Tonic required. Send in your photos of what is nice on the waterways now.

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2014

 

Atherstone lock 6 Coventry cana.l The sidepond paddle is in use, during one of the few years that this was allowed.  Compare  #457 (1978) #2561 (2011)  #1087  (2015) #476 (2017) 

[Athy]

22 minutes ago, PeterScott said:

On this day in 2007

 

Craft on the Middle Level

 

Thirteen years later, the orange work boats are still in service. I think the MLC have three of them. Henry must have been quite new at the time of your photo.

I have a vague memory of seeing the "Tug Boat" but can't remember where - possibly in March.

[PeterScott]

On this day 2016

 

 

Hawkesbury Junction

 

Coventry Canal footbridge,

mooring in front of the Greyhound,

and the slightly-faded cat under the junction bridge

 

Compare

#424 (2002)

#1651 (2009)

#2388 (2015) 

#2698 (2020)

Edited August 17, 2020 by PeterScott
wrong link

[Dav and Pen]

This afternoon Braunston bottom lock, quite a bit of activity.

[PeterScott]

On 09/08/2020 at 08:48, PeterScott said:

Coventry Canal between Br25/26

 

On [9 August] 2005

Compare with [5 August 2020].

 

In the fifteen years between the pictures, the insulator on the left on the second row from the top has been lost.

 

On 09/08/2020 at 09:04, Athy said:

How observant! It may not make much difference, as there are no visible wires. Does the pole do anything? Is it Grade 2 listed? It looks like something off the cover of a 1960s country blues L.P. 

On this day 2016, an artistic (maybe) leaning view from t'other direction, and that insulator was missing then, so only a ten-year gap to work on. ... See here for remaining telegraph-poles-alongside-UK-roads, and here for an insulator-collector's enthusiasm.

 

The Telegraph Pole Appreciation Society here features this pole prominently, all in a consistently tongue-in-cheek way.  This is the style of founder MartinEvans and his acclaimed (well, he would say it was) book  for beginners. They might ask why the A-shaped strut? Because of the bend, and by the time the forty-eight wires have been weighed down with ice, there's a significant lateral force pulling the pole over.

 

An article in NarrowBoat mentioned this pole and the one in the Shropshire Union High Bridge bridge 39 (the bridge is a listed structure and iirc the telegraph pole was once removed and had to be replaced because of the listing), but maybe these are the only ones to have escaped the telegraph-pole recyclers, who reclaimed (for example) all those at Hawkesbury Junction. Might have bought one here.

 

[PeterScott]

On this day in 1995

S+W.

 

Water filling a lock: a common thing to do, and no less impressive each time.

 

Similarly the height of the middle gates of Botterham staircase

 

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2007

Mulincourt Aqueduct Well Creek Middle Level - over Middle Level Main Drain on which it is the limit of navigation. Except for lying down on a paddleboard, maybe.

Edited August 18, 2020 by PeterScott
extra pic

[Athy]

We've been across Mullicourt Aqueduct, and past it by road, numerous times and I don't recall ever seeing a boat on the Main Drain - indeed, I thought it was officially off limits to boats.

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2018

 

from Mulincourt Aqueduct Well Creek Middle Level - looking along Middle Level Main Drain

 

 

and looking northwest across the aqueduct. Time and Tide Doing What They Do, with an overnight waterlevel drop, combined to preclude a set of all-round pictures of Fulbourne crossing, as Odyssey had been shown exactly eleven years before ...

 

 

... since when the guillotine-floodgate has been removed ...

 

 

... and the authorities hereabouts have put up some discouraging signs.

 

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2013

Aylesbury Basin. Replacing Fulbourne topcloths

[Ray T]

On 09/08/2020 at 09:04, Athy said:

How observant! It may not make much difference, as there are no visible wires. Does the pole do anything? Is it Grade 2 listed? It looks like something off the cover of a 1960s country blues L.P. 

Earlier on this year I presented a case to English Heritage to try to have this pole as a listed as of historical interest.

