Llangollen Canal Breach, Whitchurch. Evening Update

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]Hello. Down at the Canal Bridge on Wednesday morning. Uh just about to take off. Can see Terry there waiting very patiently.

[00:00:11]We'll take off now.

[00:00:17]>> I haven't got an awful lot of time this morning, so it will be a bit of a quick flight.

[00:00:26]Um, looks like they've moved more of this spoil and this soil or are moving it. So hopefully they're clearing up this area the field a little bit more. It should be good news.

[00:00:41]Um, then I presume they'll do similar to the uh other field and collect together all the sand and leaked out materials from the actual canal proper.

[00:00:58]Can just see something going on here with the large excavator. So, we will go over there first.

[00:01:06]And it's next to the new drilling rig location.

[00:01:16]They're putting on chains there from the uh from the wheelbarrow.

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[00:01:57]The large expator is making his way down beyond the bogmats. Not uh not on the bogmats. Trying to keep them clear, I guess.

[00:02:12]Is he going for this Bowser? Moving the Bowser. Quite possibly.

[00:02:23]Just going to go up a little bit.

[00:02:30]Just clear of these trees. No 30 m. I barely safe at that.

[00:02:40]Obviously don't tow this. They are lifting it with the chains.

[00:02:51]There's someone messing with samples on the uh embankment there. Brownbacks this time.

[00:03:07]Four leg chains again.

[00:03:18]feel hear a track dumper coming.

[00:03:23]We'll just zoom out and we'll actually we might just let see this lifting. I guess the track dumper's going down to uh the spoil heap. So, I guess we know where that's going.

[00:03:37]So, we'll just watch this left and then uh circle around and we'll probably get the trap dumper in the background.

[00:03:48]I'm off to work again shortly. Uh so, this will go up as part of the evening video like yesterday.

[00:04:01]Quite a lot of welding to do today which uh quite looking forward to. like a bit of welding.

[00:04:11]At least that's what I think the job is.

[00:04:27]Not a bad day today. It's dry. Sun's starting to shine through. I guess it will warm up. It's a little bit cool at the moment.

[00:04:36]Um, no wind. Hopefully the weather will remain similar to this and we can uh get a good evening video in later on after work.

[00:04:49]Um, then I can show you we'll have a bit of a flight around the site in a moment and then we can do a flight later on to see uh all the work that's uh actually taking place today.

[00:05:13]Last week while I was at work, I trapped my hand which has left me with only a small cup but really deep. Uh really sore even just holding this controller of me drone at the moment.

[00:05:28]It's not the best.

[00:05:31]See the wheel dumper coming into view on the right hand side there. I could hear the track dumper which is there on the right at the top of the screen waiting for spoil as we uh as we thought.

[00:05:46]Bowser is going down to this drill site by the looks.

[00:05:56]One of the bog mats is has moved slightly, I guess, with the uh track dumper and these vehicles running over and over it.

[00:06:06]You got to expect that to a certain degree.

[00:06:10]I guess this will go on in the bed of the canal just uh alongside the shutton where those concrete blocks are maybe. Or will it go up on the toe path out of the way?

[00:06:29]We shall see in a minute on the toe path by the looks.

[00:06:37]No problem to a large excavator like the to lift that small load. Very versatile machines. These just coming to twist it round.

[00:06:56]That's why they haven't towed it into position. It needed lifting.

[00:07:07]I'm not sure how many more holes they will be drilling.

[00:07:10]I would hope this was one of the last.

[00:07:13]It seems to have gone all around the site.

[00:07:18]Time will tell again.

[00:07:50]Trying to get you a slightly better view there.

[00:08:08]Wonder if it's got water in.

[00:08:12]Maybe that's what they're talking about.

[00:08:13]Whether it needs filling up first.

[00:08:17]It's being lifted.

[00:08:20]to then go and get filled up.

[00:08:24]They do have that water bowser themselves over here or will they redivert the pump possibly and uh put some water in from there.

[00:08:48]just coming into land behind me with his drone.

[00:09:05]Looks like they're going in to use the pump from the canal possibly.

