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Down by the canal, what is this...?

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Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby TrimTheKing » 09 Jan 2021, 18:51

Okay so I could Google the answer but I can’t be bothered and thought I’d ask the hive mind...

Just back from a 5 mile family stroll with the pooches into Stockton Heath to grab a coffee and walk back. As you get into the village this is by the side of the road bridge (there’s also one near the road bridge close to our house too) but I can’t work out what it is.

I guessed some kind of temporary lock making blocks for if the stretch beneath the bridge needs to be dredged for repairs or something...?

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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby AJB Temple » 09 Jan 2021, 19:02

Loading winch?

I remember seeing something similar to them used for loading barges on Birmingham when I went on a canal holiday with my girlfriend of the time. They were shifting great big tree trunks for pulping. My brother used to repair barges and there was one in the boatyard there that was capable of lifting a barge I expect.

However, I don't really know.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Trevanion » 09 Jan 2021, 19:05

I'm honestly not quite sure what the timber is for, I would've thought they'd use oak instead of pine even for a temporary solution.

Those cranes used to be a very common sight along towpaths, I don't think there are that many left. They would've been used for anything heavy but mainly coal for cotton mills and such.

Have you ever seen the lock gates being made in the Stanley Ferry Workshop? Thoroughly interesting and some proper old-school techniques.

[youtube]tD5wtd36NHc[/youtube]

[youtube]4uDDqtLs34E[/youtube]
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby novocaine » 09 Jan 2021, 19:08

Just next to it there is an indent in both sides of the canel wall. The massive chunks of wood slot in to them. Its so they can isolate sections of the canel and drain it. The next one is just by my house at camsley bridge. You'll note that there is a larfw amount of grappenhall and stockton heath thats lower than the canal and there isnt a lock till you get to darsbery and the other directuons i think it castleford.

It is not for loading.

For those interested it's the Bridgewater canal.

Edit: note the numbers on the wood to tell you which goes where.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Blackswanwood » 09 Jan 2021, 19:18

Is that next to Stanny Lunt Bridge?

If so, many years ago when I used to cross said bridge every day on my way to St Wilfrids Primary School it was used to create a temporary lock while repairs were done to the bank. I am pretty sure that if you look at the bank there are slots built into the stand stone side that the timbers fit into.

That’s a blast from the past!
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby novocaine » 09 Jan 2021, 19:20

To slow. But your right stanny lunt is the next one not lymm.

That ones by london road bridge next to the mariner
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Blackswanwood » 09 Jan 2021, 19:23

That’s right - the StannyLunt one had a ladder down off the bridge to get to it.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby novocaine » 09 Jan 2021, 19:26

Cant remember what their proper name is. So ive asked a higher power (FIL),if he doesnt know one of his friends worked for the canal trust for a while and should know.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Blackswanwood » 09 Jan 2021, 19:39

novocaine wrote:Cant remember what their proper name is. So ive asked a higher power (FIL),if he doesnt know one of his friends worked for the canal trust for a while and should know.

They seem to be called stop planks ...

https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMQ ... penhall_UK

Are you also in Grappenhall?
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby novocaine » 09 Jan 2021, 19:41

Im over in lymm but ride home up stockton lane and over stanny lunt every work day (office in the old brewery).
Cheers for fonding the name. Soon as you say it it rings a bell.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby AndyT » 09 Jan 2021, 19:47

I can confirm that they are called stop planks. The Bridgewater is the only UK canal that has those fixed :D cranes to lift them into place. Other canals have a little shed, or sometimes a sort of cubbyhole in a brick built bridge. Very important if there was a breach and millions of gallons of water was draining away.


Nowadays, the planks are more likely to be in a secure yard, a van drive away.

Once they are in the groove the traditional way to achieve full water tightness was to shovel some ashes into the watery side.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby novocaine » 09 Jan 2021, 19:50

Nope. On the Bridgewater they sit by the crane. At least through warrington and Manchester.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby AndyT » 09 Jan 2021, 19:57

Sorry, yes, I meant that on other canals the planks are generally elsewhere. I should have worded that better.

The Bridgewater canal is also unusual for not having been nationalised along with most of the others back in 1948 and it's still privately owned and operated separately.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby novocaine » 09 Jan 2021, 20:05

It is. Its owned by peel holdings, same company who owns most of Birmingham and the manchester shipping canal amoungst many other things.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby TrimTheKing » 09 Jan 2021, 21:05

Cheers chaps.

Yep photos are by London Bridge.

Yep the next one up is Stanney Lunt bridge which is the closest to me.

Thanks for the info, and for making me feel good about myself that my grey matter is still in decent working order having guessed correctly.

So Blackswanwood, are you from Grappenhall too then? My kids bit the go/went to St Wilf’s, lad still is and daughter is at Lymm High.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Blackswanwood » 09 Jan 2021, 21:29

Yes - I went to Lymm High when it was a Grammar School!

