The Highs and Lows of the Tring Summit

Frozen reservoir, Tring summit

In Hertfordshire the Tring Summit level is currently closed from Lock 39 Startops Reservoir to lock 49 at Northchurch. The canal is fed by local reservoirs built for the purpose and a lack of rain this year has led to a severe water shortage. The water level has dropped by at least twelve inches. Moored boats were asked to vacate the pound and BW announced that 2011 was the driest year for the south east since records began. The Aylesbury Arm was already closed to traffic.

The ground in the Tring cutting has historically always been very wet, and so was not sealed with clay when the cut was first built. The recent dry weather has now allowed the surrounding ground to dry out, the water table has dropped and the canal water has begun to leak out. It is hoped that enough water can be conserved over the next few weeks to enable cruising to commence at the start of the boating season.

The Tring summit is about 400 feet above sea level and each time a boat descends through a lock about 50,000 gallons of water are lost to the lower level(1). Originally the Grand Junction Canal was to be fed by a feeder from springs in Wendover to Bulbourne, near Tring. An Act of Parliament in 1794 authorised this to be a navigable waterway, and so the Wendover arm was created. However, it was a struggle to maintain the water levels and so a series of pumps and reservoirs were built at Wilstone, Marsworth, Tringford and Startopsend. Five years after its completion the Wendover arm began leaking and eventually began taking water from the summit. The working boatmen began to refer to it as “the withered arm” and in 1901 it was closed to navigation. The Wendover Arm Trust is a charity that continues to rebuild the Wendover Arm using donations and volunteer labour; raising money annually with their popular canal festival.

Today the Marsworth flight, the reservoirs, the hamlet of Bulbourne, the Wendover Arm, and the tree-lined Tring cutting is a most beautiful stretch of canal attracting wildlife, walkers and fishermen. The disused lock gate making workshops at Bulbourne are a fascinating piece of canal history, the Grand Junction Arms is an original boaters pub and the views across the reservoirs are simply stunning – even now when they are half empty and half frozen.

Book early to join Snipe and Taurus in July of this year and enjoy this breath-taking cruise that concludes by arriving in London for the Olympics.

Leighton Buzzard to Little Venice cruise details.

Peggy Melmoth

www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com