Red boards on the Thames - again!
We visited Hurley on Saturday for a wedding - not by boat. With all the extensive flooding along the Thames Valley I was interested to see how the lock and weir were coping, so just after lunch I took a walk from The Olde Bell down to the river.
Old Bell Hurley
We know Hurley quite well since Maggie and I were stuck here during a boating holiday with my parents in the late 1960s. My family had hired a cabin cruiser from Maid Line in Thames Ditton but the river was in spate and we spent most of the week moored up just below the lock at Hurley unable to proceed any further. I remember that a trip to Marlow by bus was one of the excitements of the holiday!
On Saturday the small side streams leading up to the lock were running fiercely but the river had not yet burst its banks.
Hurley Lock - looking deceptively calm
Hurley Lock landing underwater
The water levels at the lock during our stay in the 1960s were nowhere near those I found on Saturday. The water level below the lock was very high and the lock landing where we moored for several days during our enforced stay was completely underwater.
However, the most impressive flows on Saturday were by the weir stream. The channel was full to bursting and the levels up and downstream of the weir looked similar!
Hurley weir under pressure!
I couldn't resist making a video of the flow. As you will see the speed of the water is dramatic.
