booke23

I think travel on the A55 to get to Holyhead is permitted, however travel on the A5 wasn't mentioned in the official guidance.

He’s the only one worth watching IMO.

Baddiley 1 on the LLangollen canal! Went through there a month or so ago!

Good spot. You could be right. The footage was recorded from a tv broadcast some time ago. The continuity announcer said it was a series from 1976. However other sources on the internet list it as 1978. One thing is certain......it was not later than 1979 as that is when Chas sold Chiltern.

Oh wow.......what a coincidence. My very first experience on the canals was a one week hire of Silmaril back in 2007, up the Llangollen and back. My profile Pic is her at dawn on the 2nd day of the hire. I have very fond memories of that boat and trip. That's a great paint job. She looks fantastic. Do you own her? Thank you for posting!

Was that Silmaril?

He has! He converted Dorset to a liveaboard in the 1980's and still lives on her to this day.

I guess they rebuilt it to original spec! I assume Spey is a classic working type boat? I've been through with a 6'10" boat before and after they rebuilt it with no trouble.

Indeed. Chas mentions on a facebook post about this film that it was really pushing the limits on width and depth taking Chiltern up the Llangollen.....an exciting challenge! Demonstrated by running hard aground at the entrance to the feeder at Trevor and having to remove ballast. The feeder to Llangollen and the canal before the Pontcysyllte aqueduct was completely rebuilt in the 1980's with concrete, due to a number of serious breaches over the years, so is no longer shallow! The first lock at Hurleston only got tighter as the years passed due to the walls shifting. It was completely rebuilt last winter (at a cost of over £1 million) so it's ok now. Timelapse of the rebuild here:

This is very interesting, thank you for the insight. I know what you mean about lock ladders. With all the slime that grows on them they look like a liability if you were climbing them regularly.

Doh, of course! I'd forgotten about that technique. I've even seen people single handing do this......step off the boat with the centre line as they enter the lock. Usually with the boat in neutral and let it coast in.

I hadn't even noticed the lack of ladders! I suppose to single hand the old boatmen would carry their own ladder.....or maybe climb up the top gate. Or use the gangplank from the cratch?

They hired a helicopter, removed a side door and the camera man would have been hanging out of it for the aerial shots! In those days I guess budgets for producing local TV documentary programs were quite large, as even before the advent of drones you tended not to see this in modern regional TV programs! In the credits the helicopter pilot was Mike Smith, who flew the comms helicopter in Treasure Hunt in the 1980's. Ha ha yes! I guess Chas had to go back and forward across the aquaduct a few times to get all the shots!

The very same! In fact when that film was made he had already been in business for 4 years. Chiltern was one of his original camping boats.

I quite enjoyed this. https://youtu.be/yMHy2FkagGs

AFAIK Carbon Monoxide alarms have a life of 7 years. When you get to 7 years they alarm or beep to tell you. There might be an end of life date on it somewhere.

We went from Beeston wharf to Hurleston and back as part of a one week hire along the Llangollen canal on the 2nd week of August this year. There were no queues although this section is all double width locks (except Beeston iron lock where it's one at a time due to lock distortion). The only busy bit we encountered on the Shropshire union was at Barbridge Junction......both times we went through there were 5-6 boats converging all wanting to go in different directions, but it didn't result in much of a delay. As mentioned above there is little traffic from late afternoon onwards. So I'd say, no is isn't too busy

That’s interesting. I see the 1904 guide is still readily available.....I might treat myself!

Yes, Nicholsons old format was much better than their current format.

Not at all. I dare say a canal guide from the 1800's (if such a thing exists) would be good enough for navigation. In the case of the LLangollen canal, the section around Froncysyllte and the Trevor to Llangollen section was completely rebulit in the 1980's and the mooring basin in Llangollen was built in 2004......certainly worth knowing about that! It's the additional information that dates.....pubs, shops etc. But we use google maps for that these days anyway.

Just thought I'd update the above as I have now used both in anger. I stand by all of what I said above, except the Nicholsons guide had quite a few errors. Not just silly errors but I noticed a winding hole that wasn't marked on the Nicholsons which is pretty bad. Pearsons is definitely easier to use/read on the move, just wish it was ring bound. So it's Pearsons for me from now on!

I have no information about the routes from Rugby. Last week I did the Llangollen canal (busiest canal in the country)........my 3rd time on there and it was certainly busier than previous trips. Every single hire boat is out and additionally day boats seem fully booked too. However each night I was easily able to moor up by myself in the countryside and the extra traffic didn't impact on travel times much.......I still did the whole length and back comfortably in 6 days, which is in the ball park of how long it took me on previous trips. The main snag was Grindley Brook (3 locks and a triple staircase lock) 2hrs going up (normal) and 4hrs going down. The Shropshire Union was much busier than normal, and each time I came through Barbridge Junction it was carnage!

Funnily I just have gone through the same dilemma for an upcoming trip on the Llangollen canal! I have done this trip a few times and have a Waterways World Guide to the Llangollen from 2005. It is very good but sadly not produced any more and getting quite out of date so thought I should replace it. I read all the reviews on both Pearsons and Nicholsons and thought the Nicholsons sounded best, so I bought it. It appeared very good on first glance, however there were a few things that bothered me. Firstly they use OS 1:25000 maps.......great you might think. But they use a custom zoom so that the scale is actually 1:30000 in the guide. This makes the maps a touch on the small side and slightly hard to read compared to my old Waterways world guide. It is harder to spot Water points/winding holes/visitor moorings. So I bought the Pearsons guide as well! It maps are much clearer. Very easy to spot canal facilities and navigational hazards. Each map also has a cruising time at the top of the page, so you know how long it will take to travel that particular map.....very helpful. It's maps are always horozontal, i.e. the canal runs from left to right on the page no matter where North is. Some people don't like this and I can see why, however I don't mind as it does make the map very clear and easy to read. However it is dominated by long paragraphs of sometimes rambling text describing the history of the canal etc, which is nice to read, but I would rather a canal map be a bit more concise. It is also not ring bound so will be more of a pain to use on the move. So in summary I don't think either guide is perfect. If Pearsons ring bound their guides and cut out some of the text they would be much better and if Nicholsons made their map scale bigger and more easily readable they would be much better. On my next trip I will take all of them and see what works. I wish Waterways World still produced their guides as I still slightly prefer it!

Cornwall......maybe you could also consider mooring on the Gloucester and Sharpness (near Gloucester), or on the River Severn north of Gloucester.

Sounds like the OP doesn't want to live aboard, so should get away with a leisure mooring......are these very hard to find on the K & A too?