Learning the Ropes.

The Internet provides a wealth of information and ideas around boating.  Some useful news like information can be gathered from the on-line magazines such as NarrowBoat World There are also boating blogs and various groups on social media. YouTube is also a good  source of video clips on every topic under the sun. Some are targeted at the canals and would provide an excellent point of information for first time hire boaters.

I was quite surprised at the quality of some of the offerings. Wilton Marina have produced an interesting selection of boating clips. The clips include Mooring the boat, Using the  tiller, Reversing the boat and other similar skills. Providing a useful source of hints and tips. for the hire boater  Click Here to watch. 

One particular website that I like is  SpellWeaver. A sort of genealogical record of the canals. This combines a great deal of work researching the old boat working families and drawing together content and photographs from varies sources.

Boating blogs, can be very varied in content. Some are very much written in the form of a daily diary and allow family and friends to know where they are.  Others combine photographs and commentary of the features of the canals encountered in their daily travels.  My blog is I hope quite varied and interspersed with a great deal of humour. I keep a simple log on what when and where published each time we move. I enjoy poking fun at CaRT but I do try to provide an eclectic mix of observations, Smartphone applications, canal history, Dear Bill letters, Motivations posters, and some technical stuff.

Parallels Lives

There are so many parallels between living on a boat and living on the bank. Some people have tidy roof gardens and others cultivate a wildlife reserve. Its all a matter of perspectives. However, its not your perspective that matters, it theirs. It's the same with boats, there is the shiny boater and then there is the grimy boater.

Parallels Lives

I am a very shiny boater, as proud as proud could be;

Polished are my mushrooms, that takes all day you see;

My paint work is gleaming, my lines all neatly coiled;

Then came along the rain, and all my effort spoiled.

My beds are always made, just as soon as I get up;

Everything is ultra tidy, I wash and clean my cup;

No dogs cats or kids, will you find aboard this boat;

Tied to a marina moorings, used as a protective moat.

I don't like the grimy boater, what he does just gets my goat;

Should live his life just like me, and wash and clean his boat;

Take down and clean those curtains, then wash and coil his ropes;

If cleanliness is next to godliness, so for grimy there is no hope.

------- O ------

I am a very grimy boater, logs piled high upon my roof;

I love the life on the cut, relaxed - carefree that's the truth;

Care worn streaked and looking old, and also is my boat;

I think I am the happiest person, just living the life afloat.

I'm very comfortable in my ways, with a smile upon my face;

I move sometimes around the cut, but at a steady gentle pace;

Living my life in a marina, would not be the choice for me;

I moor up my boat with nature and I know that I am free.

Shiny boater is a sad case, with an even sadder wife;

The pair of nosy parkers, who just lead a boring life;

A pair of chintz curtain twitchers, it really is a farce;

So I stick out my tongue, and sometimes moon my arse.

The Alternative Canal Laureate

Evan Keel

Change Managment

In my old place of work, long before the days of retirement spent cruising the canals. I worked in higher education. There are many ills plaguing higher education today. Compared to when I first started our educational system has moved on from a quality led system to 'bums on seats' and bums being in the posterior sense. For the first twenty years I would have done the job for nothing. Then there was a period of nonsensical, politically inspired change. For the last five years you could not pay me enough to do what I was doing. I was disenchanted, not by change itself but by the blind obedience to a change.

Much as I decry the more modern methods and still yearn for the 'old days.' We still did some wonderful things. We brought a lot of young people in through the doors to come and experience university life - either through 'bring your child to work days' or alternatively through various 'youth experience schemes.' But the youth experience schemes over time reached a crisis point. A point where it took so long to process the paperwork which came with increasing amounts of form filling, hoop jumping, health and safety awareness nonsense and fidelity checking. It was easier and less time consuming to just say no.

The canal and river trust is doing the reverse. As boaters offer to let members of CaRT's staff spend some time with them. Where they get some real insight the canals. The employee will get to see the warts as well as the flowers. The employee will also discover that rather than a whining, winging group. The boaters are actually an enthusiastic if somewhat doddery group at the top end of the age profile.

Now I can sit back and contrast my experiences in eduction with my experiences of the canal and river trust. Richard Parry has in a way been on the hustings gathering at first hand the politics of the electorate. No matter how you see the CEO's first year of tenure, it has been a breath of fresh air. I feel sure that he has found the trust is an unwieldy uncompromising object. One that opposes change with its only tangible but questionable success so far has been its change of name. There have been vague promises made to become more open and transparent. But the actual commitment to such an ethos is sadly lacking.

The world around us is changing, people at a grass roots level are becoming much more aware of what is happening around them. People now beginning to question what is happening around them. It all started with Westminster and the various scandals and it brought an upsurge of people getting involved. Parliament is under a level of scrutiny like it has never been before. The banking crisis brought home to people that incompetence and  avarice was at every level of our society. Ideas such as Cameron's Big Society charity, like  Thatchers Poll Tax and Major's Family Values has crashed and burnt. Now the Big Society is being scrutinised by the Charity Commission.

Now we learn that CaRT is also being scrutinised by the Charity Commission. Not only that but CaRT is also being scrutinised more and more by the people who are the real canal society. There was a time when the IWA was at the forefront when it came to scrutiny. Now, since the unholy alliance brought about by the Memorandum of Understanding. The metaphorical torch used for shining into dark corners has been handed on to others.

When the change should have been root and branch. I think that the trust is hardly fit for purpose in the third sector. The trust needs to embrace a complete change of ethos. 

