being in the sticks

[plumby]

Hi Folks,

 

in the british networks.........

 

assuming speed limits, whats the longest time wise stretch between town to town on a canal please, in realtime, taking into account say a small hamlet that possibly doesnt even feature on a map

 

cheers,

 

Andy

[MtB]

Impossible question to answer without a clear definition of what you call a 'town'.

 

E.G. presumably large villages don't count, and how small does a town have to be before it stops being a town?

[plumby]

anything with a shop as a start, just in case i run out of beer

[Lady Muck]

Its really hard to say, does the canal have to go through an actual town as sometimes, you may be near one, but the canal may not go through an actual town, I mean, thinking about last summer, I stocked up on food in Braunston before we headed to the Oxford canal, because I knew it would be Banbury before I could do a proper shop. But there are lots of places you can moor where it might seem like, 'the sticks' but you can walk or cycle to a town.

[Athy]

Impossible question to answer without a clear definition of what you call a 'town'.

 

E.G. presumably large villages don't count, and how small does a town have to be before it stops being a town?

Well done for deciphering the complexities of the question, thus enabling you to answer it. I'm still baffled by "in realtime", which I'm sure means "in real time", but what other sort of time would one use as a gauge?

[plumby]

ok. without being complicated then, whats the furthest run timewise that YOU have been on, running constantly obeying the speed limits, without visiting a town or village without a shop please...............

[plumby]

i only want to know so me and my dogs dont starve to death

[Paul C]

ok. without being complicated then, whats the furthest run timewise that YOU have been on, running constantly obeying the speed limits, without visiting a town or village without a shop please...............

 

Answering the specific above question, we've done trips and not stopped to spend anything at shops etc for 10 days, by buying all food/drink etc beforehand and carefully storing it. But that's exceptional, normally you'd stop every 3-4 days at least, for milk.

 

Insofar as the most "isolated" canal might be, if you count Barbridge as a "town/village" then the Middlewich branch of the SU is quite rural/isolated, if you don't count Barbridge, Bunbury, Tattenhall or any of the areas in between (eg there's a Texaco garage not too far from the canal, in between Calveley and Barbridge) then there's effectively Waverton-Middlewich-Nantwich as an area not through a 'town'.

 

I suppose if you strictly wanted to analyse it, you'd struggle to find a long isolated stretch because even in rural locations, if you have local knowledge you'd know where to stop on the canal for supplies which might be a short walk away. Historically, canals have been present a long time and communities formed alongside the canals, so villages through an otherwise rural area are likely to be near/next to the canal. And even when there's no villages, there may be marinas which have shops (for milk, other perishable supplies, etc).

[MtB]

Well done for deciphering the complexities of the question, thus enabling you to answer it. I'm still baffled by "in realtime", which I'm sure means "in real time", but what other sort of time would one use as a gauge?

 

 

Oh come on now. Surely you realise there are lots of types of time.

 

'Computer time' is a great example. Log onto CWF for ten minutes and when one returns to reality at the end of the ten minutes of 'computer time', two hours of 'real time' have slipped by!

[Tony Brooks]

But that does not take into account that one may have passed close to a shop but did not visit it. If we take Lady Muck's example she could have stopped at Napton and walked to the village store or maybe picked up essentials in the Folly shop. She could have walked to the Co-op in Fenny Crompton or used the Village stores in Cropedy. She probably took about three days between shopping but could have shopped every day if she wanted.

 

If you add the potential for stopping by a road bridge and catching a bus I doubt you are ever more than less than a day away from shopping.

[cuthound]

We often stock the boat before we set off and go for a week or so. As Paul C says, milk is the limiting factor, but can be frozen and taken out of the freezer part of the fridge the day before required .

[Paul C]

Whitchurch-Ellesmere (on the Llangollen canal) is quite rurally isolated. Also the Montgomery canal up to the Queen's Head is too. But are less than a day away from a shop.

 

If you wanted to, you could use the "(home) delivery" option of supermarkets and so long as you give an address/location they can find, re-supply that way. You'd need to know your local geography, so then it becomes "what's the greatest distance between road bridges". I guess some rivers might get a reasonable distance between accessible points? Eg Severn from Tewkesbury to Gloucester???

