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The Golden Age of Canals Documentary.


Chris Lowe

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Watched last night.The restoration of the 'impossible canal' (the Huddersfield Narrow) I found particularly interesting.

One of the blokes interviewed who had worked on the restoration was my Standedge Tunnel 'pilot' when I last came through.

Didn't know this at the time,but I am sure he would have some good tales to tell.

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I never realised the lengths BW had gone to in order to prevent future navigation on the Huddersfield.

 

Can you imagine the uproar if CRT started filling locks on derelict canals such as the top of the Pollington with hard core and cement in order to try and prevent their future use?

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I have the VHS video of the "Impossible Restoration". 

 

From memory, the footage in last nights GAOC was not on the video.

 

I'm impressed how enthusiasts really got stuck in in those days - not strangled by hi-viz and bureaucracy.

 

CORRECTION

 

I've just watched the video on this wet afternoon and some shots of the restoration work do appear - but not all.

 

Edited by jake_crew
correction
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As someone said in the documentary, most of the people involved in the restoration work were more interested in the work itself and the heritage rather than in boats. Although i knew lots of Waterway Recovery Group people my interest was more in the boats, but that film does show how dedicated they were. It's the first time I've seen the film - does anyone know if it is available as a DVD at all?

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40 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

I thought it was only a single episode, don't recall seeing any more in a series.  The only one I can find on iPlayer is the one that was shown again last night.

 

 

Yes, there was just the one, there was a similar one called The Golden Age Of Stream Railways about the development  preserved steam railways again using amateur film shot at the time.

 

 

 

The Golden Age of Steam Railways 

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There was one canal (but I can't remember which) where they laid railway track along the canal bed and ran trains in the canal, but I don't think this experiment lasted long.  The bow wave must have done some damage, and there might have been some rust problems?

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4 hours ago, Hastings said:

There was one canal (but I can't remember which) where they laid railway track along the canal bed and ran trains in the canal, but I don't think this experiment lasted long.  The bow wave must have done some damage, and there might have been some rust problems?

For a time the railway shared the canal tunnel on the Thanes And Medway canal at Higham until the canal closed and the railway took it over fully

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I've got a painting in gouache from the Rochester end when still in use by barges by Sickert - unfortunately it is by Walter's less famous brother Bernard so not worth that much, but it's a good picture nevertheless.

 

Tam

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5 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

For a time the railway shared the canal tunnel on the Thanes And Medway canal at Higham until the canal closed and the railway took it over fully

 

There was a WW April fool years ago on the Taunton inland canal, with a nice title picture of a steam train charging down the centre of the canal complete with bow wave. 

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12 hours ago, buccaneer66 said:

 

There was a WW April fool years ago on the Taunton inland canal, with a nice title picture of a steam train charging down the centre of the canal complete with bow wave. 

This one? There are quite a few similar photos from the Somerset levels.

unnamed.jpg

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No, it wasn't that photo or even a GW prairie, but was taken, if I can remember right, in the nineteenth century when railway branch lines were being built.  But I have no idea where it was, or where I saw it.  It was probably like the photo of the prairie - photo taken during a flood, or photoshopped (except there weren't such things when I saw the photo).

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On 17/02/2021 at 14:27, The Happy Nomad said:

I never realised the lengths BW had gone to in order to prevent future navigation on the Huddersfield.

 

Can you imagine the uproar if CRT started filling locks on derelict canals such as the top of the Pollington with hard core and cement in order to try and prevent their future use?

Makes me smile when people, especially on Facebook, complain about CRT and claim BW were wonderful. When you point out they used to set fire to lock gates, allegedly, to prevent the movement of boats and made dredging illegal it makes CRT seem quite nice. 

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4 minutes ago, Felshampo said:

Makes me smile when people, especially on Facebook, complain about CRT and claim BW were wonderful. When you point out they used to set fire to lock gates, allegedly, to prevent the movement of boats and made dredging illegal it makes CRT seem quite nice. 

They remember the few days that BW had loadsa money and the BW boss owned a Narrowboat.

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1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

They remember the few days that BW had loadsa money and the BW boss owned a Narrowboat.

Your being kind. I think most are ignorant of the history of the canals even as resently as the 1980s. Let alone the IWA and the state they were in in the 60s and 70's. I heard a podcast by the "Angry Boater" with another London liveaboard complaining about some old fogey from the IWA who stood up in a meeting and tried to put the condition of the London canals into some kind of context. They clearly had no idea about the work that had been done by volunteers only thirty or forty years ago. I think many of them believe the canals were all in perfect condition up until about ten years ago. 

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