Poorly constructed bank to blame for Ashby breach

Published: Thursday, 03 December 2020

THE breach on the Ashby looks not unlike the breach on the Shroppie Middlewich Branch, writes Keith Gudgin.

For the bank looks like it's just loose soil and gravel, but if you use sandy or loose soil then you have to prevent water getting into it and liquefying it. That piling is nowhere near waterproof enough.

AshbyBreach400Liquefied and flowed away

It appears that the piling leaked at the bottom, below the canal bed and soaked the lower soil in the bank until it just liquefied and flowed away taking all the soil above away with it!

The piling prevented the whole of the Ashby and that section of the Coventry between Coventry and Atherstone from draining away by only allowing it to flow out slowly!

If the rest of the restored section is made up in the same way then there is a good chance this will happen again.  It'll be interesting see the outcome of this.  Photograph credit David Hughes.