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the barnacle

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Those using the name Heart Break Hill should be shot - this is a Gaggish from the late sixties, and certainly does not now apply, but was taken up by the Bridgewater types who didn't do locks!. It was never hard, even when BW stopped maintaining thing in the 1970's. The guy was a fool!. The locks the OP refered to by the M6 are the pair below the Romping Donkey No. 57 The pair at the Romping Donkey of old (pub still shut!) is one of the pairs which has been lost due to a new bridge. If one owns a older boat like I do, then we always take the off line locks or eastern ones all the way up as these are known to be wider, The Locks were doubled from Wellock to the summit, (shame they never finished the process to the bottom especally in Middlewich). There are a few which are now beyond recovery, Red Bull where the A34 was widened in the 1960's and we lost a lock and Therlwood where the Steel lock, now scraped, replaced a lock, and 56 by the old Romping Donkey pub, when they rebuilt the bridge. Those known to be narrow are 63,60 and 54 hopefully the one at Malkins bank 63 is being fettled this winter, we wait to see. There are a couple which are on the books to be brought back into use, however this will require the lock walls to be rebuilt as the have turned in to less than 6'10".
I love the Lawton flight as normally, even single handing I can overtake at least one hire boat going up, if not two before Red Bull Yard. Its also great fun when you bring a pair down, just as long as you don't miss the long line on the island.

 

--

Cheers Ian Mac

Vote just for Ian McCarthy in the Volunteer constituency C&RT Council elections.

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That would be the upper lock at Church Locks, which has been closed for MANY years. Still has derelict gates in place.

 

I believe that the chamber walls are badly bowed, but it hasn't been capped or infilled, so I take the view that they aren't actively trying to close anything.

 

The only recent closure is the offside lock immediately below this one (it is a difficult move across the pound, and it tended to cause congestion if too many boats locked up)

 

There have been various closures of the Bottom pair at Wheelock, but these are not (AFAIK) permanent.

 

By my reckoning, there are;

 

2 locks that are fairly intact (Church Locks) that could be resurected

2 locks (the middle lock of Lawton Treble Locks and the lock above the boatyard at Malkins Bank) that are in filled, but not a major challenge to dig out.

2 locks (Red Bull and Hassall Green) that are infilled and obstructed by a road bridge

1 lock (former Thurlwood Steel Lock) eliminated.

 

The old lock site at Red Bull also belongs to a third party, it was sold in the 1960's I think

 

It would be very straightforward to build a new lock on the site of Thurlwood Steel Lock, although a finger in the air estimate would be around the half million mark

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The old lock site at Red Bull also belongs to a third party, it was sold in the 1960's I think

 

It would be very straightforward to build a new lock on the site of Thurlwood Steel Lock, although a finger in the air estimate would be around the half million mark

 

I assumed that the pub had bought the land before expanding the garden over it.

 

I assume that the same actually applies at Hassal Green, as the former cafe had tables and chairs on the old lock

 

However, I have to say that the Red Bull which used to be a favourite eatery of ours has gone downhill over the last couple of years, and after the thrid visit on the run where the food was inadequate, we won't be going there again, so the site could become available!

 

Both locks are substantially intact (Hassal Green less so, because the forebay has been significantly modified), so subject to land purchase and new road bridges....

 

The irony with Thurlwood Steel Lock is that if it had survived just another couple of years, it would probably have been listed, and might even have been restored to service.

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One of the locks on Malkins Bank near the golf course has closed this year. It was open October 2014 but has been closed with more than just orange netting. It always had warnings about being narrow so maybe the walls have moved some more.

 

I'm not sure that the walls have moved any more.

 

I am sure that the level of common sense has fallen.

 

Time was when a sign saying Narrow Lock 6'10" was enough. People who knew they were wider heeded the sign, and those who hadn't passed through before took it very carefully and worked out if they were OK with Narrow locks.

 

Of late, people have lost the ability to take care, and have ended up thoroughly stuck.

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I assumed that the pub had bought the land before expanding the garden over it.

 

I assume that the same actually applies at Hassal Green, as the former cafe had tables and chairs on the old lock

 

However, I have to say that the Red Bull which used to be a favourite eatery of ours has gone downhill over the last couple of years, and after the thrid visit on the run where the food was inadequate, we won't be going there again, so the site could become available!

 

Both locks are substantially intact (Hassal Green less so, because the forebay has been significantly modified), so subject to land purchase and new road bridges....

 

The irony with Thurlwood Steel Lock is that if it had survived just another couple of years, it would probably have been listed, and might even have been restored to service.

 

If you really want a challenge, putting the duplicate locks in at Pierrepoint would be interesting - for some reason they never got built!

 

Agreed about Thurlwood Steel - there was little appetite for it's retention whereas now there would be a much stronger feeling towards it.