[Athy]

The longest villageless and shopless distance which I know is between Napton (good village store 1 mile from canal, useful canalside shop beside Folly Inn) and Fenny Compton (basic and rather haphazard shop in Wharf pub, probably better shops in village but we have never sought them), which is only ten miles as the crow flies - but the crow which followed the canal's winding route would have to be an exceedingly pissed crow. On the summit stretch stretch there's allegedly six miles of canal which is crossed by no public road - hard to believe in the fairly densely-populated Midlands. But starvation should not be an option.

[Paul C]

Finding yourself isolated without a shop for hours would be quite difficult really. However its much more skillful to plan a trip with decent journey times AND plan the supplies so you don't need to stop in eg a small village which might have restrictive opening times and expensive supplies, but rather stop somewhere near a cheap/big supermarket at the time you need to stock up.

 

Basically, there's tons of shops out and about for the essentials, but its relatively uncommon for a large supermarket to be easily accessible from the canal. The examples I can think of are Tesco (I think?) in Chester; the supermarket at the end of the Ellesmere branch of the Llangollen; there's one on the S&W which is nearby; and a new Morrisons (I think) in Northwich on the River Weaver. These are (much) closer than average, normally its a half mile walk or so (eg Morrisons in Stone on the T&M).

[Athy]

In Rugby, convenient Tesco's only a few hundred yards from the canal but invisible from it. Look for the footpath leading down from (from memory) Bridge 58.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Athy

[plumby]

thank you for your kind quotes.

nowhere is too isolated from a days reach of cruising then.

thank you

[Delta9]

Learn to trap ducks and never starve

[BruceinSanity]

The answer to milk storage is UHT. Skimmed or semi skimmed are much better tasting than the full cream stuff, though still not as good as fresh.

Finding yourself isolated without a shop for hours would be quite difficult really. However its much more skillful to plan a trip with decent journey times AND plan the supplies so you don't need to stop in eg a small village which might have restrictive opening times and expensive supplies, but rather stop somewhere near a cheap/big supermarket at the time you need to stock up.

 

Basically, there's tons of shops out and about for the essentials, but its relatively uncommon for a large supermarket to be easily accessible from the canal. The examples I can think of are Tesco (I think?) in Chester; the supermarket at the end of the Ellesmere branch of the Llangollen; there's one on the S&W which is nearby; and a new Morrisons (I think) in Northwich on the River Weaver. These are (much) closer than average, normally its a half mile walk or so (eg Morrisons in Stone on the T&M).

New Tesco in Rugeley.

[Athy]

thank you for your kind quotes.

nowhere is too isolated from a days reach of cruising then.

thank you

That's about right, as long as you do a bit of planning ahead - some villages have lost their shops and/or pubs in recent years, so guide books may be out of date and misleading.

[David Mack]

Basically, there's tons of shops out and about for the essentials, but its relatively uncommon for a large supermarket to be easily accessible from the canal.

They don't get much closer to the canal than the Tescos at Batchworth and Leighton Buzzard.

 

Batchworth:

 

Leighton Buzzard:

Edited May 9, 2016 by David Mack

[Ray T]

The longest stretch I can think of that is pretty rural is the Ashby from Hinckley Marina to Snareston. There are shops at Market Bosworth about a mile away from the canal, that is the largest conurbation on that section.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Ray T

[adam1uk]

thank you for your kind quotes.

nowhere is too isolated from a days reach of cruising then.

thank you

 

I'd suggest buying more than one day's food at a time.

[plumby]

Learn to trap ducks and never starve

thank you.

 

i was in the marines so there is nothing i cannot trap and or eat but id rather feed them than eat them. if needs must then needs do but ducks and water fowl already have released mink to contend with

good on ya

 

I'd suggest buying more than one day's food at a time.

thank you. i do intend to.

 

appreciated

[MtB]

Best place in England to hunt and trap for food is in Tesco.

[J R ALSOP]

I think I would buy some Nicolson's guides to find your way around.