The world famous Caen Hill flight of locks near Devizes will be closed for another week after a boat struck a gate causing £45,000 damage.

It happened when a private boat and a hire craft were using lock 24 near the bottom of the flight. The hire boat got through on the left but the other craft couldn’t and struck the right gate.

No one was injured and the craft sailed on after the incident on the morning of June 22. One of the boaters reported the damage to British Waterways.

Waterway manager Mark Stephens said boats shared the locks to save time and water. “I believe the boats had been travelling down the flight and had shared the lock above Lock 24.”

The right hand gate might not have been open properly when the boats became tangled but British Waterways could not confirm the cause of the collision.

Mr Stephens said: “Generally when there are collisions our gates come off worse.”

The 20-year-old gates, due to be replaced this winter by British Waterways, will now be replaced next week and the flight is expected to reopen next Friday. All 29 locks and the towpath from locks 22 to 25 will be closed.

Holidaymakers Don Silburn, his partner Margaret Freestone, and their friends Lynne and Dave Rose, from Stocksbridge near Sheffield, wanted to travel along the flight during a week’s holiday.

Speaking outside the Caen Hill cafe, Mr Silburn, 58, said: “We are very disappointed. We came here to travel on the flight. Now we will have to go towards Bath and Bristol which we didn’t want to do.”

London bus drivers Paul Sharkey, Tony Cox and Derek Comrie, who are caravanning at Foxhangers Wharf near Rowde for a fishing holiday, must drive to Rowde to access the canal rather than walk 100 yards to it.

Mr Sharkey, 48, of Bexleyheath, said: “The right of way from the caravans has been blocked by British Waterways which has caused us inconvenience as we like to go back and forth to the caravan while we fish, but now we have to take everything with us for the day.”

Devizes Marina has about five extra moorings for boaters stranded by the closure.