Jeremy Lander

All good stuff thanks! I know what Magpie Patrick means, as an architect I always want to know exactly how things work in practice and often a text description can be rather tantalizing. "They would build a temporary dam of turfs logs and mud" sounds plausible but how did that work exactly? And "on either side" doesn't quite make sense either. I wonder what the primary source is for this. I also take the point about hauling wet canvas and the enormous bother of getting the tackle out once it had served its purpose. But my feeling is that, given the resourcefulness and ingenuity of people, the next to non-existent road network and the enormous financial incentive of, say, a Norman lord ordering 2k tonnes of stone for the construction of his castle, or even a miller ordering a French mill stone, was huge. They WOULD have found a way. And I think there was probably a combination of flash locks, temporary staunches, semi-permanent staunches at known tricky spots etc etc. As for transporting their kit there were horses and small boys who went up and down the river banks jumping the various obstacles along the way, as painted by John Constable on the Stour. And they had time, lots and lots of time.

Thanks-- very interesting! Yes I'm sure boatmen would have been able to afford canvas/skins for a staunch. They would have been used over and over ..even if the boat wasn't!

Great thanks! Really useful images. For purposes of my research (12th century stone transport) the rivers in question would be slow moving and fairly narrow, e.g. the Welland and the Essex Blackwater, so an arrangement like this would be entirely feasible. Maybe the posts were driven into river bed at an angle, or they had ready made frames, possibly weighted down with stones. The canvas would quickly stabilise them. It had to be easily removable so they could take it on to the next stretch.

Thanks for this. Pretty sure Portadam don't use excavators. Sheeting lays on river bed I think. The slope of the posts also helps. I don't think staunch had to be anything like watertight as it was just about temporarily raising level by a foot or two. Really want to give it a try!

Just need more posts I guess. I wouldn't be surprised if the Portadam system (worth a Google) is not far from what they did centuries ago. Just wood instead of aluminium and canvas instead of polythene.

Thanks everybody. Am in touch with Portadam. Maybe we can rig up something as a trial!

Many thanks!

This has some good stuff https://vdoc.pub/download/waterways-and-canal-building-in-medieval-england-6pcbfeliqsr0 Including the massive economic benefits of water transport when roads were practically non existent. You would go to great lengths to make a river navigable before resorting to road transport. Thanks!

Any idea where I can obtain copy or extract of 'Flashlocks on English Waterways' by Lewis, Slatcher and Jervis, published in Industrial Archaeology? Thanks! This has some good stuff https://vdoc.pub/download/waterways-and-canal-building-in-medieval-england-6pcbfeliqsr0 Including the massive economic benefits of water transport when roads were practically non existent. You would go to great lengths to make a river navigable before resorting to road transport.

Wonderful!

Found the reference now-- H. McKnight Shell Book of Inland Waterways 1975 p34 quoted in Sean Odell's The Essex and Suffolk Stour A History p45 "Fen lighters were known to be using their own portable 'staunching tackle' until well into the 19th century in order to safely navigate certain stretches of the River Nene.. The system, said to have been originally developed by the Romans..on the River Lee and other inland waterways, consisted of a kit of posts, an empty boat and a canvas sheet. A temporary weir would be constructed to sufficiently raise water levels to aid navigation"

I read somewhere, possibly on this forum, about portable staunch kits that boatmen could carry with them and stretch across the river as a temporary flash lock to build up water levels so they could progress, upstream as well as downstream. Now I cant find it! Any suggestions please?