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Stuck below Banbury due to low water, lift bridge 171 blocked by another boat.


Lily Rose

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Thought I'd start a new thread for this.

 

We came down Banbury lock this morning to get through the pound before it gets any worse. Bad idea!

 

We've made it through lift bridge 170 and moored on the armco, just deep enough for us at about 2 foot.

 

If anyone is currently heading for the pound between Banbury Lock and Brand's Lock... don't bother!

 

There is currently a boat stuck hard in lift bridge 171 and another one stuck just behind.

 

Apparently CRT have been informed but are doing nothing. One of the stuck boaters has opened a paddle each end of Banbury lock to let some water down but at 2 miles it may take a while to make a difference.

 

Allegedly the cause is partly builders of new houses stealing water but also the owner of a marina in the Twyford area nicking water. I'm told CRT know but can't or won't do anything without evidence.

 

At least we're in a nice spot if we are stuck for the weekend and we have three empty toilet cassetes, a full tank of water, a fridge full of food, lots of sunshine on the pane!s and, most importantly, plenty of beer. There's worse places to be.

 

 

Edited by Lily Rose
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1 minute ago, Lily Rose said:

At least we're in a nice spot if we are stuck for the weekend and we have three empty toilet cassetes, a full tank of water, a fridge full of food, lots of sunshine on the pane!s and, most importantly, plenty of beer. There's worse places to be.

 

Couldn't be better then.

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You could improve it slightly by being stuck next to a boat full of......the ladies sweedish beach volley team who are in bikinis and do not have replacement clothing..........its a bloody long shot but stranger things have happend.....trump is president after all......

A pick if you have no imagination......lol

 

GetImage.jpg

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Something tells me that CRT are going to prioritise this problem; it's a busy canal and the hire boat companies will be fuming if it stays blocked for long. I would urge anyone who has (or can obtain) evidence of companies extracting canal water without CRT's permission to make an effort to pass it on to the relevant people at CRT, it's in all our interests.

Two questions spring to mind about the beach volleyball team:

(1) Don't they wear matching clothing in the national colours like other athletes?, and

(2) Assuming each team is six women, how did 18 women cram onto that podium without some falling off? 

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3 minutes ago, Peter X said:

Something tells me that CRT are going to prioritise this problem; it's a busy canal and the hire boat companies will be fuming if it stays blocked for long. I would urge anyone who has (or can obtain) evidence of companies extracting canal water without CRT's permission to make an effort to pass it on to the relevant people at CRT, it's in all our interests.

How would you know if abstraction is without permission?  Near the bottom of the Stourbridge canal there is a large pump in a field, busily extracting water. I would assume it has a licence but have no idea?

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If I were in CRT's shoes I'd be very happy to receive any evidence of someone currently extracting lots of water from that pound, and could soon check records to see whether they have permission or not. I'd be delighted if some boater on the spot helped CRT with a bit of amateur detective work.

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The building site to the south of Banbury is pumping without permission. CRT lawyers are on the case. There's a manhole on the site. The company have lifted this and there's water, this is where they are pumping out water to make their cement and other materials.

Edited by Nightwatch
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2 hours ago, Nightwatch said:

Well Sean, you wanted adventure! 

All good fun eh?

 

Anyway, the chaos ahead of us was cleared after a while but just before we got going another Oxfordshire narrowboat  with about a dozen young blokes on it (or rather mostly off it and on the towpath at the bridge to lighten the load) got stuck, albeit briefly. Then we went through with the pole indicating about 2' 6" depth. Just as I thought we'd made it we got stuck about 2 or 3 feet after the bridge. I managed to get going but I doubt if NB Helen (3 foot) did as they were following us. By the time we got to Grant's lock 3 more boats passed us on the way to Banbury plus another came up the lock after we came out. It may be chaos at bridge 171 again by now, unless more water has come down.

 

Just as we were about to get off the mooring to try bridge 171 two ladies from CRT called over from the offside, so it seems they do care after all. I assumed they would but possibly not until Monday. They were just on their way up to Banbury Lock to (hopefully) do something. They also confirmed that the building site near that bridge were extracting water and that the legal folks are dealing with it. 

 

At least two other people alleged that Twyford Wharf (not a "marina" as I was told earlier) are nipping up to Banbury Lock during the night and running water down to keep their customers happy. They don't like seeing their peas roll off the plate.

 

We're happy to be away from the chaos of that pound and moored in another nice spot just above King's Sutton Lock.

 

UPDATE: nb Helen has just gone past. They got stuck at 171 but then eventually managed to get through with the help of a bit of tug from one of the boats heading to Banbury. Perhaps water levels are inching up by now as well?

 

Edited by Lily Rose
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5 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Pig Farm tomorrow?

I had planned to stop just before The Pig Place tonight but when we got to this nice spot I couldn't be arsed to do another lock and we're getting too close to Oxford too soon. I'll probably do the lock in the morning then moor for a cuppa just before TPP then walk down to check for a free mooring. I believe their breakfasts are all day so that will probably be lunch.

 

We were going to go into the club place at Banbury for lunch today then stay another night. But, despite the board outside saying food Mon - Sat, when I asked to see the menu yesterday evening they said no food until Monday. Also I wanted to get through the next pound asap before it got worse. The girls from The Narrowboat Experience Youtube vlog, who I met in Tooleys, told me they had been moored near Morrisons for several days and reckoned it was going down about an inch a day since they arrived.

 

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3 hours ago, Lily Rose said:

Thought I'd start a new thread for this.

