Canal boat/Narrow boat wanderings.

[OnlyMark]

I’ve been slowing down my mode of holiday transport for the last few years and have progressed from cars (except last time in Mexico) and motorbikes to scooters, auto rickshaws, bicycles, on foot and after casting around for another means of getting around I realised I’d missed out on an obvious one. Canal boats, otherwise called narrow boats.
There are plenty and numerous in the UK which has the advantage that I speak the language reasonably well, have a passing knowledge of the local food but, the weather is not the best.
I also grew up in an area with them as a backdrop everywhere.
I decided to brave it anyway and so for the last couple of weeks I’ve been travelling at walking pace in a long, thin boat along narrow man made waterways and at times in the rain, wind, cold but the odd rays of sunshine breaking through to warm my back.

[OnlyMark]

There are currently about 2000 miles/3200km of canals in England and Wales.
They were built for the obvious reason of transferring goods from one place to another and were originally built somewhat piecemeal to join rivers or make a spur to a factory or mine. This preceded the industrial revolution but as soon as that came about, the system and design of canals increased dramatically.

The first “modern day” canal was built in 1757 but it was only the first step -
“In the mid-18th century the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater built the Bridgewater Canal. Its purpose was to transport coal from his mines to the industrialising city of Manchester. It opened in 1761 and was the longest canal constructed in Britain to that date. Canal boats could carry thirty tons at a time; one horse could tow more than ten times the amount of cargo that was possible with a cart. The Bridgewater Canal reduced the price of coal in Manchester by nearly two-thirds within a year of its opening. The canal was a huge financial success and repaid the cost of its construction within just a few years.”

It wasn’t long though until a new method of transporting goods came on the scene. This provided the death knell for the canals. In 1825 George Stephenson connected the towns of Stockton and Darlington in England by rail.
Both canals and rail ran in tandem for a while but gradually most canals fell into disuse.
“The period between the 1770s and the 1830s is often referred to as the "Golden Age" of British canals. During this period of canal mania, huge sums were invested in canal building. The canal system expanded to nearly 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometres) in length.”

Shortly after the end of WWII, the leisure aspect of canals became prominent and many were repaired, refurbished, maintained again and so on until we have the situation we have today. The last recorded use of a canal to transport goods commercially though was in 1996.
Canals tend to vary in width but one feature which became standardised, as with rail track width, was the width of canal locks. The first canals were built with an eye on the costs and the ‘newness’ of the technology and idea. So rather than go for something grand, they hedged their bets and made the infrastructure as small as possible but still practical for usage. Over the decades as more and more were built it was prudent to keep the same sizes for practicality.

This is why generally locks are 7 feet/2.13m wide - bear in mind also that in the early days everything was built by hand and an extra few inches here and there would easily add up.
Also there was a limit to how long a boat could be and still navigate around bends etc. This determined how long a lock could be. If it fits in, all well and good, if you’ve built a lock an extra few yards/metres, you’ve wasted your money.
A standard maximum length became 72 feet (21.95 m).

[OnlyMark]

I mention locks - but I’ll get to more description of them another time. They’re there to go up and down hills is the thing. With a large range of knowledge on the forum I’m probably repeating what some know but I hope also informing others.
A few photos then.
Drove through some nice Derbyshire scenery to get to my starting point near Stoke on Trent -






I didn’t pick the boat up until mid-afternoon but then only cruised a few miles to get to a decent stop off to sort out my stuff and have a good look around and what I’d rented.
This is capable of sleeping five, but any more than two would I’m sure be quite a pain. It’s not short, but not long either. Somewhere mid-range at 45ft (13.7m). It is also not a posh one at all. Quite basic and getting worse for wear. Not a bother to me because in the season they are quite expensive to rent. Before Easter as I have done they are taking everything into consideration, a reasonable price.

Bear in mind I paid for the boat, went food shopping before I picked it up but then, unless you want to stay in a Marina and with mains electric hook ups, mooring at the side of the canal is free, water fill ups are free, there are no tolls, no campsite fees, fuel is included, gas for cooking is included, central heating be it by gas or diesel is included and the only thing you pay for is if you block up the toilet(s) and have to have them pumped out - but then the boatyard you got it from reimburses you.

This was my first mooring spot. Nice and quiet -






There are different styles/types of narrow boats with traditionally the bed being at the back, but ‘reverse layout’ ones are getting more and more popular and I would prefer that.
Looking from the front there is a dinette(?) to the left, the kitchen area in the middle with a TV and radio, the toilet and shower/sink opposite each other in the corridor and the bed at the back. There are doors front and back -






The cooker and fridge are normal domestic size (small freezer compartment in the fridge), standard sized sink and drainer -




Shower and toilet, one each side -






Looking from the bed back up to the front. The bed a generously called a double and is 1.30m wide and longer than I am tall by a few centimetres -

[kuskiwi]

It's a nice boat. Ex and I had a couple of weeks on one. Some days we walked further than we boated. Ours was on the Ashby Canal to avoid too many locks as I didn't think I could cope, and ex was post recovery from some surgery.
It's a great way to travel.

