Victor tells of a new record for Canal & River Trust—and a bad one!

Published: Wednesday, 18 June 2025

AND I SHOULD ADD— a very bad one. Bad enough for Thomas and Keith to drag me out in the middle of the week!

The fact that Canal & River Trust set an all-time record of ten closures to start the week.

Yes, my friends, you boaters start the week with ten new closures, in addition to the 25 closures that Allan Richards corrected me on last week, and not seeing too many notices of completed repairs.

But ten, in just the two days of Monday and Tuesday of this week is beyond belief. But here they are:

Monday 16th

Rochdale Canal again, with another closure from locks 15 to 16.

Shropshire Union Canal with its Beeston Iron Lock needing repairs to its cill.

Daw End Canal with a suspected leak.

Rushall Canal also told has a suspected leak.

Selby Canal with its Selby Swing Bridge out of order owing to a mechanical problem.

Ripon Canal that again that has its Oxclose Lock shut off until further notice.

Erewash Canal yet again, this time closed from Long Eaton to Langley Mill—that means all of it!

Tuesday 17th

Calder & Hebble with its Salterhebble Guillotine closed with a mechanical problem.

Huddersfield Narrow, yet again, this time with it's Slaithwaite Lock also having mechanical problems.

Rochdale Canal.  That long-suffering waterway with Lock 19 at Todmorden being yet another with mechanical problems.

And our being told that Foxton Locks will soon have limited access from 8am to 4pm only. 

What about all that eh? Monday, as you can see, landed the long-suffering boaters with a total of seven closures in a single day when only just getting into the 'season' certainly doesn't bode too good for its future.

And our Keith telling me now that it is not only Foxton Flight that will have restricted use, but also Claydon, Napton, Marston Doles, Hill Morton, and Watford Lock Flights!

Victor Swift—telling tales for 25 years