Towpath Talk - November 2013 - FULL ISSUE

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104 PAGES CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE Starts

Issue 97, November 2013

Stepping back in time

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Check out the newly launched Towpath Trader website today.

The smart place to buy & sell boats. www.towpathtrader.com

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PHOTO: JOHN SLOAN

FIRST FLOATING MARKET PAVES THE WAY P5 BEESTON CAMPAIGNERS

celebrate Lottery cash P6

Historic boats and vehicles in the atmospheric setting of the Black Country Living Museum at Dudley. See report on P4. PHOTO:WATERWAY IMAGES

Big Lottery boost for Montgomery Canal restoration plans NEW!

RESTORATION plans for the Montgomery Canal have been given a boost with the announcement of a £160,000 development grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), which is a key step forward to securing a full grant of £3.7 million.

The bid is led by the Canal & River

PHOTO: LEE WELLS

A BOATER’S WINTER TALE

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Rishton repairs under way

REPAIR work is progressing on a collapsed embankment which swept a section of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal at Rishton, Lancashire, into the River Hyndburn. Canal & River Trust contractors installed temporary dams in the canal on either side of the collapsed towpath which happened between bridges 108a and 109 in mid September.

Repairs are likely to cost £300k and it is hoped to get the canal reopened by mid-November.

Boaters who are affected and want advice on diversions or moorings can contact 03030 404040 or visit www.canalrivertrust.org.uk

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Trust (CRT) and supported by the 14 partner organisations of the Montgomery Canal Partnership. Works are planned at a cost of about £6 million with another £2 million earmarked to come from a mixture of local authorities, the EU, CRT, sponsorship, canal societies and volunteer work-in-kind.

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London partnership expands

THE Canal & River Trust is seeking four additional experts to join the London Waterways Partnership. Its 12 current members are drawn from different waterways interests such as boating, canoeing and angling and the four new members will ideally have expertise in tourism, communications, education and working with young people. The roles are voluntary with agreed expenses reimbursed, and will involve approximately two days a month. Appointments are for three years. For more information contact Jon Guest, waterway manager, on 0207 517 5551 or visit the noticeboards page at the CRT website, www.canalrivertrust.org.uk

More locations, more choice Stourport Marina Tel 01299 827 082

Racecourse Marina, Windsor

Stourport on Severn

Tel 01753 851 717

River Thames, Windsor

Thames & Kennet Marina

Walton Marina

Tel 01932 221 689

Boat sales at seven Marinas with over 150 boats for sale

Visit:

www.tingdene.net

Upton Marina

Tel 01684 593 111 Upton upon Severn

Walton on Thames

Brundall Bay Marina

Tel 01189 477 770

River Thames, Caversham

Tel 01603 717 804

Pyrford Marina

Tel 01932 343 275 River Wey, Surrey

Norfolk Broads

CRT chief executive Richard Parry said: “This is fantastic news. It is another big step towards the canal’s full restoration and allows us to complete our application to the HLF.” The full funding will restore another 700m of canal channel – linking up with a section of bed relining by volunteers of

the Shropshire Union Canal Society south of Redwith Bridge. It will effectively open to navigation an additional one and a half miles to a turning point at Crickheath Bridge; creating a seven mile restored northern length from the junction with the Llangollen Canal.

Continued on page 2

CRT agrees £10m contracts

IMPROVED contracts with existing providers OCS Fountains for vegetation and environmental services and Biffa for waste management have been agreed by the Canal & River Trust. Between them the contracts are worth over £10 million per year and were agreed following a competitive tendering process which saw six contractors bidding in detail and being interviewed for the work. Both contracts are for an initial five year period with the option of an additional two. The longer agreements are aimed at encouraging greater capital investment, innovation and improvement in services.

2 NEWS

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WELCOME AS THE clocks go back and November brings bonfires and dark nights, whether we like it or not, thoughts turn to the festive season.

Just up the road from Towpath Talk HQ in rural Lincolnshire, a local turkey farm has been counting down the days on a roadside sign for weeks now and it’s a wake-up call every time you go past.

We’re starting the ball rolling with the first of our Christmas Gift Guides, on pages 58-61 where you will find some novel present ideas which can be bought online without the need for a traipse round the busy shops.

Another first this month is number one in a series of three articles by Elizabeth Abbott about boating in the winter on page 11. Her preparations start with a delivery of logs for a new woodburning stove.

And while we’re on the subject of keeping warm, Rexx and Phill share two of their favourite festive season recipes in Bits & Bobs, page 57.

If the increase in the Lotto ticket price has caused you to ponder whether it is worth the outlay each week, two good news stories this month show that some of the proceeds are filtering through to the waterways via the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Our headline story about the Montgomery Canal development grant and the news on page 6 that the Canalside Heritage Centre Trust at Beeston has also secured funding for its plans to restore the historic Weir Cottages are sure to warm the cockles of supporters’ hearts.

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Editor Janet Richardson jrichardson@mortons.co.uk Publisher Julie Brown Display advertising Richard Sinclair rsinclair@mortons.co.uk Nikita Leak nleak@mortons.co.uk Classified advertising Stuart Yule syule@mortons.co.uk Editorial design Tracey Barton Divisional ad manager Sandra Fisher Direct sales executive John Sharratt Group production editor Tim Hartley Production manager Craig Lamb Publishing director Dan Savage Commercial director Nigel Hole Managing director Brian Hill Contact us General queries 01507 529529 help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk News & editorial Tel: 01507 529466 Fax: 01507 529495 editorial@towpathtalk.co.uk Advertising Tel: 01507 524004 Fax: 01507 529499 Published by Mortons Media Group Ltd, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs, LN9 6JR Tel: 01507 523456 Fax: 01507 529301 Printed by Mortons Print Ltd. Tel. 01507 523456 Next Issue – November 21, 2013

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Lottery boost for Montgomery Canal

PHOTO:WATERWAY IMAGES

And £2 million has to be spent on extending the Aston nature reserve again under agreements in nature conservation management agreement as a provision for future restoration of the length to the Welsh Border.

There will be some work on the unnavigable, but watered section in Wales including dredging, towpaths, and boundaries. Structures on the Welsh side – such as Carreghofa Locks, bridges, sluices, and the Tanat Feeder – will also be repaired.

Reyahn King, head of HLF West Midlands, added: “This project will help bring the canal back to life as well as preserving rare natural habitats found along its course.

This is a great first step and we are looking forward to working with the trust on the development of proposals in the coming months.”

The trust will employee a temporary project manager and a community development officer to manage a range of volunteering and educational opportunities.

The funding announcement from HLF comes soon after £1 million has been invested to transform approximately 14 miles of the Montgomery Canal’s towpath between Newtown and Welshpool through a partnership between the Welsh Government, Glandwr Cymru – the Canal & River Trust in Wales, Powys County Council and Sustrans.

AN APPLICATION has been made direct to Staffordshire County Council for the construction of a 300-berth marina on Bagnall Farm, a few hundred yards above Bagnall Lock and the village of Alrewas on the Trent & Mersey Canal.

The reason that it has been made direct to the county, rather than Lichfield District Council, is that it involves the extraction of 450,000 tonnes of gravel and sand, which appears to be the main object of the exercise with the marina being the ‘excuse’ for this. Permission for gravel extraction in this part of the Trent Valley is a very sensitive public issue.

Excavation – to a depth of 3.5m – would take about three years alone, then 120,000cu m of clay

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would have to be brought in to seal the basin. Road access is via a narrow lane, hardly wide enough for two cars to pass The application is being handled by agents Greenfield Associates of Nottingham, representing London Rock Supplies.

An objection has already been lodged by IWA Lichfield Branch on the basis of boat movements; this section of the canal is already the busiest on the Canal & River Trust’s network. There is already queuing at locks above and below the site during busy periods. Also, there are many other local marinas with empty berths available.

The canal frontage for any proposed entrance is very short, although the land area opens out behind this. There is also a stream flowing under the canal in a culvert adjacent to the frontage.

A boat passing the site of the proposed Bagnall Marina. PHOTO:WATERWAY IMAGES

Derelict canalside property fetches £17,000 at auction

The derelict gauging stop and toll house (right of picture) on the Wyrley & Essington Canal at Friars Bridge, Pelsall. PHOTO:WATERWAY IMAGES

By Bob Clarke

Conditions Editorial is accepted subject to availability of space, and editorial policy on content and insertion cannot be guaranteed. The publishers retain the right to edit material submitted. Every effort is made to ensure accuracy through accurate and clear copy, but the publishers cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions.

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Proposed gravel pit would become new marina site

By Harry Arnold

Mid and West Wales AM Rebecca Evans opens the newly renovated towpath at Welshpool with, left, Jim Forrester, chairman of the CRT North Wales & Borders Waterways Partnership. The £1m Montgomery Canal route starts in Newtown and connects the communities of Llanllwchaiarn, Abermule and Berriew before reaching Welshpool.

See page 11 or call 01507

THE long abandoned and derelict gauging stop and toll house on the Wyrley & Essington Canal at Friars Bridge, Pelsall, has been sold at auction to an undisclosed buyer for £17,000 – £12,000 above the auctioneer’s guide price.

The auction catalogue described the property as ‘secluded with enchanting canal views’. But in reality it is near collapse with shrubs growing from the ruins.

Jonathan Hackett, partner and head of auctions for C P Bigwood of Birmingham, said: “It is not for the faint hearted and needs a devotee.”

Chairman of the Birmingham Canal Navigations Society, Brenda Ward, said that a nearby resident had expressed worries that children regularly played in the ruin and there was a real danger of injury if what was left of the building collapsed.

Charity responds to claim for judicial review THE Canal & River Trust has filed in the High Court its strong response to the judicial review claim that its guidance for boaters without a home mooring misrepresents the requirements of s.17 British Waterways Act 1995.

The guidance, which was first issued in 2004 and has been subject to substantial consultation with boating groups through its life, helps boaters to determine whether their movement patterns comply with the law and aims to ensure that the waterways are managed fairly for everyone.

Nick Brown received permission at the fourth attempt to take forward one limited aspect of his claim, three previous judges having decided that he had no arguable case. His claims regarding (among other things) human rights and equality law have already been rejected.

“This misconceived claim for judicial review should not mislead boaters. The trust’s guidance for

boaters without a home mooring remains valid and applicable,” said legal director Nigel Johnson. “Our response comprehensively answers each of the assertions Nick Brown makes and illustrates their flaws.”

The evidence submitted by the trust explains that use for navigation is a charitable public purpose but anyone who uses the waterways for their (floating) home without continuously cruising is deriving personal benefit which is a misuse and abuse of charitable property without a fair payment in return. The recently updated Charity Commission guidance on the issue of personal benefit makes this clear.

CRT chief executive Richard Parry said: “We welcome people who choose to live on our waterways as they bring life and colour to the canals and rivers, provided that everyone observes the rules. Our guidance is there to help boaters comply with the law.”

Boaters’ survey comes in for criticism THE Great Ouse Boating Association (GOBA) has severely criticised a recent survey launched by the Environment Agency Anglian region to gauge boaters’ opinion on the interchange agreement between the EA and the Conservators of the River Cam. According to GOBA, the online survey was only sent to boaters who had previously given their email address during annual boat registration. A spokesman described it

as: “A complete waste of money at a time when the EA navigation is unable to maintain the waterways to a reasonable standard.”

Boaters without online facilities, or choosing not to provide email addresses, have not been consulted regarding the current arrangement which sees river Cam boaters paying extra registration fees to use the Great Ouse waters and Great Ouse boaters having to pay extra to use the seven miles of Cam waters.

NEWS 3

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New Association of Continuous Cruisers launches in Birmingham

By Polly Player

THE newly-formed Association of Continuous Cruisers (ACC) officially launched on September 27, with the purpose of advocating for the interests of continuous cruisers and providing support and advice to its members.

There are currently around 5000 boats on CRT waters travelling under a continuous cruising declaration, making continuous cruisers a small but significant demographic of the 35,000 or so boats currently on the system.

The founders of the Association of Continuous Cruisers felt that there was an unmet need for a formal organisation and advocacy group for continuous cruisers, as none of the other existing boating groups and organisations are specifically tailored to support the unique nature of the continuous cruising lifestyle.

The Canal and River Trust has been widely supportive of the formation of the ACC, and has said that it will welcome the opportunity to work with the group to address issues of concern to the continuous cruising population.

Canal and River Trust’s head of boating Sally Ash told Towpath Talk: “Continuous cruisers who follow the mooring guidance are a huge benefit to the waterways. They among all boaters must be the ones with the most intimate knowledge of the intricacies of navigating our canals and rivers over a wide geographic area. We’re keen to harness this knowledge

in our work in maintaining the navigations and managing use for the benefit of all.”

One of the core tasks that the ACC intends to undertake is to challenge any negative perceptions that people may hold about continuous cruisers, and promote the profile of continuous cruisers as a valued asset to the waterways system. Reactions to the formation of the ACC among continuous cruisers has been overwhelmingly positive, with the initial rush to sign up when the organisation first opened for membership being followed by a steady stream of new members as word of the organisation spreads.

However, the announcement of the formation of the ACC received opposition from some quarters, with reasons ranging from dissatisfaction at the exclusivity of an organisation designed to promote and support one sub-section of boaters only, to concerns that the formation of another boating organisation would dilute and weaken the voice of existing boater groups.

The ACC is aware that many of the issues that face continuous cruisers also affect the wider boating population, particularly people who cruise extensively while retaining a home mooring and people who live aboard their boats on a home mooring. For this reason, the ACC offers a tiered membership structure to make provision for not only continuous cruisers, but also associate members who cruise extensively, and others who support the aims of the ACC but do not fulfil the criteria for full membership.

Issues such as access to medical care, winter moorings provision, the impact of changes to visitor mooring stay times and no-return rules, and the maintenance and preservation of the navigation itself are all topics that the ACC feels are of interest to the majority of its members and potential members.

On the rise

The Canal and River Trust has been monitoring the number of boaters making new continuous cruising declarations since January 2013, and the figures show that the number of continuous cruisers on CRT waters has been on the rise for some time.

CRT chairman Tony Hales and ACC committee member Sue Cotton. PHOTO:ACC

Dave and Gillie Rhodes, pictured with their dog, were two of the first continuous cruisers to sign up as members of the ACC which launched in Birmingham on September 27. PHOTO: JOHN SLOAN Since January 2013, an average of 67 boats joined CRT waters each month making a continuous cruising declaration as part of their licensing application.

Added to this, the monthly figure for established boaters moving from a designated home mooring to making a continuous cruising declaration is on the rise as well, with a net increase of 36 boats per month during the period of June 2012 to September 2013 (figures courtesy of the Canal & River Trust).

One of the main challenges that the ACC faces now is how to reach its members and potential new members, a population that is constantly in flux and in the main part, continuously in transit without a fixed mailing address. A lot of the ACC’s networking and promotional activities will take place over the internet, with members being encouraged to spread the word out on the cut as well by talking to other boaters and passing on information about the ACC. Many of the trading boats that cover large swathes of the system on a regular basis are already ensuring that word of the organisation is spreading fast.

● For more information about the Association of Continuous Cruisers or for a membership application, please see the website: www.associationofcontinuouscruisers.org.uk Or contact John Sloan: tel. 07759 207846 email. John.sloan@associationofcontinuouscruisers.org.uk

ELEVEN locks along the River Thames are to be closed for a period during the winter months while work takes place on a series of refurbishments and structural repairs.

The Environment Agency is investing £3 million in a programme of works to be carried out to maintain and replace navigation structures along the river.

The first to close was Teddington Barge Lock at the end of September,

where the work is lock-chamber walls and timber refurbishing, and the lock gates at Teddington Skiff Lock are being refurbished, with closure from November 4. Teddington Launch Lock is due to remain open during these two closures.

Most of the other closures from November 4 are at Grafton Lock, Rushey Lock, Osney Lock, Iffley Lock, Culham Lock, Whitchurch Lock and Shepperton Lock. The first works to be completed will be those at Teddington

Dog search

HAVE you seen this young, spayed, terrier bitch which went missing on Tuesday, September 17, possibly on the towpath, between Colemere and Ellesmere in Shropshire? Her owner wonders whether she may have strayed on to a boat; any sightings or information please to 07808 394646.

Towage warning

Agency outlines winter lock closures planned for the River Thames

By Elizabeth Rogers

IN BRIEF

Skiff Lock, Rushey Lock and Osney Lock just before Christmas, and the remainder are all due to be finished by the end of March.

Paul Power, Environment Agency waterways engineer for the River Thames, said: “The Environment Agency has more than 2000 assets along the River Thames which we maintain and keep to good and safe working order, helping thousands of people navigate this great river with peace of mind.

“This year we are investing more than £3 million and have a full programme of works. This combined with our dedicated staff who keep the river working to a high standard means that we can continue to provide an excellent level of service for boaters, businesses and the wider community.”

The investment is being provided to maintain the river as a reliable premier navigation for all its users.

AFTER a call from a reader whose insurance company rejected the VAT payment on his claim for towage after his boat broke down, Towpath Talk found that this service should have been zero rated. According to www.hmrc.gov.uk salvage and towage services (VTRANS160200), Item 8 of Group 8 zero-rates salvage operations and towage services for all shipping, and is not confined to qualifying ships.

Shipping in this context includes inland waterway vessels and all floating objects. The VAT charge in this case has since been reimbursed.

Pub purchase

THE Wharf House has acquired the Travellers Rest pub and restaurant at Newent in the Forest of Dean by auction on behalf of the Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust. It will be the only waterside pub on the restored canal and ownership will ensure it is used to promote the canal for the long term. The immediate plans are for the premises to be let to a tenant to take on running the business, providing income to support canal restoration.

Boater fined

BOAT owner Jason Ivo was recently fined £200 for failing to register his cruiser Monet Queen, formerly named Helios, which was moored on the River Cam at Stourbridge Common.

Following a trial at Cambridge Magistrates Court, he was convicted in his absence and also ordered to pay £602 in compensation to the Conservators of the River Cam for unpaid registration fees and costs of £1461.

4 NEWS

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A great place to see historic boats

By Harry Arnold

ALONG with Ellesmere Port, one of the great places to see historic boats – and vehicles – truly at home in their surrounding environment is Dudley’s Black Country Living Museum (BCLM).

Okay, apart from the canal and its famous tunnel and the lime kilns, most of the historic buildings and artefacts have been moved in. It was a sewage works when I first went through the tunnel, but it is none the worse for that; the BCLM looks right and what’s more feels right.

The museum has its own collection of resident craft, the best known being the steamer President and its butty Kildare, whose travels under the care of the Friends of President are a great promotion for this

Midlands tourist attraction and Dudley itself.

According to the published programme list there should have been another 51 historic boats in addition to the locals but it appeared that some hadn’t actually arrived. We were told by other skippers that this was true and it was suggested to us that some crews were maybe suffering from a little ‘event fatigue’; dashing between a series of closely spaced rallies. A pity, because these deepdraughted boats really keep the channel clear – a fact which organisers might bear in mind for the future.

But this aside, there were quite enough boats to see, making a spectacle to gladden the eye. A beauty of the BCLM event is the variety of narrowboats – particularly contrasting the

perhaps more glamorous decoration of the long-distance carriers with the often plainer finish of the workhorses of the Birmingham and Black Country canals, the tugs and Joey boats.

Demonstrations of towing by the latter in a closely strapped together train in and out of the museum arm into the main canal – negotiating the right angle turn under the lift bridge and the available channel through the moored boats – are always entertaining examples of BCN boating skills at this venue.

As with many of this year’s boating events – and unlike the rain which somewhat dampened the atmosphere of the last BCLM gathering – the sun shone and, as they say in the Black Country, a ‘bostin’ time was had by both boaters and museum visitors.

Bostin Black Country fare at the fairground.

Superb examples of restored sister Grand Union motor boats in contrasting yellow colour schemes: Darley in early 1948 BW livery and Whitby in Three Fellows Carrying paintwork.

Boats moored in the arm below the elegant Broad Street Bridge which once spanned the BCN Main Line above Wolverhampton Locks. PHOTOS:WATERWAY IMAGES

Tipton canal festival is visited by CRT chief

By Les Heath

A TRIBUTE to canal enthusiasts and volunteers was paid at Tipton Canal and Community Festival by the chief executive of the Canal & River Trust, Richard Parry.

Mingling with the crowds and boaters at the festival, he told Towpath Talk: “Wherever I go I am hugely amazed at meeting people like this.”

He was referring particularly to a group of enthusiasts who have ‘adopted’ a section of canal from Factory Junction to the festival site.

The talk was all about boats, but whether it made horse-sense was anybody’s guess.

Ready, steady… bike!

Cyclists raise £40k for Canal & River Trust projects THE four day Great British Bike-Off, which saw 31 cyclists ride 300 miles from the Olympic Park in London, raised almost £40,000 for vital maintenance, heritage and ecology projects.

Riding on roads and cycleways parallel to waterways such as the Grand Union, Trent & Mersey and the Macclesfield canals, and taking in sights

including Hatton Locks and Standedge Tunnel, they finished on September 28 at the Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire.

Ruth Ruderham, the Canal & River Trust’s head of fundraising, said: “Hopefully the fantastic fundraising work our cyclists have done will make up in some way for the pain of cycling a few hundred miles.”

Steamer President and butty Kildare arrive at the festival.

Canal & River Trust chief executive Richard Parry by a decorated boat at the Tipton festival. PHOTOS: LES HEATH

As he lives in nearby Solihull, the chief executive has even been known to lend a hand with local canal projects.

The two day festival, which attracted boats from the Black Country festival the previous weekend, had all the usual attractions including historic working boats, boat trips to the Black Country Museum and a visit by the steamer President and butty Kildare.

Working boats breasted up at the festival.

The cyclists at the Anderton Boat Lift after their marathon ride. PHOTO: CANAL & RIVER TRUST

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Second canal festival boosts Burnley tourism

By Geoff Wood

CANALS were once the making of towns like Burnley in north east Lancashire. Now they are again ushering in a new era of tourism in the post industrial age.

Two hundred years ago cotton from the Mississippi Basin and Egypt floated in to fire the economy of Burnley as a major weaving centre. Today the Leeds & Liverpool Canal is still relevant but as a venue for leisure.

Recently narrowboat enthusiasts made their journeys from around the UK for a canal festival with historic overtones and helped give modern day Burnley an economic boost from tourism.

This was the second year in succession for the Burnley Canal Festival held over three days in mid-September.

A wide range of events was available for visitors including boat trips along the canal, craft and food stalls. There was also a street theatre a photography exhibition, live music and fairground rides.

Fireworks were a big draw and popular also were canoeing taster session.

This being a weaving area, visitors were not too surprised to see giant puppet sheep. There were prizes for the best decorated narrowboats and many owners made the effort to deck their craft in union flags and bunting.

One of the most impressive boats, however, was New Dawn, a replica Dutch barge from Liverpool.

One of the decorated narrowboats.

Queen of the fleet: New Dawn, a replica Dutch barge from Liverpool. PHOTOS GEOFF WOOD

Owners Nigel and Cathy Lee had left Liverpool on July 11 and sailed to York, Lincoln and Nottingham.

But they decided to return via Burnley and the canal festival.

Cathy said: “This is a boat for the larger canals but she can also sail at sea if the weather is right.” Husband Nigel said he enjoyed some river work they had done on route where New Dawn moved at three times her normal speed. The couple were also representing the Dutch Barge Association on their journey.

As popular as the events were, there was much atmosphere to be had in the historic setting for the festival in an area known as the Weavers’ Triangle.

Fronted by a large pub for ample refreshments, the route gave away to a stone towpath and the original wharf for canal boats complete with cavernous storage area.

The whole area was rich in history although, as with a similar wharf at Blackburn, some areas inside had been converted into modern offices.

Organiser Emma Bartlet, communities officer for the Canal & River Trust, said: “The first festival last year attracted a national waterways award – and we were very pleased about that. The idea is to get people in the community interested in the canal and in the heritage of Burnley.”

Friendly festival in the Black Country

Birmingham’s first floating market draws the crowds

By Polly Player

A tight squeeze for former British Waterways butty Malus now run jointly by the BCNS and Coombeswood Canal Trust.

By Les Heath

A rural scene at what was once an industrial landscape on the first day of the Black Country Boating Festival.

PHOTOS: LES HEATH

Dutch barge owners Nigel and Cathy Lee.

CONTRASTING weather conditions set the scene for this year’s Black Country Boating Festival at Windmill End, Netherton.

Crowds flocked to the event on the first day but even the rain and wind of the second day did not dampen the enjoyment and enthusiasm so evident at this friendly festival.

This was the 28th festival and the event is now firmly fixed on the boating calendar and many boaters move on to Tipton for more enjoyment the following weekend.

