Baltimore Marina, Todmorden

[Andrew Denny]

Does anyone have a phone no, email address or website for Baltimore Marina at Todmorden, on the Rochdale Canal? 

Come to think of it, are there any other marinas or permanent moorings?  I know of New Islington in Manchester, but that's about it. Waterside Moorings, the CRT company, doesn't know of any others. 

Thanks.

[pearley]

Thought there were some CRT/Waterside Moorings at Littleborough.

 

Edited to say just looked on Google Maps and just workboats there.

Edited November 9, 2020 by pearley

[David Mack]

Last time I passed, Baltimore Marina had a sign outside saying it is now managed by Bronte Boats.

 

Apart from New Islington and Baltimore, the only other sizeable mooring on the Rochdale is Mayroyd Moorings which occupies the offside at Hebden Bridge east of Station Road bridge. No online presence, but I think there is a phone number on a notice board by the gate. 

 

Other than that there's a handful of end of garden/field moorings between the summit and Sowerby Bridge (but none I think on the western side).

 

And Shire Cruisers at Sowerby Bridge, some of whose moorings are on the Rochdale.

[Andrew Denny]

Thanks! 

[dmr]

Bronte boats have a few offside moorings at Hebden Bridge, mostly for boats that they are working on, but they might accommodate short and medium term boats if there is a space. Mayroyd and Callis are long term moorings run by the boaters themselves on a boat club basis.

 

................Dave

[Andrew Denny]

Dave, thanks. I'm trying to compile a list of Rochdale long term moorings. To my surprise, there are very few indeed.

[TheBiscuits]

Just now, Andrew Denny said:

Dave, thanks. I'm trying to compile a list of Rochdale long term moorings. To my surprise, there are very few indeed.

 

The towpath next to the park at Hebden Bridge seems to be the favourite long-term mooring in our experience!

 

You just need to remove or cover your boat name and index number ...

 

 

[Andrew Denny]

2 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

The towpath next to the park at Hebden Bridge seems to be the favourite long-term mooring in our experience!

 

You just need to remove or cover your boat name and index number ...

 

 

Boat plates like James Bond's Aston Martin? https://giphy.com/gifs/james-bond-sean-connery-5V5C67B3JWD04 

[dmr]

4 minutes ago, Andrew Denny said:

Dave, thanks. I'm trying to compile a list of Rochdale long term moorings. To my surprise, there are very few indeed.

I think the Callis moorings do run some sort of waiting list but you probably need to turn up in person and chat to a few people as its a community type arrangement (and a lovely spot). CRT have some towpath moorings just up from Hebden Bridge so they will appear on the CRT website. One went last year for just over £1000 but might be available again. The Mayrord (Hebden Bridge) moorings do change hands from time to time but usually on the basis of the boat sold with the mooring.

 

..............Dave

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, dmr said:

Bronte boats have a few offside moorings at Hebden Bridge, mostly for boats that they are working on, but they might accommodate short and medium term boats if there is a space. Mayroyd and Callis are long term moorings run by the boaters themselves on a boat club basis.

 

................Dave

Oops. I forgot about Callis.

 

Mayroyd may be run as a boat club, but the whole thing was up for sale as a business a couple of years ago. The details on the agents website didn't stack up, so I don't know what the full situation was. Did the moorers buy the business?

 

There are two lots of CRT long term moorings on the towpath at Hebden Bridge -  between Hebble End bridge and Stubbing Lower Lock, and from the Stubbing Wharf pub to the railway bridge. There are (or were) also CRT towpath moorings below Shaw Wood Road bridge (behind Pickwell and Arnold), but I haven't seen boats moored there for a while.

[dmr]

4 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Oops. I forgot about Callis.

 

Mayroyd may be run as a boat club, but the whole thing was up for sale as a business a couple of years ago. The details on the agents website didn't stack up, so I don't know what the full situation was. Did the moorers buy the business?

 

There are two lots of CRT long term moorings on the towpath at Hebden Bridge -  between Hebble End bridge and Stubbing Lower Lock, and from the Stubbing Wharf pub to the railway bridge. There are (or were) also CRT towpath moorings below Shaw Wood Road bridge (behind Pickwell and Arnold), but I haven't seen boats moored there for a while.

