Saving Newports Canal

Saving Newports Canal

Achub Camlas Casnewydd

A Walk Down the Crumlin Arm of the Mon and Brec Canal to see the ongoing works to clear the canal. From the End of the Works at Harry Roberts Bridge to the fantastic Fourteen Locks and the Mystery Lock. See the reed clearance, the locks being cleared and all of the other fantastic work by the volunteers and contractors.It’s looking great!

Taith Gerdded i Lawr Cangen Crymlyn o Gamlas Mynwy a Brycheiniog i weld y gwaith parhaus i glirio’r gamlas. O Ddiwedd y Gweithfeydd ym Mhont Harry Roberts i’r Pedwar Cloeon ar Ddeg gwych a’r Loc Dirgel. Dewch i weld clirio’r cyrs, y cloeon yn cael eu clirio a’r holl waith gwych arall gan y gwirfoddolwyr a’r contractwyr. Mae’n edrych yn wych!

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So here is the mystery lock and wow what a treat we didn’t see this last Time so just behind me here is Harry Roberts Bridge this is an area I’ve covered before I’ve w up basically from the bottom of 14 locks to here in a couple of videos just to cover this because of work that’s going on now Newport Council put 1.9 million pound

Down to clear this up to this point here uh and to get the reads out to line it make it watertight and sort of clear any vegetation now on the other side uh right up to the border of tane that’s been kind of done already and parts of

The bit south of the M4 but this bit’s just been started now they’re working up here now you can see the Digger up in the distance there they’re clearing this quite quickly actually it’s got like a little scoop on it uh which is more of a

Mesh cage and what it’s doing is it’s picking up and pulling up all the reads all the debr at the bottom uh to clear it through now further down they are doing branches and stuff but there’s less overhanging branches causing an issue here there are branches going

Across but it’s it’s a canopy so you don’t want to sort of destroy all the vegetation you just want to get it to a point where you can easily run a boat down you might be able to see it on this now it’s pulling loads up it’s dead

Quick and this is this is it basically so you can see all the roots so the reads are actually kind of DED off now and they they don’t really uh survive the winter but it does leave all the roots in and that thing is just picking

It up and pulling it out this is what you want to get rid of cuz if you get rid of the roots it won’t grow back next year what happens is if you leave the roots in it just Sprouts every year and it just keeps sprouting and sprouting

And sprouting so the more of that you get out the easier it is to maintain so what Thomas brothers are doing is they’re clearing all of this and they’re leaving it to dry for a couple of days and once it’s dry anything that’s living

In it can crawl out and go in the canal wherever it needs to go and then they’ll clear this uh they bring some trailers down and they get rid of it I don’t think any of it’s been spread sometimes you spread in the in the banks which

Rots down and gives sort of good feed for the vegetation in in the banks but I think this is all being removed so you can see this is being filled up with water from there we’re in the kind of on the edge of the valley here water’s

Running down the hill and keeping this full this is a very section of canal apparently low as soon as the sunm comes along this this will be pretty dry what I’m going to do now is I’m going to walk down further if I go back towards 14 locks they’ve done work further down

Where they’ve done a lot more tree clearance and stuff and and dug it out what I’m hoping to see is the mystery lock if you remember from a previous video I want to see that a bit clearer so fingers crossed that’s that’s what we’re going to find so I’m just

Following a diver now the canal is uh just over that sort of tree line there behind us but this is cracking view when this is open this is going to be one of the most beautiful stretches of canal to to to go down I think you’ve got all the

The hills there You’ Got The Valleys all sort of over there of South Wales so this canal originally ran to Kremlin or this arm of the canal ran to Kremlin it’s only going to run to Ponty W now now most of that sort of hor has been

Built on there was a further 12 locks on this on this Branch across uh and stuff but there’s an aqueduct where it’s got to uh I’ve actually walked up bit with kids is quite nice that’s going to be restored uh up to sort of that point

There and then the canal is lost now if you look at this hopefully you can see this this is Waterway routs and it’s uh there we go that’s where I am now so this is Harry Roberts Bridge we’ve uh come down through here this is where they’re restoring at the moment and then