Towpath Team

Most people know that I enjoy poking fun at CaRT, if I did not poke fun, then I would only end up crying into my beer.  So in the spirit of being a bit more upbeat, I decided to do some fractured motivational posters.  As a kid I had a few motorcycle posters on my bedroom wall. So I decided to hang a few inland waterways posters on my blog wall.

With the introduction of the new towpath boat inspection and recording patrols being made by the enforcement team. A new all terrain vehicle is being tested for suitability.

Golden Jubilee Celebrated

This is just one of a series of around fifty old newspaper articles that I have been reading. I have been researching from old newspapers and magazines the last 200 years or so of the inland waterways. With particular interest in the issues of the day that were effecting the canals. The most active periods for evaluation and change, has always been just prior, during and shortly after the two world wars. It should be remembered that between the wars the ownership of some of the canals changed hands as the railway companies bought up the waterways to get reduce competition. What is not clear is the effect this early form of asset stripping had on the viability of the inland waterways. Its good to take a look back at what people were saying and doing in the past. Most surprising of all are some of the problems that beset the canals back then - are still prevalent today. Reading old newspapers can throw up some rather interesting stories. Here is what we would call today a public interest story.

Caveat: Some of the articles are difficult to read and even using modern electronic  scanning and text conversion methods. The odd punctuation, word or character may have been transcribed in error. 

South Australian Chronicle
Saturday 17 February 1894

THE MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL.

On December IS last the first steamboat reached Manchester from the sea. On that day a trial trip was made by the directors over the thirty-five and a half miles which comprise the length of the new canal. The formal opening by the Queen will not take place till Easter, but the magnificent waterway is and has been since New Year's Day in use for regular traffic. This great commercial and engineering enterprise — one of the greatest of the age — has been marked by almost as many vicissitudes as the lamentable attempt to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at Panama. Its Parliamentary history was in itself extra ordinary. The enquiry into its feasibility was gone through four times; and no less than £140,000 was expended in getting the Bill through Parliament. It never would have passed at all if it had not been so tenaciously supported by the public spirit of the communities it was intended to serve. The population of Manchester, and of a dozen other towns comprised within an easy radius, believed in it. To them it meant the mitigation of a lot that few communities would envy. They had lined their skies with a perpetual canopy of smoke from forests of tall chimneys, and spoilt their rivers with the refuse from countless manufactures and habitations. ' Let us get closer to the sea,' they said, 'and we will derive some gain from our sacrifices.' For every kind of communication with the outer world Manchester was a mere suburb of Liverpool, and, for a suburb, a very distant one. The Liverpudlians held the pass between the people of the cotton city and the rest of the human race, and they made tho same use of their coign of vantage as the barons of old did of their embattled toll-gates thrown across the world's highways. City, railway, port, and dock vied in extortion, and levied duties to the extent of human forbearance. Many millions of tons of material and of manufactures passed annually to and fro between the port and the industrious region at the back of it, and on every ton Liverpool had its profit. It could not be expected that a population of five and a half millions placed at the mercy of a single port should quietly sit under it. Cannot the sea be brought to Manchester, anxiously asked the millowners and manufacturers of the vast industrial area of which that city is the capital. The late Daniel Adamson, an engineer of great skill, was convinced that it could, and to him was due the conception of the scheme now carried through to comple tion, though his designs have been modified in important directions. The principal difficulties have been financial rather than engineering. 'When originally projected the outside expense was put at £8,500,000, and in that total was included £1,700,000 paid for the Bridgewater canal connecting Manchester with Liverpool, and constructed in the middle of last century by Brindley. Very soon that estimate was foreseen to be much short of requirements, and the company must have failed utterly to carry out the undertaking but for the determination of the corporation of Manchester to come to its assistance That body lent first £3.000,000 and then an additional £2,000,000 of public money. The total capital involved in the enterprise is very little short of £16,000,000 or nearly double the estimated outlay. The canal, to put it another way, has cost over £400,000 a mile. The earning capacities, tune being given, are confidently believed to be such as will yield a large and increasing interest on even this great expenditure.

The original notion of digging, deep enough to have tidal communication all the. way was abandoned in favour of the locking process, which has saved an enormous and perhaps incalculable expense. The canal now consists of an excavated channel stretching inland from the sea to a distance of 35 miles. It leaves the Mersey at Eastham on the Cheshire shore, nearly opposite Liverpool, where the water is deep enough for large vessels' to enter the canal gates at almost any state of the tide. It is 26 ft. deep, the same depth as the Suez Canal, and. 3 ft. deeper than the canal which connects Amsterdam with the North Sea. It is 120 ft in width at bottom, which is 37 ft. wider than the Amsterdam Canal and 48 ft. wider than the Suez Canal. There will therefore, be ample room for the largest ocean steamers to pass each other, and no delays such as those complained of in the Suez Canal will take place. The 60 feet difference of level between Manchester and the tidal waters of the Mersey estuary has been surmounted by four sets of locks, and, including a quarter of an hour in passing each lock, the voyage from Eastham. to Manchester will occupy eight hours. The geographical position of Manchester is the chief feature which gives significance to the canal Manchester is the real centre of the northern manufactures of England, and by means of tbe new waterway has become the nearest port of shipment for the greater portion of the total British exports, not only of textile manufactures but of salt, earthenware, glass, chemical products, and beer.

At numberless points along the 35 miles of its course the canal taps existing systems of, internal communication, and in fact places the whole of the railway and canal system of that part of the kingdom in direct contact with the sea. It brings the cotton ships and the food ships into the very centre of the population which makes use of their cargoes, and close to the manufactories which send their goods all over the world. Tbe saving on imports and exports will be very large. By the new system cotton can be brought to Manchester at a reduction in cost of  8d. per ton, and wool at a reduction of 8d. per ton.

