Volunteers from the Melton and Oakham Waterways Society have been hard at work on the river around Melton Mowbray in the aftermath of Storm Doris.
(more…)
Green Corridor for Oakham
The Society’s plans for a green leisure corridor, based on the remains of the former Oakham Canal to the north of Oakham, continue to develop. Further announcements about the plans are expected later this year.
Canal Walks
The Melton and Oakham Waterways Society are currently revising their Wreake Valley Way walk leaflets and publishing an extension of the current walk between Melton and Oakham. Over the summer, the Society will be offering guided walks of the Oakham Canal Trail and Wreake Valley way between Oakham and Leicester via Melton following, as close as possible, the Oakham Canal and Melton Mowbray Navigation. Contact Paul Dadford at [email protected] for more details.
Lock Gate discovered – August 2014
As reported in the work party reports for 4 August 2014, a lock gate was discovered. Our chairmam emailed Helen Wells at the Leicester Archaeological unit and had this reply:
Do you think that the concrete structure/timber/structure overhanging the canal formed something contemporary with the operation of the canal, or could it have been installed following its closure? I don’t know when the part in Play Close was filled in – I expect you do? (I can tell it must have been before the 1884 Ordnance Survey map since it’s filled in on that, so pretty quick work following the canal’s closure!)
Interesting to note that the 1839 map shows a pinch point at that location – would this make it narrow enough for a pair of those lock gates to span the canal? Is there any sign of a second concrete structure on the other side of the canal that could have formed this pinch point?