Grantham Canal - bits of rusty metal and other interesting stuff.

Many thanks I am sure are due from everybody who has reading this blog.
I for one definately do give my thanks to all involved in the project.

 

Great job! Thank you for all your reports I have thoroughly enjoyed them.

 

+1

 

I've found the whole tale most interesting. At one point I even thought about getting involved with the canal restoration at Droitwich but, was already too committed with other matters such as earning money!

 

@baldbof, thank you so much for bringing us this gem of a thread. I hope you are all very proud of what you have achieved.

 

+1

Keith

 

Would just like to refer everyone to this post 101 from April 2016
https://www.national-preservation.c...-interesting-stuff.577112/page-6#post-1460260

 

Here's another bit of rusty metal that has been found whilst one of of volunteers was doing some initial work at Lock 14. No prizes for guessing what it is, but it's blooming heavy for what's left of it.

 

I wonder if there are any shovel historians on here who could identify the type or use for this? It's a bit of an odd shape narrowing as it does towards the handle and I'm not sure if it's the photo making it look as if it's concave (spoon shaped) or not. If it is I wonder if it was designed for the navvies and shaped like that for shovelling sloppy stuff (i.e. mud!)?

 

As this thread started with a rusty fire bar, evidence of loco servicing on site (or disposal of loco shed detritus on site, perhaps), I wonder if this is a slice - used for throwing out the old fire on a locomotive? They tend to be heavy with fairly thick gauge metal to make the head.

Tom

 

Please bear in mind that a former railway line ran alongside the canal at this point. The shovel was found in the undergrowth alongside the site of the line. There's also fishplates, chairs and steel springs lying about where the railway's dismantlers left them. Our first thought was that it is a fireman's shovel. No doubt a shovelologist* will be along shortly to give a definitive view.


* I think I've just invented a word.

Ah! Beaten to it.

 

You need Eric Olthwaite, he is a shovel enthusiast.

 

It does look like an disposal shovel, either discarded from a long scrapped engine,or fell off from an engine working when the line was active, or as someone has suggested, possible debris from the old loco shed it looks too big to be anything that may have been used on the permanent way for digging out ballast, or fetling track plus isn't it the wrong shape ?

 

There was no loco shed on that stretch of the line where we have started the latest restoration. Attached is a map of the location where we are (circled in red). The old line is to the right of the canal. I would agree that it probably fell off a loco - would the fireman get a bill for losing it?

 

Deja -vu!

This is Lock 14. Feels like we've been here before.

 

Looking forward to the reports on this one as well.

 

At least the one wall looks fairly straight. Was the other one so bad it all had to go?
Some might suggest then that with only half the patching and re pointing to be done here and the speed the brickies can work on a plain wall you could have it done by Christmas then...
Now ducks and runs for cover from low flying mud balls...

Only jesting. Your reports are really interesting and informative. If you get a chance will you continue to keep us informed - please?

 

Finished by Christmas?? Right , yer on!! Won't say which Christmas though.

Looks fairly straight?? It's got a bit of a lean on it if you look closely and there are some serious cracks in various places.

I'll throw in the occasional update - after all, one lock restoration is much the same as the next so I don't want to bore you all with repetitive photos of piles of rubble and bricks being cleaned.

The missing wall fell over of its own volition - the fallen sections of wall are still mainly in one piece so there's a fair bit of breaking to be done before they can be removed from the chamber. We're hoping that the invert didn't suffer when the walls fell in; having a look today it seems that the mud and silt may have cushioned the fall; time will tell.

One significant change to the schedule will be the earlier removal of the weir - it will be coming down sooner rather than later as we found that like the weir at Lock 15, it is free standing of the lock walls and doesn't support them, which was the belief before we started work at Lock 15.

We're still in the early demolition phase plus building up the work site, rescuing fish and getting very, very muddy! This particular lock is not without its own challenges but we think we know what we're doing this time round and we're up on the schedule.

 

Good to see you back baldbof, is this the last lock to do on the flight then? What are the plans after that? I do feel for those volunteers on canals where there is a lot of work to do, Grantham especially has problems at both ends with obstructions etc, canal restorations do seem a lot easier when there is a watered section at least at one end to give the narrow boat punters a taste and make the case for further restoration, the trent connection is key I think so it's a terrible shame how it was treated by successive planning decisions. The zeal of the volunteers is wonderful to see, my local canal (cromford) unfortunately has had a rather underwhelming preservation history for such a industrially historic part of the country, and plenty of subsistence and industrial dereliction to put paid to plans. Keep the photos coming!

 

That gives me an excuse to take the dog somewhere else then, and have a nose around!

Having seen the results at Lock 15, I look forward to Lock 14.


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