Droitwich Canals

[pete harrison]

Every time I've seen Atlas in recent years the crew have been wearing buoyancy aids (It's one of the reasons I departed the 'friends'). The crew of Swift at Braunston certainly were! Has the management of the boat(s) changed?

 

ATLAS and MALUS have been operated by the B.C.N. Society and Coombeswood Canal Trust since December 2008. Try and keep up !

[magpie patrick]

Is the headroom only 6 feet? That is the tunnel under the motorway presumably?

 

 

It is tight, I went through on Odin, a Viking Afloat hire boat, yesterday, and you have to crouch on the back deck and look down the side to steer. those with coal, bikes, canoes etc on the roof will need to take them off.

 

Thats the barge canal "Atlas" is on which is stated as 3ft 6" draft. Its the Junction canal stated at 2ft 6" which we are worried about, also the stated 6ft5" headroom at the M5 culvert in W World is now stated 6ft on Droitwich website, we are 6ft 2" air draft with all removed, There seems a conflict on dimensions.

Oh and WHY last boats through Hanbury at 14.30?? Hasnt BW woken up to the fact that the leisure industry works later hours!! This is the culture that needs to go.

 

point of order, Laurence, that lock is the BARGE lock on the JUNCTION canal, not the barge canal.

 

BW are supervising passage at Hanbury because birds have nested where they wouldn't have done if the canal had been operational, and thus the first lock must be operated slowly. This isn't a permanent arrangement. Yes, the leisure industry works late, but BW are short of money so perhaps making sure staff don't work extended shifts is a priority.

[ditchcrawler]

If we (CanalScape-BCN) are doing a approved BW job or have BW personell on the boat with us we wear bouyancy aids, in the first place to fit in with BW health and safety requirenents and secondly to appear as uniform with our guests. I have no issue with these aids nor due most of our crew. Having done jobs involving the MSC you cant go anywhere on their property without one. On rivers I tend to prefer to wear one but for leisure canal use not.

 

The person managing the BW boats is now Stephen Bicknell.

When I was up the Thames there were a pair of electricians repairing the outside light on St Johns Lock house and they were both wearing lifejackets. The lock keeper said that all contractors on site had to wear them.

Edited June 30, 2011 by ditchcrawler

[Derek R.]

Severe danger of drowning up that ladder.

 

No hard hat or Hi-viz? Could have a bird dropping something, or fly into him not seeing his presence.

 

Accept *rap, and you will get more.

[Laurence Hogg]

Hats off to Max Sinclair who today gave a sterling speech when unvieling the plaque dedicated to the volunteers. Not many of us are lucky enough to see a dream of this magnitude come true but Max has and he deserves it. Well done!

[magpie patrick]

Hats off to Max Sinclair who today gave a sterling speech when unvieling the plaque dedicated to the volunteers. Not many of us are lucky enough to see a dream of this magnitude come true but Max has and he deserves it. Well done!

 

Agreed, it was 52 years in the making, but he saw his vision come true, Knighthood?

 

Suspect he doesn't worry, he's achieved his goal. Well done Max, we are all indebted to you

[sueb]

Hats off to Max Sinclair who today gave a sterling speech when unvieling the plaque dedicated to the volunteers. Not many of us are lucky enough to see a dream of this magnitude come true but Max has and he deserves it. Well done!

I would have loved to have heard his speech. We were badly let down by the sound bods.

Sue

[Tim Lewis]

A couple of pictures from a flying visit to Vines park yeasterday:

 

 

Tim

[dove]

Just been on the Droitwich for the first time. Must say very impressed. Very shallow in places and a bit reedy.

 

I bet the woman at lock 4 was pain while work was on going, she certaily is now.

 

Andrew

[Derek R.]

Bit like living in a sleepy abandoned branch line station, only to suddenly find trains are returning!

 

The 'water feature' has sprung into life. I wonder if they had hopes of an infilled lock and expanded garden.

[sueb]

Just been on the Droitwich for the first time. Must say very impressed. Very shallow in places and a bit reedy.

 

I bet the woman at lock 4 was pain while work was on going, she certaily is now.

 

Andrew

We had a lovely chat with her when we went through for the opening. I wonder what has changed.

Sue

[Laurence Hogg]

We had a lovely chat with her when we went through for the opening. I wonder what has changed.

Sue

 

Maybe its boat engine noise? There was one boat at the opening that was seriously "anti social" and rather like being next to a continious firing shotgun. A few people I know have commented on this subject and whilst engines can be nice to listen too some are OTT. I write this as a class 37 roars through the Grand junction here on a special, lovely sound!

[RLWP]

<snip> roars through the Grand junction here <snip>

 

Oh Laurence, what a well informed person you are

 

Richard

 

(not far from the London and Birmingham)

[dove]

We had a lovely chat with her when we went through for the opening. I wonder what has changed.

Sue

 

Don't know? but why all the fencing, locked gate to get to the lock landing. No good when you're walking from lock to lock and your BWB key is on the boat.

 

Andrew

[Laurence Hogg]

Oh Laurence, what a well informed person you are

 

Richard

 

(not far from the London and Birmingham)

I live next to what was Willenhall Bilston St station, shut in 1964 and not yet reopened

[Tiny]

Who was the chap who lived in the lock house at the top of the broad locks and hired us the day boat on the Droitwich. I believe he died - is that true? (He was very ill when his wife hired us the boat.)