It is; easy to foresee therefore what an impetus the canal will give to the trade of Lancashire. The cost of inland transit makes so large an addition to the price of manufactured goods as in many cases to render competition with foreign makers impossible. Railways formerly carried all before them. It is the turn of the canals to have their day. Great confidence is felt in the success of the Nicaragua Ship Canal, the North Sea and Baltic Canal, the Corinth Canal, and the Amsterdam Canal, while canals have been planned between Toulon and the Bay of Biscay and between Birmingham and Bristol, and there is talk of a ship canal between Dublin Bay and Galway Bay in conjunction with a submarine tunnel between Ulster and the south of Scotland. It is curious how general is the tendency of manufacture to push direct towards the sea.

The Mercury
Wednesday 29 December 1937

MANCHESTER SHIP CANAL
Golden Jubilee Celebrated
Cost £15,000,000

The most famous canal in Britain recently celebrated its golden jubilee. The Manchester Ship Canal was begun in 1887, but was not finished until 1893. Its construction, a herculean task, saved Manchester from ruin; yet it was the subject of great opposition. Thirty-five and a half miles in length, the canal ranks fifth longest of the huge ship canals of the world. But in importance it gives pride of place only to the Suez and the Panama. It cost over £15,900,000 to build, half as much as did the Suez Canal, and in length it is over half that of the Panama Canal.

The planning of the canal was the result of heavy rail charges which were steadily ruining Manchester at the time, and it took place al the home of Daniel Adamson in Didsbury in 1872. At a dinner given by the business man it was decided that only the building of a ship canal between Manchester and the sea, and so turning the city into an independent port, could prevent the otherwise inevitable disastrous fall on Manchester.

WORKERS' SUBSCRIPTIONS

Three years later Parliamentary consent was granted and endeavours were made to raise the money necessary to carry out the project. This proved difficult, owing to opposition of vested interests; and eventually the only thing that enabled work to be started was the subscribing of a large amount of the initial capital by the working-class people of the area, who were the first to realise the economic salvation which it meant to them.

Almost two thirds of the £100,000 asked for, "Reynolds News" correspondent states, came in amounts of under £10, and of the 39,000 original shareholders, over 30,000 were working or middle class people. Monetary difficulties were not the only ones. Floods and storms ruined bridges, swept away bankings and filled all the excavations with water. It was thought that the scheme would have to be dropped, but the City Corporation came to the rescue and voted £5,000,000.

The greatest technical difficulty was the problem of the Bridgewater Canal, which had to be carried over the new waterway. Naturally, a fixed aqueduct could not be utilised, for the Manchester Canal was planned to take vessels up to 15,000 tons whose super structures and masts would tower far above the normal clearance possible.

The problem was solved by the erection of the Barton Swing Aqueduct, a structure which enables big sea going ships, to pass up to Manchester by huge trough, which can be swung lengthways to the canal, so allowing passage room. The "long arm" canal was completed in 1893, and by means of huge locks ships were lifted 72ft. and taken 35 miles inland to make Manchester a seaport.

Narcissistic Undertones

Vanity is generally accepted to be a bad thing. Because it carries with it narcissistic undertones, which many people generally look down upon. In conventional everyday language, vanity is the excessive belief in one's own abilities or even attractiveness. But vanity is not limited to individuals its also includes the world of business.

Consignia is a typical case of misplaced vanity. Do you remember Consignia, does it even stir any deep seated memories. I would not be surprised if its a name that you find meaningless. To help jog your memory, the centuries old Post Office was re-branded as Consignia. With much publicity, including advertisements on television, radio and whole pages in newspapers. A great deal of our money was expended upon the vanity of re-branding. The new name was intended to show that the old Post Office provided more serviced than just to deliver mail. However the change proved unpopular with both the public and employees. The old Post Office delivered your mail - and like another brand - it did just what it says on the tin.

Canal and River Trust is another case of misplaced vanity. Like Consignia, a great deal of our money was expended upon the vanity of re-branding. British Waterways was more than a name with some gravitas, it was the justified, proud boasting of another great British Institution. The name British Waterways was a statement of fact. Like many other proud British businesses of the time, British Airways, British Gas, British Railways and British Coal. All were household names and had that Britishness about them.

British Waterways been re-branded as Canal and River Trust (CaRT) and has been done at great expense. Yet the public and employees continue to use the name British Waterways or BW. In conversation the name British Waterways or BW comes naturally, and is then occasionally, consciously corrected to CART. No one says the Canal and River Trust - if anything they say CART.  To add to the confusion CaRT don't even want the small 'a' CaRT because want to be CRT. But there is still no getting away from the name, British Waterways or BW. It did and still does do that Britishness thing - just what it says on the tin.  

The Post Office quickly recognised their error and soon consigned 'Consignia' to the dustbin. All of the Consignia signs gradually disappeared over a short space of time, to be replaced once again by the Post Office signs. Like another brand - the Post Office reverted back to doing just what it says on the tin. It was a salutary lesson learned by some and was something to be avoided at all costs.

The Canal and River Trust could go back to being  British Waterways. Just by peeling the sticky labels off. In fact nature has already made a start in some places. Another much loved institution was the logo of British Waterways consisting of the arched canal bridge and reed mace. Once an instantly recognisable object. Now replaced by an instantly forgettable, look-a-like logo incorporating the arched wings of an angry swan. What's that subliminal message all about. 

