avon with more than usual interest, since we are currently cruising it. I write from a mooring opposite Devizes wharf as we prepare ourselves mentally for the slog down Caen Hill tomorrow.

This is the fourth time we have cruised the Kennet & Avon since it re-opened, and generally its condition has improved each time. This time I note the installation of gear boxes on most of the paddles, which used to be very difficult. They are not elegant, but they work and are not too highly geared, like the ones on the Shroppie towards Chester.

Better moorings have been installed at popular locations such as Crofton and Honeystreet. There are no restrictions on the use of Crofton locks, and none at Devizes except overnight. No more booking passages of limited availability. Nearly all boats have licences, even the really scruffy ones. The duckweed which seriously impeded progress on the long pound on our first trip in 1994 is long gone. I have seen no seriously damaged structures like the bridges on the North Oxford.

Even the new safety notices are less obtrusive than elsewhere, since here they are content to display the graphic alone, without the wording.

Less obtrusive notices

Could be better

THERE are some things which could be improved. There are three or four locks where a top paddle is out of use, which are marked with 'BW aware' labels which look quite old. Stretches of the long pound west of Honeystreet are restricted by reed growth to only seven foot width, which must make life interesting for the local wide boats.

A few locks have leaking gates, but what canal doesn’t? And one or two look like nature reserves. As a general rule the bank is inaccessible for mooring because of the high vegetation; however as far as Newbury the canal is in fact a river navigation and I would not expect to access the bank in the usual way.

Movable nature reserve

Beyond Newbury the giant hogweed rules, but I suspect that the bank is too shallow to allow a close approach anyway. In any case, I am not sure that I would welcome the installation of miles of steel piling and a perfectly manicured edge. We did meet a British Waterways dredger at Pewsey, where the visitor moorings could certainly do with some attention.

So far, we have been generally happy with the state of the canal, which seems to be well used. I have not had any conversations with other boaters which indicate dissatisfaction.

(N.B. I have no connection with the British Waterways publicity department.)

Back to bollards

I RECEIVED a very prompt reply to my complaint card about the new lock side bollards, the key part of which says 'They are necessary to provide a minimum level of safety for all customers across the canal network, which includes able bodied, disabled, single handed boaters or boat crews where only one person is sufficiently able to handle the boat'. Since I did the Oxford single handed I can authoritatively report that they are of no use or benefit to the single handed boater and indeed represent a threat to them, since a single handed boater is more likely to leave a rope unattended on a bollard than a member of a crew.

The letter also says that the scheme was agreed 'at the highest levels within British Waterways'—if this means Robin Evans then it is further proof of his complete ignorance of boating.

Photographs on this page are by the author.