Medway, Swale, C&B N Page 3

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The Tuesday Night Club on Tour

Tour 2001

Thames Estuary, Medway, Swale, Thames Estuary, Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation, Thames Estuary and Tidal Thames to Brentford

3- Non Tidal River Medway to Tonbridge and back to Allington.

Monday 30th April 2001

At around 08.00 we sidled across the lock cut to fill with water as we were just about out (due to yesterdays operational light bow needs!) We shoved off at 09.00 and moored up just beyond Maidstone Newbridge at 09.40. A shopping / provisioning exercise followed until 11.05. Fairly pleasant river up to and just beyond Maidstone. Many large cruisers just below Maidstone at Allington Marina, also diesel at 40p / litre! Just before Maidstone was a new parkland area, which had a wibbley wobbly concrete footbridge that put the London Millennium footbridge to shame! Above Maidstone there was evidence of flood damage. A plastic cruiser was at the side of the river in turtle like fashion. Amazingly Ian C identified it as a Freeman!!! There was also the 55ft Trad Narrowboat "Argy Bargey" afloat in some moorings - windows gone and covered in mud - obviously it had been under.
The weir at Farleigh Lock (11.40 to 12.00) was still going it a bit and we had a rather fast approach to the landing stage. The standard Medway Lock has all gate paddles of a screw type. It was a case of using the long throw small spindle GU windlii. These fitted onto the vertical spindle. The gates were designed to have three paddles each side, but the various locks had an assortment that were present, or actually worked! The flow through Teston Bridge was really going it a bit and we needed a blast of full power to get through it at a reasonable controllable speed. The resulting bow wave / river flow was quite impressive, behind us!
Teston Lock (12.40 to 13.05) also had its weir going a fair bit. There was signs of EA dredging below Teston Lock, but in true Medway fashion this was just deposited at the side of the river, which had already washed half back into the water! Next came Medway Wharf Marina, by the low Wateringbury Bridge. Here was more signs of flood damage. A good few boats in the surrounding fields had not be placed there intentionally! At this point Ian C went into maximum wooden boat scanning mode, but there was little of interest.
At Yalding the Navigation goes in the only serious cut section, above Hampstead Bridge / Lock (13.55 to 14.10). At the end of this was an EA operated electric lift bridge. Fortunately we had only a half hour wait for the opening time. JC phoned ahead to make sure that they knew that they had THE boat coming. They said that of course it was hopeless above and that we would not get through Sluice Weir Lock as the lock cut below was impassable, due to a large shoal that had not yet been removed.
Neil had arranged to meet Connie Evans and the Mockford's, Molly and Paul, but the whole way from Maidstone was a none mobile signal area. We moored above the lift bridge and Neil went into the Anchor pub, to see if any one was about. Connie, Molly and Paul had been installed for a while and had nearly given up on us. Molly got her very brief ride in Earnest as Ian C took it through the lift bridge and onto the pub mooring. The landlord was obviously still in a virtual state of shock concerning flooding and warned us to not leave the boat near the large auto horizontal radial gate sluice as the river level could drop 5ft here! JC was involved with lengthy discussions with the EA bloke and came away with our own bridge consol operating key.
Eventually we left the pub (14.15 to 15.40), said our goodbyes and set of to attack the “impassable” Medway. After Yalding is a pleasant section, at Stoneham you pass through the degated Lock. Soon we were at the problem Sluice Weir Lock. It was a deep one and signs of siltation – twigs sticking up - could be seen at the entrance to the short lock cut. We approached with caution, Ian C and JC feeling the bottom with the graduated pole and boat hook. It was found that the deepest bit was at the upstream entrance to the cut and with much dredging we ground our way through. Neil when sidled over and up to the lock chamber wall and planted Earnest’s bow fender on the corner of the chamber. The throttle was then floored and the boat “Steered” across, causing much crud to come up from the shoal and be washed down stream. The lock was full and with all top paddles up the water was dropped as quickly as possible. With Earnest still going flat out the resultant surge of water was “steered” at the silt bar which was quite a spectacle as it was washed away!
The whole lock / dredging operation took between 16.25 and 16.50. Above Sluice Weir Lock were a few trees down across the river. The one large one could just be passed by scraping along the opposite bank. The chainsaw stayed in it's box. Oak Weir Lock was passed without difficulty between 17.15 and 17.30. East Lock was passed through 17.45 to 18.00, the exit of this lock was very silted up but we blasted our way through it.
Next cane Porter Lock (18.25)and we were surprised to find it empty, with gates open and a rather tatty wooden cruiser moored loosely in the chamber. By now we were getting cocky and expected to soon be in Tonbridge! Neil gave a hoot on the large horn, but there was no one about. We went straight into the chamber and Ian C jumped out but soon came back looking glum. The EA had drained the next reach and the manual horizontal radial gate weir was nearly completely up!
Still undeterred we carried on, filling the lock and rising with the abandoned cruiser. Amazingly we got over the sill ( the locks were built to Thames lighter size, 80ft x 18ft 6ins x 5ft 6ins draught) The lock cut was just passed, with a bit of clattering. At the entrance to the lock cut a silt bar could be SEEN! Ian C and JC had got off and were poling the bottom to find the deepest water. This ended up right near the sheet piled approach to the weir. We got stuck FAST! . .the river level seemed to have gone down since we had got out of the lock. John phoned the EA duty officer up and he agreed to come out and drop the weir to refloat us. (just as well as we would have done it ourselves!)
Neil still undeterred marched onto the next lock to survey the damage. Damage it was!!! The dredger was in the full lock chamber and had been digging it out. This lock had no radial gate weir and the lock chamber was in line with the river flow. The lock had obviously been left full with gates open when the river was in flood and had been filled up with crud. The locksides were covered with a tremendous amount of stuff, including a tree stump the size of half a car. Neil wondered about dropping the water in the lock, if the dredger floated at least we could get into the chamber.
BUT one small problem, one of the upper gates would not close, by a foot, something very serious was still on the sill. After a few attempts at slamming it shut, despondently Neil returned. He was surprised to find that the river level was nearly up. By the time he got back the EA men were just leaving. They told us to stay in the lock chamber overnight and in the morning we could go up to Eldridge’s Lock.
They had been a bit miffed about us getting this far, but they did not tell us of any other troubles ahead, only that we would NOT get through Sluice Weir Lock. They should have known better. JC probably could have persuaded them to help us through Eldridge’s Lock if we had more time. The EA blokes would monitor our progress downstream the next day and were sure that they would be needed to help us through!

