North Walsham & Dilham Canal

[BroadAmbition]

How are things going at Ebridge Lock? See photo.

The west wing wall is re-pointed. The shuttering is in ready for a concrete pour tomorrow. The brickwork repairs are well under way. The Stop Plank Grooves are in place, Finally, the Stop Planks are ready to collect from the manufacturers.

Unashamedly pinched from their FB group

Griff

 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

I'd love to be able to take a cruiser, hopefully Lightning up the canal sometime, as the locks are 14ft wide (told to me by one of their facache members) and easily able to take the largest Broads cruisers. However, whether that will ever be possible I don't know, but I can live in hope. 

It's great to see all the restoration progressing really well, and I hold a deep admiration for those volunteers who have for years been doing some pretty arduous work. Should the canal ever be fully reopened and connected back to the main Broads network, it will be to them we would all be greatful to.

 

 

 

[webntweb]

11 hours ago, SPEEDTRIPLE said:

I'd love to be able to take a cruiser, hopefully Lightning up the canal sometime, as the locks are 14ft wide (told to me by one of their facache members) and easily able to take the largest Broads cruisers. However, whether that will ever be possible I don't know, but I can live in hope.

Maybe one day. I was told Lightning is less then two foot draught by one of Brooms engineers.

[grendel]

Judith 5 is two foot or under draft, well I say that because catfield dyke was showing 2 foot, and I got both ways along it all the way to the staithe, though I will admit that after I had turned I had churned up a fair bit of mud in the water.

[BroadAmbition]

So, Catfield Dyke would be a tad difficult on 'B.A' then?

She draws 2ft 6" but her skeg design means the prop / rudder is well protected

Griff

[Victoryv]

Griff

You would get up Catfield, its the problem of  turning once you get to the end, we have been up there loads of times but turning around always seems to present a different challenge.

Your boat is longer than ours but if you had a few people fending off you should be ok.

Feels very wild and remote on the way up.

[BroadAmbition]

Well the answer for us there then is not to bother turning but to come back out going astern.

What could possibly go wrong?

Griff

[grendel]

Griff, I reckon a man with your skills could turn BA up there, as long as nobody has moored right opposite the dyke opposite, I managed to turn 34 foot of boat there, and there was a bit of spare, at worst you could set someone ashore with a head rope and power the stern around, turning a jewel there would probably be a no.

[grendel]

when I had 2 foot showing on the depth gauge the river was very low (about 6 foot 8 at Potter bridge the next morning) but I guess that you would need it low to get BA through Potter. (the yellow line on the map below is 40 foot)

[webntweb]

A couple of years ago we were coming back along Catfield Dyke in a day boat and a Connoisseur 40 or 45 was headed down.

Managed to squeeze past but don't know if they got to the end.

They got out again as they turned up at the Pleasure Boat an hour or so later.

[ChrisB]

If there is physically room for a boat to turn. That is the turning area is not shorter than the boat, "Warp" her round for heavens sake. You can do it single handed just don't give too much slack at the bow or stern in one go. 

[BroadAmbition]

I wasn't so much concerned with turning 'B.A' around or not, warping or not.

My question was water depth bearing in mind the levels would need to be lower than normal to get through that bridge in the first place  6ft 5" or more and I can take her through all day long

Griff

[Malanka]

Sorry to be a blight on all the nay sayers concerning canal restorations however, when hundreds of volunteers started to clear the Rochdale canal all the bridges over it and there were many were at 2 or three feet height as the decision had been taken that it was to be allowed to go derelict. Some sections were in private hands. Some were full of cars and shopping trolleys. 

BUT 

At the end of the day where there is a will there is a way and now it is navigable again. 

To quote  a famous film. Hey quit with the negative waves man......

Nothing is impossible don’t be negative there’s no need. 

 

M

[Turnoar]

I suppose if the ponds feeding the canal is no longer an option, what with 2000 homes planned for the west side of Walsham, a new lake to handle surface water drainage somewhere in the vicinity of little London could feed the locks maybe. What a dream it would be for pleasure wherries to operate again, but at least potential reality to open up as far as East Ruston Staithe for broads boats. I guess there could be legal stuff to sort out but 8 miles of canoe trail in itself could paddle the way for regeneration. The model yachting looks fun and I think the pleasure trip boat is doing well. Look forward to seeing the continued progress, at this rate it’ll be fully navigable by the 200th anniversary!

[LizG]

The problem with Catfield Dyke is that there is a clay bar at the entrance (unless it has been dredged as I reported it to the BA).  My brother for many years kept his sailing boat there during the winter and every spring we would bring her back to Horning.  It very often in recent years coincided with quite low tides.  The last time we came round we were well and truly stuck!   Took a lot of pushing to get out of the dyke.  This also applies at the Waxham Cut if anyone dares venture up there plus the special Horsey weed

[grendel]

someone mentioned that the approach to catfield dyke on hickling had been dredged, it may have been on here or it may have been the ranger that popped in to the nbn meet the other weekend.

[marshman]

They did dredge the channel from the Broad up to the entrance of the dyke, but just as they are not permitted, or at least I don't think so, the river at Irstead Shoals because of the hard bottom, they equally need special permission, or so I believe to remove that clay bar. The BA are permitted to dredge "loose" mud, but to go down beyond that requires extra issues. All about releasing carbon or some kind of squit.

