WhiteWater Action Medway - Kents Top Canoe Club - Yalding weir pool (Above the Bridge)

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Medway Weir Guide

Yalding weir pool (Above the Bridge)

Tuesday, 05 June 2007

Yalding weir Pool ( Above the bridge )

This Guide is split into two sections Above the bridge, (The Weir pool) This guide and below the bridge, due to the range of paddling opportunities on the river here

Yalding is one of the most popular spots on the River Medway for Canoeist and Kayakers due to the great parking and easy access to the river and most days of the week some one will be seen there paddling.

It is a great place to start a flat water paddle down to Maidstone or finish a paddle from Tonbridge, taking in the sights of the Medway valley. It is also one of the safest places to paddle white water on the Medway.

Weir Pool

The weir pool looking from the bridge from left to right consists of 2 automatic undershot sluice gates, 1 poor over weir and a set of penstock gates (now disused)

Poor over weir

The poor over weir is an ideal place to introduce paddlers to stoppers and the art of leaning down stream, during normal water levels the water coming over this weir is about an inch deep, as it drops down the slope of the weir it gains speed and at the bottom creates a nice friendly stopper (Be warned, as the weir above at east Peckham (sluice weir) opens the level up stream increases the flow over this weir without warning and the stopper will become very sticky not for ideal beginners) It is possible for an instructor to stand by a paddler in this stopper and guide their boat in and out of the stopper as the down stream side is only about 18” deep.
When the automatic sluice gate opens the water level of weir pool increases and the poor over weir stopper turns into a wave (again ideal for beginners)

All in all this is a great place to learn some of the basics but beware of the automatic gates.

Automatic Sluice gates

The Automatic gates open depending on the level up stream and there is no way to say 100% on when they will open or how much, a good indicator (normal only in winter moths when there is a lot of water in the river) is that water starts to poor over the disused penstock gates for a short while before the automatic gate opens.

DO NOT RELY ON THIS. IT IS ONLY AN INDICATION AND THE AUTOMAIC GATES CAN OPEN AT ANY TIME.

As the gate opens the water shoots from underneath and hits a concrete block and Poor’s over this block causing a sticky enclosed stopper, as the gate opens further and the water builds this turns into a shallow wave that open out with a long trough (sometimes in the order of 10ft) as the water in the weir pool rises this becomes washed out and gets to the point that you can’t paddle a boat into the gate area.
When there is a stopper formed inside the gate it typical starts of very sticky and can be extremely difficult for inexperienced paddler to get out of with out assistance.
It is also very shallow between 12 and 16” deep and rolling here is a great way to remove the skin down to the bone on the rough concrete bottom from your knuckles, elbows and face.

As the gate opens and the stopper starts to form a wave this is when Yalding is at its best, you are able to surf forward, backwards perform flat spins and very shallow blunts. When it is like this it is only accessible by using the eddy inside the gate area and keeping very close to the wall. A nasty boil is often created on the outside area as you enter and it can capsize you and push you against the wall making it very difficult to roll back up.

Video of The Wave inside the gate.

These gates are totally enclosed with a wall each side and a roof in the form of the bridge for this reason when the gate is opening I would only recommend that you enter this automatic gate area and play here when there is an experienced local paddler there advise.

The weir pool

When the Automatic gate(s) are open and it is too big to paddle inside the gate area a wave is formed outside. This wave is not very steep and some times takes a while to appear, the water level has usually risen by about another 12-18” in the weir pool making it approx. 3ft deep and safe to roll without hitting the bottom.
This wave has a tendency to form and collapse so you could be surfing one moment and the wave not there the next.
Down stream on the entrance to the bridge arch there is a steel cable across the river and great care must be taken to roll before you get to this. The cable is removed between October and May.

IF IN DOUBT, PADDLE WITH SOMEONE WITH EXPERIENCE OF THIS WEIR.

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