A National Asset

Every year more then ten million of us visit Britain's waterways to fish, walk the towpath, observe wildlife or go boating and enjoy the sheer splendour of our canals and navigable rivers.
It may seem hard to believe that just a few years ago these exceptional places of peace and relaxation were nearly lost for ever. But that's how it was.

In the 1940s, Britain's waterways were perceived as derelict, dirty ditches. An ever-decreasing number of working boats struggled in dreadful conditions to maintain the carrying trade - and anyone who navigated canals for pleasure was considered quite eccentric.

That changed with the formation of The Inland Waterways Association in 1946. Certainly not overnight, it took many, many years of campaigning to convince government, local authorities and the public that canals had any sort of future, 'fill 'em in' was the usual response.

Today, waterways are seen as a valuable part of Britain's landscape. They are appreciated for their industrial heritage, for their contribution to urban landscapes and for their atmosphere of peace in a busy world. Their leisure value is accepted and there is increasing interest in the potential of some waterways for the development of water borne freight carrying.

The Inland Waterways Association has achieved all this - and more. Through its Waterway Recovery Group, IWA has enabled hundreds of miles of disused canals to be restored for use by boaters, walkers and anglers. Restoration of many more derelict canals is underway, thanks to IWA's members, waterway societies and trusts, sympathetic local authorities and others who support the work of waterways campaigners throughout the country.

Waterways are alive today, but still remain an endangered species. IWA's campaign will continue, to ensure that Britain's navigable rivers and canals stay alive for all to enjoy.

About us

Campaigning for the use, maintenace, and restoration of Britain's inland waterways

The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) is a registered charity, founded in 1946, which advocates the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and development of the inland waterways for public benefit.

IWA members' interests include boating, towing path walking, industrial archaeology, nature conservation and many other activities associated with the inland waterways.

IWA works closely with navigation authorities, other waterway bodies, a wide range of national and local authorities, voluntary, private and public sector organisations.

We campaign and lobby for support and encourage public participation in the inland waterways. IWA actively supports waterway restoration and through its volunteering organisation, Waterway Recovery Group, organises and subsidises over 20 week-long waterway restoration holiday schemes for volunteers around the country each year, as well as conducting multiple work parties around the country on most weekends. These schemes allow young people to participate in the preservation and restoration of our heritage, and in doing so learn restoration and heritage skills.

More than 500 miles of canals and navigable rivers have been re-opened to public use since the Association was founded in 1946. Currently another 500 miles of derelict inland waterways are the subject of restoration plans. IWA is organised into 35 local branches covering geographical areas of the country, through which volunteers coordinate activities as diverse as policing planning applications likely to be detrimental to the waterway corridor, providing engineering expertise to local waterway societies, raising money for restoration schemes and educating the public on the value and benefits of their local waterways.

In addition to this work, IWA also manages the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation which it saved from closure in 2005.

Living Afloat

About 15,000 people are thought to live afloat in Great Britain. They are found throughout the canals, rivers and coasts, in cities, in the country and in harbours. Some cruise continuously, some are permanently moored and the others mix cruising and mooring to suit themselves.

People who live on boats come from all walks of life: families to pensioners, professionals to artists to boat builders. Some live in narrow boats, some in sea-going craft, some in houseboats. Their homes may be owned (possibly with the aid of a loan) or rented.

People are attracted to their lifestyle for many reasons, including:

  •  Economy of combining home with pleasure
  •  Closeness to Nature

Academic research has shown that residential boat owners are not a sub-culture; actually they are a very diverse group. Often they have a strong sense of their local community and its environment. A suitably equipped narrow boat is becoming more and more popular as a permanent home.

Residential Boating:
   Continuous Cruising
   Permanent Residence
   Mooring
   Maintenance

Types of boat:
   Static Houseboats
   Narrow Boats
   Wide Beam
   Barges
   Dutch Barges
   Cruisers

There are two forms of residential boating for licencing purposes

Continuous cruising - which means "without remaining in one place for more than fourteen days or such longer period as is reasonable in the circumstances". This method of cruising will require a standard Pleasure Boat Licence.

Permanent Residence means permanently moored on a site with planning permission for residential use, and not used for cruising. This requires a Houseboat Certificate. Details of fees are available from the relevant navigation authority. The best moorings are often difficult to find or have long waiting lists. One option would be to buy a boat already with a residential mooring.

Council tax and the cost of local and domestic services are usually the individual's responsibility.

Mooring

The principle concern with living afloat is finding a mooring. Generally finding the right boat at the right price is fairly straightforward, but finding somewhere to berth it can be extremely difficult. It is therefore an absolute necessity to find a proper residential mooring before buying a boat. A few marinas may offer a "caretaker" berth, but these are obviously rare. A migratory, travelling lifestyle is an insecure existence and, after a short while, will result in the boat being moved on, again and again. If you are in the fortunate position of leasing some riverbank, you will still have to consider planning, rights to access, whether you can park a car nearby, security, is there a convenient fresh water supply etc. Finally the majority of residential berths are based on short term mooring agreements, which can be terminated at short notice.

Maintenance

Boats require as much maintenance, if not more, than a house. From time to time the boat will have to be craned out of the water or dry docked for maintenance of the underwater hull and if engine servicing is essential.

There are various types of craft used as residential boats, as described below:

Static Houseboats. These are not powered and not suitable for a lot of moving around, although they can of course be towed. They normally comprise a rectangular steel floating pontoon with a caravan or mobile home type structure built on top.

Narrow boats. These are 7' wide and up to 70' long. Normally with engines they can cruise most of the Inland Waterway system. Very popular as an 'all round' craft, but the narrow beam does limit space.

Wide beam Narrow boat style. These craft look like narrow boats but are built up to 13' wide and offer much internal space. Practically a beam of 10' to12' is a good maximum to consider. Because they cannot go through narrow locks their cruising area is limited.

Converted Barges. There are all sorts of barges, both English and Dutch. Lengths can vary from 40' to 120' plus, with beams from 10' to over 16'. All but the smallest require a reasonable degree of competence to handle them. The larger barges are only suitable for use on major rivers because of their size.

Also common are converted lighters or dumb barges, with no motive power. Dutch barges are mostly powered, and some are rigged for sail. It is possible to buy unconverted barges either in Holland or in the UK, but the job of conversion is huge, easily under estimated, and is most certainly not for the faint hearted.

Cruisers. Into this category fall all those vessels that were intended for general cruising and include ex lifeboats, broads cruisers, old hire boats etc. They do not make good residential boats as in general they were not built for that purpose, having little or no insulation.

Further Reading

There is an excellent guide "Living Afloat" written by the Residential Boat Owners Association, which costs £8.00. It is available from IWAshop.com.

Waterways Restoration

Hundreds of miles of the UK's canals and river navigations have been saved from dereliction and restored for the enjoyment of all. Many more miles are gradually being brought back to life thanks to hundreds of trust and societies spread all over the country. From the Lancaster Canal in the North to the Chichester Canal in the South, the Bude Canal in Cornwall to the Ipswich and Stowmarket Navigation in Suffolk, voluntary groups continue to campaign, raise funds and work for the restoration of their local waterway.

The concept of voluntary work on the inland waterway was born in the 1960's and has steadily grown. In the early days just a few volunteers worked on projects such as the Peak Forest or the Ashton Canal near Manchester, or the River Avon in Worcestershire and the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal in Warwickshire. In the first decade of the 21st Century several more major restoration projects came to fruition including the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, once deemed to be the "impossible restoration", and the Rochdale Canal.

The fight continues for many other waterways; protecting routes, raising awareness and public support, and organising volunteer workers to clear canal beds, dredge silted up channels and rebuild or restore waterways structures. Every mile restored creates new cruising routes and brings opportunities for recreation on or beside a waterway. Major projects include the Cotswolds Canals, reviving the old route from River Thames to the River Severn, the Wilts and Berks Canal, creating a new cruising ring including the Kennet and Avon Canal and the River Thames, and the Wey and Arun Canal, extending the network to the south coast.

Local and national government now recognises that bringing back lost waterways has a wide range of public benefits particularly when incorporated into urban redevelopment plans. Restored water space is not only seen as bringing amenity value, but also enhanced property values which promotes investment. There are also several proposals for totally new navigable routes, such as the Bedford and Milton Keynes Link and the Rother Link near Sheffield, which will create new cruising rings and non-tidal connections to existing canals.

Restoring canals has, however, become increasingly expensive. Roads or other developments built in earlier decades have frequently blocked former canal routes meaning there is no such thing these days as an easy restoration. Restorers also have to fund studies on the environmental impact of reinstatement covering issues such as ecology, drainage, flood risk, public access and many others. Innovative solutions are often developed to reduce costs or meet minority objections. Sometimes waterway groups wait patiently for another larger project, such as a road widening or an urban regeneration, to enable a difficult section to be restored in a combined project. Despite the expense it has been estimated that on average for every £1 spent on canal restoration there is a public benefit of £6.

