CHERTSEY

BOATS, BRIDGES, BOILERS ... IF IT'S GOT RIVETS, I'M RIVETTED
... feminist, atheist, autistic academic and historic narrowboater ...
Likes snooker, beer, tea, rivets and solitude, and is strangely fascinated by the cinema organ.
And there might be something about railways.
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Saturday, 16 April 2011

Down to the Dee

If I was a real boater (TM) of course, I'd have taken the boat down the Dee branch of the Shropshire Union, (and up again, backwards) and have got the plaque to prove it, but it didn't really seem such a good idea so I walked it instead. Though short, it was a bit further than we expected, and sufficiently interesting to make it worthwhile.
Above is the final, disused lock out onto the river. On the left, out of shot, were some relatively new flats, of which a 'penthouse' was still being offered for sale, which were already showing cracks and other signs of having been thrown up in a great hurry and at little expense.


Little more pleasing to the eye are these deadening developments that line the canal both here and on the main line in Chester.

I did like these S-shaped brackets on the lock handrails though.
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5 comments:

  1. Anonymous18 April 2011 at 00:53

    Disused? Don't the Dee trip boats come up to the Dock for attention and winter storage off the river?

    TNC made a rare trip through the Watergate in the weir and travelled up the Dee, very enterprising.

    Or perhaps the lock is broken waiting repair?

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  2. Sarah18 April 2011 at 07:49

    Ooh, I don't know. I was trusting the word of Nicholsons.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous18 April 2011 at 21:26

    Trust the word of Nicholsons eh, why should you when we don't ever trust their view of pubs - they are certainly always wrong about them.

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  4. Anonymous19 April 2011 at 00:34

    That's the link to the TNC cruise on the River Dee in 2004, taking their boat through the watergate in the large weir upstream of lock in question

    http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk/Tour_04/Tour04_11.html
    http://www.jim-shead.com/waterways/river.php?wpage=DEE

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  5. Sarah19 April 2011 at 07:12

    I fear that the TNC wouldn't be able to make the passage now - extract from the latest (last week) report from the HNBOC area rep:

    Dee Branch & River Lock – a BW inspection boat recently navigated along the
    branch to lock 2. The boat reached the lock but due to the large amount of silt
    by the lock gate, the gates were inoperable. The estimated cost of dredging the
    branch and in light of the current funding constraints it will not be considered
    a priority at the moment. Other options to remove the silt to make the branch
    navigable are being looked at.

    ReplyDelete

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