Rich Hawkins has taken over as the new Abingdon lock keeper, and will be moving into the lock house at the start of September. He has previously served as a relief lock keeper on the River Thames for five or six years.

It sounds as though he has already been in charge at Abingdon since last winter when the River Thames had strong flows and was close to flooding on two or three occasions, and when Abingdon’s lock chamber was relined.

He writes an occasional column called ‘Go with the flow’ in the Abingdon Herald – as one of the new community writers.

There could be excitement ahead as the lock gates are to be refurbished this coming winter. Then Abingdon Hydro could build some electricity generating turbines.

The first boat came through the refurbished Abingdon Lock chamber on 22nd March, but the boating season only really took off last weekend as the weather warmed a little, and – miracle of miracles – the sun came out.

The refurbishment involved filling in cracks and hollows, relining the chamber walls with concrete, and  installing new rubbing timbers to stop boats and walls damaging each other. Unfortunately for the contractors it was one of the wettest winters for a while, so they had to empty it of fish on more than one occasion.