Given the positive benefits there are many bodies that are willing to fund waterways restoration. The Heritage Lottery fund has been the largest donor to a number of projects and the government agency (soon to be charity) British Waterways has also supported others. Smaller funding is often available for specific aspects of a restoration such as reclamation of derelict land, preservation of heritage, creation of new habitats or enhancement of the local community. Local government also supports many projects and local businesses can frequently be recruited to provide materials or equipment as well as provide sponsorship.

The primary drivers of nearly all restorations are the local canal societies. Most have regular voluntary working parties and participate in local and national events to promote their aims and objectives. The IWA liases with and supports these societies through the local branch structure and many periodically use the volunteers of the Waterway Recovery Group enabling them to tackle bigger tasks or make faster progress.

This section of the website provides a summary of current restoration projects organised by IWA region but, in most cases the latest information will be provided the Trust or Society on their own website. Further details of how the IWA assists with restoration projects can be found on the Support page.


IWA Restoration Committee Survey of Waterway Restoration Schemes

In summer 2009, The Inland Waterways Association's Restoration Committee distributed a survey questionnaire to voluntary bodies concerned with waterway restoration and construction schemes in the United Kingdom, the vast majority being IWA Corporate Members. A similar survey had been made in 2002.

Over 90% of restoration bodies responded. The analysis of the factual information provided gives some useful information about the scale and growth of waterway restoration as well as indicators of which policies might be of benefit and of 'what the others do'.

Chester and District Branch

IWA's Chester and District Branch covers a wide area from the Wirral, across to Middlewich and up to the Bridgewater Canal in the north. We have monthly social meetings as well as a great programme of walks along the various waterways in our area (see details below). In addition branch members raise funds for the waterways through lockwinds, rallies and attending events with our superb Branch Sales stand. We also organise waterway clean-ups to promote care of our waterways.

Our waterway festivals are designed to raise awareness about the waterways in a particular area, raise funds and also show civic leaders how a vibrant waterway can boost the local economy.

See the report on our highly successful 2010 Tom Rolt Centenary Rally which brought Chester's Tower Wharf basin to life in June last year.

2012 will hopefully see us organising a waterways festival on the River Weaver at Northwich over the weekend of 23/24 June, 2012.  To register interest, please contact Lesley Taylor, our Rally Secretary, on lesley.taylor@waterways.org.uk

Social meetings are held on the second Tuesday of the month, October to May, in the Tom Rolt Conference Centre at the Boat Museum, Ellesmere Port, starting at 7.45 pm. A very varied programme of speakers ensures an interesting evening for everyone whilst the branch Sales Stand has a wide variety of things to satisfy the most discerning shopper. With Christmas cards and other gift opportunities, last minute Christmas shopping need not be a problem.

Come along and meet us - you can be sure of a warm welcome.

For further details contact the Branch Secretary on 0151 678 9300

Events

2011/2012 SOCIAL PROGRAMME

The new social programme will begin on 11 October, 2011 in the Tom Rolt room at the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port with a talk by the RNLI. We look forward to seeing you then.

Waterways Walks

For further information about any of the walks, please contact the branch Social Secretary on 0151 608 6487.

The next will be on the fourth Thursday in October.

WATERWAYS IN BRANCH

Bridgewater Canal

IWA Branches

Chester and District - Preston Brook to Lymm and to Runcorn (including former Runcorn Locks)

Manchester Branch - Hulme Lock Branch and Pomona Lock Link; Leigh Arm of Leeds & Liverpool to Waters Meeting (Stretford); Rochdale Canal to Waters Meeting (Stretford); Waters Meeting (Stretford) to the M6 Road Bridge at Lymm.

The canal, which is part of the Cheshire Ring, runs from Castlefield Junction with the Rochdale Canal to Runcorn. Waterways of the north and northwest can be reached from the Leigh Branch, which crosses over the Manchester Ship Canal at Barton Swing Aqueduct, one of the wonders of the waterways world.

The Main Line has no locks and runs for 28 miles or 45 km.

The Stretford and Leigh Branch has no locks and runs for 10.75miles or 17.3 km.

The Preston Brook Branch HAS no locks and runs for 0.75miles or 1.2 km.

Only the Pomona Lock to the Manchester Ship Canal and the nearby Welland Lock from the Ship Canal into Salford Quays have one lock each.

River Dee

IWA Branch Chester and District Branch

Downstream from Chester, the river is industrial and should only be navigated by sea-worthy craft with crews well-versed in tidal waters. Upstream from Chester is the section administered by Chester City Council. There is a connection to the Shropshire Union Canal at Crane Wharf, Chester. There are no locks along the 33 mile (53.1km) stretch and the river will accommodate all normal canal craft. The weir at Chester can only be passed at certain states of the tide and local expert advice is required.

Manchester Ship Canal

IWA Branches

Chester and District - Weston Point to Eastham Lock; Weston Point to M6 viaduct (south bank only)

Manchester - M6 viaduct to Manchester and Salford Quays and associated short canals.

Merseyside and West Lancashire - M6 viaduct to the Weston Point (north bank only)

This is not considered a leisure waterway and the incompatibility of large ships and small boats means that hire cruisers are not usually permitted. Boat owners must seek permission to use the canal from the Manchester Ship Canal Company, proving that their boat is seaworthy, insured and has the required safety equipment on board. As commercial traffic has decreased, the regulations have become less onerous. There are links to the River Mersey at Eastham, the Shropshire Union Canal at Ellesmere Port, the River Weaver and Weaver Navigation at Western Point and the Bridgewater Canal via the lock in Pomona No 3 Dock.

Advice for small craft.

The canal stretches for 36 miles from Eastham, on the southern shore of the Mersey estuary 6 miles from Liverpool, almost to the centre of Manchester.

Shropshire Union

IWA Branch

Chester and District - Ellesmere Port to Barbridge Junction

Shrewsbury District and North Wales - Barbridge Junction to Droveway Bridge, Pendeford; Middlewich Arm.

Running from Autherley, near Wolverhampton, to the Manchester Ship Canal at Ellesmere Port, the Shropshire Union Canal links many traditional market towns with the River Severn.

Ellesmere Port to Autherley covers 66.5 miles (107km) and 47 locks.

The Middlewich Branch runs for 10 miles (16.1km) with 4 locks, and the River Dee Branch for just 0.25 miles (0.4km) with 3 locks

Shropshire Union in IWA West Midlands Region

Trent and Mersey

IWA Branch Chester and District - Preston Brook to Middlewich Arm (Wardle Lock Branch)

The Trent and Mersey Canal is 93 miles long with 76 locks and connects the River Trent navigation at Derwent Mouth near Shardlow not with the River Mersey but with the Bridgewater Canal at Preston Brook, which gave access to the Mersey at Runcorn. At present the Runcorn locks are derelict, although they may yet be restored, but the Mersey can still be reached either via the Anderton Boat Lift and River Weaver to the Manchester Ship Canal or via the Wardle Lock Branch, Middlewich Arm and Shropshire Union Canal to Ellesmere Port.

The Trent and Mersey Canal also connects with the Macclesfield Canal via the Hall Green Branch at Kidsgrove, the Caldon Canal at Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent, the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal at Great Haywood, and the Coventry Canal at Fradley Junction, justifying its original name of the Grand Trunk. Other former connections were the Burslem Arm and Newcastle-under-Lyme Canal in the Stoke area, the Bond End Canal at Burton-on-Trent and the Derby Canal at Swarkestone. From Derwent Mouth to Horninglow Wharf at Burton the canal was built wide beam to take Upper Trent barges, and also from Preston Brook to Big Lock at Middlewich to take Mersey Flats, although this section was later restricted by Dutton stop lock and at Croxton aqueduct.

Trent and Mersey in IWA East Midlands Region

Trent and Mersey in IWA West Midlands Region

River Weaver

IWA Branch Chester and District Branch

The river runs from Winsford to the Manchester Ship Canal at Weston Marsh Lock and connects to the Trent and Mersey Canal via the Anderton Lift.

The river runs for 20 miles or 32km with 5 locks.

Contact

© Inland Waterways Association 2011

Registered Charity No. 212342

The Inland Waterways Association's Head Office is based at Chesham in Buckinghamshire.

Postal Address:

   Island House,
   Moor Road,
   Chesham, HP5 1WA

   Telephone: 01494 783453

   E-mail enquiries: iwa@waterways.org.uk

Canals and Rivers

Canal maps and canal cruising guides to British inland waterways.

Our canal route maps cover the most popular English, Welsh and Scottish cruising canals and navigations.

Click on the canal name to see the cruising
guide and route map.

Ashton Under Lyne Canal:

An early success of the canal restoration movement, this thoroughly urban canal climbs west-east to Ashton-under-Lyne on the edge of the Manchester conurbation.

The free labour of gangs of canal enthusiasts in 1968 (600 volunteers) and 1972 (1000 volunteers) kick started the remedial works. Much redevelopment has taken place along the canal in East Manchester, partly as a result of the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

Twenty five years after the Bridgewater Canal was opened to Castlefield, two canals were promoted eastwards to the industries of Huddersfield and the limestone quarries of Peak Forest. Typical of the fragmented processes of the Canal Mania years, there was a separate Act (1792) for the 6 miles of the Manchester and Ashton-under-Lyne Canal and its 11 miles of now derelict branches.

