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I have spoken to Open Rights Group, and they are very interested in providing advice, some legal help and/or hosting the site to remove the hosting issue that Jim is contending with. I've e-mailed Jim (thanks G&F), and will put him in touch with the right people. If all else fails, I would be prepared to replicate Jim's work, and obtain the raw data afresh to build a new database.

Mike – “riparian” means “of the bank” or “water’s edge”. It derives from the Latin word “ripa” [describing the water edge of a river bank], as distinct from the “fundus” which is the river bed. The owner of the bank may or may not be owner of the fundus also, but neither ownership qualifies for ownership of the water flowing above/alongside the owned land – the water itself is common property of the people. Under English law, the rights to use the water even though not owned, does not attach to ownership of the river bed; the rights to use of the water attach to the owner of the bank only, regardless of whether he owns the riverbed or not – and where conflict arises, the riparian right trumps the fundus right. The nature of the right to make use of something that does not belong to you is described as a “usufructory” right, and in the case of waterways may be “perfect” or otherwise. The usual principle is that a riparian owner has rights to all and any uses of the water that do not adversely affect the equal rights of those neighbours above and below stream of him. A riparian owner has the right to have the water flow past his land undiminished in quantity or quality. Use of the water in a navigable stream for mooring boats is an example of a perfect usufruct, because it has no effect whatsoever on the flow or quality of water [providing pump-outs aren’t employed of course!] The example already quoted of rights to abstract water for irrigation is a riparian right often over-ridden by statute precisely because it is a far from “perfect” usufruct, and abuse of the right can lead to diminution of the equal rights of those downstream. So far as how all this affects EoG charges on artificial canals, it has really nothing to do with it other than in a negative sense – the BW argument for the right to charge relies, as Mayalld explains, on a claim to common law rights of ownership of the bed above which you float; but the common law right to use of the water, as explained above, does not reside in the bed owner; he has no right to bring an action for trespass unless and until there is interference with his soil [as e.g. in installing mooring apparatus in it]. Even then the common law right is immaterial, because a statutory body is not entitled to the common law rights of an ordinary person [corporate or otherwise]. As for the historic rights under the enabling Acts, they are far from limited; as BW explained when seeking their abolition in the 1990 Bill under Clause 27, they were & are too numerous for BW’s comfort. Nowadays they just rely on people’s ignorance. Then again, many Forum members would want to pay wrongfully extorted charges anyway, to avoid all accusations of being “free-loaders”, and to gain parity with those who pay BW/CART’s legitimate mooring fees where BW both own the offside bank and do have a statutory right to charge.

Would he be Timothy R Mountain, Age Guide: 50-54, who lives at the same Oxfordshire address as Neil Richard Fox, Anabelle L Fox and Fiona Elaine Mountain? Info from www.192.com. Buying some search credits will give the full address. Is he going to get them taken down?

What, because I gave an obviously hypothetical situation of what could happen in the future if people don't have respect for rules/laws. All I got in return was people claiming I was somebody else and assuming I was for 'snooping' and extreme evidence collecting. For me, I love the waterways to be a place where you can go out and people respect each other and the rules. I personally don't want boaters being suspicious of each other, GPS's fitted as standard and squadrons of paid staff being used to collect evidence. Trust me, I will have no pleasure in saying I told you so in a few years time. I would rather not.

why would you want to toil and knacker yourself manually pumping when you could fit an electric pump and take it easy ? I have only seen one person doing this, the look on his sweeting face said everything, i would never even consider it. If i did fit such equipment i would source a bombproof agricultural diaphram sludge pump, and avoid LeeSan type toys at all costs, you do not want to strip that pump and clear stoppages ever do you ?

careful, nicknorman will be in shortly to tell everyone off for using capitals or lower case where they should use the alternatives....AH instead of Ah!! Not sure but hamster may need a capital H or A too!!??

The problem was that the props caught on the sloping sides at sharp bends and then tried to wind the boat out sideways. There were around a dozen boats which used the system, and with Mr Barcroft coming from Newry, the Newry Canal was the main location, though they were also tried on the Grand Canal out of Dublin. The boat tried on the L&LC does seem to have been one of the Irish ones, so the question arises as to how they crossed the Irish Sea. One trip boat, based at Newry and used on tidal waters, did use the system, so perhaps it was better in deep water. I think the one illustrated has a horizontal diesel engine on deck, but others had steam engines, and Barcroft did produce a design for using electricity, with the electric motors directly coupled to thew props. He was into electricity as he built the Bessbrook and Newry electric tramway.

Vesta was frozen in at Ashwood for several weeks but because it was wrought iron it would still rock slightly while steel boats were trapped.I bored a hole in the ice at Ashwood and Diglis Basin Worcester and they were both 2ft 3inch thick.We built an igloo in the garden and the children played in it for some time but it gradually got smaller. In the December I drove all round Scandinavia on business and there was less snow than in England.There were drifts for weeks several feet deep and rock hard.