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Route help please


Markblox

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There’s lot of options but to avoid built up areas (less of the “crap areas” please) options are:

 

Sharpness - Gloucester - Stourport - Great Haywood - Shardlow - Keadby - Thorne - Seby - York (assuming you won’t be wanting to go round Trent falls which I’m sure is a lot scary than Birmingham on a narrowboat)

 

As an alternative carry on north from Great Haywood up the T&M, Macclesfield and Huddersfield narrow then pick up the above route again in Yorkshire.

 

Sharpness - Gloucester - Tewkesbury - Stratford - Lapworth - Braunston - Norton - Foxton - Leicester - Cranfleet - Nottingham - Keadby - and as above

 

You could also do that via Worcester and Kings Norton to get to Lapworth. Would involve a few miles of the suburbs of Brum.

 

 

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Up the Severn to Stouport  > Staffs & Worcs to Great Hayward > Trent & Mersey to Shardlow > River Trent to Keadby > Stainsforth & Keadby to New Cut > Aire & Calder to Kellingly > River Aire to Selby > York 

Alternatively if you are feeling brave and are experienced with crew River Trent to Trent Falls > Yorkshire Ouse to York

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4 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

Does canalplan actually have a preference setting for avoiding crap areas? Ingenious.

No of course it doesn't but quite right, of course, to point that out.  I was kind of assuming that the OP would be aware of the places he might wish to avoid  and therefore define a route avoiding them when using the ap.😊

 

Howard

Edited by howardang
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15 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:

As long as you turn off before Blackpool 🧐

 

Unless you plan to take the long way around Scotland and come in at the Humber.

 

My preferred coastal route would be 797 nm but much easier and potentially 'better waters' that Scotland.

 

 

 

Screenshot (2097).png

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57 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Yep, just put in avoid Nuneaton


Oh no. Literally just taken this photo.

 

I said to someone the other day that I’ve never had any problem on any of my many passages through Nuneaton. And although that seemed to be tempting fate as I was heading that way at the time I’ve yet again managed to successfully negotiate the place with no issues.

DCEDFEF3-AB0B-424D-8E09-EB231AF59ACE.jpeg

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2 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:


Oh no. Literally just taken this photo.

 

I said to someone the other day that I’ve never had any problem on any of my many passages through Nuneaton. And although that seemed to be tempting fate as I was heading that way at the time I’ve yet again managed to successfully negotiate the place with no issues.

DCEDFEF3-AB0B-424D-8E09-EB231AF59ACE.jpeg

Hmm. Last time I was at Nuneaton Station was when I was on a train to London that wasn't supposed to stop there, but we did, as did a couple of trains in front of us, due to the wires being down ahead. And the announcement over the tannoy said all passengers for London - 3 Pendolinos worth - should board the 2-car 158 which was arriving shortly at the high level platform, and change at Leicester for St Pancras!

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2 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:


Oh no. Literally just taken this photo.

 

I said to someone the other day that I’ve never had any problem on any of my many passages through Nuneaton. And although that seemed to be tempting fate as I was heading that way at the time I’ve yet again managed to successfully negotiate the place with no issues.

DCEDFEF3-AB0B-424D-8E09-EB231AF59ACE.jpeg

I see more and more boats moored there these days

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1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

I see more and more boats moored there these days


One reason we shouldn’t talk of “crap areas” is because it creates reputations that stick and the reality of urban towpath improvements and the increase in liveaboards is that it opens up areas that once were considered risky.

 

We still get the odd person asking if Birmingham is safe. Yet had the OP asked on the best route from Sharpness to York I’d have been inclined to say “one that goes through Brum”.

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In 50 years pf canalling the only time I've experienced trouble with the locals was in well heeled Lymm on the Bridgewater Canal in Cheshire. We were woken in the early hours by drunken youths banging on the sides of the boat.

 

Mind you they soon disappeared when I offered to let my GSD play with them... :)

 

 

 

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9 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

As an alternative carry on north from Great Haywood up the T&M, Macclesfield and Huddersfield narrow then pick up the above route again in Yorkshire.

 

 The OP does say 60 foot - whilst the boat might fit on the Huddersfield Broad (or it might not) I'm not sure I'd recommend this route. 

 

Leeds and Liverpool? 

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20 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

 The OP does say 60 foot - whilst the boat might fit on the Huddersfield Broad (or it might not) I'm not sure I'd recommend this route. 

 

Leeds and Liverpool? 


Good point that I’d overlooked.

 

I thought about the L&L as an option. A massively rural canal that also passes through quite a number of industrial towns and then drops you in a big city. Does it meet the OPs requirements or not?

 

The first route that came to my mind - and @Midnight’s - involves Kidderminster, Wolverhampton, Stafford, Burton and Nottingham.

 

The route via the Avon and Soar is potentially even more rural but you can’t avoid that it goes straight through the middle of Leicester and Nottingham.

Edited by Captain Pegg
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14 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:


Good point that I’d overlooked.

