joflet

No shortage of water at the moment!

Major typo.... The Diggle Hotel near the start of the Stanedge Tunnel on the HNC has great staff, food and beer (lovely pint of Tiger Rut). Dog- and child-tolerant. On the Rochdale, Stubbing Wharf near Hebden Bridge offers equally good services. There are loads of others in Lancs/ W Yorks but I can't remember them clearly....

its

How bad would things have to be in someone's life that they would rather be behind bars? Btw it's definitely NOT Butlins as the Daily Vile etc would have us believe! Prisons are humiliating, degrading, soul-destroying and dangerous places.

As I said before, hugely salaried charity managers are a scandal. But I don't think charities have shareholders...

Other than a few rogue "charities", they exist to help the less fortunate, not to line the pockets of their shareholders.

Most charities exist to pick up the pieces after the ravages of a barely controlled free-market economy; on the frontline most are staffed by volunteers or poorly paid workers (I do take the point that there are a few scandalously highly paid employees in the higher echelons and in the ancillary services used by the larger charities). Most companies exist to maximise profits. The penal system does, in theory, and on paper, provide SOME rehabilitation and support for ex-offenders but it is pitiful and patchy at best. Provision is so poorly resourced that it can take months, sometime years for it to reach those who need it, so that prisoners serving short sentences are very rarely provided with access to the resources they need to help them stay out of trouble. On release they are discharged with a small amount of cash and the clothes they came in with. The State-provided services that used to support them have been cut to the bone and now face privatisation if they've not been sold off already. And we know the horrors that G4S and Serco have already wrought. To acknowledge the needs of ex-offenders for support, and to extend some sympathy for their plight is not to deny the gravity of their crimes nor to diminish the effects on their victims - as members of a civilised society we should consider the situation of all. Mind you, if it was my boat I'd want him hanged from the highest yardarm in the fleet. THAT's a kneejerk reaction!

Similar on the West of the Rochdale Summit; many pounds down by 2-3 feet or more. No obvious issues on the Eastern side though - waterfalls evident from the upside gates from Todmorden to Hebden Bridge yesterday!

It was the missing THE.

Hmmm... grammar AND spelling issues here: we aim to remove THE previous year's growth metres in the UK, not meters semicolon or full stop and new sentence needed between "progresses" and "however" "puncher" repair kit??? Signed, A Pedant.

i think the Stoke boatbuilding company was founded in the 1980s, so a bit late for this particular nb. I'm going to do a bit more googling re boatyards in Stoak, Cheshire...

He was very insistent that it was spelled that way! Said they were based in the general area of the NW Midlands/ S Cheshire. I'm wondering if there was a boatbuilder in the village known by a different name?

On one of my regular towpath tramps today I passed a narrowboat with a "for sale" notice in the window. It's a very nice-looking 35-footer with a rising bow line, clearly of some age but, I thought, worth a look. I had a chat with the owner who told me it was built in the 1970s by Stoak - I've had a bit of a google trawl but can only find references to the village of that name, nothing about a boatbuilder. Does anyone know anything about them? It's a bit smaller than what i'm looking for, but if it's a make with a good reputation it may be worth further investigation...

I've seen this one from the outside and had a nosy through the windows - looks to be basically a floating project with a bit of a kitchen & a woodburner; lots and lots and lots of work needed inside plus maybe replacement windows but according to the advert seems otherwise worth a look. Might be tempted myself...

Hi all, another boatless (for now) hopeful here! Sold the house following profound lifestyle change, been looking around for a good few months now and planning to sink (!) the equity into a tatty but sound narrowboat @ £15k ish... I know it's a tallish order but there seem to be a few possibles around at any given time, looking for something 35ft+ with a recent hull survey... I spent several years living in vans and trailers in the mid-late 90s so winters, roughing it, gen maintenance etc hold no fears! My nearest canals are the Huddersfield Narrow, Rochdale, Macc/Peak Forest, Ashton etc, all of which I've walked over the last year or so. The biggest issue seems to be finding affordable local moorings - I'd be a happy CCer but am tied to this area for at least a year or two. Money will be tight so something around £1k pa would be favourite, but of course all the best ones are taken with no sign of anyone moving any time soon... What I really need to do is look more closely at other people's boats, and talk to them about the reality of life on t' cut. This site is excellent, lots of useful advice plus a taste of some of the controversies (and sides taken) that narrowboating seems to generate! Reading on...