| West Midlands boaters race against clock as drained canals close - August 2026 Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 17:11, 2nd August 2026 |     |
From the BBC:
Boaters race against clock as drained canals close
Repair work is under way at a lock on the Hatton flight near Warwick - Image © Nici Griffin
Boaters are racing against the clock to beat canal closures as waterways run dry due to extreme heat.
Some channels connecting large parts of the Midlands and the North of England have lost several inches of water, leaving narrowboats stuck and those already on the canals facing being stranded miles from home for weeks on end.
Campaigner George Seward said he was getting up at 05:00 BST and cruising until dark to get his narrowboat through the Atherstone flight of locks, after a sudden closure was announced. "They're unlikely to be open again for many weeks and I want to make sure I get through that flight so I can get my boat safely home," he said.
The locks on the Coventry Canal in Warwickshire are due to shut on Tuesday morning, with last entry on Monday afternoon, as the Canal and River Trust (CRT) tries to conserve dwindling supplies.
For Seward, who is Midlands regional chair of the Association of Waterways Cruising Clubs, the deadline is the difference between getting his boat home to Hinckley in Leicestershire and being potentially marooned for an unspecified period.
(BBC article continues)
Repair work is under way at a lock on the Hatton flight near Warwick - Image © Nici Griffin
Boaters are racing against the clock to beat canal closures as waterways run dry due to extreme heat.
Some channels connecting large parts of the Midlands and the North of England have lost several inches of water, leaving narrowboats stuck and those already on the canals facing being stranded miles from home for weeks on end.
Campaigner George Seward said he was getting up at 05:00 BST and cruising until dark to get his narrowboat through the Atherstone flight of locks, after a sudden closure was announced. "They're unlikely to be open again for many weeks and I want to make sure I get through that flight so I can get my boat safely home," he said.
The locks on the Coventry Canal in Warwickshire are due to shut on Tuesday morning, with last entry on Monday afternoon, as the Canal and River Trust (CRT) tries to conserve dwindling supplies.
For Seward, who is Midlands regional chair of the Association of Waterways Cruising Clubs, the deadline is the difference between getting his boat home to Hinckley in Leicestershire and being potentially marooned for an unspecified period.
(BBC article continues)
| Re: West Midlands boaters race against clock as drained canals close - August 2026 Posted by Electric train at 07:16, 3rd August 2026 | |
On the River Thames the Environment Agency have placed some restrictions -
Dry Weather and Low Flow Restrictions -
St Johns Lock to Osney Lock: Restricted to one upstream and one downstream movement every 30 minutes, with overnight lock closures from 6:00 PM to 9:30 AM starting July 25 until further notice.
Goring Lock to Culham Lock: Prolonged dry weather restrictions took effect on Monday, August 3, with specific timing rules listed on local notices.
Penton Hook Lock to Shepperton Lock: Dry weather restrictions also began on Monday, August 3.
St Johns Lock to Osney Lock: Restricted to one upstream and one downstream movement every 30 minutes, with overnight lock closures from 6:00 PM to 9:30 AM starting July 25 until further notice.
Goring Lock to Culham Lock: Prolonged dry weather restrictions took effect on Monday, August 3, with specific timing rules listed on local notices.
Penton Hook Lock to Shepperton Lock: Dry weather restrictions also began on Monday, August 3.
A friend of mine who is a lockkeeper said they have been asked to ensure within a reasonable wait that Locks are full of boats before operating the Lock, so if you are boating on the Thames you may be sitting waiting a Locks longer than usual
| Re: West Midlands boaters race against clock as drained canals close - August 2026 Posted by Mark A at 10:48, 3rd August 2026 | |
If you're in London and notice the passenger vessel 'Connaught', she's always worth more than a glance, and also, she has an interesting hull, as her propeller is in a tunnel beneath her hull to keep it out of harms way on the waters for which she was built - the run between Kingston and Oxford. In particular, I'm trying to recall whether it's the pound above Days lock that's not deep and the bed of the river is solid rock. If its that one, it's also the pound that the navigation authority was disappointed during a previous drought to find that the amount of water entering the pound from the weir upstream was substantially more than the flow over the weir downstream - as well as evaporation, some was disappearing via the bed of the river.
Mark
| Re: West Midlands boaters race against clock as drained canals close - August 2026 Posted by grahame at 11:35, 3rd August 2026 | |
I have often wondered in the event of a drought what the practicality would be of fitting boats with pumps which they could use when descending to pump the water back over the upper gates rather than letting out through paddles below.
If this is a new idea, I claim patent and trademark rights, and will sell them to help supplement my pension
| Re: West Midlands boaters race against clock as drained canals close - August 2026 Posted by eightonedee at 12:46, 3rd August 2026 | |
In particular, I'm trying to recall whether it's the pound above Days lock that's not deep and the bed of the river is solid rock. If its that one, it's also the pound that the navigation authority was disappointed during a previous drought to find that the amount of water entering the pound from the weir upstream was substantially more than the flow over the weir downstream - as well as evaporation, some was disappearing via the bed of the river.
I'd guess it's the one between Benson and Cleeve. It's long, and at the southern end (and between Cleeve and Goring, the shortest pound) it passes across the band of permeable chalk that runs across the country, forming the Berkshire/North Wessex Downs to the west and Chilterns to the east. If the water table in the chalk is low, I'd imagine that water percolates through the river bed at any point where the alluvial bed above it is thin. I see that the river traffic control measures that EA is bringing in cover both such pounds at their southern/downstream end.
| Re: West Midlands boaters race against clock as drained canals close - August 2026 Posted by Mark A at 12:51, 3rd August 2026 | |
Thanks, not unlikely, and it's J.K. Jerome's interminable pound too.
Mark
