IanM

I’m not disagreeing with you. At the time the thinking was that cattle refused to use it as it was so long and dark… however I have met a cow in the middle of it which came as a complete surprise to me and also pretty much rubbished that plan.

That's actually the one I was referring to, didn't think the one in the picture looked right. It's been a while since I walked through there. It's much longer too and quite dark in the middle.

Why do you say that?

The cattle underpass to the left of the river bridge was considered as a way under the motorway for a number of years but I don’t think it is wide enough.

A new company, the Stroud Valleys Canal Company has been formed to run the canal(s). It’s a partnership between the Company of Proprietors, Stroud District Council, and other associated parties. CRT will have nothing to do with it apart from the stretch from the G&S to Whitminster Lock which they’ve had responsibility for anyway. Yes, that’s it. Dock Lock, as I’ve said was named after the canal company dock/yard. Pike Lock and bridge was named after the turnpike road built alongside. The lock cottage was originally built as a toll house for the road.

That’s just an inlet to a spill weir. The covered dry dock is the building at the far left of the map.

Dock Lock was named because it was adjacent to the canal company yard and dry dock. Not sure what you thought was the dock.

That’s why I said it. I was planning on going to London anyway and then saw it on the list.

I was planning on going to London just for the hell of it on Saturday so may well have to visit Little Venice and see what's going on there.

I think this bit needs a bit more looking in to to exactly what CRT will call one boat. Would they allow two boats to be bolted side by side or would you have to make the cabins into one? To become one boat but a catamaran with two hulls and two cabins would you then require space between the hulls which may take you over the max dimensions for your mooring and or the navigation you're moored on? Questions which I reckon no-one will really know the answer to and you may find you do a whole heap of work then for CRT to still say it is still two boats.

You can be really geeky and have a spreadsheet of all the OS Bench Marks in the UK 🤓 The one shown as being on the canal bridge abutment is on Blakeley Hall Bridge on the BCN old main line.

I was going to mention the Thames & Severn and Stroudwater Navigation. It's a bit of a mix to be honest. Most, not all, of the T&S locks from Wallbridge to Brimscombe have the paddles sloping on the downstream face of a flattened-off arched chamber underneath the lockside as above. These culverts enter the lock in the cill. The rest to the Thames seem to be on the upstream face of a flat wall perpendicular to the towpath and are very slightly sloping. The culverts for these enter the lock in the side walls. Both the above wind at right angles to the lock sides so in the case of the latter you are actually winding in to the canal. All the Stroudwater locks have vertical paddles in the upper gate recesses which originally wound facing into the canal apart from Whitminster Lock which has the arrangement the same as the lower T&S except for the culverts emptying into the sides of the lock. I haven't got any pictures here to illustrate it but I'll try to add some later.

I have seen a narrow boat up here on the Stour estuary in Essex before. No idea where it came from or where it went afterwards.

It is the Thames & Severn but further east from Chalford. It’s Daneway Bridge with the wharf cottage on the right. Beneath the bridge is the infilled Daneway lock which currently serves as the car park for the Daneway Inn. It’s the last lock up to the summit with Sapperton Tunnel not far away.

Seems that no one really knows the origin of 4' 8 1/2" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard-gauge_railway