Leeds & Liverpool Canal - Rubbish!

[RichardH]

Forgive my ignorance - it has just dawned on me I passed you as you were about to leave Salterforth and I had just turned Genevieve.

 

Hope you are enjoying the trip.

[Matthew Dowson]

I see what the OP says about the Blackburn/Burnley stretch, though Janet tells me it's much cleaner than usual. No trips down the weed hatch yet. Missed all the passing forum members - they must travel too early in the day for me!

 

Wigan tomorrow, and I've yet to see a boat going in my direction to share locks with. Quite a few going the other way this morning.

Hope you get lucky, there's a big marina at Adlington, a few hrs East from Wigan, you may get someone leaving there and going down, we left Oak Moon there last summer for a week on the towpath - the train station at Adlington being v.useful.

[Dr Bradley]

Obviously I missed you too Richard - and I was on the lookout.

 

I'm actually at Red Rock tonight as Nicholsons promised a good pub - it's turned into a cafe bar. One look through the door and back to the boat. I intend an early start tomorrow (for me that is, normal sort of time for most) to get to Waters Meeting as the following day I need to get to Foulridge to pick up my van, drive it to Middlewich via Keighley and Sowerby Bridge, then rerturn to the boat. Middlewich by the weekend then.

[Janet S]

I was lucky enough to jump aboard Dr Bradley's Linctus for a lovely cruise on Sunday evening (thanks Colin!) and I must say that the stretch from Burnley through to Hapton was much cleaner than I've seen it for a while. Much of that I'm sure was due to a recent towpath/canal tidy run by the local Council.

 

I work in the cleansing department, and I can't tell you how frustrating it is that the locals seem to think the cut is a dumping ground! As fast as we clear it, they're chucking it in again. Still, it's no different to any other urban canal. Nelson, Burnley and Blackburn attract their share of rubbish dumping muppets, but please don't think that this canal is full of crap. Once away from the major towns it is an absolute delight!

 

I know that when Colin left his mooring on Monday morning he would face one of the worst areas where rubbish just seems to collect....

 

 

That picture was taken at the beginning of May when I jumped aboard Emily-Anne for an impromptu cruise as they passed through.

 

I seem to make a habit of this! Any more boats coming through soon?

 

I hope nobody is put off by this thread, as the Leeds and Liverpool is a fantastic canal, with some wonderful scenery and very nice folk along the way. I particularly love the stretch from Skipton through Gargrave and on to Barnoldswick...you'd be hard pushed to find anywhere better on the whole canal network.

 

I left Colin on Sunday night moored up at Hapton, with a view over the valley to Pendle Hill and despite the floating rubbish, he hadn't had to make a trip down the weed hatch!

 

Janet

[Albion]

I hope nobody is put off by this thread, as the Leeds and Liverpool is a fantastic canal, with some wonderful scenery and very nice folk along the way. I particularly love the stretch from Skipton through Gargrave and on to Barnoldswick...you'd be hard pushed to find anywhere better on the whole canal network.

Janet

 

Yep, I'll second that. Superb stretch IMO.

Roger

[twocvbloke]

I know that when Colin left his mooring on Monday morning he would face one of the worst areas where rubbish just seems to collect....

 

 

That picture was taken at the beginning of May when I jumped aboard Emily-Anne for an impromptu cruise as they passed through.

 

Blimey, where on earth is that???

[Dr Bradley]

The rubbishy stretches are well worth doing to enjoy the rest of this fantastic canal. I particularly enjoyed watching Pendle hill circulate around me for days on end 0 or was it me circulating

[MikeV]

....and despite the floating rubbish, he hadn't had to make a trip down the weed hatch!

I've never any problems with the getting anything wound round the prop on this stretch. I think it is because it's mostly floating rubbish. It is grim though, and such a shame as the industrial heritage alongside the canal, while rather run down, is still quite interesting.

 

I joined around 20 other volunteers back in March on the BW tow path tidy in Burnley. Litter picking was restricted to the tow path however, as the litter grabbers they gave us were only about 3 feet long. BW said they do do a number of canal clearing sweeps during the year, but it was clear there was large amounts of bankside litter on the offside which must be very difficult to access.

 

I was a bit shocked coming through Colne the other day when a surly looking youth fishing in a bridge hole said "they should ban all boats on the canal because they cause so much pollution". I only had time to respond that I didn't think it was the boats that caused the pollution - as I pushed aside an old bed frame with my bow!

[Matthew Dowson]

A pic taken at Burnley last summer - we really enjoyed the trip over from Shipley to Manchester

Edited June 10, 2009 by Matthew Dowson

[twocvbloke]

I was a bit shocked coming through Colne the other day when a surly looking youth fishing in a bridge hole said "they should ban all boats on the canal because they cause so much pollution". I only had time to respond that I didn't think it was the boats that caused the pollution - as I pushed aside an old bed frame with my bow!

 

Just out of curiosity, did the surly youth have bleach-blonde hair? If so, that's my neighbour's son, a bit of a tw@t in my opinion...

[CanalWalker]

I'm actually at Red Rock tonight as Nicholsons promised a good pub - it's turned into a cafe bar. One look through the door and back to the boat.

 

The one time I went in the pub (when it was a pub) it wasnt very good, the food was poor and (in pre-ban days) it was very smokey. It looked nice from the outside though.

 

Most of the rubbish I notice in the canal is stuff that looks to have blown in. Lots of bits of roof paneling and insulation etc, lots of lost footballs, it then floats along for miles and collects in bits of dead water. There are some fridges etc too that have been dumped in, and stuff nicked from gardens dropped from the bridges at the Liverpool end but I assume thats been cleared out now.

