A lock to savour

Saturday, 16 October 2010 17:24

Enjoy with us our experience at Aynho Weir Lock

We reversed to turn around this morning as we have to be back in Banbury after the weekend. The weather was lovely - but autumn is really here with a chilly wind, meaning I had to wrap up well, as you can see!

So here we go .......

Another narrowboat had just come through our first lock but had closed the gate, so we had to start from the beginning! Having dropped John off, I left the lock landing and he had the lock gate open ready for me.

The diamond or, more descriptively, "lozenge" lock only has a rise/fall of about a foot but the volume of  water needed to fill it is probably the equivalent of a two to three foot rise/fall. This means that more water can be taken from the River Cherwell as it crosses above the lock, feeding water into the lower part of the South Oxford.

In the chilly wind, it was impossible to keep the boat straight, but the front end was in the upper jaws ready for me to straighten Epiphany.

This rural scene is common on the South Oxford Canal and looking ahead I could see the large Aynho Weir taking the River Cherwell away across the top of the lock.

A quick reverse first and then I was leaving the lock under Bridge 188 - a tight fit as there is not much room to manoeuvre with the River Cherwell exiting under the weir on the left and entering from the right, causing a bit of a flow.

I hovered in the jaws, waiting whilst John closed the top gate but he still needed to push Epiphany off from the weir to enable me to pull away.

A close up of the weir shows the flood marker board ... I would not like to experience this in flood conditions; I can just hear John shouting "give it some welly"!

More exciting stories from today to come!