The festival included a full programme of band entertainment, stalls, canal trips and two historic boat parades.

At the close of the event, the deputy mayor of Dudley, Coun Margaret Aston, made presentations to festival helpers and supporters and also received a cheque from the festival for the mayor’s charity fund.

BIRMINGHAM’s first floating market took place over the weekend of September 28-29 on the Birmingham Main Line Canal next to the National Indoor Arena.

Chairman of the Canal & River Trust Tony Hales opened the market with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to 21 trading boats plying a diverse range of wares including fenders, canal art and personalised poetry.

Over 2000 visitors browsed and shopped at the event over the course of the two days, many taking the opportunity to chat to boaters about boating life and take a look around the attending Norbury Wharf hire boat.

The Canal & River Trust also brought a boat to the event to raise the profile of the trust and encourage visitors to learn more about Britain’s inland waterways.

It is hoped that the success of this first floating market will pave the way for similar events in the future, both in Birmingham and across other parts of the system.

Canal & River Trust chairman Tony Hales cuts the ribbon to officially open Birmingham’s first floating market.

PHOTO: CHRIS PARKER

Dressed up for sale.

PHOTO: POLLY PLAYER

Trading boats moored at the floating market. PHOTO: POLLY PLAYER

6 NEWS

IN BRIEF Mooring options

THE Canal & River Trust is trialling a range of new winter mooring options for continuous cruisers.

A cheaper general towpath mooring permit will allow boaters the flexibility of mooring anywhere on the towpath for a month or more, with the exception of visitor moorings and a few other local sites. Four central mooring sites have also been developed in London.

Continuous cruisers can now book five and three month winter mooring permits and one month permits will go live on November 1. Other boaters will be able to secure winter moorings at selected visitor sites from November 1.

Bridge collapse

A BRIDGE over a canal at Warrington, Cheshire, collapsed as a lorry drove over it, writes Geoff Wood.

The structure over the St Helens Canal was said to be due for replacement next year.

In the incident, the lorry carrying sand and mud tipped up and slid backwards through the bridge. The vehicle was stuck and had to be removed by heavy lifting gear.

A spokesman for Warrington council confirmed that the bridge was due to be replaced following an inspection.

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Putting the sparkle back into Beeston

By Janet Richardson

A CAMPAIGN to transform four derelict lockside cottages into a heritage and training centre has been awarded £687,200 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

This means that work to restore the Weir Cottages at Beeston Rylands near Nottingham can start in the spring. The Environment Agency will clear the site early in 2014 and it is hoped to complete the development by 2015.

As reported last November in Towpath Talk, the Canalside Heritage Centre Trust (CHC) was formed in 2009 by members of the local community and following a three year campaign, had passed the first round of a HLF bid.

Chairman Stewart Craven said: “I started to look into the prospect of saving the Weir Cottages from falling further into oblivion through lack of care when I had to take early retirement from work due to an accident.

“I have lived on a narrowboat on the Beeston Cut for nearly 13 years and always wondered why the then British Waterways were not doing anything to repair the cottages.”

Following a chance meeting with local watercolour artist Janet Barnes, talking to residents and many visits to the Nottingham Archives, he realised what would be lost if the cottages were allowed to further deteriorate.

CHC chairman Stewart Craven with architect Julian Owen.

Plans were drawn up by local architect and trustee Julian Owen to restore the cottages to how they were when they were built in 1796 plus a contemporary extension with a community cafe and disabled access. He said the project had been a pleasure to work on.

Stewart continued: “The call from the Heritage Lottery Fund informing us that we had been granted Stage 2 Lottery funding was the icing on the cake after the four years of chipping away at ‘a dream’.”

Lease of life

Plans include a contemporary extension with a community cafe.

Having received 79% of the total project cost of £865,549, the project still needs almost £75,000 to reach the full amount but this should be covered by various grants.

A HLF spokesperson said: “This project gives a new lease of life to these historic and important lock cottages. It will help inform and educate local people and visitors about the valuable heritage of the Nottingham Canal from its 18th century heyday.”

Thanking everyone – there are too many to name individually – who has rallied round the campaign, Stewart added: “This has been made possible with not only the amazing support of the HLF and LIS (Nottinghamshire County Council’s Local Improvement Scheme) but the brilliant support of the local community and a very capable board of trustees.

“I know ‘the dream’ will happen and bring Beeston Waterfront to life and put the sparkle back into Beeston.”

Opened in 1796, the Beeston Cut is a small but important link between the Nottingham Canal and the River Trent, with a rich history.

This followed the line of the existing Blotah Dyke from the Beeston Meadows through to the Nottingham Canal at Lenton.

The weir was built to hold the river back and provide the navigable depth required.

Built at the same time for Trent Navigation Company workers, the cottages are among the oldest important buildings on the canal and a groundswell of interest has emerged to see them restored for the benefit of the community.

Facilities planned include: ● Heritage museum and exhibition gallery. ● Resource centre for use by schools and community groups. ● Restored cottage garden for use as a community grow-your-own produce scheme. ● Community cafe with space for outside tables. ● Fishing tackle shop. ● Cycle hire facilities.

The derelict Weir Cottages which are to be restored to their former glory.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

● To follow the project’s progress visit www.canalsideheritagecentre.org.uk or ‘like’ the Beeston Canalside Heritage Centre page on Facebook

Bid to reinstate lock bridged over for the London Olympics

By Bob Naylor

CARPENTERS Road Lock in the middle of the Olympic Park was covered over to make a level walkway to the games and should have been reinstated, however that never happened, and now the Canal & River Trust is launching a Heritage Lottery Fund grant bid to reinstate it.

Speaking at the World Canals Conference, in Toulouse, in September, Roger Squires of the Inland Waterways Association said: “The aim was to make the Olympic Games as friendly as possible for people with disabilities so flat access was needed. Unfortunately Carpenters Road Lock, a unique lock with rising ‘radial’ gates at both ends, was in the middle.

“The whole of the Carpenters Road Lock area was bridged over for the games to enable people to get there – but because it was not going to be seen by the games public, no money was set aside to reinstate the lock – just money for the landscaping around it.”

Roger called on delegates to the conference to add their support to a bid being made by CRT for an HLF grant for the lock to be reinstated as a working facility.

The lock was built in the 1930s to help prevent

Roger Squires speaking at the World Canals Conference in Toulouse. PHOTO: BOB NAYLOR,WATERMARX© flooding in the Lower Lea Valley and to allow boats to navigate around the tidal and semi tidal rivers and canals.

CRT plans would allow boats to navigate two circular cruising loops threading through the Olympic Park and creating a new waterside destination as well as providing an important flood control for the Lower Lea Valley.

The total cost of the project is likely to be £1.5 million and CRT has so far got £650,000.

RYA SPOTLIGHT 7

www.towpathtalk.co.uk The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) is the national body for all forms of boating, including dinghy and yacht racing, motor and sail cruising, RIBs and sports boats, powerboat racing, windsurfing, inland cruising and narrowboats and personal watercraft.

Time to go phosphate free HARDLY a week goes by without a mention of weed, and the ever-growing number of inland marinas, clubs and boaters with tangled equipment.

Or of clogged up lakes, canals and rivers making a day’s cruise or any form of racing at best a struggle and at worst impossible.

Ironically, prolific weed and algal growth is often the result of a heady mix of nutrient rich water and great summer boating weather. The warm conditions that follow a cold winter such as last year

are an open invitation to dormant underwater species to spring back into life with a vengeance.

But the resulting blankets of weed and algal blooms not only cause problems for boaters but smother the surface of the water, blocking out light, reducing oxygen and killing any aquatic life underneath.

While the RYA provides guidance on how to deal with the weed once it becomes established (take a look at http://tinyurl.com/RYAadviceonWeed),

The blankets of weed and algal bloom not only cause problems for boaters.

there are a number of things boaters can do to help minimise any unintentional contribution they might be making to the problem.

Nitrates and phosphates are the main culprits, providing food for weed and algae. Although they are already present in water bodies, there are various ways in which the level of concentration can be increased – a process known as ‘eutrophication’ and human activities including our recreation time on the water is just one of those ways.

You may not know that many cleaning and maintenance products used in the galley, heads or on deck contain phosphates as well as various other chemicals such as chlorine and potassium hydroxide.

But thankfully these days phosphate free detergents are more common and can be found in the supermarket aisles, in the local chandlery or even on the water. Look no further than the narrowboat Tia operating on the canals around the South Midlands and selling a wide range of environmentally responsible cleaning products.

And it’s not just washing-up liquid, think about the products you might use in dishwashers and washing machines, in fact anything that produces grey water which is still generally discharged overboard.

It’s good to see that along with The Green Blue, the environment initiative of the RYA and BMF, the Canal & River Trust is also encouraging boaters to do their bit. Aside for looking for more environmentally friendly liquid products, try a detergent free wash ball in your washing machine. Or if you want to go a step further, you

IN BRIEF

Canalside plans

OLD warehouses across the Grand Union Canal from West Drayton rail station at Yiewsley, could be demolished to make way for three housing blocks with a total of 50 flats. Developer Clearview Homes Ltd, says the project will form part of a masterplan to regenerate the site, which has long been used for warehousing but is not part of a designated industrial or business area (IBA), as well as the surrounding area including the town centre. Hillingdon councillors are expected to make a decision in mid-November.

Audio trails IN DERBYSHIRE there is a chance

Nutrient-rich water and warm weather encourages weed and algal growth.

PHOTOS: RYA

could even install a grey water filter system on board.

The latest systems remove all pollutants such as detergents, soaps, oils, fats and chemicals from basins, showers, and galley appliances on board before discharging clean water so no need for a grey water tank.

Take a look at Wavebrite’s system on www.wavebrite.co.uk for more information. ● If you’d like to know more about sustainable boating contact The Green Blue on info@thegreenblue.org.uk or take a look at The Green Directory www.sailingnetworks .com/green – a one-stop-shop for environmentally friendly equipment and products for use on board and ashore.

to get a little more out of walks along and around a major waterway, writes Geoff Wood.

Free audio trails along the Chesterfield Canal have now been made available by Derbyshire County Council. They are among 16 routes around the county which take walkers on journeys which examine wartime tragedies, industrial heritage and other stories. Visit www.hiddengems.org.uk to download the trails.

Clearing the way

YEW clippings dumped in the canal blocked the path for members of the Lancaster Canal Trust heading to the recent Westmorland Show near Kendal. These had to be cleared before they could moor their trip boat Waterwitch and start boat trips. Trust volunteers manned the canal entrance ticket stall for the show organisers as well as running their own stand which attracted many visitors.

8 NETWORKING

SOCIETY NEWS New tractor THE Herefordshire &

Gloucestershire Canal Trust has bought a new Kubota tractor thanks to a £20,000 grant to help establish a dedicated maintenance team for the canal. It has a flail attachment to mow the towpath and canal banks and the trust’s fabrication team has been building a trailer so that it can be moved between sites. The cash which was made possible with a matched funding of £4063 from the trust and The Wharf House also helped to buy a commercial strimmer, chainsaw and safety equipment.

(The Wharfinger, Autumn 2013)

Open day a boat boost

AN OPEN day designed to widen the appeal of a charitable trust’s canal boat was held recently, writes Geoff Wood. Skipton and Craven Action for Disability operates cruises on its boat Endeavour for disabled residents from care homes, nursing homes and charities. The group’s chief executive Roy Aldred said: “The boat provides much enjoyment for people who’d otherwise not be able to get out.”

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Bridgewater Motor Boat Club open day proves successful A CELEBRATION of the waterways heritage of Runcorn proved a great opportunity to introduce people to the facilities on their doorstep, and also benefited a local disability partnership, writes Hilary Foster.

Residents of Runcorn turned out in force at an open day at Bridgewater Motor Boat Club on September 7.

Held in conjunction with the Halton Disability

Droitwich freedom FOUNDER member of the

Droitwich Canals Trust and winner of an English Heritage Angel Award last year, Max Sinclair, has received another accolade. He was awarded the Freedom of Droitwich Town with a medal and illuminated address at a civic dinner on September 23. (Historic Narrow Boat Club newsletter 2013/3)

Birdswood launch

THE Friends of Cromford Canal will officially launch its trip boat Birdswood during the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Discovery Days on November 2-3. Attractions will include boat trips and free children’s activities. (The Portal, Summer 2013)

Lock Ransom A SUCCESSFUL and fun weekend

and lock ransom organised by the IWA Chiltern branch at Marswoth raised more than £400 for waterways causes. (IWA Chiltern, September e-News)

Looking ahead

THE Northampton IWA branch is planning to stage a major gathering at Becket’s Park in Northampton in 2005 to mark the bicentenary of the Arm. (Endeavour, August 2013)

Working weekend AROUND 100 Waterway Recovery

Group volunteers will descend on Stroud on November 9-10 to help the Cotswold Canals Trust carry out winter restoration work. They will carry out activities such as vegetation and lock clearance, scaffolding and concrete work along the line of the canal, from Brimscombe Port towards Stroud.

Club members doing the catering.

Partnership, the event was supported by the Mersey Community First Panel.

There were boat trips available on the Wizard, the trip boat belonging to Warrington Disability Partnership, while several local groups played aboard the wide boat Ada which is just one of the boats in the fleet belonging to the Canal Boat Adventure Project.

The event was attended by the Mayor of Halton, Coun Margaret Radcliffe, and David Atkinson of the Halton Disability Partnership. Volunteers of the Bridgewater Motor Boat Club not only worked on site to make everything go so well but also did the catering.

Any money raised from the Bridgewater 2013 event will help support the work of Halton Disability Partnership, a charity which helps to support and give advice to the people of Halton. It was also a great opportunity for the boat club to show off its wonderful site including the clubhouse to the local people, many of whom have never been inside the club’s grounds before. Of particular interest were the many pennants around the site that were painted by the children at Victoria Road and Westfield Primary schools showing the history of the area.

Bridgewater Motor boat club, which has a long history of supporting local charities, holds an event

Boat trips on the Wizard. PHOTOS: BMBC every year for the charity of its choice. This year’s event is the first time it has done so together with Halton Disability Partnership.

The afternoon was filled with entertainment by local groups and ended the day with the boat club’s own group Tuppence Change – formed by the chairman of BMBC who is a long-time fan of the Lancashire folk group Five Penny Piece.

The band plays at some of the club’s social gatherings and members include Dave Davenport on banjo, Geoff Brown, guitar and Graeme Bridge, chairman and founder, who plays bass guitar and vocals, other members include Brian Evens, lead guitar and on the evening Sue Bridge, vocals.

Other artists were Tom Doughty and Graham Bellinger, The Chimps ‘spaghetti skiffle’, Jim Green ‘60s folk revival’, Jean Finny, local folk club performer and the Access all Areas project based at the Studio in Widnes and many other up and coming groups.

Lancaster Canal wildlife corridor gives a lift to international charity

The towpath road to recovery

SEVERAL groups of walkers recently took advantage of the Lancaster Canal including the annual walk by St Patrick’s Church, Preston Patrick, that started on the canal at Millness.

They headed north on the towpath before cutting across on a circular route via the old tramway and following the canal feeder from Peasey Beck, (tributary of the River Bela) that runs out of Killington Lake.

A historic commentary given by churchwarden Tony Mason was much appreciated by about 15 walkers.

Another group was led by the Rt Revd Peter Hullah and his wife Penny of Twickenham, who did a sponsored walk

CANALS are often associated with health and well-being and one stroke victim is convinced that towpath walks have put him on the road to recovery.

Ted Unwin of Shevington, near Wigan, had to give up his job as a manufacturing engineer for British Aerospace.

But as his condition improved he stepped out along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal with his dog Sam. He said: “I was determined that I would try to get out and about with the dog as soon as possible and that certainly helped me get my mobility back.

from Lancaster to Kendal with a boat ride on the narrowboat Waterwitch at Crooklands, stopping to view the Hincaster horse path and tunnel, a scheduled ancient monument, then on to Kendal.

They were raising money for Women’s Education Partnership, an inclusive humanitarian charity, and Together for Sudan, which includes educating and training deprived young Sudanese women.

Lancaster Canal Trust was pleased to receive a copy of an email from Norman Swanney of Women’s Educational Partnership congratulating Peter and Penny’s group.

By Geoff Wood

Cromford Canal trips get off to a sunny start DURING a warm sunny Saturday afternoon on September 28, the first Cromford Canal boat trips got under way after a gap of 20 years, writes Derick Spencer.

Birdswood had a full complement of passengers for its first trip and on returning to Cromford Wharf all on board remarked how peaceful and enjoyable the trip had been.

The official launch is due to take place on November 3 when the ceremony will be performed by archaeologist Julian Richards, patron of the Friends of Cromford Canal.

Regular public trips will take place on Saturdays, Sundays and

Wednesdays at 10.30am and 2pm throughout the year. These will usually be motor driven but horse-drawn trips, costing an extra £1 per person, will be offered on special occasions.

At the time of writing FCC could not run its full intended service to wind at High Peak Junction, trips having to go to the Swing Bridge and then reverse back. Therefore a reduced charge of £5 adults, £4 concessions and £2.50 children has been in operation.

A pair of coots lead the way through the beautiful countryside of the Cromford Canal. The start of the public trips had been delayed in order not to disturb a coot’s nest.

● Discounts may be made for group bookings or private charters, contact 07552 055455 for more information. www.cromfordcanal.info

The first group of passengers prepare to board Birdswood. PHOTOS: DERICK SPENCER

Ted Unwin with his dog Sam.

PHOTO: GEOFF WOOD

“I walked mostly to Dean Locks where the railway, the river, the canal and the motorway cross.

Ted added: “I am now fully recovered and the effects of the stroke do not show anymore.”

Disappointment at lack of progress on basin scheme THE Friends of Slough Canal are disappointed with the continuing lack of progress on proposals to redevelop the area around the canal basin in Stoke Road, Slough.

Although they are aware of the difficulties faced by the Canal & River Trust as a result of the precipitate withdrawal at a late stage of one potential developer, they consider that more effort should be put into alternative negotiations.

“The basin could and should be an attractive feature of the town, but in its present condition is little short of an eyesore,” a spokesman said.

Apart from mounting their own stand at the recent Slough Festival, as reported last month, the friends were instrumental in promoting a display by a postgraduate engineering student from the University of East London on the proposed Slough Canal – River Thames navigable waterway link. A similar display was exhibited at the National Waterways Festival at Watford in July where it attracted considerable attention.

Research into this project continues and a fair amount of documentation is available to anyone willing to take up the baton of promoting the link.

The friends are actively engaged in discussions with other parties regarding the creation of a ‘pollinator patch’ on land near Trenches Lane Bridge. This would involve seeding an area with plants friendly to bees and other pollinating insects. A seeding/planting operation is scheduled for Saturday October 26. ● For further information contact the Friends on 07542 168444, email friendsofsloughcanal@hotmail.co.uk or visit Facebook group: Friends of Slough Canal.

Ready to leave the wharf.

NETWORKING 9

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Booster for lock gates appeal

The IWA Lincolnshire Branch presents £2000 towards the cost of the new gates. Pictured from left are: GCS treasurer Ralph Poore, IWA Lincolnshire branch chairman Dave Carnell, GCS chairman Mike Stone and Andy Martin Lincs IWA treasurer.

PHOTO: DAVE CARNELL

WORK to replace the lower gates at Lock 18 at Woolsthorpe-byBelvoir has now been completed, ensuring that the navigable stretch of the Grantham canal from the A1 to Woolsthorpe can be further extended by nearly a mile and the other locks at Woolsthorpe can be used.

The work has been made possible by the Grantham Canal Society which has raised over £30,000 to fund the cost of the new gates.

Mike Stone, chairman of the society says: “This has been an amazing achievement and support has come from the many people and organisations that responded to our appeal.

“The importance of this cooperation and support for the project cannot be overstated.

Without it the society would have struggled to complete this phase of restoration of the canal.”

Hargreaves Lock Gates of Halifax installed the new gates with the help of the GCS volunteer workforce and a crane supplied by Chris Allsop Crane Hire. The society’s workforce was able to access the lock through land farmed by John Moulsher, a long-time supporter of the restoration of the canal, and the work was done under the authority of the Canal & River Trust which is the canal owner.

● If anyone wishes to make a donation to support further restoration projects or become a volunteer please go to www.virginmoneygiving.com/granthamcanal or the society website: www.granthamcanal.org for further details.

Towpath trek for the Thyroid Foundation

Piling work along the Haven river

The piling work on the Haven river at Boston. PHOTO SUPPLIED WORK has started to install piling along a 244m stretch of the Haven river in Boston, Lincolnshire.

The work is taking place using two jack-up barges on the west bank between St Ann’s Lane and Pulvertoft Lane and is due to finish in May 2014.

But before the sheet piling could take place, obstructions such as a number of wrecks had to be removed.

The jack-up barges sit 15m from the bank so along that stretch, dependant on exact location, 10-15m is available at high tides for vessels to get past. The channel is used by boats crossing between the River Witham at Grand Sluice and the South Forty-Foot Drain at the Black Sluice lock.

Miller’s backing earns award THE Commercial Boat Owners’ Association (CBOA) recently presented a 2013 Award of Excellence to the flour miller, William Nelstrop & Co of Stockport.

For over 30 years Nelstrop has used barges to collect imported wheat from Seaforth in Liverpool and discharge it into lorries at Frodsham or Runcorn in Cheshire. Savings have been enjoyed in terms of both costs and to the environment.

At a recent meeting David Lowe, chairman of the CBOA presented the award to Damon Escott from Nelstrops and said: “Our member Viaduct Shipping and Nelstrops have developed an enviable operational model that clearly shows the very significant benefits of involving barges in the supply chain.” ● It is estimated that Nelstrops has: Saved more than 54,000 vehicle journeys Saved the equivalent in road miles of one lorry travelling 60 times around the globe Saved over 1 million litres of road fuel. www.cboa.org.uk www.nelstrop.co.uk

Jill Liddington and partner Julian Harber at Soulbury Three Locks.

PHOTO: BRITISH THYROID FOUNDATION

By Geoff Wood

A PENSIONER who undertook a canal walk to London from her home in the Pennines declared it was a “truly marvellous experience”.

Author and historian Jill Liddington, 67, started her towpath walk in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, and ended up 206 miles later in London’s Granary Square.

Jill, who herself suffers from an underactive thyroid, was stepping out on the 23 day trek to raise money for the British Thyroid Foundation. At the time of writing the walk had netted more than £2300.

After heading to Manchester, through Cheshire, the Midlands and the Chilterns, when Jill arrived in London she was given a celebrity reception.

She said: “The canal walk all the way to London was a daring plunge for me. I have never done such a long distance walk before.

But it turned out to be a truly marvellous experience.

“I was accompanied by one or more walkers every step of the journey. And the friendship I experienced on route was tremendously heart-warming.”

Community boat carries its 1000th passenger A COMMUNITY BOAT launched in Bedford at the start of the summer has carried its 1000th passenger.

Clare Buddle was presented with a bottle of bubbly by the B&MK Waterway Trust chairman Graham Mabbutt.

Devised, delivered and now run by volunteers, the 60seater John Bunyan has been the success story of the summer with local businesses chartering trips, schools and families getting on board and national coach tour operators being shown the sights from the water.

Said Graham: “This has been a great start to the life of the John Bunyan and we hope we are helping introduce people to the joys of the waterways.”

The community boat was launched by the B&MK Waterway Trust to help promote its long-term plans to link the River Great Ouse to the Grand Union Canal.

Clare Buddle, with son Jamie, is pictured receiving the bottle of bubbly from B&MK Waterway Trust chairman Graham Mabbutt.

REPORT & PHOTO: MANNERSPR

10 VOLUNTEERING

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WORK PARTY ROUNDUP WITH IWA’S ALISON SMEDLEY

Cheshire volunteers complete year of lock flight work VOLUNTEERS from IWA North Staffordshire & South Cheshire Branch have now completed their work on the Rode Heath and Church Lawton flights of the Cheshire Locks on the Trent & Mersey Canal.

Starting back in August 2012 at Lock 54, and working in partnership with the Trent & Mersey Canal Society and Canal & River Trust, a year’s worth of monthly work parties have seen volunteers painting, weeding and clearing vegetation at these six locks.

The last work party on this section of the Cheshire locks took place on Saturday, September 21, at Lock 49.

Work will now move down the flight to Malkins Bank, as a result of a request from local residents following favourable comments made about the work carried out at Rode Heath and Church Lawton.

Lock 49 at Church Lawton receives the Cheshire Locks Work Party Treatment.

PHOTO: BOB LUSCOMBE

Cleaning up the Nottingham Canal

Superb turnout as team takes on Southcote

IWA Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Branch, working in partnership with the Canal & River Trust, held a very successful canal clean up along the canals of Nottingham on Saturday, September 21.