[magpie patrick]

Who was the chap who lived in the lock house at the top of the broad locks and hired us the day boat on the Droitwich. I believe he died - is that true? (He was very ill when his wife hired us the boat.)

 

Bill Walton, I don't know about his health or demise, I thought he brought his boat to Droitwich Last September for the soft reopening. He's been bringing his boat to Droitwich for years though...

 

Don't know? but why all the fencing, locked gate to get to the lock landing. No good when you're walking from lock to lock and your BWB key is on the boat.

 

Andrew

 

The owner of that house also owned the lock house garden, and wasn't at all happy. In the early stages of the HLF grant Compulsory Purchase Powers were considered (BW have them, as do Wychavon) and I approved mechanisation of the lock with the control panel on the non-towpath side as an option, which would have meant no one needed to get on the bank by the lock house. In the end the fenced arrangement was agreed to ensure that only boat crews could get at the lock.

 

I suspect she didn't realise just how busy the canal would be when it opened.

[Hairy-Neil]

I passed through the canals last week, a very pleasant experience. Thought there must have been some issues at lock 4 though. However, unless the residents have been there forty years or more, the canal reawakening has always been a possibility. Perhaps, like many of us, they thought it would never happen in our lifetime....

 

If you make a stop over in Droitwich I can highly recommend the 'Hop Pole' on Friar St (behind the fire station) and the 'Ring O Bells' on The Holloway (head east from Waitrose, straight over at the traffic lights, then first right) The former is CAMRA 2011 good beer guide listed, but we found, on the day the newly refurbished Ring o Bells had the edge for choice of ales.

Edited August 15, 2011 by Hairy-Neil

[Odana]

And what's the issue at the junction with the Severn? Looking at old photos on an info panel further up I can see that the nice reedy quiet water feature has turned into an industrial pontoon or two with shouting boat crews and traffic, which could make someone grumpy who wasn't expecting it. But we seem to have a landing stage beyond the cottage and no access along the waterside to the lock (I didn't check if I could go up and round, as the other lock landing was free). Have any land ownership issues there been reolved, or is it something ongoing?

[magpie patrick]

And what's the issue at the junction with the Severn? Looking at old photos on an info panel further up I can see that the nice reedy quiet water feature has turned into an industrial pontoon or two with shouting boat crews and traffic, which could make someone grumpy who wasn't expecting it. But we seem to have a landing stage beyond the cottage and no access along the waterside to the lock (I didn't check if I could go up and round, as the other lock landing was free). Have any land ownership issues there been reolved, or is it something ongoing?

 

Pontoon fastened to the lock is the lock landing, however, if you wait on it while a boat is coming down they can't leave the lock (and thus you can't enter it).

 

The second pontoon is for waiting, but it makes landfall on private land (a deft bit of land registry means it isn't on said land owners river bed) and the land owner has not agreed to access to the lock. So you tie up, wait, and when the lock is clear, move forward to the other pontoon or if the descending boat has left the gates open, into the lock.

 

Indeed there were problems as there was a period when the pontoon was in place but the lock not open and no gate on the pontoon access, a few people apparently helped themselves to the land owners wood.

 

The landowner didn't want this pontoon there at all, he wanted it upstream of the junction (well he would, that's not his land) but BW felt (I think rightly) that placing the pontoon in a position from which you couldn't see the lock, and would require boats going downstream to either moor bow downtream or u-turn 3 times to get into the canal was less than satisfactory.

 

Agree with Hair-Neil re: the Hop Pole, good beer, excellent food at lunchtime

[Max Sinclair]

Bill Walton, I don't know about his health or demise, I thought he brought his boat to Droitwich Last September for the soft reopening. He's been bringing his boat to Droitwich for years though...

 

 

 

The owner of that house also owned the lock house garden, and wasn't at all happy. In the early stages of the HLF grant Compulsory Purchase Powers were considered (BW have them, as do Wychavon) and I approved mechanisation of the lock with the control panel on the non-towpath side as an option, which would have meant no one needed to get on the bank by the lock house. In the end the fenced arrangement was agreed to ensure that only boat crews could get at the lock.

 

I suspect she didn't realise just how busy the canal would be when it opened.

Had a chat with Bill Walton and his daughter when we boated through Ladywood last weekend.Like me he's getting old.About 14 boats a day are passing through to keep the weed down.

Edited September 12, 2011 by Max Sinclair

[Tim Lewis]

And what's the issue at the junction with the Severn? Looking at old photos on an info panel further up I can see that the nice reedy quiet water feature has turned into an industrial pontoon or two with shouting boat crews and traffic, which could make someone grumpy who wasn't expecting it. But we seem to have a landing stage beyond the cottage and no access along the waterside to the lock (I didn't check if I could go up and round, as the other lock landing was free). Have any land ownership issues there been reolved, or is it something ongoing?

 

When I went through a couple of weeks ago it looked like they were having some serious issues with the retaining wall!

 

Tim

[Neil TNC]

When I went through a couple of weeks ago it looked like they were having some serious issues with the retaining wall!

 

Tim

We could not work out whether they were fitting rock bolts, or drains to release water pressure...any idea how this progressed?