07 September 2018


By Stroud’s thriving textiles industry

by: David M.

During the summer the Boat Landing Stages team has been busy between Lodgemore Bridge and Wallbridge Lower lock.  These locations are challenging with the towpath about 1.5m above water level, and a steep bank meaning that the landing stage has to be cut into the bank.  To retain the towpath, steel plates are inserted between the rear piles and the bank, bolted to the piles, and the narrow gap backfilled.

Economical as ever, we scrounge spare steel where we can.  The rusty old backing plates for Lodgemore East were wizzed off with a large wire cup brush (non-trivial work) and given a couple of coats of bitumen before riding the trailer to Lodgemore.  It’s a fair haul from the bridge to this particular stage, the upstream location chosen to avoid scour from the entering Painswick Stream eventually undermining the landing stage.  And the boaters will probably appreciate the exercise.

The steel cross-pieces seen here are upside down temporarily while they act as a spacer for the front pile to locate accurately as it tries to slide down the bank underwater.  Often we use a strop to “tourniquet” the outer pile to the inner one as we push it in.

Then the five wooden frames are fitted, bolted together and bolted to the piles.  The open fronts of the piles allow us to fit the Armco barrier at exactly the right height to overlap the surface topping.


The Wallbridge Lower landing stage is by the stone portal opposite Homebase.  Once again we dug the bank out with the clamshell grab, the debris showing signs of the industrial past of this area.  This time the steel backing sheets were new, easier to get to site via the road by the towpath, but no easier to lift and drop into place behind the piles.

This design of landing stage includes a lower section for canoeists to use to portage around locks, at the far end in this view.  The steel plate lying on the deck was cut diagonally in two, one part now supporting the bank by steps built at the near end, and the other supporting the bank at the far end.  By now you get the idea, and here is a photo of the A Team, well most of them as it’s a devil to get them all to turn up for team photos!