The two canals, the Beeston Cut and the Nottingham Canal, are four-anda-half miles long and over the years much rubbish has been thrown in or fallen in to them.

At Beeston Lock 19 volunteers gathered where, after a health and safety briefing, they were split into two groups. One group, with lifejackets and grappling hooks at the ready, set off on a work boat to pull rubbish out of the canal towards the city centre. Other volunteers, including one family on bicycles, set off to do litter picking in the vicinity of Beeston Lock and along the Beeston Cut. At least 10 full bags of rubbish were collected.

The group on board the work boat, meanwhile, were pulling out some large objects from the bridge holes along the Beeston Cut, and along the Nottingham Canal towards the city centre.

Both groups congregated at the Castle Marina retail park around lunchtime where sandwiches were eaten and a hot drink from the cabin of CRT’s work boat was very welcome.

Among the items pulled out of the canal during the course of the day were: numerous bicycles, several shopping trolleys, various types and models of chairs, a skateboard, a mattress, various bits of metal pipework, some fabric, a few road

IWA Guildford & Reading Branch held its first work party on September 25 with the task of painting Southcote Lock on the Kennet & Avon Canal.

The branch hoped for a good turnout to allow overgrown vegetation to be cut in addition to the painting but never expected 28 volunteers to offer their time.

This is one of the largest turnouts of volunteers at an IWA branch work party this year with some people coming from as far afield as Bristol.

With so many volunteers, Southcote Lock was rubbed down and repainted within the day – a great improvement.

Additionally, a team tackled overgrown vegetation on the towpath with another group litter picking. These volunteers worked quite some distance in both

Preparing for Banbury Canal Day

IWA Oxfordshire Branch held its second September work party on the 24th at Banbury Lock. The task was to tidy up the area around the Oxford Canal in Banbury Town Centre so that a good impression could be made to all visitors at the Banbury Canal Day on October 6.

With a good size group the lock gates were repainted, as were the 100 or so mooring bollards, and the towpath was tidied with vegetation cut back and litter cleared away.

Many of the boaters passing through

IWA Chester & Merseyside volunteers cleaning around Wharf Square on the Dee Branch. PHOTO: GILLIAN BOLT

cones, one TV set, a cigarette vending machine, a statue of the Hindu god Ganesh, numerous tyres and a lady’s thigh-high leather boot.

Most of the rubbish was unloaded from the work boat at the Canal & River Trust depot at Trent Street Bridge in Nottingham, before the boat returned the volunteers back to Beeston Lock at the end of the day, collecting up yet more rubbish along the way.

IWA Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Branch and Canal & River Trust would like to hold a further event, probably in the spring. Anyone interested in taking part next time is invited to let Alison Smedley, branch campaign officer for The Inland Waterways Association, know on 07779 090915 or by email alison.smedley@waterways.org.uk

Second monthly party tackles Northampton

Preparing the lock gate for painting.

PHOTO: STEFANIE PRESTON

the lock were grateful for the work that was being carried out by the volunteers and the help offered with the lock gates, which were not easy to open without getting paint on your clothes.

First work party starts to prepare for IWA National Campaign Rally WITH the IWA’s National Campaign Rally coming to Chester in June 2014, volunteers from IWA Chester & Merseyside Branch have started regular monthly work parties to spruce up the neglected arm of the Shropshire Union Canal, which goes down into the River Dee at Chester.

An audience gathers as a vending machine is pulled out of the Nottingham Canal. PHOTO:ALISON SMEDLEY

Locally known as the Dee Branch, the canal is little used at present and the river lock has fallen into disrepair so the whole area was in need of some attention.

On the first work party, on Saturday, September 21, scouts from the 1st Willaston Scout Group carried out painting of lock railings, litter clearance and weeding around the wharf square. Other volunteers cut back vegetation opposite the flats and rediscovered the flight of steps that leads up to the road.

Prior to their efforts the whole flight was hidden among the long grass and brambles so this was a huge improvement. Yet more volunteers ‘prepped’ the lock gates and repainted them in the Shropshire Union colours of grey and white.

This was the first of several work parties that will be held over the next few months, in partnership with Canal & River Trust and local community groups, to try to improve the whole aspect of the Dee Branch prior to the Campaign Rally which takes place over the weekend of June 6-8, 2014, at Tower Wharf, Chester and the surrounding area.

FOLLOWING the ‘adoption’ of the Northampton Arm of the Grand Union Canal by IWA Northamptonshire Branch earlier this year, and their first work party in July, branch volunteers have continued the work with monthly work parties.

The second work party, on August 18, continued work started at Lock 17 in Northampton, and included strimming and general vegetation clearance. The landing below the lock was lengthened revealing a bollard, long buried under 3ft high overgrowth.

Boats up to 70ft are now able to land crew easily rather than just 40ft previously. Shrubs and trees adjoining the lock landing were cut back to create an improved margin depth along the length of the landing and improve access to the lock.

Floating debris and weed was also removed above the lock; and litter picking, edging and weed clearance was undertaken. It was good to see the paintwork completed at the first task party at the lock a month earlier still looking bright and shiny.

IWA Northampton Branch will be working closely with Canal & River Trust and also local companies, residents associations, community and youth groups to encourage participation at these monthly work parties.

Manchester tasks continue to vary

THE monthly work parties organised jointly by IWA Manchester Branch and Canal & River Trust have continued to carry out a variety of tasks around the canals of Greater Manchester.

In August and September the work was based around Hanover Street Bridge on the Ashton Canal where a range of tasks were carried out including excavating inspection holes, unblocking drains, temporary repairs to water catchment channels, concreting for new water catchment channels and removing vegetation from access steps.

directions of the lock and successfully made the towpath far more pleasant for all users. The day was a great success and a prime example of what IWA volunteers can achieve and how they can help in maintaining our waterways for all users.

Everyone had a productive and enjoyable day thanks to the Puddephatt family who helped with parking and provision of tea and coffee, CRT provided a huge amount of equipment and IWA Guildford & Reading Branch hosted the event.

The branch now plans to hold a second work party on November 20 at Fobney Lock. To get involved contact Verna Smith, Guildford & Reading Branch Secretary, at verna.smith63 @gmail.com or on 01252 517522.

Volunteers working on Southcote Lock. PHOTO: STEFANIE PRESTON

FORTHCOMINGWORK PARTY EVENTS Saturday, November 2

IWA Chester & Merseyside Branch: Monthly work party on the Dee Branch in Chester, 10am-4pm. Meet at Telfords Warehouse car park, Chester CH1 4EZ. Work will include painting, weeding and litter-picking. Contact Mike Carter on 07795 617803, mike.carter@waterways.org.uk

Saturday/Sunday, November 9-10

Worcester Birmingham & Droitwich Canals Society supported by IWA Birmingham, Black Country & Worcestershire Branch: Monthly work party weekend at Tardebigge Lime Kilns, 10am-3pm each day. Meet at CRT depot at Tardebigge, Worcester & Birmingham Canal (New Wharf, Alcester Road, Tardebigge, Bromsgrove B60 1NF). Further information from Bill Lambert at w.lambert@ntlworld.com

Thursday, November 14

IWA North Staffordshire & South Cheshire Branch and the Caldon & Uttoxeter Canals Trust: Monthly work party on the Caldon Canal, 10am-3pm.

Hedge laying and hedge planting on the Leek Arm. Meet at Ladderedge Country Park car park on Barnfields Industrial Estate, off the A53 in Leek.

Please wear stout shoes and old clothes and bring waterproofs and a packed lunch if staying all day. Contact Bob Luscombe on 07710 054848, bob.luscombe@waterways.org.uk

Saturday, November 16

IWA North Staffordshire & South Cheshire Branch and Trent & Mersey Canal Society: Monthly work party on the Cheshire Locks, Trent & Mersey Canal, 10am-4pm at Malkins Bank for painting and vegetation clearance. Clothes/lunch as above.

Contact Bob Luscombe on 07710 054848, bob.luscombe@waterways.org.uk IWA Warwickshire Branch supporting Canal & River Trust Towpath Taskforce: Lapworth, 10am-4pm. Tasks include lock painting, litter picking, veg clearance and path work. Meet at Kingswood Lock, Lapworth, Solihull B94 5RB. Further information from Brian Bayston on 01926 831508, info.warwickshire@waterways.org.uk

Wednesday, November 20

IWA Guildford & Reading Branch: Fobney Lock, 10.30am-3pm. Work party to generally tidy the area. For more information or to let the branch know you’re planning on joining the work party contact Verna Smith on 01252 517522, verna.smith63@gmail.com

Thursday, November 21

IWA Warwickshire Branch: Lapworth, 10am-3pm approx. Tasks include lock painting, litter picking, veg clearance and path work. Meet at Kingswood Lock, Lapworth, Solihull B94 5RB. Further information from Brian Bayston on 01926 831508, info.warwickshire@waterways.org.uk

Saturday, November 23

IWA Manchester Branch supporting Canal & River Trust Towpath Taskforce: Monthly work party, location varies, in the Greater Manchester area, 10am-4pm.

Tasks include painting, vegetation clearance, pulling rubbish out of the canal and litter picking. Contact Ian Price chairman@manchester-iwa.co.uk or phone 07971 444258.

For further information on any of these events, please contact Alison Smedley, IWA Branch Campaign Officer, Telephone: 01538 385388/07779 090915 or email alison.smedley@waterways.org.uk or Stefanie Preston, IWA Branch Campaign Assistant, Telephone 01494 783453 or email stefanie.preston@waterways.org.uk Information can also be found on IWA’s website: www.waterways.org.uk

WINTER BOATING 11

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Winter

on the way

In the first of a three-part series on winter boating, Elizabeth Abbott’s preparations for the colder weather ahead start with a delivery of logs for a new wood-burning stove.

WHEN we get up this morning, the landscape has changed overnight – a lot less gold, a lot more blue. A night of gustiness has blown a large proportion of

Wood to keep the home fires burning. PHOTO: BLACKBARK

WOODLAND MANAGEMENT

autumn foliage from our treelined valley, leaving behind startlingly bare branches and a winter’s allowance of newly visible sky. This night when the wind shifts the seasons seems to happen very distinctly each year, and each year, on the following morning, we shiver in pleasant anticipation and make a hurried list of what still remains to be done for a cosy winter aboard our 50ft narrowboat Currawong.

When I was a child in southern Queensland, Australia, we regularly received cyclone warnings for the tropical storms that in fact only ever landed on north Queensland, despite me getting my hopes up every wet season. Associated flooding rain usually gave me a day off school though, and my favourite way to spend it was battening down the hatches of my doll’s house in pleasurable anticipation of imagined wild weather. As is evidenced by the fact that I

Winter on the Rochdale Canal – beautiful but chilly.

secretly consider our narrowboat the playhouse I dreamed of at age eight, I haven’t changed much. In fact, I am partly here in England for the weather, and I love getting ready for as much snow as possible.

“Is it cold on the boat in winter?” our house friends enquire. “Well, no,” we enlighten them kindly, “because, some time ago, a very useful thing was invented, known as fire.” More recently, someone created the Rayburn stove, and that was us pretty much sorted. For years I filled the stove with coal, with my only analysis of it as a fuel source being shock when I discovered the brand I was buying came all the way from Indonesia or somewhere similarly daftly distant, followed by relief when I found that the train station coal yard man also sold Welsh coal. But this year a friend tipped us off to the news that a new workers’ co-operative

was starting a communitysupported firebox scheme in our little town, and we decided it was well beyond time for us to go carbon neutral and burn wood instead.

Seasoned oak

So, top of our list today is the arrival of a load of seasoned oak and birch. It turns up in a bunch of builders’ sacks, in the back of a truck, accompanied by four cheerful lads who fling it to the ground for us. Two of them aren’t even earning anything for their work, apart from their board in the local housing co-op as they pass through on their UK travels. The other two might just about fund some grocery bills this year, but know their business is a growing one.

Hebden Bridge is a Transition Town, full of projects aimed at decreasing local dependency on ever-diminishing fossil fuels, and Keith explains that Blackbark

Woodland Management is not short of woods to sustainably coppice, just of shelter for seasoning enough wood for increasing customer enquiries.

Keith and his merry men leave myself and Pip to continue loading the boat’s roof with stove-sized pieces of wood. It only just fits, and looks such a lot that we have to double check that this is just one tonne, only a third of what we seem to have paid a pittance for. But Keith confirms we can order our next tonne to be delivered further into winter. We think of the other times we’ve occasionally burnt wood – overpriced, small, soggy, smoky sacks of goodnessknows-what-kind of wood from service stations – and gaze at our locally grown oak and birch mountain and feel prepared for whatever the next months throw at us.

“Oaken logs, if dry and old, keep away the winter’s cold,” I

recite to the cat, who has a strong personal interest in our arrangements. Although our logs may get damp on the roof, they will be nicely toasted in the Rayburn oven before use. In theory, we should be able to cook in this oven, but when I once tried ramping up the stove to achieve good cakebaking temperature, Currawong became so hot as a result that we had to go sit outside until it cooled down. At default temperature, however, it’s just right for drying out wood and warming plates.

The blustery night has alerted others to the calendar. That day, we receive an email from another boater on our boat club list. “I have one word for you all,” he announces, “anti-freeze”.

“Anti-freeze,” Pip and I obediently murmur to each other sleepily, worn out from hoisting our wood about. That’s tomorrow’s job.

12 ANNIVERSARY/NEWS

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Seventy years of cruising and still going strong Geoff Wood visits the North Cheshire Cruising Club for a special anniversary THERE was a fitting start to National Cruise Week in Stockport, Greater Manchester. And while many devotees were thinking about plying the oceans, members of the North Cheshire Cruising Club were finding enjoyment in celebrating 70 years of cruising with their own boats along the Macclesfield Canal.

Strangely the club, formed in 1943, had its beginnings in a dispute with the local council over being charged rates for boathouses. The club lost the argument, although even in wartime it went steadily from strength to strength.

Today North Cheshire Cruising Club has 200 members and 95 boats stretching as far the eye can see in its marina just off the main waterway.

It was a slow start for the club however

in the midst of the Second World War when petrol for boats was strictly rationed. But when hostilities ended, things started to pick up for the club members who then mostly sailed wooden cruisers.

Archivist Noel Christopher, who showed off an exhibition of club history, said people soon found that the Macclesfield Canal was a picturesque waterway where there were opportunities for boats to change direction as required.

But there were storm clouds on the horizon with a threat of closure for the Macclesfield Canal. Fortunately British Waterways saw the strength of support in the community for the canal and spared it from being closed down.

Times past were remembered

Dr Tim Dawson unveils the stone anniversary plaque. PHOTOS: GEOFF WOOD

Casting off one of the trip boats. when former president Dr Tim Dawson, who started sailing there in the 1950s, unveiled a stone plaque to commemorate the club’s 70th anniversary.

Boats stretch away towards the horizon at the North Cheshire Cruising Club.

He told the large group of assembled members: “This is a club that is not standing still. The improvements we have had in the last 50 years are absolutely staggering.”

Club commodore Jan Tattersall agreed. She said: “We do keep improving things all the time, with social events, boating events and special functions – in fact there is something here for everyone.

“The club is very friendly and people co-operate with one another. We also have links with other boating clubs in the area.”

There was an added touch of style when the future of the club was toasted with champagne and strawberries.

Three trip boats were laid on during anniversary day with cruises of an hour and a half along the canal.

Members gather to celebrate 70 years.

Stunning images share honours in CRT photo competition THREE very different but spectacular photos were selected as the winners of the Canal & River Trust’s photography competition to inspire people to visit and enjoy their local towpath or riverbank.

The free to enter competition ran throughout the summer and was judged by renowned waterway photographer Harry Arnold, and Canal & River Trust chairman Tony Hales.

Harry said: “The sheer number of

pictures submitted, covering virtually every facet of the trust’s network, demonstrated the enthusiasm of the entrants for the waterways and a keen photographer’s eye for their many individual aspects.

“As judges, we had a difficult but very pleasant task to reduce this number to three choices which we felt were not only top quality images but illustrated widely differing views of what brings

Sunday afternoon at the Angel Canal by Ros Conti.

people down to our canals and rivers.”

Tony added: “It was a difficult decision whittling the entries down to just three winners. The narrowboat emerging from early morning mist on the Shropshire Union Canal is particularly evocative. The busy lock on the Regent’s Canal sums up the wider appeal of our waterways, while the stunning photo of the kingfisher emerging from the water with a fish in its mouth truly is one in a million.”

Kingfisher emerging with a minnow by Daniel Trim.

Commodore Jan Tattersall’s boat leads the others on to the main canal.

Later afternoon tea was served in the main lounge of the club house overlooking the flotilla of boats which local people in the High Lane district of Stockport seem to have taken to their hearts.

The winning entries are: ● Early morning start on the Shropshire Union Canal by Mark Welton ● Sunday afternoon at the Angel Canal by Ros Conti ● Kingfisher emerging with a minnow by Daniel Trim Each is available to view online, together with a link to all 2763 entries, at: canalrivertrust.org.uk/photo-winners Each winner will receive a state-of-the-art iPhone 5 from Vodafone.

Early morning start on the Shropshire Union Canal by Mark Welton. PHOTOS COURTESY CRT

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54 BOAT REVIEW

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New wide-beam hire boat takes the low road to Scotland’s canals

Harry Arnold takes a look at ABC Leisure’s new purpose-built wide-beam holiday hire boat designed to take advantage of the generous width dimensions of Scotland’s lowland waterways.

ABC Leisure hire boat Sanderling for Scotland’s Lowland Waterways. PHOTO:WATERWAY IMAGES WE HAD a good look at this boat on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal on completion at Alvechurch, just before it was roaded north of the Border.

At 60ft long by 10ft beam Sanderling will accommodate

eight passengers and will be based at Falkirk – just below the now famous Falkirk wheel – convenient for both cruising the Forth & Clyde Canal route through Glasgow and the Union Canal line to Edinburgh.

The stern view.

The Beta 50 inboard diesel engine installation beneath the aft deck.

A large forward open-plan saloon and galley has an Lshaped unit running along the aft bulkhead and the left-hand side, incorporating a four-burner gas cooker with oven and grill and an electric refrigerator within the base units, with cupboards and drawers under a continuous worktop, with inset stainless steel sink and mixer tap.

Balancing this in the opposite corner is an L-shaped settee next to a table which comfortably seats eight people. This dinette arrangement converts to a double berth at night. There is a stereo radio/CD player with auxiliary input and TV. One of the two bathrooms follows. Both have a shower, with laminated surround including a byfold shower door, electric shower emptying pump, a vanity unit with basin, heated towel radiator and a Tecma electric macerator toilet with a remote polypropylene holding tank.

The central sleeping cabin has four single berths, in twin double bunk style, and the usual storage units. Beyond this the second bathroom then an aft cabin with a large double bed running across the boat: Another advantage of the wide beam.

Heating throughout is provided by a Eberspacher diesel fired boiler, with a thermostatically controlled radiator in each cabin.

The unit also supplies hot water which, in a dual system, can also be heated by the engine.

Water is delivered via twin service pumps.

Propulsion is from a Beta 50 inboard diesel engine with PRM 150 gearbox mounted within a very roomy compartment below the large stern deck. It has keel cooling, Aqua-drive, flexible mounts, a 45amp alternator supplying two starter batteries and a separate 175amp alternator supplying four leisure cabin batteries.

SPECIFICATION

The column housing engine controls and instruments.

All steel shell: 10mm bottom plate, with 6mm hull sides, 5mm cabin sides, with a 4mm roof on a 75mm curvature.

Base plate framing: 100 x 75 x 8mm, with knees and stringers of 60 x 60 x 8mm, both on nominal 635mm centres.

Cabin roof bearers: 40 x 40 x 3mm box section at nominal 300mm centres.

Rubbing strakes: 50 x 13mm convex; two full length, with four at the bow and three at the stern. Steelwork is fully insulated with polystyrene.

Timber fit-out: hull and head linings, bulkheads and doors in various thicknesses of treated and laminated plywood, with all edges capped in hardwood. It is finished with two coats of varnish on all relevant surfaces.

Flotex carpet is laid in all floor areas excluding galley and bathrooms where vinyl floor covering is fitted.

LED lighting in all cabins.

Integral diesel tank with lockable filler cap vent and flame guard – nominal capacity 380 litres. Integral water tank, below the selfdraining forward well deck – capacity 1000 litres.

Bow gas locker holds three 13kg cylinders.

The main saloon and galley.

There is a stern tube lubricator and bilge pump and the column-mounted control panel has a single-lever engine control, voltmeter, temperature gauge, hour meter, engine on/off key switch and engine default warning lights. A quickrelease type weed hatch gives easy access to the propeller.

Obviously a craft of this size is a very attractive, bookable and spacious holiday hire boat for wide waters such as the Forth & Clyde and Union canals. Minor observations are that we would have pinched a couple of feet of the very roomy saloon to give a bit more space in accessing the double bedroom from the stern deck. Also a few more narrow shelves in safe and convenient places in the bedrooms would be useful for all those essential odds and ends of holiday living afloat.

We were amused to note that – once on the lorry for Scotland – the brand new hull had to be pressure washed. Apparently the Scots don’t want English canal water mixed with theirs. It could contaminate the whisky you know.

The aft sleeping cabin with large double bed.

Inside one of the bathrooms, with shower, toilet and handbasin.

BOATYARD & MARINA NEWS 55

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Widebeam review Getting Afloat Bits & Bobs

New Northwich Quay marina nears completion

BOOKINGS are now being taken for the new Northwich Quay marina which is due to open in mid November.

Working on the state-of-the-art, oak-clad floating facilities building.

The new marina facilities form part of a much larger development including Waitrose and McCarthy & Stone which will transform the heart of the town.

An old boat shed and moorings have been removed and although the historic slipways remain as a feature, the focus for the development is the open water.

Historically the activities on the River Weaver have been very much part of the character of Northwich, which was used to ship salt to Manchester for onward export.

The new marina will be state-of-theart, with a floating, architect designed and oak-clad facilities building, together with quality floating walkways, jetties and service bollards for up to 50 boats, both narrow and wide beam.

Celebrating 30 years of boat building BRAIDBAR Boats Ltd recently held its sixth annual Open Day and Owners Weekend, and also celebrated 30 years of building bespoke narrowboats.

Owners, most with their boats, travelled from all areas of the UK and France to Lord Vernon’s Wharf at Higher Poynton, on the Macclesfield Canal, to show off their boats and join in the celebrations.

Braidbar’s motto of ‘Arrive as a customer and leave as a friend’ has resulted in an increasing number of Braidbar boat owners returning to Poynton every year to show off their boats at this annual event. There were 14 Braidbar boats attending the event this year – all with varying layouts, design, age and lengths – and all boats were made available for prospective customers to view. The event was very successful and attracted a record

number of visitors from as far away as the south coast As part of the fun, an auction was held in aid of the Anthony Nolan Trust and raised in excess of £1000. Thanks to the quick wit and humour of the auctioneer, it was described as ‘a very pleasant and enjoyable way of spending cash’.

Peter and Susan Mason, the owners of Braidbar, were delighted that Iain Bryceland, the founder of the company, was able to join in the celebrations, and all three joined in cutting the 30th anniversary cake – a celebration of the continuing success of Braidbar Boats. All in all a lovely weekend, great camaraderie and good fun was had by all. ● The next Braidbar Open Day will be on Saturday, September 6, 2014. www.braidbarboats.co.uk

Listen carefully… it’s a stealth boat THERE is no shortage of expertise at Norbury and the specialists there are just finishing a transformation that has not only given a boat a smart new look but is also in the process of creating what might be called a ‘stealth boat’.

MD Simon Jenkins explained: “We are just in the last throes of completing a major job on a boat called Ben Cruachan. It has had a full paint job and we are installing a new Beta 43 marine engine which is substantially bigger than its predecessor.

“There were not too many modifications as when the boat was built things like the engine beds and the skin tank had been over specified so a bigger engine was not such a huge job as it can be on some boats.”

He explained: “We are also fitting an Aqua Drive coupling for smoother

running in gear, a new Crowthers Propeller for quieter and more efficient cruising and we have fully insulated the engine room as well as fitting a hospital silencer.

“Hopefully it will be like a ‘stealth boat’ when under way and it should slip along the canals with just a whisper coming from the engine room. Just how the canals should be enjoyed in my opinion.”

Other interesting jobs in the pipeline are a full repaint on Sue Cawson’s historic boat Thea which is coming in shortly. Thea was built by Yarwoods in 1936 as a butty, became John Knill’s Matilda in the early 1950s and was converted to a motor in 1960. In 1992 it was shortened once more, to 57ft, and Sue Cawson, a leading light in the Historic Narrowboat Owners Club, boats with it all over the system.

