Dorlan

Piling now underway...

It's difficult to estimate at the distance, between 10' and 20', that they were from the bank, but I would guess at approx one and a half to two inches across. A fully zoomed in, 100% sized shot of the closest prints...

The other end is tied to the wharf with a length of the famous BW blue string!

I noticed these intriguing tracks in a drained pound yesterday,... then today I saw this... going down the slope climbing back up! At first it was assumed that the first set of tracks were made by a mink, as one is known to be in the vicinity. The second set of photos could be an "otter slide", though. Unfortunately Google only came up with images of otter slides in snow. There were no references to "mink slides" at all! Can anyone positively identify these tracks?

A few more from Calcutt, taken this morning... The walkway is now an excavator way! There is at least a foot of fresh air under the wing wall on this side of the canal, hence the vertical crack! That's where the cill protector, in the top lock, went!

I couldn't see any windlasses, but there were half a dozen chinaman's hats, a TV aerial, a chimney, a couple of tyres and a Vax attachment! It is Roger, Roger! Ian It is a problem in the corner where the ownership and brokerage boats are moored and also at the entrance to the paint tunnel.The possibility of using a mini-excavator and dumper to dig some of it out was mentioned !

A few more pics from this afternoon... There's more silt than water in both lock pounds!

Like so...

We didn't think we'd need it when we were up the Ashby Canal, so the chain was stored under the back cabin floor. It's shackled to the anchor and stored on the roof when we are on a river!

We keep ours on the roof, next to the duck! The plastic pipes are to stop the anchor rattling!

It's an emergency stoppage as the offside bottom-end lock-landing of the top lock at Calcutt has failed. Apparently, the stone blocks are lying on top of wooden piles, which have rotted!

Below Stroke Bruerne locks in the floods of 1998...

Try this point!

There is a possibility that the flush bellows will freeze and split, if it's not been pumped empty!

There are some old postcard views, as well as some photos of the canal taken about 20 years ago, here.

FCB52 was recovered in 1990 by the Friends of the Waterways Museum.There is information about it here on the Friends of Purton website.

Ynys (island) is pronounced uniss! (un as in undo, iss as in hiss)

Or even Asum, "A-zum", to some of the locals! Then there's "Chooksbry" for Tewkesbury! And "Sisister" for Cirencester.

Try Panorama Antennas.

The Severn coracle I built is 5' long x 4'6" wide!

The policy of the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive in regard to the painting of canal barges was the subject of a Giles cartoon at the time, which is, I think, reproduced in one of Alan Faulkner's series of booklets.