Restoration of the by-wash at Haverholme was started in during a Work Camp in June 2000 by Waterway Recovery Group. The original intention for the camp was to carry out some work at Cogglesford but there was too much water to work in the lock chamber so the efforts for the week were diverted to Haverholme.
The lock by-wash was so overgrown it was barely visible so initially there was a great deal of work cutting down trees that had started growing both in the channel and the walls of the structure. However, by the end of the week, all the trees, shrubs, nettles and ivy had been cleared from the by-wash along with a considerable amount of silt that had accumulated on its invert. This exposed the original structure which consisted of brick walls with a stone floor.
WRG returned the following year, July 2001, to cast a new concrete floor to the by-wash and to rebuild the wall on the south side of the structure. The bottom part of the stepped north wall was also completed during the work camp.
The 2003 Work Camp saw WRG return to complete the north wall of the by-wash and to build a new pedestrian bridge over the structure.
The top part of the by-wash has not yet been completed because the weir crest had to be designed to cope with the maximum flow rate of the Slea in flood. The problem there was that there were no agreed figures for a maximum flow and without these a design could not be finalised. It has taken us some years to agree a figure for the flow rate with the Environment Agency but happily that has now been achieved and a design drawn up.
It’s hoped that work can be restarted to complete the by-wash before too long.