Hillmorton Open

[matty40s]

Apparently closed 3 jan to February, only open for booked weekend passages through the bottom towpath side lock..

So...boats have been passing through all week. A booked boat arrived and spoke to the high vis vest chappy (not CRT)and he said, we are only doing scaffolding  over this side and the camera, carry on if you want.

So he carried on, and more boats passed through both ways.

 

You do have to hope that you dont get a fine from the installed CCTV (solar powered)tower though...

 

 

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by matty40s

[frangar]

Interesting that the work site is fenced off from the operational lock so there isn’t any reason it can’t be used. 
 

 

[ditchcrawler]

When they did one of the middle locks last time, I think it was 5, number 4 stayed open

[Stroudwater1]

 

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

When they did one of the middle locks last time, I think it was 5, number 4 stayed open

That’s right other than the one weekend when they hurriedly closed both as they forgot that to access the far side meant accessing and moving stuff  over the near side 🤣

 

Have the two broken paddles been fixed yet Matty?  Whilst Hillmorton is “closed” it would be an ideal opportunity? 

 

Perhaps they have been already but it had been by July 22 over a year that the bottom paddle of the top right hand lock as you are going down has been covered over with yellow, and the top paddle on lock 2or 3 (right going down) was also covered up in July. 
 

 

[enigmatic]

Plenty of boats through at the weekend now the ice has melted. Think the main obstacle to it being used at the moment is hire boats moored on lock landings.

 

Kudos to the owner of the unoccupied hire boat in Willow Wren livery for deciding that blocking the lower lock landing wasn't obstructive enough and putting in the effort recently to move it to the lock landing above, so that (with help from an ABC boat) it prevents use of the landing for the (open) services as well as the lock. Maybe the old training company's been replaced by someone running a How Not To Operate a Narrowboat course...

[Richardcn]

Hi All

 

Can anybody confirm that it's still possible to get through Lock 2, as this thread suggests. The closure notice says otherwise and there is no mention of weekend bookings at all! Unless I'm missing something? It would be handy if we could get through before the 18th when it's scheduled to reopen.

 

Ta