Bulls Bridge Dry Dock

[WJM]

Does anyone have contact details for Bulls Bridge Drydock in Southall (Grand Union)? I cant find details for them anywhere.

[ditchcrawler]

Is that the one at Tesco

[David Mack]

From https://londonboaters.org/londonbo/drydocks

 

Bulls Bridge – Grand Union Canal
Bulls Bridge Docks, Willow Wren Wharf, Hayes Road, Southall, UB2 5NB
https://sites.google.com/site/bullsbridgedocks/home
bullsbridgedocks@aol.com
020 8569 2995
07724 983966
https://www.facebook.com/Bulls-bridge-docks-419771918109458/

 

 

[Tim Lewis]

Bulls Bridge – Grand Union Canal

Bulls Bridge Docks, Bulls Bridge Industrial Estate, Hayes Road, Southall, UB2 5NB

millermarine1@yahoo.com

020 8569 2995

07724 983966

[blackrose]

13 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Is that the one at Tesco

 

Does the dry dock even exist? I haven't moored outside Bulls Bridge Tescos since 2008 or 2009 but it was well and truly closed then with the entrance covered by a thick concrete wall. Has it reopened? I'm not a facebooker and the other links don't work for me.

[GUMPY]

38 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Does the dry dock even exist? I haven't moored outside Bulls Bridge Tescos since 2008 or 2009 but it was well and truly closed then with the entrance covered by a thick concrete wall. Has it reopened? I'm not a facebooker and the other links don't work for me.

Not the same dry dock,the one being discussed is a few metres south of the disused one 

At the southern end of Tesco's 

[Tim Lewis]

1 hour ago, GUMPY said:

Not the same dry dock,the one being discussed is a few metres south of the disused one 

At the southern end of Tesco's 

 

[WJM]

Thank you all. I have now made contact with them.

[cheesegas]

That's Matt Miller who runs it. Good guy, glad you've got in contact.

 

Interesting fact: there's no pumps in the dry dock, it was an old BW maintainence depot. It fills from the canal as you'd expect, but there's a 1' culvert which empties the dock into a largely unmapped underground river which passes under the canal. No one knows where it ends up, but it has got blocked in the past apparently.

[magnetman]

It might be routed to the river which flows under the canal just the other side of the main road bridge. .

can't remember the name of it but it is low down. I imagine the original dry dock now defunct probably drained there as well. 

River Crane 

 

 

 

The dry dock in question is about where the little compass rose is at the bottom right. Its quite a long way to the river Crane but seems a likely drainage route. 

[David Mack]

38 minutes ago, cheesegas said:

but there's a 1' culvert which empties the dock into a largely unmapped underground river which passes under the canal.

I bet it takes a long time to empty then! It's not like emptying a lock.

[WJM]

Many years ago I tried filling up the disused dock at Tesco. I got it about half full before I gave up, filling was very slow. But it emptied very quickly. And it does drain down into be River Crane at the nearby aqueduct. The Crane eventually flows into the Thames at Isleworth. 

[magnetman]

40 minutes ago, David Mack said:

I bet it takes a long time to empty then! It's not like emptying a lock.

Yes but to be fair with a dry dock there is no time constraint. The desirable outcome is for it to be draining once empty more quickly than it fills from leakage in the gates or planks.

 

This is a lot nicer than relying on a pump. 

 

I wonder if the drain gets coconuts in it.