So now, British Waterways has been thrown on the CaRT and the last bastion of Britishness has been CaRTed off. Leaving the much loathed CART or CaRT to be used as the butt of jokes for years to come. The Cycling Angling Rambling Trust and many more, all being made up to fit the acronym. All being typical of the boaters viewpoint - maybe CaRT now dressed in its new kings clothes, does after all do what it says on the tin!

CaRT and Visitor Moorings Issues

Visitor Moorings Issues.

The more I look at the issue, the more disenchanted I become in the process that was conducted by the trust. There has been much written and debated on this subject in various forums. Most evidence provided seemed to have been based upon anecdotal memories of unrecorded complaints. I have been unable to work out a rational behind the need for the consultation other than one based upon a knee jerk reaction to speculation. The proof of the flawed evidence being claims that proved on careful examination to be unsubstantiated and anecdotal at best.

Therefore to gain a better understanding of the issues you have to consult with the boaters concerned. Not the ones having a moan, but the boaters who are using the moorings. Establishing the reason why people choose a particular venue. Establishing the reasons for the length of their stay is going to be of more value, than any unattributable speculation from others. I believe that the issue is congestion and not overstaying. Has increasing the number of visitor moorings at popular locations been considered as part of the solution. What long/medium/short term plans does the trust have for increasing and improving mooring locations. Moorings previously used as long term have been taken out of use  where new marinas have been built. Have any been re-designated as visitor moorings?

If you take any arbitrary length of a canal, some moorings will be more used than others. There will be many reasons why people chose a particular location. It could be because a certain mooring location is recommended in a canal guide. That is certainly one way we have chosen in the past especially if we did not know the area. It could be that the mooring is close to external facilities such as the availability of a bus service or railway station. The popularity of any mooring could change almost overnight if a new supermarket opens. Various venues and attractions located nearby will also play a significant part in attracting visitors.

ANOTHER ENGLISH SHIP CANAL SCHEME

This is just one of a series of around fifty old newspaper articles that I have been reading. I have been researching from old newspapers and magazines the last 200 years or so of the inland waterways. With particular interest in the issues of the day that were effecting the canals. The most active periods for evaluation and change, has always been just prior, during and shortly after the two world wars. It should be remembered that between the wars the ownership of some of the canals changed hands as the railway companies bought up the waterways to get reduce competition. What is not clear is the effect this early form of asset stripping had on the viability of the inland waterways. Its good to take a look back at what people were saying and doing in the past. Most surprising of all are some of the problems that beset the canals back then - are still prevalent today. Reading old newspapers can throw up some rather interesting stories. Here is what we would call today a public interest story.

Caveat: Some of the articles are difficult to read and even using modern electronic  scanning and text conversion methods. The odd punctuation, word or character may have been transcribed in error. 

The Mercury
Wednesday 30 January 1889

ANOTHER ENGLISH SHIP CANAL SCHEME

The determination of inland towns in England to get into direct water communication with the sea is still being manifested. A company has been registered at Somerset House for the, purpose of obtaining Parliamentary sanction to a scheme for establishing an improved waterway between Sheffield and the South Yorkshire colliery field and the sea. It is proposed to obtain powers to acquire the following undertakings with the docks, harbours, works, and rights connected therewith. The navigation of the river Don, from Tinsley, in the parish of Sheffield, in the West Riding of York, to a place called Wilaich House, in the parish of Denaby on Don, in the same country.

The Dearne and Dove Canal, commencing from the River Don Navigation, in the parish of Wath-upon-Dearne, and terminating at or near Barnsley, in the parish of Silkstone by a junction with the Barnsley Canal. The Stainforth and Keadby Canal, commencing  from the River Don navigation, at or near Stainforth, in the west riding of the county of York, to the River Trent, at or near Keadby in the county of Lincoln. The Sheffield Canal, commencing in the parish of Sheffield, and terminating by a junction with the River Don Navigation at Tinsley. The initial capital is to be £30,000.

Time Team

Most people know that I enjoy poking fun at CaRT, if I did not poke fun, then I would only end up crying into my beer.  So in the spirit of being a bit more upbeat, I decided to do some fractured motivational posters.  As a kid I had a few motorcycle posters on my bedroom wall. So I decided to hang a few inland waterways posters on my blog wall.

More innovative and proactive methods of publicising the canal infrastructure have been devised by the truss. Here a vessel is being prepared for the Time Team 2085 series.  You may find other examples in preparation as you cruise around the canals.

250,000 Blog Visitors.

Well another significant milestone has been reached - a quarter of a million visitors to the web blog. When I set out to write what was to all intents and purposes a diary. Based upon our finding a boat and then cruising the inland waterways system. I never expected to have this sort of reading figures. 

I remember being quite surprised when it went through 10,000 visits. Now I get close to that sort of figure each month. Its 1724 days since I first started blogging on here. I have written 2008 postings in that time. 

In the time when I first started writing the blog there were many other 'boating blogs' in the blogosphere. Some of which I'm sorry to say have now been and gone.  I think this is part of the general trend of people moving away from boating on the rivers and canals. It will be interesting to see how things change in the next few years.

I did think of doing something different. But the enjoyment I get from blogging soon outweighed the alternatives.  So I suppose I shall for the foreseeable future continue to blog and write articles for NarrowBoat World and other social media sites.  I shall continue to prod and poke the trust awake and get them heading in the direction that the primary users of the canal want.


Here is to the next 250,000 visitors. 

Should Have Gone to SpecSavers!

If you stop for a moment and look all around, its all changed. Our idyllic semi rural boating lifestyle is not what it used to be. Change has taken place since the days of the old boating families working the cut. The reality is that even the old boating days of 200 years ago are on the the grand scale, relatively modern.

