narrowboatworld

AFTER 13 years of cruising to a fairly strict schedule to far flung destinations, we all thought an easy dawdle around the Leicester Ring would suit us very nicely indeed, but oh! after only a few years the deterioration is shocking.

It was just three years since we last cruised through Leicester on our Nene trip, and notwithstanding the 'Waterways in Better Condition' claim, the deterioration was all too evident, with badly leaking gates now the norm, a well balanced gate a rarity and paddles so stiff, all too often an extra long windless is called for─even to wind them down.

I won't bore you with the details, as regular boaters know only too well of the problems, as their many complaints in narrowboatworld, and other publications  and the many blogs often show.

But take Birstall Lock on the Leicester Section. There we have a brand new bridge, with lovely paving and hand rails at quite a few hundreds of thousands of pounds, yet here's a picture of Jan—it was her turn—(She Who Must etc etc) struggling to close the neglected badly balanced gate─and it leaks like a sieve.

The new bridge is needed you might think. But at the next lock at nearby Thurmaston there's yet another brand new bridge, this time even with more elaborate paving, brickwork and fantastic fencing, which must have cost an arm and a leg. And yes, you've guessed─those lock gates too are as badly in need of some tender loving care., with me struggling this time. But it seems the trend nowadays─money on anything but the actual waterways.

I just wonder what the working boatmen and women of the past would make of the condition of their waterways now? They certainly wouldn't like another new trend─of when a ground paddle fails instead of a repair, removing the gearing altogether leaving the paddle permanently closed as seen in the photograph.

But what is worse is that in many cases when gate paddles fail, again the gearing is removed leaving them again permanently closed.  All the gate paddles have been removed on the lock gates shown in the photograph, with just a ground paddle working.