A RECENT water-divining session at Oxenhall may have helped members of the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust to find a number of leaks.

Group spokesman Brian Fox said that leaks from the pond below the lock had been seeping into a nearby field, making it boggy.

To find the leaks, eight members of the canal restoration group were handed wire dowsing rods.

To test their natural or supernatural skills, they were first asked to walk over a known underground overflow pipe.

The rods twitched for three out of the eight volunteers, and it was these three talented dowsers who were sent out to look for the leaks.

Mr Fox said: "All got readings in a couple of places, which will now be investigated."

The restoration group decided to use dowsing rods because British Waterways occasionally uses the same mysterious technique on occasions.

Another mystery at Oxenhall concerns the inexplicable existence of large fish in the pond, which was only filled up with water three years ago.

When the pond had to be drained recently, the volunteers found 20 wild carp and even one or two koi carp.

These all had to be transferred to an upper pond.

Mr Fox said: "We have seen bigger carp in the pound above the lock, but it is a mystery where they all come from."