Pluto

There are some bad places, but we don't touch bottom too often with Kennet, which probably draws over 3ft 6ins when moving. Don't worry too much about getting close to the bank as most replies are from those with hard chine narrow boats. A traditionally-shaped boat with curved chines has fewer problems as they are what the L&LC was designed for. The main problem I would see is that your skeg - and thus your prop - will pick up rubbish as it is so low in the water. Bridge holes are almost always the worst, so try to float through with the engine out of gear. You will find that as you come out of gear, the water that the prop has pushed backwards will return, lifting the stern in the bridge hole and hopefully keeping the prop unentangled.

As with the previous war, there was a shortage of boatmen as the younger ones left for the armed services, though canals were, to some extent, a reserved occupation. In the First WW they created a Canal Transport Battalion, with other battalions set up to help at docks and other transport bottlenecks. In the Second WW canal companies tried to get Irish labour. Although initially successful, many of the Irish soon left for better paid work. Quite significant tonnages were carried by canals, and they were useful in getting imports away from docks where they were more likely to be bombed. In Liverpool, a new warehouse was built at Gorsey Lane, Netherton, for goods brought out of the docks by lorry for onward distribution by canal - you can still see the concrete wharf edge. If you are interested, I wrote an article on the subject for the Boat Museum Society's Waterways Journal No 5, which is still available from them, and I have some text at http://www.mikeclarke.myzen.co.uk/Wartimecanals.htm

If you read the correspondence with BW, there were two proposals. One was to keep the existing swing bridge, and the other was to enlarge it to two lanes. A bascule-type lift bridge was also considered, and a footbridge for pedestrians is also proposed. Building a road overbridge would involve considerable earthworks to provide sufficient headroom for boats and would impact on existing residents and business premises in the area. Edited to say that an overbridge has also been considered as well, but the various plans are not clear to me as to which of the various options has been chosen. The overbridge was a late addition to the scheme and does not appear on the earlier drawings which indicate a swing bridge.

The access does seem to be just over the swing bridge as access from the existing estate close to the 5-rise is already pretty restricted as the roads are very narrow. There has been a suggestion that the new estate should include car parking for visitors to Bingley 5-rise as parking is a major problem for developing them as an attraction.

There were proposals for a canal large enough for battleships roughly following the line of the Forth & Clyde. I have newscuttings from 1929 about the scheme, and seem to recall having found details of an earlier proposal. Other ship canals proposed at the same time were to Sheffield, to the Potteries and to Wolverhampton.

Helmshore Textile Museums has a working waterwheel driving fulling stocks as well as working mules for spinning cotton, while its sister museum, Queen Street Mill, near Burnley, has a steam engine driving a weaving shed full of Lancashire looms. Bancroft Shed steam engine in Barnoldswick is also in steam I think on Sunday, and if you are over that way, I may be working on heritage boat Kennet on Monday at the top of Greenberfield locks. In the other direction, Trencherfield Mill steam engine, in Wigan, may be open, as could the winding engine at Astley Green Colliery. Steam railways are Rawtenstall-Bury and a narrow gauge line near Tarleton, as well as the centre at Lytham if it is still operating. You could also visit the nearby windmill. For a more canal-related trip, you could try following the old Lancaster Canal from Johnsons Hillock to Walton Summit and then along the trackbed of the tramway to Preston, or try to find the former colliery canal in the woods to the west of the canal near Haigh Hall.

I started this topic to keep people informed about what was happening alongside the canal in Bingley, making no comment either way. I left the conclusion up to those reading the post. I always thought that what democracy was all about - being kept informed and having the ability to comment about things in which you are interested. Changes to the canal environment are certainly of interest to those on this forum.

This year sees the 200th anniversary of the canal opening between Clayton-le-Moors and Blackburn. The L&LC Society will be commemorating the event by sailing from Clayton to Blackburn and back on Saturday 19th June, two days before the actual anniversary. We are still making arrangements with local community groups for the event and to help promote use of the canal in the area, but would be pleased for anyone else to come along with their boat on the day. Will post details when they are finalised.

There shouldn't be too many grumblers as the canal in East Lancashire needs more facilities to encourage more usage. Reedley Marina at Barden Mill has certainly helped to increase the number of boats using the Burnley Pool - note that its a pool on the L&LC, not a pound. A few more boats could also help in moving the floating rubbish about so that it ends up at the locks where it has some chance of being removed. At the moment it usually gets lodged at one of the sharp bends and stays there as an eyesore.

A local group at Bingley is asking people to sign their petition against 500 new homes being built close to the canal above Bingley 5-rise. The petition is at http://www.greenhill-action-group.co.uk/petition and you can find more details on the same website.

That would probably have been Oswald ? who lived on Stork. His wife died round about then. I got his single cylinder Gardner working again for him in 1975. He used to have a boat on the Lancaster and reckoned his was the last boat to use Tewitfield Locks.

Following the publication of my book on L&LC boat painting, I keep getting requests for someone to demonstrate the techniques. I wrote the book with Sam Yates who is probably the last person to have used the tradition when he worked at Whitebirk in the 1950s and 1960s. He doesn't like being interviewed or publicity, but I think he would be interested in giving instruction to someone who is already involved in traditional paintwork. If you are quick, there may be a chance to appear on television in Germany as one of the channels there will be filming the L&LC in summer. PM me if you are interested, but bear in mind that I am looking for someone who already has good painting skills and who will not need a lot of instruction. The idea is that they can then help preserve and spread the tradition. Sorry for double post! Not sure how it happened.

Following the publication of my book on L&LC boat painting, I keep getting requests for someone to demonstrate the techniques. I wrote the book with Sam Yates who is probably the last person to have used the tradition when he worked at Whitebirk in the 1950s and 1960s. He doesn't like being interviewed or publicity, but I think he would be interested in giving instruction to someone who is already involved in traditional paintwork. If you are quick, there may be a chance to appear on television in Germany as one of the channels there will be filming the L&LC in summer. PM me if you are interested, but bear in mind that I am looking for someone who already has good painting skills and who will not need a lot of instruction. The idea is that they can then help preserve and spread the tradition.

Nice barge, but I'm not sure about the lifeboat.

I didn't think there was a camera with a shutter speed fast enough to catch me working at the time. You're really spoiling my image. I also have a few photos of the dock at Dutton which I scanned recently, and will try to remember to put them on my site in the near future. I have been in the process of scanning all my wooden boat photos, but as there are probably a couple of thousand, it's taking a bit of time. They are mostly of derelict remains, such as Purton, Boothstown and Sutton Level Lock, with some of fishing boats being built, such as cobles at Amble, as well as canal boats.

Could it be a tracing of the printed version which has been enlarged? Or perhaps a tracing of the huge BCN map at Gloucester and then reduced.

Most of the more successful canals had standard maps for their system which could be used for any purpose, such as an application to Parliament. I would expect this to be a standard BCN map which has been annotated in 1938 with details of existing and proposed stop gates etc as part of air raid precautions which were being established at that time. I have certainly come across similar precautions on the L&LC which date from 1938. The mention of many being on sections close to railways could be because these sections were on embankments. I have not looked in detail, but they could be on the newer sections where embankments were more likely to have been built, or were they the result of coal mining subsidence?