magpie patrick

Schroedinger's lock - full and empty at the same time? Any idea why passage is supervised? In Anthony Burton's "Back Door Britain", written in the 1980's, they just turned up and went through the locks

I'm blushing now! Don't be fooled by the qualifications, I make it up as I go along... 😄

That begs the question as to where did the company get the name from? The Somersetshire Coal Canal is rather grand given it serves only a tiny area of that county, although it does serve most, but by no means all, of the Somerset Coal Field (the Shire was added as they thought it less likely to attract objections in parliament) The subdivisions provide interesting material - not many refer to the Caldon Branch (of the T&M) - it's now the Caldon Canal, and yet few if any refer to "The Aylesbury Canal", it's the Aylesbury Arm. I think most people who haven't studied the history define the BCN by character, they would probably be surprised that Camp Hill and Garrison locks are not in it, nor is the Stourbridge Canal, they would be equally surprised that Fazeley to Whittington technically is (or was) part of the BCN

Half the time you can't see it through the weedhatch either! I am pondering waders to get at Juno's outboard's delicate bits without having to take the outboard off - would they work for you?

Similarly the Huddersfield Narrow Canal which is officially The Huddersfield Canal, so called to distinguish it from the Huddersfield Broad Canal which is officially Sir John Ramsden's Canal (I think)

The Coal Canal, or to give it its full title "The Somersetshire Coal Canal" was originally the "Proposed Dunkerton and Radstock Canal" More familiar to many, The Kennet and Avon Canal was mooted as "The Western Canal"

Thank you - I had no idea there was still a conventional manual lock on the Thames below Oxford. The EA are a pain with the elfin safety - I used to do contracts for both BW and EA, the BW approach was minimal fencing so anyoen who fell in could easily be fished out, the EA was to construct Colditz style fencing then struggle when something went wrong inside the cage. I'm not against risk assessment etc, I'm just against misguided use of it. Are you sure? I seem to recall WW covering it's construction and opening - I was born in 1966 and WW started up in 1972

A useful warning - many of us rely on the idea that whoever did it "knew what they were doing" [because we probably don't] and that a BSS catches everything - it doesn't.

At the time the NRA (I think it was them) said that they would lengthen it if demand justified it - I had visions of a queue of GU Town Class gathered below to make a point... Or put another way - proving demand for more boats is easy, proving demand for bigger ones is difficult! C'est ferme - so it doesn't get used at all now There was some protest (and a parallel with the short lock on the fens) in that the parallel locks can only take 30m barges and thus 38m "Freycinet" can no longer reach Toulouse - the lift was part of the lock lengthening program Okay, I'll bite - what is "Sunbury Beam Lock", do boats go through sideways? beam on as it were?