Hillmorton

[MtB]

Even if turbulence IS a serious problem to boats moored below surely there is no reason not to open the second paddle once the lock is half empty. 

 

Is the suspicion that the taped up paddle is in perfect working order, but illigitimately taped up by a volly to enforce the informal agreement with the moorers not to use it?

[john6767]

3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Even if turbulence IS a serious problem to boats moored below surely there is no reason not to open the second paddle once the lock is half empty. 

 

Is the suspicion that the taped up paddle is in perfect working order, but illigitimately taped up by a volly to enforce the informal agreement with the moorers not to use it?

Mike check my post, it was broken, but now fixed, unless someone knows otherwise.

[MtB]

7 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Mike check my post, it was broken, but now fixed, unless someone knows otherwise.

 

Yes i saw you said it has been fixed. I was coupling this information with hughc ‘s post 73 saying it was taped up again so I was speculating as to why this might be. Perhaps I misunderstood. 

[bizzard]

Thank god I stick mainly to the lovely and peaceful river Stort these days.

[john6767]

20 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Yes i saw you said it has been fixed. I was coupling this information with hughc ‘s post 73 saying it was taped up again so I was speculating as to why this might be. Perhaps I misunderstood. 

My understanding from when we were there that the paddle was inoperable, and given the depth of this lock it was a real pain as it took a very long time to empty.  I saw pictures on Twitter or Facebook recently where the issue was resulved by a diver, which avoided the lengthy process of getting permission to close the road to put a crane on the bridge.  I don’t believe there was anything malicious in this, it was just broken, and has now been resolved so you should now be able to use both.

[Rob-M]

13 minutes ago, john6767 said:

My understanding from when we were there that the paddle was inoperable, and given the depth of this lock it was a real pain as it took a very long time to empty.  I saw pictures on Twitter or Facebook recently where the issue was resulved by a diver, which avoided the lengthy process of getting permission to close the road to put a crane on the bridge.  I don’t believe there was anything malicious in this, it was just broken, and has now been resolved so you should now be able to use both.

That was my understanding as well.

We have had mixed experiences with the vlockies at Stenson, last year one was lucky he didn't go for a swim whilst he was lecturing mrs-m on how to count to six as that was the number of clicks to do on a paddle. This year we went through after they had clocked off but one was still around helping unofficially and was actually helpful.

[canalboat]

IRONIC REALLY

While this forum carries on having a go at volunteer lock-keepers, I can report that a few minutes ago, a boater who insisted on working the locks at Hillmorton himself, slipped and fell into the lock and went under his boat but thankfully was pulled out by the lady volunteer lock-keeper whom, I assume was the target of the OP in this thread.  The boater survived and has been taken to hospital with a  broken collar bone.  Police praised her actions. The other volunteer lock-keepers who are at the locks raising money for MacMillan Nurses, took care of his boat and moored it safely. Perhaps the OP would like to make a donation.

[dogless]

It was probably the stress of knowing that the evil empire volunteers were around that caused him to fall in  

Joking aside,  I hope the person makes a speedy recovery.

A timely reminder of the dangers of working locks alone.

Rog

[nicknorman]

57 minutes ago, canalboat said:

IRONIC REALLY

While this forum carries on having a go at volunteer lock-keepers, I can report that a few minutes ago, a boater who insisted on working the locks at Hillmorton himself, slipped and fell into the lock and went under his boat but thankfully was pulled out by the lady volunteer lock-keeper whom, I assume was the target of the OP in this thread.  The boater survived and has been taken to hospital with a  broken collar bone.  Police praised her actions. The other volunteer lock-keepers who are at the locks raising money for MacMillan Nurses, took care of his boat and moored it safely. Perhaps the OP would like to make a donation.

You are making a pretty biased contribution to this thread. Surely even you can see that volockies come in a wide range of competence, attitude and manner? Some are definitely in it for the wrong reason. Most aren’t. But to deny the existence of the small minority of bad ones seems blind and foolish to me.

 

Somebody fell in. So what, it happens. It just so happened that it was at a lock with a volockie who just happened to be there and paying some attention. Not a good justification for having volockies IMO.

Edited August 17, 2018 by nicknorman

[matty40s]

Hillmorton is going to be a very different place once those 4500-6000 new houses are finished on the offside banks. Lots more opportunity to perform as the number of gongoozlers will rise.

[roland elsdon]

2 hours ago, canalboat said:

IRONIC REALLY

While this forum carries on having a go at volunteer lock-keepers, I can report that a few minutes ago, a boater who insisted on working the locks at Hillmorton himself, slipped and fell into the lock and went under his boat but thankfully was pulled out by the lady volunteer lock-keeper whom, I assume was the target of the OP in this thread.  The boater survived and has been taken to hospital with a  broken collar bone.  Police praised her actions. The other volunteer lock-keepers who are at the locks raising money for MacMillan Nurses, took care of his boat and moored it safely. Perhaps the OP would like to make a donation.

You are linking 2 unrelated events in a bizarre fashion. Whilst laudible to give money to macmillan and yes i do when swapping books, why would i give another donation from my nhs pension, because someone fell in a lock and was rescued by the collegues of someone else who we would possibly have died by her own negligence if our rather large boat bad bashed her on the head and then into the lock

[zenataomm]

Where's this hole at Fradley then?

