River Boating Forum

Here is my account of what it is like to navigate the tidal Trent from Keadby to Torksney and back again:

This will make more sense if you know we where in a 50ft hire boat and the other two boats where 56ft

We where already awake when we saw the lock keeper walking down the towpath towards us. We where planning to go to west Stockwith (Chesterfield canal) but where told that we would have to wait for the incoming tide to reach a higher level which would make us miss the Torksney tide and there was only a small possibility that we could get a slot at West Stockwith. We decided to head for Torksney. There was a dutch barge and a narrow boat in front of us and with the lock being 16ft wide the lock could only just accommodate the two. We watched the two boats disappear whilst the locky set the lock for us. It was now our turn. I was a little nervous as i had never been on a tidal stretch of river before. Soon as the gates opened we headed out into the incoming tide. I was surprised how calm it was compared to what i thought it would be like. The journey was pretty straight forward from then on to Torksney. It was frightening when a large sea cruiser sped past. When we arrived at torksney we decided to go get some supplies from a town just up the witham. We where told it would be best if we moored on the pontoons on the river overnight which was a little unnerving. Next morning we set of bright and early pushing a small tide back down until we reached Gainsborough pontoons where we had to moor and wait for the outgoing tide. We found this a good time to do some shopping at the local Tesco. When we returned there where another two boats there doing the same as we where doing. We all set off together down to Keadby eventually splitting up slightly due to the engine speed. It was extremely frightening when the boat overheated and we where forced to cut off the engine. There was one boat behind us who came alongside and we breasted up to him whilst we filled the engine with water. At this point we encountered a commercial barge who's wash rocked the boats a lot as it came too close. We untied again at the bridge just upstream from keadby. One of the boats kindly went about 200yds downstream of keadby lock just incase disaster struck (We had a anchor but there was no chain just around 20ft of rope). We let the boat drift downstream then powered it upstream and diagonally into the lock. The stern scraped a little but not too harsh. The boat that had moved downstream for us came in next then the boat behind us which had a traditional engine and the skipper managed to hit the cill pretty rough. We tied out boats to the chains and away we went back onto the South Yorkshire Navigation.

You were a bit unlucky there Adam, not exactly a good introduction to tidal cruising!!

In my opinion, Keadby is probably the worst lock on the tidal Trent, simply because it is in need of modernisation, not through any other reason, apart from the wind that can howl straight through it if its in the SW. There is a knack to getting into the lock unscathed, by using the tide flow and common sense, which you obviously did!!
Downstream of Gainsborough the river comes under the control of ABP, not BW, so there's theoretically no speed limit, hence cruisers and commercial boats giving it some.

Good News
Keadby Lock has been Modernized
The Lock is now controlled from the new state of the art control room overlooking both the Lock and the River.
The control room would not out of place on the USS Enterprise
CCTV Hydraulics the works.
It's the same old lock underneath though, it being a listed structure and all .
I think the silt at the entrance and in the Lock must be listed too
That being said its location makes it probably the trickiest Lock to get into on the entire system.
I'll be posting a report on my trip around Trent Falls and up to Ripon as soon as I have Ironed out a few problems
including a complaint which I have made to BW Yorkshire Navigations , when they have replied I can write a fair post

They had hydraulics whilst i was there. They sounded a bit "clunky" though, they where just electric motors fixed onto the old paddles.

What did it used to be like?

All the paddles were hand operated and the gates were operated by winding the chain winches by hand slow hard work
the only comfort the lock keeper had was his office , in the style of the old toilets with the flat concrete roof about 4ft square and no room to swing a cat (No wonder he was a miserable old bugger )
The gates leaked and all kinds of plant life was growing in the lock.
I don't think the young ladies that work there now would have managed before and that was only 2001

Video from keadby in 2005[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erebuI5_8_4[/youtube]

Just been looking at some of your you tube videos - they are good.
Shame about the wooden cruiser that would have been a good boat!