The Off-Side Rule
As we are waiting for a friend to call this morning I took a stroll down to the recycling bins half way down Widcombe (Bath) Locks.
I was pleased to see that BW's original proposal to spend £100k+ on a sculpture to commemorate the canal's 200th birthday, and which was shouted down in the meeting in Bath, did not go ahead.

Instead we have this rather tasteful sundial which is actually operable today

When we ascended these locks on Thursday a squad of men were trimming up the grass edges around the locks, thus demonstrating the current BW ethos - appearance is all.



They could have been better employed repairing the lock gates to save water and improve safety.


Or even repairing the paddle on this lock which they have covered with netting.  You cannot mend a broken arm with a sticking plaster!  The water bubling up in the lock is coming through the sluice which the broken paddle is meant to control. The lock is now half full (20,000 gals) and all paddles are "shut"

At the deep lock (19'5" and the second deepest in the country) someone has damaged one gate and it is inoperable.
As the towpath changes sides here identifying the gate by reference to the towpath is pointless as there is a towpath both sides.  And changing the references is even more pointless.