BCN…Areas best avoided?

[Victor Vectis]

I do have an advantage, I spent my career talking to teenagers, but I do think that some boaters are downright rude to the kids passing by, they do themselves no favours.

 

 

Agreed.

 

I have to say that my first thought on reading the OP's post was 'I wonder what they did to attract trouble?'

 

Yes, you might see kids smoking dope or men swigging electric soup at 9 in the morning etc etc.

 

Perhaps they should be in school or doing something more constructive with their time but if if say "Should you be doing that" or somesuch then you're just asking for trouble.

[captain birdseye]

The last couple of times we have been on the BCN we have had no trouble. Last year we moored at Catherine Dr Barnes , then went down camp hill and out on the gallery. It was in mid August with only myself and my wife, with my two children (6 & 8) the year before we came up the 21 round the old main line to gas street and out down farmers bridge and the Fazeley cut again in the summer holidays and again without any trouble.

I think some people must either be unlucky or enjoy spreading apocryphal stories about certain areas

Edited October 15, 2014 by captain birdseye

[BD3Bill]

Forgive my ignorance, as I have never been on the BCN,

 

Is there any problem with Continuous Moorers in this area? Do they monopolise the 'safe' areas?

[matty40s]

Forgive my ignorance, as I have never been on the BCN,

 

Is there any problem with Continuous Moorers in this area? Do they monopolise the 'safe' areas?

Both of them do.

[Kendal]

Forgive my ignorance, as I have never been on the BCN,

 

Is there any problem with Continuous Moorers in this area? Do they monopolise the 'safe' areas?

Not in my experience. There's a fair turnover of boats at places like the NIA, Black Country Museum, Windmill End etc and other recognised 'safe' areas, if you like to call them that

[national velvet]

No continuous moorers at all as far as we could see this summer, it surprised us that there appeared to be no ccer's in this area at all either. No trouble either on any of the bits we managed to do in a couple of weeks. This was the second time we have visited the BCN and definitely not the last. Loads of canals, a bit shallow, but not half as full of rubbish as we expected. We heard dreadful stories about the Wolverhampton flight, but had a wonderful flight down ( first in the morning before all the scrots were up!) The stories of bad experiences seem to get magnified, these can happen anywhere, the trick is, as has been said to treat the possible trouble makers with a touch of humanity, and hopefully you can get through unscathed. We had kids trying to jump on top of the boat in Stone (Trent and Mersey) not a usual place to expect problems chatted to them and calmed the situation. If we avoid areas because of bad reputations, eventually we won't be able to get anywhere round the system!

[Catrin]

Slightly off topic, but why is there such a contradiction of opinion between the urban sections of the BCN and of the Ashton and Rochdale through the suburbs of Manchester? As this thread proves most people say the majority of the BCN is fine to go through and to stop overnight on, whereas even in the present days the advice is not to stop on the Ashton except on the recognised moorings and basins and to cruise it early on, preferably during term time.

 

Both big cities with the usual good and not so good areas, both have had a lot of work done to improve the canal passage but with differing reputations on the passage through.

Going up Ashton this year (following the advice of going up early) we met with a cheerful lock keeper, who said that he lived on the canal. He had been working on the Rochdale for 13 years, and was pleased to be back on the Ashton. "I'm going to get it the way it should be", he said.

 

I asked him about 'bandits', and he shrugged off any of my concerns, saying that the problems were much reduced. He said most of the troublemakers had been "moved out" (I didn't ask where to, or why), and he pointed to the prestige developments which had been built along the canal. "Mostly, all you will see is dog walkers and joggers". Which proved to be true.

 

We met with boats that were coming down, who were busy telling the same old stories of terrorised boaters.

 

At the top we saw the friendly lockie again, and I pointed to a boat that had just started the descent. "Oh, don't worry about them, we'll keep an eye on them, it really ISN'T as bad as people say".

[AndrewIC]

No continuous moorers at all as far as we could see this summer, it surprised us that there appeared to be no ccer's in this area at all either.

Indeed, apart from the middle of Birmingham it seems pretty deserted. At one point we hadn't seen another moving boat for three days, and when we did their greeting was... "We haven't seen another moving boat for three days!", and this was in mid summer. I had been a bit concerned about the prospect of finding a "safe" overnight site full up, but by and large they were deserted with the exception of Ocker Hill where the Land & Water dredging team had filled the entire visitor moorings with plant (and had managed to sink a tug!)