Been lurking on here for ages but never posted being relatively new to boating and being a bit conscious of being a noob, Im now coming out of my fb shell! Laura Darling and I visited my hometown of Newtown last week, which is where the Montgomery canal used to end. I understand that there are plans to rebuild the canal to Freehouse Lock eventually (there is water in the canal from this point) which would be amazing as we could get close to where I was spawned and grew up! I find it fascinating that I grew up in that town and didnt really have any idea about the canal system that used to serve it. Its such a beautiful part of the world. It was both intriguing and saddening to see Dolfor and Freehouse locks with the lock cottage at Freehouse in complete disrepair, we also mused at them being about 7ft wide, we had only seen locks of the proportions of the ones we had seen on the K&A from the top of the flight at Devizes to Hanham. We went to Welshpool lock the next day which was also about 7ft wide but actually functioning, we pushed the single gate open and laughed at how easy it was to move (dont know if any of you have been through Saltford lock of late, weve done it quite regularly in recent weeks and its a heavy bastard!). We even saw a snake swimming when we closed the gate! We thought the lock hadnt been used for years because of all the vegetation behind the lock gate and then a boat came! It was from a company called Heulwen boats who organise boat trips for local disabled children, got talking to the helmsman and apparently there are only five boats on that section of the landlocked canal (couldnt figure out if that was a blessing or a curse at first - later thought that it would be a curse as you meet so many nice people (and some not so nice but take the rough with the smooth and all that) when cruising the boat about. I hope I havent bored you guys too much about my non boaty trip to a place where boats used to go! Id love to hear any tales of any one that may have been down the non landlocked part of the Montgomery canal as would love to do it one day and also if any one knows anything about the restoration of the Montgomery canal, would like to get involved somehow (I have googled some things but asking people is better!).
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 21:43:03 +0000
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