They’re doing it in sections I think between Bridges it takes them a few days to do each section and then on to 14 locks which has been done and then all of this South has been done done and a bit up to uh the edge of torane up here somewhere

Has been done as well this is a great little tool zoom out up onto the maps so if you look at sections like this you can already see just quite how much has been done on that first section this is very readed you know it’s impassible it’s not good for anything really not

Good for for wildlife and stuff cuz it’s completely blocked and choked up so they clear all that out there’ll be some reads left to grow along the banks probably not on this side eventually but definitely on that side all canals normally have the offs side being quite

Full of reads which gives places for the Ducks and stuff to to uh to sort of nest and and whatnot so here we are at the top of 14 locks so this whole section behind me is being cleared and right up to here now from what I gather below

Here is done so let’s go and have a look there’s also been work happening down here for the canal Center and stuff which you would have seen in again in previous videos it wasn’t quite finished when I was here last so we will kind of look at

That first here’s a lock look it’s in pretty good condition a lot of these locks are actually in good condition they’ve been partly restored and stuff they just need Gates they’re going to be sort of metal gates on here and what they’re doing is uh they have this

Design which is standard for across the whole the canal now and instead of making lock gates to suit they are instead cutting uh and and building to make the locks all the same size so they can literally use one design for the entire uh the entire Mon and BR canal and just

Fit these locks into everyone now the the metal locks last sort 10 times as long somewhere between 2 and 300 years and the wooden ones only last about 20 to 30 years and cost wise there sort £20,000 for a wooden gate and 30 ,000 sorry 60,000 for a metal gate so you

Know it makes sense this wasn’t here last time I was here this is the the path they were actually building uh they I filmed this bridge going in across here that was just on that’s like the foot path going past Kevin bridge and The Visitor Center is just over there

Which is got really good calf and stuff got the locks down here and then on this side you’ve got all the pounds uh the pounds do switch uh sides as you cross the canal further down yeah I’m starting to be able to see things already so if

You look you’re not going to see it on this camera but there’s a trees just in front of us there just gone past 19 uh there’s trees in front of the stair oh all of this actually this was well overgrown I believe so you can see where they’ve chopped the the

Overhanging branches off so they’re not destroying the trees they are literally cutting any bits back which are overhanging the canal and causing a nuisance so these locks are quite cool in the way that they’re they’re built yeah I couldn’t see any of this look they cleared all all the Ivy and stuff

All the overgrow how cool is that so yeah there’s a bottom lock they’re in sets of two apart from one set of three which are I’ll get to that’s the mystery lock which you’ll get to in a minute so you can see the lock comes in now they’re

Not a staircase lock a staircase lock would have this gate would basically be much bigger as tall as as this wall here and you would go in from one lock go up quite deep into it and then come in to the bottom of the next lock and then

Then then go up and you have no little bit between with these locks they have got this section in the middle I’m not really sure what the point of that is rather than having saving a gate basically you you’ve got to have this extra bit now this runs down here into

The pounds on the sides so it could be something to do with a better way to manage water cuz they would have you know saved that water then in the pound to go down for the next lock so weren’t losing as much water but it does uh does

Seem peculiar to have this cuz you wouldn’t get a boat in here I don’t know how long that is it’s it’s not um well these Wen 70t locks so they were 60 OD I think 66t so that was 17 and 18 that we were just in and we’re then into the

Pound at the bottom which was there was this pile wind there the last time I was here which I assumed was then clearing it may not have be actually uh it was November beginning of November so there was actually because of the very mild autumn we were having there was still

Some leaves on the trees up here but this is you know completely bare now so it’s sometimes a little bit hard to see what’s been done and what hasn’t but it does definitely look a lot clearer if you look on this side you can see the

Pounds and they drop down from pound to another pound kind of down there so they’re kind of all kind of intertwined in the in the side of the locks this is the The Spill wear here which is quite cool I’m I’m pretty sure this wasn’t as clear as this last

Time this is all freshly cut you can see it’s all freshly cut so actually that wood on the top there may have been you look they got a wooden top on these spillways here this wall is uh in quite good condition s locks a canal about 147 ft

In just 1,000 M that’s less than half a mile so it’s pretty quick uh Thomas dadford junr was the one who uh built these he was from a canal engineering family his dad was an engineer his brothers were both engineers and they had their own ways of building things

