We walked up to the locks and looked in at the Locks Cafe. It was very busy which for a January winter's weekend must bode well for their business.
The flight was closed for maintenance with the lock pound adjacent to the depot (which must be handy) drained. As always, looking at drained pounds gives you a new perspective. I don't know what job is being carried out but the lock island looks in poor condition. Some stop planks were in use. Unusually they were aluminium.
Maintenance at Hatton Locks
The ground paddles on the improved Grand Union locks were visible. In a drained state their large size was clearly visible.
Grand Union improved (c. 1936) ground paddles
The remains of one of the single locks, that are now used as weirs, was clearly visible. Their ground paddles were obviously a lot smaller.
The remains of an original single locks now used as an oversplill weir - lots of silt
I also noted that they were adding fillets between the lock beams and the gates. I presume that this is a safety measure to stop boats getting hung up when locks are drained.
Safety Fillet
