Tuesday 28 June 2016

Obstruction removed from lock gate; new word

We set off from the Barbridge Arms reasonably early and soon came to Hurleston Junction. There was no-one waiting for the locks so we were able to go straight up. We had assistance from Mrs Cheshire Cat boats up the flight of four locks.

At Bridge 12 we stopped for an early lunch, then moved on up the Baddiley Locks. At the top we stopped - and then the rain came. Not very heavy, but persistent. A hire boat tried to come up the Baddiley No. 1 Lock but couldn't shut the top gate to empty the lock. The crew tried shifting the obstruction with a cabin shaft, but it wouldn't budge. When we realised what was going on I brought my Sea Searcher as the object had sounded metallic. Sure enough, when I lowered the magnet, it caught a large piece of something. After a couple of attempts I managed to drag it away from the cill back above the top gate to the bank, then I lifted out what looks like some sort of an oil drum with a handle attached to it.*
Perhaps it was a seat on the back end of a boat. Anyway, with the obstruction removed the gate could close and the lock worked normally. The crew were very grateful - their delay of 20 minutes or so could easily have been a lot more if they'd had to call CRT out.

In the early evening the rain eased off and we moved another mile to Wrenbury, where we tied up for the night. We walked into the village and saw a couple of strange sights.

This roadside hedge was covered with green netting for 50 yards or so for no apparent reason.

The other oddity was a child's posh pedal go-kart on its side on the grass verge. The chain had come off and there was a large broken concrete slab on the chain. No photo, sorry.

I have heard a new word being used a few times on the radio in the last few days: "resile". New to me, anyhow. It's not in the boat's - old (1946!) Pocket Oxford - dictionary and I wasn't been able to work it out from the context, despite guessing its connection to "resilience". However Google reveals it to mean "to abandon a position or course of action".

This is being posted rather late in the day - the next day - as we've been in a mobile internet-free zone.

*It was actually the shell of a 1950s/60s Creda Debonair spin dryer - identified by a lockie at Grindley Brook the next day as he took it to the skip for me!

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