This last month has seen some remarkable progress down at Tamworth Road, mostly down in Pound 25.
Progress on the canal beyond the narrows by the A51 has been, and still is, blighted by water in the base of the canal which refuses to dry up. Fortunately the brickies have been able to continue with their work. The top rows of bricks are marching steadily toward the finishing line. Back filling between these finished bricks and the towpath has begun and we can now see what it will look like as a finished job This area is now on the back burner whilst we forge ahead in pound 25.
In pound 25 a large area of the base of the canal, adjacent to the road, has been concreted over. With the completion of our working on the towpath, the soil ramp up to the path was no longer needed. The huge mound of soil that comprised this ramp, and other soil from the base of pound 25, was impeding our progress. Our friends at WCL Quarries at Summerhill have a grab hire lorry and they agreed to move this soil, at a price, to Summerhill by the aqueduct where it was much needed. To date they must have moved at least ten lorry loads or more. The result being that we now have a decent working area.
This latest spell of fine weather has made working here much more pleasant. And progress that much faster. In preparation for the removal of the big pipe, it is necessary to provide an alternative route for the steady stream of water flowing through it into lock 25. You will remember the temporary pipe that used to run from lock 25 passed Mrs Attwoods garden and into lock 26? It was brown in colour (faded) and about 6" in diameter. This had been in store since its removal. Well, we have reused it, and saved the Trust a fair bit of money in doing so, we have laid it in a trench alongside the pound 25 big pipe. It will be fed into the big pipe pipe just short of lock 24 and the water will be diverted into this pipe all the way to lock 25. Having done this the pound 25 big pipe can come out. Concreting can then continue unimpeded.
Much work is need in lock 25 to restore it to working condition. The cill was badly damaged when the big pipe was initially laid. This needs rebuilding, the hinge area for the single lock gate needs reinstating and much repair work is required throughout. Eventually, earthworks and concreting will finish when we reach the Cricket Lane end of the redundant lock 24 where the big pipe will discharge directly into the lock and feed a pound 25 that will have water in it to about knee high.
That's it folks, thanks as usual to all who contributed, be they brickies, photographers, Queens Croft volunteers, providers of doughnuts, (I wish). and my trusty assistants the famous two T's. Tony G and Tony C.
