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Quai dde Londres Verdun end June 2006. The moorings in Verdun are free with all services supplied. There is no time limit and people stay for ages. The quai was rebuilt after WW1 with money raised by the city of London hence its name.

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L2340_20150630_0046a.jpg.c3737704861f484a36b474dbe4a60bd7.jpgOn this day 2015 (... from #2170)

Sowerby Bridge Rochdale Canal.

The TV-team at the end of two days' filming.

 

Between these days, and as part of the need for authenticity, the presenter stayed on the boat overnight. Lest notoriety or enthusiasm for autographs brought too may visitors while moored, at least one of the filmcrew would also be on the boat overnight. They could film the morning dressing-gowned wave to the outside world and the cooking of breakfast.

 

All the boat's supporters had arrived from home, and we were all waiting-for-the-off, but preparation for this morning's filming, had hit a glitch. The boat's provisions did not include a tomato, an essential element for the breakfast fryingpan. The presenter looked to the producer, and he asked the first of the supporter who was walking by the boat. Now, it is no part of the duties of a volunteer lockkeeper to have a tomato about his person, and it was with great presence-of-mind he thought to enquire of the occupant of a house by which we were moored, whether they had such essential breakfast fare to hand. Which was duly provided, and the said tomato passed to the volunteer lockkeeper, to the producer, to the presenter, to the fryingpan. A pound coin passed much of the way in the opposite direction, and everyone seemed happy with the outcome. Breakfast duly fried, the volunteer lockkeeper had been letting water down the flight to keep the boat floating and advised that we needed to use the water before we were grounded at the mooring, so breakfast was stored in the oven, and off-we-went, after filming a short sequence of fryingpan banged at the feet of the steerer, and some inconsequential conversation which didn't make the (editor's) cut. The TV crew eat their breakfast somewhat later. We brought sandwiches and chatted to the volunteer lockkeeper.

 

It was a most enjoyable couple of days, and I did have about three of my words broadcast. And I now know better how to maintain authenticity in television entertainment.

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16 hours ago, PeterScott said:

On this day in 2003

 

 

Coventry C

 

Public art byL1005_20030629_0048.JPG.1c3d20eea9895b887530333cee191511.JPG Atherstone lock 2

 

Sadly long gone.

 

I noticed he was no longer there when we brought our then new to us boat to its home mooring in June 2014.

 

I asked a volunteer lockie when it was removed (or possibly rotted away) and even though he was local he wasn't aware the artwork had ever been there.

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2 hours ago, Dav and Pen said:

Quai dde Londres Verdun end June 2006. The moorings in Verdun are free with all services supplied. There is no time limit and people stay for ages. The quai was rebuilt after WW1 with money raised by the city of London hence its name.

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The quay looks a good deal less melancholy than when I passed through in the Arthur in 1972. There was then only one other vessel present, a faded 38 metre freight barge from which a very old lady peered out through the lace curtains.

 

The name of her boat was Ile de Yeu, which is the island to which Marshal Petain was exiled after his trial as a traitor (and leader of the collaborative French government during World War II). He only escaped the death sentence because of his age, but as the hero of Verdun and the saviour of the French republic during WW1 he still had his suporters. i assume the barge to have been named by one of them. Attempts were made by Petain supporters , I believe, to dig up his body on the island and bring it back to the mainland but these were thwarted.

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On this day in 2005

L1125_20050630_0005.JPG.144d9a9c1d20db10a891e04a468b238b.JPG

Well Creek, Middle Level, by Downham Road Farm Bridge

 

L1125_20050630_0032.JPG.e257ab1f5c0b5d1b0ec701edfc60e39b.JPGThere was an email the previous evening to say that Odyssey had suffered a fire just before the planned journey continued through Salters Lode and on to Denver Sluice along the tidal part of the Great Ouse. Of the crew-of-four none had been injured By good fortune they had the door from the main accommodation to the engine room closed. This contained the fire and the photo shows the remains of the engine room. The hull was undamaged.

 

When we had commissioned the building ten years before, one of our number was keen on long evenings of TV viewing after about five hours' cruising, and with that specification, we chose a very expensive power system based on gel batteries, designed for backup for remote telephone exchanges. They met the specifiations for those ten years, but nobody on the waterways understood what they were about, so there was never any expertise to check them. That was, essentially, the cause of the fire.

 

The fire brigade attended with two tenders, one on each side of the canal (confused notification) and they doused the flames. Once a boat has lost its engine, particlarly in the middle-of-nowhere, it becomes difficult to support a crew, and in any case they were all in-shock by the incident. They had gone home and this was a reconnaisance visit to assess damage, recovery and repairs.

 

The other pictures are the floor of the rear four-berth cabin, now filled with firefighters' water, and a light fitting above.

 

The intensity of the fire was such that if, in the picture, Elaine had stretched her left hand she would be touching a spare hank of rope hanging from the gunwales (white just visible) which was only gently singed despite being within two metres of the seat of the fire. Mirror Brasso

 

Odyssey was eventually refitted from the engine-room backwards and is still doing its job these fifteen years later.