"They" in their infinite wisdom rejected my case, saying it was of "Little historical significance." English Heritage did however compliment me on the case I put to them.

The pole is the remnants of an overhead trunk route from Coventry to Atherston and beyond erected in the late 1880's. Demolition of the route began in the mid 1950's.

Attached is an example of what a severe winter could do to overhead telegraph routes. 

 

As well as "A" poles telegraph companies used "H" poles, two poles side by side connected with cross braces. Underground routes were rare in the times these routes were erected.

The companies lacked the technology and it was cheaper to erect overhead routes. Also the use of telegraphs by the public was not as common place as of today.

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by Ray T

[Athy]

Your top photo brings to mind that marvellous April Fools' Day spoof with  Richard Dimbleby visiting the spaghetti trees of Italy.

[Naughty Cal]

On this day 2019

 

[Manxcat]

On 17/08/2020 at 12:20, Athy said:

Thirteen years later, the orange work boats are still in service. I think the MLC have three of them. Henry must have been quite new at the time of your photo.

I have a vague memory of seeing the "Tug Boat" but can't remember where - possibly in March.

"Tug Boat" used to moor near Fox's.

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2018

 

Pub sign Old West River Brandon Creek Junction moored outside

 

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2007

 

Denver Sluice from tidal side and inland side

 

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2006

Beale Park River Thames IWA National Rally.

 

The business end of an electrofishing boat.

 

Picture of doing-business, from an interpretation panel, which said that it works "to survey fish populations by applying an electric current in the water via two concentric nodes attached to the booms. As the boat motors downstream the fish are stunned when the come into contact with the electric field. People on the pontoons take fish out of the water and place them in the white holding tank on the centre of the boat. The fish can be measured and returned to the water. Electricty is supplied by the red generator to the stern of the boat"

 

As You Do.

[Dav and Pen]

The hold of Fulbourne in post #2910 is rather better than in our camping boats but we did have metal A frames which stopped a lot of our passengers banging their heads.

[Dav and Pen]

Today at a very peaceful Boddington reservoir.

[PeterScott]

  

1 hour ago, Dav and Pen said:

The hold of Fulbourne in post #2910 is rather better than in our camping boats but we did have metal A frames which stopped a lot of our passengers banging their heads.

By 1980 Sandpiper from WillowWren, Rugby also had A-frames. It was much more comfortable to sleep on the floor than on the fold-down beds like the one on the left in the foreground. The grey support-straps dug into the back or other parts of the anatomy to make sleeping on them wholly impossible. In 1976 there were still crossplanks to bend under, and particularly the front door used to scrape a bit of innocent back on each journey through the boat.

 

Below from Rowan in 1980 from WillowWrenKearns in Middlewich: The A-frames are visible with the cloths back on a fine day. Rowan was purpose-built as a camping boat. The bunks were solid and fully-occupied the space, so it was lucky that they were quite comfortable. Still a 'basic' experience.

[cuthound]

1 hour ago, Dav and Pen said:

The hold of Fulbourne in post #2910 is rather better than in our camping boats but we did have metal A frames which stopped a lot of our passengers banging their heads.

 

That brings back memories of my first canalling experience - a week on two UCC camping boats in July 1973 courtesy of a mixed scouting unit I had joined to be closer to a girlfriend!

 

Despite the restrictions imposed by the scouts, I enjoyed it enough to hire another camping boat (this time with friends so we could enjoy the canalside pubs ?) which lead me down the slippery slope to become a canalcoholic.

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2006

Beale Park River Thames IWA National Rally.

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2007

leaving Salters Lode (Middle Level) for the short tidal trip up the tidal Great Ouse to Denver Sluice

Edited August 18, 2020 by PeterScott

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2018

 

Waiting for some tide, delaying leaving Salters Lode (Middle Level) for the short tidal trip up the tidal Great Ouse to Denver Sluice

 

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by PeterScott
unmerge a merge

[PeterScott]

On this day in 2016

Curdworth Locks B+F

 

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