Since man first arrived on these shores he has changed his surroundings. He at first lived as a hunter gatherer and to a point was in tune with the wilderness. Then over time he became sedentary as a farmer and since then he has decimated the post glacial forests. With fire and axe he created open ground to grow crops. At that time he brought significant if unintended changes to the environment. River catchment areas were significantly changed. The sponge that the wilderness had created to soak up and slow the movement of rain water from entering our rivers was in the main destroyed. 

As more land was cleared of forest the vista and the environment changed gradually again. Open views were created across large tracts of grassland. The flora and fauna also gradually changed as forest dwellers were driven from their places. Which were given over to the flora and fauna of the open glade and flood meadow.  Slash and burn continued but now water management became a new part of man's arsenal of change. Ditches were used more and more to drain water from the low lands and the environment was gradually changed once again.

The small isolated farms became hamlets. Hamlets in turn became villages. Then villages naturally became towns.  The environment was changing once again. Towns grew larger with the advent of markets, the agribusiness began to set down its roots. Footpaths and salt-ways became roadways which were passable for parts of the year. And would remain much the same until the era of the turnpike arrived. Rivers became the main artery for commerce as the waterways provided raw power and a means of transport. 

As towns evolved the countryside had to provide the staple foods. As towns grew, so grew a fledgling cottage industry for providing all manner of goods. But now local resources for power were depleted and new materials needed to be won. With the development of mines came a much cheaper source of energy. This heralded the birth pangs of the industrial revolution and the first of the canals being constructed. Now coal and other materials could be moved in and out of our industrialised towns. The environment had changed once again and the world of commerce had arrived.

Now the vista is of smoke filled towns and cities, with their church spires vying with a huge patchwork of fields and occasional woods. It not until you get up close that you realise it was all created with slash and burn. But now the environment of the patchwork of fields is in turn drenched in chemicals to kill insects and weeds. Which in turn can then leach into the watercourses. At the same time the hedgerows which were the last bastion of nature have been uprooted and in their place vast areas of sterile monoculture continue to be created.  

The so called 'canal heritage' is now used as a developers lie to build houses overlooking the waterways. Where the people living the dream of the 'developers lie' form groups to stop other developments from occupying their vista.  

If you do stop for a moment and look around. Our seemingly 'idyllic' semi rural lifestyle on the canal is not quite what it purports to be after all. Since man first arrived he has certainly changed his surroundings. Now the inland waterways perpetuates the myth with  smoke and mirrors, dressed up with words like habitat, environment, heritage and 'ye olde worlde' tea rooms. We continue to live 'the dream' when in reality what you have is a nightmare. Of a waterway, filled with a myriad of land and household chemicals, as well as the waste and the fly-tipped rubbish of your bankside neighbours. 

Your heritage is now sold off wharves surrounded by houses and the advent of the growing number no mooring signs. The broken, leaking and worn out infrastructure where the bottom grows ever nearer the top. The pleasant vista of the discarded shopping trolley and other such detritus. As councils save money by reducing the frequency of emptying bins, the towpath provides and alternative. The towpath is also providing a velodrome for cyclists traversing at high speed and a dumping ground for dog poo. The bankside vegetation overhangs on corners and bridge-holes. The grass when power strimmed is then power blown onto your boat or into the canal.

Your future seemingly lies in the hands of the 'waterways partnerships' where personal whims and fiefdoms hold sway.  The future of the waterways now belongs in the hands of the bored but carefully selected busybodies, who know - that they know best. Where the wishes and desires of the majority of boaters are doomed to fall by the wayside. Where mooring time limits are being cut and penalty charges (which are implemented as fines) are made in their place. As the inspired dash for more of your cash arrives. There are chuggers who failed on the high street and now ply their trade on the towpath. But its not only the charity muggers who ply their trade on the towpath. Its the home of the bridge troll selling drugs. Its the home of the quick fix latrine for those living rough or in drink. Its the home of the 'no-go  bandit country' as our boats provide convenient targets for vandalism and theft. 

So what of the future. We have a trust that certainly 'talks the talk' but then talk comes cheap. However, the trust is seemingly unable to 'walk the walk'.  Where priorities include poetry and encouraging graffiti, as locks have now become art installations.  Where protection of habitat and wildlife are now used as an excuse to do nothing. Where other charities who want to work alongside the trust - now feel 'short changed' by the expensive and proliferate way the trust have of conducting business.  

Where other charities raise a revenue stream from having 'members' the trust does not want a paying membership, just cheap, on a whim, here today and gone tomorrow friends. After all, members might want to question what happens on the waterways.  Such as why the infrastructure continues to deteriorate year on year. While at the same time the anointed few continue to 'enjoy' a bankers bonanza bonus for failure.

Where exactly is the heritage in that.

Maybe we should all rename our boats... The 'Rose Tinted Glasses.'

BARGEES IN BRITAIN

This is just one of a series of around fifty old newspaper articles that I have been reading. I have been researching from old newspapers and magazines the last 200 years or so of the inland waterways. With particular interest in the issues of the day that were effecting the canals. The most active periods for evaluation and change, has always been just prior, during and shortly after the two world wars. It should be remembered that between the wars the ownership of some of the canals changed hands as the railway companies bought up the waterways to get reduce competition. What is not clear is the effect this early form of asset stripping had on the viability of the inland waterways. Its good to take a look back at what people were saying and doing in the past. Most surprising of all are some of the problems that beset the canals back then - are still prevalent today. Reading old newspapers can throw up some rather interesting stories. Here is what we would call today a public interest story.

Caveat: Some of the articles are difficult to read and even using modern electronic  scanning and text conversion methods. The odd punctuation, word or character may have been transcribed in error. 