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Edited by PeterScott
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On this day in 2007 (... from #2128)L1329_20070630_0002.JPG.6d0aa0c61ccbc12b65a89c454185a261.JPG

 

S&SYN above Ickles Lock

 

L1329_20070630_0007.JPG.c1897b217d184a684300ecbb70736628.JPGThe Sheffield Keel, which had been tethered to the side by one rope in the Sheffield Flood, had come down at a crazy andle resting on the towingpath. It had now been winched back into the canal, leaving some damage to the piling (picture). 

 

Looking towards Ickles Lock (below).

 

Having moved the boat to the other side of the canal - on the lock landing (below) - we walked around to retrieve the mooring stake which had held all night. ...

 

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L1329_20070630_0004.JPG.60ac7ab704817555d4778b010273790c.JPG ... It's by Elaine's feet in the picture, and just lifted out of the mud without any twisting or kicking.

 

Since the flood, continuing discussions with various parts of BW had been completely unfruitful. They wouldn't say what the damage to the navigation was, or give any predictions for repairs. Promised call-returns did not materialise. There were conflicting stories about the pumps that support the water level above Tinsley Locks - where we continued to lobby to be, mainly on the grounds of safety and ease of access while awaiting canal-repairs.

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Today 2006. Thaon canal d est these barges were moving as dug to the plant and material to a big concrete works up the canal. They were steered from the front and had square sterns not a good arrangement for lock working and they were well bashed. Think the steerer’s were ex tipper drivers as they went flat out and gave no quarter to anybody.

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Edited by Dav and Pen
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On this day 2019 - T&M canal464563752_BartonLR.jpg.2a692fce45b30a9322caffe0c8d1c711.jpg

 

Georgian farm house at Barton lock

 

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Branston lock. I would like to know how old theese hawthorn trees are?

 

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Bridge 36 - the challenge is to go through this bridge without slowing down and without touching it!!

 

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The entrance to the Bond End canal  at Burton on Trent.

 

Edited by Richard T
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9 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Did I dream it or did they move one of the gates when they built the bridge a few years ago

Here is a comparison of a pre-WW1 map and a modern satellite image

n625615504_KinsNortonStoplockMaps1900-20020.jpg.21a558032cc8b2d6251789eb4cc6a857.jpg

 

which shows the road wider and the ends-of-the-lock in the same place. Best viewed in the side-by-side mode on-screen with the cursor in the same location on both maps: link here. Sadly, clicking-the-link will write-off the rest of the day to exploring changes to canals / where-you-live / where-used-to-live / where-auntie-mabel-lives / where-that-picture-postcard-was-from /  visited-before-lockdown /  everywhere-else. For example start here for East Coast coastal erosion. You Read It Here First.

 

An AngelaRolt image of the stoplock and the mechanism from the bridge

 

1712960329_lwc10.JPG.b5c8885d8ce693db1e53e720570419e1.JPGKingsNortonStopLockb04_03_07_5.jpg.29d807ca4dd9ddb82104081cd969dc73.jpg

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Pershore, 1953. The Pisgah brought grain from Avonmouth (I think) and had to work through a flash lock at Pershore to reach the mill. In later life she was bough tby the Ryle family, converted as a hotel-boat at Saul then taken past Lands End to enter the French canal system via the Seine. She remains in central France as a privately-owned boat.

JL 14. (badly marked) (JOHN LILEY).jpg

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32 minutes ago, Dav and Pen said:

Lovely lock side this day 2004 Nivernais canal. It was still the same last time we passed in 2018

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I think I remember that lock from our first-ever boating holiday, circa 1994. I wonder if it's still the same now that (most) French locks don't have individual keepers.

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4 hours ago, PeterScott said:

Here is a comparison of a pre-WW1 map and a modern satellite image

n625615504_KinsNortonStoplockMaps1900-20020.jpg.21a558032cc8b2d6251789eb4cc6a857.jpg

 

which shows the road wider and the ends-of-the-lock in the same place. Best viewed in the side-by-side mode on-screen with the cursor in the same location on both maps: link here. Sadly, clicking-the-link will write-off the rest of the day to exploring changes to canals / where-you-live / where-used-to-live / where-auntie-mabel-lives / where-that-picture-postcard-was-from /  visited-before-lockdown /  everywhere-else. For example start here for East Coast coastal erosion. You Read It Here First.

 

An AngelaRolt image of the stoplock and the mechanism from the bridge

 

1712960329_lwc10.JPG.b5c8885d8ce693db1e53e720570419e1.JPGKingsNortonStopLockb04_03_07_5.jpg.29d807ca4dd9ddb82104081cd969dc73.jpg

I quite like this map, I know it says Lowestoft in the link but it covers most of the UK and has a modern map that fades in with the slider   http://www.archiuk.com/cgi-bin/build_nls_historic_map.pl?search_location=%2C+Lowestoft%2C+Suffolk&latitude=52.475769&longitude=1.738818     image.png.d4ffce4b267acac341cd4a09db8a3125.png

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5 hours ago, Dav and Pen said:

Lovely lock side this day 2004 Nivernais canal. It was still the same last time we passed in 2018

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Not so elaborate when I went through last summer, but still an attractive lock, with a family living there. It seems to be a tradition:t through a succession of occupiers the surroundings have alwasy been enthusiastically tended, with a sprinkling of gnomes thereabouts.

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