Having said that the clay bar presumably has not go any bigger so if you could get up there , you should still be able to do so?

As far as Waxham Cut is concerned there are moves afoot to possibly do something about that, especially the narrow bit up towards Brograve.

[ChrisB]

On 24/05/2019 at 18:28, Turnoar said:

I suppose if the ponds feeding the canal is no longer an option, what with 2000 homes planned for the west side of Walsham, a new lake to handle surface water drainage somewhere in the vicinity of little London could feed the locks maybe. What a dream it would be for pleasure wherries to operate again, but at least potential reality to open up as far as East Ruston Staithe for broads boats. I guess there could be legal stuff to sort out but 8 miles of canoe trail in itself could paddle the way for regeneration. The model yachting looks fun and I think the pleasure trip boat is doing well. Look forward to seeing the continued progress, at this rate it’ll be fully navigable by the 200th anniversary!

There is a new multi million pound sewage works being built between Swayfield Bridge and Little london that could provide a few million litres but the flow of the water to the sea would have to be controlled and guaranteed. A few years ago the stretch from Swayfield to Rivermeed House was cleared out but it is full of weed and reed again. There are still a lot of villages not on main drainage so there is potentially a lot of available water. I would not swim in it or add it to a scotch but the outfalls all over The Broads support marine life and float boats.

 

 

 

[ChrisB]

19 hours ago, marshman said:

They did dredge the channel from the Broad up to the entrance of the dyke, but just as they are not permitted, or at least I don't think so, the river at Irstead Shoals because of the hard bottom, they equally need special permission, or so I believe to remove that clay bar. The BA are permitted to dredge "loose" mud, but to go down beyond that requires extra issues. All about releasing carbon or some kind of squit.

Having said that the clay bar presumably has not go any bigger so if you could get up there , you should still be able to do so?

As far as Waxham Cut is concerned there are moves afoot to possibly do something about that, especially the narrow bit up towards Brograve.

As you well know Marshman the land that drains to Waxham Cut has been drained to such a depth the potential for ochre or Ferric Oxide polution is very real.

[BroadAmbition]

Back on topic  (We need another thread re Catfield/Waxham)

 

The shuttering is due to be removed today at about 2pm. Then the new concrete drop cill can bee seen in all it's glory. Of course, one the gates are in, it will not be seen again for some years, all being well. This drop cill and the stop planks which go with it have been placed there to avoid the need for there ever needing to be a bund again. Future maintenance work can be performed behind the drop planks, in the dry.

Griff

 

[Boaters]

Brilliant restoration of the Canal with walks ,wildlife  and boat trips on their passenger restored boat and a chance to get involved in the restoration..Details on their various Facebook pages,Look for the  film evening at the Atrium in North Walsham in June .

[ranworthbreeze]

Back in the day when the lads were small we all went to work on the Tapton Lock on the Chesterfield Canal. We emptied the lock that was half full of mud and grime using a barrow hoist,  the water seepage was pumped out until we had an empty lock.

We had to replace some bricks but the lock needed pointing we were only allowed to use lime mortar and pointing irons many we made ourselves out of mild steel to a template. 

It was a great day when the top and bottom gates arrived and were fitted by the Chesterfield Canal Society volunteers, I have a picture somewhere of me and a another volunteer sat on top of the bottom gates planing the gates to fit. 

After Tappon we moved onto two other locks paving the way of opening the stretch of canal from Chesterfield to Staveley.

I can well understand the situation and at times the frustration that the North Walshaw/Dilham Canal Society must be feeling.

Regards

Alan

[marshman]

Sadly the biggest frustration remains the attitude of the landowner who owns the land surrounding the water from the turn off at Wayford up to Honing Lock - currently he is trying hard to even prevent the canoes from Banks Boats paddling up there.

Yes I know he cannot but he can make it unpleasant for people.....

[BroadAmbition]

Yes I know he cannot but he can make it unpleasant for people.....

Those 'People' can in return make it unpleasant for 'He' whilst legally exercising their navigational rights.  It's ages since I went up from Wayford to Honing lock in a dinghy with an outboard on it.  We managed the trip there and back no problem.  (Got some photo's somewhere of the trip) I wonder what the water depth is now?

3ft or more and I could take 'B.A' to Honing lock and back.  That would really upset 'He' 

Btw Marshman - does 'He' own the land both sides of the waterway? does he own the land right up to and next to Honing Lock?

Griff

[marshman]

Griff - you could certainly make it up to the East Ruston branch which is half a mile or so above the Tonnage Bridge and whilst it would be weedy in places, I doubt whether depth is a real problem - it wasn't a few years ago as I went up in a workboat.

What is really required, I suspect, is a convoy of boats to "force " passage with lots of publicity and really bring the point home but because you cannot get access to the banks to clear trees etc, I suspect that is a problem too with him letting them fall across the waterway. His argument is that he owns the whole canal in that area.

I am always surprised how the NW & D Canal group do not get more involved with this - but perhaps they continue to hope that things will get better? Perhaps someone from the Group or who knows the real issues could bring us up to date with the current position and whether  these problems remain or are improving?