Canal back in business

This picture, taken in the murk of Friday morning, may look nothing out of the ordinary. But in fact, it was the first boat down Audlem locks in nearly two months, so it shows the canal is now back in use.

Canal & River Trust had closed Audlem locks for scheduled maintenance from early November. The main job was to fix the top lock which has been leaking like a sieve from both top and bottom gates for quite some time, so wasting millions of gallons of water, which can be a real problem in the summer.

Using the lock was a bit like having a bath with a leaking plug! Anyway, the top gate has been replaced, and the bottom ones fixed, and it certainly looks water-tight now.

The balance beam on the top gate of lock 14 was also replaced: it was held together by steel plates and cement, and had been in danger of total collapse for some time.

Various other smaller maintenance jobs were also done during the closure: lack of money precluded any other major work.

Audlem locks are one of the most heavily used flights in the country: whilst they are in far from perfect condition, it's a testament to their original design that they survive the annual hammering they get during the cruising season.

No further works are planned on Audlem locks this winter, so we'll hopefully see a steady trickle of boats through the village: that's assuming the "great freeze" doesn't descend on us and the canal becomes a skating rink!

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.