Another ambivalent stoppage notice from CRT. The original stoppage onky mentions a towpath closure on the 3rd June, but yesterday's says "The navigation and towpath between Bridge 134 and Bridge 135 at Red Bull on the Trent & Mersey Canal remain closed.
This is to allow the safe removal of a sunken boat near Lock 45 (Kent's Lock). The work is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 3 June between 7:00 am and 5:00 pm."

Which implies it's currently shut today, Tuesday, and will stay shut until the job's done. As I need to get back on to the Macc, this isn't terribly helpful.

If anyone's been down that way, I'd appreciate some info. In the meantime, I'll email CRT .

The stoppage notice does very helpfully give information for a diversion though, should you wish to pick your boat up and carry it... 

The boat is a burnt out cruiser immediately above the tow path side lock below the services. I can't see it being a massive job to get it out and until they actually start the offside lock should be accessible Arthur. But you never know.

Edited June 2Jun 2 by Wizzer

CRT notifications don't inspire you with confidence. There is a notification for Big Lock on the Trent and Mersey.

 

Navigation will be closed at Lock 75 Big Lock on the Trent & Mersey Canal due to the towpath-side balance beam at Lock 75 has been damaged, upon an inspection, the balance beam has snapped rendering the lock inoperable.

Our reactive team is scheduled to repair the balance beam on Monday 15 June between 8 am & 5 pm.

 

So is the lock inoperable , or is the gate inoperable. Can you still used the lock, only opening one gate as it is a broad lock. With a repair date of 15th June I take it that the lock is not in fact inoperable, as the closure notice does give the date of the closure as 15th June. However, as with many notifications in recent times the ambiguity leaves an awful lot to be desired. I wonder if the person posting these notifications  knows the first thing about canals or if the job is entrusted to a YTS trainee?

Now amended to read--

We apologise for the previous notice and any confusion caused.

Navigation at Lock 75 Big Lock remains open for narrowboats only, with the lock continuing to be operable. Our regular volunteers will be on site to assist boats through the lock where required.

The lock will be closed to all boats on Monday 15 June only, between 8am and 5pm, to allow our team to carry out repairs to the towpath-side balance beam, which has snapped. 

1 hour ago, Wizzer said:

The boat is a burnt out cruiser immediately above the tow path side lock below the services. I can't see it being a massive job to get it out and until they actually start the offside lock should be accessible Arthur. But you never know.

I think the offside lock is shut for repairs already. Most of the double locks are down to one usable.

ETA offside closed from 1st June to July for a gate repair.

Edited June 2Jun 2 by Arthur Marshall

Used to be the case that when a balance beam had failed, but the gate itself was undamaged, someone would attach a length of rope to the top of the mitre post, and you could use that to pull the gate into the open or closed position!

26 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I think the offside lock is shut for repairs already. Most of the double locks are down to one usable.

ETA offside closed from 1st June to July for a gate repair.

We came through in mid April and the offside lock was in perfect condition Arthur. The tow path side is completely blocked by the cruiser so the offside must be working or the canal would have been shut.

26 minutes ago, Wizzer said:

We came through in mid April and the offside lock was in perfect condition Arthur. The tow path side is completely blocked by the cruiser so the offside must be working or the canal would have been shut.

I came through last week but:

Please note that this lock is already subject to a separate closure affecting the offside lock from 1 June to 10 July 2026. Further details can be found via the following link: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/019d6d90-3d96-76b2-bb1f-2c6d0f97a837.

 

This is presumably why the canal is now shut, though there hasn't been a closure notice that I've seen until now.

Well  there's a surprise.

"Contractors are currently on site carrying out the removal of a sunken boat on the towpath side of Lock 45 on the Trent & Mersey Canal. The removal is taking slightly longer than originally anticipated. As a result, Lock 45 (towpath side) will reopen from 10:00am on Thursday 4 June Please note that this lock is already subject to a separate closure affecting the offside lock from 1 June to 10 July 2026" 

 

Wouldn't it have been sensible to have sorted the sunk boat out before closing the other lock? 8 boats waiting below the lock and about 8 more at Church Lawton.

ETA apparently the contractor's equipment broke down.

Edited June 3Jun 3 by Arthur Marshall

No notice thst I've seen, but the lock opened last night about 7pm. After most of the 18 boats had gone up, CRT unchained one of the offside locks which has been closed for months for no apparent reason. It wouldn't help much, partly because it was 12 hours  too late and because the next paired lock was out of order anyway.

At Red Bull there were about five boats trying to get water and one private boat moored on the lock landing/water point having their breakfast, blocking one water point entirely and access to the services. Apparently they'd been moored there at least two days. They appeared unconcerned. Unfortunately I didn't need water and the lock was set so I had no excuse for anything except revving up as I went past. 

Seems people complain when they don't remove the sunken boats, and complain when they do.

The sunken boat has been there for a while and it just seems a bit thoughtless to close the lock to remove it when the other lock was on a long term closure. It would have been more " boater friendly " to remove it before or after closing the lock along side. 

1 hour ago, junior said:

Seems people complain when they don't remove the sunken boats, and complain when they do.

Rubbish.