Tuesday 1^st May 2001

We shoved off at 08.35, with the river level still up, above the lock. We easily got up to Eldridge’s Lock and wound using the weir stream flow. At 08.48 we started back.
Lock timings thus :- Porters Lock – 09.00 to 09.10, East Lock – 09.26 to 09.34, Oak Weir Lock – 09.40 to 09.50, Sluice Weir Lock 10.10 to 10.20 (Rattled out of lock cut as river level had now been dropped another foot and were surprised to encounter a large gravel shoal some distance below weir.) Yalding Lift Bridge took between 10.50 and 10.58, using John’s “won” key.
Trouble free passage down to Maidstone, where we stopped between 13.00 and 15.05. Neil went shopping with Frank, for provisions and to get a replacement Nicad charger and some more nicad’s (for the battery hungry digital camera) from the handy Argos (£11). This was as the crap Sterling inverter had fried the crap nicad charger!
We stopped at Allington Marina (15.30 to 15.45) for a top up of diesel, for the next sea passage. Mooring for the night was in the quieter lock cut at Allington (15.50). Andrew “Capt Beeky” Goodland had arranged to meet us on his obscure way home from Birmingham. This indeed he did and of course the destination was TONBRIDGE!
At Tonbridge we parked on the Town Wharf (now covered by a Kimberley Clark office block! – open car park underneath) and walked down to the Town Lock, which of course was perfectly useable. A trip to the local Weatherspoon’s ensued, followed by an Indian in the Alishan. This venue was somewhat “upmarket”. The starters were good, but main dishes a bit bland. Next followed a “Sweeny” style departure from the car park and one of Andrew’s “See Kent” trips back to Allington!!!