The Huddersfield Narrow and the Peak Forest Canals link with the end of the Ashton around the Portland Basin and all three were finally opened at practically the same time (1800). Trade was further boosted when the Cromford and High Peak Railway and Macclesfield Canal funnelled extra trade into the Peak Forest Canal (1831). However, the coming of the railways reduced trade and the canal sold out to the competition (1848).

Peak Forest Canal:

Running south from Greater Manchester, the canal towpath links with hundreds of miles of footpaths up the Goyt Valley, past reservoirs into the Peak National Park and along the High Peak Trail. Stunning scenery.

T. Brown's "parliamentary" survey (1791) of this canal into the hills of Derbyshire had a major lock flight at Marple, another at Chapel Milton and ended with a "railway or stone road" into the limestone of the Peak beyond Chapel-en-le-Frith. The "railway or stone road" is now called a "tramway" but has never seen trams, nor was it a railway as understood today but a pioneering "plateway". Instead of the present day technique of flanged wheels running on I-section metal rails, waggons or carts with broad wheels were hauled along flat iron surfaces and were kept on course by L-shaped upstands on the running plates - plateways.

Bugsworth Basin is an unique canal/tramway interchange where lime, limestone and gritstone arriving on tramways from Derbyshire quarries was transhipped to narrowboats to feed the demands of the Industrial Revolution in the north west. Closed in 1927 after a long decline caused by losing traffic to the railways it was finally reopened after 30 years of hard work by volunteers in 2005 and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Whaley Bridge, the branch terminus, has a stone built warehouse and wharf, now used as a base for restaurant/trip boat. Its two arches, formerly for rail wagons, sit either side of a covered wharf. Within a few yards is the start of the first incline on the rail line to Cromford. Waggons were hauled up by chains powered by a horse capstan at the top of the Whaley Rise for over 125 years.

Many people wouldn't think of spending their holidays cruising beneath city streets, past the backyards of factories and industrial estates and alongside busy railway lines, but the amazing network of canals, junctions, locks and tunnels left over from the industrial revolution has a fascination all of its own.

Many people come back year after year to explore it's hidden loops and nooks and crannies! And some canals are so little used that more visiting boats are vital if they are to be kept open.

Birmingham sits on a plateau about 200 feet above the surrounding countryside, and would probably have been passed by by early canals which were intent on linking the Rivers Trent and Mersey and Severn.

Local merchants funded a meandering 10 mile canal to serve local coalfields but the rapidly developing Industrial Revolution led to over 180 miles of canals and 216 locks being built over the next 100 years, hence 'more canals than Venice', and Birmingham became the heart of the narrow canal network.

Even the coming of the railways did not slow the growth of trade, over eight and a half million tons a year were being carried at the end of the nineteenth century and canals and railways worked together to supply the 'Black Country's' industry and population. There were over 40 basins where goods were trans-shipped. Canals serviced the canalside factories, railways carried raw materials in and products out to the the country and world.

Commercial trade disappeared in the middle of the twentieth century and 54 miles of canals were closed, but the remaining network is still a uniquely interesting area to explore, overflowing with industrial heritage, tunnels, flyovers, factories and warehouses. The city of Birmingham is making maximum regeneration use of the space and life that canals can bring into the heart of urban areas and building some stunning waterside developments.

The BCN can currently be accessed from five directions. From the north the link with the Staffs and Worcs Canal climbs the 21 Wolverhampton locks to join the 'new main line' built by Telford in the 1820's to straighten Brindley's twisting contour route. He made use of deep cuttings and embankments and the wide canal has a towpath on either side.

From the south comes the Worcester and Birmingham, and from the south east the Grand Union Canal. The Birmingham and Fazeley Canal (actually part of the BCN) comes in from the east, forming a network through the centre of the city of Birmingham.

The Dudley Tunnel, closed to powered craft, gave access from the west. Boats now use the wide Netherton Tunnel with towpaths either side and gas lighting, built to overcome the bottleneck caused by the old narrow tunnel.

There were also links in the north east area to the Staffs and Worcs at Hatherton and to the Coventry Canal at Huddleston, restoration is underway on both at present. The two large loops of canals in the North Eastern area served coalfields, especially those around Cannock which were the last to close in the 1960's.

Subsidence has always been a major problem because of mining activities. Lappal Tunnel (3,795 yards) which gave a faster link to the Worcester and Birmingham was closed in 1917 due to subsidence, though even it now has a society planning to reopen it!

Although much of the BCN is urban there is a lot of pleasant countryside too, Sneyd Junction for instance on the Wyrley and Essington Canal, known by boatmen as the 'curly whirly' because of its twisting route. It now sees few boats but was once one of the busiest parts of the BCN carrying coal from surrounding mines, now long closed.

There's a wealth of Industrial history to see alongside the canal, don't miss the Black Country Living Museum at Dudley

The Bridgewater Canal is as flat as a pancake. The towpath moves along the edge of the Cheshire Plain, gently crosses the Bollin Valley and overlooks the River Mersey. Within Greater Manchester it passes through pleasant suburbs and crosses the waters of the River Irwell. A short length passes through some industrial areas which the canal itself stimulated, but even here the towpath is being improved and promoted as being 'In Brindley's Footsteps'. The canal is deep, straight and wide and cruising can be pleasant and rapid!

The Leigh Branch connects to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. Worsley, an unexpected village of half-timbered houses, green spaces and industrial relics, was the cradle of the modern canal system. By 1774 the Duke of Bridgewater brought coal to the surface by floating it out on the mines' drainage system and sent it to Manchester in broad beam barges. Two exits from the underground canals of the coal mine can still be seen. Against the left hand cliff face lies a half sunk 'starvationer' (boats that carried coal out from the mine).

Castlefields in the centre of Manchester lies at the junction of the Duke of Bridgewater's Canal and the Rochdale Canal. There are restored wharves, fine warehouses and revitalised city centre open spaces, but most impressive are the Victorian cast iron railway viaducts which soar over the basins, most still used by local trains and Metrolink trams. The castle turrets on the far viaduct were an attempt to blend in with the historic nature of the site, controversial even in Victorian times because the railways and canals obliterated a Roman site.

Barton 'Tank' is a mechanical swing aqueduct built in the 1890's to cross the Manchester Ship Canal. The 'tank' can be swung to allow ships to pass on the Ship Canal. It replaced Brindley's stone aqueduct when the Manchester Ship Canal was constructed.

Canals were nothing new to the Duke of Bridgewater. He owned several inside his mine in Worsley which had been carting coal to villages nearby for 350 years. He had seen Government financed canals in France (Canal Du Midi: opened 1681) and had been aware of improvements locally, to Weaver River (1732) and Sankey Brook (1757). What was new was his ambition to build an aboveground canal across a valley and carry canal water over river water. Engineering skills were based on knowledge gained from mills powered by wind or water and from quarrying stone or mining slate and coal. They were primitive by today's standards but our motorway embankments rely on the experience gained when engineers built our railways... and many railway engineers learnt their trade on canals. The Duke's agent, John Gilbert, was project manager and his engineer was the millwright James Brindley who had already surveyed a canal to extend the Trent upstream from Derby into the Potteries (1758).

Not only did they design the 600 foot long sandstone faced Barton Aqueduct spanning the Mersey and Irwell Navigation on three large arches but they achieved the construction of the first ten miles of a broad canal, including long embankments up to 40 feet high in less than two years.

Allowing for inflation, the Duke first spent his personal fortune and then ran up about £20 million of personal debts on his canal. He borrowed from whoever he could; even his tenants and landowners from whom he purchased land. City financiers were thin on the ground in 1760 and the 'hair-brained scheme' was such a novelty no one could tell if it was going to make money or not.

As it turned out the Duke's canal was joining two fast growing centres of the industrial revolution. Canals were more reliable than rivers and they easily took business from pack horses and carts. Eventually money to repay his debts came from an income variously estimated (correcting for inflation) at between £4 million and £6 million a year. After he died his trustees bought the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, they tripled the carriage rates on both systems and, thereby, made the creation of railways worth the investment.

The heavily locked Northampton Arm leaves the Grand Union Canal mainline at Gayton Junction and joins the River Nene in the centre of Northampton.

The River Nene then takes a twisting course to Peterborough through pleasant rural surroundings and then becomes tidal as it crosses the flat Fenlands on its way to the sea. However it is possible to turn away from the difficult tidal stretch and enter the Middle Levels which open up hundreds of miles of peaceful waterways.

The Nene originally joined the Great Ouse to flow together into the Wash, but the course of the Great Ouse was moved in the twelfth century to a more easterly outlet near King's Lynn. Nature, and then man from the Romans onward, have been continually altering watercourses of this large area of marshes between and around the rivers, frequently flooded by the North Sea, to farm the rich soils.

