Oxford canal summit pound

[Dave Payne]

13 minutes ago, Bewildered said:

I'm on the Ashby now so I believe the correct thing to say in this situation is ner ne ner na ner, ner

 

Its ok, ill be back up there in three weeks, cant wait to get back to bridge 37, my fav spot!

Is the water level ok?

[Bewildered]

Never been up here before but it seems ok, draft of 29 inches 70 foot boat, scraping the bottom in quite a few spots (especially above Market Bosworth) haven't grounded it so far and had to pole it off. We have just turned around at the top end and started heading south. Went past a run off weir earlier and the level was about 2 inches short of the top, so pretty good.

if you are coming up the Coventry canal from Hawesbury Junction be aware that there is some sort of underwater obstical at Bridge 13. I miss judged the turn into it and went a little wide (not so wide that I wasn't going to make the turn) ended up approaching the bridge on the offside and ran aground on something solid. I think one of the big stones from the bank has dropped in just outside the bridge hole. Got stuck fast for 20 mins and had to have a passing boat tow me off.

[X Alan W]

5 hours ago, Dave Payne said:

Moved from Cropredy to Napton this weekend, the water level in the summit pound was dreadful, i reckon looking at the banks about 6-8" down from when i went the other way about a month ago, i know we have had very little rain so that doesn't help, but its bloody hard work, coupled with the heat and need to keep moving it made the weekend crap, was looking forward to it all week, got stuck a couple of times, seen lots of boats having problems also.

What do CRT do when the rain doesn't come, i guess the reservoirs that are linked are also low so they are no use? 

I did see water coming into the canal at the Marston doles top lock but as the pound is so long i cant see it doing much.

 

 

Don't know about C&RT but BW in their wisdom used to restrict the lock working hours or close the navigation a problem that used to be was the reservoirs needed dredging as they only could hold just over half their capacity also the feeders couldn't pass the amount needed  I remember the feeder from Rudyard lake to feed the Maccy & the total amount they thought would need to be removed over the total length of the feeder only was good for a couple of hundred yards I think the theme is dry weather =restricted or no boating possibly please the CMers

[Bewildered]

16 minutes ago, Dave Payne said:

 

Its ok, ill be back up there in three weeks, cant wait to get back to bridge 37, my fav spot!

Is the water level ok?

Bridge 37 you say? Now where did I put my spare no mooring signs?

[Athy]

24 minutes ago, Bewildered said:

 

if you are coming up the Coventry canal from Hawkesbury Junction be aware that there is some sort of underwater obstical at Bridge 13. I miss judged the turn into it and went a little wide (not so wide that I wasn't going to make the turn) ended up approaching the bridge on the offside and ran aground on something solid. I think one of the big stones from the bank has dropped in just outside the bridge hole. Got stuck fast for 20 mins and had to have a passing boat tow me off.

Is that the last bridge before Marston junction? If so, it's always been a tricky bugger, even for our 45-footer.

[cuthound]

2 hours ago, Dave Payne said:

I lived in the marina down the atherstone flight for 6 months, the main line ran past that, i could never get used to the train noise.

When buying our house the closeness of the West Coast Main Line was a bit of a worry, but fortunately for me it goes into a cutting by our house which dramatically reduces the noise. As MtB says trains are only audible for a short time,  so we quickly got used to it.

[Dave Payne]

25 minutes ago, Bewildered said:

Bridge 37 you say? Now where did I put my spare no mooring signs?

haha, i didnt see a sign, honest!

7 minutes ago, Athy said:

Is that the last bridge before the junction? If so, it's always been a tricky bugger, even for our 45-footer.

No 13 is the one on the winding hole, i think it has an underwater ledge on one side, best to stick as close to the tow path as possible i found.

[bastion]

2 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Ahh yes, now I remember. Ask anyone though who lives or has lived next to a railway and they will tell you that you soon dont realy notice them.

Quite true. You generally notice when a train does not come through on time.

[Dav and Pen]

Ah happy? Days flogging down the Ashby from copsal wharf with 22 tones house coal. Trying not to finish up in a field, at least we kept it open and dredged a channel for you escapees from the Oxford. Oh dear. 

David

[Victor Vectis]

I like trains!

(Even though most of the trains running these days are really boring)

I'm so old I can, just about, remember pairs of 50s on the WCML.

I'm heading towards the Oxford summit. Reckon I'll get there friday week.

Can you keep some water up there for me?

Ta!

Edited July 10, 2017 by Victor Vectis

[Victor Vectis]

30 minutes ago, cuthound said:

When buying our house the closeness of the West Coast Main Line was a bit of a worry, but fortunately for me it goes into a cutting by our house which dramatically reduces the noise. As MtB says trains are only audible for a short time,  so we quickly got used to it.

The first house we bought was on Roberts Road, Doncaster. Just south of the station, between Hexthorpe and Balby Bridges

(St James's and Bridge Junctions if one is looking on Baker's Bible)

We backed onto the cord that formed part of the triangle between the ECML and the Sheffield line.

We had that Nigel Gresley, Mallard and City of Wells at the bottom of our garden!

[cuthound]

Just now, Victor Vectis said:

The first house we bought was on Roberts Road, Doncaster. Just south of the station, between Hexthorpe and Balby Bridges

(St James's and Bridge Junctions if one is looking on Baker's Bible)

We backed onto the cord that formed part of the triangle between the ECML and the Sheffield line.