[tzarine]

mark
lovely boats
have not been on enough canals
was on a boat on the canals from hangzhou to suzhou. gorgeous landscapes along the way

[Baz Faz]

The boat I went on (with my then wife, her sister and husband) was more primitive. It had a lavatory stool you took away from the canal and after using it you moved it to a new position. And then one morning there was a shout from a farm worker: "Oy, do you mind, I take the sheep by there."

[kuskiwi]

The one we had had a shower head attached to a coiled metal hose, and to use it you stood on the raised toilet stand, feet either side. My husband slipped and put a nasty gouge in his rear end. No first aid kit, and I was worried about infection so doused the wound with whiskey. I'm sure that the scream woke the dead in the Bosworth cemetery. He never forgave me either, but I still get the giggles when I think about it.

[OnlyMark]

My parents would go on the Ashby Canal for the same reason.

[OnlyMark]

Narrow boats were originally horse drawn - and that is the reason virtually everywhere there is a path running down the side. Left or right doesn’t matter as long as there is/was one. Called surprisingly a tow path.
They do change over from one side to the other and I’ll show you how they managed to cope with that in a second.

The power for the boats comes from a diesel engine and an agricultural one at best. You don’t need a high performance one, just one that is low revving and with plenty of pulling power (torque). Steam was tried but having a boiler and all the rest of it wasn’t popular so horses continued up to the installation of basic diesel engines.

Electric power comes from batteries and whereas all the ancillaries were powered by the batteries, recent developments mean electric propulsion is being given a go. Cooking now is on gas whereas it was on wood but also, if you have the battery power, modern electric hobs can be used. Lighting is also electric now.
Bear in mind there are also bilge pumps, toilet pumps, water pumps, heating pumps and so on.

The problem occurs when you need to charge the batteries.
Unless you are connected to mains power in a marina or a private mooring area, you have a couple of choices to do this. The diesel engine runs quite often and charges up, a separate generator is used, or solar panels.
Or a combination of all three.
I just had the boat engine to do it so it meant at least for a few hours each day I needed to run it - and it isn’t/wasn’t the quietest of things.

A quick mention of heating. Many have central heating of one form or another be it powered by gas or diesel and often residential ones have a scenic wood or multi-fuel fire for effect. Hot water radiator heating is the norm, just like in a house though there are variations regarding on demand gas boilers again as also with a normal house.

I must have stopped at one point, as I often did, to have a coffee and some toast and jam for breakfast. I noticed they seemed to have a generic bridge for taking pipes over the canal. I must have seen about five or six each day of the same style -

[OnlyMark]

This though is an original bridge. This is where the tow path changes from one side to the other and made with easy access ramps for the horses to cross over whilst continuing pulling and not needing to disconnect them. Not sure how they would cope with the few steps though. All the bridges are numbered, as are locks, so with a map, or now an app, you can’t get too lost. Also it becomes easy to estimate timings between places. You can see the gap the boat has to go through. Just, and I mean just, wide enough -






There is a length of metal shown here. There's one each side. I'm sure in your own mind you can guess what their purpose was. Don't be ashamed if you can't. It just means you're not old enough (it's for the rope to rub along instead of getting caught in the stone work of the bridge) -




View from the top of the bridge one way and then the other -






Nice TV aerial on the roof. Also a radio aerial.
Other things to note is the boarding plank (I never needed it), the proverbial I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole, there are two rubber fenders back and front each side for when moored up and a very important centre rope. This is heavily used. When stopping you pull to the side, jump off with the rope and control the boat. There are mooring ropes front and back for use when tying up but the centre on is used for control and a temporary mooring option for doing locks or whatever.
The problem single handed is normally a “crew member” would jump off the front as you angled in with the rope whilst you operated the engine to stop. I didn’t have this option so I had to always bring the rear in to give me access to the bank (note to self, mention later centre rope and deep locks) -






I had difficulty, especially with the gusty wind we had, steering the boat and taking photos. Invariably as soon as I whipped the camera out of my pocket a gust would blow the front of the boat one way or the other. As can be seen, you don’t have a lot of width to play with - and this brings me to this photo.
There is on the left what looks like a space opening up. I didn’t get chance to photo it properly but I did another day with a different one.
It is called a winding hole - pronounced as in wind and not wind. Hah, meaning not to wind a rope but to have a gusty wind. It’s for tuning the boat around as the length is usually greater than the width of the canal -