[00:09:12]Got that gate open.

[00:09:15]Slow around. Now, when a digger turns round on its axis there, that's called sloohing round.

[00:09:27]I believe the ring that it turns around is called a slooh ring, which is like a large tooththed ring, like a large gear in effect. And then it has a a hydraulic motor that drives up on that uh with a smaller gear on. That's what drives it round in a circle.

[00:09:52]So, it can go constantly round and round without uh tying in knots.

[00:10:03]Anyway, we'll leave that there for a moment.

[00:10:07]We will just have a little flight over the site to see if there's anything new happening elsewhere.

[00:10:13]Just go up a little bit higher.

[00:10:20]Lots of bands or reverse parts in the compound as per normal.

[00:10:34]Zoom in a bit so we can get a better view.

[00:10:41]storage compound there.

[00:10:44]Silt buster or the silt trap. Here's some soil that's being dumped. Is this if the soil that was uh being moved from the brereech field, the small excavator when it's being tipped up? It is uh being tidied up with a smaller excavator.

[00:11:03]I presume that was the case. I think someone did mention that in my video last night.

[00:11:10]Not a lot more to see there that I can see, but if there is anything, please do comment.

[00:11:21]And as we come down, just go and have a quick look at that culvert.

[00:11:30]See what the exit of the old mill race culvert is like.

[00:11:40]There's the matting where the water is being ejected from by the drilling guys. Still in position.

[00:11:48]That needs tidying up at some point.

[00:11:50]Maybe they're letting that dry out so it's a a bit lighter to lift.

[00:12:09]Oh, looks remarkably like it did last night. Really several holes have dug there whether they're punching into a a pipe or a culver underneath which is leading off to the ditch.

[00:12:31]Doesn't look like the water's risen any.

[00:12:39]That would potentially Head straight in this direction.

[00:12:50]I have logged in this stream several times. I can't see anything. Looked with the drone and I've looked in person as well when we were allowed into the field some time ago.

[00:13:05]Just have a look underneath me. I don't There is a tree there. So, I'm just going to move forward a little bit.

[00:13:18]Drop down a little bit. Might lose signal. So, I may have to come back up.

[00:13:34]Don't seem to be any colored water coming in in this location either.

[00:13:40]Lots of people said exits there.

[00:13:55]What looks like a horseshoe drain there, which is like a horseshoe shape only uh open at the bottom. very old form of drain pipe upside down there.

[00:14:08]There's a waterfall leading into the uh the call. Haven't looked there for a while and it's all greened up considerably.

[00:14:19]So, I'm going to go back up now.

[00:14:26]Just have a little look where this tanker Bowser is up to and we will have a look at the floodfield.

[00:14:37]Yeah. So they are redirecting the water from the canal to fill the bowser up there. Shouldn't take long pump that size even if it is on sporadically.

[00:14:58]I'm just going to turn around. See if I can get a slightly better view for you.

[00:15:15]Of course, this is bumping out of between the dams there.

[00:15:23]and into the Bowser proper.

[00:15:31]I bet that Bowser is not normally filled up with a pipe such as large as that normally.

[00:15:45]Um and then the excavator of course is there waiting to uh to lift it back.

[00:15:54]Chains are just resting on the floor there.

[00:16:11]Look at the excavator from this angle.

[00:16:29]So, I'll leave that there for a moment.

[00:16:32]We'll come back over the flood field and have a little look at that site.

[00:16:41]Track dumper of course and the wheel dumper.

[00:16:45]Let's have a little look at this culver opening on this side.

[00:16:50]A little bit of water in the flood field but nothing massively. Obviously with the ground having a sump here to go through this culvert. As long as if it's got somewhere to go the other side that will naturally drain this half of the field now.

[00:17:09]And that will only increase as they start clearing up the sediment and uh soil and whatnot.

[00:17:18]It's obviously a lot higher than it was.

[00:17:20]That's the top of a sheep netting fence.

[00:17:22]So that' be three or four foot in height. So there's quite a lot of material to clean up from this area.

[00:17:31]Um is that a ball?