We had that Nigel Gresley, Mallard and City of Wells at the bottom of our garden!

That sounds like a house you could sell for a premium 

[David Mack]

CRT's Reservoir Watch for June shows the reservoirs which feed the Oxford Summit to be 80% full, which is not unduly low for the time of year.

[Alway Swilby]

5 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

In addition, the train comes and goes in about 30 seconds. And the frequency rarely rises above three or four per hour.

 

Have you ever moored in Berko?

[MtB]

On 10/07/2017 at 20:31, Alway Swilby said:

Have you ever moored in Berko?

 

Nope. Nor will I. Its not a nice canal in my opinion.

[WotEver]

17 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Ask anyone though who lives or has lived next to a railway and they will tell you that you soon dont realy notice them.

Yup, I agree. We have the main London line about 100m from our house and it's only visitors who say "What's that?"  We normally reply with "What's what?  Oh, yes, that. It's a train."

[b0atman]

Water level will be sorted for Fairport Convention festival which i believe maybe the fiftieth a lot of boats will be crossing that top level before and after.

 

[Athy]

It's not the fiftieth Festival but it will mark the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the band.

[mrsmelly]

21 hours ago, bastion said:

Quite true. You generally notice when a train does not come through on time.

Yeah we can here them poor lemming like commuters moaning carnt we 

[mrsmelly]

7 hours ago, WotEver said:

Yup, I agree. We have the main London line about 100m from our house and it's only visitors who say "What's that?"  We normally reply with "What's what?  Oh, yes, that. It's a train."

100ms bloody luxury  we can here the bloomin platform announcements word for word here but again only if we listen out for them because we litteraly dont hear them as we are so used to them......weird innitt

[Tigerr]

4 hours ago, Athy said:

It's not the fiftieth Festival but it will mark the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the band.

Main act is Petula Clark. I understand they are fed up with having so many people there and decided to book someone who will make sure it less crowded.

[rusty69]

3 minutes ago, Tigerr said:

Main act is Petula Clark. I understand they are fed up with having so many people there and decided to book someone who will make sure it less crowded. 

Maybe they could change the venue, and do it Downtown 

[Athy]

1 minute ago, Tigerr said:

Main act is Petula Clark. I understand they are fed up with having so many people there and decided to book someone who will make sure it less crowded.

No, I don't think that's the case - they have a strict limit to the number of tickets which go on sale, and indeed have sold out (twice, I think) in the last few years. So, while the field is very well populated, it's never ram jam full.

The main act is actually Fairport Convention, who run the festival. Their founder member Richard Thompson, who always pulls and pleases a crowd, is also doing a set, as are other former Fairports such as Judy Dyble and Ian Matthews. Peculiar Clark (shurely shome mishtake here?) is indeed on the bill, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing such a legend "live", as I'm sure many other people are.

Although the festival has its roots in folk, many non-folk acts have successfully appeared there over the years: we have seen and enjoyed 10 CC, Jools Holland's Band with Lulu, Alice Cooper, Status Quo and, last year, Madness. We've also seen and not enjoyed some acts: Supergrass, Nick Harper...now they DID seriously reduce the population of the field.

5 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Maybe they could change the venue, and do it Downtown 

Wey-hey! If you're in the area that weekend, there's music Round Ever Corner, and lots of people are trying to cadge The Other Man's Grass.

[Lily Rose]

Today we have mostly been boating... the full length (almost) of the Oxford summit. We're heading for the Thames for our first bit of river boating,

Here's my take on the water level issue.

We left the moorings from above Napton/Marston Doles top lock and have now moored for the night about half a mile before Claydon top lock at bridge 143.

Numerous boats coming the other way commented, when asked, on how shallow it was. We saw one boat approaching us run aground but they were far too near, and unnecessarily so, to the offside bank in my opinion. Got off with little problem, lots of revs and no pole action.

For us it was incident-free, no grounding whatsoever. We took it fairly easy, but still at my usual 1200 to 1300 revs, and kept to the centre as much as possible apart from when a Richard Cranium boater (in a small narrowboat, not a deep-draughter by the look of it) insisted the centre was his even when meeting a boat coming the other way. Obviously we stayed away from the inside of bends whenever possible. We took about 4.5 hours, I haven't checked what Canal Plan estimates for this section.

Last time I checked the boat was under 20 inches draught at the front and about 23 at the back but even so, I was expecting trouble after a lady arriving at the northern end of the pound told me this morning that she was glad to be getting off the summit and yet claimed to have only an 18 inch draught.

There did seem to be lots of armco showing above the water, perhaps 6 inches more than usual.

Perhaps we were lucky.

Or perhaps some people go too fast and/or are not careful enough with where they position their boats. I accept that deeper-draughted boats might have a tougher time of it.

 

 

 

[Nightwatch]

We transited the pounds three or so days ago. We are 1' 10" at the stern. We kept our revs down and we're okay,but felt the bottom a couple of times. There are signs that indicate that the pound is some 10/12" lower than norm.

my own belief is that CRT are hanging on to some water in preparation of the festival traffic in three/four weeks time. Throwing it down wiv rain as I type. 

With respect to the festival, there are indications that some boats have already arrived!!! Good luck to them.