Richard’s Wey September 2014

Published on: 29 Sep, 2014
Updated on: 29 Sep, 2014

Looking upstream from Stoke Mill. One of the posters we placed as part of the “Airing the Archives” event which saw old pictures put up all along the navigation at the point they were originally taken.

The latest of our riverbank tales from the local Stoke lengthsman Richard Cant

With the grass growth finally seeming to slow down, a quick once-over the locksides with the pedestrian mower to trim off the straggly seed heads is all they needed during late summer.

This have me a chance to get on with some of the less regular vegetation management such as hedge trimming the back edge of the towpath and removing low hanging branches from the river and towpath.

This is especially important on the river to make sure that sight lines around sharp bends are clear for boaters, although cutting off branches from a moving boat isn’t the easiest of tasks so I was very happy to have the help of my volunteers!

If you have seen me out and about in a white paper suit, wellies and rubber gloves recently, don’t be alarmed, it’s just me treating the invasive plant Japanese knotweed.

This non-native plant is a real menace and can be very difficult to get rid of once it’s established. Thankfully we only have a small number of outbreaks along the navigations and over the last three years I have been carrying out a treatment programme to try and eradicate it.

I am pleased to say that it does seem to be working as some of the previously treated sites now have no signs of regrowth, and one of our biggest outbreaks has been reduced by 90% after just one treatment. This is by no means a quick fix and we will continue to monitor these sites for years to come, as well as keeping our eyes peeled for any new siting of this invasive plant.

As is traditional, the heavens opened on August bank holiday Monday, followed by another torrential day of rain on the Tuesday. With over two inches of rain falling over the two days it was a very busy time operating the weirs to control the water levels, especially as during one cloud burst the water runoff from Guildford meant that you could almost watch the river levels rising!

Unfortunately for those out boating at the time the Stoke and Triggs lengths of the navigation had to be closed on the Tuesday (due to fast river flows) so we had to ask the boaters to moor up and wait for flow rates to reduce to a safe level.

In this situation we do all we can to keep people informed and safe and with six boats waiting at Stoke Lock and four boats waiting at Bowers Lock I spent my time in between weir movements passing out maps of the local area and advising people of the nearest pubs. Thankfully by operating the weirs overnight we were able to re-open on Wednesday morning and send the boaters on their way to enjoy the rest of their holiday.

Richard Cant

Tel: 07786 703832

richard.cant@nationaltrust.org.uk

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