I must admit the thirty locks from Watford up to Cowroast aren't my favourite stretch - perhaps familiarity breeds contempt, or it is just the boring bit to get past before the nice bits start. Pleasant enough, obviously, but the state of the locks don't help.
Many of the locks have to be left empty, presumably due to the perilous state of the bottom gates - I'd worry if it was a barn door let alone something that's supposed to be holding back all that water. I don't see them being replaced in a hurry, either; a lot of the signs still have BW, not CRT on them.
Anyway, a genuine question; if old wooden boats are best preserved sunk, surely these gates would be better off wet? I assume that the leakiness of the lock gates takes precedence, and also the possible consequences of a gate failure - but I guess the top gates last a lot longer, due to always having water on at least one side (and also being shorter, I suppose.
Anyway, the general loveliness of the Tring cutting & Wendover arm more than make up for the tedious locking (and probably make the latter seem worse, in contrast).
Anyway - at Cowroast (now run by a friendly bloke called Darron) I got two new Yuasa batteries, and this morning I fitted a 50W solar panel - should hopefully last a while...
4 comments:
I think it's because these locks leak into the cellars of the adjacent cottages that they have to be left empty.
Ah, that does make more sense, thanks. So the state of the bottom gates is completely coincidental...
I believe Sarah is right. But I wonder whether the bottom gates being dry so much contributes to their deterioration?
Good point.
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