Draining the Exe

The Environment Agency, and Exeter City Council have decided to lower the water level in the river Exe between Mill on the Exe and Trews Weir. The EA are doing this so they can check the pilings and steel shuttering around the river bank, as well as some water drainage outlet valves, meanwhile the City Council will be dredging Cricklepit creek.
They've dropped the river level by opening a sluice gate at Trews weir. This has dropped the river level by 2-3 feet. There is now no longer any water running over the weir. We'd kind of hoped that by some luck, the opening of the sluice might create a great playwave. However what it has created is a walled in hole of death! The tow back must be a minimum of fifteen feet, probably more like twenty feet! Plus when chatting to a bloke from the EA he also reckoned that the sluice was Anti-scour with lots of concrete blocks in the bottom. Definitely not a place to be!

The walled in hole of death

Trews weir with no water on it