My winter mooring this year is very close to the Tring Reservoirs, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and an incredibly beautiful area for boating, walking, angling and cycling. It’s also a major feature of the southern Grand Union Canal, and therefore covered by our narrowboat brokerage. We have a selection of narrowboats for sale on the Grand Union and work closely with Cowroast Marina, among others.
However, the water levels across the Tring summit are currently being kept at a lower operating level than usual to allow seepage losses to be minimised. The ground in the Tring cutting has always been wet, and so was not sealed when the canal was first built. The recent dry spell allowed the ground to dry out, the water table dropped and so the canal water began to leak out.
The Friends of Tring Reservoirs website reported that an “emergency fish rescue operation took place over the weekend from Friday 20th January in the 'Reservoir Pound' locks 39-40, following a larger than expected fall in water levels in the canal.”
Following recent consultations with local boating and trade representatives British Waterways have now reviewed the existing restrictions currently in place on the Tring summit.
The navigation between Lock 46 (Cowroast) and Lock 39 (Startops) is to remain closed until Monday 26th March to allow the local reservoir levels to recover before the main boating season. But from Monday 26th March the navigation will be reopened, although only between 10.00am and 3.00pm. BW reports that navigation down the centre of the canal will then be possible for normally draughted boats. There will also be two specific opening periods to enable boats to cross the summit during restricted hours on specified days during March. The major reason for these openings in March is to get boats to Cowroast and Bulbourne for the two boatyards on the summit, and for us to get boats that we have sold to the right side of the summit for their new owners.
There was a proposal at the last meeting with BW that the locks would also close for an hour at lunch to allow enough to gather to run pairs up and down the locks alternately and thus use the water efficiently.
The Aylesbury arm remains closed for dredging but will be opened about one weekend per month to allow locally based boats to move around on the arm.
Boatshed Grand Union are holding regular meetings with BW to review the situation
We hope that these restrictions will conserve the water in these stunning reservoirs so that we can continue with our used narrowboat sales and enjoy canal boat cruising in the Spring and Summer this year.
You may also like Phil’s previous article on theTring Summit Closure

Peggy Melmoth
www.narrowboatwife.blogspot.com

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