A very good visit by a group of members. If the River Severn was the M5 of the early Industrial Revolution then Diglis Island provided a dual carriageway lock by-pass of the weir. It also housed a workshop which created the materials for constructing and maintaining locks throughout the Midlands. This involved working with seriously heavy timbers, with a lot of hard physical labour and applied skill. The restored workshops with their tools and machinery tell the story, the dual locks at Diglis being one of the products. As a bonus we saw the fish pass, a cleverly constructed series of chambers on the other side of the weir which enables fish to swim upstream, bypassing the weir which has blocked their way for two centuries. Go down into the viewing chamber below water level and see the fish. Not many as yet (we saw two), but it will take time for a whole new ecosystem to be recreated. How do the fish know that they have to keep left in the river to make use of the pass? By creating an area or relatively calm water in front of the pass and let the fish follow the line of least resistance. Simple but clever.
Supporting the creation of a great environment for Malvern
