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Abandoned canals...


twocvbloke

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It would take smething of a miracle to restore the Anson branch as it is know crossed by the busiest stretch of motorway in the area and possibly the country namely J10 of the M6.

The Wryley branch of the W&E was mainly in water for many years til the late 80s and parts of it still are but as a child I regularly played and hued for frogs and newts in the water surrounding our estate in bloxwich which it ran around, the start of it was only filled in to provide an access road to my secondary school in fact we used to run along the canal as part of our cross country run and had to negotiate the abandoned Lock 4 as psrt of the run. One of the access bridges was still standing it was a very basic bridge consisting of two brick supports and iron rails crossing it, it eventually gave in to years of vandalism and collapsed into the canal bed. Beyond Broad Lane the canal is very much extant and in some places you can still see winding holes and colliery wharves.

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It would take smething of a miracle to restore the Anson branch as it is know crossed by the busiest stretch of motorway in the area and possibly the country namely J10 of the M6.

 

The Royal Gunpowder Mills canals are dry and overgrown - at certain strategic locations (aqueducts, wharves, junctions) it has been cleared and forms a static exhibit ... The short lower level section is in water so could be done by canoe if the management agreed to it.

 

I think the issue was not whether they were restorable, just whether they existed 'in water'.

 

For the Anson, I was under the impression that even the first connected stretch was unnavigable as well.

 

I thought I had read very recently that there were stretches of the Waltham Abbey network that were 'in water' although obviously very shallow.

 

Again, for Pudding Mill Lane river, the fact that it had not been used since the 1960s would not be relevant. However, the fact that it had been obliterated for the Olympics would!

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I thought I had read very recently that there were stretches of the Waltham Abbey network that were 'in water' although obviously very shallow.

 

The canals in the off-limits parts of the mills have some water in places but not much.

 

(The only way to see these off-limits parts of the Gunpowder Mills are the supervised tours on a tractor hauled sightseeing wagon)

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00h aarh, ewed be reeet.

 

The Chard Canal ran from the Bridgwater and Taunton at Creech St Mich to Chard and ran through Wantage and the middle of nowhere to Chard. Took tub boats 26 feet by 6 feet 6 (four would fit in a b and t lock.

 

Some of it's still in water, and the southern end of Crimson Hill Tunnel is clearly visible if you know where to look

 

Somerset coal canal

 

As Chairman of the SCCS I can assure you that there aint much left! Got a nice flight of locks though, largely intact

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In my single, motorbiking days I compiled a huge list of formerly navigable canals and rivers, from various sources, because I liked going to the least likely places and finding traces of them using old OS maps, in conjunction with modern ones.

 

I imagine the evidence of the long gone navigations is fading away now but finding the remains of a boat, in the middle of a field, miles away from any existing waterway, was my best discovery.

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Neil, the route you described from Kyme Eau to Black Sluice, is this the path down through Maryland Locks, which is still marked as such but of which there is no trace?

 

I believe so. I've heard accounts of sugar beet being loaded onto boats at Heckington Fen between the wars, though it went out via the Forty Foot rather than the Slea/Kyme Eau.

 

As for the Grantham Canal..... there was a proposal in 1831 to build the Granthan and Sleaford Junction Canal. It was to have included a tunnel over 4 miles long..... I believe it also involves around 180 feet of lockage down to Sleaford.

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The Grantham Canal should have been reopened years ago. Surely one of the simplest restos?

 

Quite major works are needed to reconnect the Grantham to the Trent. Reinstatement of the original route at Lady Bay and Gamston, whilst not impossible, will be challenging. The alternative is a new cut and several new locks from Cotgrave to join the river at Pierpoint.

 

A much better candidate for simplest restoration has to be the River Slea. Eight miles are already restored and 'navigable' from the connected system. In the remaining five miles there are 5 crumbling locks to restore. The chamber and bywash weir at Coblers Lock was rebuilt by the Slea Nav Society with help from WRG in the early 90's but currently has no gates. There are no major bridges to rebuild or culverted blockages, just a couple of farm accomodation bridges that would need sorting. A 'modern' footbridge in Sleaford is about to be replaced with a 'Dutch style' lift bridge. There are also several ducts cross the navigation channel carrying gas and sewer pipes that will need to be removed.

 

THe biggest problem with the Slea though is that the banks have crumbled over the 130 years it has been abandoned. They will need extensive work to bring them back to use, but nothing that the odd 15 million wouldn't sort out......

 

I also think (my opinion only) there is a problem with a low railway bridge built in 1882, some 4 years after navigation was abandoned, though there is no mention of this in the engineering survey completed some years ago.

 

I say the Slea is navigable. I believe there is currently a stoppage at Bottom Lock for regating, though it might have been completed by now.

Edited by Hairy-Neil
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In theory the Brownsover arm of the N Oxford, running to Dodford, is still navigable but BW, in their wisdom, have stanked it off.

I suggest BW were quite wise to block the entrance to the Brownsover Arm as no more than 100 yards from the junction, the bridge carrying Brownsover Lane over the arm is just about big enough for a tub boat and although a pleasant walk, it wouldn't be a pleasant cruise as it's only 6" deep in many places and there is no winding hole at the end where the brook feeder enters the canal. However, having said all that, if someone was prepared to do the work it would make a very nice linear mooring off the main line.

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I suggest BW were quite wise to block the entrance to the Brownsover Arm as no more than 100 yards from the junction, the bridge carrying Brownsover Lane over the arm is just about big enough for a tub boat and although a pleasant walk, it wouldn't be a pleasant cruise as it's only 6" deep in many places and there is no winding hole at the end where the brook feeder enters the canal. However, having said all that, if someone was prepared to do the work it would make a very nice linear mooring off the main line.

A full length working boat made the journey, in the 90's and BW not honouring their commitment to maintain and dredge a navigation is no excuse.

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