Barrier Miner
Thursday 28 February 1952

FEW BARGEES IN BRITAIN NOW

LONDON, The older generation of bargees who man the small narrow craft which ply on Britain's inland waterways are diminishing and no one is taking their place. Faced with a serious shortage, of recruits for work on barges, British transport officials are beginning to wonder from where the next generation of bargees will corm

The shortage is particularly in long distance craft, on which a trip may last a week or more. A transport official said: "Once it was the rule of sons to follow fathers, but the younger men prefer regular jobs ashore." The 40 British transport barges plying in the Leeds and Liverpool canals, are all large Diesel engined craft carrying about 5,000 tons of cargo a month. But there is only one cabin for the crew of two men, which ruled out what was still the practice of some midland canals whereby bargees could travel with their families aboard.

Time Travel

Most people know that I enjoy poking fun at CaRT, if I did not poke fun, then I would only end up crying into my beer.  So in the spirit of being a bit more upbeat, I decided to do some fractured motivational posters.  As a kid I had a few motorcycle posters on my bedroom wall. So I decided to hang a few inland waterways posters on my blog wall.

While continuing to protect the heritage of the canals. The Truss has devised a scheme to provide an experience that includes time travel. All the latest 200 year old methods of reactive maintenance will be used. When you walk the towpath you should set your watch back 200 years.  

Spring Summer Cruise 2014 ❻❾

Willington Winding Hole to  Mercia Marina

Overnight the weather was wet and windy.

Morning: Just a short cruise planned for today. So a leisurely start with a trip to the shops to top up the ships stores.

Afternoon: Early afternoon headed for Mercia where we made our way to our mooring pontoon and moored up. Lots of people around who made us feel quite welcome.

Evening: Went out for a meal to the Green Man in Willington.

Wildlife:
Birds: House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Rook, Jackdaw, Starling, Blackbird, Mallard, Mute Swan, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Robin, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Pied Wagtail, Coot, Waterhen, Grey Lag Goose, Canadian Goose, Kingfisher, Grey Heron, Wood Pigeon, Kestrel, Buzzard, Greater Black Backed Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Black Headed Gull, Swallow, House Martin, Tufted Duck and Jay.


Butterflies: Meadow Brown, Skipper, Comma, Red Admiral and Orange Tip 
Bats: Pipistrelle,  Daubentons,
Dragonflies: Banded Damselfly, Common Damselfly, Red Darter, Four Spot Chaser.

 

Today's Total.

Miles: 1.0
Locks: 0
Swing / Lift Bridges: 0
Tunnels: 0
Pump Outs: 0
Engine Hours: 1.0
Solar Panels: 44 Ah

 

Accumulated Total.

Miles: 2122.9
Locks: 1311
Swing / Lift Bridges: 299
Tunnels: 37
Pump Outs: 21
Engine Hours: 3065.6
Solar Panels: 18,000 Ah

The Manchester Canal

This is just one of a series of around fifty old newspaper articles that I have been reading. I have been researching from old newspapers and magazines the last 200 years or so of the inland waterways. With particular interest in the issues of the day that were effecting the canals. The most active periods for evaluation and change, has always been just prior, during and shortly after the two world wars. It should be remembered that between the wars the ownership of some of the canals changed hands as the railway companies bought up the waterways to get reduce competition. What is not clear is the effect this early form of asset stripping had on the viability of the inland waterways. Its good to take a look back at what people were saying and doing in the past. Most surprising of all are some of the problems that beset the canals back then - are still prevalent today. Reading old newspapers can throw up some rather interesting stories. Here is what we would call today a public interest story.

Caveat: Some of the articles are difficult to read and even using modern electronic  scanning and text conversion methods. The odd punctuation, word or character may have been transcribed in error. 

South Australian Register
Wednesday 23 May 1894

THE MANCHESTER CANAL

FORMALLY OPENED BY THE QUEEN. 

MANCHESTER GORGEOUSLY DECORATED. 

AN IMMENSE CONCOURSE OF SPECTATORS. 

KNIGHTHOODS FOR LOCAL MAYORS. 

London. May 22.

The great ceremony in connection with the formal opening of the Manchester Canal has been performed by Her Majesty the Queen. The city was gorgeously decorated and illuminated in honour of the unusual event. The Queen met with a most enthusiastic reception. Two million spectators lined eight miles of street, and as Her Majesty passed along the cheers were deafening. The Queen has conferred the honour of Knighthoods upon the Right Hon. Anthony Marshall, the Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester, and Mr. Alderman William Henry Bailey, Mayor of Salford.

The public opening of the canal which cements the great manufacturing city of Manchester with the sea took place on January 1, but the ceremonial opening was postponed till after Easter to allow of the Queen being present, and in order to assure fine weather for the keeping of high holiday. The length of the Ship Canal is thirty-five and a half miles. Its entrance from the tideway is at Eatham, six miles above Liverpool. The capital account of the Company now stands at £15,000,000. 

Referring to the opening day the Daily News wrote: ''Manchester has sprung at one bound into the position of a port, and no shipping notice seems complete which does not promise uninterrupted communication between the most distant cotton fields on the face of the globe and the cotton-mills. Liverpool levied it heavy rate for the right of entry of which, till yesterday, it enjoyed an absolute monopoly, and bowed no disposition to compromise or arrange. The scheme of the canal was forced upon Manchester in self-defence, and from the first it was met with the most determined opposition of the threatened Port."