Reminded by your pictures I have just been reminiscing with my brother about the time we tried to open the sluice gate on the canal. It’s on the bank alongside Bellhouse Lane (or was). It sounds more dramatic than it was!


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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Mike G » 09 Jan 2021, 21:39

novocaine wrote:Just next to it there is an indent in both sides of the canel wall. The massive chunks of wood slot in to them. Its so they can isolate sections of the canel and drain it. The next one is just by my house at camsley bridge. You'll note that there is a larfw amount of grappenhall and stockton heath thats lower than the canal and there isnt a lock till you get to darsbery and the other directuons i think it castleford.

It is not for loading.

For those interested it's the Bridgewater canal.

Edit: note the numbers on the wood to tell you which goes where.


Yep, that's it precisely. Those bits of wood sit there unused for years on end, then get dropped into place when a short section of the canal needs to be drained. I'm a bit of a closet gongoozler.......
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby novocaine » 09 Jan 2021, 22:02

Gates still there but it has a massive lock on it l. Dont ask how i know this. Im another lymm high goer, bit after you though, they closed grammer school road down the 2nd year i was there all houses now.

My mum was a lymm high goer too, when it was a grammer school.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Peri » 09 Jan 2021, 22:42

I watched a programme somewhere a long time ago where they were draining and restoring a section of canal - there was a marker on the side of the canal (this wasn't a viaduct, it was in a city centre if I remember correctly), which indicated where the 'plug' was.

They fished about, found a chain, gave it a hefty pull and the plug came out - and the canal drained out over the course of a few hours!

Very weird to watch.


Edit: Didn't take long to find, YouTube is the home of everything :)

[youtube]OZeXcH4hmtY[/youtube]
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Trevanion » 09 Jan 2021, 23:16

Peri wrote:I watched a programme somewhere a long time ago where they were draining and restoring a section of canal - there was a marker on the side of the canal (this wasn't a viaduct, it was in a city centre if I remember correctly), which indicated where the 'plug' was.

They fished about, found a chain, gave it a hefty pull and the plug came out - and the canal drained out over the course of a few hours!

Very weird to watch.



I didn't watch it in its entirety but a very interesting video! But Jesus, look at all the rubbish! I didn't catch it from the video but I wonder when the last time that was drained was and how long all the litter has accumulated for.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby novocaine » 10 Jan 2021, 09:24

Its city centre of Manchester, just up from canal street. Its done about once a year. Yet more evidence that we as a society and a species iare truely awful.


Sorry, bad mood.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Blackswanwood » 10 Jan 2021, 09:49

It’s interesting how Rivers have disappeared over time and are now buried in cities.

I know of a building in London that has a hatch in the basement which when lifted opens onto the subterranean River Fleet. You can hear the water running when it rains.

Having seen that video the ‘sport’ of magnet fishing perhaps makes a bit more sense.

The discussion with my brother after Mark’s pictures has led to us thinking about hiring a narrow boat for a week and doing the Cheshire Ring ... just need house arrest to come to an end! Thanks for prompting the thought @TrimTheKing :D
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Doug » 10 Jan 2021, 10:24

TrimTheKing wrote:Cheers chaps.

Yep photos are by London Bridge.

Yep the next one up is Stanney Lunt bridge which is the closest to me.

Thanks for the info, and for making me feel good about myself that my grey matter is still in decent working order having guessed correctly.

So Blackswanwood, are you from Grappenhall too then? My kids bit the go/went to St Wilf’s, lad still is and daughter is at Lymm High.


But what’s it got to do with finishing :eusa-think: :eusa-think:
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Andyp » 10 Jan 2021, 10:32

For a few years we lived in Altrincham and used to walk the bridgewater canal regularly towards Dunham Massey and beyond. I recall several places that had similar slots in the canal walls and timbers nearby.
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Re: Down by the canal, what is this...?

Postby Tiresias » 10 Jan 2021, 15:00

When I was in practice I had a five year contract to provide annual asset valuations for British Waterways in Scotland. How do you value a canal? Well, actually, I was doing the non-operational bits: lock-keepers' houses, land, some generally defunct infrastructure buildings, and various bits of property that they had acquired ‘because it seemed a good idea at the time’ (the former bonded warehouse at Spiers Wharf springs to mind – last commercially used as a mushroom farm, but at the time of my inspections a shooting up gallery. Mmm. My building surveyor refused to go in. Wimp).

This covered the Caledonian, Crinan, Forth and Clyde and Union Canals. Plus, the Port Dundas spur and a few bits of the now buried Monklands Canal.

So if anyone wants to know about any of those canals I may well (ok, might just) know.

It didn’t make me rich, that is for sure, but it was interesting.

So. Starter for ten. What was the gazoon? (No cheating on the internet, mind).
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