magpie patrick

This has puzzled me too - either the Usk has enough water or it hasn't. Paying to take it out ain't going to change that. That's not the difference, the change is that historic abstraction rights have been withdrawn - CRT are a navigation authority but navigation authorities are losing their grandfather rights. That said, NRW do seem to have it in for canals - I'm getting some "interesting" answers elsewhere on other canals too....

It's been held up with steel props for a long time, I guess since before the mill closed as the weight of traffic over it after that would be minimal. The contractors have recently taken quite a lot of heavy plant over it to work on the main site and to clear the breach site from below (doing it from above would carry a high risk of an unconventional approach to clearance with the machine tumbling down the hillside carrying all before it... ) - In theory the old brodge is being retained as part of the planning consent, and it won't carry any vehicle traffic once the new bridge can carry plant, but looking at it's condition today I did wonder if it was going to survive.

Some of you may recall I gave evidence at a public inquiry that led to a developer getting consent for housing on condition that they repaired the Creams Mill breach on the Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal - well today I've been back ostensibly to assess potential for further work but I took a look at the works on the dry section. first, this is the breach, now largely cleared of vegetation and looking more like how I remember it when I saw it as a teenager Next, a few metres away - this is how close the restorers have got - photo taken from the breach site, you can see the path os still in the canal bed but the developers plant is almost in touching distance Third, channel repairs ongoing between the breach and Mytham Road Next, Mytham Road Bridge - this is the bridge that was there when the canal closed, the highway levels are wrong for the development so a new bridge is being built alongside For reasons I don't fully understand this picture of the new bridge comes out upside down no matter what I do with it! I'll try and edit it later. (Now corrected) The new length will not, for the moment, be connected to the canal either side even though the gap will be closed. At one end only a wall (the existing brick wall dam) will separate the waters, at the other only a few metres. The length will be maintained by a management company set up to look after all the open space on the development (and there's a lot of it including a wooded country park),

And by coincidence, last night at the local open floor folk club my folk buddy lent me this...

Ambitious, even in one's head - I look forward to updates from the Sea of Tranquility and the canals of Mars

Noted - music now on order, thanks

There is useful information on the "visit Norway" website but whilst there are passenger boats and information for taking your own boat there is none for self drive hire boats. That doesn't mean they don't exist as these websites usually want a commission that a small operator may prefer not to pay. I've never been but looking at the website i think this may join the lengthening bucket list Visit Norway Telemark Canal

Closest I can get to how the locals pronounce (I used to be one) it is unusbuthlog, but welsh dipthings don't transfer very well, and as has been said, regional variations mean that anyone who doesn't live in the Neath Valley might get it wrong. Not that English has regional variations of course...

Similar measures were required on the Neath Canal after contaminated mine waste ended up in it - a clean up was necessary as industry relied on the water supply, although for a couple of years they managed with water pumped out of the river. Incidentally, the water supply for the canal came from the closed mines, the filtration system failed The clean up money came from the EU, who even threw in a new aqueduct at Ynysbwllog - the lack of EU money is only one of many changes since then. The industry has gone, and if it were still there I suspect Natural Resources Wales would shout very loud about abstraction from the river now. Worth noting that this contamination makes it difficult to fill the canal in as well, and there will be concerns as the canal is part of the land drainage system - where does the water go when it leaves the canal? in the end, however expensive, the cheapest solution may be to clean it up.

A song butchered by a record company! The opening lines should be... There's no better place than a sailin' ship to get an education, You learn how to tar the ratlines down and drink up your rum ration. But when Harry Belafonte recorded it the song was too long and his record label told him to drop all the A lines leaving only the B lines - the Beach boys then copied that version, Tom Lewis covers it

Not only would I recognise it but it is something I recommend where, for whatever reason, full restoration is impractical.

I've never heard that one but for abandoned canals it is very true, you either restore them or they disappear from the map altogether.