Torksey Lock Closed

[Alway Swilby]

Due to a large build up of driftwood off the river below the lock the lock is closed. Awaiting a dredger to remove it all.

[national velvet]

About time too, last week on Wednesday we did trip from Torksey to Stockwith and had to fight our way out of the cut onto the Trent due to the amount of rubbish hanging about in the Fossdyke entrance. Neil the lock keeper was having to flush water down from the lock to try and clear the entrance in order that boats could enter the lock.

[Naughty Cal]

This was it this morning.

 

 

Friends of ours were the last through yesterday. They cleared it themselves with the dinghies to get in much to the disapproval of the CRT guys on site.

About time too, last week on Wednesday we did trip from Torksey to Stockwith and had to fight our way out of the cut onto the Trent due to the amount of rubbish hanging about in the Fossdyke entrance. Neil the lock keeper was having to flush water down from the lock to try and clear the entrance in order that boats could enter the lock.

We came in on Tuesday and it wasn't great.

 

The big tides washed the debris off the banks.

[Alway Swilby]

Apparently they are hoping for a change in wind direction to blow it all away!

[Tony Dunkley]

Apparently they are hoping for a change in wind direction to blow it all away!

 

There's nothing new about Torksey Cut being full of floating rubbish and timber at this time of year. The stuff that accumulates along the banks around the HW levels during the Summer gets floated off by bigger than normal tides, caught in the slack at the cut end, and then the direction the prevailing wind blows from pushes it into the cut. A day or so of a good breeze with some East in it will see all of it gone.

It was a potential problem in the days of commercial traffic because of chunks of wood getting into the small gap between the lock walls and the barge's sides and causing them to get jammed. Nowadays with much narrower beam boats as the normal traffic, it's just a minor inconvenience which will get removed and taken away by the same things that put it there, . . . wind and tide.

Edited September 6, 2015 by Tony Dunkley

[NickF]

Couldn't it just be flushed away by letting water down the lock for a few hours on an out going tide? The pound above is fed by the river in Lincoln (I think) so water should not be a problem.

[Naughty Cal]

Couldn't it just be flushed away by letting water down the lock for a few hours on an out going tide? The pound above is fed by the river in Lincoln (I think) so water should not be a problem.

Water levels on the Fossdyke are quite low at the minute.

 

http://apps.environment-agency.gov.uk/river-and-sea-levels/120736.aspx?stationId=6047

[Tony Dunkley]

Couldn't it just be flushed away by letting water down the lock for a few hours on an out going tide? The pound above is fed by the river in Lincoln (I think) so water should not be a problem.

 

It can certainly be helped on it's way down to the end of the cut by running water, but the prevaillng wind does it's best to keep it all up near the lock.

The water level in the Fossdyke is at the level of the Witham in Lincoln where it runs in to the Brayford, and controlled by Stamp End Sluice/weir. As the Fossdyke is fed by the river Witham in Lincoln as well as some land drains and the river Till, there is no problem with water supply except in times of severe drought when the Witham is too low to run over the top of the fully closed sluice gates at Stamp End. The Witham is presently a little above the normal low Summer level, so there's plenty of water available for flushing away rubbish at Torksey, although to be really effective and get it out of the end of the cut and into the river, rather than just clearing it away from the lock tail, it needs an Easterly wind.

Edited September 7, 2015 by Tony Dunkley

[Naughty Cal]

They let a few cruisers through yesterday so guessing it's open again.

[Barry]

Easterly wind today I notice