[00:17:37]Looks like someone Is it a ball or something? I'm not sure. Maybe off a trough.

[00:17:46]So, I guess that half beyond that uh sheep netting fence would have been a bit of a a bogggy wet dip area. Um so, I presume the land owner wants this all tidied up. Again, we shall wait and see.

[00:18:11]There's a trap dumper.

[00:18:16]K's little toy.

[00:18:30]These come in all range of sizes. small ones from pedestrian ones right up to much larger ones.

[00:18:40]So, I'm going to come back now and do a uh just a very quick high up shot from the uh my usual spot and then I shall uh come and do you an evening update later on, of course, as long as the weather allows.

[00:19:10]Max altitude reached.

[00:19:13]>> That's maximum altitude 120 m.

[00:19:20]Can see the difference between the bottom half and the top half of the flood field.

[00:19:28]They have cleared up considerably like they are just starting to pipes back in the canal now from the pump. They are just starting to look like the going to lift that uh that bowser.

[00:19:46]Probably not a lot of point filming this, but I could just fly over and have a little look if you I'm getting a bit late for work now really, so I do need to get going through the left bridge there.

[00:20:15]It's quite high zoom, so it's not the best image. Still fairly good.

[00:20:21]Beauty of this Mavic 3 Pro.

[00:20:29]I'm doing the lid again.

[00:20:33]They put a different hose in.

[00:20:36]Maybe they're not lifting yet.

[00:20:42]Or is that the hose that they use? The output hose could be look like they're just about to lift.

[00:21:17]Just pushing it forward a little bit so it doesn't swing too much. Obviously, better lifting directly upwards than uh pulling it forwards as well, otherwise it could swing.

[00:21:33]A little bit heavier now being full of water.

[00:21:37]Full stretch of the excavator as well.

[00:21:42]No problem at all.

[00:21:54]We'll boom that in slightly closer to him, I would think. Yeah, it's a bit more stable on the machine.

[00:22:10]Start tracking backwards.

[00:22:13]Fencing is going back in place.

[00:22:22]Obviously, not in too far, otherwise you come forward and could go through the front of the excavator.

[00:22:28]Calamity.

[00:22:32]I'm running short on battery now. So, I am going to have to come back shortly.

[00:22:40]Whether we'll just catch this or not.

[00:22:43]We might do Not far off where he needs to be to slow around shortly.

[00:23:23]Turned a little bit there.

[00:23:35]Good view of the drilling rig as well.

[00:23:37]Starting to slow around slightly.

[00:23:55]I think I might miss this because of the battery situation.

[00:24:03]Might just catch it.

[00:24:07]Be quite a quick land and finish. So, thank you very much for watching the first half of the video and I will try and get you the second half later on.

[00:24:16]Um, so with a bit of luck and this will of course will go up this evening.

[00:24:36]The handbrake's on at the moment.

[00:24:40]Roll back.

[00:24:43]Chucky wheel two.

[00:24:58]hand signal there. Rotating his finger pointing down means lower. Rotating your finger pointing up is left.

[00:25:22]So, on that note, I'm going to come back into land and uh we'll follow up later on today.

[00:25:43]Should hear the drone approaching over our heads.

[00:26:02]There's me sat on the bench.

[00:26:07]Landing now.

[00:26:15]Hello. Back at the Clangland Canal Bridge, Wednesday afternoon, come evening. Just about to take off and have a look see what uh has happened during the day.

[00:26:29]We'll take off now.

[00:26:53]So the pump is still here.

[00:27:02]I believe that is meant to be being collected at some point.

[00:27:07]Most of the spoil pile has been uh moved, which is what we left them doing this morning.

[00:27:26]Seem to be a small fenced off area, which is a a bucket area possibly.

[00:27:39]Lots of people have asked why you have to fence off the buckets. Not 100% sure.

[00:27:45]I think it's just good practice with uh the publicity that this site has got with myself and lots of other people filming it. It's probably best to do it all by the book.

[00:28:02]Who's that running along there?

[00:28:06]Squirrel.