Dappled sunlight, trees encroaching the banks, not a person in sight and all is well with the world.
Until you want a pee that is, as single handed you have to stop and moor up again. Couldn’t manage peeing off the side and steering at the same time. I did try.
Same with a mid-morning coffee and biscuits. I solved this by bringing a flask outside with me I’d fill up before setting off and a plastic waterproof container with chocolate hobnobs in it -




The tulips were always a welcome sight -






Moored up at the end of the day. Generic pipe bridge again with a rail bridge tucked in behind it and an original in the back ground. Also people walking their dog I think. Very popular past time -

[Voy]

Mark - keep it up ! As usual, I'm loving this. When I lived in England, one of my colleagues at the bank was a big time participant in the Narrow Boat Society - but I never got to do it - damn. There is also a very funny book about the topic by Emily Kimbrough from about the 1950s.

But her descriptions aren't as good as yours ! - and of course no pics.

[OnlyMark]

My location at this time was on the Macclesfield Canal. This joins further down the way I’m going to the Trent and Mersey canal - which is a major canal stretching a very long way. On reaching it I would turn left and soon go through the Harecastle Tunnel - which has a reputation as being quite difficult and has a nickname of the “Scarecastle tunnel”.
In the meantime though I had a gentle run in that direction.

Various buildings began to appear, one with random advert -








A very old mile marker just in case you didn’t know where you were going -




It mentions a place called Marple. This is back the way I’m heading and I wanted to try and avoid it for two reasons. Firstly there is a staircase of locks that are quite difficult but also I had signed up for notifications from the canal authority as to problems on the canals. One was that the staircase was closed due to work being carried out and I wouldn’t have been able to go any further anyway -

[OnlyMark]

A few scenic shots -










So this is how you dry your washing in case you wondered -




This is a winding hole. Gives you enough space to turn around but can be difficult if it is windy and blowing the boat in the direction you don’t want to turn -






Going under a bridge you get the idea how tight some of them are -






Some grander places are appearing -






Dotted along the banks are places you can stop to fill up with water. If you are two or three people and regularly using a lot for showers and so on then you’d need to fill up every couple of days. I used relatively little but still stopped every three or four days anyway -




This is a lock, but a baby one. The drop was very little and is called a ‘stop lock’ because it is close to the end of a canal to stop the water draining into the one it joins, or vice versa. It gave me a gentle practice for the bigger more serious ones to come.
There is a lock keeper’s cottage, usually there is one somewhere close by, but nowadays they are just used as normal houses.
The water level difference wasn’t very much so in any case I moored up and went to have a quick look -






Brought the boat in -






Did the necessary which I’ll add more detail to another time -






The drove away to moor up further down ready for the next day -

[auntieannie]

looks like it was relaxing and at the same time kept your brains engaged.

[shrjeff]

very interesting... makes me wonder, back in the day when the boats were run by horsepower, as the tow path was on just one side, how could two pass each other?

[OnlyMark]

Yes Annie, it was.

Jeff, the towing ropes were made of cotton, not modern materials and cotton wouldn't float - so when two boats came towards each other with their horses being on the same side on the tow path one would let their rope go slack and it would drop to the bottom of the canal. The other boat would pass over it and the horse easily step over it then make taut again after passing.

[Voy]

( ps... your tulips are daffs ) which does nothing to lessen the enjoyment of reading and viewing your travels !

[OnlyMark]

No idea about flowers.

[OnlyMark]

I’d turned from one canal onto another, onto the Trent and Mersey, but there was an obstacle in my way, a large hill that had required a tunnel building underneath it. In fact there were two tunnels built but only one is in use nowadays. The Harecastle tunnel is 1.6 miles long/2.6km and the first tunnel was built in 1777. Due to the volume of traffic, a second had to be built and opened in 1827.
A major thing was initially there was no tow path inside (eventually a wooden one was built) so there was the obvious difficulty of moving the boats through. They had to resort to “legging”.