The River Great Ouse flows over 70 miles from Bedford out into the Wash, linking to the River Cam coming down from Cambridge and a series of other navigable rivers along its way.

The Middle Levels are a network of Rivers, manmade drainage ditches and sluices intended to drain the low lying area between Peterborough and the cathedral city of Ely. However they also offer a navigable route between the River Nene and the fenland rivers.

The Dutch engineer Vermuyden created many of them when he drained the Fens in the 17th century. One of them, the Old Bedford Level, runs dead straight for 20 miles and was the location for a series of experiments in the 19th and early 20th centuries to prove, or disprove that the Earth was round. Posts were erected along a six mile length and viewed through a telescope to see if the curvature of the earth could be seen.

Unfortunately both sides originally claimed victory! In 1905 a Lady Blount tried to settle the matter by hanging a sheet from a bridge so its bottom nearly touched the water. A camera with telescopic lens was used to take a photograph along the surface of the water from six miles away. If the Earth was curved the bottom of the sheet should not have been visible. The photographs clearly showed the bottom of the sheet! So perhaps the Earth is flat!

The main concern of these rivers and drains is water control. They are managed by the Environment Agency and an additional licence is required by BW licenced boats to cruise this area. However they offer an unique and beautiful cruising area, scattered with interesting villages and market towns but often just land and sky and utter solitude! Cruising is on the increase and more facilities are being installed.

The Grand Union Canal leaves the River Thames at Brentford and climbs over fifty locks up into the Chiltern hills. It descends then climbs again to a new summit in Birmingham, 137 miles and 166 locks. Boatmen used to claim to do it in five days but allow well over a week if you want to get any sleep!

The climb up to the Chilterns goes through some beautiful scenery, especially through the partly 17 century Cassiobury Park. Stoke Bruerne and Braunston are old canal towns, the Canal Museum and Boat Inn at Stoke Bruerne are worth a stop. Just north of the Northampton Arm, which gives access to the Lincolnshire Fen district, you pass Weedon barracks, built here two hundred years ago because it was thought to be the place in England farthest from any possible coastal invasion! There are long tunnels at Blisworth and Braunston. The line into Birmingham goes through Royal Leamington Spa, fashionable in Victorian times and Warwick, famous for its medieval buildings and castle.

The 21 locks in the Hatton flight are a daunting sight for boaters who nicknamed the locks 'the stairway to heaven'. The famous hydraulic paddle gear makes winding easy but slow! Hatton locks and the rest of the main line of the Grand Union Canal was part of a last gasp effort, backed by the government of the day, to modernize the canals so they could compete with road and rail. It took two years and 1000 men to rebuild the 21 Hatton locks alone, using the new material, concrete.

The Paddington Arm and Regents Canal in London go close to the city centre, through Regent's Park and London Zoo and past Camden to meet the Thames again at Limehouse Basin. They form part of a short circular cruising Ring, including the tidal Thames past the Houses of Parliament and joining the Grand Union Canal at Brentford. Care must be taken navigating the busy tidal river.

The Leicester section branches north at Braunston and climbs a little less steeply before falling to join the River Soar just after Loughborough. It winds pleasantly, like rivers do, for about ten miles before flowing into the River Trent.

The Leicester Section is interesting and varied, leaving the main line at Norton Junction south of Braunston and joining the River Trent near Kegworth. The canal section before Leicester is very rural at times and has two tunnels at Crick and Husband's Bosworth and staircase locks at Watford and Foxton.

The 7 narrow beam Watford locks lift the Grand Union Leicester Arm 16 metres (52'6") to the Leicester summit level. 4 locks are in a staircase sharing top and bottom gates. They were opened in 1814 and there have been schemes to widen them from 7 foot to 14 foot ever since. They, with Foxton Locks at the other end of the summit level, are the main barriers preventing wide beam boats and barges reaching the waterways of the midlands and north.

Foxton is the site of a steam powered Inclined Plane which replaced ten locks and lifted narrowboats 75 feet. It was opened in 1900 but suffered from mechanical and structural problems and the locks were reopened in 1908.

The City of Leicester has Roman ruins. For the last twenty miles or so the route is along the River Soar which is a tributary of the Trent. There is some very pleasant river scenery along the Soar.

The River Lee and the River Stort open up some surprisingly fine countryside to Bishops Stortford and Hertford.

The Kennet and Avon is an impressive feat of engineering, made up of two river navigations and a linking stretch of canal. It runs from the Severn Estuary near Bristol to the River Thames at Reading, over 100 miles long with more than 100 locks, some magnificent engineering and crossing some of the most beautiful scenery in southern England. It was only reopened in 1990 after decades of dereliction.

The Avon Navigation cuts through wooded hills and the famous Avon Gorge on its way to Bristol and then meanders up to Bath. The canal then climbs the Caen flight of locks to Devizes and runs amidst rolling hillsides along the Vale of Pewsey towards Hungerford to descend through pasturelands, woods and watermeadows to Reading and the junction with the River Thames.

Bristol has some fine old buildings and the dock area has preserved craft including the SS Great Britain, the first iron steamship. Bath was a Roman spa town and has many Roman remains, though the spa baths are no longer open. It contains much 18th century classical architecture, including the famous Royal Crescent. Bradford on Avon also has Georgian stone terraces. Devizes has medieval buildings and Norman remains, Salisbury Plain and Neolithic Stonehenge are close by.

Honeystreet is a small canal village with a beautiful name, Pewsey has its White Horse, cut into a local hillside, Hungerford and Newbury are market towns and Reading has shiny office blocks housing computer firms.

Many bridges, aqueducts and other structures were built in impressive classical style, designed by John Rennie. However his work on the canal was not totally successful. He used unseasoned Bath stone for ornamental work on bridges which weathered poorly, and the summit level was too short, causing the water shortages from which the canal still suffers. Pumping engines had to be installed to supply the summit level and at Crofton the original steam pumping engines have been restored and can be seen in working condition.

With a main line of 127miles, the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is easily the longest canal in Britain. It links the north west seaport of Liverpool with the Aire and Calder Navigation at Leeds, forming a through route between the Irish Sea and the North Sea.

The Millennium Ribble Link now provides a link via the River Ribble to the Lancaster Canal. Extension of the western end past Liverpool Pier Head to join up with the main Dock system is now underway.

The Leeds and Liverpool canal climbs away from the Lancashire plain into the Pennine hills from Wigan, up the famous 21 locks, through the once proud cotton towns of Blackburn and Burnley where Victorian mills can still be seen. The summit level goes through some fine moorland scenery over the 'backbone of England' , plunging through the mile long Foulridge tunnel. It then begins to descend amidst remote and beautiful countryside through the market town of Skipton into the Yorkshire Dales and on towards the bustling city of Leeds and the heart of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Allow at least a week to get from Liverpool to Leeds.

After Leeds, the Aire and Calder Navigation opens up a fascinating range of Yorkshire waterways, some once industrial, some very rural. The Yorkshire Ouse takes you to the ancient cities of York and Ripon. The South Yorkshire Navigation leads to the restored basin at the heart of the city of Sheffield. The recently restored Rochdale Canal and Huddersfield Narrow Canal now open up two fantastic 'Pennine Rings' for boaters with more time to spare.

The Leeds and Liverpool is a barge canal, built with locks 60 feet long and 14 feet wide, reaching a height of 487 feet above sea level on the summit at Foulridge. The locks between Liverpool and Wigan are longer at 72 feet, as are the 2 on the branch to Leigh, where the junction with the Bridgewater Canal allows boats to reach the narrow canals of central and southern England. A second branch links the canal at Burscough with the River Ribble and now the Lancaster Canal via the small port of Tarleton. The Liverpool end of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal has now been extended past the famous Pier Head and Liver Building into Liverpool Docks.

 

The Llangollen Canal leaves the Shropshire Union Canal just north of Nantwich in rural Cheshire and climbs through deserted Shropshire farmlands to cross the border into Wales near Chirk. It then cuts through increasingly hilly countryside to finish alongside the River Dee tumbling out of Snowdonia, just above Llangollen. It is 41 miles long and takes at least three days to cruise (one-way)

The Llangollen Canal is probably the most beautiful canal in Britain, certainly it's the most popular. The scenery varies from isolated sheep pastures to ancient peat mosses, from tree lined lakes to the foothills of Snowdonia.

Towns along the way include medieval Whitchurch with its half timbered buildings, the interesting market town of Ellesmere set in its own "Lake District", the fortified border town of Chirk and Llangollen itself, sat astride the River Dee, an ancient gateway to Wales beneath the ruins of Castel Dinas Bran.

The canal has three major engineering feats, two old, one modern. The 'pioneering masterpiece of engineering' by which the early civil engineers crossed the difficult landscape between Chirk and Llangollen has resulted in the 18 kilometre length being awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 2009.

