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As far as I am concerned, it was well up to Chanel 5 standards in that for the majority it was watchable, somewhat entertaining, but very shallow and obviously made down to a budget. Just a typical Chanel 5 offering.

I let em all live in my garden. Its fabulous. We get the occasional rat who I think ,lives next door but pops over for a munch sometimes. We have lovely squirrels and indeed are oft visited by foxes and most nights a couple of badgers. All caught many times by our Trail cam. The squirrels sit over our heads in the trees and drop nut shells on us when sat out in late summer. We have slow worms as our garden adjoins the Ceredigion slow worm sanctuary lol. No hedgehogs as yet but working on that.

Ahhh, interesting mate - and that makes total sense! Will have a good nosy about tomorrow when not under the influence and hopefully be able to suss out! thank you Thank you so much everyone again! I’ve just had a good nosy and found a loose wire in the changeover switch! I’ve just re-attached and I now have a working travel pack! can’t tell you how delighted I am, genuinely absolutely made up and grateful to you all! thank you all for diagnosing!

Mooring at hartshill for a change walked up to the malt shovel what a great pub always gone passed here cause atherstone etc is soo close missed a gem ,top class beer and good food reasonable price . Top stop this trip ...

Yeah I know you're probably right. Sometimes it's helpful to be told what you already know though 😆

The Caldon is probably my favourite canal. There is something fascinating about knowing how industrial it was and what it looks like now. We found moorings overnight in the park to be fine - quiet and the locals were friendly. I always think it is a good sign when families are out enjoying the area and that was very much the case. The Black Lion is one of my favourites - not been since the fire though. The other feature which may be of interest is that the largest surviving elm tree I am aware of is very near the junction with the Leek branch. Alec

He might have done, but the colours I used on Halsall worked perfectly, and matched Stanton.... which isnt in Brian's fleet.

As Matty said, and the closer you get to Froghall the better it gets In the 1960s BW offered to maintain and repair the canal as far as Hazlehurst locks on condition the canal society drop their campaign for restoration to Froghall - Ben Fradley, the then chairman of the canal society, is alleged to have replied "we are not being shown to the garden gate and then being barred from entering the garden"

I would suggest that asking a poster that we have no idea of their practical abilities or the design of their boat to look behind a control panel would not be the first thing to do, because in many cases that involves taking the panel out of the boat and that can, all too easily, lead to connections being pulled off. If it is easy to get at then fine, but if not, let's get the results of what I said before going any further.

Looking at it with google lens this one turns up

Thank you for reporting back from me as well. It helps everyone learn.

That was exactly my point -- people on here complaining about either detail errors or it being "dumbed-down" are entirely missing the point, which is that *nobody* on CWDF is the intended audience... 😉 The same is true for pretty much any documentary on TV, to anyone knowledgeable about the field (0.01% of the audience?) they almost always gloss over the detail (or get it wrong) and present an over-simplified picture -- and this is true regardless of the subject, because broadcasting is aimed at the wider audience, the fact that the name includes "broad" should be a clue... 🙂 If you want something detailed and accurate, read a specialist book (or online articles) on the subject written by an expert in their field and targeted at a knowledgeable and interested (but small!) audience -- or discuss the subject on a forum fill of similarly interested people... 😉

Ring Ed Shiers on 07922 163072 A first class no nonsense bloke. What he doesn't know about the Travel power isn't worth knowing

There has been some discussion about extending the Gold licence to cover MLC waterways in 2024. I can now offer you three answers to this question. The first two come from a recent CRT document https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/document/zdk_NUte4QiM2pDqr6NwrQ/Kfb8qgg0sBW1XUtFEDSrML23fOmR200w59ehZl0-99k/aHR0cHM6Ly9jcnRwcm9kY21zdWtzMDEuYmxvYi5jb3JlLndpbmRvd3MubmV0L2RvY3VtZW50Lw/018c8bd8-b872-7368-9554-edb5960fb204.pdf It says the licence covers only EA and CRT waterways (at the top) But it has the ML on the list of waterways at the end. (I know the licencing system has allowed you to declare a home mooring on the MLC for a while now.) But the third comes from the MLC https://middlelevel.gov.uk/navigation/licensing/ 3. This says “If you hold a CRT Gold Licence you will either need an Anglian Pass or Middle Level visitor licence to visit our waterways. The Gold Licence arrangements are a partnership between the CRT and the Environment Agency and it has been concluded that there is insufficient demand to justify changes in IT systems and legal agreements to include the Middle Level Commissioners within the formal arrangements. However, we are awaiting (as of March 2024) a formal offer from the Environment Agency to provide income from those CRT Gold Licence holders who have their home mooring as ‘Middle Levels’ within their CRT online account details. We can then invest this income within the Middle Level system alongside other licencing income. In anticipation of this offer from the Environment Agency, if you are a CRT Gold Licence holder and the Middle Level is your home mooring then you need to ensure your details within the CRT system are correct to be considered as licenced on our waterways. We will need to review the situation if the Environment Agency’s offer does not materialise by the end of the 2024 boating season.” Rather confusing! I think I believe the third statement. That means visitors will need either an Anglian Pass or visitor licences to cross the Middle Level. (This is of course impossible at the moment due to stoppages and flooding on the Nene, and a large lump of silt at Salters Lode). Another plug for the more general guidance here: https://goba.org.uk/a-guide-for-visitors-to-the-east/

Sorry to tell you, but this looks like the result of insufficient preparation before painting. You really do have to remove as much rust as you can before applying rust converters like vactan. Even so these are simply a second best solution to completely cleaning the steel. Grit blasting is best, but completely impractical for a DIYer. Next best would be needle gunning. You can hire a needle gun and compressor, or maybe an electric one (probably 110V so you need to hire a transformer as well), but the work is noisy and dirty so not necessarily something you will be allowed to do on your mooring. Otherwise it's down to grinding with a flap wheel in an angle grinder, which will clean off the metal surface, together with use of a wire brush on an angle grinder to try and clean out the pits. Maybe also a hammer and pointed chisel in the pits. After that use a rust converter. I would also think a coat of decent primer under the bilge paint, rather than just relying on the vactan.