This is where you lie on a plank, or on the roof, and ‘walk’ the boat to propel it -



Luckily this was before my time so I used the engine.
It takes about 45 minutes to get through, it can be faster if you are confident, can be slower if you don’t have much of a clue. There is a one way system with officials either end controlling who goes through and when. If you turn up between 8am and 12 noon it’s as and when but you can make a booking in the afternoons for a secure place. It’s not that busy so I just turned up, had to wait for twenty minutes or so for others to come out and then was allowed in.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harecastle_Tunnel

A bit of a video for you to give an idea. Watch for about a minute or more from 4 minutes(ish) -




Not long after I began to start going through a certain amount of old industrialisation -






Then found a quiet spot to moor up -












A bit of a technical thing for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts - I have a basic control panel by the tiller which has the ignition switch for the engine, a voltmeter to show if the alternator is charging properly, and gauge for the engine revs and within that an hour meter for how long the engine has been running. Not much point having a meter to measure distance like in a road vehicle.
Then some labelled switches -




This is the view from the steering position with the obligatory life ring thing, a warning sign showing where passengers may get in the way of the tiller and the door into the accommodation. Also a handy shelf for my mug of coffee or on frequent occasions, my flask of coffee -

[OnlyMark]

Last technical thing - the engine and the grease pump I had to turn each day at the end of the day to stop the dripping from the propeller shaft -






Another mooring back in the countryside, probably for a lunch break because it was raining -






Local wildlife -

[kuskiwi]

Love it. Thanks Mark..even if you aren't into flowers you do more than okay. Just don't give Mrs m bunches of dandelions instead of roses.

[auntieannie]

Ah, we don’t know, kiwi lady … maybe she does appreciate dandelions?

[OnlyMark]

She likes flowers at any time but she's not a romantic so if it comes down to a bunch of flowers or coffee in bed, she'll go for the coffee.
If it is a choice between a diamond ring or a good set of plastic containers that don't dribble fluid out when you transport them, then it's the containers.
A loaf of good bread or a box of chocolates, the bread.
And so on.
I do actually get up and make her coffee in bed every day. After 24 years it adds up. The only days I miss are those I'm not there for.

[Voy]

I tired to find my friend Graham, failed, but found this which I''m sure you already know ... hnbc.org.uk/

[OnlyMark]

I've seen a mention of them Voy and previously did look at their website. Nice to see it again and they have an uphill battle but are doing a good job.

[OnlyMark]

Came later to a series of four proper locks.
I moored up just before and went and had a look at the other side.




That’s the way down there -




Got the boat in, shut the lock gates behind me and started letting the water out -




That’s all the way down -




Opened the bottom gates, climbed down the ladder and slowly pulled out -




One possible definition of a house boat -



I was now in an area called The Potteries. It’s an area of six towns based on Stoke on Trent which became the centre of ceramic production in the early 17th Century due to local deposits of clay, salt, lead and coal.
There are still what are called bottle ovens/bottle kilns around but not now in use. The name is derived from the shape rather than what is fired inside -




Half of an old coal mine winding wheel as a nod to that heritage as well -




Eventually, out of town, moored up for the night -

[OnlyMark]

The journey continues through more countryside but with some civilisation -






Another lock. Nothing dramatic -






Several pieces of information on the way -










Alternating between out in the wilds, and not -








Someone has some money. Their own mooring and two high class boats of probably £150,000 each -




Another lock -






An idea of what each gate weighs. Good job they swing open and closed quite well - 1654kg -

[Baz Faz]

Apr 7, 2024 20:49:07 GMT 2 Voy said:

( ps... your tulips are daffs ) which does nothing to lessen the enjoyment of reading and viewing your travels !

Voy, I thought that too. I am surprised Mark didn't know the difference. We thought he knew everything.

[auntieannie]

fascinating. I watched a bit of that video from the scary tunnel. do they measure boats to make sure they'll fit the narrow bit? imagine a boat getting stuck there...

[OnlyMark]

Apr 8, 2024 18:10:15 GMT 2 Baz Faz said:

Voy, I thought that too. I am surprised Mark didn't know the difference. We thought he knew everything.

Slight mistake there. I have an opinion on everything, not that I know everything and even if I know nothing I still have an opinion.
There is a local saying from my birth area for when you utter "I thought...", it goes something like, "you know what thought did, followed a muck cart and though it was a wedding".

No measurements needed. The tunnel is a standard width for a narrowboat and if yours is wider, it's up to you to check so you are not turned away. It's one of those old times things where people actually take responsibility for their actions rather than expecting signs, safety barriers and so on. Your fault if you cock it up and get refused. The official either end that let you in know well enough what will fit.
The only thing is there is a height barrier at each entrance and if you can't go under it, you have to back up (difficult) and sort it out. Many boats have stuff on their roofs (like chimneys or planters) and again, it is their responsibility to check before arriving.

Later you'll read that I returned back through the tunnel but the two officials monitoring and organising that end saw my boat was a rental but didn't say anything to me until I'd negotiated the very tight and at an angle entrance then gave me ten out of ten for not hitting the sides and told my what they were doing.

Your boat is checked before you go in that you have a working bow light and a horn. If not they refuse you entry. You are also given a leaflet with information and instructions. One is that if you do have a problem you are to give a long blast on your horn every 30 seconds until you hear a returning series of short blasts from the end official.