The aqueducts at Chirk and Pontcysyllte were built by the engineers Thomas Telford and William Jessop and were among the first to use cast iron troughs to contain the canal. At Chirk Aqueduct the trough is supported by conventional masonry arches and hidden inside the masonry, almost as if the engineers were not confident of their new material. But at Pontcysyllte Aqueduct the trough is exposed and sits atop 120 foot high slender masonry towers. When you cross it by boat there is an exhilarating sheer drop on the non-towpath side! You should stay below decks if you don't have much of a head for heights, but do try to look through the windows, otherwise you will miss some amazing views!

The modern engineering feat may seem a little tame by comparison but required considerable twentieth century engineering expertise.

Constant landslips on the stretch from Trevor to Llangollen, one of which derailed a train on the railway below, meant closing the section for two years to rebuild long stretches of the embankments above the River Dee and encase the whole length of canal in a concrete trough.


The Montgomery Canal

The Montgomery canal as it is known today runs for 38 miles from a junction with the Llangollen Canal near Ellesmere in Shropshire to Newtown in Montgomeryshire, now part of Powys.

Much of it is still closed to navigation after its official abandonment back in 1944, but it was one of the first canals to be considered for reopening by the emerging canal enthusiast movement in the 1960s and a long and dogged restoration campaign is slowly but steadily achieving results. Seven miles through six locks are now navigable from the junction with the Llangollen Canal (three of them added in 2003) and a further isolated 17 mile section is usable through Welshpool. See trip report along the Welshpool section.

The connected navigable section, although quite short, has much to offer the holiday cruiser. Historic interest is provided by the locks and the old warehouses at Rednal and Queens Head, and the inner man can be satisfied with the pub and restaurants at Queens Head and Maesbury. The whole route is quiet and rural, and because access to the canal is controlled by the lock keeper at Welsh Frankton there are only a limited number of boats on the length at any one time. What a delight! Sample it soon. Walkers already have access to the towpath all the way through to Newtown whilst volunteer working parties continue to work towards full restoration for boats as well. See www.mwrt.org  for more restoration details.

Although now under one name the canal is historically an amalgam of three separate enterprises, further complicated with a number of arms and branches, and changing minds.

The Montgomery Canal proper is just the length that runs from Llanymynech to Garthmyl and dates from 1794. It was designed to connect with a side branch of the Ellesmere Canal that was at that time projected to run from Chester through Wrexham and Ruabon to the River Severn at Shrewsbury. However the speed of development of rival canals and, as ever, a shortage of money caused a pause of several years. That route was abandoned and the completed part at Welsh Frankton, by then connected to the Montgomery, had to wait a number of years before being connected to the rest of the system by a new route to Hurlestone near Nantwich in 1805. The unfinished 'main' line towards Shrewsbury then remained as a side arm, the Weston Lullingfield arm, whilst the Llanymynech ‘branch’ of the Ellesmere Canal became the through route to the Montgomery. OK so far?

At the other end the Montgomery had run out of money too and although originally projected to go to Newtown the canal was only finished as far as Garthmyl. Consequently a new canal company was formed in 1815 to finish the canal line the remaining seven miles right into Newtown, a section that subsequently became known, confusingly, as the Western Branch whilst the original bit with an arm to Guilsfield became the Eastern Branch. After a few years small scale but relatively successful trading the threat of the new-fangled railways loomed over the industry and in 1847 the whole lot became part of the Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company, whose original intention was to convert a lot of it into railway lines.

Subsequent swift takeovers however found the ownership of the SUR and CC transferred to the London and North Western Railway who then found themselves with a canal network probing deep into the territory of their main railway rival, the Great Western. It seems to have suited them to keep an efficient canal operation running almost to spite the GWR. Under the LNWR and their successor, the LMS, the Montgomery Canal in all its parts continued to operate throughout the nineteenth century.

Traffic on the canal was mainly local and self contained, much of it centred on the limestone quarries and limekilns at Pant and Llanymynech with coal coming onto the canal from local pits on the Llangollen Canal. A significant traffic was developed by the SU company bringing imported grain in to Maesbury Mill from Ellesmere Port whilst general cargo of all sorts was carried by the company, some of it in their famous 'fly' boats which operated as a regular timed 'next-day' delivery service until 1920. Some of the small warehouses for this traffic still remain in existence, whilst the tiny half timbered on at Rednal still has pull-out stop and go boards that told the fly boat captain whether there was a collection to be made that day.

The same building also operated for a while as an interchange station for passengers and luggage transferring from express canal 'packet' boats to the railway. By the early twentieth century traffic was slight and the canal was really only viable as a feeder to the main SU system. Thus, when a major breach happened below Welsh Frankton locks in 1936 the decision was taken to abandon the canal. Official closure to navigation was finally ratified by Act of Parliament in 1944. Only twenty years later the battle began to reopen it again.

The beauty and remoteness of much of the 'Monty' has led to some extraordinary problems for the restoration group. So well did the derelict canal revert to nature that much of it has become a haven for several rare plants and animals and some sections have been designated as S.S.S.I.s - Sights of Special Scientific Importance. This may be good news for nature but it has made extra difficulties for the restoration movement. They have now to create and preserve a delicate balance between the needs of a navigation built for boats with the important, though accidental, ecology that developed in the derelict canal.

The compromise that is being forged is likely to be an important fingerpost for many other canal restorations in the future.

Starting at the summit level of the Trent and Mersey, the Macclesfield Canal climbs even higher and becomes one of the highest levels on the system (518 feet) to overlook the Cheshire Plain and cling to the skirts of the Pennines.

Cruising the canal is full of interest, from the unusual 'flyover' junction with the Trent and Mersey at Hardings Wood, passing the Victorian folly of Mow Cop and timber framed Little Moreton Hall, climbing the beautiful locks at Bosley and negotiating the interesting junction with the Peak Forest Canal at Marple.

Accompanied by waymarked walks, the 'Mow Cop Trail' and 'Middlewood Way', the canal towpath presents many opportunities for short and long distance walking, staying down near water or climbing high up into the nearby hills with their monuments and follies. The many connections allow walkers and cyclists the choice of either going round in circles or in a long straight line!

Congleton and Macclesfield are both worth a visit, with interesting pubs, Pennine stone architecture and expensive shops which are evidence that this is a desirable place to live, close enough to Manchester to commute, but surrounded by striking scenery.

This late built canal speeded travel from Manchester to the Potteries, Midlands and the south in two fundamental ways. First, less distance than going via Runcorn and not subject to delays by the operation of the tunnels at Preston Brook and, second, it was built after much experience of boatmen's techniques. For example, where a lock is set close to its neighbour it can be prepared whilst the first lock is being used. This minimizes delay whilst waiting for locks to fill. Telford, therefore, collected all Macclesfield's locks into one flight and maintained a long level on each side of them by bold “cut and fill” techniques, which gave us eight aqueducts, high embankments and cuttings.

Post war efforts by the Chairman and members of the North Cheshire Cruising Club (founded 1943) and the Inland Waterways Association Second National Rally (1953) drew attention to the lack of maintenance and deterioration of this canal. After a campaigning cruise met apparent sabotage the Peak Forest Canal Society (1964) proposed a 'Cheshire Ring' of regenerated canals (including the 'Macc') which was finally opened after ten years' effort in 1974.

The Oxford Canal starts by the River Thames in Oxford and runs for 77 miles, mainly through quiet rolling countryside, to near Coventry where it connects with the midlands canal system. At one time it was the main transport route from the midlands to the south of England and it is now one of the most beautiful and popular cruising canals.

From the world famous City of Oxford, founded nearly a thousand years ago and with its many University Colleges, the canal heads north through pleasant pastures, through the old canal village of Thrupp and passing close to the magnificent Blenheim palace, Winston Churchill's birthplace. The countryside becomes more isolated with rolling hills around the old village of Lower Heyford, neighbouring Upper Heyford had a large USAF base. Banbury is an interesting medieval market town with many fine old pubs.

Cropredy, a tiny village with only two pubs, hosts a huge outdoor folk music festival each August when Fairport Convention, and about 17,000 fans, have their annual reunion. The two pubs get busy then!

The Oxford Canal, built early on during the "canal mania" period, is a contour canal following the contours around hills, rather than having cuttings and embankments like later canals. The course is very winding in places and often looks much more like a river. Above Napton it twists and turns so much that the Napton Windmill, only a few miles distant, is visible for many hours, and in many different directions!

The northern section begins below Napton locks. Braunston is an old canal town well worth a look. The section up past Rugby was straightened in the nineteenth century, almost halving the length of the original winding route. You can still see the remains of some of the straightened out loops and the entrance to the old Newbold Tunnel is near the churchyard. The "new" tunnel is at right angles to the old one and is of fairly generous dimensions, having a towpath on both sides. Rugby Borough Council and BW have created a very effective 'Circle of Light' in the tunnel (linocut by Eric Gaskell top right). The Oxford Canal joins the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction.

Near Wormleighton, is the unusual "Ladder Bridge", built to an ancient design and probably more trustworthy than it looks . The single wooden beam structure carries a private footpath and has developed a considerable sag over the years. Wooden bridges are fairly rare on the canals but were cheaper to construct than masonry or metal bridges.

