Colwich has had our worst lock vote for years. On one occasion while queuing, the wife grabbed a BW white shirt type and told him to try the gates. He informed her it was not his job - he was there about the hut opposite the house which might need work done on it (?). As I understand it the lock is managed by that lot at Fazeley. They are more interested in the weeds growing on the towpath side below the locks than the boaters trying to climb through them to moor, let alone work the lock! In their (Fazeley office) world no doubt all is lovely, Maybe a day out for each of their many managers, in turn, winding paddles and moving gates while locking boats through Colwich might give them a more realistic idea of the quality of the canal structures in their area. (Though I doubt they would act on any of the suggestions they might get from boaters while doing such a customer friendly thing.) -- On Fri, 7/18/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [canals-list] Colwich Lock To: [email protected] Date: Friday, July 18, 2008, 12:42 PM Which is the most notorious stand-alone lock (not affected by other waterway factors) on the system? My vote is for Colwich. On Wednesday afternoon this week I approached Colwich Lock from Great Haywood to find a long queue of boats waiting for the lock. At one point I was eighth in line of thirteen waiting boats. This came as no surprise as this lock is notoriously slow to fill, has heavy, ill balanced bottom gates one of which can (and usually does) swing open in the time it takes the 'lockwinder' to walk from the bottom gate to the top gate and an inadequate length of lock landing (considering the queues that often form) at the southern end. For those of us who have queued for two to four hours at this lock, a few of the bollards that are being sprinkled around the system would be usefully located along the banks to remove the necessity to stand holding a centre line for hours on end. Rumour had it that the inoperative ground paddle at the top of the lock had been recently repaired (within the last 24 hours), but had failed again. Quote from one frustrated ancient mariner standing waiting was: Why have they (BW) put in a plastic paddle which is not reliable, when wooden ones has been satisfactory for 200 years? Even when the lock is working 'to spec.' queues form quite regularly, especially at weekends (one holiday weekend some years ago I was about 15th or 16th in the queue trying to head north, and had a 3.5 hour plus wait). On the plus side, apart from the railway junction overhead, it is in a pretty location. Arthur Naylor [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
