Impressed by BW staff

The Oxford has come in for a lot of comment recently, and I came over the summit last Sunday and whilst the opening hours were longer than at present things were still a bit of a challenge, writes Kathryn Doddington.

However I was impressed by the British Waterway staff who opened Marston Doles half an hour early, and were there to escort us down the Claydon Flight later in the day. A one day transit of the summit seems impossible now with the more restricted opening hours. So from my point of view thank you to British Waterways for what they did.

Real cause

I am not 100% sure what the real  cause of the issue is other than an Environment Agency lock keeper on the Thames suggested that the Clavercote reservoir is perhaps quite full with the pump not working, and British Waterway staff being refused access by the farmer—no idea if there is any truth in that or not.

Some of the pounds were shallow coming down the Banbury side but we did find that the earlier we started the deeper the pounds were—getting shallower during the day.

Not a happy situation but I did think British Waterways had staffed the affected locks well from my point of view, and there was lots of information all the way from Napton Bottom Lock (perhaps information should have been available earlier) to at least Anyho Weir Lock.