The southern Oxford Canal, unlike its straightened northern section, has lots off twisting bends, especially around Wormleighton. The canal runs west then cuts right back on itself and heads east to avoid a slight ridge. The same transmission tower is visible in many different directions for quite a few cruising hours as the contour canal twists and turns!

Supplemented by the waters of the Soar, the Trent widens out to flow down a wide valley, through Nottingham, past Country Parks and Nature Reserves to become a commercial waterway.

Like all ancient navigations the Trent was a 'free' river with no organisation taking overall control. Apart from improvements from Trent Falls up to Burton on Trent (1699) and small improvements above Newark (1773), Acts for improvement only became urgent after the Trent and Mersey Canal was opened. An act to improve the whole to Gainsborough was passed (1783).

Dredging and a horsepath (1787) were followed by locks at Sawley and a 2½ mile cut to bypass Trent Bridge in Nottingham (Beeston Cut). Other cuts were made at Snoball (1795) Cranfleet (1797) and Holme (1800).

In this century, deep draughted boats were catered for by raising water levels with weirs and new locks at Cromwell Tidal (1911), Holme, Stoke Bardolph, Gunthorpe and Hazelford (1926-7). The Trent can take large commercial barges and is maintained to a high standard.

The wide Beeston and Nottingham Canals provided the alternative to the shoals and bridges that make the Trent un-navigable through Nottingham. This wide cut was always closed to navigation on Sundays to ensure boatmen' s religious well being. A heavy chain (the Lenton Chain) was stretched across the water.

In Newark the castle (ruined by Cromwell) dominates the river and its public gardens, the castle promises an attractive market town.

Torksey Lock marks the entrance to the Roman Fossdyke Navigation set in a wide landscape.

72 hour pontoon moorings bring possible relief to boats unused to tidal waters. Just upstream are gravel pits that dispatch their entire product by water.


The Chesterfield Canal

The Chesterfield Canal leaves the River Trent at West Stockwith. Alternatively there is a slipway at Tapton Lock in Chesterfield for trailboats to cruise the currently isolated Chesterfield western section.

The canal runs for 46 miles through a delightful rural landscape from the Trent to Chesterfield. It was designed by James Brindley. Work commenced in 1771 and it was completed in 1777.

The star feature was the Norwood Tunnel; at more than one and a half miles it was one of the longest canal tunnels in the country. The frequent use of staircase locks on either side of the tunnel was remarkable for its time. The restored Thorpe flight of fifteen locks in just over half a mile won the prestigious Volvo Penta Award for "an Outstanding Contribution to Conservation and Safety on British Inland Waterways". (Photos top and bottom right.) They are all listed structures and the trip through them from Shireoaks to Kiveton Park is superb at any time of year. The Norwood tunnel collapsed in 1907 and Chesterfield has been cut off ever since. The final commercial cargo was carried in 1956. By this time only 26 miles from the Trent to Worksop was navigable.

In 1976 the Chesterfield Canal Society (which became the Trust in 1998) was formed to promote full restoration; later came the Chesterfield Canal Partnership. Real progress could now be made.

Between 1996 and 2003 a new marina was built at Shireoaks and the restoration of seven miles and thirty one locks extended the head of navigation from Worksop to the Norwood Tunnel. At the isolated western end five miles and five locks from Chesterfield to Staveley were made navigable by 2002. Further works are continuing to restore the nine mile gap. A new terminal canal basin is the centrepiece of a £300 million complex being built in Chesterfield. The long term aim, is to canalise the River Rother and make a link with the South Yorkshire Navigation at Rotherham, thus creating a Three Counties Ring to rival the cruising rings on the other side of the Pennines.

The River Severn is Britain's longest river, rising in mid Wales and flowing for 220 miles to the Bristol Channel. However the navigable section starts at Bewdley a few miles above Stourport and runs about 45 miles to Gloucester. Below Gloucester the river runs large tides. The Warwickshire River Avon is also navigable for 45 miles, from Tewkesbury to above Stratford on Avon. Each can be cruised in about three days.

The journey down the wide Severn from the interesting old canal port of Stourport on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is through pleasant gently rolling countryside although the high banks, necessary to restrain the floodwaters which can surge out of Wales, mean the view is frequently restricted to tree lined banks. There are some interesting pubs selling evil-looking but delicious "scrumpy" cider. You can moor at the foot of Worcester Cathedral steps. Gloucester Docks has some magnificent old seven storey grain warehouses. The Docks were the centre for the import of corn in the nineteenth century but are no longer used by much commercial traffic.

They now house interesting antique warehouses, shops, offices and museums including the Gloucester Waterways Museum and the Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum. The city is a short walk away. It is normally possible to find moorings in the dock basins.

The Gloucester and Sharpness Ship Canal was built to bypass a notoriously dangerous stretch of the Severn. The cruise down to Sharpness Docks through the frequent manned swing bridges with their classical keepers cottages is well worthwhile.

It is possible to enter the tidal Severn estuary at Sharpness and navigate down to Bristol docks, where the Kennet and Avon Navigation can be joined. This is a serious undertaking because of the nature or the river and large tides. Most boaters employ the services of a river pilot and travel in convoy in case of engine breakdowns.

The River Avon meanders much more than the Severn, through beautiful watermeadows above Tewkesbury, famous for it's abbey and fine buildings, and winds on amidst willow trees through the Vale of Evesham to Stratford upon Avon.

Pershore and Evesham should be visited and you can moor opposite the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford on Avon. The River Avon was divided at Evesham, the Upper Avon becoming disused in the last century and the Lower Avon rarely used and only open to Pershore. The Lower Avon was restored by a Trust in the 1960's but restoration of the Upper Avon was considerably more difficult and there was opposition from many landowners along the River. It was eventually reopened in 1974. Many locks and weirs had to be rebuilt and there is a wide variety of lock shapes, sizes and gear.

The large locks on the Severn are electrically operated by lock-keepers, those on the Avon you have to operate yourself and some can be a little awkward at first but the scenery is beautiful! The lift and swing bridges on the Gloucester and Sharpness are all usually manned.

The Shropshire Union Canal runs from the edge of urban Wolverhampton through some of the most underpopulated areas of England to the River Mersey at Ellesmere Port, about sixty miles in all and taking a fairly leisurely four days to cruise.

Along the Shroppie (as it is known by its many admirers) the scenery is often quite dramatic, with sweeping views across to the Welsh Marches and the strangely shaped ridge called "The Wrekin" from the long embankments and with the atmospheric heavily wooded deep cuttings, a number of which were reputed by the old boat people to be haunted. These days this is also UFO territory! Strange visions are also likely if you have had a few pints of "6X" in the Anchor Inn at High Offley, an old boatmans pub that has survived almost unchanged.

Market Drayton and Nantwich are medieval market towns which still have some of the old half-timbered black and white buildings. However the jewel in the Shropshire Union crown must be Chester, a Roman fortress and port which has many Roman ruins, as well as an almost complete set of medieval city walls which tower above the canal and the unique "rows", shops on two levels overlooking the street which date back to the middle ages. Chester has many visitors year round, with museums, fine cathedral, good hotels, town-crier and street theatre, but it still manages to feel friendly and small scale. The northern end of the canal is at Ellesmere Port which was a transhipment port from canal to sea-going ships. The old docks now house The National Waterways Museum which has a unique collection of ex working boats and waterways exhibitions.

The 'New Cut' is the boaters name for the Middlewich Arm which connects the Shropshire Union north of Nantwich to the Trent and Mersey Canal at Middlewich, an important link in the Four Counties Ring.

The canal was one of the last built and borrowed from the latest railway building methods, taking a direct line cross country, on embankments and through cuttings. These were massive undertakings, Shelmore embankment took six years to build and Woodseaves cutting is 100 feet deep.

The sides of the cuttings are so steep in places that landslips are common and sunlight rarely penetrates. Despite this plants and mosses cling to every available slope. Little wonder the boatpeople did not like to moor in these cuttings. Nearly all the locks are bunched together in "flights". This made for quicker working by the boat people because locks could be easily prepared in advance of the boats.

People and buildings seem very few and far between yet you are little more than twenty miles from the heavily populated cities of Wolverhampton and Birmingham. There are long vistas across open farmlands towards mid Wales and across to Cheshire and Staffordshire from the high canal embankments.

The Thames is England's premier river and much of English history has been lived, worked and fought over alongside this river.

London, was a Roman trading centre and port, boats travelled up to Oxford from the the twelfth century onwards, and palaces, castles, country houses, abbeys, water mills, historic villages and inns are heavily scattered along the Thames Valley, far too many to mention them all here.

The river rises near Cricklade in Wiltshire and runs for just over 200 miles to enter the North Sea east of London; the navigable Thames from Lechlade to London is 94 miles so allow a week to cruise. The Upper Thames winds through watermeadows, below Oxford the banks are more heavily wooded, especially around Goring where the river cuts through the southern end of the Chilterns. Closer to London modern dwellings of every fashion and colour line the banks, and the London river-front, past the Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London, is world famous.

