Grantham Canal - bits of rusty metal and other interesting stuff.

Wonderful progress, were you not tempted to get some cobbles/setts for the wharf to make the area look less concrete intensive? You lot go above and beyond with restored brick/masonry on the locks from what I’ve seen so far, really need to make my way back to woolsthorpe in the summer!

 

Apologies for the slow reply. I have asked the question of those that know and the reply was:

a). Cost - We were on a very tight budget even before we started and which was severely tested due to spiralling costs of construction materials since the pandemic started.

b). Proofing against future maintenance costs - concrete will be cheaper to repair should the need arise - plus no temptation for ne'er-do-wells to chuck the cobbles into the canal (edge capping stones are already a target for them).

c). Time scale - the slipway had to be finished in order to get our boats out of the water, hull scraped, surveyed, repaired, painted and back in the water for the start of the new season which starts on Mothers Day.

d). ...and inevitably H&S raised its head. Concrete makes for a less slippy surface and less stubbing of toes/trips near near the water.

 

This fascinating thread has gone very quiet. Presumably the canal restoration work is continuing so have we lost our informative poster @baldbof ?

 

“Last seen 19 September 2022” according to his profile.

Tom

 

Yes, I saw that, which made me wonder. @35B may know something as he lives nearby.

 

A neighbour, whom I've shamefully not spoken to in too long, is also involved with the canal society. Unfortunately, though I've once had the pleasure of meeting @baldbof, our paths have not crossed in a long while.

 

@baldbof mostly used to post about lock restoration works ongoing on the woolsthorpe flight, I assume he had a direct involvement in this. there is only the penultimate lock to go on the flight (lock 13) I believe and right now it’s in the funding and engineering assessment stage which isn’t so sexy and not worthy of a post I’d imagine. For those of us heathens that ‘do’ facebook there is regularly posted information, lock 13 has had some scrub clearance for said assessment and so has the Cropwell bishop locks, so plenty going on.
As to those worrying if @baldbof himself is pining for the fjords I’m pretty sure he’s posted recently on a veterans forum I lurk on.

 

Thank you, "Fear",
Good to hear things are still progressing and that @baldboff is still with us.
In his last update on locks, in September '21, he said that they were awaiting approval and funding to proceed with locks 12 and 13. You mention only lock 13 so has lock 12 been done, or does it not require much work ?

 

Well I should say I’m not a volunteer, just that I’ve gathered the more recent info that’s been posted on the other platforms, not sure if funding has been secured but the reason lock 13 is being cleared of trees/scrub is for engineering assessments which would suggest to me that either funding had been secured and they are moving forward with more detailed investigations OR they are assessing the structure perhaps to gather detail to put together a grant application. Sorry for the contradiction when I said “only” followed by “penultimate”, Lock 12 will be the last one in the flight, but lock 13 is what is being prepared for restoration right now, whether they are planning to do both together I cannot tell. Hope this helps.