Northwich Quay will be owned and operated by Geomac Ltd, part of the Land & Water family, and Neil Warren of Land and Water Estates said the site is very exciting and a departure from its typical rural style inland marinas.

“It has been a challenge developing a small marina as part of a much larger development and we are grateful for the co-operation of the main contractors and the Canal & River Trust.

“We are looking forward to being part of the local community, and there are plenty of shops, pubs and restaurants close by.”

He added: “We have already been in consultation with John Tackley, chairman of the River Weaver Navigation Society, and feel that we can work together for the benefit of the river.

P54 P56 P57

Reviews P57 Christmas Gift Guide P58 What’s on P62

The new marina takes shape at Northwich Quay. PHOTO SUPPLIED “We will be bringing Kevin Barnett from our Caen Hill Marina to be the manager and he can be contacted on 07967 461038.”

● For further information click on www.northwichquay.com

ChurChills say‘ohyes’to marina holiday prize THE Churchill family from Etwall, South Derbyshire, have been announced winners of Mercia Marina’s star prize in a Crystal Mazestyle competition held during its fifth anniversary festival.

Visitors to the marina’s festival weekend on September 7-8 were invited to test their skill at grabbing golden tickets as they flew around inside an inflatable dome, with a chance to win a five-day holiday at the marina.

The free-to-enter competition was similar to the final challenge in TV’s Crystal Maze, where any golden tickets collected during the allotted time gain points while silver tickets cause contestants to lose points.

Lizzie Churchill (34), husband Wayne (33) and son Harry (5) entered the challenge with their friends Michelle Everest (37), Matthew Maisack (32) and George Maisack (3), who were visiting from Reading in Berkshire.

The six went on to win the competition by accruing the most points in a minute-and-a-half. They

have now been announced winners of the star prize – a five-day break in one of the marina’s luxury waterside holiday lodges.

Lizzie said: “When we got the call from Mercia Marina to say we’d won, we just didn’t believe it. We never, ever win anything. It was such unexpected and fantastic news.”

The Churchills said they would consult with their friends to find a time when all six of them could enjoy the break together. Having seen their prize lodge on a subsequent visit to the marina, they said they were keen on a winter break in order to take most advantage of the lodge’s ‘wonderful’ interior.

Mercia Marina offered the holiday prize during its festival weekend as part of its fifth anniversary celebrations. The marina, which opened in September 2008, provided dozens of food and craft stalls, fun fair rides for children, live music, real ales, and fireworks at the event, which was attended by more than 6000 visitors.

Robert Neff, general manager of

Lizzie, Harry and Wayne Churchill outside the lodge where they will be enjoying their five-day holiday prize.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

Mercia Marina, said: “This year’s festival was bigger and better than any previous event here. We were keen to mark our fifth year in style, as we’ve achieved so much here at a time when the wider economy has been struggling.

“We’re delighted that the Churchills and their friends are so happy with their prize. We look forward to welcoming them back here very soon. I’m sure they’ll have a fabulous holiday.”

All the Bs at Caen Hill Marina

The Flower Power Band with guest singer Alan Powell. PHOTO SUPPLIED

BEER, burgers, band, bell ringers, bike stunts and an ice cream boat all helped to make the end of season bash at Caen Hill Marina a great occasion.

As well as a beer festival with Box Steam Brewery and Ramsbury brewery beer and cider, moorers enjoyed brilliant entertainment by the St Cadocs Millenium Chimes from Raglan in Wales, the Flower Power Band with music from the 1960s and 1970s and bike stunts from Ben Nolan raising money for Help the Heroes.

It’s not quite the end of festivities at Caen Hill Marina which is also hosting a burger and bangers firework night on November 9.

Otter in the sea at Southampton

The shining new paint job – and under the deck boards it will be whispering not shouting. PHOTO SUPPLIED

AS THE only canal narrowboat exhibited at the recent Southampton International Boat Show it was perhaps appropriate, with a name like Sea Otter, but unusual, to see it exhibited afloat on the sea, writes Harry Arnold.

Main agent Tingdene Marinas was showing the high specification, fully fitted, 36ft long version of this very popular boat with its lifetime-guaranteed all aluminium hull and superstructure: A four, optional six-berth version, quality features such as full central-heating.

Power is by a Vetus M3.26 3-cylinder diesel engine and a Vetus bow thruster is also fitted. An inverter and battery charger are part of the electrical specification.

The boat is now back on the more familiar fresh waters of the Thames in Windsor, and available to try at Tingdene’s Racecourse Marina. Current price is £89,764.

The aluminium Sea Otter, surrounded by glass fibre cruisers, on the sea at Southampton. PHOTO:WATERWAY IMAGES

56 GETTING AFLOAT

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And now for the extras – only some of them optional Everyone wants to dip into your wallet In the ninth article of his series looking at what turns ordinary people into boaters, Peter Underwood looks at the costs of running a boat.

COSTS on the waterways usually vary with the size of your vessel and many are unavoidable, but you need to know how much a boat is going to drain out of your wallet each year.

To make life simple I have based all the costs quoted on a second-hand, 60ft, steel narrowboat, in reasonably good condition, moored in a Midlands marina, used for leisure and worth around £45,000. If the vessel you are thinking about is different you will need to check the costs out for yourself. You will find marina charges and licences usually vary on size, while insurers are more likely to look at location and value.

In many ways the obligatory licence or registration of your boat for the waters on which you plan to use it is fairly straightforward. Most inland waterways in this country are operated either by the Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways) or the Environment Agency. Hopes that the two would be merged in the next couple of years have now been abandoned – although it remains an ambition.

The trust offers two types of licences for private boats, the one most people buy is the Canal and River licence which covers all the canals plus the CRT rivers, the Severn, Trent and Yorkshire Ouse.

That will cost our hypothetical boat owner £925.97 next year after several years of price rises well above inflation, although there is a promise to limit rises to the Consumer Prices Index in the coming years.

The second type is a Rivers Only licence which drops the cost to £555.58 for our boat but you are limited to using it on the CRT rivers. This option is mostly used in London by boaters moored on the River Lea who then buy a top-up licence when they want to use the canals.

The Environment Agency charges according to which of its river systems you are moored upon.

Our boat would pay £627.12 to use the Thames and £825.26 to cruise the Anglian waterways.

Boaters who look to travel extensively across the UK system will often opt to buy a Gold licence that gives access to the waters of both organisations.

This costs £1234, so it’s good value if you are a long distance cruiser.

There are small scale bodies who control parts of the system. The Bridgewater Canal remains

separate and has its own fees and parts of the River Cam are locally controlled with some expensive and slightly odd charges, especially for visitors. You can even moor in the Fens, on the waters controlled by the Middle Level Commissioners around March which link the River Nene with the Great Ouse, and not pay a registration fee or a licence. The downside is that the Fen drains are not the most scenic part of the world and moorings are very limited. You will, of course, have to buy a licence as soon as you leave the drains.

So many variables

Insurance is also obligatory in the sense that most navigation authorities won’t sell you a licence without it. Comprehensive insurance will give you the cover you need and insurers are somewhat coy about quoting on hypothetical boats.

Simone Spinks, group communications manager for Towergate Insurance, told me: “It’s hard to quote an exact figure as there are so many variables, but, as a very rough ballpark figure; cover for fire, theft, accidental damage, sinking, storm and flood, legal protection and £3,000,000 third party cover, there would be a range between £195 for someone new to boating and £150 for someone who has boating experience and five years no claims bonus.

“For a top tier policy it includes all of the above plus protected no claims discount and an element of recovery and rescue if you break down, the range would be between £250 for a new boater and £200 if five years no claims bonus had been earned.”

Like cars, even the best boats are known to break down and there is another form of insurance that may appeal if you are a newcomer to boating with little mechanical expertise. River Canal Rescue provides a form of breakdown insurance that costs £155 a year for the silver level of cover for which you get a call-out service and cover of up to £1000 on the cost and the labour in fitting certain new parts.

If you have enough experience to spot the likely cause of a problem there are plenty of experienced engineers at boatyards and even on boats around the system. Expect to pay around £60 for a call out, which may include the first hour’s work. Then hourly rates are usually around £40-50 an hour, more in the Southeast.

The sums are easy; you just have to make a judgment about how likely your boat is to break down, and how often.

Moorings

The other big cost is mooring your boat and it is fair to say a lot of boaters are finding this the biggest drain on their resources, especially in the posh marinas that have been springing up around the system in recent years.

An essential bit of kit.

Mooring our boat at ABC’s Alvechurch Marina on the Birmingham & Worcester Canal next year would cost £2760 if paid in advance. At Mercia Marina on the Trent & Mersey the same length of boat costs £2600 a year.

In the BWML marinas, owned by CRT, prices vary according to locality. Mooring our hypothetical boat at Sawley on a non-residential mooring will cost £2700 but at its Packet Boat Marina in West London it rises to £3888.

Those sort of costs are putting many boaters off and I met several holiday boat owners this year who only pay to moor in the winter months and move their vessel between towpath moorings in the summer. That is a cost saving measure only made possible because most marinas have spare berths and it may well be significant that one marina near Stafford is offering a year’s mooring for any length of boat for under £1000.

There are also owners of holiday boats who appear to think a mooring is unnecessary, even though the CRT rules say that if you don’t have a home mooring you must declare that you are a continuous cruiser. I have met London-based boat owners who leave their boats on 14-day visitor moorings but travel out of the city to move them a few more miles every fortnight.

CRT is currently putting in place controversial new mooring limitations and fines (they call them overstaying charges) in the Southeast and they may make life more difficult for those trying to economise on marina charges.

Personally, I would be looking to make a deal with strapped marina owners, although you won’t get much change out of those in popular spots who can still charge what the market will bear.

Without any of the running costs of the boat itself, our 60ft pride and joy is already costing us just under £4000 a year in recurring fees for licence, mooring and insurance.

Maintaining your investment

Once you have spent tens of thousands of pounds it would be short-sighted if you didn’t make every effort to keep your boat in tip-top condition (although a surprising number don’t) and that means a regular service, every 100 engine hours or so and at least once a year. The cost of a service depends on who you listen to, with marinas quoting anything between £70 and £200 for a normal service on a normal engine – so shop around but make sure the service includes

Some extras are certainly a matter of taste, but for some people a floating hutch on a small butty is an essential extra. checking items such as the engine mountings, hose clips and other bits likely to work loose or wear.

Some will be able to change oil and filters themselves which reduces costs to consumables, around £40-50 at retail prices.

Bear in mind that the more you travel the more you need to service your engine and it could be a twice a year job if you are boating for long periods.

The outside of the boat needs some TLC and regular washing costs nothing but will keep that paintwork looking good for longer. Eventually, of course, it will get tired and a full repaint of our 60ft boat could easily eat up anything between £5000 and £10,000. Repaint once every 10 years and that adds £500 to £1000 a year to running costs.

Every couple of years you need to have the boat out of the water and the bottom recoated with blacking. On our boat budget for around £600 plus a fee for craning it out or using a dry-dock and probably another £150 or so for new anodes.

Probably not a lot of change out of another £1000.

Then there is the major consumable – diesel. The average engine uses around a litre an hour. As a holiday boater the Inland Revenue expect you to declare a 60% propulsion (paid for at the full VAT rate and 40% domestic (paid for at the reduced rate). On current cheapest prices this would mean 100 litres of diesel costing around £120, although it could be as high as £150 in some boatyards.

A week of cruising for eight hours a day will use around 50 litres or, say £75. Use your boat for 10 weeks a year, including weekends and that is £750 in diesel costs.

Bits and pieces

Owning a boat is all very well but it is difficult to use it without certain other pieces of kit. If you are buying second-hand try to ensure that the previous owner is including in the sale key items like mooring lines, mooring pins, chains and hooks, long and short shafts and a gangplank. You do sometimes find such things removed.

A quick online check shows prices vary considerably but a set of three lines, bow, stern and centre, along with two mooring pins and two chains or hooks, a long and a short shaft and a gangplank will set you back over £200 and these are things you probably shouldn’t go boating without.

I’m probably wrong for saying life jackets are optional and we never wear them on the canals.

However, we do own life jackets, at around £80-90 each and use them on rivers. Life rings can be bought for around £25.

On rivers, of course, you also need an anchor, another £70 or so, plus chain and rope.

The other item I would regard as essential is a set of guides for the waterways you are travelling. Say a set of five Pearsons or three Nicholsons to begin with, another £50 or so.

That makes around £4-500 if you buy new. You can save a bit online and even more if you can pick up second-hand equipment on sites like eBay – as long as you make sure the things you buy are actually fit for use.

Total costs

A set of three lines, bow, stern and centre, along with two mooring pins and two chains or hooks, a long and a short shaft and a gangplank will set you back over £200.

Put it all together and over a 10 year period you may end up paying out £5000 to £6000 a year on top of your original investment.

I suspect only those boat owners to whom money is no object will actually spend all that. Most of us find ways to save money; learning how to do our own services and breakdowns is a good start.

Keeping the paintwork washed and polished helps it last much longer and you might well be tempted to black the hull every three years rather than two.

Buying second-hand helps to keep prices down, but do be careful of quality online.

You could probably half that figure by doing much of the work yourself and, of course, a major expense like a repaint can be put off until you can’t look at your boat with pride any longer.

However, if you begin boat ownership by realising that the price of the boat is just the start, then it won’t all come as a nasty shock later.

57

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BITS & BOBS

by Rexx & Phill

GREETINGS! My job as a little girl on Thanksgiving Day many years ago (it falls this year on Thursday, November 28) was to keep an eye on the sweet potato mash to make sure the topping of marshmallows did not burn under the broiler. I loved that job! How else does a gangly seven-year-old get a job in a grown-up kitchen at the centre of the rush to get everything to the dining table?

Never one to let go of nostalgia, I have a grown-up version of my old favourite featuring sesame brittle instead of marshmallows. I do the first baking on the lower shelf while the turkey is roasting and the second baking during the last half hour while the turkey is resting and I am getting the rest of the dinner together.

The brittle may seem a bit fiddly, but it can be done ahead and the effort is worth it for the ‘ta dah’ moment at the table.

November top tip

When it becomes officially cold, as in heater on low all night long, we bring out our sleeping bags which have been stored under the mattress, give ’em a good laundry and employ them for winter comfort. We unzip the flannel linings and use them for our sheets; we zip the two bags together and use them for a VERY warm but lightweight comforter.

Rexx’s Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes

Prep time 15 minutes, overall cook time 45+35 minutes, serves 4 Sweet potatoes ● 6 medium sweet potatoes ● 2 large eggs ● 1 tsp baking powder ● 4 tbsp (1+3) unsalted butter at room temperature ● 2 tbsp honey ● Salt and pepper to taste Brittle ● 4 rashers bacon sliced into 1cm (½in) wide strips ● ½ cup sugar ● 1 tbsp sesame seeds ● Baking paper Pre-step, day before: Line a rimmed baking sheet with baking parchment. Cook bacon in a medium nonstick frying pan over medium heat until most of the fat is rendered and bacon is starting to crisp.

Transfer bacon to a sieve set over a small bowl; reserve dripping. Return bacon, 1 tsp dripping, sugar and sesame seeds to the same frying pan.

Cook over medium heat until the mixture turns a mahogany colour (5 min or so). Transfer the mixture to the baking sheet and spread out evenly with a spatula; let cool. Break into shards and keep in an airtight container.

Day of: Preheat the oven to 200ºC (400ºF) Mark 6.

Line a baking tray with foil. Rub the skins of the sweet potatoes with 1 tbsp of the butter. Prick the top with a fork to keep them from exploding in the

oven. Roast until softened (45-55min). Cool until room temperature. Set the four most attractive potatoes to one side. Slice the two remaining potatoes in half, scoop the pulp into a mixing bowl and discard the skins. Create four long ‘boats’ from the reserved potatoes by slicing off the upper third of the potato skin (and discarding it), then, being careful to leave 1cm (½in) thick walls, scoop out the pulp into the bowl. Mash all of the pulp; add the eggs, baking powder, butter, honey, salt and pepper beat into a thick paste. Fill a baggie with the mixture; make sure the top is sealed, snip off one corner and use this to pipe the mixture into your four boat shells (reserve the leftover paste for Phill’s Tamales below). Bake the potato boats until the tops are lightly puffed and starting to brown (35min). Top with the brittle shards and serve one boat per person for a starter or add bacon bits to the mash and serve as a main with a salad.

Filling

shredded

● 200g (1 cup) sweet potato mash ● 120g (1½ cups) grated Cheddar cheese ● Salt and pepper to taste

Pre-step: Cut foil and baking paper into A4-sized sheets. In a frying pan, heat oil and butter to sizzle temp; add the onions. When onions have softened add the spice. Fold in the chicken or turkey. Fold in the sweet potato mash; turn off the burner, sprinkle on the cheese, cover and leave the mixture to cool to room temperature. Put the

Reviewer: Gay Armstrong

A BEAUTIFUL book of colour photographs which will transport the reader back in time is brought to us by award-winning photographer Malcolm Ranieri.

Classic Narrow Boats is a quality publication with atmospheric photographs of restored working narrowboats which date from the time when canals and navigable waterways were major parts of Britain’s transport network.

The photographs, which show the narrowboats in action, also feature classic scenes and include the fascinating infrastructure of the canals – the locks, cottages and aqueducts – set against the background history of the canals and the many companies that operated them.

Malcolm is a photographer of 40 years’ experience with classic transport being one of his favourite subjects. He gained the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1998, and also the Masters award of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain in 2000, and regularly exhibits in photographic exhibitions all over the country.

Malcolm is a regular contributor to Towpath Talk – readers will recognise photographs in the book which have appeared on our front cover – and in the steam and vintage preservation magazine Old Glory, also published by Mortons.

Classic Narrow Boats is published by Halsgrove in large format hardback priced £19.99 and is available from local stockists or from Halsgrove Direct on 01823 653777 or www.halsgrove.com ISBN: 978-0-85704-204-0

CONSIDERING the number of books that have been published in the last few years about a writer’s journey along the route of the River Thames from Gloucestershire to the City of London, one might wonder whether there is much more that can be said to interest and inform new readers.

But indeed there is. Pauline Conolly’s description of working her way All Along the River and finding ‘tales from the Thames’ makes a very entertaining book, full of interesting historical anecdotes.

I particularly enjoyed the recipes she found, each with a local connection. Although several centuries old, most are very straightforward and often just the dish to enliven a menu.

The ‘Vicarage Pudding’ which she found early on her travels at South Cerney – orange and ginger flavoured – was, she suggests, just the thing to entice the vicar to hurry home to his dinner and not linger too long over his homily in the pulpit.

It was here that she discovered a link with Alice in Wonderland. A former vicar had a connection with the real Alice’s family and a tiny door under the vicarage stairs is thought possibly to have been the inspiration for the little door Alice has to shrink down to fit through in the story.

All along the path, and nearby, she found such details of interest and recipes such as Oxford Sauce, Agatha Christie’s Mystery potatoes from Wallingford and Reading Sweet Cake.

There are also quotations from and about people associated with each stage of her journey, such as Charles Dickens’ description of a dreary area of the London of his time, and a rhyme about the Cutty Sark at Greenwich.

The opening charter, in which the author ‘primes’ the source of the river at Trewsbury Mead with water brought from her home in an antique beer bottle sets the scene for a book promising plenty of interest to come – a promise well fulfilled.

All Along the River, Tales from the Thames by Pauline Conolly, is published by Robert Hale Ltd, at £16.99. ISBN 978-0-7198-0798-5

The story of the River Thames police

A pause here, to give a nod to the beautiful plumage of the waving corn stalks and stalwart wheat sheaves that salute us when the canals guide us through the nation’s farmlands. We have a lot of cornmeal recipes but these tamales are our favourite because they combine leftover Thanksgiving turkey with leftover sweet potato mash. We celebrate all that our farmers have on offer and count our blessings.

● 1 tbsp vegetable oil ● 1 tbsp butter ● 1 small onion, diced ● 1 tbsp Garam masala ● ½ tsp hot paprika ● 2 cups cooked turkey or chicken, roughly

Stepping back in time…

All along the river, tales from the Thames

Phill’s Tamales

Masa ● 3 cups chicken stock ● 2 tbsp honey ● 200g creamed corn ● 4 cups cornmeal ● 2 tsp baking powder ● ½ tsp salt ● 200g (1 cup) softened butter ● 200g (1 cup) softened lard

Books, DVDs and other items for possible review should be sent to:

Towpath Talk, PO Box 43, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ editorial@towpathtalk.co.uk

Reviewer: Elizabeth Rogers

Prep time 10 minutes, cook time 1 hour, makes 12

Sauce ● 1 jar sweet chili sauce ● Or chutney sauce of choice

REVIEWS

Reviewer: Elizabeth Rogers

cornmeal, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl; stir to combine. Combine and heat chicken stock, honey and creamed corn in a large pan.

Add the hot stock mixture to the cornmeal a little at a time to form a dough. In a separate bowl, beat the lard and butter together until you have a light, fluffy mixture. Gradually beat the cornmeal dough into this mixture a little at a time. When the two mixtures have become incorporated into a fluffy ‘spread’ set aside.

To assemble: Lay a sheet of baking paper on top of a foil sheet; drop one 12th (2 heaped tbsp) of the masa dough into the centre of the sheet. Form the masa into a 1cm thick square centred on the sheet. Cover one side of the dough with the filling.

Fold the other side of the dough nestled in its paper/foil over the filling, then fold the other side of the paper/foil over so that the parcel looks like a folded letter. Fold the left third of the ‘letter’ over the packet, fold the right third of the ‘letter’ over this (it is a bit like folding for puff pastry). Line the broiler pan rack with a damp towel, top with the tamale packets, cover with another damp towel.

Pour two cups of boiling water in the bottom of the broiler pan; set the rack over the boiling water.

Steam on the hob for 1 hour adding water as necessary to maintain a depth of ½in. Let rest (10min). Serve with side hot chili sauce or chutney of choice. Bring the wrapped tamales to the table and have a bowl to receive the wrappings when they are removed. Fare well.

VICTORIAN crime, often committed beside the murky waters of the River Thames, is a popular genre of detective fiction and the facts of real life riverside policing turn out to have been equally dramatic.

In Criminal River, the History of the River Thames Police former university lecturer Stephen Wade, now writing and researching the history of crime and law, has produced a comprehensive account of the development of the river police. This is traced all the way from 1798 via the forerunner of later forces, the Thames Marine Police.

Many sad tales from the force’s copious casebooks are related, including the sinking of the pleasure cruiser the Princess Alice, named after a daughter of Queen Victoria – in which more than 500 people were drowned. That was in 1878, and more than 100 years later there was the accident to the Marchioness in 1989, in which more than 50 people lost their lives. Reports list many other tragedies with which officers had to deal and a number of suicides.

There was also fighting among seamen, and officers were on hand in the times of the pressgangs. In one recorded incident a policeman involved had a familiar name for a detective – Morse.

In writing about the beginnings of policing, the author profiles the men who brought about its establishment, the founding magistrates Patrick Colquhoun and John Harriott, and explains the social conditions of life in the latter years of the 18th century.

Patrick Colquhoun had recognised that much of the crime on and by the river was opportunist, desperate and small-scale.

The book continues through the various developments in the organisation of policing, through work with the Metropolitan Police to the setting up in 2008 of the Marine Police Unit.

Criminal River, The History of the Thames River Police by Stephen Wade is published by Robert Hale Ltd price £17.99. ISBN 978-0-7090-9327-5

Heading for the water

Reviewer: Gay Armstrong

A FASCINATING and absorbing guide to the coastline of East Anglia comes from the pen of yachtsman and journalist David Fairhall.

East Anglian Shores, A Guide by Land or Sea covers the area’s history, harbours, rivers, fisheries, pubs and architecture.

The book is intended for anyone whose impulse on arriving in an unfamiliar town that has a harbour, river or seashore is to head for the water.

It takes the reader on a journey from the Thames to The Wash and from the sea, marsh, sand and shingle inland following rivers through fenland, farmland and rural villages.

East Anglian Shores is published by Adlard Coles Nautical in softback, priced £12.99.

ISBN: 978-1-4729-0340-2

58 CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE

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Start your Christmas shopping here Will you give the bottle this year?

MOST traditional Christmas gift lists feature bottles – usually perfume or alcohol. But for Christmas 2013 there is a new bottle that will put a smile on the face of boating and angling enthusiasts and anyone who enjoys the great outdoors.

Water to Go bottles turn tap water from the washroom, stream or rainwater into

drinking water, eliminating the high cost of bottled mineral water and the risk of dehydration during exercise or out enjoying yourself away from drinking water.

This is ideal for people on the move and those visiting countries where water quality is suspect.

With a 500ml bottle of

mineral water costing £3.50 at some venues and an average high street price of £1, it’s not surprising that an alternative providing the equivalent volume for only 1.5p is already selling well.

