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Canal History


Greg K

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I've been doing a fairly deep dive into all the online canal history I can come by.  Will be looking for some hard copy books at the local public library (YIKES!  Books?  Libraries?  They still exist?!) on the subject as well.  Pretty fascinating stuff.  Great engineering feats for that time, or any time really.

 

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-history/the-canal-age

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There is a long list of candidates for great engineering feats on waterways in this country and abroad.

 

But the Canal age is often considered from the 1770's to the 1840s in the UK, but there were some engineering marvels such as the Anderton Boat Lift which was later and then there id the modern Falkirk Wheel.

 

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1 minute ago, Heartland said:

There is a long list of candidates for great engineering feats on waterways in this country and abroad.

 

But the Canal age is often considered from the 1770's to the 1840s in the UK, but there were some engineering marvels such as the Anderton Boat Lift which was later and then there id the modern Falkirk Wheel.

 

Foxton Locks.  

 

Quite impressive.  I know nothing of the canals save the video documentaries & writings of the history I've consumed these last four years or so.  

 

Imagine the Pandemic has increased interest in canal living as much as it has increased interest in remote country living here in America.  People leaving cities for the "idyllic life" in the country or the canal boat or whatever............woe be to them, right?

 

 

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"Woe be to them" - That depends on what 'woe' is being escaped or entered into. The canals of the UK can be an escape, or they can be a nightmare. It all depends on an individuals starting point and their overall attitude to living in todays world and understanding the past.

 

I would caution about reference to the current world 'health' situation, that is something we would all like to escape from, and this is not the place to introduce it.

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4 hours ago, Greg K said:

Imagine the Pandemic has increased interest in canal living as much as it has increased interest in remote country living here in America.  People leaving cities for the "idyllic life" in the country or the canal boat or whatever............woe be to them, right?

An American view of Brits taking to the cut post pandemic:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/world/europe/england-canal-boats-permanent-homes.html

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I don't know where Sally Ash got the film from but I see that one of our pairs makes a brief appearance at 12.36 minutes in. It must be 1977 as I painted the top of the stands with union flags for Jubilee year, but painting was obviously 'in progress' at the time of the film clip.

 

Tam

BWB youtube film Dave Holford Smith.png

Edited by Tam & Di
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13 hours ago, David Mack said:

An American view of Brits taking to the cut post pandemic:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/world/europe/england-canal-boats-permanent-homes.html

I wonder if there will be glut of canal boats on the market in a few years after all the folks who jumped in during the pandemic find out it's not for them.

 

Seems rather inevitable; sorta' like the pet adoptions that SKYROCKETED here in the States, now the poor animals are being returned to shelters in record numbers.

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I also think that is worth making comparison with the early canal structures on American Canals, which seem to have influence from Britain and elsewhere, but then there were American engineers who were responsible with some early waterways. Imagine if you can the challenges the builders of the Dismal Swamp Canal had in making a canal in hostile conditions and then compare these conditions with the contractors who made the Leeds & Liverpool Canal across the windswept Pennines. 

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In 1999, I wrote a paper, together with Phil Lord from Albany, New York, comparing the Wood Creek navigation in New York with the River Douglas navigation in Lancashire. There is also a short section on the narrow canals built in America in the introduction to my soon to be published translation of an 1817 Austrian book on canal engineering. The author was the first engineer for the Weiner Neustadt Canal which was, in effect, and English narrow canal. Most American narrow canals were built between 1792 and 1828, and almost all had been widened by the end of the 1840s.

 

The two main differences between America and England with regard to canal building was that in America, construction sites were isolated, so difficult to source materials and labour, whilst in England land ownership rights were virtually universal, so work required and Act of Parliament, together with significant amounts of paperwork. On the L&LC, some payments for land taken by the canal had not been paid over forty years after the relevant canal section had been built because it was so difficult to prove who owned the land. Numerous wills can be found in the deed files where the canal company's lawyers were trying to identify who owned the land.

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