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The irony with Thurlwood Steel Lock is that if it had survived just another couple of years, it would probably have been listed, and might even have been restored to service.

 

Accounts usually reckon it was a very poor piece of engineering with hidden components that could not be accessed for maintenance. Allegedly it just became completely inoperable as a result, I think.

 

I don't know if that is accurate, but pressing it back into service without completely redesigning certain parts of it may not, I suspect, have been that straightforward.

 

 

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Time was when a sign saying Narrow Lock 6'10" was enough. People who knew they were wider heeded the sign, and those who hadn't passed through before took it very carefully and worked out if they were OK with Narrow locks.

 

Of late, people have lost the ability to take care, and have ended up thoroughly stuck.

 

I don't know the Cheshire locks that well, but do recall that the only time we took "Sickle" down them, (design width 7' 0.5", and possibly a bit wider than that now), more than one of the locks that allegedly had a 6' 10" limit on one lock of a pair, actually had the wider lock locked out of use, with no option but to use the one signed as narrow. I'm afraid though I have no record which these actually were.

 

We therefore had to discard any notion of "taking care" other than to do things slowly, ready to react if we got stuck. My memory was that in each such lock there was at least 3" clear on the bits we could see, although it is of course possible they are misshapen under water, and Sickle is only 40 feet, so if the problem is the lock is banana shape along is full length, we might have failed with a 70 foot plus boat.

 

My gut feeling is that we have often gone through other locks considerably narrower, and the 6' 10" warning on the locks we tok a boat of over 7 feet through seemed pessimistic.

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I'm not sure that the walls have moved any more.

 

I am sure that the level of common sense has fallen.

 

Time was when a sign saying Narrow Lock 6'10" was enough. People who knew they were wider heeded the sign, and those who hadn't passed through before took it very carefully and worked out if they were OK with Narrow locks.

 

Of late, people have lost the ability to take care, and have ended up thoroughly stuck.

Lock 60 at Malkins (towpath side) has been out of use since June this year https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/3585/lock-60-towpath-side-trent-and-mersey simply because the CRT noticed that the chill bumper was broken and after a boat sinking in Cholmondeston Lock just prior to this (primarily as a result of a broken chill bumper), they then decided to close this lock, despite it being a relatively simple job to repair it they haven't got round to it yet.

 

Lock 63 has towpath side has been getting narrower over the past 5 or 6 years, it is thought this is possibly due to movent in the centre island. Alton used to be able to pass through lock 63 towpath side without a major problem, but a few years ago it became increasing difficult to pass through and other modern boats where also getting stuck BW then closed this lock but CRT have recently been investigating the issues with this lock & it is currently being repaired.

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I don't know the Cheshire locks that well, but do recall that the only time we took "Sickle" down them, (design width 7' 0.5", and possibly a bit wider than that now), more than one of the locks that allegedly had a 6' 10" limit on one lock of a pair, actually had the wider lock locked out of use, with no option but to use the one signed as narrow. I'm afraid though I have no record which these actually were.

We therefore had to discard any notion of "taking care" other than to do things slowly, ready to react if we got stuck. My memory was that in each such lock there was at least 3" clear on the bits we could see, although it is of course possible they are misshapen under water, and Sickle is only 40 feet, so if the problem is the lock is banana shape along is full length, we might have failed with a 70 foot plus boat.

 

My gut feeling is that we have often gone through other locks considerably narrower, and the 6' 10" warning on the locks we tok a boat of over 7 feet through seemed pessimistic.

The Cheshire Locks are one of my favourite flights & I must have worked the hundreds of times without much heartbreak.

 

Alton was built & remains 7'+ width and passes through all the currently open (and some of the currently closed) locks designated as 6'10" only.

 

Cheers, Brian

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Lock 63 has towpath side has been getting narrower over the past 5 or 6 years, it is thought this is possibly due to movent in the centre island. Alton used to be able to pass through lock 63 towpath side without a major problem, but a few years ago it became increasing difficult to pass through and other modern boats where also getting stuck BW then closed this lock but CRT have recently been investigating the issues with this lock & it is currently being repaired.

 

Those centre islands must be engineering conundrums, as the locks were built many years apart and therefore one lock was built in isolation and all the extra support the island might need (if there is any at all) has presumably been provided by the newer lock. They are in effect residual land that has never been excavated rather than an integral feature

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Those centre islands must be engineering conundrums, as the locks were built many years apart and therefore one lock was built in isolation and all the extra support the island might need (if there is any at all) has presumably been provided by the newer lock. They are in effect residual land that has never been excavated rather than an integral feature

Engineers were taking core samples through this "island" to determine its contruction/ constituents to try and work out how to repair / stabilise the lock last year.

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