Bill P

Random odd question. What is the height and width of your aft access hatch and / or side hatch?

Seeing reports on Facebook of people having their ropes and chains stolen and boat set adrift. Suspected to be another boater(!!).

Just bought it

How do you mean 'rocky'? Is that a classic understatement?

I was actually born on Frog Island. I'm not sure if that is a claim to fame or not.... Old as I am, I don't quite remember the canal.

I wondered if anyone has experience of using Irish waterways? Has anyone gone to length of transporting their boat to Ireland?! Probably best not to attempt a crossing of the Irish Sea. More generally, I have been looking at the restoration projects going on in the North such as the Ulster Canal. There is a real gem coming along and what appears to be a concerted effort to join Lough Neagh and Lough Erne and relink Ulster to the Shannon waterways. A 600 mile journey through Ireland - what's not to like? What surprises me is that the level of local interest in these projects seems to be so relatively small. Maybe I'm wrong but the potential doesn't seem to have caught local imagination and attracted enthusiasts in the way that it does in Britain.

Apparently, the best preserved and most original remnant is in gardens adjacent to Manor Road, South Norwood. The gardens behind the working men's club there are reported to be recognisably a canal bed but I haven't seen that myself.

Croydon canal at Norwood, 1828 At Norwood it followed a loop that almost enclosed an area of land which, locally, became known as Frog Island. My grandmother lived in what was once a canal side cottage there. There is still a large lake in South Norwood which was a feeder reservoir.