magpie patrick

Cover of a book published in 1966 - times have changed although I suspect it was a bit old hat even as s often the case, a book like this that was only intended as contemporary commentary at the time is now interesting for being exactly that. I presume Watney needed to boost flagging beer sales Apparently AP Herbert intruded! One chapter introduces the range of possible craft one might consider - are we as open to the small boat these days? I hope so but suspect not...

Ange - all Got into a care home, just 400 yards from my real home so very much in my community, after two weeks back in hospital with a lung infection! 😱 Herein lies the biggest risk, for 24 hours it was a bit touch and go, but then the antibiotics started to do their stuff, now back at care home. Have spent most of this week asleep. Further and hopefully final assessment in QEH Birmingham at the beginning of March. So still hangin in there! Thanks all

The problem is, Mark, that we don't reas the whole forum, there's far too much of it. We rely on reports, and they are inconsistent for a variety of reasons.. We also act only after consideration by at least three mods (except for egregious breaches where a post is so far outside the rules it needs a visa) so a report doesn't automatically result in action. As well as whether the report is valid we consider how egregious the breach is and the context

When the apocalypse of Iron Fire reached the Somerset Coal Canal in the 1890s, the grand master of Iron Fire, the Great Western Railway Company, dug holes in the bed to make sure the canal couldn't hold water. This wasn't entirely successful Whilst this was following some restoration works, no repairs had been made to the lining. Originally posted here Coal Canal old thread

With the kind of drift we're better known for, from blazing maintenance trains to canoes... Standedge fire BBC

Thanks Guys, added a couple including Through the French Canals, I can only cruise vicariously at the moment so that is what I will do! They are debating keeping me in to save on the hassle of another emergency call out! Last week my oxygen levels plummeted, my GP came round, took one look and called an ambulance. Advantage when the GP does it is they booked me into respiratory directly, so although I went through A&E there was no triage, and the ambulance service jumped to it

I have many canal books, in particular history ones, and doubtless could harbour many more. However I'm in hospital (again) and floor to ceiling book cases aren't going to happen - Kindle is king. So far I've found British Canals on Kindle - Joseph Boughey's latest reworking of the Charles Hadfield classic - does anyone know of any others? Historically interesting rather than necessarily pure canal history. Thank you all!

As a mod, may I suggest you post "source unknown" - if you lifted from a website and can cite which one do that. Whilst technically everything should be sourced the heritage and history forum would suffer if this was taken to the letter, as we often don't know.

This perception is recognised in law, as there is less need to protect the public from an obvious danger. I would suggest the parapet at Marple indicates the parameters of "obvious" may have moved. Certainly people have less opportunity to be reckless on Cosgrove Aqueduct Someone fell from the aqueduct whilst the fence was being proposed, which kinda made the case.for it although I don't know the details. It is not that difficult to get to the other side on foot, you don't have to leap. The incident I particular remember was in 1982, one of my school friends went missing, his body was found three weeks later in the river below. The coroner concluded he had fallen from the aqueduct, open verdict as he may have jumped. It's fair to say the determined could still jump.

Good stuff - these memories need collecting while this generation is still here to tell of them, as they contain information not recorded in any other way. Thanks @davidwheeler

Also, if you were going to do a dry dock or a wharf you wouldn't do it like that. A wharf wouldn't need a bay on each side, unless there was a customer on each side - to add there would need to be something to serve at this location - there is nothing here that couldn't be served immediately above or below the three, no building or kiln, just fields. A dry dock fails on several counts - the shelves are big enough for a boat but only just, no room round the boat for working (and again you don't need two bays) plus unless you close the flight they're not very dry! The way to do a dry dock here would be to have the bays above the normal lock full level and overfill it to get a boat on or off, then use the lock as normal. There was a dry dock next to the lower chamber of the lowest staircase pair in Beziers that workec on this principle until they were converted into a single deep lock.

The traffic was predominantly downhill with unladen boats returning, so that was my assumption Other theories I heard were wharf or dry dock -'neither really works, as neither required two bays

It's thought to be a passing place - a three in the middle of the twos would disrupt traffic flow. Many years ago I measured the bays and found that both were big enough to take a boat over the shelf and the one on the towpath side was about twice the depth of the other shelf with the lock full. This means a fully laden boat could pass an unladen boat in lock 11 - whether they ever did is a matter of conjecture

Just aeen the @CourtAboveTheCut video of the two boats being dragged out - very impressive! And kudos to Steve for getting agreement for access. There was a similar breach near Disley on the Upper Peak Forest in the early 70s - I think three boats went down that one too, but being wooden they were smashed in the incident. First time I recall the word "insurance" being used when I asked dad if the owners would be given new boats. The way these have landed is testament to their weight and structural integrity. Lutine (GRP cabin, steel hull) would probably have broken her back and lost her cabin. Juno, GRP cabin cruiser, would survive but be half way across the county on the tidal wave.