[dogless]

Volunteers are available to help.

If you don't want their help, just tell them.

That's it really

Rog

[nicknorman]

36 minutes ago, dogless said:

Volunteers are available to help.

If you don't want their help, just tell them.

That's it really

Rog

It should be. But at a few locations including Hillmorton and Stenson, they do seem to carry on as if they were in charge and you have to do as your told. At other locations of course, they are absolutely great. And then at mechanised locks eg on the Trent, once again we seem to have volunteers in charge. Confusing!

[dogless]

I don't believe you can be so easily bullied.

I'm sure you'll always have a witty rejoinder ready for such occasions.

Rog

[nicknorman]

17 minutes ago, dogless said:

I don't believe you can be so easily bullied.

I'm sure you'll always have a witty rejoinder ready for such occasions.

Rog

You’re right, however our normal modus operandi is that I drive and Jeff does the locks. And he is much nicer than me. I need to remember when approaching said edifices that we must swap roles!

[canalboat]

9 hours ago, nicknorman said:

Somebody fell in. So what, it happens. It just so happened that it was at a lock with a volockie who just happened to be there and paying some attention. Not a good justification for having volockies IMO.

Apart from the fact of course that in the words to the Volunteer Lock-keeper of the paramedic who attended: "You saved his life"

Thank heavens you're so far away that it is unlikely that you will have to come through the Locks at Hillmorton.

[nicknorman]

5 minutes ago, canalboat said:

Apart from the fact of course that in the words to the Volunteer Lock-keeper of the paramedic who attended: "You saved his life"

Thank heavens you're so far away that it is unlikely that you will have to come through the Locks at Hillmorton.

Well whoopy do. Let’s all become volockies and then death by accident will be a thing of the past!

 

Not that far away, 13 locks plus Sutton stop (which hardly counts) to be precise. 13 locks where, in the fairly unlikely event of encountering volockies, I am fairly confident they will have the right attitude. But the 14th to 16th locks - well, forewarned is forearmed. I wonder if you realise just how badly you come across on here?

 

When the Fincher vs Hillmorton volocky wars were on, I did wonder if the former was exaggerating a bit. Now I am much more confident that he wasn’t, so thank you for making the truth easier to see.

[alan_fincher]

I'm now wondering if any of us should ever risk going through the maybe 95% to 97% of locks where a volunteer lock keeper is not present!

 

Fortunately most have never seemed to have suffered a large death toll, despite their absence.

8 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

When the Fincher vs Hillmorton volocky wars were on, I did wonder if the former was exaggerating a bit. Now I am much more confident that he wasn’t, so thank you for making the truth easier to see.

For public record, since our incident we have been assisted at least a couple of times at Hillmorton by the volunteer involved.

 

He has been as good as gold, and I genuinely think has probably learned something from the experience.

[Nightwatch]

Came up Hillmorton today. Just after the 'incident'. All was normal. No mention of 'incident'. Cleared the flight without incident.

 

All very pleasant.

[nicknorman]

49 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

 

He has been as good as gold, and I genuinely think has probably learned something from the experience.

Well that’s progress!

[KenK]

I must be in the minority as to date I have not had a problem with a volunteer. Mind you I drive and my dearly beloved deals with the lock, she is an ex school teacher and has many years experience dealing with children, volunteers are a piece of cake.

We passed through Hillmorton just before the restrictions and there were only volunteers on the lower lock but no problems with them, helpful and I was always in control, sensible contact and clear understanding between us.

I was a little surprised to find volunteers working the Trent locks and indeed had a long conversation with the lock keeper at Cromwell (CRT) who was very firmly convinced that they should never be allowed to operate the tidal locks, something I agree with. The volunteers on the Trent locks didn't cause me any problems but what would they be like in adverse weather conditions. CRT need to think carefully about the use of volunteers on the rivers.

In the main I am happy to see volunteers, the vast majority are cheerful, helpful and an asset to the waterways, as in life there is always the odd one!

 

Ken

[MtB]

10 hours ago, KenK said:

The volunteers on the Trent locks didn't cause me any problems but what would they be like in adverse weather conditions. 

 

I don’t think this is ever going to be a concern. Has anybody EVER seen a volly out in ‘adverse weather conditions’? In my experience they melt into the ether at the first hint of rain or anything other than a warm sunny day. 

[john6767]

9 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I don’t think this is ever going to be a concern. Has anybody EVER seen a volly out in ‘adverse weather conditions’? In my experience they melt into the ether at the first hint of rain or anything other than a warm sunny day. 

I would like to think that would not happen on the manned Trent locks, where they are supposed to be manned fixed hours every day. They can always stay in the cabin anyway, they don’t need to get wet.

[nicknorman]

55 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I don’t think this is ever going to be a concern. Has anybody EVER seen a volly out in ‘adverse weather conditions’? In my experience they melt into the ether at the first hint of rain or anything other than a warm sunny day. 

Well to be fair, yes in the case of the Lapworth volockies. We were expedited up there (mostly by having the next lock set for us) when it was absolutely bucketing down.