Barnt Green Sailing Club - Water Level Report...

New pictures of the lake, fuller than full, can be seen here

The picture above shows the lake when full,covering eighty acres.  Scroll down to see the recorded levels list.

After a long spell with the valve open for B.W. maintenance of the canal reasons, we are advised that it is now closed again, as of @ 21/11/2007.

British Waterways have stated that they might close the valve on Wednesday, 31st Oct.  Watch this space !

28th October and the valve is open, only 6 inches of water covering perch bank, Please BW, close the valve!

Posted 28/9. The culvert repairs are now finished and the valve has at long last been closed, we can expect to see rising levels again soon, sorry to suggest this but we need rain !  There is about a foot or so covering Perch Bank, take care..... 

British Waterways staff commented recently that they were drawing down so much water to replenish water lost due to a repair incident on the Grand Union Canal.  (This is unconfirmed). This page now includes information on the progress of repairs to a damaged culvert that has significance to the sailing club as it is the reason why the valve has been opened to lower the level.

On 4th Sept. Stuart Howe had a look at the culvert repair and reported  "They (B.W.) are repairing the brickwork and say it should last for approximately five years. It will then need a new plastic liner pipe to be fitted. They cannot do it now because it is too costly and they have no budget for it. I took a number of photo graphs which I will send you later".  (Photo's yet to be inserted. Admin.)

As of 29th August 2007, British Waterways engineers have started repairs to the damaged culvert situated below the Upper Bittell overflow spillway.  Below we see Commodore Stuart Howe, committee members Geoff Nancarrow and Nick Day together with Hon. Secretary Chris Pack, inspecting the work carried out so far.  Picture taken by Robin Brown on his phone camera. Date 2nd September 2007.

This work has warranted British Waterways need to keep the level below full as it is important that no water runs through during reconstruction. We will report here when the job is finished. Below the extent of the damage can be clearly seen with the Victorian brick culvert completely collapsed and a concrete base, newly constructed, showing the beginning of the repair process.  The bore of the "pipe" is about two feet.  

Our lake, Upper Bittell Reservoir, is a feeder for the Birmingham - Worcester canal and the water is effectively 'owned' by British Waterways.  The sailing club has right of use of it while it is there, however, a long, hot summer will inevitably result in a lowering of the level.

View across the lake towards 'Perch Bank' when the level was at 2.4 metres down.

We plan to keep members posted on the situation via this page and can assure you that our Keeper is monitoring the situation daily and is in regular contact with British Waterways staff to try and stem the flow. Bob Suggitt calls at the club regularly to observe the level and will telephone any noticable changes to Web Admin. 

Above, this picture by Chris Stringfellow was taken on 14th January 2007 during the snowflake races, the lake was less than one metre below full.

The latest  recorded level is:-

Amount in metres below full.    Date.

+.1                             16/3/2008        "I've never seen the lake so full, washing over the banks"  (Admin.)

O                                                 8/2/2008        Bob took great delight in phoning to say "We're full" !

.1                                                3/2/2008        Checked by Robin on a very windy Sunday.

.3                                              20/1/2008        Observed after racing, Chris took water temp. too, it was 6 degrees.

.4                                              18/1/2008        Phoned in by Bob "not far to go now!"

.7                                              14/1/2008        Phoned in by Bob (Higher than this time last year !)

1.05                                          8/01/2008       Reported by Bob

1.3                                           16/12/2007       Checked by Bob, with thanks. 

1.4                                             9/12/2007       Reported by Bob, depth over perch bank now @ 90 cms.

1.5                                             2/12/2007       Estimated, will check again on 9th.

1.7                                           22/11/2007       Reported by Bob, thanks for the message.

2.0                                           28/10/2007       Observed by Robin.

1.7                                             27/9/2007       Reported by Bob Suggitt, thanks for the message.

1.5                                             16/9/2007       Estimated, dropped rapidly in last two weeks !

.9                                                 2/9/2007        Observed by Stuart, Chris, Geoff, Nick and Robin, falling more quickly ! 

.35 approx.                              29/8/2007       Estimated, to be confirmed.

Zero                                           22/7/2007       Following rainy Friday, 20th July, lake is overflowing by 10cms

.28                                             18/7/2007       Valve opened by British Waterways to prepare for culvert repair

Zero                                           16/6/2007       Cofton Lake is weiring and Upper Bittell is full, reported by Gordon B.

.08                                             16/5/2007        Checked by Bob

.35 approx.                              10/5/2007        Estimated by Robin, Bob I need a reading !

Zero                                            4/3/2007         Advised by email from Tim Davies, with thanks to all contributors

.25                                             22/2/2007         Measured by Robin, looking almost full, one jetty under water !

.45                                             16/2/2007         Advised by Bob, melted snow has helped bring level up rapidly

.75                                             28/1/2007         Reported by Bob, observed by Robin, not far to go now !

.85                                             18/1/2007         Checked by Bob on Big Wind Day '07, not a good day for sailing!

1.0                                             11/1/2007         Bob has commented that even long foils should clear perch bank now!

1.2                                               7/1/2007         Notified by Bob after sailing in first snowflake races

1.35                                             1/1/2007         Checked by Bob (The long foil on his Lark still just catches perch bank)

Click HERE to view photographs showing the lake at various levels between 1934 and 2006

and HERE to view a second page with the latest 2008 images and a super picture from 1934

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