Edited June 10, 2009 by redstarafloat

[alan_fincher]

There are some fridges etc too that have been dumped in,............................

We wondered about this on the Lee, when the odd full sized Fridge Freezer floated past.....

 

Do the people who throw them in assume they will sink out of sight to the bottom, like cookers and beds ?

 

I assume they must do, otherwise why bother to take them to the river - you might as well leave them on a roadside verge, surely ?

[CanalWalker]

I have seen firdges miles away from civilisation, they float very well, maybe they grow up to be GRP cruisers...

[Lady Muck]

We wondered about this on the Lee, when the odd full sized Fridge Freezer floated past.....

 

Do the people who throw them in assume they will sink out of sight to the bottom, like cookers and beds ?

 

I assume they must do, otherwise why bother to take them to the river - you might as well leave them on a roadside verge, surely ?

 

There is loads of flytipping in the Lee, people drive down to the industrial estates, in the middle of the night and dump things by the river, where all the dead end roads are, because they think they won't be seen doing it. They don't care what happens afterwards. Then it finds its way into the water.

 

The classic was last winter when a white leather three piece suite drifted up and down past our marina dozens of times for quite a few months, as the wind/current chaged direction

 

The most propellor unfriendly rubbish is pallet wrap - the evil monster cousin of clingfilm. Rolls of it blow in from the soft drinks wholesalers that line the banks in Tottenham and Ponders End.

 

To be fair, Burnley and Blackburn were nowhere near as bad as I expected. Listened to a boater go on and on about how bad it was when we moored at the BCLM in Dudley. He made it sound absolutely horrendous. We went down the weed hatch once. We did feel like we were surfing over sofas at many of the bridgeholes though!

 

The worst rubbish was only as bad as the scrattiest bits of the Lee, as for the troublesome kids that we'd read about, we were boating in the evening, and had lots of welcome help from (so-called) hoodies at lift bridges, they seemed more curious than anything else, they wanted to know about the boat, about our lurcher etc.

 

It's a pity this canal is so far from Tottenham, I love it!

[Naughty Cal]

Sofa surfing is no good for props. I can tell you that from first had experience

 

Fridge/freezers, gas bottles, car wheels, etc dont pose as much of a problem as they float so you can dodge around them. First hand experience of that one as well.

Edited July 29, 2009 by Phylis

[RichardH]

The one time I went in the pub (when it was a pub) it wasnt very good, the food was poor and (in pre-ban days) it was very smokey. It looked nice from the outside though.

 

Most of the rubbish I notice in the canal is stuff that looks to have blown in. Lots of bits of roof paneling and insulation etc, lots of lost footballs, it then floats along for miles and collects in bits of dead water. There are some fridges etc too that have been dumped in, and stuff nicked from gardens dropped from the bridges at the Liverpool end but I assume thats been cleared out now.

 

Do we have a match report on the pub at Red Rock? It was dire the last time I was in.

[CanalWalker]

Its on my "to do" list.

[MartinClark]

To be fair, Burnley and Blackburn were nowhere near as bad as I expected. Listened to a boater go on and on about how bad it was when we moored at the BCLM in Dudley. He made it sound absolutely horrendous. We went down the weed hatch once.

 

Just goes to show that we shouldn't pay too much attention to moany boaters. If we did we would miss out on some of the best bits of the system.

 

Some boaters are just not happy unless they are being miserable. They should become fishermen....

[RichardH]

Just goes to show that we shouldn't pay too much attention to moany boaters. If we did we would miss out on some of the best bits of the system.

 

Some boaters are just not happy unless they are being miserable. They should become fishermen....

 

 

Agreed. We have people calling us who have never been on a boat but have 'heard' how perilous Blackburn and Burnley are. Oddly enough from the people who have travelled that way we have never had any reports at all of problems.

[Odana]

Do we have a match report on the pub at Red Rock? It was dire the last time I was in.

 

The crew's opinion as we passed the other day and pondered stopping was that we should keep going - looked unwelcoming, they said. I was indoors at the time so can't comment. However the White bear in Adlington does excellent, very reasobaly priced food (except Mondays), and the beer was deemed very drinkable too by the beer-drinkers I allowed to tag along for the weekend. Currently in Adlington for the week - very pleasant -off towards Burnley next week.

[Captain Nitromors]

Do we have a match report on the pub at Red Rock? It was dire the last time I was in.

 

Used to be a good pub The crawford arms at red rock always remember sitting outside there as a kid with my fishing rod drinking coke and eating a bag of crisp while my dad had a pint, horrified to see it gone now and turned into Bridge 63 overpriced resteraunt, im at adlington but will be giving this one a miss, while im posting has any one any advice on doing my first lock as i want to venture further on than botany bay thanks

steve

[CanalWalker]

while im posting has any one any advice on doing my first lock as i want to venture further on than botany bay thanks

steve

 

Take your time and think about what your doing. Dont be scared, there isnt much you can do that you cant quickly undo. Dont worry about being slow or having people watching you.

[MartinClark]

eating a bag of crisp

An economy pack?

 

[Lady Muck]

Agreed. We have people calling us who have never been on a boat but have 'heard' how perilous Blackburn and Burnley are. Oddly enough from the people who have travelled that way we have never had any reports at all of problems.

 

Well, quite, I moor my boat in Tottenham, yes, that's correct, Tottenham, that place where many boaters charge through at full speed incase anything awful happens to them. Three years on the boat is still floating, still has all it's windows and I still have all my limbs.