Water-to-Go filter technology was developed for NASA in the USA. It eliminates over 99.9% of viruses, bacteria and bad odours and taste from water while retaining the beneficial minerals such as sodium and magnesium.

It will purify and remove over 99.9% of all contaminants including bacteria and chlorine.

The filter system is in a 75cl reusable plastic bottle costing £24.95 that can be dishwasher cleaned. The filter (packs of two for £14.95) will each last around three months and individually purify a total of 200 litres of water. This quantity of mineral water bought in 50cl bottles would cost £400 in the UK – with Water-to-Go it costs just over £25.

Thousands of people of all ages with differing interests, hobbies and leisure activities have already taken to the Water to Go bottle because it makes good health and financial sense.

Show you care for the health of your friends and family this Christmas – give them a Water to Go bottle, available from: info@watertogo.eu or call 01582 841412.

W arw ick Top Lock , Low erCape, W arw ick CV34 5D P

Tel: 01 926 4 1 0588

Em ail: alan@ getk notted .co.u k

W eb : w w w .getk notted .co.u k

N o thing T o o B ig o rSm all Ro p e do o r sto p s, av ailable sm all, m edium and large fro m £19 .0 0

Fenderkit, inc luding bo o k £2 5

An ideal bo ating gift c o ntaining C o lin Jo nes’ guide to m aking fenders and all the ro p e yo u need to m ake yo urfirstside fender.

Course participants gain hands-on experience in the all-weather facilities at Debdale Wharf. PHOTO SUPPLIED

Treat the boater in your life to a painting course FOR a Christmas gift that will bear fruit for years to come, a boat painting course could tick an important box on the boater in your life’s wish list.

One of the country’s top professional narrowboat painters, John Barnard, decided to set up a narrowboat painting school at Debdale Wharf on the Grand Union Leicester Line as a response to what seemed to be a rising demand for this kind of service.

Since exhibiting at Crick Show, his calendar rapidly started to fill and his first season of courses proved very successful. One satisfied customer said afterwards: “It was amazing what John managed to pack into

the two days. There were four of us and we all had slightly different goals for what we wanted to achieve in the time available. One guy was interested in patching repairs, another in the more decorative aspects, and me – I wanted to know how to tackle a full repaint.

“The advantage of keeping numbers limited was that John could dedicate sufficient time to cater for us all.”

Supported by Craftmaster Paints, John offers a variety of two-day courses ranging from an introductory course to a specialist course in signwriting run in association with acclaimed signwriter Phil Speight.

A full week’s alternative is available for those completing their own fit-outs and who need to learn as much as possible about a full paint job.

Prices start from £240 for a typical weekend course and £560 for the five-day course including lunch and refreshments.

Anyone receiving a course as a present will receive a special gift card and they can choose the date of their course when the 2014 schedule is announced. ● John Barnard Painting School for Narrowboats (07598 865684 jbarnard@hotmail.co.uk)

CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE 59

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From locks to chocs, the choice is yours FOR safety and comfort, two hands are better than one when working around locks.

Whether it’s climbing up and down ladders or crossing the lock, a windlass holster will leave you with both hands free.

With five different styles of holster, four colours and up to eight designs, there’s sure to be one to suit everybody.

If you need a belt to go with your windlass holster, or just to hold your trousers up, www.daveonanon.com can supply that as well, with a choice of patterns, colours, buckles and sizes.

All the holsters and belts are made from grade ‘A’ leather and coated with a waterproof lacquer so will give you years of service. And when you have gone through the locks and moored up, it’s time for chocolate!

New venture Chocanon has that covered too with luxury hand-made chocolates: “The way we think they should be with no unnecessary chemicals to improve shelf life.”

Made from single origin and single plantation chocolate, this gives you the individual tastes that come from some of the best estates in the world.

“If you love chocolate that tastes of chocolate and is not overloaded with sugar, then we are sure you will love our chocolates.” ● To see the full range of holsters and belts visit: www.daveonanon.com For chocolates visit: www.chocanon.com Or if you are out cruising look out for Nb Anon.

Watch out for nb Anon with its cargo of holsters, belts… and luxury chocolates. PHOTO SUPPLIED

Gift shopping sorted at Canal Cargo CHRISTMAS gifts to suit all pockets can be bought at the click of a button from online supplier Canal Cargo.

From cards and calendars to children’s books and games, a cruise through all the products can save a stressful trudge to the shops.

Canal Cargo’s online store is also the place to buy canal maps and cruising guides, goods from the chandlery and those handy gadgets which make great stocking fillers.

For people who love a good book, Navvies – the story of the men who built Britain’s canals and railways is a great buy at £12.99. This 160 page illustrated book tells of their extraordinary feats of strength and their often colourful lives.

Or for those who prefer something practical, Knots for the Cut is aimed at narrowboaters and cruiser owners the length and breadth of Britain’s canal system.

In simple, straightforward language, with clear original drawings by Helen Gee, author Ben Selfe takes you through the basics of rope maintenance and how to moor a vessel.

This spiral-bound, 136 page guide costs £12.50 from Canal Cargo.

Salmon is renowned for its quality calendars, and for waterways lovers the Canals and Waterways Calendar 2014 is a great gift with high quality canal pictures and calendar space for appointments or notes.

Complete with envelope, it costs just £5.95.

The narrowboat motif range of china beakers are sold either as singles or in packs of four.

This distinctive design can also be found on matching coasters, aprons, oven gloves and tea towels.

Other great buys include packs

of 10 Christmas cards featuring seasonal waterway scenes, priced from £3.55, stitch craft, board games and jigsaw puzzles.

Or, to help you protect that essential kit, Aquapac waterproof cases for your keys, phones or cameras. ----

● Order online at www.canalcargo.co.uk or call 0208 399 0486.

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A gem in the heart of Gloucester Docks IN THE heart of Gloucester Docks you do not have to wander far to find the gem that is R and B Canal Art and Chandlery.

Located behind the Lock Warehouse it is within Upstairs Downstairs Antique Centre. Although small in size, it is well stocked with all that is needed for both cruising and liveaboards, from grease, oil and map books to coal, logs and Elsan Blue. All is well presented and reasonably priced.

The shop is open seven days a week from 10am until 4.30pm and although the owner Barbara Gabb is not always present, the friendly staff are always ready to help.

And for all the inner artists, why not try their open workshops covering roses and castles and basic signwriting. Starting in January, a three-hour session is just £30. All equipment is provided but you will need to book, as places are limited.

Learn how to paint roses and castles at one of the open workshops. PHOTOS SUPPLIED

● Find R and B Canal Art and Chandlery on Facebook or visit the website, which can be found by typing in Canal Art in Gloucester or just call 07974 705830.

Just some of the products available in the chandlery.

Text messages & phone calls to marina security or your mobile phone can avoid all these problems. Remote control to switch heating and lights prior to arrival.

Wireless Alarm

£45

GSM Wireless Alarm

£159

Improved Internet connection onboard with our range of antennas and accessories.

Please see web site or call for full details.

Text Message Smoke Alarm

£89

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Make your own fender for that individual touch

A knotty solution to those Christmas gift problems.

FOR a practical gift that boaters will not only enjoy making but will also bring an individual touch to their boat, the fender-making kit from Get Knotted ticks all the boxes.

The kit (RRP £25 plus P&P) comprises a book which provides Colin Jones’ step-by-step guide through the process and a supply of rope enabling the reader to make their first side fender. The book also has instructions for other fenders and knots.

Sure to please friends and family, this gift will help them use traditional handcrafting methods to produce a unique piece of equipment for their boat.

Get Knotted is a family run business with more than 20 years of experience in producing rope goods and fenders, plus supplying decking and banister ropes.

Get Knotted is based by the side of the Grand Union Canal at Warwick Top Lock.

Accredited as a master craftsmen by the Waterways Craft Guild, owner Alan Ewins is also a member of the Guild of Knot Tyers.

With a rapidly expanding product and knowledge base, a range of ropes and fenders can be supplied by Get Knotted. They can be produced using either hitched or crowned methods of knotting with either natural fibre or synthetic core.

A range of mooring lines and nautical giftware is also available.

● For further information call 01926 410588 or visit www.getknotted.co.uk

Distinctive fenders by Get Knotted.

Optional extras include a smoking chimney.

A unique model of your own boat HAVE you ever dreamt of owning a model of your own boat?

Whether it is a display model to sit on a shelf or a fully working radio controlled model to cruise on the water alongside your own full-size boat, Bespoke Model Boats can make the dream a reality.

“I build models to commission and can replicate any boat from photographs and measurements. Most of my commissions are from private boat owners, although I have built a number of models for boat builders, hire companies and charities to use at exhibitions and fundraising events,” explains John Rawson.

All the models are handcrafted from photos and measurements and are unique in that John will only build a model of a boat once. He has built many models over the years including narrowboats, river and ocean cruisers, yachts, Norfolk wherries, inspection launches and bantam tugs, but can turn his hand to anything.

All the radio controlled model

A fully working radio controlled model can cruise on the water too.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

boats are supplied with transmitter, batteries and battery chargers. Additional extras can be added such as tunnel and navigation lights, working horn, interior lights, bowthruster, smoking chimney, sound replication unit for a diesel engine and many more. Models can also be built with a complete or partial interior fit-out.

Customers commission a model for any number of reasons whether it is for themselves, a birthday or Christmas present for their partner, parents or friends and often people who have sold their boat or are thinking of selling. John’s customers come from all walks of life but they all end up with a unique model of a boat that is special to them.

● For further information visit www.bespokemodelboats.moonfruit.com or contact John Rawson on 01636 671010, email bespokemodelboats@msn.com

Additional extras can include tunnel and navigation lights.

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Email details of your event to: jrichardson@mortons.co.uk or send details to: What’s on, Towpath Talk, PO Box 43, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ

Compiled by Janet Richardson

To baldly go – TV ‘explorer’ tells of canal adventures FILM maker and amateur historian Richard Vobes will be talking to Shrewsbury, District & North Wales branch of the Inland Waterways Association at the Narrowboat Inn, Whittington, Oswestry, on Monday, November 11.

The meeting, which starts at 7.30pm, is open to the public.

Known as The Bald Explorer, Richard Vobes enthusiastically explores Britain’s great heritage, traditions and legends and much of his exploration has been in Shropshire and the Welsh borders.

Branch president Michael Limbrey said: “The canals of the Shropshire Union network played an important part in the development of Shropshire and the adjoining counties in the years of the industrial revolution. At its height the network spread from Shrewsbury and East Shropshire to Wolverhampton, Middlewich, Ellesmere Port, Llangollen and Newtown.

“Today some of these canals are busy with boaters and visitors and are important for local tourism, giving opportunities for businesses and jobs. But we lost other parts of the network before the Second World War and since then there has been a great effort to reopen the Montgomery Canal and more recently the Shrewsbury & Newport Canal, with volunteers coming from far and wide to restore these parts of our transport heritage.”

He continued: “Richard Vobes’ enthusiasm for heritage and history is obvious. His films include a visit to Welshpool Lock and a longer feature on the restoration of the Shrewsbury & Newport Canal and he will be telling us about making these films. With such an enthusiastic speaker we are in for a good evening.”

Richard Vobes says: “Many people who live in this wonderful land take it for granted and forget there are at least 2000 years of fascinating stories

to tell. A couple of hundred years ago, one man, his son and a single horse could transport 20 tons of coal in a simple wooden boat on a thin strip of water.

“For my latest film, the biggest challenge was trying to tell the complicated story of the Shrewsbury canal network in as simple a way as possible for a lay audience, but without alienating the enthusiasts.”

Recently the Bald Explorer has been picked up by the Community Channel, a television station broadcasting on Sky 359, Virgin Media 233, Freeview 87 and BT Vision. ● Inland Waterways Association www.waterways.org.uk/shrewsbury The Bald Explorer http://baldexplorer.com

‘The King’ comes to three canalside towns

Chris Connor recreates Elvis’s greatest hits.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

ELVIS tribute artiste Chris Connor will be rounding up his 2013 Elvis The Ultimate Performance tour with some dates close to the canal network in November and December.

He can be seen at Dewsbury Town Hall on Saturday, November 16 (7.30pm), Congleton’s Grand Town Hall the following Saturday, November 23 (8pm) and at the Mart Theatre in Skipton on Friday, December 6 (7.30pm).

Having burst on to the UK Elvis scene in early 2009, within 12 months he was performing at venues such as the Manchester Apollo and the Harrogate International Centre in the World’s Greatest Elvis Tribute Concerts, backed by the Sweet Inspirations (Elvis Presley’s original backing singers). More recently, in April 2013, he appeared with his West End band in front

WHAT’S ON IN NOvember Throughout the month

Art exhibition by Michele Field: County Hall, Oxford OX1 1ND. Open Monday to Thursday 8.30am-5pm, Friday 8.30am-4pm, closed weekends. www.saa.co.uk/art/michele

November 2-3

Waterways Craft Guild: Signwriting course at Black Country Living Museum, Dudley, with Dave Moore. Members £90, non-members £105.

Contact training co-ordinator Julie Tonkin on 01384 569198, julie@canal-art-by-julie.co.uk

November 2-29

November art exhibition by Michele Field: Brackley Library, Manor Road NN13 6AJ. Open Monday-Friday 10am-6pm, Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 1-4pm. www.saa.co.uk/art/michele

November 3

East Hants Boat Jumble: Havant Leisure Centre, Civic Centre Way, Havant, Hampshire PO9 2AY. Indoor event, opens 10am; admission £3.50, accompanied children free, pay & display car park. Contact Chaddock & Fox Promotions 01329 661896 or 07771 962495, www.boatjumbles.co.uk IWA Towpath Walks Society, London: Regent’s Canal: Regent’s Park and River Tyburn – Camden.

Starts Baker Street tube station (Baker St north/Lords exit) at 2.30pm. Costs £9, £7 student/concs. Contact Roger Wilkinson 0208 458 9476.

November 5

IWA Lichfield: Morning walk at Kingsbury Water Park with Derek Beardsmore. A gentle stroll, easy going and fairly level, around the water park and along the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal.

Meet at the Dog & Doublet Inn, Dog Lane, Bodymoor Heath, Sutton Coldfield B76 9JD at 10.15am for 10.30am start. Optional lunch afterwards at pub. Dogs on leads welcome.

Contact Margaret Beardsmore 07581 794111, margaret.beardsmore@waterways.org.uk

November 7

Birmingham Canal Navigations Society: ‘Down the Nene and up the Great Ouse’ by Brian Holmes. Titford Pumphouse, Engine Street, Oldbury B69 4NL, 7.30pm. Contact Phil Clayton 01902 780920.

of a full audience at the London Palladium.

Performing an electric two-hour show recreating Elvis’s hits, this show has been described as a ‘must see’ for any Elvis fan. ● Tickets are priced £15 and are available from the following venues: Dewsbury box office 01924 324501 https://tickets.kirklees.gov.uk/esro/default.asp Congleton box office 01260 271095 www.congleton-tc.gov.uk Skipton box office 01756 709666 www.themarttheatre.org.uk

Richard Vobes: the Bald Explorer. PHOTO SUPPLIED

Festival fun is on offer from the Paper Wizard AS WELL as providing festival and event entertainment throughout the UK and further afield, Paper Wizard offers tutorial and activity workshops in a variety of paper and card elements.

His considerable costume range includes pirate with support equipment including an under 10’s inflatable pirate ship, Edwardian and Victorian themes. He also offers origami items, balloon models and magic displays.

The Wizard holds the new DBS certificate and has public liability insurance with memberships including the International Brotherhood of Magicians, Equity and the National Street Entertainers Association. www.paperwizard.biz

If you want your event listed in our free monthly What’s On section email your entry to jrichardson@mortons.co.uk or use the events form at www.towpathtalk.co.uk/events. As always please check with organisers on the details of the event before setting out on your journey.

Southampton Canal Society: Day-Star Theatre will be performing a new play The Awakening of Geoffrey Phelps. Chilworth Parish Hall, Chilworth, Southampton SO16 7JZ, 7.45pm. Visitors welcome.

Contact 02380 675312, www.sotoncs.org.uk

November 8

IWA West Riding: ‘The IWA: past present and future’ by Les Etheridge, IWA chairman.

South Pennine Boat Club, Wood Lane, Mirfield WF14 0ED. 8pm. Contact 01133 934517, kandal@btinternet.com Waterways Craft Guild: Stitch Craft course at Hawne Basin with Pat Walker. Free to members of Hawne Basin, £2.50 per session for guests.

Contact training co-ordinator Julie Tonkin on 01384 569198, julie@canal-art-by-julie.co.uk

November 9

Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal Trust: Winter Bazaar at St Katherine’s Hall, Ledbury, 9.30am-3pm. Canal trust display and sales stand, home-made cakes and refreshments, crafts and gifts for sale. Free admission.

Lancaster Canal Trust: Waterways and Iron Roads: ‘The Lancaster Canal: Recent restoration and future possibilities’, illustrated talk by David Currington followed by ‘Carnforth Station: Resplendent, Redundant, Revived’, illustrated talk by Bob Roe and George Nightingale. Furness & Midland Hall, Carnforth Station, 2pm.

Refreshments during interval.

November 9-10

St Pancras Cruising Club: Poppy Cruise, destination TBC. Contact cruise co-ordinator Andrew Phasey on 07850 753633 email: theoldmainline@fastmail.fm

South London IWA: Aileen Butler’s Magic Lantern Show. The Primary Room, The United Reformed Church Hall, Addiscombe Grove, Croydon CR0 5LP. 7.30 for 8pm. Contact Alan Smith 02082 551581, 07774 890750 or email alan.smith@waterways.org.uk

November 15

IWA Notts & Derby: Illustrated talk on the Manchester Ship Canal and engineering issues by Rod Pearson. Rushcliffe Arena, Rugby Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7HY. 7.45pm.

Contact nottsandderbys@waterways.org IWA East Yorkshire: ‘Tall Ships – sailing adventures for all’, illustrated talk by Rowena and Adrian Lovett about their journeys on Tenacious and Lord Nelson. Methodist Church Hall, Cottingham, East Yorkshire HU16 4BD, 8-10pm. £2 inc. refreshments. Contact roger.bromley@waterways.org.uk 01482 845099.

November 17

National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port: Open Day and volunteering opportunities.

National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port: Waterways Craft Group meets on the first floor of the Island Warehouse to demonstrate traditional crafts of the inland waterways.

IWA Warwickshire Branch Walk: A long and short walk by the River Avon. Meet at The Frog car park, Bidford-on-Avon, 10.30am. Contact 01926 403179.

IWA Towpath Walks Society, London: The Olympics, Three Mills and Bow Back Rivers.

Starts Bromley-by-Bow tube station at 2.30pm.

Costs £9, £7 student/concs. Contact Roger Wilkinson 02084 589476.

November 18

November 12

IWA Birmingham, Black Country & Worcester: The Thames Tideway, talk by Andrew Phasey.

Coombeswood Canal Trust, Hawne Basin, Hereward Rise, Halesowen, West Midlands B62 8AW, 7.15 for 7.30pm. Contact Chris Osborn 01299 832593, jcosborn@btinternet.com

November 13

November 20

IWA Chester and Merseyside: ‘Trent & Mersey Canal notices and posters: an insight into the early days of canal management’ with Peter Brown.

Tom Rolt Conference Centre, National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port CH65 4FW. 7.45pm. Bar and coffee-making facilities available.

IWA Warwickshire: The Waterways of Stoke-onTrent by Steve Wood, deputy chairman of IWA N Staffs and S Cheshire branch. The Sports Connexion Leisure Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore CV8 3FL. 7.30pm.

IWA Lichfield: ‘Restoration Progress on the Grantham Canal’ by Mike Stone, chairman of Grantham Canal Restoration Trust. Martin Heath Hall, Christchurch Lane (off Walsall Road), Lichfield WS13 8AY. 7.30 for 7.45pm.

November 23

Waterways Craft Guild: Basic IT skills course at Phil’s log cabin, Cradley Heath with Phil Stone.

Members £45, non-members £52.50. Contact training co-ordinator Julie Tonkin on 01384 569198, julie@canal-art-by-julie.co.uk

November 24

Erewash Canal Preservation & Development Association: Sandiacre Lock Cottages, Lock Lane (off Longmoor Lane) open from 2.30-5pm.

Admission free but donations appreciated.

November 25

IWA Milton Keynes: ‘Waterways Photography Secrets’ by Robin Smithett. The Milton Keynes Pavilion, Worrell Avenue, Middleton, Milton Keynes Village MK10 9AD (accessed off Tongwell Street V11). Free admission. Contact Rodney Evans 01908 376449 rodneyevans48@gmail.com

November 26

Derby & Sandiacre Canal Society: ‘Problem Solving in Canal Building’ by Rod Pearson. The Wilmot Arms, 49 Derby Road, Borrowash, Derby, 8pm. Admission £2.

November 27

IWA Chiltern: ‘The Waterways of Northern France and Belgium’, Roger Squires takes the less visited canals from Dunkirk to Ostend for a travelogue of new territory. New venue – Little Chalfont Village Hall, Cokes Lane, Little Chalfont, Bucks HP8 4UD. 8pm. All welcome to attend. Contact 01932 248178.

November 28

IWA Chester & Merseyside walk: Moore, from The Red Lion, Runcorn Road, Moore WA4 6UD. The walk is about 4.5 miles, mainly level, and takes in parts of the Manchester Ship Canal, the disused Runcorn and Latchford Canal and the Moore Nature Reserve. OS Explorer 276. Map reference 576842. Starts 10.15am, open to nonmembers. Lunch can be booked on morning.

November 30-December 1

Waterways Craft Guild: Beginners’ roses and castles course at Black Country Living Museum, Dudley, with Dave Moore. Members £90, non-members £97.50.

Contact training co-ordinator Julie Tonkin on 01384 569198, julie@canal-art-by-julie.co.uk

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Boats for sale

37ft NARROWBOAt Lister 3 cylinder, 27hp Canal Star, 4 berth, 2 cabins, permanent made up bed in cabin, 2/2 settee berths, make seconddouble, m/wave, fridge, cooker, s/f stove, VHF, £23,950. Tel. 01482 812816. W Yorks.

50ft NARROWBOAt for cheap share. Email: kalegu@hotmail.com.

Warks.

BARNABY 1982 cruiser stern, 30ft Springer powered by Barrus Shire 1002, 3 cyl 25hp engine, plenty of extra power for river work, ready for cruising, moored Stourport basin, £14,000. Tel. 07780 790710. Stourport.

BARRUSSHIRE SPRINGER NARROWBOAt 1982, 30ft cruiser stern, 3 cylinder engine, 25hp, cassette toilet, shower, multi-fuel stove, fridge, oven, all equipment inc ready for cruising, BSS 2017, Tel. 07780 790710. glen_caulwell@hotmail.com moored at Stourport-on-Severn.

Moorings

CELtIC NARROWBOAt 40ft, 3berth, diesel, Mitsubishi engine, 3 cyl Alde gas c/h, built 1989, 4yr BSC, pump-out shower, needs painting, new cooker, moored Mon & Brec canal, gwo, £15,000 ono. Tel. 01982 552217. Powys.

CRUISER StERN Narrowboat built 1997, current BSS cert expires Jul 17, hull exc cond, surveyed and blacked Apr 13, engine refurbished, elecs renewed and new anodes fitted Apr 13, £15,000 - Offers invited. tel.

07814 822161. Coventry.

CRUISER StERN 40ft , built in 1991, good condition, BSC 2016, license Jul 14, blacked Feb, new engine 800 hours only, 2013, fully equipped, ready to cruise, £20,000. Tel. 07703 473202. Llangollen.

CRUISER StERN NARROWBOAt 49ft, by Kingfisher Marine 1989, bottom overplated 2007, hull survey Jun 13, bottom anti-fouled Jun 13, top repainted Jul 13, BSC Jul 17. Tel. 07950 240210. Cambs.

GRP BUCKINGHAM 30ft centre cockpit, 1981, BSC licence May 14, 5-berth, 5ft headroom, 20hp mariner elec start outboard, hob, grill and oven, hot/cold water, wood burning stove, all nearly new, soft furnishings with mooring, well worth a look, £6750 ono. Tel. 0781 6035201.

Lancs.

HANCOCK & LANE NORSEMAN 50ft, 1980, 4 berths, re-bottomed, front & back decks replaced, amateur total refit, recent new Beta 1505 engine, just repainted, 150 gal water, £20,000 ono. Tel. 01827 708350.

Tamworth.

IRON RIVEtED NARROWBOAt 54ft, Lister LR/50, as new, licence 2014, BSC 2015, blacked 2012, live aboard, £18,000 Tel. 07938 060459.

Kennet & Avon.