 

I thought about the L&L as an option. A massively rural canal that also passes through quite a number of industrial towns and then drops you in a big city. Does it meet the OPs requirements or not?

 

The first route that came to my mind - and @Midnight’s - involves Kidderminster, Wolverhampton, Stafford, Burton and Nottingham.

 

The route via the Avon and Soar is potentially even more rural but you can’t avoid that it goes straight through the middle of Leicester and Nottingham.

 

Only one of two times we ever experienced an issue was on the Leeds and Liverpool when some kids decided to hurl some stones at us near Saltaire.

 

Unfortunately for them their teacher was cycling down the towpath and they were 'invited' to a discussion with him when they went back to school on the following Monday.

 

The other was on the Erewash when some little oik thought it would be a jolly wheeze to deliberately dangle a fishing line complete with its hook from a bridge almost hitting me in the face.

 

I let my feelings about his stupidity well known.

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3 hours ago, M_JG said:

 

Only one of two times we ever experienced an issue was on the Leeds and Liverpool when some kids decided to hurl some stones at us near Saltaire.

 

Unfortunately for them their teacher was cycling down the towpath and they were 'invited' to a discussion with him when they went back to school on the following Monday.

 

The other was on the Erewash when some little oik thought it would be a jolly wheeze to deliberately dangle a fishing line complete with its hook from a bridge almost hitting me in the face.

 

I let my feelings about his stupidity well known.

 

Of course we don't know exactly why the OP wants to avoid built up areas.

 

The Erewash occupies a strange part of the world. East Midland folk are a bit different and that north Notts/Derbys boundary land is another level up again. My parents lived up that way for 10 years just after I'd left home for Uni. I swear there were folk who thought Nottingham was sub-tropical.

 

When I arrived at Langley Mill by boat about three years ago I had to wait to empty the top lock while a group of local youths extracted themselves from the water. It included a well proportioned girl of perhaps 15/16 years of age wearing the skimpiest of bikinis. Even Coventry couldn't compete with that.  

 

 

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3 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:

 

Of course we don't know exactly why the OP wants to avoid built up areas.

 

The Erewash occupies a strange part of the world. East Midland folk are a bit different and that north Notts/Derbys boundary land is another level up again. My parents lived up that way for 10 years just after I'd left home for Uni. I swear there were folk who thought Nottingham was sub-tropical.

 

When I arrived at Langley Mill by boat about three years ago I had to wait to empty the top lock while a group of local youths extracted themselves from the water. It included a well proportioned girl of perhaps 15/16 years of age wearing the skimpiest of bikinis. Even Coventry couldn't compete with that.  

 

 

 

Yes we had swimmers in a lock on the Erewash. Moaned like hell when I initially said I wouldnt re fill the lock for them as it was a waste of water....and then relented.

 

(I did scare them a bit when I warned them about Weils disease).

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23 hours ago, David Mack said:

Hmm. Last time I was at Nuneaton Station was when I was on a train to London that wasn't supposed to stop there, but we did, as did a couple of trains in front of us, due to the wires being down ahead. And the announcement over the tannoy said all passengers for London - 3 Pendolinos worth - should board the 2-car 158 which was arriving shortly at the high level platform, and change at Leicester for St Pancras!

Point of order: Nuneaton doesn't have a high level platform.

Are you thinking of Tamworth? I had a similar experience at Tamworth. The tannoy advised London passengers to go to the high level platforms and catch a two car class 170 to Derby then a very nice IC125 to St Pancras (it was a few years ago).

Edited by Alway Swilby
Edited to add the last bit in brackets.
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On 03/05/2023 at 08:39, Captain Pegg said:

Sharpness - Gloucester - Stourport - Great Haywood - Shardlow - Keadby - Thorne - Seby - York (assuming you won’t be wanting to go round Trent falls which I’m sure is a lot scary than Birmingham on a narrowboat)

 

I'm now fascinated with this route - it appears to be the lowest cross country route and certainly the lowest across the central watershed of England. I think the Staffs and Worcs Summit is only around 340 feet above sea level and all other options for a "corner to corner" route get quite a bit higher

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2 hours ago, Alway Swilby said:

Point of order: Nuneaton doesn't have a high level platform.

Are you thinking of Tamworth? I had a similar experience at Tamworth. The tannoy advised London passengers to go to the high level platforms and catch a two car class 170 to Derby then a very nice IC125 to St Pancras (it was a few years ago).

You are right, and I may have been getting confused with Tamworth regarding the layout. But it was definitely Nuneaton where we got turfed off the train. Must have been the Eastern island platform we went to which is served by the lines which cross over the WCML North of the station and used by the Birmingham -Leicester trains.

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On 03/05/2023 at 11:22, howardang said:

No of course it doesn't but quite right, of course, to point that out.  I was kind of assuming that the OP would be aware of the places he might wish to avoid  and therefore define a route avoiding them when using the ap.😊

 

Howard

 

Each and every place in Canalplan has a mooring rating. If people rated more places then canalplan could indeed adjust its day lengths to avoid stopping in "bad" places.

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