The most telling demonstration will now be found in the history of this canal. Such a history would afford a wonderful example of the growth of a great scheme. As the canal now stands those who at first planned it would recognise but few features of the original design. It was at first to be a tidal waterway, running without a change of level from the sea to the inland city. That idea had to be abandoned at Manchester as at Panama. Manchester is on a hill as compared with Liverpool, and the sea water would finally have found its own level at the bottom of a deep gully made with hands. 

Then came the plan of a canal with locks, now carried out. This would have been a vast enterprise if there had been no difficulties but those of nature to overcome. But adapted, as it had to be, to the claims of a thousand competing interests, it became bewildering, alike in its magnitude and its complexity of detail. The canal dodges in and out to find a way through a perfect network of vested interests. Sometimes it leaves them to the right, and sometimes to the left, and where neither course is practicable it boldly makes a dive for it, and comes up on the other side of the obstacle. It has not dared to enter, even the estuary, by a short cut. All this has consumed time as well as money, the feat of to-day is some two years late in making its appearance. As for the money, well, there was a time when sanguine people talked of a million or two as the total cost. Even in 1835, when the scheme had so far matured as to secure Parliamentary sanction, the outlay was estimated at but five millions and three-quarters all told. Fifteen millions is the full amount of the bill.

Program to point your TV antenna.

For any given location, there are two characteristics important for TV reception. The direction in which to point the aerial, known as 'azimuth' and the antenna polarity which is either horizontal or vertical.

There is a useful website for boaters wanting to point a TV antenna in the right direction. Its not a simple site to use but there is a good help file that will soon have you using the program. 

Transmitter Listing

The program uses Google Maps so that you can pinpoint exactly your location.

Google Map

Here in the example we are located on the Grand Union canal near Braunston Junction. You can use place names or post codes as well as satellite navigation coordinates.

Choose a Television Transmitter site from a list which is dependant upon your location. There are a number of options that you can use to select the transmitter and the program will list them in order of distance from your location. You can drag and drop the green pointer on the exact location of your boat.

The website is located here: Click Me

Watch Those USB Memory Sticks.

Those handy USB sticks we are all quite happy to pass around have just become a serious threat. We all know that these devices can store malware and infect any computer systems that they are plugged into. Not only that but the devices can even be infected by a being plugged into a computer. However, most people have anti-virus and other kinds of malware detection applications installed. 

The usual security software has previously detected infected devices when plugged into a computer. The new problem is being highlighted by researchers Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell. That there are malware applications on USB devices that your software won't be able to detect. Instead of infected files being stored on the USB stick its the firmware that controls how USB works, that is being changed to contain the malware. Antivirus and other malware programs can't detect the data exchange between the Computer USB port and the hardware meaning there is no way to detect this problem and no way to protect against it. 

However, more worryingly is that USB firmware can be re-written by an infected PC allowing the infection to spread without any way to stop it. USB speakers, mice, keyboards, etc. are all potential attack vectors now. 

Here are two articles for further reading.
http://www.wired.com/2014/07/usb-security/
http://gizmodo.com/usb-has-a-fundamental-security-flaw-that-you-cant-detec-1613833339

Spring Summer Cruise 2014 ❻❽

Swarkstone Lock to Willington Winding Hole

Overnight the weather was clear and cool. We had the stove lit overnight.

Morning: Time to turn around and head for our winter moorings. Still a couple of weeks to go before we are due to arrive. Said goodbye to the two amigos as they headed off north for the river Trent and a passage to Keadby then on to Doncaster. 

Afternoon: Arrived in Willington - first job was to fill up with water before mooring for the day. Kept the fire going very low just to keep the boat aired off.

Evening: Television and football highlights. 4-0 another good result for the reds.

Wildlife:
Birds: House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Rook, Blackbird, Mallard, Mute Swan, Greenfinch, Robin, Blue Tit, Pied Wagtail, Coot, Waterhen, Grey Lag Goose, Canadian Goose, Grey Heron, Wood Pigeon, Kestrel, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Black Headed Gull, Swallow and House Martin.

Wildlife: Butterflies: Meadow Brown, Skipper.
Bats: Pipistrelle.
Dragonflies: Four Spot Chaser.

 

Today's Total.

Miles: 5.4
Locks: 1
Swing / Lift Bridges: 0
Tunnels: 0
Pump Outs: 0
Engine Hours: 6.5
Solar Panels: 57 Ah

 

Accumulated Total.

Miles: 2121.9
Locks: 1311
Swing / Lift Bridges: 299
Tunnels: 37
Pump Outs: 21
Engine Hours: 3064.6
Solar Panels: 17956 Ah

The Accident of Life

This is just one of a series of around fifty old newspaper articles that I have been reading. I have been researching from old newspapers and magazines the last 200 years or so of the inland waterways. With particular interest in the issues of the day that were effecting the canals. The most active periods for evaluation and change, has always been just prior, during and shortly after the two world wars. It should be remembered that between the wars the ownership of some of the canals changed hands as the railway companies bought up the waterways to get reduce competition. What is not clear is the effect this early form of asset stripping had on the viability of the inland waterways. Its good to take a look back at what people were saying and doing in the past. Most surprising of all are some of the problems that beset the canals back then - are still prevalent today. Reading old newspapers can throw up some rather interesting stories. Here is what we would call today a public interest story.

Caveat: Some of the articles are difficult to read and even using modern electronic  scanning and text conversion methods. The odd punctuation, word or character may have been transcribed in error. 

Kalgoorlie Miner
Thursday 30 April 1903

A ROMANCE OF THE PEERAGE.

THE ACCIDENT OF LIFE.

A hundred years ago on Sunday the 8th April 1803. There died at Bridgewater House, St. James England, Francis Egerton, third and last Duke of Bridgewater. A large portion of his magnificent possessions he left without a single condition of entail.