LIVERPOOL tRAD NARROWBOAt Pick up the keys and move in, 2005, 50ft Liverpool trad narrowboat, Izuzu 35 engine, 2 inverters, 2 solar panels, s/f stove/back boiler. Tel. 07594 612804. Cheshire.

CRUISER StYLE NARROWBOAt 1984, 40ft, 4 berth, 1500 BMC engine, recent total refit to interior including hot air c/h, elec flush toilet, gas fire fitted, regularly maintained, £21,000. Tel. 01922 478384. Wolvs.

BLACK SAB 2003, 50ft trad stern, built by Price Fallows, ideal liveaboard or extended cruising, includes countryside mooring £25,000 ono; priced for quick sale. Tel. 07725 526453.

LOOKING tO SWAP 57 x 10 wide beam, built in 2011, finished to very good standard for a 57ft narrow around 30/40k with cash to match the value of my boat. Only serious offers please. Tel. 07525 146833.

Notts.

NORMAN CABIN CRUISER 23ft, recently refurbished, 3/4 berth, Honda 15 elec start outboard motor, sep toilet compartment with cassette toilet, BSC til 2017, license til Oct 13, £6000 Tel. 01785 823487. Stafford.

NUtSHELL 70ft, G&T, 2000 shell, new fit-out, 3.5kw generator, inverter, washer, CofC 2016, 6 berth, wood burner, Webasto heating system with 5 radiators, perfect live aboard, £45,950. Tel. Ann or Dennis on 0161 4296925; 07866 962228. Stockport.

PRINCESS 32 1975, twin Volvo petrol, Boat Safety till 2015, v tidy boat, p/x considered, moored at Boroughbridge marina, worth viewing, £15,000. Tel. 07531 146160. N Yorks.

RED & GOLD 57ft 10” traditional/ semi-traditional narrowboat, first reg 2000, built and fitted by Midland Canal Centre, 4 + 2 berth, Beta BV1903S cocooned diesel engine, vgc, throughout, suitable for use as a live aboard, must be seen. Tel. 07427 187749. Northants.

SHEtLAND 535 with road trailer and Yamaha 9.9hp outboard, BSS until March 2015, £2150. Tel. 07790 635233. Shrops.

SHEtLAND fAMILY fOUR Built 1979, 17ft, new 15hp Mercury outboard engine fitted Apr 13, BSC valid until Aug 17, nice clean boat inside and out, sink, space for portaloo, upholstery vgc, £3995. Tel. 07914 816557. Essex.

SPECIAL NARROWBOAt 40ft but blanked off at the stern so that it can be extended to 70ft, fitted out and usable with out board or connected to 60ft mother boat also on sale for £40,000, £30,000. Tel. 07598 831752. London.

SPRINGER CRUISE StERN 36ft, 3 berth, recently painted, BMC 1.5 diesel, full size cooker, diesel heater, shower, fridge, water heater and cassette toilet, open plan layout, BSC to Aug 15, £16,000 ono. Tel. 01332 391658. Derbys.

StEEL CABIN CRUISER Inboard Yanmar, clean & tidy, one d/bed, c/w purpose built 1 year old trailer, fits all canals, 2 x capacitor batteries, gas fridge/cooker/oven/fridge, great cond, £8950 can deliver. Tel. Steve 07768 211612. Gwent.

DARtLINE NARROWBOAt 38ft, 1994 cruiser, lovely condition inside and out, just been painted and reblacked, engine serviced. Ready to go, £22,950. Tel. 01244 336484.

Chester.

BROOM CRUISEMAStER 44ft, 12ft beam, GRP 1977, Thorneycroft 2.5, multi-fuel stove heating, 4 cabins, galley, head with shower, front well with seating and canopy, Norfolk broads, £36,000 Tel. 07760 353270.

Norfolk.

EMMELINE semi-trad narrowboat from Heritage, reverse layout, Paris model, 62ft, 2008, BSS cert May 2016, bottom blacked Aug 13, shower, 4-berth, ideal live aboard, exc cond, £64,000. Tel. 07866 133777. Leics.

CANAL NARROWBOAt 28ft, 2005, excellent condition, it has a up to date service history, BSC or MoT was done late 2012 to be retested 2017, been reblacked 2013. Tel. 07799 5284444. Warks.

CREIGHTON CRUISER 1972, 32ft Creighton, refurbished canal cruiser, Perkins original engine, drive overhauled 2012, two cabins 4/6 berth new Morco water heater, new cassette toilet, shower, DVD player, radio/CD, 1000 watt inverter, fridge, cooker, home from home, ready to sail away, fitness ticket till December 2015, licence till April 2014, £9250.

Tel. 07921 887374. Mooring available in Cheshire.

NAUtICUS 27 Canal cruiser, inland waterways, inboard diesel engine Ford marine, new oil seals and drive couplings to outdrive, hull cleaned and repainted. Please contact for more pics. BSS certificate till 2/6/14, Email: hello546music@gmail.com Moored in Cheshire.

fREEMAN 33 SEDAN 1981, spacious 6 berth cruiser, twin Ford Sabre 120hp diesel engines, clean, well maintained, many extras, full s/steel deck rails inc sides, BSS Jan 2017, £29,950. Tel. 0113 2558393; 07768 651090. S Yorks.

32FT STEEL NARROWBOAT cruiser style, BMC 1.5, 12v fridge, inverter, s/f stove, £6000. Tel. 01745 855492. lying N Shroppie, N Wales.

MARINER 520 Retro offers luxury/ space, many extras, folding canopy, rope fenders etc, with 15hp outboard, takes 8 board river/6 sea boarders, reduced due to ill health, £6500. Tel. 07768 187923. Leics.

NARROWBOAt Dutch barge style, built by Piper Boats 2001, 4 berth, s/f stove feeding 3 rads, shower and sink, galley with Wallas diesel hob and oven, bow thruster. Tel. 07980 315709. W Yorks.

42FT SPRINGER 1989, cruiser stern, my live aboard home for 22 yrs, well maintained, BSC 2015, hull replated 2009, repainted 2013, moored Cheshire, sale due to health reasons, £20. Tel. 0777 9602838. Cheshire.

HISTORIC BOAT fully restored, full length, in working trim but suitable for conversion, £30,000 for a nononsense sale. Tel. 07913 761871.

Oxfordshire.

RIVERVIEW NARROWBOAt built on an Alexander shell, serviced every 250hrs/annually whichever comes first, bottom blacked every 2 yrs, licensed till Feb 14, BCS 2016, £49,500 Tel. 07850 281311 for further details. k2kck@btinternet.com Leics.

SEA OttER 41 SE Cruiser style narrowboat 2007, exc cond, 780 hours only on the clock, extras fitted inc bow thruster, Webasto diesel c/h, new rear cover, 5 yr warranty, £55,000; early viewing suggested.

Tel. 01744 635275 for more details.

Lancs.

MOTOR SAILOR solid mahogany, oak, Iroko, 4 berth, 35ft, 84hp diesel engine, saloon, back cabin, sleeps 4, satnav, VHF, CofC, £9500. Tel. 07704 409857. Lincs.

P/X NARROWBOAT 70ft Kingsground fit-out, residential mooring available Worcester, for widebeam plus cash. Tel. 07973 399308. Worcs.

StOWE HILL CLASSIC 52ft, semitrad, 1990, 38hp Beta engine new 2009, mooring at Thrupp, Oxford Canal, 2+2 berths, continuously maintained, hull blacked and new anodes 2013, BSC Dec 14, £47,500.

Tel. 01525 242280. Oxon.

SUKY NARROWBOAt 57ft cruiser stern, 2005, built by Liverpool Boat Co, engine hours 410, she has had very little use, new batteries, Isuzu 35hp, bottom done in 2012. £36,995.

Tel. Rick 07730 571682 for more details. Cambs.

R&D TRAD 47ft, complete refit internally, new upholstery, mattresses, port holes throughout, 1.8 BMC, rebuilt 2013, needs blacking and outside paint, p/x 60+ ft trad, £25,000. Tel. 07907 315604 for full spec. Cambs.

SHETLAND 2x2 1.5 BMC diesel, new fuel pump injectors, starter, alternator, lift pump, prop de-coke, head gasket etc, 4 years BSS on trailer, p/x swap possible, £3495. Tel. 07848 986071. W Yorks.

tRAD NARROWBOAt 62ft Stoke on Trent, built 2003, live aboard with full Mikuni c/h + wood/coal stove, 4 berth, blacked Jun 12, BSC til Aug 14, c/w many extras, £58,995. Tel. 07809 705814. Herts.

tUG NARROWBOAt 58ft, 2009, Gardner 4L2 engine developing 40hp @ 1000 revs, deck, s/f stove, Eberspacher to 3 rads, blacked Aug 13, £69,950. Tel. 07864 026116. S Yorks.

RESIDENTIAL MOORINGS on small 3 boat mooring site, water, hook up, Elsan & pump out, car park, garden. Bridge 77 Trent & Mersey, £1750 per year inc CRT charges. Tel. 07901 617200.

Parts and spares

ENGINE SUMP OIL PUMP all brass, £20 Tel. 07811 314112. Warks.

HONDA 100 ENGINE 4 stroke, 10 hp outboard engine, can be seen running on boat, £400. Tel. 01509 646479. Leics. tUG StYLE NARROWBOAt 50ft for sale. Built 2000. Brand New fit out. New Beta 38 within engine room.

Wood burning stoves in back and front cabins, 1600 inverter, speed wheel, 4 berth, just blacked & new anodes, C of C to 2016. Reduced to £36,950. Tel. Ann or Dennis: 0161 4296925; 07786 696228.

WIDE BEAM 55* 10.5ft, 2006, trad style with 60 sq ft cruiser stern, twin berth king size bed, new 12v fridge and 2* 80w solar panels, large water/diesel/pump out tanks, elec toilet, 7kw multi-fuel fire, washing machine, 2.5kw sterling inverter, Barrus 50 engine PRM gearbox, £64,000 Tel. 07771 638570. Herts.

WIDEBEAM CRUISER StERN 57ft, beautiful ash woodwork throughout, 2 beds, masses storage. Mooring available, details on website at www.emex.co.uk £79,500. Tel. Brian on 07881 728622. bgl@blueiq.co.uk Berks.

WILDERNESS tRAIL BOAt 1977, 18’ 6” fibreglass, exc cond, BSS to 1917, licence to end Oct 14, £10,500 ono. Tel. 07788 430111. Leics.

WORKING BOAt 1909, riveted iron, new bottom and footings 2005, counter rebuilt 2010, Dorman 2DWD engine, Epping Range, 2 x 600 gall diesel tanks and pump in hold, £30,000 no offers; no time wasters.

Tel. 07913 761871. Oxfordshire.

LES ALLEN 40ft trad 2-berth, £26,000. Tel. 07940 472635. Beds.

SPRINGER NARROWBOAT 1982, 30ft cruiser stern, Barrus shire 3 cyl engine, 25hp, cassette toilet, shower, multi-fuel stove, fridge, oven, all equipment inc ready for cruising, BSS 2017. Tel. 07780 790710. Stourport on Severn.

HONDA VERtICAL StARtER Honda vertical starter for BF75/100, £30; Honda workshop manual for B75, £10; Teleflex CC33 (heavy duty) engine control cables, gc, one 3.5m long and one 3m long, £12 each. Tel. 02920 735335. S Glam.

HURtH GEARBOX HBW50-2P with backplate and driveplate CBR & D22B8, £250; propeller 17X12 1.5in shaft, £200; bell housing for BMC 1.5, £75. Tel. 01283 810005. Derbys.

KINGfISHER GEARBOX Model (MA100), will fit Kingfisher (KD26), good working order, £120 ovno; buyer collects. Tel. 07974 980692.

Lincs.

LADDER CHASSIS 46ft long, will carry 60ft boat, steering axles f&r, towable, available now, we used it to tow 60ft narrowboat no problems!

Tel. 01772 690666. Lancs.

LIStER HA3 gearbox, reduction box and silencer, £2500. Tel. 01283 810005. Derbys.

14" WHEEL from Hyundai Lantra with new never used tyre 175 65 R14 Nexen CP661, £20. Tel. 07724 840003. S Yorks.

AQUAJET WOS 3.4 freshwater pump, 12v, automatic, £35. plus transport Tel. 01767 640938. Beds.

FIBROCELL SEA BEE 3 outboard motor, £150 ono. Tel. 07719 402983 anytime. Notts.

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NationalNarrow boats W anted For C ash

0800 3895325 MORSE CONTROL ALLOY HOUSING Paint worn but could be polished for nice effect, mechanically sound, £50. Tel. 07811 314112. Leics.

NEW HOSPITAL SILENCER 12” x 32”, 2” BSP fittings, 40kg, £150. Tel. 07974 808277. W Mids.

NORDIKA 3200 as new, used twice, 230v - 400v welder, vgc, c/w headshield, hammer, steel brush, £120.

Tel. 07974 808277. W Mids.

SIX HOPPER WINDOWS black surround, measurement 43 1/4” by 21 1/4” to fit 42” by 20”, good condition, £250; also spares parts for JP2. Tel. 07563 188944. Lichfield.

THORNICROFT 1.8 FORD 3,449 hrs. Good running order. PRM Delta gearbox, engine mounts, propeller, Cole Craft control panel and propeller, Wyvern Shipping Co, £450.

Tel. 01525 372355 (T).

KINGFISHER STARTER MOTOR fits Kingfisher KD26, gwo, buyer collects, £55 ovno. Tel. 07974 980692.

Lincs.

KIPOR DIGITAL GENERATOR Camp mate, KGE 980TC, £120. Tel. 07765 335344. Macclesfield Canal.

TWO-STROKE LISTER Freedom Blackstone gearbox, 2-1 reduction, £3500 ono. Tel. 07563 188944.

Lichield.

WHALE PUMP new, still boxed, £35.

Tel. 01932 707165. Surrey.

BMC 1.5 engine, £400.50; BMC 1.8 diesel fuel pump, new, £400.50; Seagull long shaft, 2T petrol pull start, £200; Colette gas cooker, 3 hob, grill, oven, £90. Tel. 07527 726047. Shrops.

BRONZE PROPELLOR 20"/21", left hand screw 11⁄2"-1" taper shaft, in good order, been rebalanced, £80 ono. Tel. 07801 023443. Cheshire.

BUCKBY CAN 3 gallon, fully decorated, £80; Thetford cassette C200, £30; jerry cans, 3 for £20; top box, £50; Dump through toilet ceramic bowl, £20. Tel. 07795 964375. N Notts.

CASAPPA GEAR PUMP for hydraulic drive boat, £95; Shurflo diaphragm pump 2.8 GPM, £20; Square D pressure switch, £10; three solar powered 12v 1.5w battery trickle chargers, £10. Tel. 01270 811702.

Cheshire.

DIESEL GENERATOR air cooled, diesel, CE 150 9001, electric start, 2/115v outlets, 1/240v outlet, 3.8kw constant, 4.2kw max, only run four hours, £420 ono. Tel. 07801 023443.

Cheshire.

GARDNER 4LK diesel engine, completely stripped and rebuilt to a very high finish by Gardner trained engineer, with new and exchange parts, aluminium flywheel housing and solid mounts, polished aluminium and chromed pipes, ideal for a narrowboat. Tel. 01254 202341. Lancs.

HONDA 2000 GENERATOR 240v110v-12v, approx 3 years old, buyer collects, £225 ono; electric folding bicycle inc front basket, rear panniers, £260. ono; buyer collects. Tel. 07873 269671. Shrops.

JABSCO CIRCULATING PUMP 12v, used only once, Jabs I part no 59510-0012, £45 ono. Tel. 01283 740389. W Mids.

JABSCO COVENTRY Victor, 9900 Volvo Penty 200C, £60; engine and gearbox plus exhaust, offers around £400. Tel. 07789 483241. Derbys.

w w w .nationalnarrow boatsforcash.co.uk

OLDER MODEL SINGLE LEVER Morse control in good cond, ideal to replace your worn out unit or as a small unit for general use, buyer collects (E Yorks) or delivery at cost £30.

Tel. 077100 38070.

POLAR END CAP A/636 for manifold, nearly new, unused, £25. inc post Tel. Jane 07940 308006. E Yorks.

YANMAR DIESEL ENGINE YSM 12G, 3-1 reduction gear box, £450.

Tel. 07861 394538. Beds.

PORT HOLES solid brass, (marine grade), quality craftsman made, brass screws/nuts, Neoprene gaskets, laminated glass, 51⁄2” dia, set 4 (pigeon box), £80; set 2 91⁄2” dia, £55.

Tel. 01252 713054. W Surrey.

SELLING UP loads of bits and bobs for sale, gearboxes, generator, alternator, anchor, buyers market. Tel. Dave 0777 3502529 for details. Man. SUPER CHARGER 50 amp, little used, bought at Crick show for £464, bargain at £250. Tel. 0789 5065648.

W Yorks.

YAMAHA 4HP 4-stroke, longshaft outboard motor, used as tender/auxiliary, can be seen running, £375. Tel. 01902 743828. W Mids.

Equipment

SINGLE LEVER MORSE CONTROL older model, good cond, ideal to replace your worn out unit or as a small unit for general use, £30 buyer collects. Tel. 0771003 8072. E Yorks.

BUOYANCY AID 3 medium body weight 38kg - 64kg + 1 extra large body weight 76kg + in good cond as expected for safety items, £30. Tel. 02380 404541; 07812 398142.

Hants.

SMALL SINK stainless steel, £8; chrome taps, £4 each, all new £8.

Tel. 01932 707165. Surrey.

SPINFLOW CAPRICE Mk 3 build in cooker. Full flame failure. 12v spark ignition. W497 D550 H900mm. New £600, price £145. Wyvern Shipping Co. Tel. 01525 372355 (T).

3 X STOVES VANETTE free standing cooker, flame failure on oven only, W495 D550 H900mm, £75 each.

Wyvern Shipping Co. Tel. 01525 372355 (T).

CANAL WATER BARREL Roses, Castles and Diamonds, painted by Alan Barnet, £130. Tel. 07713 177304. Coventry.

Wanted

WINDOWS 21” 36”, bow top, in black, good condition, £200 ono. Tel. 07973 302248. W Mids.

GREAT OPPORTUNITY! Swap 4 bed house in Spain for 60ft narrowboat, house is 1 hour inland from Malaga in a white village, all amenities nearby, 360 degree views from large top terrace. Tel. 07925 340130.

6 ROUND FENDERS approx 23” dia, brand new and never used, collect from near Mansfield or Mercia Marina, £16 each. Tel. 01623 823662.

Derbys.

AUTOMATIC SATELLITE DISH (Travel sat), perfect working order, £350 buyer to collect. Tel. 07766 590383. Cheshire.

LOOKING FOR EXPERIENCED BOAT USERS to share a privately owned canal boat for a minimum of 2 years, price based on 4 weeks - 2 in summer and 2 at other times. For details tel.

07809 374430.

Northants.

THE BOAT SHOP UK Leighton Buzzard. We buy boats in any condition, boats needing welding work or refitting, cash available for the right boats. Tel. 07971 305880; 07742 260961. (T)

DICKINSON DIESEL ADRIATIC cooker/stove c/w flue apart from through deck fitting, good cond, new 2005, buyer to collect, £350 ono. Tel. 07948 222488. W Mids.

EPPING STOVE c/w flue (27” approx), collar & chimney, good cond, little used, offers. Tel. 07870 313088.

Northants.

KABOLA old dutch diesel stove, chimney and flue and new spare Mica window inc, £125 ono. Tel. 07726 941191. Merseyside.

MULTICEL 3000W inverter with remote plus battery cable, good working order, £100. ono Tel. 07575 308672. near Droitwich, Worcs.

ROYAL PORTA POTTY brand new, never used, 9”, 12v TV, with boosted aerial, boat hook 3.9 propane windlass, bottle (full), small 12v fridge, one new fender, 2 Butane gas heaters, with refills, 1.12v heater, 3 good mooring ropes, bottles, toilet fluid, £180. ono the lot Tel. 07749 545812. Notts.

Miscellaneous

HONDA OUTBOARD OWNERS MANUAL, good condition, £8. Tel. 01932 707165. Surrey.

ADULT QUICKFIT 150N manual lifejacket, worn once, child's Seago 150N automatic life jacket, worn once, both as new, can post, £15. each Tel. 07580096651; 01594 541320. Glos.

BRASS MUSHROOM VENTS 5,used, £50 ono the lot, buyer collects. Tel. 07748 453496. S B’ham.

ECO FAN 3 bladed gold, superb condition, little occasional use on oil stove, makes for a cosy cabin, £80.

Tel. Paul 07582 688469. Derbys.

BIRMINGHAM CANAL NAVIGATIONS original cast iron bridge plate, 34 x 19", notice of insufficient weights, limits beyond ordinary traffic of the district by order, vgc, rare historic object, £250. Tel. 01252 713054. W Surrey.

6KW MOTOR used once, bow lamp reg'd, dry suit, 5ft 7", never worn, Tel. 01244 378779. Chester.

MOUNTAIN BICYCLE fully folding frame/pedals etc, metallic blue, adult size 26in, alloy wheels, 21speed Shimano gears, Shimano disc brakes, side stand, superb, as new, front and rear suspension, £60. Tel. 01252 713054. W Surrey.

PRINT: Edward Heath on Morning Cloud, framed, 32" x 25", signed

by Edward Heath and artist Robert Taylor, No 504 or 850, £110 ono.

Tel. 01433 631564; 07903 093630 buyer collects. Derbys.

WORKTOP AND TABLE TOP clothes washer and Creda spin drier, both 240v. but been used via inverter over last 3 yrs, both like new and proper working order. Tel. 07929 856764 and ask for May. Notts.

Personal NATURE LOVING GENTLEMAN Retired, own canal boat, would like to meet a nice genuine lady, age unimportant, likes car boots, antiques.Tel.Tony 07717 257867. Lincs.

BUCKBY CANS Two unpainted, 1 x 12” base (large) 1 x 10.5” base (medium), £50 pair or will split. Tel. 07950 832060. B’ham.

KIPOR IG2000 petrol generator, rated output 2Kw, excellent condition, hardly used, £350 ovno. Tel. 07590 842275. Cheshire.

MACERATOR TOILET brand new, white ceramic, c/w lid and connecting cable to 12v power, was installed on friends boat but never used, £150. ovno Tel. 07541 830658. Walsall.

TONNEAU used, for semi-trad stern narrowboat, black, good condition, size approx 1050 x 1050 plus doorway drop, only £30. Tel. 07541 830658. Walsall.

FREEMAN BACK CUSHION and Freeman window, £20 each. Tel. 01932 707165. Surrey.

Stolen

XM QUICK FIT adult life jacket, inflatable manual, red, worn once, £25; Seago childs 40kg life jacket, inflatable, automatic, worn once, £15. Tel. 01594 541320; 075800 96651. Glos.

STOLEN: SEAGULL SILVER CENTURY 100 Have you been offered a short shaft with clutch? Engine no WSPC 350BB3. Police are aware. Tel. David 07762 073100. N Notts.

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ALVECOTE MARINA

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96 BOAT SAFETY/ON IRISH WATERS with Alison Alderton

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Staying safe on your boat

This month Clive Penny of the Association of Boat Safety Examiners looks at electrical safety.

NEARLY all boats have some form of electrical equipment on board. Anything from a single battery to start the engine to a fully equipped floating home will have some risks associated with them.

Even the simplest of battery powered systems can present a risk of fire or explosion. When batteries are charged, hydrogen gas may be given off and this can, if ignited, cause a battery to explode. This is why some batteries and battery compartments need to be ventilated. Never disconnect any batteries while they are connected to any charging equipment, isolate first.

Fire can be caused when any part of an electrical system overheats. The most common causes are loose or poorly made connections and overloaded circuits.

Your nose and eyes can alert you to the signs that something may not be right. Never ignore any sights or smells that you are not familiar with.

The 230v systems, or ‘mains’ as we sometimes call them, present their own issues. The Boat Safety Scheme offers the following advice:

What are the risks?

Just as in our homes, the use of 230v electrical power on boats brings the risks that: ● contact with live parts can cause electric shock and burns so serious they can be fatal ● electrical overloading or faulty connections can cause fires Some of the key points that make keeping safe on a boat different from when you are in a building include: ● contact with water ● the exposure to severe weather ● vibration and rough usage ● boats often have two or more sources of 230v power Taking these points into account, more care needs to be taken with 230v electricity on boats, including: ● avoiding water coming into contact with electric equipment or wiring ● ensuring the boat’s different sources of electric power − shore power cables, engine-driven alternators, inverters and installed or portable generators − are never connected to each other or to the same wiring at any time (usually only possible due to careless or incompetent electrical work). Using shore power cables responsibly and always ensuring that an effective earthing connection is made via the cable from the shore power socket to power inlet on the boat (and hence to the main earthing terminal of the boat’s electrical system).

