Hopes are raised that it might get easier for canal boats to cruise the River Dee through Chester.
Narrowboat crossing the tidal weir in Chester
Getting on to the River Dee currently involves a tricky crossing of a weir, only possible by boats with a limited draught at high tide. A lock would allow both canal and sea-going boats access to Chester’s already popular Dee waterfront and to navigate upriver for 12 miles to Farndon Bridge. There is a potential site for a lock to be built, in the old mill race at the south end of Chester Weir.
Lobbying by the Canal & River Trust, IWA Chester & District Branch and the Chester Canal Heritage Trust have ensured the inclusion of a waterway strategy in Chester’s new ‘One City Plan’; prepared by Chester Renaissance and the Cheshire West and Chester councils.
The strategy is a plan to increase visitor numbers from boaters and other users to destinations on the Shropshire Union Canal and the River Dee, to support waterside regeneration and to provide additional business opportunities. A key to this is the restoration of navigation through the Dee Branch of the canal on to the tidal Dee below Chester Weir, plus the bigger ambition of construction of a lock in that weir.
These are not new ideas. Logical proposals for a lock in the weir have been made a number of times before and some years ago there was an architect’s plan published for a complete redevelopment of Chester’s tidal Dee frontage downstream of the weir and even for another weir and lock further down towards the estuary. However, the waterway groups now think that the time is right to make some progress and a start-point should be a feasibility study of the technical issues involved together with a cost-benefit analysis of the returns from such a project.
Thanks to Harry Arnold and Waterways Images for information and image.