 

We came down Banbury lock this morning to get through the pound before it gets any worse. Bad idea!

 

We've made it through lift bridge 170 and moored on the armco, just deep enough for us at about 2 foot.

 

If anyone is currently heading for the pound between Banbury Lock and Brand's Lock... don't bother!

 

There is currently a boat stuck hard in lift bridge 171 and another one stuck just behind.

 

Apparently CRT have been informed but are doing nothing. One of the stuck boaters has opened a paddle each end of Banbury lock to let some water down but at 2 miles it may take a while to make a difference.

 

Allegedly the cause is partly builders of new houses stealing water but also the owner of a marina in the Twyford area nicking water. I'm told CRT know but can't or won't do anything without evidence.

 

At least we're in a nice spot if we are stuck for the weekend and we have three empty toilet cassetes, a full tank of water, a fridge full of food, lots of sunshine on the pane!s and, most importantly, plenty of beer. There's worse places to be.

 

 

And no one speeding past

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1 hour ago, Lily Rose said:

 

 

At least two other people alleged that Twyford Wharf (not a "marina" as I was told earlier) are nipping up to Banbury Lock during the night and running water down to keep their customers happy.

 

 

 

We passed Twyford Wharf a couple of weeks ago heading south. As we crossed a boat heading north, we were indeed at quite an angle. We just assumed it was a normal state of affairs as we slide back down the slope. Presumably it will not have got any better in the last two dry weeks. 

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2 minutes ago, Derek Porteous said:

We passed Twyford Wharf a couple of weeks ago heading south. As we crossed a boat heading north, we were indeed at quite an angle. We just assumed it was a normal state of affairs as we slide back down the slope. Presumably it will not have got any better in the last two dry weeks. 

It certainly wasn't like it when we came down last summer and back up again a month later. And that had also been quite a long dry spell as well, albeit with less sun and lower temperatures, with the Thames weirs doing very little business.

 

Several more boats have passed us going south. It looks like Helen may have cleared a channel for them, and possibly CRT have got the level up a little. Of course it may not stay like that for long.

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1 hour ago, cuthound said:

 

I thought John Dodwell retired from CRT last year?

 

I had no idea who he was when I was chatting to him but the way he referred to CRT (politely I hasten to add, in case you think I meant otherwise) did not sound as though he was one of them. So perhaps he isn't any more.

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3 hours ago, Lily Rose said:

It certainly wasn't like it when we came down last summer and back up again a month later. And that had also been quite a long dry spell as well, albeit with less sun and lower temperatures, with the Thames weirs doing very little business.

 

Several more boats have passed us going south. It looks like Helen may have cleared a channel for them, and possibly CRT have got the level up a little. Of course it may not stay like that for long.

Stop messing about on that ditch and join us ont Thames, plenty much water. Even floating along side Lechlade. Nipped up here from Dukes today :)

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1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

Stop messing about on that ditch and join us ont Thames, plenty much water. Even floating along side Lechlade. Nipped up here from Dukes today :)

I'm getting there, just very slowly. (Taking a leaf out of Nightwatch's book)

 

Where's all that water coming from.

 

I'm trying to time it to be in Abingdon next weekend but I don't want my 31 days to start too early in case I want to spend a long time down the Windsor end or, possibly, head up Lechlade way again afterwards and before the 31 days are up.

 

How long do you plan to be on the Thames?

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8 hours ago, Peter X said:

If I were in CRT's shoes I'd be very happy to receive any evidence of someone currently extracting lots of water from that pound, and could soon check records to see whether they have permission or not. I'd be delighted if some boater on the spot helped CRT with a bit of amateur detective work.

My grandfather was caught nicking water from the canal in Burnley. He was running his factory using the water.

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The building site nicking the water to make their cement doesn't really stack up on two counts. 

 

1) Good cement relies on good clean uncontaminated water. Brickies are actually dead picky about the water used to make the bricklaying mortar and larger volumes of water for for foundation concrete also needs to be very clean. It would be regarded as slapdash to the point of negligent to use canal water for making up mortar and concrete using canal water and the cement manufacturer will certainly void the guarantee on their cement. Any responsible building firm would insist on clean water direct from the mains or riosk HUGE liability in the future if the mortar and concrete fails to set to the expected and design strength.

 

2) The volumes of water involved will be trivial. I can't imagine more than a lockful of water a day being abstracted even if they are using it for making mortar and concrete.

 

And on a different point, the yard at Twyford is a hire base. If they are running water f=down in the night I bet it is so their hire boats get back when needed for the next hirers.

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2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

The building site nicking the water to make their cement doesn't really stack up on two counts. 

 

1) Good cement relies on good clean uncontaminated water. Brickies are actually dead picky about the water used to make the bricklaying mortar and larger volumes of water for for foundation concrete also needs to be very clean. It would be regarded as slapdash to the point of negligent to use canal water for making up mortar and concrete using canal water and the cement manufacturer will certainly void the guarantee on their cement. Any responsible building firm would insist on clean water direct from the mains or riosk HUGE liability in the future if the mortar and concrete fails to set to the expected and design strength.

 

2) The volumes of water involved will be trivial. I can't imagine more than a lockful of water a day being abstracted even if they are using it for making mortar and concrete.

 

And on a different point, the yard at Twyford is a hire base. If they are running water f=down in the night I bet it is so their hire boats get back when needed for the next hirers.

Could be using the water for landscaping, watering newly laid turf.

Twyford might not realise water is being extracted and are trying to keep levels up.

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