Keeping Up Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 For those of you who know the Chain Bridge Hotel above Llangollen; they posted this photo of the Dee, from their dining room window, on Facebook this morning. I've never seen the Dee looking even remotely like this before; I wonder what Horseshoe Falls look like, and just how much current there is on the canal right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark99 Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 Bejesus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tacet Posted March 17, 2019 Report Share Posted March 17, 2019 Wow. Looks a bit concerning. Slightly off topic, there was a time when you could take one's boat beyond the town, on the canal of course, and I remember reaching Horsehoe Falls. Even though it was a 17ft boat, it had to be reversed back a fair way to to find the space to turn it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Mack Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 3 hours ago, Tacet said: Wow. Looks a bit concerning. Slightly off topic, there was a time when you could take one's boat beyond the town, on the canal of course, and I remember reaching Horsehoe Falls. Even though it was a 17ft boat, it had to be reversed back a fair way to to find the space to turn it. I tried it in a hire boat some 30 years ago. As soon as we tried to go beyond the town moorings we went hard aground on a gravel bar. I assume it was placed there deliberately to prevent all but the shallowest draft boats going any further - and to protect the commercial interests of the horse drawn trip boat. I seem to recall themodern Roger Fuller butty Phoebe made the trip all the way up to Horseshoe Falls several years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hudds Lad Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keeping Up Posted March 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 Thanks for posting that, Hudds Lad. Here's (almost) the same view yesterday, also from the Hotel's FB page. Makes an interesting comparison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hudds Lad Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 np, knew i had a pic but couldnt remember from which angle, obvs not same as the first in flood pic as when we passed we’d walked up from the basin and had the pooch with us so had to make do with outdoors ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Williams Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 We stayed at the hotel in 2008, same rough current, but nowhere near as high. Left the balcony door open so the rushing water could lull us to sleep. BTW - very reasonable prices for such a nice place. (then). We had taken our paddle-driven boat to Llangollen twice in 1973, and she went there again after I sold her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinV Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 We're cruising up the Llangollen canal at the moment and have been almost coming to a standstill at some bridges such is the strength of the flow - we just thought that was normal for this time of year around here ? Thanks for the pics - we'll be in Llangollen soon to take a look! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magpie patrick Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 12 hours ago, David Mack said: I tried it in a hire boat some 30 years ago. As soon as we tried to go beyond the town moorings we went hard aground on a gravel bar. I assume it was placed there deliberately to prevent all but the shallowest draft boats going any further - and to protect the commercial interests of the horse drawn trip boat. I seem to recall themodern Roger Fuller butty Phoebe made the trip all the way up to Horseshoe Falls several years ago. We got beyond in 1986 in a Chas Hardern Hire Boat, but decided that going all the way to the end was too much faff - I'd already done it in a car top dinghy with outboard, we sheered the pin on going past the town moorings on (probably the same) gravel bar - I'd assumed it had been thrown up by boats turning there. The canal between Llangollen and Horseshoe Falls is only incidentally navigable - I'm not sure it was intended for navigation and I'm pretty certain it never took a toll. Does anyone know, before they put the gauging house at the top, whether there was any sluice or structure at all? I guess there was otherwise on days like this the canal would be very full! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boater Sam Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 A deep draughted boat usually stops in the bridges, the flow is always high to feed Hurleston reservoir for Crewe and Nantwich. Wait till you try to stop going back down! Quote 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinV Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 11 minutes ago, Boater Sam said: A deep draughted boat usually stops in the bridges, the flow is always high to feed Hurleston reservoir for Crewe and Nantwich. Wait till you try to stop going back down! Yeah - looking forward to it! Should use half as much fuel!! ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dor Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 9 minutes ago, MartinV said: Yeah - looking forward to it! Should use half as much fuel!! ? And get back a bit quicker! I have an idea they increase the flow at night, but during the day I reckon the flow is about half a mile per hour. Doesn't sound much, but if you are doing three miles an hour through the water, then you are doing 2.5mph going up and 3.5mph coming back, which is quite a significant difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinV Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 2 minutes ago, dor said: And get back a bit quicker! I have an idea they increase the flow at night, but during the day I reckon the flow is about half a mile per hour. Doesn't sound much, but if you are doing three miles an hour through the water, then you are doing 2.5mph going up and 3.5mph coming back, which is quite a significant difference. Interesting! We've had to start mooring at the front to a mooring ring (when available) to the side and a chain forward of the bow because we're moving so much when moored. That could also be due to the number of hire boats going past at speed though ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tree monkey Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 52 minutes ago, magpie patrick said: We got beyond in 1986 in a Chas Hardern Hire Boat, but decided that going all the way to the end was too much faff - I'd already done it in a car top dinghy with outboard, we sheered the pin on going past the town moorings on (probably the same) gravel bar - I'd assumed it had been thrown up by boats turning there. The canal between Llangollen and Horseshoe Falls is only incidentally navigable - I'm not sure it was intended for navigation and I'm pretty certain it never took a toll. Does anyone know, before they put the gauging house at the top, whether there was any sluice or structure at all? I guess there was otherwise on days like this the canal would be very full! As far as I am aware the feeder was used for freight, possibly slate and limestone, the horse boat warf as is was used to load. The gravel bar is intentional to stop navigation as there's nowhere to wind, the horse boat just swaps the horse to the other end I did hear a story that the trip boat operators tried to design and boat with a propeller in a tube to avoid damage for the trip up to the falls, could be an urban myth though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul C Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 AFAIK the amount of water that flows from the Dee onto the Llangollen Canal is simply a small fraction of the total, and is between a min and max amount, somewhat related to its role as water feeder for the Hurleston Reservoir. So an increased flow on the river wouldn't really impact the canal. And I can't see them using the canal to "relieve" excess flow on the River Dee - they'd simply allow nature to take its course and allow the Dee to flow whatever it does. After all the Dee has flooded many times historically. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keeping Up Posted March 18, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 9 minutes ago, Paul C said: AFAIK the amount of water that flows from the Dee onto the Llangollen Canal is simply a small fraction of the total, and is between a min and max amount, somewhat related to its role as water feeder for the Hurleston Reservoir. So an increased flow on the river wouldn't really impact the canal. And I can't see them using the canal to "relieve" excess flow on the River Dee - they'd simply allow nature to take its course and allow the Dee to flow whatever it does. After all the Dee has flooded many times historically. Surely there must come a point where the Dee at Horseshoe Falls would be high enough to overtop the controlling sluice there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Williams Posted March 18, 2019 Report Share Posted March 18, 2019 22 minutes ago, Keeping Up said: Surely there must come a point where the Dee at Horseshoe Falls would be high enough to overtop the controlling sluice there. Surely there are spill weirs on the canal for just that event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartland Posted April 12, 2019 Report Share Posted April 12, 2019 When I produced the Border Canal book it was clear that the Weavers had taken a small boat up to the chain bridge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastiefrank Posted April 12, 2019 Report Share Posted April 12, 2019 We are at Ellesmere and there is hardly any flow on the canal at the moment. I have no idea why it would be like that on the Dee as it has been quite dry for the last few days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchcrawler Posted April 12, 2019 Report Share Posted April 12, 2019 5 minutes ago, Heartland said: When I produced the Border Canal book it was clear that the Weavers had taken a small boat up to the chain bridge Which one are do you call a small one, the one in the foreground or the one by the pub? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magpie patrick Posted April 12, 2019 Report Share Posted April 12, 2019 5 minutes ago, Heartland said: When I produced the Border Canal book it was clear that the Weavers had taken a small boat up to the chain bridge And someone else a much larger one! In the days when people went pleasure boating in what amounted to small dinghies with cabins on* then a trip to Horseshoe Falls would not be problematic *This is not supposed to be derogatory - I quite like the idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac of Cygnet Posted April 12, 2019 Report Share Posted April 12, 2019 2 hours ago, coastiefrank said: We are at Ellesmere and there is hardly any flow on the canal at the moment. I have no idea why it would be like that on the Dee as it has been quite dry for the last few days. Because the pic was posted a month ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam1uk Posted April 12, 2019 Report Share Posted April 12, 2019 When we went up to Llangollen in 2010 (I had no idea it was so long ago, but I’ve looked it up) The was an open day at the metre house, so we went for a look inside. The water from the Dee goes into a big pipe, which then narrows, then widens again — using the Bernoulli principle to draw water into the canal. Because of this, I’d be surprised if much extra water made it into the canal in periods of high flow on the river, because only so much can get through the pipe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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