 

Its all a bit of a mystery but then the Rochdale is a bit different to most canals. I think the towpath moorings above Stubbings Wharf are not CRT but linked in with the Callis moorings in some way. The Callis moorings have some sort of lease arrangement with CRT, I don't know what the Mayroyd arrangement is but have seen a few boats advertised for sale with the mooring. I think the moorers club deals directly with CRT (or the council?). I heard there was a proposed big price increase a while ago which is when the boaters took over so maybe somebody tried to sell just the lease but pretended to own the moorings?

The Rochdale was never nationalised so is still owned by the Rochdale Canal Company (whoever they are now) and leased to CRT. I have heard that some/all of the towpath is now owned by the council. CRT have split the canal in half and so its run by two separate regions. It all adds to the character of this lovely canal.

 

I think the Pickwell and Arnold moorings have been partly re-instated after the towpath upgrade/destruction/upgrade but are empty. I will have a look next time we go down to Todmorden. There are still padlocks on the summit locks due to the odd goings on with the "failed" bridge but a few boats have managed to get through in the last couple of weeks.

 

...............Dave

[David Mack]

3 hours ago, dmr said:

The Rochdale was never nationalised so is still owned by the Rochdale Canal Company (whoever they are now) and leased to CRT. 

The Rochdale Canal Company continued in existence after all but the Rochdale 9 section in central Manchester was abandoned, but was acquired by the property company Town Centre Securities, who no doubt had an eye for the development potential of the urban sections.

RCC/TCS were reasonably cooperative with the first stages of restoration, as long as it didn't cost them any money. But when the Millennium funding was being negotiated to complete the full restoration, the funders wouldn't put money in to a canal owned by a private company, and the company was worried about potential tax liabilities if they sold an asset, and the whole thing nearly fell apart. Eventually a deal was done whereby ownership of the canal route and infrastructure (but not any associated potentially developable land) was passed to The Waterways Trust. TWT in turn contracted with BWB to firstly manage the restoration process and then to run the canal. So in formal terms the canal was not part of the BW network, but as far as boaters were concerned it was managed as part of the main system. TWT was absorbed into the newly formed CRT when they took over the role of BW. Since then the Rochdale has been a full part if the CRT network.

[dmr]

23 minutes ago, David Mack said:

The Rochdale Canal Company continued in existence after all but the Rochdale 9 section in central Manchester was abandoned, but was acquired by the property company Town Centre Securities, who no doubt had an eye for the development potential of the urban sections.

RCC/TCS were reasonably cooperative with the first stages of restoration, as long as it didn't cost them any money. But when the Millennium funding was being negotiated to complete the full restoration, the funders wouldn't put money in to a canal owned by a private company, and the company was worried about potential tax liabilities if they sold an asset, and the whole thing nearly fell apart. Eventually a deal was done whereby ownership of the canal route and infrastructure (but not any associated potentially developable land) was passed to The Waterways Trust. TWT in turn contracted with BWB to firstly manage the restoration process and then to run the canal. So in formal terms the canal was not part of the BW network, but as far as boaters were concerned it was managed as part of the main system. TWT was absorbed into the newly formed CRT when they took over the role of BW. Since then the Rochdale has been a full part if the CRT network.

Thank you, I am still learning about all this. What do you know about how much is owned by the local councils? I believe the drydock at Hebden Bridge is council owned, what else do they own?

 

.................Dave

[David Mack]

Certainly the land at HB marina is council owned, and presumably part leased to Bronte Boats. Before restoration (before my time here) the whole marina was a builders yard, and I'm pretty sure the dry dock was infilled then.  So I guess that too is owned by the council.

[Boaty Jo]

I cycled from Myhtolmroyd to Littleborough yesterday.

Massive River Calder works underway in Mytholmroyd which should help alleviate flooding there but the whole valley is prone.

They are 'upgrading' the towpath in a number of places on this stretch where it's been (I presume) compromosed by flooding from the adjacent river.

Anybody cycling at the moment has to hop off the canal onto the nearby main road which is not much safer than jumping off a a building.

