Keeping the flight full

AS MANY boaters know, the Marsworth Flight is often short of water.

This Grand Union flight to the summit suffers from lack of water and requires constant filling, with Canal & River Trust employees daily on hand to let water down into the locks, Howard Clarke reports.

Needs constant attention

The reason of course is that the gates leak on many of the locks, so the flight needs constant attention, even on Christmas Day as Howard relates:

"On Christmas Day a CaRT fellow was running water on the Marsworth Flight. As I've mentioned before the gates leak so badly this has to be done daily. Plenty of water in the reservoirs, levels good."

It was in 2009 when we last used this flight on our second cruise of the Thames, with the log clearly telling of its 'leaking gates'...  The image is of the top lock of the flight.