Boat movements down – for the second year running Every year the Canal & River Trust publishes statistics of the number of times each lock is emptied.§ This is not the same as boat movements, of course, as a descending boat followed by an ascending boat is only one emptying of a lock. For a narrow lock, if boats arrive randomly, the lockage should be increased by about a third to get the number of boat movements. The statistics for our area are:
Wheaton Aston Tyrley Audlem Cholmondeston Hurleston New Marton Aston Pool Quay
2011 7,286 6,112 5,163 8,394 7,517 9,432 1,725 108
Lockage 2012 6,822 5,544 5,001 8,029 7,156 9,198 1,583 173
2013 6,021 5,060 4,451 7,662 6,642 8,255 1,256 93
Movements 2013 8,000 6,700 5,900 10,200 8,800 11,000 1,600 100
Nationally, the picture is mixed. Usage in the midlands and the north is generally down, whereas usage south of about Rugby–Napton is generally up. There seems no simple reason for this variation; it is certainly not explained by stoppages. The year 2013 was typical in terms of weather, whereas the main part of the summer of 2012 was wet and the Olympics could have been a factor. Is it the economy: is this evidence that the south was recovering whereas the midlands and the north were not? On the other hand, is it because our area has a disproportionate number of hire boats, and hiring has reduced whilst private boating has increased? Peter Brown §
CRT Annual Lockage Report 2013: www.canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/323.pdf
Forty years on … 1974 was an important year on the waterways. Taking advantage of the need to empty his loft, our branch president, Michael Limbrey, has trawled through the archives to unearth some miscellanea of the time... There were openings: o The Upper Avon to Stratford was opened by the Queen Mother, complete with Shroppie Fly Paper
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Spring 2014