Don't leave bottom gates open round ere please

[Leo No2]

Thanks Alan,

Am planning to head down Stoke Bruerne end of the month so is useful to know! Are they also locks that need to be left empty anyway or just an issue with gates staying closed?

David

Lock 14 (top lock) will drain itself (assuming upper gates are closed) due to lower near side gate cill leaking (to be done this winter I think). If the upper gates are left open I understand the Navigation pub has been known to flood

All the locks have letterbox type weirs (as Julian described above)

Important not to flood the last pound before the River Tove (locks 19 to 20) as it damages the road down to the rubbish bins and can flood the local houses

There's no request to drain any of the locks

'Alan's gates' will stay closed if they are closed a second time - I don't understand why that should be but it does seem to happen that way!

[furnessvale]

 

I'll do that kind of thing occasionally, but I'll pull the stern of the boat back rather than leave it in gear while I jump off. Thinking about how that would work coming downhill through Barrowford locks or some of the others on the L&L, Calder & Hebble, though. Just curious to know whether the technique works for you in that kind of location.

 

I suppose my point is that however you choose to do it, closing the gates behind you isn't that onerous.

Having a 71ft narrowboat none of your examples cause me any problem.

 

More seriously, the technique works best going up hill through narrow locks. Downhill on the T & M and Staffs and Worcs etc still OK. Harder is downhill on Bosley with the lack of tail lock landings. Bloody impossible is Beeston Iron.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

[Midnight Rider]

I was always told ( been boating 55 years) do not moor in flights, I never moor anywhere if there is a lock less than two miles away, where the water might drain away, it will end in tear's one day.

Well each to their own but when you consider how many long term & visitors moorings are in lock pounds, a lot would disagree.

[ditchcrawler]

 

I'll probably get shot down in flames, but where the Southern GU locks have a notice to say leave empty, with a paddle up, I actually think it is perfectly acceptable to leave the gate open as well.

 

Someone from the next crew to use the lock has to walk to that gate anyway, irrespective of whether the gate is open or shut, because that paddle must be dropped.

 

So the extra effort to close gate as well is minimal, and if you are arriving from the bottom, you then have the advantage it doesn't need opening and you can motor straight in, (assuming you don't have a wide beam, and only one gate is open, of course! )

 

I have reservation about the "leave paddle up" thing, because non canal "literate" people do tend to "play" with locks and lock gear when walking the canals and boats are not using them. I have seen someone nearly take their fingers off when they managed to release a pawl and the paddle crashed down.

I go along with that having seen people just arrive at the top of an empty lock and whip the paddles up not noticing the bottom one is open.

[Alf Roberts]

 

Not the case with those on the K&A. No buildings anywhere near these locks.

 

I asked a BW bod once why, and he gave me a long and complicated explanation I didn't understand, so I'm hoping someone here will come up with the real reason.

 

 

MtB

 

it's because the lock gates are their own bywash weirs. with the locks full the bottom gate is slightly higher than the top. Mind, with the bottom gates and paddles shut it really makes no difference in the long run.

[RLWP]

Last week we passed a boat on the GU that was trying to catch up with the nice people in front to advise them to shut the top gates after them. I'd like to have been there when they met.

 

I wonder if that was the boat I had to close every top gate for on the Northampton flight? I had a conversation with them at the top lock

 

Why did they close the ground paddles but not the gate?

 

Richard

[furnessvale]

 

I wonder if that was the boat I had to close every top gate for on the Northampton flight? I had a conversation with them at the top lock

 

Why did they close the ground paddles but not the gate?

 

Richard

On the crudest self serving level, it is easy to drop paddles when the boat is leaving the lock without any delay. More effort to stop to close the gate after exit.

 

George ex nb Alton retired

[Proper Job]

 

So you mean if you know where all those are then the Bradford location that the OP was referring to is obvious?

 

It might have been easier if he'd just told us.​

 

I have no idea were the OP was refering to.

 

Just adding to the detective work of were he might have been refering to. Bradford is on his avitar location and he refered to bottom gates rather than bottom gate

[Jim Riley]

Afaik the canal to Bradford w yorks is awaiting restoration.

[kris88]

I could tell you but maybe by the way op hasn't replied with the location. He might not want the location he moors posted in an open forum.

Regards kris

[Proper Job]

That'll be Bradford on the K&A then

[Kendal]

I could tell you but maybe by the way op hasn't replied with the location. He might not want the location he moors posted in an open forum.

Regards kris

 

If that's the case then why have a topic title which is asking people not to leave the bottom gates open in a particular location but keep the location a secret? Kind of defeats the object really

[kris88]

I'm not going to argue, I'm only surmising

Regards kris

[ditchcrawler]

I could tell you but maybe by the way op hasn't replied with the location. He might not want the location he moors posted in an open forum.

Regards kris

Well he did ask us to close the gates around here, but then refuses to tell us where "Here" is. If I had made that posting a few years back I would have been talking about Napton top, but there is only one lock near Lowestoft and that is operated by a lock keeper.

[NilesMI]

Having a 71ft narrowboat none of your examples cause me any problem.

 

More seriously, the technique works best going up hill through narrow locks. Downhill on the T & M and Staffs and Worcs etc still OK. Harder is downhill on Bosley with the lack of tail lock landings. Bloody impossible is Beeston Iron.

 

Ah, right. The occasions where I do it, is generally going uphill on narrow locks. Especially at paired locks where it's sometimes awkward to get from the offside lock of a pair onto the lock landing and then have to yomp over the intervening lock to close the gate.

[Proper Job]

......... so one for the forum slooths

 

We know his name is Sam

He lives on a boat called Kingfisher

He has a baby, so probably has a partner

There are six locks close together near him

The locks have double bottom gates and are probably wide(?)

It may be Bradford or he comes from Bradford

 

........... over to you

[SamKingfisher]

I'm happy with the guess my location game. People who know can't play. I was at the start of the filled in Bradford arm, but I moved in June. I'm somewhere rural. I have no bloody 3g on any network. I can see swans. There are lockies on the flight but they don't work 24 hours.

 

Part of my point was that location is immaterial, unless you know the locks. Leaving the top gates open wouldn't cause a problem, and yes the likes of Tony Dunkley would probably have noticed that the bottom gates are new 2013 and tight, whereas the top were new 1934 and knackered, but most people wouldn't notice that.

[Kendal]

I'm going to have a wild guess - Gargrave?

[Dharl]

I'm happy with the guess my location game. People who know can't play. I was at the start of the filled in Bradford arm, but I moved in June. I'm somewhere rural. I have no bloody 3g on any network. I can see swans. There are lockies on the flight but they don't work 24 hours.

 

 

Somewhere Rural and no 3G..........Napton??

[john_r]

No excuse if they were a widebeam or not really though.

 

We did the GU earlier this summer (in our WB) and I managed to close every paddle and gate, save one. I just simply couldn't get the paddle to lower, but did call CRT to let them know. And of course then there was the one bottom gate of the last lock in the Hanwell flight - it broke me and I had to admit defeat with that one.

 

Oh yes, the one on the towpath side. I struggled to open it and had to get help to close it else I was almost ready to walk away. The crew on another boat once they had helped me said to use the other gate next time.

[TheBiscuits]

... it occurs to me that the chap may have read somewhere that it's fine to leave gates open ...

 

Nah.

 

We shared two locks in Blackburn with him a couple of weeks ago. He had only had the boat a few days, and was heading for t'wrong side of t'hill (or Leeds if you prefer).

 

Lovely chap, but he hadn't read anything. Including the "CILL" marks in the locks.

 

Admittedly he thought we were faffing closing all those paddles and gates....