OKAY, SO I'M TELLING the obvious, but it certainly needs telling, that it will be a terrible Bank Holiday for boating.
And another thing that is obvious is that the dry summer is certainly not the culprit, for many have told us of similar dry summers, as I too well remember those with burnt lawns due to the continuous dry weather, often into October, yet with no closures.
That was of course before British Waterways was taken over by the Canal & River Trust and Richard Parry left the London Underground to take over as boss man of the waterways.
First came the removal of the important lengthsmen, whose most sacred job was patrolling the sections of the waterways and recording anything that was amiss, so that it could be attended to before it caused a stoppage.
Then came the demand for volunteers to take over the role of lock keepers for the various flights, with the real lock keepers ousted and the volunteers not encouraged to record anything amiss.
But still it went on with a grand sale of virtually everything—equipment, machines and even tools, for after all they were no longer needed after the worst decision of all, stopping maintenance, with the obvious result of 'wait until it breaks then mend it'.
This left the result of many waterways being closed, with leaks from the waterways, leaks from the locks and even breaches, that under the former British Waterways were always noted and attended to and repaired, so the waterways then were able to weather the lack of summer rainfall.
And let's not forget the squander of cash on so many officials, managers and the like that had bugger-all to do with the keeping of the canals.
And certainly let's not forget those contractors who work from Monday to Friday, though I see we now have Tuesdays and Thursdays shown in the stoppage notices, but how accurate this is one is not to know!
What however is accurate is that these people do not seem to be able to undertake a repair that stays repaired, but needs attending time and time again a short while after! The Woodend Lift Bridge on the Peak Forest springs to mind as does another lift bridge, the Loco on the Huddersfield Narrow both of which were repaired so many times then failed again.
I will not mention the Leeds & Liverpool Swing Bridges, or I will be here all day! But all down to lack of maintenance.
I wish you well
I wish you well indeed at having a cruise this Bank Holiday, but you are obviously going to have problems with so many navigations closed—another couple have just bit the dust—as we certainly will be when taking our usual two weeks cruise in early September.
A change of policy
A change of policy indeed after 25 years, with our Thomas insisting upon the full name of anyone—unless known—to accompany what they write for publication.
But now, providing the name is included in the email address, only the first name will be used should the writer ask, and the email address will not be included or passed on as is our policy. Eventually it will be deleted.
One policy remains the same, the article written will be published exactly as written and in no way changed. (Except such as grammar, etc.) If anything is thought wrong the writer will be informed.
So tell us your experiences and we shall publish, though others might not!
Victor Swift—telling tales for 25 years