Locking the water in the river

Another fishing trip today, this time on the Nene in Northamptonshire. The Nene is an interesting river because it has locks, these are not the same as canal locks with balance beam gates at each end, these are all guillotine locks with the exception of Ditchford Lock (no. 15) which is a radial lock, similar to a guillotine but the gate rotates upwards/downwards as opposed to rising straight up. These locks are all next to the weirs that regulate the flow of water in the river and are controlled by the Environment Agency.  It is very important that boat users reset the lock to how they first found it else the fields downstream will quickly flood and the river can drop by a couple feet upstream. During floods the Environment Agency "reserve" the locks which means they are locked to keep the water in the river or to allow it flow at a controllable speed. When locks are reserved they may not be used by boaters, this is known as Strong Stream Advice. These large pieces of civil engineering may not seem very "rural" but without them the Nene Valley would be a very different place with a lot less water in the river.

River Nene, 11th March 2012

An unusual opportunity arose this morning, the opportunity to see a lock with no water in it. The Upper Ringstead Lock (no. 18) is currently being worked on, so is being pumped dry.

Here are some photographs:

The pumping is being done from a barge moored in front of the guillotine gate.

The pointer gates at the other end also seem to be receiving some attention.

You may notice there is some water in the lock in the last pictures, this was a couple of hours after the earlier ones and the pump had stopped.

Narrow boats moored upstream of the closed lock.