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Should we shut the Lock Gates?, by Paul Clevett

                      photo by JustCanals

  Every now and then on every forum and website to do with canals someone asks "Should we leave lock gates shut?".

 The answer is not quite as simple as yes or no.
For instance, on the River Wey Navigation you are instructed to leave lock gates open by the National Trust, reason being that this is a canalised River, it's not a true canal, parts of the Wey are in fact "Raw River" and it takes a team of lengthsmen to look after it!

As I see it there are things that determine if lock gates should be shut or open.

1. What does the navigation authority want? 
 Generally you can find out by phoning the navigation authority for the waterway you are travelling on.

2. Where you are:
 In lock flights it is UNUSUAL to leave the gates open, doing so can cause all kinds of problems including water building up in one pound and having empty pounds at the top. 
 The Hanwell flight regularly suffers from this because it is close to the Thames, so River Wey boaters come up who are used to leaving gates open and the pounds drain. 
 One night we were going down towards the Thames at about 7pm and Tafelberg was grounded in one of the pounds. Luckily my father was on the towpath so he was able to go up to the upper lock and let water through.

3. Is it busy? 
 On a busy Saturday it is probably wiser to leave the gates open, especially if you can see a boat coming up the canal or river that looks like it wants to use the lock. Remember that bigger boats are more difficult to handle than smaller boats, stopping a 70 footer just to open a lock gate that another boater has "kindly" closed can add a lot of time to a journey.

Summary
 The important thing to remember is that there is not really a simple yes/no answer to this question - it is one that is asked every now and then on forums and at the sides of locks.

For more about living on board a narrowboat please Click Here to buy Paul Clevett's ultimate guide for five pounds.

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Paul Clevett, who submits articles to JustCanals everyweek, is a Waterways Author. He lives on a 70 foot Narrow Boat (NB Tafelberg) in Cowley, Uxbridge with his Wife, Two Children and Crew Chris, and of course the cat. As well as writing his amazing electronic book which tells the reader everything they need to know about living on board a narrowboat (Click Here to find out more) Paul Clevett is an apprentice Roses and Castles painter (Click Here to visit his Roses & Castles website).

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