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

Sometime around 2000/01/02 when I was a student living in Loughborough, I visited a canal nearby that was in a derelict state. My memory of the visit is hazy but I recall walking along the dry bed of the canal in a fairly rural area and walking into an empty lock chamber. Although derelict the chamber was clear of any vegetation from what I remember. Both the floor and walls were brick built. Possibly the most distinguishing feature was a step on the chamber floor where there had been some subsidence. I don't recall any fencing around the chamber at all!
I've ruled out the Ashby canal and the Charnwood Forest Canals, as these don't have any dry locks. Back in the day I've seen photos of the lock chamber I stood in, also showing the step in the floor from subsidence, but I can't find anything now.
Can any knowledgeable folk here can confirm where I was? Seems like the Grantham is the only likely candidate.

 

You're probably referring to Lock 11 near Cropwell Bishop - that section is dry due to the local gypsum reacting against the puddling clay which lines the canal bed. Lock 11 is unique on the Grantham Canal in that it had two sets of upper gates - speculation is that it was a bit of an insurance policy against emptying the canal if a top gate failed - they held back 19 miles worth of water when the canal was fully in water.

The floor of the lock is indeed "a bit uneven", not by design but because that nice Mr Jessop built the lock on a natural fault line. Evidence of the movement in the last couple of hundred years is visible on the repaired lock walls. I took these photos on a cold and frosty morning when we clearing the vegetation to allow C&RT to do an inspection. I think the rebuild ( if/when it happens) may be somewhat ...errr..."challenging".










Elsewhere, our plans to rebuild Lock 13 have been paused due to C&RT calling a halt due to some very serious incidents elsewhere on the system. Groups have to now comply with the CDM regs and appoint qualified supervisors and managers. We hope to have ours in place toward the end of this year, then we can start proceeding with the work. Some additional re-design work has to be done for Lock 13.

That doesn't mean we haven't been busy elsewhere, far from it. We have started restoration of the Duke's Wharf at Muston - this was the off-load point for boats delivering coal to Belvoir Castle by means of a tramway connecting the wharf to the castle. We have procured a couple of boats to enable us to remove silt from the navigable section and been busy clearing vegetation/ repairing fences to the west of the A46. That work has generated an increased interest in that part of the canal, consequently we are opening a depot at the western end of the canal which will hopefully attract even more volunteers from Cotgrave, Gamston, West Bridgford and Tollerton.

 

I'm sure others would join me in saying that we would appreciate the resumption of your restoration updates, if that is something that you are able to do.

 

Hopefully, once C&RT are satisfied that we have all the relevant protocols in place, we can resume lock restoration. Unfortunately, due to the passage of time, my little pink body frequently reminds me that I am no longer a lithe, fit Adonis and tells me that my joints need another squirt of WD40/GT85. Consequently, my participation in future heavy lifting will be limited. However, lifting the camera won't be too onerous and I will try to update when the circumstances allow.

 

Many thanks-looking forward to the updates.

 

I know that feeling. I’ve been volunteering with CRT (and BW before that) for 15 years now, and I’m definitely slowing down now. More than happy to pass the pick and shovel to the younger guys now when I get the chance! Looking forward to reading more of your uplifting reports.

 

Got any examples of the fish belly rail to showcase at muston wharf? Is there scope to restore the weigh-hut or perhaps the crane too? And how receptive is belvoir castle to all this?. Glad to see you posting again.

 

I don't know whether relevant to the canal, but the reputation of the Belvoir estate is, erm, mixed.

 

The short answer is 'yes' to all the questions. The section of rail we found has been moved to a safe location as has the weigh-house roof tiles pending replacement of the roof timbers. As I mentioned up thread, before we commence any re-construction work we have to have appropriately trained managers and supervisors in order to comply with the CDM regs. That process is happening and the nominated volunteers are attending training courses within the next few weeks. The necessary work to restore the weigh-house has been identified and we can start once we are CDM compliant. One of our volunteers has created a model of the crane and the plan is to create a symbolic (but non-working) example. We have the castle on-side who have agreed to allow us to proceed with the restoration.

 

Just a quick update about one or two things we've been upto. The photos were taken by other volunteers.

Unfortunately, work progress has varied between very slow and stop due to circumstances beyond our control. As a result of incidents elsewhere on the canal system, C&RT had put a total work-stop on construction and then, because of another serious accident, all tree work was stopped together with a ban on the use of all power tools and chainsaws thus limiting what we could do and a complete review and rewrite of RAMS.

One segment of work which the volunteers managed to get stuck into before the ban, was the repair of the gates and paddles at Lock 16. The paddles and gates were leaking like a sieve causing the Duck pound to constantly drain and expose the mud and silt. The work has now been completed and it has made a significant improvement to water levels.

Repairing Lock 16 paddles and gates



Lock 16 gates looking good.



Fortunately, our volunteers are a resourceful bunch and found other work including much needed maintenance on the 'fleet', and the grass and weeds didn't stop growing which proved useful.

After a pause, most of the restrictions have been lifted except in the construction sector where the guys are raring to go on Lock 13 once C&RT give the go-ahead.

One area where we have been able to do work without tools was building some flood reduction measures on the stretch near Bottesford. A section of the towpath had a low spot where the canal would overtop the bank after heavy rain. The water would then flow into a small beck which itself over topped and flooded houses in Bottesford. The local councillors were getting grief from the residents and so "something had to be done". As a result, we built a Soluform concrete-filled bag wall across the low spot in a effort to hold back the canal and reeds were removed by the local council to improve the water flow through that section. Soluform is similar to quick-setting postcrete and shortly after being given a good soaking, starts to set rock hard.

The Soluform bag wall


Reeds removed to improve water flow and used to build up the towpath bank.



Elsewhere, following a grant from a local council, we were able to procure a couple of boats and a small excavator to help with silt removal. Volunteers have been undergoing training on the equipment and the training ground has been the pound in front of the Dirty Duck pub. This has resulted in two benefits - training our volunteers and keeping the pub owners happy by improving the view from the pub. Further along the summit pound, workboat 'Mudlark' has been put to good use removing reeds which were encroaching across the width of the canal.

Clearing the silt and reeds from the Duck pound.



A regular visit to Lock 11 resulted in weeds and vegetation being removed. This is the lock which sits on a geological fault resulting in some "interesting" brickwork in the lock walls (see post #442 above). No doubt we will be back as the weeds have a horrible habit of reappearing.

Lock 11 before the work.



Lock 11 after.




And finally, as we expand our activities, a long term target has been met and we have opened our Western Depot at Gamston (Morrison's have very kindly allowed us to site our container in their car park). It serves the West Bridgford, Gamston and Tollerton communities and is positively attracting the residents of that ever-growing area who are joining up to help restore that end of the canal. We are fortunate to have the local councils very much on-side.

That's all for this year. Stay safe folks and enjoy the mince pies.

 

Always good to hear progress!