Heat damage caused by a loose connection – what made this particular item even more dangerous was that it was located, inappropriately, at the bottom of a wardrobe where fabrics and dust could have come into contact with it. PHOTO: CLIVE PENNY ● This article is just an overview of some of the advice

available on the boat safety scheme website. www.boatsafetyscheme.org

All of the articles from this series can be found on my website www.canalelectrics.com Your local member of the Association of Boat Safety Examiners can be found at www.ABSE.org and will be happy to answer any questions you may have and assist in any way they can.

Shore power cables – is the cable safe to use?

Only use shore power cables designed and sold for use with boats. They should have the ‘CE’ marking on them or on their packaging/instruction sheet etc.

Check the cable condition prior to each use and replace if it shows signs of damage; never repair it.

If any cable strands are exposed, do not use the cable.

If the inner wire coloured insulation is showing at any point, have the shore power cable repaired or replace it.

Plug, socket and connector grips should always be tightened on to the outer insulation and not the inner wires – this can lead to the core breaking and the cable overheating.

Jellyfish found in lough’s dergand erne THE unusually warm summer with water temperatures exceeding 25ºC for prolonged periods is thought to be partly responsible for reported sightings of freshwater jellyfish.

Angler Pat Joyce from Limerick first noticed the small jellyfish, about the size of a Euro coin, while fishing in Lough Derg and reported his findings to the Environment Protection Agency. This resulted in further investigations by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), Lough Derg Science Group and Dr Tom Doyle, a jellyfish expert from the Coastal &

Reacting immediately to early signs of electrical danger may save your life and your boat.

Use all your senses to weigh up continually if electrical safety is compromised. Act on what you find to keep you, your crew and persons around your boat safe.

Never ignore danger signs like: ● burn marks at sockets, plugs, fuses or circuit-breakers ● heat damaged cables ● burning smells, sounds of arcing (buzzing or crackling) ● appliances that run at a temperature higher than seems right ● fuses or circuit-breakers blowing or ‘tripping’ repeatedly ● an RCD (residual current device) that trips and won’t reset ● a reversed polarity warning light on your consumer unit.

Any electrical equipment showing warning signs like those above shouldn’t be used. Instead, isolate the power and seek competent help to remedy any defect.

Making the right choice could save your life Use a competent person to design, install and maintain your boat’s electrical systems and appliances, and to make any changes to them.

A competent person is someone having the necessary knowledge, skill and experience needed to avoid electrical dangers to themselves and others.

Seeking a BMET qualified fitter from a local boatyard will help with that choice.

Choose to have your boat’s electrical system checked routinely – a boat’s 230v system can easily deteriorate in condition over time and use.

Have the fixed wiring, consumer unit (fuse/circuitbreaker box), switches, sockets and appliances checked by a competent person at least once every three years.

A competent person will help you be sure that: ● the earthing and bonding is effective and your boat’s electrical protective devices will work ● electrical circuits or equipment are not being overloaded ● any potential hidden electric shock risks or fire hazards are found and dealt with properly ● only suitable appliances and equipment are used aboard ● electrical appliances have the British or European safety mark ● replacement appliances are within the rated current load of the circuit ● replacement fuses or circuit-breakers are of the correct type and rating ● you check your boat’s electrical system as part of your boarding routine Check consumer units, cables and connections where they can be seen for signs of mechanical and heat damage.

A timely warning from a marine mechanic ON THE subject of electrical safety, we have also received the following warning from a mobile marine mechanic: “While attending a recently purchased craft in transit to her new mooring, we called at a reputable southern marina for assistance. Having established an alternator failure and very discharged batteries we decided to set up a shore powered battery charger. What could be easier, use the boat’s own shore power lead to provide power?

“As I unplugged it from the after bulkhead of the craft, I found three male pins on the wandering lead; on investigation the vessel had been fitted

with an AC power outlet connection as opposed to an appliance input socket. The connecting lead was fitted with shore power plugs at both ends. Imagine the consequences had the lead been lying about live... it is not my wish to test the RCD devices the hard way.”

He adds: “Keep safe, please check yours. It was my understanding that this craft had been used elsewhere as a live aboard for some time past, on permanent shore power supply.

Perhaps all marina owners could walk round their moorers and check this occasionally. Needless to say the craft was immediately made safe.”

The small freshwater jelly fish found in the locks. PHOTO:TOM DOYLE,

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK

Marine Research Centre, University College Cork, discovering small numbers of the jellyfish at three locations, Scarriff Harbour, Rossmore Harbour and Dromineer.

Coming from a species known as Craspedacusta sowerbii originating from the Yangtze River Valley in China, it has a worldwide distribution yet this is the first official sighting of the species in Ireland. While the jellyfish is harmless to humans and appears to have no significant effect on the biology or ecology of the waters they are recorded in, its presence in Lough Derg and more recently, Lough Erne raises concerns about how the creature found its way into the country. One explanation could be from the ballast water of newly introduced craft which has resulted in IFI questioning the need for imported craft to carry certificates proving cleaning and disinfecting prior to arrival in the country.

Blooms of freshwater jellyfish only occur sporadically, lasting just a few weeks a year so it is possible this creature may not be seen again for some time however, anyone spotting jellyfish in a freshwater course should immediately contact IFI at: www.fisheriesireland.ie

Barrow Way app and audio guide launched A NEW app and audio guide to the complete Barrow Way has been launched by Éanna Rowe, head of marketing communications, Waterways Ireland and Mary Mulvihill of Ingenious Ireland with special guest Dick Warner.

The Highwayman’s chair, the amazing story of limbless Art MacMurrough Kavanagh, handsome Jack, the rake from Grangemellon and life on the river as a lock keeper’s son are just some of the 35 stories featured.

This new guide from Ingenious Ireland and Waterways Ireland, enables everyone to enjoy the stories and discover the trail, as they explore the historic towns and villages, the wildlife and tranquillity all along gently meandering towpaths of the Barrow Valley.

The free audio guide has two hours of stories, commentary and information, and is free to download. The full-featured app is richly illustrated, and includes a map, additional information and useful web links, and costs €2.69 (requires install of the free GuigiGO tour app).

In addition to the audio guide, a comprehensive new visitor website has also been launched: www.barrowriver.ie. The site covers

the full river valley, and is packed with information on places to stay, things to see and do, as well as events, restaurants, and places to hire bikes and boats along the river.

● Full details of the app and the free MP3 download are at

www.ingeniousireland.ie/barrowriver

Waterways Ireland invests in Sallins moorings NEW houseboat moorings will be ready for the 2014 boat season following an investment by Waterways Ireland to upgrade its services on the Grand Canal in Sallins, Co Kildare.

The contract has been awarded for the 210m moorings east of Sallins Bridge. They will have electricity, water, lighting and access to a sewage pumpout and rubbish disposal facilities. The canal bank will also be landscaped with pathways designed in accordance with Waterways Ireland ‘Access for All’ standards.

These moorings will be open to application from permanent boat residents holding a Combined Mooring and Passage Permit (CMP).

An area for 240m of extended mooring west of Sallins Bridge is also being prepared where boat owners already

Currently empty – the harbour at Sallins. PHOTO:WATERWAYS IRELAND in possession of a CMP will be able to apply for a one year mooring licence – an Extended Mooring Permit.

A short term mooring for boats continuously cruising is also being installed east of Sallins Bridge. These moorings will have bollards providing water.

Boaters wishing to move to the Extended Moorings in Sallins are advised to complete the application online on www.waterwaysireland.org as soon as possible. Moorings will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

ON IRISH WATERS with Alison Alderton 97

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Whiskey and dry Alison Alderton visits the Kilbeggan branch where the water’s run dry but the distillery is back in business.

Restored warehouses at Kilbeggan Harbour. PHOTO: MARY FOX LEAVING the Grand Canal at Ballycommon and running for eight miles, the lock-free Kilbeggan branch today stands abandoned. A mixture of dry and boggy sections crossed by pretty stone bridges, the route slumbers peacefully in its rural setting but once thrived with barges laden with goods.

Many are transporting whiskey from the local distillery into the heart of Dublin.

This was the last of the Grand Canal branches to be constructed and led through diverse countryside, from esker ridges, mounds of sand and gravel created by the retreating glaciers of the Ice Age, to sections of raised bog. The engineer and surveyor, William Dargan from Carlow had trained under Thomas Telford and seemed confident that work on the Kilbeggan branch would be completed within a year. However, due to the painstaking problems of the terrain it actually took over four and although officially opened in 1835 the canal repeatedly had problems particularly with the embankments surrounding the Silver River Aqueduct resulting in work continuing into 1836.

The barges finally able to use the route transported mixed produce in and out of Kilbeggan’s compact terminus where a harbour with warehouses was constructed. With the addition of the canal the local distillery established in 1737 saw business thrive and along with the Grand Canal this watery highway proved to be a vital link for the area.

Unfortunately being built so late, the success of the canal was short lived.

Ironically William Dargan went on to become greatly involved with the

country’s rail network and was responsible for the first line from Dublin to Kingstown which opened a year ahead of the Kilbeggan branch revealing the potential of this new transport system. Inevitably, the canal fell victim to the railways and trade slowly dwindled. Locke’s distillery ceased trading in 1958 and in 1959 the Kilbeggan branch was officially closed.

Two years later the entrance at Campbell’s Bridge, Ballycommon was dammed. Relying on the waters of the Grand as the canal had no supply of its own, once this was in place the waters gradually seeped away.

The canal soon became overgrown and clogged but keen hikers have continued to take advantage of the former towpath, which is rich in flora and fauna. For many years campaigners have fought to reinstate the route and with the formation of the Ballycommon Canal Renewal Group and the Kilbeggan Harbour Amenity Group in the early 1990s the maintenance and restoration of bridges has been undertaken. The warehouses at the harbour are now beautifully restored and have many original features such as mooring rings and loading cranes.

Kilbeggan Challenge

Awareness is bought to the public’s attention each year when a Kilbeggan Challenge is announced. In the past this has included an attempt to fill the canal with water and a dinghy race along the dry route. One of the most impressive challenges in recent years involved a number of organisations coming

Canal engineer and surveyor William Dargan became a leading figure in railway construction. together to mark the 50th anniversary of the canal’s closure by recreating the former whiskey run to Dublin. Two barrels of whiskey specially selected for the occasion and named Locke’s ‘Grand Crew’ were firstly transported from the distillery to the harbour by vintage vehicle. As the Kilbeggan branch is mostly dry the journey from here to the junction of the waterways at Ballycommon was undertaken by horse and cart along the former towpath. The Heritage Boat Association who had moored an impressive flotilla of its historical craft on the Grand surrounding the dammed entrance then took charge and with the whiskey loaded on to former working barge 107B completed the run into the city centre.

Whiskey production thrived in Ireland thanks to the canals and it is sad that the

Whiskey barrels at the distillery. PHOTO: MICHAEL SLEVIN Kilbeggan branch remains severed as in 2007 Cooleys took over and re-opened the distillery. One of the oldest pot stills in the world this stands on the banks of the fast-flowing River Bronsa from which power is harnessed to drive its machinery via a water wheel. Open to the public, guided tours followed by a dram of the famous Kilbeggan Whiskey are proving popular with tourists as is the informative museum and tea rooms on site. There is no doubt that if fully restored this branch canal would prove

a popular diversion and with Waterways Ireland currently looking into the feasibility of installing a new cycleway between Ballycommon and Kilbeggan this will go some way towards reviving the route. All this whiskey run needs is a splash of water and once again boats will be able to access Kilbeggan harbour where the delights of this Midlands town await.

➔ Usefulinformation andplacesofinterest

Cooley’s Kilbeggan Distillery www.kilbeggandistillery.com www.cooleywhiskey.com Heritage Boat Association www.heritageboatassociation.ie Irish Whiskey Society www.irishwhiskeysociety.com IWAI Offaly Branch Ballycommon Canal Renewal Group Kilbeggan Harbour Amenity Group www.offaly.iwai.ie

● Many thanks to the IWAI Offaly

Kilbeggan Distillery. PHOTO: BERNADETTE QUINN

The dammed entrance at Ballycommon. PHOTO:ALISON ALDERTON

Branch, Bernadette Quinn, Mary Fox and Michael Slevin for their help and permission to use their photographic images within this article.

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Trent Lock Where waters meet

Words: PHILLIPPA GREENWOOD Photography: MARTINE O’CALLAGHAN

TRENT Lock sits on the borders of three counties, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and at the crossroads where the waterways history of three rivers and four canals collide with pride.

Like a ballerina in a boiler suit, the landscape at Trent Lock skips with delicate wild flora and idyllic narrowboats under the solid gaze of the surprisingly beautiful chimneys of the Ratcliffe Power Station.

People flock here at weekends just to stare and unwind in the palpable presence of power. The giant energymaking chimneys do their bit, yet everything seems to sparkle at Trent Lock. It’s where waters meet and boaters battle with the breeze. The River Soar runs straight into the Trent to be gobbled by the current of the bigger river. Opposite the mouth of the Soar, the spectacular Trent Lock (built by John Varley in 1779) lets the Erewash Canal tumble into the river.

The River Trent runs about 100 miles from the Midlands to the ports of the northeast coast of England, and the North Sea beyond. Its beefy route has been used by Vikings and Romans, and there’s even evidence that it was used as

a trade route from as early as the Bronze Age. So it wasn’t surprising that the great canal engineers bagged it for their purposes too. In 1783, an Act of Parliament allowed a towpath to be constructed so that barges without sails could be towed inland. Later river locks and weirs made the journey even easier.

The Erewash Canal was one of Britain’s most prosperous canals as it carried trade from local collieries, ironworks and brickworks. As well as connecting with the rivers Trent and Soar, the Erewash Canal was once joined by the busy Cromford Canal, the Derby Canal and the Nutbrook Canal.

Man-made and natural waterways worked harmoniously as important transport links until the Erewash Valley Railway arrived in 1847. The new steam train stole the canal’s trade and the decline began. The Erewash Canal put up a fight for survival and, through the help of a partnership of many including local people and the Canal & River Trust, is open for anyone to enjoy today.

The hub at Trent Lock is kept busy with its dry dock, pubs, tearoom and the lock itself. But history has a knack of polishing itself in the heart of the living environment. The old canal manager’s

house stands next to the lock, still watching over with a proud eye. His house is now a fabulous tearoom with evocative canalia and a gallery of fame (with signed pictures of celebrities who have visited for a pot of tea).

The warehouse next door was once used as a toll office and a lower level was used for livestock and possibly for stabling the horses that towed boats.

Even the pubs that welcome visitors to Trent Lock today are riddled with history. The Erewash Navigation Inn was built by the canal company in 1791 and it wasn’t just a pub; it multi-tasked as a farmhouse too. It was known as the Fisherman’s Rest in the 1950s before it became the Steamboat Inn. Despite its proximity to urban Long Eaton, the whole area is a wildlife haven with walking and cycling routes galore.

In these parts there’s the opportunity of catching a rare sight of creatures such as otters and water voles and birds such as the kingfisher, goldcrest and longtailed tit.

Life carries on at Trent Lock with the business of today, and leisure and pleasure blanket its harsher past. It is a rare place where the flash of blue from a kingfisher can dart in one moment to share the limelight with a historic built environment.

Adapted extract from Britain’s Canals, a National Treasure in 100 Must-See Objects by Phillippa Greenwood and Martine O’Callaghan – published by Coolcanals July 2012.

A boater’s view from Trent Lock.

The Trent Lock pub overlooks the River Trent.

www.coolcanals.com

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The Towpath Angler

David Kent

Our monthly look at the angling scene

A goldfinch on the towpath.

SEPTEMBER turned out to be a very busy month. The Canal & River Trust Members’ Council met in London and, once again, its enthusiasm and commitment is impressive. The day embraced the first CRT Annual General Meeting. It is quite clear that, despite being only a shade over a year old, CRT has made an impact.

Particularly impressive are the achievements of the fundraising team.

Although small in number it is clear it has made, and will continue to make, significant contributions to the business. It was good to meet the new chief executive, Richard Parry, who already has a very clear vision of where CRT should be going.

The main meeting looked at the recently completed Waterway Strategic Plans. One of the overriding messages in all of these was the absolute need to generate wider and stronger community engagement with our waterways. This was followed by a debate about HS2. Without doubt there is the potential for a major impact on parts of the network and on its users. It is essential that CRT stays closely in touch with all developments and has input when necessary to ensure the best outcomes. For that reason it probably needs to hold some sort of neutral position for now.

The Angling Advisory Group is due to meet in late October and already an agenda is being put together.

Hopefully CRT’s recently appointed national angling development manager, Becca Dent, will be able to attend. It is important she gets to know the group members because I am pretty sure – given that the group covers a wide geographical area and with that a variety of issues – that appropriate strands of the strategy can be rolled out quite quickly. You may remember last month I mentioned the possibility of angling ‘champions’ in each waterway unit. If we can achieve this level of resource infrastructure I am confident angling’s contribution to the CRT future will really take off.

Big issue

The entrance to the Erewash Canal.

FACT FILE Trent Lock Trent Lock is where the Erewash Canal meets the river Trent and the river Soar. There are no barriers or admission charges – you can visit at any time (unless you want to visit the tearoom or one of the pubs of course).

Trent Lock not only sits where three waterways meet, but is also on the borders of three counties – Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Location Trent Lock.

OS Grid ref: OS SK490311 Canal: Erewash Canal/Rivers Trent and Soar How to get there By train Nearest train station is Long Eaton National Rail Enquiries 08457 484950 By bus Traveline 0871 2002233 By car Public car parking nearby

On foot The Erewash Canal’s towpath is part of the Sustrans National Cycle Network Route 67 and is an easy route to cycle and walk. The Trent Valley Way, a long-distance path, follows the River Trent from Long Eaton to West Stockwith in Yorkshire.

By boat Nearest boat hire: Hire A Canalboat, Sawley Marina.

Holiday boat hire. 01707 655649 www.hireacanalboat.co.uk Moorings There are plenty of visitor moorings available along the Erewash Canal.

Local Tourist info Experience Nottinghamshire www.experiencenottinghamshire.com Visit Derbyshire www.visitderbyshire.co.uk Go Leicestershire www.goleicestershire.com Canal & River Trust Use the Canal & River Trust website to find specific local information. www.canalrivertrust.org.uk

Use of visitor/winter moorings is clearly still a big issue for CRT. The guidelines are generally well established but this does not prevent the odd problem arising. That said, these are often at the same, or similar, sites. The solution usually lies in the guidelines although, on occasions, these need to be adapted to suit the situation.

From the angling perspective, problems only seem to arise when the controlling angling clubs run competitions when the pegs should be in a straight line with few or no breaks.

Certainly when the Angling Trust selects a canal for one of its

championships every effort is made to not only avoid mooring ‘hot spots’ but also build in some breaks along the match length to allow those boaters who do not wish to travel the whole length at once to pull in for a breather.

This leads nicely on to the two events recently held on the Trent & Mersey Canal between Rugeley and Burton.

They were the Individual National Championship involving 170 anglers and the Division 1 National Championship involving 560 anglers.

Tremendous co-operation between CRT staff and the Angling Trust organisers ensured two very successful days with only one reported problem from each event concerning moorings.

Prestigious events such as these have been staged on our canal network for decades and this will continue.

Apart from increasing the profile of the canal, the boost to the local economy is significant with estimates for the Division 1 event almost reaching six figures.

Over the past year I have kept you updated on the recovery of my local Erewash Canal. Thankfully this seems to be continuing, albeit slowly, with reports of improving catches by pleasure anglers, especially of small perch. I understand more fish are to be introduced as we approach winter and the temperature drops thus making it safer to transport fish. There has also been a brilliant response to a fundraising scheme organised by the East Midlands Waterway.

It seems canals generally have had a good month, although the sunshine which has dominated the weather has extended the weed growth season somewhat. I walked to one of the middle sections of the Erewash a couple of weeks ago and the lily pads were almost bank to bank. In a canal which sees minimal navigation the water is clear rather than turbid.

Marginal weed cover is essential for angling but this location is impossible to fish.

Personally I am still waiting for my usual autumn form to kick in. That said I have had one overall win and a number of section wins recently so who knows?

Tight lines

Small fish to benefit from lake improvements A POPULAR angling lake near Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire is set to be transformed thanks to the Environment Agency’s fisheries team.

Batchworth Lake is situated in Rickmansworth Aquadrome, a local nature reserve forming part of the Colne Valley Regional Park and managed by the Three Rivers Council. The lake is popular among anglers who prize the area for its natural beauty and successful specimen carp water.

The lake has, however, been identified as having the potential to support a much larger variety of fish and attract a wider range of anglers such as junior anglers and their families.

Working in partnership, the Environment Agency, Three Rivers Council and Uxbridge Rovers Angling Club are funding and implementing a range of modifications to the planting in and around the lake.

The Environment Agency is investing £10,000 of rod licence income in the project, and this sum is being matched by Three Rivers Council.

100 WET WEB

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The Wet Web

Giving praise where it is due WE RECENTLY arrived at a flight of locks on the Caldon Canal, only to discover that the second lock wouldn’t fill as there appeared to be a problem with the paddles. This was at 8.40am.

On phoning the emergency helpline we were informed that someone would contact us shortly.

Ten minutes later a team from the Canal & River Trust arrived, started to assess the situation and discovered that the paddle had sheared off.

They promptly drained the pound, removed the paddle, sent for a replacement and had to have a bolt and upright forged in a nearby town.

When they came to fit it, they discovered that the other one was on its last legs, so had to go through the whole process again, as this one could have failed at any time.

Although our wait was longer than expected before we could get under way, the team were pleasant and informative throughout. It was a pleasure to meet them all, as they seemed to take a pride in their work. It was one of those wet days, so their task wasn’t easy.

Thanks again, CRT. Let’s give praise where it is due.

This month Helen Gazeley finds blogs-a-plenty about solar power

Sue and Barry Flint nb Tiller Girl

Solar Heritage in Chichester Harbour. PHOTO: JOHN TWEDDELL A CAMPAIGN to protect the right of boaters to lawfully use red diesel has hit the rocks after an e-petition fell well short of the 100,000 signatures required for a Parliamentary debate.

In October, after failing to achieve its goal, the e-petition to the Government closed. It had demanded that action be taken to block an EU attempt to change legislation allowing boaters on the inland waterways network to use the red diesel.

It also added: “Ultimately we want the right to use red diesel on leisure boats restored.”

This ongoing assault on fuel, and the news that Gary Marsland has just completed a 19 month trip see http://bit.ly/16SUW7s, powering his narrowboat Merganser entirely by solar, may tempt you to follow his example. He managed 2mph on panels that supplied the outboard motor, a laptop, mobile phone, slow cooker and travel kettle.

Solar-powered boat propulsion is not new, as anyone who enjoys a trip on Solar Heritage, the 14metre catamaran that began life on a Swiss lake and now glides its way silently around Chichester Harbour, will know www.conservancy.co.uk/ page/solar-heritage/349/ Even Solar Heritage, though, has recourse to the National Grid on occasion, and I suspect most

narrowboaters aren’t yet willing to abandon all other energy sources.

Martin Parry is one who has and describes fitting up nb Impulse at http://solarpowered narrowboat.blogspot.co.uk For him, it works. “As soon as dawn arrives the panels start chucking energy into the batteries, and when you cruise the electric drive whirrs along happily, only needing an occasional application of grease to the propeller shaft.” However, Impulse, like Merganser, is 32ft and Martin doesn’t think current technology matches the challenge of a larger steel hull.

Which is not to say solar panels aren’t becoming increasingly popular. If you’re wondering whether to fit them, there are plenty of bloggers to ask.

A number report installing panels this year, among them John Halford http://bit.ly/15pSDpi, Gary and Carolyn on nb Inca http://nbinca. blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/solar-power.html, Jan and Alistair on nb Qisma http://bit.ly/16yNE6w and Les and Jaqui on nb Valerie. Les happily reported in March that he was charging two laptops, running the fridge, TV and Skybox while the battery read 13.5, while a 32 minute wash cycle in a Candy Aqua made hardly a dent on the battery on a sunny day http://boatlife.blogspot.co.uk

/2013/07/birthdays-and-wash-days.html. He says “I never stop being overwhelmed by the amount of free power.” Other solar users include nb Epiphany http://nbepiphany.co.uk and Futurest http://nbfuturest.blogspot.co.uk.

At least a couple of these boats had their system installed by Tim Davis of Onboard Solar www.onboardsolar.co.uk. Tim is a boatbuilder and electrician who’s lived aboard himself for over 10 years. His website includes a very helpful article, explaining why he finds 100W panels the most cost-effective.