[00:28:09]The gray variety. It' be nice if we saw a red squirrel.

[00:28:19]Although it's not going up, so I guess it is running. Maybe it's just sinking away on the far side. We will have another look afterwards.

[00:28:30]the water levels not climbing. While we're here, actually, let's have a look at the the flooded area that was.

[00:28:41]And if anything, that's dried up.

[00:28:48]Very little there now at all.

[00:28:57]Then again, it has been quite dry today.

[00:29:02]It's been a lot of activity with the track dumper by the looks going through uh maybe the other wheel dumper as well.

[00:29:08]Mainly the track dumper I'd say with the tracks left.

[00:29:13]Um going through there, some of the bogmats have been picked up as we can see they're stacked up there.

[00:29:29]There's the water running down that uh trench they dug.

[00:29:35]A little look while we're here.

[00:29:38]Looks like they have just put a bit of soil across potentially.

[00:29:43]They look like they may have manded that off a little bit just to uh stop the water coming down the track of this excavator.

[00:29:54]So, it will work its way down down there. It's not doing at the moment, I don't think.

[00:30:08]It looks fairly dry the other side of the of the dam as well.

[00:30:23]Could have a look at the coret this time here. And then uh fish just jumped in front of me.

[00:30:33]Look at this cover while we're down here.

[00:30:38]Doesn't look like it's changed a lot either.

[00:30:42]Seems to be quite a quiet day on this site today other than moving that.

[00:30:47]Sorry, I've gone a bit too fast other than the uh spoil being moved.

[00:30:58]I don't think a lot's happened today.

[00:31:07]I think there may be a bit of time for a few days, maybe a week until the plans are finalized.

[00:31:16]Uh I think maybe could be a few quiet days ahead. I have been wrong and I could be wrong again. Um I sincerely hope I am wrong.

[00:31:29]We've got these people on site. So, I'm sure there is work planned.

[00:31:36]There's all the soil that's been moved up from the flood field.

[00:31:45]All nicely capped off in a in a tight pile.

[00:31:51]You cap it off in a nice shape like that so the water will run off and uh if it rains small excavator track dumper and the wheeled excavator quite nice out here. It's been a really warm day. Been welding all day.

[00:32:18]Uh, I've been absolutely baking.

[00:32:23]Quite nice sat here to be fair.

[00:32:32]Just on me little bench relaxing before I go home and uh put this video up for you all.

[00:32:50]Security on site again.

[00:33:03]small water browser for the not sure if it's drinking water, potable water, but for certainly for hand washing and whatnot.

[00:33:20]See where the track dump has been over that stone, don't you?

[00:33:24]If any of you do see anything that has changed I've missed, please do pop a comment in the uh comment box. Very much appreciated.

[00:33:35]We left this morning with uh that bowser being lifted and that's uh and they have started drilling in earnest as you can see.

[00:33:54]Fish are very active tonight. There's another one jumping.

[00:34:01]Kieran should be up here fishing. Really large of the two excavators from the front resting after a busy day.

[00:34:31]squirrel in the background still. Or is it two squirrels? Could be two.

[00:34:38]One, I think.

[00:34:40]See if we can zoom in on him before he runs away.

[00:34:46]That's a full zoom now. Quite a distance away.

[00:34:51]Quite high up, aren't I? So, so yeah, there's uh not a great deal of change that I can see. But if you, like I say, if you do uh notice anything I've missed, please do comment.

[00:35:04]I'll come back in and land now.

[00:35:09]And uh I'm going to get home and have a bit of a wash and tea and then uh and then put this up for you all.

[00:35:38]I'm going to drop down now.

[00:35:43]Sun's behind a client at the moment. So, you can see me drove for once. Normally, I'm looking up at the sun.

[00:35:52]Heat.

[00:36:11]Heat.

[00:36:25]doing this funny thing where it won't land again. It's a bit of a pest when it does this. Let's see if I can land it from the front instead.

[00:36:41]That's because my hands underneath the center. Um anyway, it did let me land it. So, thank you very very much for watching and uh do check back for tomorrow's video.