In the empty Dudbridge lock

Today Woodpeckers and I took up an unique opportunity to visit the newly rebuilt canal lock at Dudbridge just to the west of Stroud town centre. The canal is being reopened as part of a £14 million regeneration scheme which eventually will re-connect the old Thames and Severn canal with the Sharpness Canal in the west, and possibly the River Thames inn the east. That may take a rather long time but is what most people want.

Today the public were allowed back to Dudbridge lock with access along the towpath again, which has been closed during the works. The lock itself has had brand new gates constructed, partly out of oak, partly out of another rare hardwood, whose name I have forgotten. You can see one of the gates at the far, lower end in the closed position. The Canal Trust organised that the public could walk into the empty lock to see the work up close, which was what we wanted. Here you can see Woodpeckers standing in the thin mud covering the ancient brick floor, whilst above us the scaffolding holding up the upper working platform blocks out the light.

Earlier this year we walked along a newly built two hundred metre stretch of the canal under Capel's Mill, which I have now blipped several times. That section is now filled with water, as this lock will be within a few weeks. It might be possible that by next spring we can take a canal boat along the canal from the end of our little valley at Bowbridge all the way to The Ocean, a special section of the canal near Stonehouse the next settlement west of Stroud. I am really looking forward to that.

I forgot to say that beside this lock a new hydro power generating system has been built to utilise the energy potential of the excess water in the canal, the adjacent river and a stream which joins them both at right angles, flowing down from the nearby valley. It is already in use, so we couldn't go inside that too. You can't have everything.