There is always a price to pay for early adoption. Back in the 1600's the canals were quite capable of out performing a horse and cart in terms of tons moved , so they were built more according to the smallest size that could fit boats that carried a reasonable amount. And as we got into the Industrial Revolution we made canals that went up hills to stupid places, and some of them didnt have decent water supplies. Later canals were larger - in the case of the Netherlands, theres a big river trying to fill the flat land up with water so if you dig a big channel it just stays full of water , and weirs and locks are rarer. I still think the Grand Contour Canal should be built - a canal capable of carrying quite large vessels, that runs along a contour without locks at about 300 feet above sea level down the UK from the wetter north to the south. Used for transport and moving water . Entrance and exit via boat lifts.
Persuade people that instead of riding their cycles along the towpath, they should get out their tyre pumps and a length of perforated hose and spend half an hour oxygenating the water in the stretch of canal they want to cycle along.
That's coz you're a southerner, it's over populated and you're all greedy enough to think the answer is to nick Northern water. Why not just move industry, people and jobs where there's loads of room and lots of water.
No we want to nick sunlight as electric power from Morocco and water from up north where it runs out of disused mines by itself or so we are told. Only carrying on the tradition of Birmingham controlling big chunks of Wales for water.
It's quite a quiet canal. I saw lots of dead fish just round the corner just before Lyon's boatyard - really sad.
Only yesterday, a friend of mine,who does that paddle boarding malarkey, accidentally misjudged where he was due to the sun on the river, caught his arm on a branch, then fell off. Badly gashing his leg on a Sainsbury’s shopping trolley that someone had chucked in.
Nasty... You never know whats below the water, Why people have to put trolleys in rivers is it ritual
I hit something underwater by a bridge a few days ago. Whatever it was was solid enoug to stop the boat dead and thrown it sideways I reported it and was able to creep by on the opposite side without incident. Unfortunately muppets can Chuck stuff out of their cars over a bridge. At least we weren’t holed.
On the old now dry Bude canal i read that two men would manually sythe the banks from Bude to near Launceston constantly back and forth ...talk about lower back pain . But maybe some 12% cider swilled down at every wharf would help
Think it was more the fact that canals early built ones were dug out manually and if it worked commercially why would you build them wider with extra cost . Some canals ..well the one near us was converted to rail why not ..level just needed to pile in the hardcore .
Sure, but other countries managed to build better ones that are still in use today. We have a weird view of ourselves in blighty where we think we're the tops but a quick trip around europe shows very obviously that throughout history we've really been the Marmitety bit at the bottom of the garden. Architecture, general investment in the future - we're poor cousins really. A lot of what we did have that was "nice" we knocked down in the 60's and replaced with concrete. Look at our town/city centres and compare to say Belgium. What a dump we live in... but it's my dump. We did ok for a while stealing around the world. Maybe not so much point investing if you can just enslave people and nick stuff.
Coventry and Plymouth have both spent considerable money on eradicating the terrible job done in the concrety 60,s . One of the biggest mistakes for the rail system to decline was when they nationalised the road haulage and they did not work road and rail together making use of both of there advantages . Haulage took off cars took off ...Hence .
On the greasing of the locks I wonder if they have considered wool fat (lanolin grease) naturally occurring and farmers are having to pay to dispose of fleeces come sheering time So they could be put to good use.
You wonder if some of these things are real or if they happily jump at any excuse not to maintain things. My canal is shut. A lock gate is broken. They spent months working on the lock last year but now it's contractors, they just do what's agreed and other problems they see have to go round the merry-go-round of site visits, agreements, quoting, some engineers approving it, all paper stuff and Jollies that take too long and waste money. Old days - "That's broken too guv" " Best fix it now while you're here with the lock empty then". "Righto". Everything from one budget, no contractors, skilled knowledgeable people who did actually care about and love the canals - that's why they did the job. They've left in disgust at the way it's all being allowed to decay deliberately to a point of only fixing things when they get really bad. That's policy - that was what the government agreed they should do. I will find the docs when I can be bothered, it's quite shocking. Meanwhile around the country various fantastic charitable/voluntary organisations are still renovating canals and handing them over to CRT to operate. You wonder why they bother if they can't keep what's there in decent order. Blind hope for the future?
An interesting canal system was the Bude canal . The boats had 3 wheels fitted underneath ..iron ones one at the front pointed section and 2 at the rear ,they were not massive boats . As the canal was first started to be manually dug out in 1819, tunnelling and cutting would have been tough . There answer was to have incline winches too winch the boats on a ramp and back down into the canal hence the wheels . The canal was never actually completed fully ...there intension was to get to the Tamar cutting out ship journey around the Cornish peninsular along with it's notorious hazards . Sadly it only got about 3 miles off Launceston at Druxton Wharf . The new building of the railways put pay to its completion . What throws people out when they drive through Holsworthy usually knowing nothing of the canals existence , the sign that still says ' Welcome to the Port of Holsworthy ' when its about 15 miles from the sea . An interesting small book on the Bude canal by Joan Rendell is very informative .
There's a bike in the canal just after The Drawbridge pub. Good news though, saw hundreds of fish between there and The Bluebell pub. I made it up to Hockley Heath but had to pull a couple of bramble thorns out if my left hand - you're right about the overgrown towpaths