Tim’s now fitted over 300 boats, is putting in over six new systems each week and says: “It makes a real difference to people’s lives. I had one man on linear moorings in Nottingham who ran his engine for three to four hours a day and now does it once every two weeks.” As one of the prime benefits is that you can go away for a couple of days and leave the fridge on, it seems likely that the number of narrowboats with solar panels will only get bigger.

Dream Narrowboats Distinctive bespoke live-aboard specialist

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I’VE RECENTLY been reading about rude and inconsiderate boaters, cyclists and fishermen. So far I have encountered very few of these people in my 18 months of narrowboat ownership. The vast majority of people we encounter are very friendly and polite if treated the same way. Let’s face it there’s always one, be it on the canal, on the road or even in the supermarket!

My biggest preoccupation at present is the trees overhanging the Grand Union Canal. I recently travelled from Cosgrove to Weedon and on this stretch there are several places where the trees reach halfway across the canal! I read somewhere that the conservation lobby prefers nature to take its course but I pay a considerable amount for the privilege of mooring and using my boat and feel that I should at least have the full width of the canal to sail in without having to stop constantly to allow other boats to pass without me having to drive through the branches of an overhanging tree.

I have also noticed branches cut off but left in the water for some reason, but I have not yet seen a Canal & River Trust boat trimming trees so have been unable to ask why. If the apple tree in my garden overhung the road I would trim it rather than risk unseating motorcyclists so when is the CRT going to address this situation, or am I the only one who feels it is a problem?

Geoff Gordon by email

Treating boaters with respect Tim Davis finds that 100W boards offer the best return for the lowest outlay. PHOTO:TIM DAVIS

s Vetus 4.17 engine with 3.5kw travel power s Victron 3000 inverter/charger s Vetus flush toilet with 215l waste tank s Vetus accumulator tank/ water pump s Morso Squirrel multi fuel stove s Full size washer/dryer s 12v fridge and 12v freezer s Full size shower s Solid ash (20mm) above gunnels & ceiling s Solid oak (18mm) floor throughout

Please contact us for a viewing, brochure or any query you may have tel Pauline on 01270 501047/07817 935639 email: dream_narrowboats@hotmail.co.uk Based in Middlewich Please call for directions

Trees across the canal

I COMPLETELY agree with Susan and Brian Chadwick’s letter (Talkback, Issue 93, July), there are now many boat owners who don’t live on their boats, and hate anybody who seems a stranger.

My wife and I live on our boat, and hear many boat owners moaning about hire boaters, and the mistakes they make; we always offer advice, and treat them with respect and politely telling them off when needed.

Those of us who live on our boats and are lucky enough to have a mooring, have no more right to the canals than those law and rule abiding other boaters, we need to turn our attention to the boaters who pay no licence, paint out the name of the boat, don’t move, and are very unlikely to have insurance or safety certificate, which puts all of us in danger.

Trevor Munton-Willis nb Whistler

Thanks ‘guardian angels’

Installing panels on nb Helios. Onboard Solar offers a fixed price package which includes all components and installation. PHOTO:TIM DAVIS

more information ➔ For Do you have a favourite website?

Email Helen at helengazeley@aol.com

MAY I say through your excellent Towpath paper, I cruised my new boat back to Cheshire from Milton Keynes but when I got to Meaford near Stone my gear cable snapped. I was lucky I had joined River Canal Rescue’s breakdown service and was so impressed. Steve on the switchboard put me at ease, told me someone would be on the way immediately and even asked if I needed milk or any groceries; what a kind idea.

Within 40 minutes Jay the mechanic arrived and fixed the problem within the hour, not only replacing the cable but checking for any other problems like tightening the fan belt and retapering my exhaust pipe which was blowing.

Excellent service, wish I had joined years ago.

My thanks to our ‘guardian angels’ of the canals.

Thank you to Jay, Steve and all the backroom team.

Tony Eden Stoke-on-Trent

101

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TALKBACK

Your chance to write to us on any Towpath topic:

Towpath Talk, PO Box 43, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ editorial@towpathtalk.co.uk

TOWPATH TALK has joined forces with Silky Marine Products to celebrate the great letters and pictures we receive from our readers with a star prize each month The lucky winner will receive a tub of Silky Cream Cleaner, Silky Deep Cleaner Ready to Use and Silky RX Enzyme Toilet Odour and Waste Reducer, worth a total value of more than £25 from the new range of Silky Marine Care and Maintenance products launched earlier this year.

Silky Marine Products are specifically formulated to work in sequence to remove dirt and residue specific to the boating environment, and include the widely regarded classic Silky Cream Cleaner.

When a boat’s surfaces have been cleaned to a high standard using the Silky cleaning range, the valet and polish products bring out the shine which is then sealed for the season with the unique polymer technology of Silky Protect.

Available to the public through www.silkyproducts.com and selected retail outlets, Silky Products have been manufactured in Slaithwaite near Huddersfield for more than 40 years.

Pat on the back for helpful cyclists HAVING read a number of negative comments about cyclists (Talkback, Issue 96, October) I felt I should share the story of the incident when my husband and I (in the lovely August weather) had nothing but support from a number of cyclists who stopped to assist us.

We were on the Grand Union Leicester Line and had just left the hustle and bustle (and rubbish) that was the town section and heading towards the River Soar. On a bend that had a number of overhanging willow trees – pretty but involves lots of quick head ducks – the skipper, aka my husband, tried to negotiate the bend while ducking to avoid the trees, and before we knew it, the boat turned and we were stuck!

The bow was in a hedge of bushes and shrubs (pointy prickly ones) and the stern wedged into a bank of trees and lots of mud.

Once the realisation that we were stuck, I was at the bow and husband at the stern both pushing to no avail, I shouted out to a group of passing cyclists – they were a young family with a baby on tow and the grandparents walking near them. They were lovely; straight into helping us, pushing and pulling but to little

achievement. More cyclists stopped and we had a young man on the stern pushing while the engine churned; two other men were pulling using the middle line and the bow line.

After lots of effort and some scary, nearly falling in, moments we were free; we shouted lots of ‘thank you’s’ and then they all dispersed on their bikes or by foot; while we licked our wounds (only one broken mug – not bad!). We carried on with our holiday with no further incidents on the Leicester Ring (well none that dramatic).

It was lovely to see so many people give up their time and put in some really hard work to free a boat stuck; we were unaware that there is a cycle route around the district of Leicester and as such straddles the canal, often on the towpath. If the cyclists were not there I am not sure how long we would have been stuck; all the time they pulled and pushed we saw no other boats.

So a massive thank you to the cyclists of Leicester from a very stuck boat back in August.

Mrs M Darke Daventry

Traffic Wardens for the waterways? Let’s say it how it is!

WHEN you park your car on yellow lines you can expect to get a ticket. In future, when you moor on some waterways for longer than you should you can also expect to get a ticket.

The article in Towpath Talk (Talkback, Issue 92, June) says that the way of life for continuous cruisers is under threat. The RBOA (Residential Boat Owners Association) is also whingeing about the action the Canal & River Trust is taking by saying similar things. If the way of life of continuous cruisers is to ignore the conditions associated with their licence then yes their way of life is under threat and so it should be.

Continuous cruising is not staying in one place, one area or one region for weeks, months or years on end. For far too long some boaters have ignored the conditions associated with their licence. They’ve moored their boats at the side of the cut, parked their cars nearby and set up home. Some go off to work or send their kids off to school while mooring continuously in either the same place or moving a mile or two to their next mooring.

Some get a bit more clever and move further afield but by still staying within the same geographic area they can carry on working or whatever else they choose to do.

Others use mobile phones, Facebook or Twitter to communicate with their circle of fellow boaters to co-ordinate their moving from one mooring to another. They arrange it so that there is a boat waiting to moor in their slot when they move off and then they move on to the next spot where another of their circle is waiting to do the same for them and so on (this is not fiction – I overheard the explanation being given by a boater to an individual thinking about buying a boat at Little Venice in London).

So CRT has started to enforce the rules, good.

Those who cruise continuously will have no problem, the ones who will complain are

Riding out the storm at Liverpool

Should York have a boat watch scheme?

★ Silky Star Letter ★

those that are trying to cheat the system and so my response to them is tough – get a proper mooring if you want to stay in one place.

The approach by CRT is to be commended not criticised.

With respect to the writer, they chose to cruise the River Trent in the winter, not a wise choice and I would think that most experienced skippers would agree. There are plenty of lineside winter moorings to be had or opportunities to moor within marinas if you don’t fancy getting caught out with rising waters, fast flowing rivers, howling gales, muddy towpaths and snowdrifts along the side of the cut. But of course you have to pay, which may be something that a continuous cruiser doesn’t want to do. Tough again.

I am most surprised that the enforcement officer gave the writer a CC2 notice following just one infringement, but I will leave them to take issue on that with CRT however, I will argue that yes, you do have the right to stay anywhere but, you need to read terms and conditions of your licence to see the restrictions but as with the highways and byways of our country, there are rules and you need to follow them.

When the council paints double yellow lines down the high street you park in a car park (or get a parking ticket). If it paints single or broken yellow lines you look at the notice and don’t stay any longer than you should. If everyone parked wherever and whenever they wanted and for as long as they wanted without risk of prosecution there would be mayhem on our roads. British Waterways left mooring on the canals to the honesty of the users and I’m sorry to say that in some areas mayhem exists. Why – see above.

Stop whingeing and support the trust.

Richard By email (name and address supplied)

● Due to a high volume of letters in the postbag this month, some have been held and will appear in the next available issue

WE ARE hearing too often as late of the loss of a craft at the mooring points at the Museum Gardens section of the River Ouse at York, caused by the rise and fall of the river. How long do we wait until loss of life during the hours of darkness should boaters be fast asleep. I feel two recent incidents are ample warning for someone to do something soon and fairly quick?

Seeing the owners salvaging what remained of their belongings on the towpath, I was thinking also of the unsuspecting hirer of a boat with little knowledge of the river’s mood swings who could be in the same predicament mooring at that location without any experience of what can occur in such a small space of time.

Many boaters have pets and leaving a boat unsupervised could indeed prove fatal to them should the river rise or fall without warning.

The questions are how do we protect our friends on the river when little money is available from the local authority to raise standards at that section? Should new regulations be applied, or a meeting be held with boaters to see how a boat watch can be applied to this city, for example, or no unsupervised boats to be moored at this location overnight because of the none provision of pontoons?

Boaters need to get together and start talking about what needs to be done here at York before more valuable boats are lost in the future this way. Let’s hope no loss of life is experienced in the future; something needs to be done now.

Keith Chapman York

Thanks to Pete and Liz Leigh of nb Snowbaby for sharing this dramatic photo taken on Wednesday, October 9 at Liverpool. They told us: “It was extremely windy and the boat ahead of us took this picture of us crossing Stanley Dock. Thought it may be of interest; 30+mph wind, gusting to 40-45mph.”

More thanks from a disabled boater MANY people complain, but very few compliment. I would like to compliment and thank the great many people who helped me as a walking disabled-single hirer of a canal boat from July 30-August 19.

There are some names I can remember but lots I do not, but they will be looking for my letter to Towpath Talk. Len, Sarah, Richard, a boat picture painter, Nick and Martin who were going fishing and got soaked by rain to do the lock when it was too hard for me to turn.

Trish and Johnathon who taught me a new word for boat watching, gongoozling, if I got it right. To the grandmother with her grandson at Westpool Lake who I showed the boat to at the first stop due to a fish problem. Thursday and Friday on Coventry/Fradley area and Kevin and workmates when I had got to lock 4 on Birmingham Fazeley. They helped get me water up to Curdsworth area but I was stuck 3ft from towpath and afraid to use the plank supplied my not being exactly ‘Twiggy’ and balance not 100%. I stayed put.

Then many hours later like the ‘Del Boy’ Batman and Robin episode, a boat owner, Bob, and his wife Marion came out of the Curdsworth Tunnel – is that what it’s

called? They saw me stuck and with a tiny whoosh of water I was unstuck and followed him. Bob and Marion guided me away from lads on bikes with rocks aiming at me and we moored at Kingsley Pub where we remained for nine nights with British Waterways. Kevin, Adam, Michael, Charlie giving myself water and updates.

The stop was finally taken off and on Monday, August 12 I moved up to Minworth Locks. Through lock 3, 2, but at lock 1 the boat hydraulics stopped.

Luckily there was ex-lock keeper John and many BW helpers. John got company to bring to me hydraulic oil to get me on my way so many thanks again to all on that day at lock 1 Minworth.

I did great until the first of Aston flight and gears were grinding and a lad, Hassain, stopped and helped me.

Right into Sherborne Wharf and I moored by health gym. Security watched out for me until I was joined by my family. Base came and fixed boat up to get back (sadly one day late).

But all those who helped me, named and unnamed, need to be thanked please.

Name and address supplied

Licensed to cruise – when there’s enough water READER Tom Foy, whose Shetland 535 Deacon Blue is moored at Bridgwater Docks, has been in correspondence with the Canal & River Trust regarding water levels on the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal which, he claims have been at an all-time low.

He wrote: “This has prevented us from taking our craft out as the prop would simply hit the bottom.

Also, the low water level has exposed major potential problems with supermarket trollies etc., particularly between the marina and beyond Morrisons. We pay our Cruising Licence to do just that but have been unable to.”

Mr Foy asked the following questions: ● Will we be compensated pro rata for the period we have been unable to cruise? ● What remedial action will be taken to remove the obstacles and raise the water level? ● What will be the timescale for remedial action?

Remainder waterway

Principal waterway engineer Richard Leigh replied that as the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal is designated a ‘remainder waterway’, CRT is under no obligation to maintain or keep the canal in a navigable condition however it is operated to a higher standard.

“Over the past few years we have invested in replacement lock gates at King’s and Lower Maunsell Lock as well as making significant improvements to the towpaths that benefit all our users.”

He acknowledged that water levels did drop by around 150mm during hot weather in late June and early July caused by reduced feed from the River Tone, increased abstraction by Wessex Water to fill Durleigh Reservoir and a build-up of weed.

“We have worked hard over the past few weeks to resolve this situation by increasing the amount of weed clearance along the canal to improve the flow of water from the River Tone. Unfortunately, as the pound between Standard’s Lock and Bridgwater Dock is around 8km long it has taken some time to recover the water level. However, the level has now been returned to normal.”

Mr Leigh added that the canal is inspected on a monthly basis and any problems are programmed for repair. “Our local team have recently cleared all the bridge holes from Upper Maunsell to Bridgwater Dock and this should have addressed your concerns regarding the underwater obstructions.”

Contractors would also be instructed to undertake weed clearance on a monthly basis and to remove any underwater obstructions however, Mr Foy was not entitled to any compensation in his licence fee, because CRT had done its best to keep the waterway open for cruising in accordance with Section 9.1 of the General Terms and Conditions for Boat Licences.

Lost months

Mr Foy wrote back taking issue with a number of points, primarily asking: If you do not have any ‘obligation’ to maintain then why are we obliged to pay our cruising licence? This was then passed on to CRT’s boating business team and Mr Foy was told to expect a reply within five working days of July 30.

But although he still had not received a reply a month later on August 30, he has seen an improvement in the situation locally.

“This does not compensate for the lost premium boating months and of course the trust would be setting a potentially costly precedent for accepting responsibility for their failures. Our dispute has never been with trust staff based locally whose priorities are no doubt dictated from above. Our sole aim is to ensure that the Bridgwater end of the canal is maintained to an acceptable standard and is navigable.”

But the story didn’t end there, Mr Foy said: “We took the boat out on September 11 and within 400yd of Bridgwater Docks hit a submerged obstacle that sheared off one of our prop blades, the cheapest replacement we can find is £138 plus carriage.”

He added on October 4: “The water level has dropped dramatically again over the last week and the canal from Bridgwater Dock outward is not navigable again because it is so shallow – you can literally see the bottom… my case remains rested.”

102 THE LAST WORD

Old Bilge Pump

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It’s art for art’s sake...

Even a decent installation can detract from the view

Rusting into brown-red ugliness – Old Bilge Pump’s take on modern art. PHOTO: DAVID SCOWCROFT

THE canals of the United Kingdom were not built with beauty in mind, they were constructed by practical people for a practical purpose. Despite this there was a beauty incorporated in their construction – the curve of a lock swim, the intricate brickwork of a crossover bridge or the fretwork of a cast iron bridge all carry splendour.

Time has smoothed the industrial lines, softening structures with the inevitable loveliness of ageing. Modern design attempts to copy this with ‘shabby chic’ but fails to match time’s caresses. There’s no point in attempting to beautify the canals – most of us believe them to be beautiful already. Henry Cooper’s pugilistic face had a charm which lipstick and powder would despoil, so it is when ‘artists’ attempt to adorn canals.

Why then has the Arts Council alongside the Canal & River Trust insisted on plonking 21st century art alongside the canals? I agree with the Prince of Wales’ 1984 assessment of the proposed National Gallery extension: “It is like a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a muchloved and elegant friend.” Many current canal art installations are similar carbuncles. Even a decent installation of artwork such as the dragonfly sculpture near the top of the Hatton flight of locks can distract from the aweinspiring view of locks descending to the valley below. In most cases, such as the horrible great wooden statue by the Lancaster Link (which the last time I saw had been burnt by the local vandals), they devastate and deface the area. I am with the vandals on the destruction of ugly statues – perhaps the destroyers were art lovers.

Wood for adornment along the canals is a waste of time; local youths will soon make burnt offerings of any wooden statue. Nature will also eventually stain and rot any untreated wood. Misguided modern architects often place Scandinavian-type wooden cladding to a part of their buildings. It never lasts long and soon looks tatty and forlorn. Weathered wood

can look stunning but contemporary wood left to season upon a building soon loses its charm.

Neither am I a fan of Mr Antony Gormley’s metal structures. We have an iron man in Birmingham City Centre, where it rusts into increasingly brown-red ugliness. I failed to appreciate modern art about the time of Pablo Picasso. For little in modernism do I find beautiful. And beauty is what I like in my art; modern artists appear to be stuck in ‘shock mode’. Well I think there is enough in modern life which shocks; take the old BW price rises as a start. My life cannot be enhanced with ‘shock art’ or reminders that I am mortal and that flesh will rot to maggot food. I want beauty on my walls and in my life.

I cannot think of a modern canal art installation which has lifted my soul. They have frequently depressed me and caused indigestion. We are continually told that these ‘artworks’ are not paid for by the trust but by the Arts Council; however the trust does fund an art department headed by an arts development manager. Trust manpower is deployed in the installation and development of artwork. Therefore they do cost the trust money, it matters not from which budget.

From what I have seen from carved lock gates to attempts to ‘artify’ the canal between Blackburn and Burnley, every penny of this is wasted.

Own beauty

How to make the canals of the UK beautiful?

Easy – leave them alone, they have their own beauty. Shakespeare in Hamlet wrote: “God has given you one face and you make yourselves another.” Skilled engineers and designers gave us the face of the canals, we should not attempt to alter it. Canal architecture and installations need no gilding.

All they need is maintenance, cleaning and removal of graffiti. That’s how every spare penny should be spent – navigation, maintenance and removal of litter.

Neither am I impressed with mobile artwork on the canals. The Floating Forest was a mudskipper filled with green trees and then towed around the canals. Thousands of pounds were spent on its conception, construction and completion. Nothing is left of the Floating Forest, only memories, mainly of money wasted, plus a scattering of photographs. The same is true of the Razzle Dazzle Boat with its superstructure bolted on to a BW working boat providing free boat trips in central Birmingham, which impressed the resident tripboat owners not a jot.

At our moorings at Gas Street Basin, one of our more enterprising boat owners has fitted a Land Rover shell to his boat in order to have room for his new motorbike. The boat now confuses the passers-by who see a Land Rover parked in a mooring. Hundreds have stopped to discuss what and why. Many more have taken photographs to discuss with their friends. It may be interesting but it is not art as I see it and neither are current waterway art projects; the justification of which appears to be that they bring employment to artists and with mobile installations to commercial boat tillermen.

Come on Canal & River Trust, do what the old British Waterways never did: listen to what your waterways people say and stop these insensible art installations. It is not art, it is cultural vandalism, despoiling well known and historical canal views with some snobbish modern view of art. Every time you install one of these modern canal artworks you alter and in many opinions ruin the existing site.

Unfortunately, this article has not been sponsored by the Arts Council and therefore, aside from the publishers, I receive no recompense for my artistic efforts. I could have submitted the article for a grant but I refuse to encourage and sponsor people who are desecrating our canals. My grammar may be poor, my punctuation pathetic and my ideas wild but at least I am not despoiling the canals.

TOwpaTh TITTer

CONTINUING our light-hearted look at life on the cut with a contribution this month from Ken Walsh of Richmond, North Yorkshire

where one charity will financially hammer the others

OPPOSITION to the Canal & River Trust’s proposals to increase business boat licences continues to grow with more and more charity boat operators claiming that the increased licence charges will make their operations uneconomic and lead to the end of some charity boat operations.

The claim by the CRT that the new proposals would be fair to operators is in my opinion ludicrous. Take for instance the rowing boat ferry serving Worcester Cathedral. There had been a ferry at that point on the Severn for several hundred years but it closed sometime in the late 1970s.

But then it was restarted and has proved to be popular with river bank walkers. But the CRT proposals would more than wipe out the £600 the ferry raises for local charities.

The CRT’s proposals would see the rowing boat ferry paying the same licence fees as the 200-plus seater trip boats operating out of Worcester. I would hardly say that was being fair. Just how crazy can the CRT get?

Furthermore the trust says the opinions collected from the consultation will be ‘looked at carefully’. But I have a sneaky feeling that, just as in the days of BW, the trust has already made up its mind.

If the ea can get tough then why can’t the CrT?

THE Environment Agency is testing a scheme in which boaters who overstay mooring limits at three locations on the Thames – Oxford, Weybridge and Walton-on-Thames – will be thumped by up to £100 for staying more than 24 hours on specifically time limited moorings.

This includes those who deliberately try to avoid payment at a mooring where mooring charges apply.

I remember when a similar scheme was suggested (many years ago I hasten to add) by one user group on ‘honeypot’ sites.

It was greeted with horror by the then BW which said that such a scheme would be unenforceable and, in any case, it hadn’t enough staff to police it or do the necessary paperwork. And the CRT maintains that totally negative stance because from what I have seen locally, it seems to be totally impotent in dealing with scroungers masquerading as continuous cruisers.

The EA, acknowledging the cost of such an operation, is employing a parking management company – District

Enforcement. While we won’t see a clamp being developed for boats, we will see offenders’ details being passed on to District Enforcement which would then serve erring boaters with a fine.

And if no payment was made, court action would automatically follow.

Surely the CRT could adopt this scheme on all its moorings particularly where so-called continuous cruisers hog visitor moorings sometimes for weeks on end. Let the parking management company pick up the fines in return for its work in sorting the scroungers out.

More recognition for william Jessop

There has always been something of a debate as to what William Jessop did in canal construction and engineering compared to what Thomas Telford – who outlived Jessop – actually did.

I was interested therefore to read that the Institution of Civil Engineers, Wales, had installed a plaque at Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, celebrating the contribution of ‘three great pioneers – Thomas Telford, William Hazeldine and William Jessop – to the planning, design and construction of the aqueduct’.

In the CRT staff magazine The Source, an item dealing with the plaque says: “William Jessop, who was apprenticed to John Smeaton, ‘the father of civil engineering’, considered, corrected and approved Telford’s plans and recommendations.”

So now we know... Jessop was Telford’s equal if not superior in canal terms.

why not a mink cull?

Over the past couple of years BW (and now the CRT) has been waxing lyrical over its plans to encourage water voles back on to the canals. I’m glad these efforts seem to be having some success.

But what I cannot understand is why, while Ratty was being encouraged to return, no one appears to be paying any attention to the murderous mink – probably one of the most efficient killing machines of nature – which is known to be partial to a juicy vole or even ducklings.

There was talk within BW of trapping mink and shooting them.

But that’s all it was – just talk. And I don’t think the subject has been raised within the CRT. I would be obliged therefore if someone from CRT could explain why little if anything is being done to get rid of this wildlife menace.

Rumour has it that the pace of change at the Canal & River Trust has been so rapid that meetings have been called and brainstorming has taken place in order that the new organisation can be launched into the future to subsequently appeal to the iPhone generation.

From its high-tech control centre instructions were sent to the good ship Pumpkin and she was launched in the distant north and traversed the vast expanses of the River Ribble. Avoiding locks full of litter in Wigan she was programmed to turn left off the Bridgewater Canal at Watersmeet and head for Castlefield Basin.

Her on-board cameras were activated and upon close inspection sure enough the future was indeed evident. There are already aliens riding bicycles around Salford and Manchester!

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