Tag: spillway

#365daysofbiking Going with the flow:

Sunday March 14th 2021 – An errand over to Burntwood meant crossing Chasewater dam for a second day running. I note that the water level in the Nine-Foot pool is still high and overflowing into the spillway.

With the lack of boat traffic on the canals due to lockdown, there has not been the demand for water in the canals, and Chasewater has filled and been in overflow for most of the last twelve months. Over winter particularly, through very wet weather, releasing water into the canal to flood the upper Tame overflows would be problematic, so the excess has been steadily feeding the alternative path via the spillway to the Crane Brook, to some local consternation.

An odd effect of the pandemic, it’s worth remembering that when water is released in large volumes it doesn’t just affect us locally, but all the way down the drainage system.

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#365daysofbiking Risen again

December 25th – At Chasewater, I noticed how close to overtopping the weir the reservoir is again, despite the outflow valve to the spillway being open.

That’s a remarkable indication of the state of the recent weather: Naturally, more water is flowing in to the pool than is flowing out. And that’s a considerable amount.

You know what I want for Christmas? A dry spell.

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#365daysofbiking So close

November 10th – Up at Chasewater to hopefully catch the beautiful sunset that never happened, it was clear the reservoir would overtop the weir this week and water would once more flow out into the spillway and Crane Brook, for the first time in a couple of years.

The authorities seem to like to let the lake fill completely every winter now – something that rarely happened previously, presumably to stress test the dam after work to strengthen it a decade ago.

Despite the wind the Nine-Foot pool was glass still and early quiet as dusk fell, maybe in anticipation of the moment when the water finally crossed over…

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#365daysofbiking Hello ladies

April 28th – A day marred by a bad stomach so I busied myself with other things and headed out late in the afternoon for a circuit of Chasewater, Burntwood, Wall and Stonnall.

At Chasewater, it seems the small group of deer who have been hanging around the spillway heath at Anglesey Basin are still there.

The fece doesn’t trouble them, they just hop over as required.

Odd too see people walking past without stopping – deer used to be a spectacle here but it seems now they’re as familiar as the cattle on the north shore.

I still can’t quite believe they’re here.

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#365daysofbiking Graceful

March 31st – Up to Chasewater on an evening ride. I’d been resting and didn’t feel like going far – particularly as it was bitterly cold, even in the sporadic sun patches.

I noticed this small heard of 5 deer on the opposite side of the canal from Anglesey Wharf, where they’d been recorded swimming a few days previously. These deer love water, or so it would seem.

They were quite tolerant of my company, unusually enough, and even walked towards me, the better I guess to check me out for maybe a treat or two (Sorry ladies I had nothing).

Catching them jumping forward and back over the fence was a real treat. For such large animals they are so very graceful.

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March 17th – I’ll be honest here, I can only fit ten pictures in a post so I include two more shots of the deer. But the other two are of the spillway at Chasewater, fulfilling it’s purpose. With the main reservoir overflowing with rain and meltwater, the surplus has formed a stead river along the spillway and ins flowing into the 1980s era storm drain under the Victorian brick-lined overflow. The new system conducts the flow into the crane brook, a tributary of the Footherley/Black/Bourne Brook, itself a feeder of the Tame. 

The storm system is documented in this post on my main blog here.

It will be interesting to see how long this situation is allowed to continue, as the reservoir owners Staffordshire County Council are currently at odds with the Canal and River Trust, who expect access to the water it contains for maintaining the level of the local canals. 

I must try and get to the Crane Brook downstream and see what the flow is like before it stops.

February 26th – The water level at Chasewater is lower than I’ve seen it for a while. Interestingly, rather than open the valves fully, there’s a good flow into the canal, and the balancing culvert between the Nine-Foot pool and Spillway has been opened, allowing a steady stream of water to flow into the Crane Brook via the drain system under the canal.

I understand why the level is being dropped – with the dam being permeable, if installing drains you want the installation to be as dry as possible – but I’m puzzled by the method. It has, however, been convention since the original dam works to allow the reservoir to overflow every spring, so perhaps this is to irrigate the spillway marsh as it would be normally.

Interesting too to see the white scale around the lowered waterline. It that salt, or something else?

July 9th – Also being reclaimed by nature and teeming with flowers is the Victorian brick lined spillway at Chasewater, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The flowers and plants – including heathers, mustards, spotted orchids and others – are gradually overcoming the masonry and are beautiful. But this is also industrial history. 

Should it be cleared, even though it’s unused, to preserve it? Or just left to decay, beautifully? I can’t decide.

April 23rd – I popped out late afternoon – it was very cold with a lazy, biting wind that instead of going around you, just went straight through. It was periodically sunny, but with remarkably dark, threatening skies. I headed for Chasewater and noted that the willows were coming into leaf – always a good sign – and that the valve from Chasewater had now been opened and the water level had started to drop. This seems to be coinciding with the reintroduction of cattle onto the spillway heath, so I guess the authorities want that area to dry out in readiness.

I interrupted a small drama as I crossed Catshill Junction on my  way back to Brownhills – the puss clearly fancied a little duck for supper, but was clearly out of luck – but if looks could kill… 

March 10th – For the first time in what I think must be two years, Chasewater is overflowing into the spillway again. That means it’s as full as it can now possibly get. From an environmental point of view, this is interesting, as during the wet winter the lake has filled from it’s tributaries, and held back their flow from the rivers Trent and Tame where they would otherwise end up – now the overspill will got into the Crane Brook, and flow several miles downstream to the Tame at Tamworth.

At the moment, the flow is fairly slight, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the next few days.

It’s something to note that the water is overtopping the weir fairly evenly, which is quite a testament to the engineers who constructed it: the horizontal looks just about spot on!