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The Melton Oakham Canal

fuzzyduck

By fuzzyduck
in History & Heritage

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Richard Fairhurst Rising Star

Richard Fairhurst

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fuzzy, that looks remarkably like a lock(inthepast)type of thingy ahead..........

and surely that first wier had a lock there somewhere???

First lock (by the weir) was Syston Mill - chamber completely lost. Second lock, chamber still intact and which Fuzzy reached, is Ratcliffe-on-the-Wreake. I think Syston Mill is the only one of the locks that's been obliterated - some of the others are in remarkably good condition for a waterway that closed in 1877.

 

what a superb set of photo's, just goes to show that all these disused waters are just waiting there for someone to bite the bullet and start a restoration group.

There is one - the Melton & Oakham Waterways Society. They're busy doing stuff but their website seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.

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fuzzyduck Experienced

fuzzyduck

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Correct. I've been using the sloppy name of Melton and Oakham canal for ages.

 

From Post 2 I have used the correct name.

 

Would look bloody silly trying to drag a boat down a railway line. hmmm maybe 2013

 

I note with interest that no one's lept up and said "I did it 20 years ago." so in the absence of this, I'll call the first trip, the first powered navigation of the lower reaches of the Melton Navigation in 130 Years.

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Joshua Community Regular

Joshua

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Correct. I've been using the sloppy name of Melton and Oakham canal for ages.

 

From Post 2 I have used the correct name.

 

Would look bloody silly trying to drag a boat down a railway line. hmmm maybe 2013

 

I note with interest that no one's lept up and said "I did it 20 years ago." so in the absence of this, I'll call the first trip, the first powered navigation of the lower reaches of the Melton Navigation in 130 Years.

 

 

I think you will find that Johnny Depp beat you to it!

 

 

Joshua

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Richard Fairhurst Rising Star

Richard Fairhurst

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I note with interest that no one's lept up and said "I did it 20 years ago." so in the absence of this, I'll call the first trip, the first powered navigation of the lower reaches of the Melton Navigation in 130 Years.

I strongly suspect you're right. There have been canoes now and then but I'm not aware of any powered boat navigation to the Gate Hangs Well and I don't think MOWS is either. Powered boats have used the isolated navigable 'ring' in Melton but nothing more.

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benfordboy Proficient

benfordboy

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Correct. I've been using the sloppy name of Melton and Oakham canal for ages.

 

From Post 2 I have used the correct name.

 

Would look bloody silly trying to drag a boat down a railway line. hmmm maybe 2013

 

I note with interest that no one's lept up and said "I did it 20 years ago." so in the absence of this, I'll call the first trip, the first powered navigation of the lower reaches of the Melton Navigation in 130 Years.

 

Sorry Fuzz

 

Have a couple of mates who certainly made it to Ratcliffe in a Dory with a leccy outboard (Probably 6-7yrs ago) Like you it was a pain getting up the Weir by the railway bridge , but they didnt suffer with the weed / rushes (It was a lot clearer then)

 

You sure about the english Krays ? The Wreak & Soar is infested with Signals at the moment (Rumours that they escaped into the Wreake from a restaurant yrs ago apparently).

 

Having canoed further up past Ratcliffe , beware the land owners who do not take kindly to any form of craft on 'Their' water !!!!

 

Let me know if you need extra ballast more crew for a future trip ! - Have to say a winter trip after a couple of floods to clear out the channel would be a plan

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benfordboy Proficient

benfordboy

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Can you let me have the location of the embargoed river please so I can make some sort of bypassing plan.

 

I'll have a word with Dad - He'll prob remember more than me , I seem to recall somewhere around Frisby ?

 

Of course they can only get you at the next lock !!!!!

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benfordboy Proficient

benfordboy

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Fuzz

 

Like yourself , The Wreake navigation has been a terrible lure.....

 

I wonder if approaching MOWS who may know who actually owns the riparian rights to navigation may lead to permission to run a trip thru said waters.....

 

Saying that , I've fished the Wreake open many a time & in some places the Wreake is 'Bloody unnavigable!'

 

MOWS may be interested in a documented trip tho !

 

Have access to a large canadian that would maybe take yr seagull as a 2nd craft ! , although two fatblokes aboard leads to a easy capsize !

 

There's got to be a way to make it to Melton (I was born there!)

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  • 2 weeks later...
benfordboy Proficient

benfordboy

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Can you let me have the location of the embargoed river please so I can make some sort of bypassing plan.

 

Fuzz

 

Been Talking to Dad - Above Ratcliffe mill he says the owner of the house (Bungalow) caused probs - My memory is playing tricks .... (Is the Bungalow built on the lock site ?)

 

Seem to recall the mill pond still there , so possible with a drag out ?

 

Dad used to rent the old boat house at Ratcliffe - If you pass it photos would be great (I remember it well , with the river access below the house)

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Richard Fairhurst Rising Star

Richard Fairhurst

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Been Talking to Dad - Above Ratcliffe mill he says the owner of the house (Bungalow) caused probs - My memory is playing tricks .... (Is the Bungalow built on the lock site ?)

The gate off the minor road above Ratcliffe Lock had a sign on it saying something like "NO NAVIGATION BY ORDER OF ACT OF PARLIAMENT AND THE LANDOWNER", though I confess I haven't been there for a couple of years. The Act of Parliament bit is of course nonsense - the 1877 Act only removed the public right of navigation, it didn't introduce a new offence of "navigating the River Wreake"...

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  • 1 month later...
oboat Community Regular

oboat

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Correct. I've been using the sloppy name of Melton and Oakham canal for ages.

 

From Post 2 I have used the correct name.

 

Would look bloody silly trying to drag a boat down a railway line. hmmm maybe 2013

 

 

 

Railway ????? No Prob! Just ask the Hereford & Gloucester Canal Trust they are even planning a new station on the canal for boats to call at!

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magpie patrick Veteran II

magpie patrickDonate to Canal World

Posted
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The gate off the minor road above Ratcliffe Lock had a sign on it saying something like "NO NAVIGATION BY ORDER OF ACT OF PARLIAMENT AND THE LANDOWNER", though I confess I haven't been there for a couple of years. The Act of Parliament bit is of course nonsense - the 1877 Act only removed the public right of navigation, it didn't introduce a new offence of "navigating the River Wreake"...

 

 

It's doubtful if it even did that. I had to go through it all about ten years ago and the act failed on two counts, it didn't repeal the provisions of the enabling act and it didn't specifically rescind the right of navigation. The 1877 Act allowed the destruction of specific works of navigation which could give rise to a ruling that "it can not have been intended that..." but overall it's a bit murky really

 

This is not an uncommon state of affairs by the way, lawyers were less well paid back then, and often part time

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  • 7 months later...
fuzzyduck Experienced

fuzzyduck

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Plans are afoot for 2012.

 

For reference the society has a new site at http://www.meltonwaterways.co.uk

 

I've recruited a small band of Urbexers, and sourced a 2nd outboard so we can use 2 dinghies to leasten the individual workload. we're looking now at getting above the 2nd weir the place where my last trip ended. (well there was a pub nearby)

 

another update, is that the new bridge is scheduled to be built later this year allowing for a 7 foot by about 7 foot navigable archway.

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Richard Fairhurst Rising Star

Richard Fairhurst

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Excellent news. Was leafing through some cycling websites earlier and saw that the bridge was back on again (after a brief period when it looked like the budget had overrun). Looks like the cycle path to Cossington will now go via Junction Lock rather than heading due north from the bridge.

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