Peter X

I think the Croydon Canal was abandoned in 1836 by the railway company who'd bought it in order to use much of its land, for what is now called the "Overground" railway from West Croydon via Forest Hill to New Cross and beyond. Therefore not a "recent abandonment". A short section of the Croydon Canal, later lined with concrete not clay, still exists in Betts Park, Anerley, which someone could in theory float along in a rubber dinghy, something I'd like to see done. So I suppose it could be argued that it's not totally abandoned? It depends how you define that maybe?

When posting in the middle of the night or at any time, it's good to remember that the word I want is dark not dasrk. it's easy to perpetrate a typo at 02:50.

If out in the dasrk, or early in the day, e.g. before dawn, it's good to keep a proper lookout ahead. Some rowers like to get out early, but mostly they carry the right lights and move as appropriate. I remember doing part of the tidal Thames (Eel Pie island down to Brentford) as crew, not steering myself but just assisting the captain, early one October ,morning, might have been 2018, and seeing various rowers out, some in eights!

MtB, didn't the Beatles break up in about 1970? But they all went on to make other music separately,of variable quality. I've never forgiven Paul McCartney for Mull of Kintyre and one or two other terrible things he did, but Band on the run was OK. Likewise John Lennon's output in the 1970s was variable, some of it tedious and some very good. I always thought Imagine was over-idealistic, but I heard "Starting Over" on a radio the other day and was reminded how much I liked it. I think George and Ringo did some of their best post-Beatles work after the 1970s, with the Travelling Wilburys and Thomas the Tank Engine respectively. At university (Oxford) in the 1970s I knew a medical student who maybe should have studied music more; he had a habit of playing the fiddle rather badly!

Excessively bright headlights in tunnels are sometimes a problem, but in my experience a rare one. Most boaters do seem to understand what's sensible and get things right. Once they've experienced facing an oncoming boat with too bright a light a few times, the cogs go round in the brain and they get their act together! I've had the odd occasion when I've been on a boat that struggled to show enough light! The solution has sometimes been to use my magnetic "Blitzwolf" LED torch with several brightness settings, which I usually take when I go boating; it can be placed on any flat steel surface e.g. a boat roof, and it's handy for moving around a boat or walking along a towpath in the dark too. On one occasion, crewing for someone off the forum a few years ago, the boat's poor electrics and the absence of my torch meant the answer was to kind of hotwire the headlamp to a dodgy old battery placed in the cratch, which had just enough power left in it to produce a weak light all the way through Blisworth!

As I think the man falling in was staged, I don't suppose the camera operator's help was needed at all here. I've never fallen in to a canal, though I did dangle one foot in somewhere (maybe the GU or wouth Oxford I think it was) a couple of years ago, and had one leg in the Wey in October 2019 having slipped while crossing a wet top gate plank. I grabbed the plank with my arms as I fell, then was hauled back up by another member of our crew. I just carried on steering the butty afterwards, dripping a lot of water from my trousers into the well deck, and slowly drying out and warming up because steering when being towed (part loaded) on a line down a river can be quite energetic.. Some things I think the fireman could have usefully added; If you fall into a lock, there's a big danger of hitting the concrete cill or a boat as you go down and being injured and in the water! Very dangerous, try not to do it! Some locks are deep and thus more hazardous. Having fallen into a lock, probably try to reach the ladder if any. In a river, and sometimes in a canal if there's a lot of water coming at you from a bywash for exaple, beware of getting swept away by a current. Anyway, if there are moving boats about, shout to get them to keep clear. You don't want to get run over, especially if hit by a propellor. Also, while trying to stand up is good, some bank types will be much easier than others to get up unaided. Much of the K&A must be a goodp lace to fall in, because you could just scramble up the dense vegetation onto the towpath. I've seen that done when a man I crewed for (in 2015?) fell into the south Oxford near Kidlington. In many places, the easiest way to get out unaided would be up a slope onto land on the offside, sometimes into a field or the end of someone's garden, who might be a bit miffed about it, so do announce your presence if necessary... Some banks might be difficult to climb, e.g. where there's sharp edged piling beware of getting cut by it, barbed wire would be worse, and there can be an impossible wall of concrete or suchlike. Just use common sense. The man in the video would quite probably need help to get him out over that rather smooth stone edging.

