Cheshire Locks News – 2024

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2024 Working Parties
(Note that clicking on a small picture will show that picture larger)
(All photos © John & Sandra Lawson, unless otherwise shown)

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Thursday 18th January – Our first work-party of 2024 had to be cancelled because of bad weather.

Thursday 15th February – Also cancelled because of bad weather.

Thursday 21st March – Five of us attended Lock 53 this month. As you can probably guess, the weather intervened yet again. However, we soldiered on and were able to carry out prep work which will hopefully allow us to make good progress next time out. We eventually abandoned ship at about 13.00 (and, of course, it brightened up about an hour later!).

Thursday 18th April –   Finally, after so many false starts, five of us managed to get some painting done at Lock 53. Thanks to the prep work done on our previous outing, we were able to start applying paint almost immediately. Good progress was made on Hammerite  painting of the metal fence adjacent to Lock 53 and applying Sadolin to the woodwork of the Lock itself. We finished half an hour early due to inevitable incoming rain but we should be able to complete both next time out. Well done everybody.

Thursday 16th May –   Despite the impending rain we managed to get a couple of hours work done before we had to abandon site. The remaining lock woodwork was painted, as were the wooden bollards. The long metal fence adjacent to Lock 53 was finally completed, and some work was done on the lock bridge railings.

Thursday 20th June – At long last, we have finished our work at Lock 53. The five of us who were able to attend took advantage of the beautiful weather to prep and apply paint to the remaining section of the surrounding metal fence, plus touching up and applying second coats to areas we’d worked on previously. I think the result is a testament to the perseverance and hard work the CLWP have put in over the last few months. So thanks to one and all who contributed over that time. Here are some pictures of the finished lock (including one of the railings where the steel lock used to be). 

Thursday 28th July – A glorious Summer’s day as we started work on lock 64.  All the white wood was painted, as was most of the black wood (although we ran out of black paint before finishing). Both lock ladders were also painted. Here are 2 pictures of the gates before and after our work. 

See Diary for news of next planned working party

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Previous year (2023) Cheshire Locks Index