Works entailed the rebuilding of a 3m length of side pond wall to address structural failure caused by water coming from a leak in the side pond above resulting in a channel running underneath the wall and its subsequent cracking. The watching brief involved the observation of the partial dismantling by hand of the western end of the side pond wall by Canal & River Trust employees under the supervision of an experienced professional archaeologist and the subsequent recording of the exposed embankment. As anticipated, the watching brief on the dismantling of a section of a modern retaining wall located above the side pond adjacent to Lock 14 provided no evidence for earlier phases of the retaining wall or embankment, only revealing constructional elements associated with construction of the 2004 wall.
Roger Kipling (Sun,) studied this question.