hire boat damage

I used to keep a 30ft Bates right there below the bridge, certainly couldn't get under the bridge and that boat used to get under Osney.
I guess a novice might mistake it for the main stream and there is plenty of depth but you would have to be pretty dim to attempt the bridge, unless you just had blind faith that you couldn't possibly have been given a boat that couldn't get under all the bridges!
 
Isn't it, or more correctly, wasn't it a sliding canopy on that boat? The damage looks worse than it probably is if it's just the canopy that took a whack. It's hard to tell from the photos
 
As others have suggested, it was indeed the footbridge on the other side of the Lock island. Lock keeper was in the shower at the time, and thought a lorry had hit his house! Strangely, the hirers apparently all did a runner! We were moored on the lock Island above the weir at the time and heard nothing, just saw the boat stuffed on the lock Island below the weir in the morning.
 
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