Built for some reason, then more or less inscrutable, he controlled to trustees for a period of five score years for the benefit of his grand nephew, Lord Francis Leverson Gower, afterwards the first Earl of Ellesmere, and his heirs, the vast system of inland waterways and colliery undertakings which he had set up in Lancashire. Thus there came into being the famous Bridgewater trust, which for a century has exemplified the power of the 'dead hand', in the count Palatine. It is the trust which has now come to an end. The day of its expiry being in the eyes of the law a dies non. It was on the 9th that the present Earl of Ellesmere, the third holder of the title, entered into corporeal possession of the trust property of which he and his predecessors have long enjoyed the income. 

The story of the Bridgewater trust is a story of romance, of which probably the best and truest account was given by the first Earl of Ellesmere I in the Quarterly Review of as far back as March, 1844. He tells us that his benefactor, born in 1736. lost his father at the age of 11 and that his education was neglected. At 17 his guardians sent him to make a tour of Europe. It has been suggested that in Italy and in Holland the young Duke of Bridgewater became fascinated, with the idea of canal construction. That scorns doubt as events, the 'Racing Calendar' shows that from 1756 to 1770 he kept racehorses, and for some time had a house at Newmarket. Once, he rode a race in Trentcham Park against a jockey of the Royal blood the Duke of Cumberland. But what the first Lord Ellesmere calls an accident had a share in finally shaping the Duke's career.



A disappointment in love alienated him from what is called the world. He fell in love with one of the beautiful Miss Gunning's as they are always spoken of. Elizabeth, then the widow of the Duke of Hamilton. She refused his request to give up the acquaintance of her sister, Lady Coventry, as to whose reputation unkind things had been said, and so the match was broken off. The Duke thereupon abandoned society and is said never afterwards to have spoken to another woman in the language of gallantry. A Roman Catholic might have mastery, tenanted a cell, and died a saint. The Duke, at the age of 22 betook himself to his Lancashire estates, made Brindley his confessor and died a benefactor to commerce, manufactures and mankind. 

If the Duke, had become the husband of the most beautiful woman of the day he might, indeed, have become the father of a race of egotism, but not of an Inland navigation. Thus freely writes his biographer, summing up in a few words the life story of the Duke of Bridgewater. He fixed his residence in the coalfields at Worsley, and on the confines of Chat Moss. In person large and unwieldy, careless of dress, and invariably wearing a brown suit, in something of the cut of Dr. Johnson he lived a life devoted solely to the construction of canals and the development of collieries. He talked only of canals, but he smoked more than he talked, and every five minutes, it is said he rushed out of the room to look at the barometer. So much capital did his schemes involve that at one time he reduced his personal expenses to £400 a year, which sufficed, nevertheless, to cover a groom and a couple of horses. But this was not the lowest point which the duke's fortunes reached. At one period, it is stated, his credit was so low that his bill for £500 could scarcely be cashed in Liverpool and on occasion money had to be borrowed from local farmers.



There came, however, a turn in the tide, and the duke 'began to reap the fruits of perseverance and sacrifice. Between 1738 and 1771 he bad constructed no fewer than 42 miles of canals, connecting the Worsley coalfield first with Manchester and then with Liverpool. Cheaper transport assisted largely in the development of his collieries, and he also employed his canals for passenger conveyance, unsuccessfully introducing the paddle wheel for that purpose for the screw propeller had not yet been invented. It is stated that the Duke spent £220,000 on canals and that the annual revenue which they ultimately yielded him reached £8o,ooo. It be came a case of the Duke's horses, the Duke's boats, the Duke's coals everything, in fact, was the Duke's in the district, and the Bridgewater trust, as it happened, was destined to keep the Duke's name alive for a full 100 years after his death. 

Why however, was the trust created? The first Lord Ellesmere throws same light on this, problem. When things were beginning to look hopeful Lord Kenyon congratulated the Duke of Bridgewater. Yes, replied the Duke we shall, do well enough if we can keep clear of those tram roads. From which it may be inferred that he was acute enough, to see that there might, in the shape of railways, come a rival to the liquid highway. It was this anticipation, according to Lord Ellesmere, which led to the extreme anxiety of the Duke to earn power beyond the grave, and to the creation of the trust which has just expired. His sole object, says his biographer, was to secure to the public the continuance in perpetuity, as far as human things can be perpetual, of the advantage of his undertakings. 

It is a curious thing that the very steps which the Duke took to avoid a dreaded contingency had the effect of accelerating instead of retarding the introduction of those tram roads. Lord Ellesmere admits in 1844 that the irresponsible power exercised with reference to the public in the management, of the Bridgewater lines of navigation helped towards a crisis which might have been delayed. In spite of railways, however, the trust has been carried out, and today Barton Aqueduct by which the Duke of Bridgewater carried his canal across the River Irwell stands, a striking monument to his sagacity, and enterprise. A canal aqueduct in England and it looked like proving an insurmountable obstacle to the Manchester Ship Canal, which in 1887 acquired the Bridgewater undertaking of £1.710,000. What, however was done was to make a swing bridge of part of the aqueduct, so that when vessels, require to pass along the ship canal portion, the canal overhead moves aside. Thus the first fixed canal aqueduct became, after 136 years, the first swing canal aqueduct. Tram roads in the shape of lines of railway and of electric cars have come in spite of all the help which the conveyancing lawyers lent the Duke of Bridgewater in his desire to prevent their advent, but, as history has worked out, it was reserved for the Manchester Ship Canal to develop and extend those ideas of canalisation to which, more than a century, before, the great Duke had given a first and powerful impetus.— London Daily Telegraph.