River Lugg, Herefordshire

[onthehoof]

This is a bucketful he's taken out, the orange stuff is the silt which should be taken out, the Gault clay was put there when the river was built and there is also peat which has probably come out from under the clay lining, put a bloody great hole in the liner of a fish pond and see what happens

 

[onthehoof]

Just for clarification which of the channels is it?

This bit

 

[Dry Rot]

View attachment 993003

Civil Service verbosity reported to The Campaign for Plain English (http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/contact-us.html). One can but hope.

 

[Hindsight]

View attachment 993191

This bit

Many thanks for confirmation. Now I have looked back at the thread and taken time to read the posts I have spotted the Hundred Foot flooding document. Be interesting too know what if any remedial work EA propose and action. Is the river tidal there? I just had it in back of my mind that the Hundred Foot operated as a tidal waterway upto the sluice at Earith which helped keep it desilted? But I may well have conjured that from my imagination - often happens!! Cheers.

 

[TheTallGuy]

Many thanks for confirmation. Now I have looked back at the thread and taken time to read the posts I have spotted the Hundred Foot flooding document. Be interesting too know what if any remedial work EA propose and action. Is the river tidal there? I just had it in back of my mind that the Hundred Foot operated as a tidal waterway upto the sluice at Earith which helped keep it desilted? But I may well have conjured that from my imagination - often happens!! Cheers.

It is tidal up to Earith (technically up to Brownshill Staunch a bit further up the Great Ouse) but the tidal range and flow by that point isn't sufficient to keep it desilted.

 

[le bon paysan]

I'm just off to do some' reorientation of growing medium in a specific enclosed area'.

 

[tepapa]

When will people in charge realise that things such as this Chanel are not a natural habitat. It was built with a purpose, I'm sure at considerable cost at the time. If they wish to manage it as, and convert it to, a natural habitat they should construct another structure to do it's work, obviously at considerable environmental damage in another location.

 

[onthehoof]

Took 11,000 men a year to dig all 21 miles, all they used was spades wheelbarrows and planks they hoped to do it in 6 months but the 'bottoming' took much longer than expected

 

[Tarw Coch]

Took 11,000 men a year to dig all 21 miles, all they used was spades wheelbarrows and planks they hoped to do it in 6 months but the 'bottoming' took much longer than expected

They must have worked unbelievably hard to do that.

Obviously no one would attempt to do a job like that nowadays but I suspect even with all the modern excavators available today, a job like that couldn’t be completed in 12 months, indeed, just up the road from here they have been over 12 months building a new roundabout adjacent to the existing one and look nowhere near completion, obviously a different and much smaller project but it just goes to show how long jobs seem to take nowadays despite having machinery capable of doing the work of hundreds of me by hand.
Indeed, whenever I pass by the number of men working on machines seems to be dwarfed by the number of men looking on. No doubt such a project needs people to oversee and manage, it just beggars belief at the numbers.

 

[Steevo]

They must have worked unbelievably hard to do that.

Obviously no one would attempt to do a job like that nowadays but I suspect even with all the modern excavators available today, a job like that couldn’t be completed in 12 months, indeed, just up the road from here they have been over 12 months building a new roundabout adjacent to the existing one and look nowhere near completion, obviously a different and much smaller project but it just goes to show how long jobs seem to take nowadays despite having machinery capable of doing the work of hundreds of me by hand.
Indeed, whenever I pass by the number of men working on machines seems to be dwarfed by the number of men looking on. No doubt such a project needs people to oversee and manage, it just beggars belief at the numbers.

The world has become a lot more complicated than it ever used to be. Not all of that “progress” is positive.

The art of simplicity has often been lost in pursuit of other factors.

 

[Cowmansam]

It certainly uses some posh words and job titles , the contractor was instructed to demobilise from site or Members of the asset performance team conducted a site walkover, they certainly know how to use a lot of words where a few will do.
The phrase bullsh!t baffles brains springs to mind


Sorry @le bon paysan, I didn’t mean to quote you in that


On further thought, I think their use of such language is to belittle those who have pointed out their wrong doing , they are trying to portray an image of superiority

 

[Bongodog]

Whether or not the River was repositioned about the time when Ely Sugar-beet factory was built, I don’t know. And why the hell it is called The Ely Old River or Old West River, when it is in fact quite young, I have no idea.

The confusing part is not the "Old" as it is the original course of the Great Ouse, but the West part, as it is the Eastward section of the river.

It is tidal up to Earith (technically up to Brownshill Staunch a bit further up the Great Ouse) but the tidal range and flow by that point isn't sufficient to keep it desilted.

You used to be able to easily see the tidal range at Earith against the clear bank, but there's so much crap along the edges now its hard to see. Definitely tidal up to the Staunch, recall the range used to be about 3 feet when we fished there as kids.

 

[wr.]

Took 11,000 men a year to dig all 21 miles, all they used was spades wheelbarrows and planks they hoped to do it in 6 months but the 'bottoming' took much longer than expected

If it were constructed nowadays there would probably be 11,000 carrying clipboards around.

 

[Tarw Coch]

It’s a funny old world, in an age where a machine operator now needs a ticket to get a job, there seems to be less skilled operators about

 

[wr.]

It’s a funny old world, in an age where a machine operator now needs a ticket to get a job, there seems to be less skilled operators about

Like every job, as long as the paperwork is correct, you can have the job.

 

[Henarar]

Like every job, as long as the paperwork is correct, you can have the job.

And some farmers advocate more of that for farming

 

[steveR]

Thank you for posting this map. Unfortunately, I can’t answer your question but I’m sure somebody more local can.

Not only was the Gt. Ouse short cut by the 100 Foot drain from Earith to Denver, but the River itself was substantially altered around Ely and the Village of Queen Adelaide. Adelaide is where this year’s Oxford-Cambridge boat race was held, as it was in 1944 thanks to Churchill’s insistence!

If you look at the Satellite image of Ely and Queen Adelaide on Google Maps/Earth, you can see where the river used to run. My mother and her twin sister were born and brought up in Adelaide. My Grandfather farmed land between it, Prickwillow an Stuntney.

The original river got silted up very badly and coal barges would ground themselves. They had to throw off some coal to re-float themselves. My mother and aunt would collect this coal from where the original river bank was situated which is now in the middle of a field.

My Grandfather skated all the way from Ely to Cambridge on the frozen rivers Ouse and Cam. Apparently he easily got there faster than it could be done by car!

Whether or not the River was repositioned about the time when Ely Sugar-beet factory was built, I don’t know. And why the hell it is called The Ely Old River or Old West River, when it is in fact quite young, I have no idea.

Fascinating stuff. And I thought that our local IDB "drain" and it's construction, and subsequent management was interesting....

In our case it was the local Aristocracy that brought in Dutch engineers for the work.

 

[Bongodog]

It’s a funny old world, in an age where a machine operator now needs a ticket to get a job, there seems to be less skilled operators about

I'm told that the training schemes are all about how to operate safely, remember to do your daily checks, risk assessments, don't go for a pee unless you have your hard hat on etc. Your feel for the job, smoothly operating the levers, working effectively is nothing to do with it.

 

[Exfarmer]

Fascinating stuff. And I thought that our local IDB "drain" and it's construction, and subsequent management was interesting....

In our case it was the local Aristocracy that brought in Dutch engineers for the work.

Think it wasbthe duke of Bedford who bought in Vermuyden to to the work in the fens. Hence the “ Bedford level”

 

[ollie989898]

How would you put that clay back?