(oops!) ...Various locks to get up from the Thames to its summit pound along the south side of Sydenham Hill, a reservoir or two to feed that (South Norwood Lake, near the top of the hill), and some locks down into Croydon. Plus some 15(?) miles of canal digging, and the basin at the end near the centre of Croydon. I'm not sure over its 27 years or so whether the investors got their money back, but maybe when the railway company came in with an offer in 1836 or so, they found it tempting. And I suppose the railway investors would have done well out of it. That was before the railway mania of the 1840s crashed the market.

I guess the Croydon Canal wasn't a bad idea in 1809, but it must have cost a lot to build. V

I know Woking a bit for various reasons. I lived in Frimley Green for a year or so in the 1970s and cycled there, and my daughter and her family lived in Woking for a few years more recently, and I've been there and back by boat from the Thames once a few years ago with the NBT. You could I suppose look at the canal where it runs close to the N side of the town centre, or find the nearest locks on it (where are they? I remember some between Woking and the junction with the Wey), and hang around there chatting to passing boaters (not many I suppose?).

Thanks mark99 and others who've said similar things elsewhere, I'm working on it.

Athy, It would appear that... Asupertamp might be a student of 1970s music. You just might have been at Huddersfield.... it has the HNC which I first went on in June/July 2019. There are other canals close to universities etc.

I'm back on the forums, and hoping to update my profile later today or over the coming days and weeks to allow for having had major surgery for a life-threatening condition on Wednesday 8th January 2020, and being not sure yet when I'll be out boating again, it could be a few months from now. Long live the Croydon Canal song! I have a friend who says he's got a recording of it., and hope to hear that sometime this month and be back to say a bit about it! Peter X

Good morning everyone, this is my first post on the forums since having major surgery on Wed. 8th January 2020 !!! This is still an interesting topic, as I would like to take part again one day in the BCN Challenge, having crewed on it first in 2016 with the NBT (Narrow Boat Trust) on Nuneaton and Brighton, then again in 2018 with member p6rob (I think? of the forums. To the best of my knowledge, the NBT are unlikely to take part this year but just might enter in the 2021 event, which would be our first appearance since 2016. I'm not sure when the NBT first entered it, probably some years before I first joined it in early 2016, but not before the NBT was founded in 1970! I'm not sure which year the BCN Challenge was first held in fact and would be interested to know. Does anyone know that please, and what year NBT first entered? I have one or two urgent matters to attend to today, but expect to be back on the forums later today to update my profile and post in one or two other topics. Until then, if anyone wishes to contact me, please send me a PM, to which I expect I can respond in due course. A few forum members know my phone numbers; please don't call me yet, not until I've had my next appointment with my consultant which is on the morning od Tuesday 21 st January 2020. Peter X !!!

Yes... I read that Frog island later got renamed Sunny Bank; For many years the X family (especially my father's parents) lived in a house in Anerley, up near Crystal Palace Station. By 1969 his sister had the house, then Bromley council compulsory purchased it, and my aunt bought a house in Sunny Bank with the proceeds, where my cousin now lives. Having grown up in Anerley and lived in or near it much of my life, I'm familiar with the remaining section of the canal in Betts Park. That would still be practical to navigate, just bring a light inflatable! But I doubt I'll live to see the canal restored all the way from West Croydon up to the Surrey Docks. If they ever do that it would be nice to restore the canals connecting to Peckham and Camberwell too. Nowadays Croydon has some famous singers, maybe Adele and Stormzy should record a mew version of that excellent song. It has great comic potential I reckon; maybe the lyricist in 1809 had their tongue firmly in cheek.

Effectively right I think, although the EA actually call it registration, not a licence. Area is beam x length. And a typical narrow boat counts as a "launch". Here is the link to the 2019 prices: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/river-thames-boat-registration-charges/river-thames-boat-registration-charges-1-january-2019-to-31-december-2019 To get from Oxford to Lechlade and back I reckon the one week option is enough, or maybe the OP could buy a month and take their time.

There are a lot of places from which you could commute for a day into central London, some of them along the Grand Union, particularly the lower end of it in west London, so hang on to that dream chilli, it's kind of possible! For example, you could look around in the Midlands for a bargain boat that suits your needs, which you feel capable of buying and getting into shape, then slowly approach London in it. Do plan carefully. It'll be a learning curve, but could turn out well for you.