Dredging the Basingstoke Canal at Fleet
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Dredging the Basingstoke Canal at Fleet by Chris Allen as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Dredging the Basingstoke Canal at Fleet
Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 8 Feb 1992
The canal was still being restored and dredging was being performed by the Grafton grab dumb dredger Perseverance - now in the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum. This shows the steam operated grab depositing spoil in the barge for disposal. The hand winches on the deck of the dredger are used to position it with wire ropes passing to anchor points on the bank. The crane/grab was driven in a very sporting manner with more than one action occurring at the same time (the driver would probably have made an helicopter pilot). I saw this in action twice and it was always a real spectacle. Sadly, it has never operated at Ellesmere Port as far as I know.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.276066
Longitude
-0.830831
