To those in the UK. Do you ever see narrow boaters? edit. pic of boat

a reply to: skalla

I always shudder when i see pictures like this of Birmingham with it's skyline dominated by all those monsterous minaret

No Minarets in that pic matey

Im barging down in the south of France next year (canal de Berry)

It is your fault OP....

Warmest

Lags

originally posted by: alldaylong
a reply to: skalla

I always shudder when i see pictures like this of Birmingham with it's skyline dominated by all those monsterous minaret

No Minarets in that pic matey

Photoshop. Same with those living white folk that you added.

originally posted by: skalla

originally posted by: alldaylong
a reply to: skalla

I always shudder when i see pictures like this of Birmingham with it's skyline dominated by all those monsterous minaret

No Minarets in that pic matey

Photoshop. Same with those living white folk that you added.[/quote

Oh dear, oh dear oh dear.

edit on 7-7-2017 by alldaylong because: (no reason given)

a reply to: alldaylong

I never use sarcasm emotes, i expect others to catch on

Pink Floyd's David Gilmore still has a large boat on the river I believe. It is also a recording studio. I think it is on the river Thames so not exactly the same as a boat on the locks and canals but neat any way, I would love to give it all up and buy a boat with access to the ocean and all.

a reply to: MagnaCarta2015

a barge is not the same as a narrow boat .

a reply to: Tulpa

They kept the Eagle to Imperial barge system working till they basically shut down the factories in the 1990's as it was cheaper and also due to the layout of the roads less hassle.

If you do fancy a tipple or two then its one of those glorious things where if the horse is pulling the boat you can be as drunk as a lord and escape prosecution.

Its a popular sort of holiday thing where you can spend a few weeks gently going across the UK but also some companies have seen the value in it recently for stuff that doesn't have any urgency such as something 2-3 months away as it can make its travels slowly and who cares if it takes a day or 3 extra to get there thus taking extra vans off the roads.

They are also called canal boats. The industrial revolution starts with water wheels. Suddenly factory owners can power wool mills straight from the flowing water current just like windmills. They can take sheeps wool, pull it into yarn, spin the yarn, weave it, dye it, and make anything. Bags of wool go in on one gate, and fabric comes out at another.

Next problem is how the heck do they get all this produce into the cities and harbour warehouses? They hadn't invented the combustion engine or roads yet. So they convert rivers into canals by building up the sides, excavating the bottom and adding pathways. Horses can pull the boats along the river.

That continues until steam engines come along, and the canals are left behind. Some are drained and converted into railway lines.

Edinburgh has the Union Canal:
en.wikipedia.org...(Scotland)

Here's the Falkirk wheel:
www.canalholidays.com...

a reply to: Maxatoria

I've frequented a few fantastic alehouses along the towpaths in the past. In fact an old friend of mine bought one after the previous elderly owners shut up shop after a lifetime of service.
You didn't go to the bar because there wasn't one.
They lady who ran it would go down to the cellar with an enormous jug and bring it to your table.
There was also another old lady with a glass eye who was permanently in motion in the corner rocking chair!

Unfortunately, when my friend bought the place, it was returned to a simple place of residence with no license to serve booze. It didn't stop us drinking though.

I've not been up there for a very long time and I don't drink anymore but it was a good time and the place really was unchanged since about the 1940s by the look of it. Full of character and with virtually no road access. A proper canal side pub for boaters and walkers.
There were others in my area but that one was my favourite and I've never known a place like it.

I'm feeling a little sad now.

a reply to: TinySickTears

I see hundreds come through the Erewash Canal. Lovely people who always smile and wave and are always up for a chat if they aren't mid-cruise.

a reply to: tom.farnhill

I didn't know that, what's the difference?

a reply to: MagnaCarta2015

it is down to the width , narrow boats are more suited to English canals and barges are usualy Dutch a lot wider and can even be sea going .

In the 1980's when property prices were increasingly unaffordable, there were people that took to the waterways. At the time, many canals had fallen into almost complete disuse and British waterways authorities were not really active. I knew boating communities that paid no mooring fees as there were no official moorings to be had in the area whereas other areas had marinas, chandleries and pumping house facilities that did charge a nominal fee. Boat living was very affordable and anyone could create a living space on the water.

Pre solar tech, most boats had no electricity and electrical hook-up at official residential moorings were rare. Lit by candles or oil lamps and sometimes bottled gas and heated by wood/coal burning stoves, the boats were cosy and romantic places to live. Coal was still being delivered by barge. I remember as a child (when we referred to the canal as 'the cut') watching a woman, covered in coal dust, lift a coal sack probably weighing more than she did, and toss it from the roof of the coal barge onto the roof of another boat, to be collected by the boat owner who then paid the man leading the coal barges' horse. A romantic but hard life.

But all good things come to pass and the authorities saw an opportunity to make some money, did some regeneration/gentrification with the result that some residential moorings are now not accessible for traditional boat dwellers. Boat living now seems a middle class lifestyle choice rather than a traditional working class nomadic life.

The canal museum (and everything that goes with it) at Stoke Bruerne is one of my favourite places. www.canaljunction.com... their site has lots of info about historic waterways life in the UK.

One of our canals, the Worcester and Birmingham canalrivertrust.org.uk... travels up hill requiring the operation of 30 locks to raise the boat 220ft.canalrivertrust.org.uk... and some tunnels still require strong legs to traverse them.

The Grand Union canal was designed as the 'arterial' canal and was the main trunk from London to the industrial heartlands. narrowboatinfo.co.uk...

The canals (as in Holland) are designed with 'basins' to allow boats to turn. At Stoke Bruerne there are basins at each end of the unlit tunnel to allow for people that do not want to traverse the tunnel and risk getting stuck to turn around and go back from whence they came.

As to the boats themselves, I quite like a bit of boat-porn and this is my go to site narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk...
The Stoke Bruerne site has some useful info about all the traditional boats used on British waterways www.canaljunction.com...