There are a few quite pleasant-looking mooring spots, in and around Hebden and Tod for example where the valley opens out a bit.

But much of the on line mooring looks scrotty. The canal and river are in a valley, steep sided at times, so sunlight looks to be in short supply 

There's an interesting mix of boats though including a tjalk, widebeams and NBs. 

Between Tod and Littleborough the valley opens out and is rather more open but very few, if any, long term moorings.

[dmr]

5 hours ago, Boaty Jo said:

I cycled from Myhtolmroyd to Littleborough yesterday.

Massive River Calder works underway in Mytholmroyd which should help alleviate flooding there but the whole valley is prone.

They are 'upgrading' the towpath in a number of places on this stretch where it's been (I presume) compromosed by flooding from the adjacent river.

Anybody cycling at the moment has to hop off the canal onto the nearby main road which is not much safer than jumping off a a building.

There are a few quite pleasant-looking mooring spots, in and around Hebden and Tod for example where the valley opens out a bit.

But much of the on line mooring looks scrotty. The canal and river are in a valley, steep sided at times, so sunlight looks to be in short supply 

There's an interesting mix of boats though including a tjalk, widebeams and NBs. 

Between Tod and Littleborough the valley opens out and is rather more open but very few, if any, long term moorings.

It certainly is down in a valley. At Tod the sun rises late and sets early. It gets better up towards the summit. The industrial bit just a above Tod is slightly grim but otherwise Hebden all the way to Summit would be a lovely place to spend 14 days on a towpath mooring, I would certainly not say scrotty. Trouble is there are quite a few places where its not easy to moor, the new upgraded towpath (cycleway) extends right up to the stone washwall in places so its not possible or safe to knock pins in. In other places the new towpath washed into the canal in the floods and has not been removed so its very shallow at the edge, plus the Rochdale can have a variable water level.

There are a couple of boats trying to continuously cruise on the Rochdale but its difficult because its very short and has so many locks, Almost all of the long term moorings are used by long term residential boats, there is no "leisure" marina, so sadly the Rochdale has very few moving boats and those that do visit often pass through quite quickly. This is probably best as the Rochdale remains a lovely backwater, and if it did get more popular its water supply would likely not be up to the job.

 

..........Dave

[Andrew Denny]

In starting this topic I guess I was mainly thinking of permanent moorings. I recall there were plans for a marina at Todmorden, but I don't know what became of it. 

http://todmordenpride.org.uk/news_articles/view/marina_plans_for_todmorden/ 

[dmr]

28 minutes ago, Andrew Denny said:

In starting this topic I guess I was mainly thinking of permanent moorings. I recall there were plans for a marina at Todmorden, but I don't know what became of it. 

http://todmordenpride.org.uk/news_articles/view/marina_plans_for_todmorden/ 

I think that bit of land became a Lidl instead.

A leisure marina on the Rochdale would be quite difficult, if several boats all went boating for the weekend they could create quite a water shortage. Bronte boats run two day boats from Hebden bridge and even these can cause local water problems, if they both go Eastwards then they take 4 lockfulls of water and don't put any back.

Many marinas advertise themselves as having many miles of lock free cruising so trying to attract leisure boaters to a marina that has many wide locks in both directions, and either a river section or difficult urban section required for any significant journey would not be easy, plus the fact that the canal might be closed during peak summer boating season due to lack of water.

A few leisure moorings would be a good thing but marinas usually need to be quite big to justify the cost of building them.

 

.................Dave

 

[StephenA]

I know this is an old thread but does anyone have details for Baltimore as some idiot has put the Canalplan location as their website on Google Maps and now we're getting messages from the council about the smoke emissions

[GUMPY]

16 minutes ago, StephenA said:

I know this is an old thread but does anyone have details for Baltimore as some idiot has put the Canalplan location as their website on Google Maps and now we're getting messages from the council about the smoke emissions

You can edit maps yourself to remove details.

There is no website showing when I looked

[StephenA]

1 minute ago, GUMPY said:

You can edit maps yourself to remove details.

There is no website showing when I looked

 

No there isn't now because I deleted it.