Benson Lock "exposed"

[TrueBlue]

As "threatened" on a related thread - with a lot of help from B1 _ I've managed to complete my article and it's

here on the TMBA site.

Hope it's of interest to all.....

 

[No Regrets]

Nice one, thanks TB!

 

[neale]

How many mobile phones/sets of keys did they find when they drained the lock?

 

[Brayman]

How many mobile phones/sets of keys did they find when they drained the lock?

and several pairs of SWMBO's sunglasses too. They'll all be on sale in the coming season I expect.

 

[Ramage]

Great article!

 

[TrueBlue]

Sorry to disappoint you all, but EA are not proposing to clean the chamber as there's all sorts of nasty things down there and it's somewhat expensive to send it to landfill "hazardous waste" so it'll stay as is. In one of the pics there's a white builders' bag with some of the more obvious rubbish - if the keys etc are top they might be salvaged.

Daft innit - previous gov't regulations on tidying up waste act as a strong disincentive to do anything. Even simple dredging carries an extra cost in "fines" on top of any removal costs. So for folks who want the channel dredged - forget it.

I suspect "profiling" is OK as the stuff isn't (re)moved..

 

[apollo]

Really good, well done!

 

[oldgit]

blimming good article.

 

[dash300]

blimming good article.

Ditto - makes pleasant and interesting change to the usual twatter! Thankyou.

 

[Sulley]

Very good article and interesting, thanks.

 

[Captain Coochie]

Thanks for taking the time to go down there and indeed represent the TMBA .

 

[TrueBlue]

Thanks for taking the time to go down there and indeed represent the TMBA .

That's most kind of you, Cuchilo. I was delighted when B1 said "do you want to go". Being a bit of an anorak as far as waterways infrastructure is concerned, I jumped at the chance. It also gave me an excuse to drive down some country roads well away from the blimming motorways. Also gave me a chance to speak to EA folks who (sometimes) can be nameless and faceless.

Canals and rivers are on a more human level than roads and modern railways, so it's possible to think about "how it's done" - even if that technology has been updated.

Since you have recently bought some serious woodworking kit, perhaps you have drained the market of machinery (!) and coupled with a shortage of carpenters - perhaps EA and BW have turned to a technology where there are still some craftsmen left?

Seems like a humorous conclusion.

"We" take too much for granted nowadays, probably because so few folks actually make anything anymore, that I wish people would take a step back and be grateful for the simple things in life.

Heavy.

Not an afterthought:
Thanks for all the kind comments from others thus far. Makes this forum a pleasant place to be.