Now Thomas dadford he junior he had a bit of a patchy record on Canal building he was building The lster Canal at the same time as this and he was only devoting a small amount of time to that canal and he had a lot of issues and was

Was quite put down by uh John reny on that Canal but he liked to build his locks really close together so instead of having like a spread out flight of locks he would put as many locks as he could in one small space and have them

You know as a steep one so this type of lock that he’s done is is quite common for for his style of building so here’s a pound on the side look so that’s the two locks we’ve just been at and that’s where just above there was where we were

Looking at the pounds coming down now you had a pound on the side and then it went to another pound and this is where we are now but you’re now in to three locks in one now this is the mystery lock well the second one down is a

Mystery lock I discussed it on my last video but you couldn’t really see it very well uh it was quite overgrown it been cleared before wow oh yeah I can see it already that looks so good right so I’m going to save that description for down there let’s let’s go let’s let’s go

Right next to the lock now so I’m actually going to go above it now this is pretty cool cuz I couldn’t see any of this last time so lock coming down the gap between the locks as I keep saying the mystery lock and then you’ll see straight after that is another lock

So this was the only triple lock in the flight now people don’t really know the proper answer for this there’s a lot of theories been flying around but my thought is this now let’s get down there and see but what you can probably see is they different height so that is very

Shallow on that side and that’s not that’s uh that’s got a lot more depth to it and then you got the main lock through the middle so as you were coming through these locks you had you you would be coming down now you’re coming down Laden so you were

Full so you would have come into this lock you’d have let the water out of here and a boat that’s empty would be coming up so the boat that’s empty would sit into the lock would come up come up the first First Lock sit into the second

Lock you would empty down through that water would fill that lock up that boat that’s empty in the bottom would go across to the shallow side it’s unladen it’s got no weight into it so it sits a lot higher in the water the full boat would come down

Through here it would already be at the bottom and it would come into this lock and go across to that side it’s Laden it’s full it’s heavy it’s going to sit low in the water so that’s why you got to step down from that one to that one

Empty boat full boat that would then allow the empty boat to come out to the middle Go off into the next lock fill up that one would then come across the full boat drop into the main chamber and off it goes down through the locks not 100% sure that that is correct

But I think that’s a good very good example and it’s pretty cool to see now because like I said last time I was here you couldn’t see any of this it was so overgrown own so well done to Thomas brothers who have been clearing all this

They’ve done a great job uh it’s really cool to see this Heritage feature still here I really do hope these get returned to water there’s there’s a lot going on on this canal if you follow my social media Pages you’ll see just quite how much I have sort of fallen in love with

This canal it’s there so much here so if you follow the other arm up you got some really really pretty basins with loads of history tramways and stuff haven’t recorded that them yet but I’ve been taking my kids up uh on the weekends my wife works sometimes it’s really worth

Revisiting these things you know I didn’t think see that much down here I came to film further up I actually thought more had been done on the top section I knew they done loads down there and I thought I just pop down and see these locks here

The guys who were working at the top told me that you know some clearance have been done down here but I was not expecting to see that lock in such Glory as it is there uh you can also see you couldn’t see any of this last time you got the pounds over

The sides there so this is all all this Bramble has been cleared out of here which allows the trust to sort of come in and manage it better you got another pound down here you got another two locks at the bottom here this is the bottom of the flight

And then you go off around the corner under the motorway and then you’re off to the junction then for uh Newport basically so you can go up then the other arm which we will cover in a few I promise it’s a beautiful canal and then another bit where it dropped off to the

Docks at Newport that’s got quite a fascinating history in itself it changed a few times over the years it’s not going to go into Newport like it did but you know hopefully one day it will connect back to the river usk and this will be technically connected back to

The network you’re going to have to go down the seven to to get to it but you kind of do for some other canals anyway so this doesn’t seem to have had as much done here you can see just kind of how overgrown it was this is what all the

Locks were like all the way through they had a lot of sort of tree growth and you know small trees growing up through a lot of Bramble a lot of Ivy a lot of stuff like that lot of stuff growing out the sides of the locks you know really

Blocking it off it’s amazing to see just how good that is there so thanks for watching have a great Day