The mess that is Aston Lock

Published: Wednesday, 24 April 2019

AFTER three months work on the Aston Broad Lock it leaks worse than ever and has a paddle not working!

AstonLeak2019Unbelievable as it may seem, as Jackie Brown's photograph clearly shows, the top gates, that were supposed to be replaced, leak worse than ever, and one of its new paddles doesn't work!

No activity

Yet the work took three months, and as is now only too often expected, ran over time, but was manged to be completed in time for Easter, but it is understood at an exorbitant cost. During the work we visited the site most Tuesdays, and more often that not there was no activity, with a couple of times just one man present.

Over the years narrowboatworld has canvased for volunteers at the the lock, as it had the reputation of being the hardest to operate of the broad locks on the eastern end of the Trent & Mersey Canal, known as the 'terrible six', and a reason for the exodus of so many narrowboats from Sawley when Mercia Marina opened.

AstonPaddle2019Still difficult to negotiate

But now at last there were two volunteers present, complete with their own 'cabin' in the form of a caravan, to help boaters through what is still it seems a difficult lock to negotiate, for it is understood the bottom gates are still not properly balanced and difficult to operate.

So all in all it would seem yet another lock—as those in the Leicester Sectionthat will need even more attention in the future, as again, a job not well done.

No matter how often Canal & River Trust keep spreading the word that the waterways 'had been left in a mess by British Waterways', it is patently untrue, for we had a good many years under British Waterways, with nothing like the problems of today. That are obviously of CaRT's own making.