Bring back the dredging?!

[simon]

Hey all,
With all the rain we've had over the past month, (122.6mm - thanks www.staffordweather.co.uk) and the rise and flooding of the river sow I've been thinking of something my grandad has said to me.

He says that the river used to be dredged, yearly I think, and would never flood like it does now.

Can anyone shed some light on this fact, and if it's true why isn't it done anymore?

 

[age'd parent]

Yes the river used to be dredged regularly, when I was a young man going fishing, on the sow opposite the gas works (now Sainburies car park) the far bank was raised by about 4 foot by the mud they dragged out every time, this was done all the way from sandy bottoms (about Creswell area) to the bridge opposite the station.
My mates and I collected old bottles we found in the mud that had been thrown in the river from the pub called The new inn, and fresh water mussel shells.
When the town park was altered it was designed to make a buffer zone for the water that sometimes came into town, a sort of artificial flood plain, seems to have worked!

 

[Doctor]

Barges also use the Sow from the canal up to the old Sainsbury's (transporting salt I think) so it was far more neccessary to keep the channel clear in those days.

 

[gon2seed]

Yep! the two old geezers are right, and I should know about canalisation, barges, pot, redlight districts etc, as I am in The Netherlands with The Family Seed, on the annual jolly.

Nice place nice people, bit like The 'Ford with condoms, pot and windmills, .... sh*t it's exactly like Stafford, only flatter.

River used to be dredged, but no amount of dredging will keep the river within its banks when you have record levels of rainfall! I concur with age'd parent (love the new avatar btw) I think the flood defences worked quite well, the park acting as a flood relief. And of course the town used to flood, even when dredged, spectacularly on occaision, plenty of piccies around from 1946/7 when the centre of town was a canoeists delight!

I type from the excellent library in the small town of Wassenaar 35K from Hamster Jam, as seedling minor calls it. Type "Duinrell Holland" in to Google and you'll see what the seedlings are enjoying, its not the usual culture fest of Europe that we usually indulge the poor little devils in, but what the hell, they seem to be enjoying it! Hamster Jam was great, and the Anne Frank Museum was so very moving, but we were runniing out of ways to explain phalluses, reefers, dildos, and leather underwear by the end of the day, unabashed we will venture back to that debauched city before the holiday is ended on 9th August, its too good to miss, especially as a family ticket on ARRIVA (yes really!) buses costs us 10 Euro's for the whole family return!

I may not be online for some time on my return, as one of the seedlings has infected the pc with a very nasty trojan, that was quarentined, but has left the pc all but useless.

I'll catch up with you all soon, ta ra!

 

[cookie_monster]

Nice place nice people, bit like The 'Ford with condoms, pot and windmills, .... sh*t it's exactly like Stafford, only flatter.

they even have an alton towers!

have a fab holiday seed, hope mrs seed and the seedlings have a good time too.


x

 

[Doctor]

Yep! the two old geezers are right,

My bit of info was from hear say - I was not present, I was probably only a gleam in my grandparents eye, thanks!

 

[gon2seed]

Nice place nice people, bit like The 'Ford with condoms, pot and windmills, .... sh*t it's exactly like Stafford, only flatter.

they even have an alton towers!

have a fab holiday seed, hope mrs seed and the seedlings have a good time too.


x

Had a really fab time thanks Cookie, and on the way back from Harwich I was listening, during the wee small hours, to a discusiion about dredging on Radio 5.

It seems that research has shown that dredging does not always prevent flooding, and that the NRA (National Rivers Authority) carry it out where it is succesful, and indeed spend many millions a year doing it. Rather understandably, where it is unlikely to be helpful they do not!

On another watery theme it seems that some fish have been left high, dry, and dead! in the area when the flood waters receeded! What with angling for fresh water fish to eat, becoming more common due to the influx of Eastern European migrant workers, (so the papers say!) its not a good time to be a fish.