River Tees - Middleton in Teesdale to Barnard Castle

[Mark R]

Read full River Guide

[steddyteddy]

Hi,
Does anyone know the access situation on the Cotherstone to Barney stretch?
I have looked on the BCU web site and can only find an officer for the lower stretches.
Eddy

[ansogura]

We paddled this stretch on Friday 30th. Sept. 2011 in open boats. Although the level was low (0.59 on the guage at Barnard Castle) we had an excellent trip. Encountered no fishermen and just a few walkers out enjoying the glorious weather. As far as I know there are no access problems on this stretch.

[markypea]

The Environment agency are carrying out work on the weir at Barnard Castle the river right side will be repaired this year May to September,river left May to September 2013 there will be barriers in place while the work is being carried out BE AWARE.

[geyrfugl]

There's a letter to Kevin East of the BCU concerning this work, which is at

http://www.canoenortheast.org.uk/imagem ... 0Works.pdf

which unfortunately doesn't give a lot of info, such as whether the get-out at the confluence of Deepdale Beck will be
accessible during the south-side work in 2012. The letter refers to an attached plan, but as far as I can see, BCU
haven't put that on the website. There was no sign of the work starting on May 13th... I couldn't see
any evidence for the damage or dangerous currents alluded to in the letter, either (level was 0.69m)

It would have been good if we had heard about this early enough to get someone in BCU to make representations
for an easier portage route on river right, rather than traipsing right round the housing estate... Maybe when they
rebuild the fish ladder in 2013 they could be persuaded to make an easier put-in river left below it. Currently it's
easy for kayaks and small open boats to run the fishladder when the level is too high for the main weir, but as we
found on Sunday, there's no way big open boats fit with the current design, and nowhere you can actually get back
on the water below the weir river left.

Andy

[geyrfugl]

OK, the plan alluded to is here:

http://www.canoenortheast.org.uk/imagem ... 20plan.pdf

but it doesn't give much useful info - mainly being concerned about footpath closures
and access. It looks as though inspection/portage could be a problem during the work,
certainly on river left...

I've emailed the responsible EA person to ask for more info and to suggest that she arranges
that the EA post updates to this thread.

Andy

[geyrfugl]

Jenny Evans of the EA is being very helpful and communicative. We will be arranging a
site visit once the work has started, and trying to ensure that there is minimal risk
and inconvenience for paddlers. It looks as though this year disruption will be minimal,
as the left bank will remain accessible for portage or inspection, though levels and
flows may be a bit higher than you'd expect. As levels are often low in the summer,
this is likely to be a benefit...

Next year, the fish ladder will get removed completely and replaced with something
more fish-friendly next to the central walls. I think this is unlikely to provide a wet-
weather descent route for canoeists, but may enable access to the left bank below the
weir to get a bit easier for portage and putting back on. I'll have a better idea after the
site meeting.

The gauge calibrations for the weir will obviously change during the work, so don't
think "Oh, 1 metre, that's going to make Abbey quite big" - I'll try to see if we can get
some translations from gauge levels during the work with all the flow diverted to the
left half of the weir, to what the levels would have been with the present geometry...

Andy

[Big Henry]

7th June - spoke to the builders today who said that they have started building an access road from the nearby road which will cross over Deepdale Beck and run along the side of the river (actually in the river against the wall) which will take about 2 weeks (my guess: approx w/e 22nd June) then they will sandbag the river to keep it off the right hand side, leaving it to dry out for about 2 weeks (my guess: approx w/e 7th July) before starting to break it up, then replacing it. I was told there would be no disruption (other than increased flow from the entire river now flowing over only half the weir) to the opposite half of the river, either this year or on the opposite side next year.

[tape34]

NOV 2012 BARNARD CASTLE WEIR IS NOW VERY DANGEROUS

We've paddled past this ongoing work in recent weeks and there hasn't been a problem. Yesterday it was all different. The river right flow and the centre slot are completely blocked off so now all the water goes river left.

The change in flow has made the weir very dangerous with a big tow back even at low river levels.

We did paddle extreme left down the fish pass but this is affected too.
Pete Ball

[Big Henry]

Looks like there's a nasty tow-back at the weir at Barny now that the work is under way, even the pass on river left looks dodgy. Took these on Wednesday:And for reference, this was the level at the County Bridge at the time:Think I'd suggest avoiding it while the work is going on, but you know best.

[ken hughes]

Even at low levels the weir is pretty sticky with this work going on. Best avoided as a side-surf could take some time perhaps.

Cheers,

Ken
www.kenhughescourses.com

[geyrfugl]

Pete Ball and myself had a site meeting with Jenny Evans and the chap in charge at the weir, a week or two after the full flow started going over the left hand side only. Their estimate was that the level above the weir was increased by roughly 20 cm. The online gauge reading, of course, reflects the new level, so if you're used to the calibrations for running the river above and below the weir you'll find the gauge overestimating the level everywhere else. However, as a guide to the water going over the weir it is still exactly right. If you were happy running the weir (or the fish ladder) at a particular level before, then you'll find it the same now at the same gauge reading.

As a result of the meeting, EA improved the signage, which is intended to alert people running the river who aren't aware of the work and would be expecting the flow over the weir to be consistent with levels they've experienced paddling down from Cotherstone.

I showed the engineer photos of Glissieres on French rivers to show how they have provided safe routes for boats over some very chunky weirs, and he seemed very interested. It is the intention to remove the existing fish ladder on the left, and replace it with something in the centre of the river which they believe will be more usable by paddlers - and which will project downstream further than the main stopper. It does seem that the main weir face will end in an anti-scour feature sunk deeply in the river bed, but they believed that this would not create any more of a stopper than at present at normal levels as the ledge would be well below the surface.

They were sympathetic to our suggestion that something could be done to make the portage shorter by providing access to a launch point below the weir river left but reckoned they'd need to do a risk assessment for making access to the general public easier (at the moment, they have to climb a fence - a major impediment, obviously:-) I suggested that paddlers wouldn't mind climbing a fence, but what was really needed was somewhere flat to get back into a boat to seal launch safely away from the stopper. We did point out that the major issue with portage was with big open boats which were a pain to carry all the way round the road at present and that these would need more space to put back on. They were at the stage of needing to do a structural assessment of the left bank wall (where the fish ladder is) as this was showing signs of cracking. If this needs to be rebuilt anyway, designing new structure to facilitate portage might well be possible at no significant extra expense.

Overall, we came away with a very positive impression and feel that they are trying quite hard to minimise the dangers to paddlers during the work and hopefully will try to be helpful in the design of the second stage. However, we were aware that the wet summer has delayed them a lot, extra infrastructure had to be built even to gain access to the part of the weir they are rebuilding initially and that consequently they are going to be way over budget so won't really be able to make proposals that would add to the cost of the project.

Andy

[Keiran watson]

SUBMERGED STRAINER/TREE/BRANCH

Ran the racecourse today 19th Feb in low water conditions, there's a tree or at least a huge branch located on the final rock in the middle of the river at the end of the racecourse, spent sometime trying to remove using various pulleys etc: a 6-1 wouldn't budge it !!
However as much as possible approx a 6ft branch was cut free with a saw and removed.


Please be aware this a serious hazard to any potential swimmers at the bottom !!!

[geyrfugl]

Water is now flowing over the full width of the weir at Barney again, and the gauge readings will be comparable with before the work. There's more info and some pictures on this thread: http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/foru ... 7&p=732279