Oxford is renowned for its Universities and churches and there's a wonderful view of its spires from the river. Dorchester Abbey dates back to the 7th century while Reading is the capital of England's Silicon Valley. The Henley Royal Regatta is held on the river each July, Marlow has many fine Georgian buildings and Cliveden House and gardens, famous for their Churchill connections, sit high above a beautiful steeply wooded stretch of river.

Windsor has its Castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world, favourite home of Queen Elizabeth and now restored to its full glory after the disastrous fire, and Great Park. A few miles further on Runnymede is where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215 and the Kennedy Memorial is sited, an English acre given to the American people.

Hampton Court Palace is just before Teddington where the river becomes semi tidal. The canal system can be joined at Brentford or by carrying on along the commercial Thames through the heart of London to Limehouse basin, leaving the now wide river to head for the sea.

The Trent and Mersey Canal begins, as you would expect, within a few miles of the River Mersey, near Runcorn and finishes in a junction with the River Trent in Derbyshire. It is just over ninety miles long and will take about six days to cruise

It is one of the earliest canals, built by Brindley, with much of historical interest, passing through some pleasant countryside. It struggles from the Cheshire plains up thirty one locks, often called Heartbreak Hill, to cut beneath Harecastle Hill in a spooky and watery tunnel one and three quarter miles long. It passes through the industry of the Staffordshire Potteries out into rural Staffordshire and then Derbyshire.

Shardlow, near the River Trent, is one of England's best preserved canal towns. Try the Swan pub at Fradley Junction which has an excellent view of the junction. Stone has some interesting old canal buildings. Shrugborough Hall dates from the 17th century and is surrounded by a landscaped park, the Gatehouse is the size of many mansions! An English Civil war battle was fought just to the north at Hopton Heath. Josiah Wedgwood was involved in getting the canal built and the Wedgwood factory and museum are canalside just south of Stoke on Trent. Middlewich and Northwich are salt towns dating back to Roman times.

The canal is known for its tunnels, at Harecastle, Barnton, Saltersford and Preston Brook. Saltersford has a kink because tunnelling started at different points and didn't quite meet in the middle! Preston Brook has a large central chamber where a collapse was repaired, and cruising through the pitch dark confines of Harecastle tunnel is an experience nobody forgets!

The double locks on Heartbreak Hill in Cheshire were built in the last century to reduce queues, but many are now unworkable and some have been filled in, BW seems to think that one lock is sufficient! The locks got their name not because there are so many, but because they are rarely close enough together to walk and work easily. To real boatpeople they were just the Cheshire Locks!

The Caldon Canal starts just south of Stoke on Trent and meanders into the Staffordshire countryside, running for a short distance along the River Churnet. It has some extremely attractive stretches and the isolated Consall Forge and Black Lion Pub must be visited, plus the restored steam Churnet Railway.

The canal currently finishes at Froghall Wharf which can be reached by some boats through the very low Froghall Tunnel. However the Caldon and Uttoxeter Canals Trust have restored what was the first lock at Froghall on the Uttoxeter Canal. This canal was closed in the nineteenth century and a railway built over it.

The railway subsequently closed and part of it is now reopened as the Churnet Valley Railway. There are hopes that eventually both the railway and canal can reach Uttoxeter again, running through the Churnet Valley.

The Anderton Boat Lift has two large watertight tanks which can each take two full length narrowboats. The tanks are raised by hydraulic rams which raise the water filled tanks and boats from the river to the canal fifty feet above. The tanks have watertight doors at each end to let the boats in and out. Corrosion of the structure, due to the high salt content of the environment in this salt producing area, closed the lift for many years. However full restoration is now complete and the lift came back in service in 2002.

Cruising the River Weaver has been made easier with the reopening of the Anderton Boat Lift Previously access required a voyage down the Manchester Ship Canal. Upstream from the Lift the Weaver can be followed through the centre of Northwich to Winsford Flashes. Downstream in goes through pretty countryside to join the Ship Canal below Frodsham. Although the locks are large and the river once carried heavy traffic the coasters which came up to Northwich finished a few years ago, and there is currently no commercial traffic on the River.

The Worcester and Birmingham canal links the two cities, built to connect the River Severn in Worcester to the Birmingham Canal System via a quicker route than the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal.

In the early days, because of opposition from other canals, there was no direct connection in Birmingham, the last few feet of canal in Birmingham were left uncompleted. These days the ring formed by the two canals and the river makes a popular two weeks holiday route.

The canal travels through some very pleasant countryside, climbing from the Severn through rolling fields and wooded cuttings and slicing through a hilly ridge south of Birmingham.

Worcester has a fine Cathedral which dates from 1074 and Georgian buildings. Close to Hanbury is the 16th century Hanbury Hall. At Bournville is the Cadbury's Chocolate Factory which has tours and exhibitions. Cadbury's had a fleet of immaculately painted narrowboats which carried their raw materials to the factory. There is also the village built by the firm for its workers and two half timbered houses which were moved here from other parts of Birmingham.

The canal has four tunnels, the longest at Kings Norton near the junction with the Stratford Canal is just under two miles long. Steam tugs were used from the 1870's to haul strings of narrowboats through the four tunnels. There's also the famous flight of thirty locks at Tardebigge, hard but interesting work for boat crews. The locks fill and empty very quickly so it's possible to do them all in an (energetic) morning! The Worcester and Birmingham has plenty to see and plenty to do!

The Worcester and Birmingham canal is well known for its locks, 58 in all climbing 428 feet from the level of the River Severn in Worcester up to Birmingham. Originally it was planned to use lifts to greatly reduce the number of locks and to save canal water.

However there was some concern over whether the lifts would be robust enough, and good water supplies were secured by building reservoirs at Tardebigge and later at Upper Bittal, so locks were built instead. Tardebigge reservoir was below the canal summit level so a steam engine was used to lift the water above the locks. The engine house still stands. One lift was built, but it was not reliable and became the top lock at Tardebigge. This accounts for it's great depth, fourteen feet, one of the deepest on the canal system.

Birds of the Canals

Here are some birds that may be spotted near canals and rivers.

The Barn Owl is a pale, long-winged, long-legged owl with a short squarish tail. Depending on subspecies, it measures about 25-45 cm (9.8-18 in) in overall length, with a wingspan of some 75-110 cm (30-43 in). Tail shape is a way of distinguishing the Barn Owl from true owls when seen in flight, as are the wavering motions and the open dangling feathered legs. The light face with its heart shape and the black eyes give the flying bird an odd and startling appearance, like a flat mask with oversized oblique black eyeslits, the ridge of feathers above the bill somewhat resembling a nose.

Its head and upper body typically vary between a light brown and a light colored and dark grey (especially on the forehead and back) feathers in most subspecies. Some are purer, richer brown instead, and all have fine black-and-white speckles except on the remiges and rectrices, which are light brown with darker bands. The heart-shaped face is usually bright white, but in some subspecies it is browner. The underparts (including the tarsometatarsus feathers) vary from white to reddish buff among the subspecies, and are either mostly unpatterned or bear a varying amount of tiny blackish-brown speckles. It was found that at least in the continental European populations, females with more spotting are healthier on average. This does not hold true for European males by contrast, where the spotting varies according to subspecies. The bill varies from pale horn to dark buff, corresponding to the general plumage hue. The iris is blackish brown. The toes, as the bill, vary in color; their color ranges from pinkish to dark pinkish-grey. The talons are black.

The Common Blackbird of the nominate subspecies T. m. merula is 23.5 to 29 centimetres (9.25 to 11.4 in) in length, has a long tail, and weighs 80-125 grammes (2.8 to 4.4 oz). The adult male has glossy black plumage, blackish-brown legs, a yellow eye-ring and an orange-yellow bill. The bill darkens somewhat in winter. The adult female is sooty-brown with a dull yellowish-brownish bill, a brownish-white throat and some weak mottling on the breast. The juvenile is similar to the female, but has pale spots on the upperparts, and the very young juvenile also has a speckled breast. Young birds vary in the shade of brown, with darker birds presumably males. The first year male resembles the adult male, but has a dark bill and weaker eye ring, and its folded wing is brown, rather than black like the body plumage.

The Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) is a medium to large bird of prey, whose range covers most of Europe and extends into Asia. It is typically between 51 and 57 cm in length with a 110-150 cm (1 metre to a metre and half) (48-60 inch) wingspan, making it a medium-sized raptor. There are around 40,000 breeding pairs in Britain. It is usually resident all year, except in the coldest parts of its range, and in the case of one subspecies.

It breeds in woodlands, usually on the fringes, but favours hunting over open land. It eats mainly small mammals, and will come to carrion. A great opportunist, it adapts well to a varied diet of pheasant, rabbit, other small mammals to medium mammals, snakes and lizards, and can often be seen walking over recently ploughed fields looking for worms and insects. The birds have incredible strength and are therefore able to pick up food of all weights.

The black head and neck with white "chinstrap" distinguish the Canada Goose from all other goose species, with the exception of the Barnacle Goose, but the latter has a black breast, and also grey, rather than brownish, body plumage.[5] There are seven subspecies of this bird, of varying sizes and plumage details, but all are recognizable as Canada Geese.

The Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), also called by a wide variety of other names, is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae.

The Chaffinch's large double white wing bars, white tail edges and greenish rump easily identify this 14-16 cm long species. The breeding male is unmistakable, with his reddish underparts and a blue-grey cap. The female is drabber and greener, but still obvious.

The Eurasian Coot, Fulica atra, also known as Coot, is a member of the rail and crake bird family, the Rallidae. The Coot is 36-42 cm long, and is largely black except for the white facial shield (which gave rise to the phrase "as bald as a coot", which the Oxford English Dictionary cites in use as early as 1430). As a swimming species, the Coot has partial webbing on its long strong toes.

The Great Cormorant is a large black bird, but there is a wide variation in size in the species wide range. Weight is reported from 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) to 5.3 kg (11.7 lbs), with a typical range from 2.6 to 3.7 kg (5.7-8.2 lbs). Length can vary from 70 to 102 cm (28-40 in) and wingspan from 121 to 160 cm (48-63 in). It has a longish tail and yellow throat-patch. Adults have white thigh patches in the breeding season. In European waters it can be distinguished from the Common Shag by its larger size, heavier build, thicker bill, lack of a crest and plumage without any green tinge.

The Grey Heron is a large bird, standing 90-100 cm tall, with a 175-195 cm wingspan and a weight of 1-2 kg. Its plumage is largely grey above, and off-white below. Adults have a white head with a broad black supercilium and slender crest, while immatures have a dull grey head. It has a powerful, pinkish-yellow bill, which is brighter in breeding adults. It has a slow flight, with its long neck retracted (S-shaped). This is characteristic of herons and bitterns, and distinguishes them from storks, cranes and spoonbills, which extend their necks.

The House Sparrow is a chunky bird, typically about 16 centimetres (6.3 in) long, ranging from 14-18 centimetres (5.5-7.1 in). It has a large rounded head, a short tail, and a stout bill. In weight, the House Sparrow generally ranges from 24-39.5 grams (0.85-1.39 oz). Weight varies by sex, with females usually smaller than males. Younger birds are smaller, males are larger during the winter, and females larger during the breeding season.

Common Kestrels measure 32-39 cm (13-15 in) from head to tail, with a wingspan of 65-82 cm (26-32 in). Females are noticeably larger, with the adult male weighing 136-252 g (c,5-9 oz), around 155 g (around 5.5 oz) on average; the adult female weighs 154-314 g (about 5.5-11 oz), around 184 g (around 6.5 oz) on average. They are thus small compared with other birds of prey, but larger than most songbirds. Like the other Falco species, they have long wings as well as a distinctive long tail.

Their plumage is mainly light chestnut brown with blackish spots on the upperside and buff with narrow blackish streaks on the underside; the remiges are also blackish. Unlike most raptors, they display sexual colour dimorphism with the male having less black spots and streaks, as well as a blue-grey cap and tail. The tail is brown with black bars in females, and has a black tip with a narrow white rim in both sexes. All Common Kestrels have a prominent black malar stripe like their closest relatives.

The Kingfisher has the typical short-tailed, dumpy-bodied large-headed and long-billed kingfisher shape. The adult male of the western European subspecies, A. a. ispida has green-blue upperparts with pale azure-blue back and rump, a rufous patch by the bill base, and a rufous ear-patch. It has a green-blue neck stripe, white neck blaze and throat, rufous underparts, and a black bill with some red at the base. The legs and feet are bright red. It is about 16 centimetres (6.3 in) long with a wingspan of 25 cm (9.8 in), and weighs 34-46 grams (1.2-1.6 oz).

The female is identical in appearance to the male except that her lower mandible is orange-red with a black tip. The juvenile is similar to the adult, but with duller and greener upperparts and paler underparts. Its bill is black, and the legs are also initially black.

The Lapwing/Green Plover is a 28-31 cm long bird with a 67-72 cm wingspan, It has rounded wings and a crest. It is the shortest-legged of the lapwings. It is mainly black and white, but the back is tinted green. Females and young birds have narrower wings, and have less strongly marked heads, but plumages are otherwise quite similar.

The name lapwing has been variously attributed to the "lapping" sound its wings make in flight, from the irregular progress in flight due to its large wings (OED derives this from an Old English word meaning "to totter"), or from its habit of drawing potential predators away from its nest by trailing a wing as if broken. Peewit describes the bird's shrill call. This is a vocal bird in the breeding season, with constant calling as the crazed tumbling display flight is performed by the male.

The Mallard is 56-65 centimetres (22-26 in) long (of which the body makes up around two-thirds), has a wingspan of 81-98 centimetres (32-39 in), and weighs 0.9-1.2 kilograms (32-42 oz). The breeding male is unmistakable, with a bright bottle-green head, black rear end and a yellowish orange (can also contain some red) bill tipped with black (as opposed to the black/orange bill in females). It has a white collar which demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey brown wings, and a pale grey belly. The dark tail has white borders. The female Mallard is a mottled light brown, like most female dabbling ducks, and has buff cheeks, eyebrow, throat and neck with a darker crown and eye-stripe. However, both the female and male Mallards have distinct purple speculum edged with white, prominent in flight or at rest (though temporarily shed during the annual summer moult).

The Moorhen is a distinctive species, with dark plumage apart from the white undertail, yellow legs and a red facial shield. The young are browner and lack the red shield. It has a wide range of gargling calls and will emit loud hisses when threatened.

The Osprey is 0.9-2.1 kilograms (2.0-4.6 lb) in weight and 50-66 centimetres (20-26 in) long with a 127-180 centimetres (4.2-6 ft) wingspan. The upperparts are a deep, glossy brown, while the breast is white and sometimes streaked with brown, and the underparts are pure white. The head is white with a dark mask across the eyes, reaching to the sides of the neck. The irises of the eyes are golden to brown, and the transparent nictitating membrane is pale blue. The bill is black, with a blue cere, and the feet are white with black talons. A short tail and long, narrow wings with four long, finger-like feathers, and a shorter fifth, give it a very distinctive appearance.

The sexes appear fairly similar, but the adult male can be distinguished from the female by its slimmer body and narrower wings. The breast band of the male is also weaker than that of the female, or is non-existent, and the underwing coverts of the male are more uniformly pale. It is straightforward to determine the sex in a breeding pair, but harder with individual birds.

The adult European Robin is 12.5-14.0 cm (5.0-5.5 in) long and weighs 16-22 g (9/16-13/16 oz), with a wingspan of 20-22 cm (8-9 in). The male and female bear similar plumage; an orange breast and face (more strongly coloured in the otherwise similar British subspecies E. r. mesophilus), lined by a bluish grey on the sides of the neck and chest. The upperparts are brownish, or olive-tinged in British birds, and the belly whitish, while the legs and feet are brown. The bill and eyes are black. Juveniles are a spotted brown and white in colouration, with patches of orange gradually appearing.

The Common Starling is among the most familiar of birds in temperate regions. It is 19-22 cm long, with a wingspan of 37-42 cm and a weight of 60-90 g. The plumage is shiny black, glossed purple or green, and spangled with white, particularly strongly so in winter. Adult male European Starlings are less spotted below than adult females. The throat feathers are long and loose, and used as a signal in display. Juveniles are grey-brown, and by their first winter resemble adults though often retain some brown juvenile feathering especially on the head in the early part of the winter. The legs are stout, pinkish-red. The bill is narrow conical with a sharp tip; in summer, it is yellow in females, and yellow with a blue-grey base in males, while in winter, and in juveniles, it is black in both sexes. Moulting occurs once a year, in late summer after the breeding season is finished; the fresh feathers are prominently tipped white (breast feathers) or buff (wing and back feathers). The reduction in the spotting in the breeding season is achieved by the white feather tips largely wearing off. Starlings walk rather than hop. Their flight is quite strong and direct; they look triangular-winged and short-tailed in flight.

Adults of this large swan range from 125 to 170 centimetres (49 to 67 in) long with a 200 to 240 centimetres (79 to 94 in) wingspan. They may stand over 120 centimetres (47 in) tall on land. Males are larger than females and have a larger knob on their bill.

The Tawny Owl is a robust bird, 37-43 cm (14.5-17 in) in length, with an 81-96 cm (32-38 in) wingspan. Its large rounded head lacks ear tufts, and the facial disc surrounding the dark brown eyes is usually rather plain. The nominate race has two morphs which differ in their plumage colour, one form having rufous brown upperparts and the other greyish brown, although intermediates also occur. The underparts of both morphs are whitish and streaked with brown. This species is sexually dimorphic; the female is much larger than the male, 5% longer and more than 25% heavier.

The 9-10.5 cm long Wren is rufous brown above, greyer beneath, barred with darker brown and grey, even on wings and tail. The bill is dark brown, the legs pale brown. Young birds are less distinctly barred.

The plumage is subject to considerable variation, and where populations have been isolated, the variation has become fixed in one minor form or another.

Bird Song