hi all which are the uks quietest canals least used?

[bizzard]

Alimentary canal, no boats on it at all. Its a bit twisty and turny though, starts off quite nice, but mind yer head on the tonsils, gets a bit mucky towards the end, Safer to turn back after negotiating the duodenal ulcer.

[Athy]

Well there is one canal which is connected to the system with several locks which has had no boats on it for at least two years, that I am aware of, although it is currently closed due to a stoppage, UFN due to network rail, not that that matters as one can not get to it at the moment as the connecting river is also closed for the winter. However I would expect it to be avialable by the coming summer.

Any Guess.

The same canal is also trailerable (has slip ways) further up, in two places, but again I am not aware of any boats travelling along it for a good while (many years)

cheers Ian Mac

Somewhere in the Fens?

[Scholar Gypsy]

Well there is one canal which is connected to the system with several locks which has had no boats on it for at least two years, that I am aware of, although it is currently closed due to a stoppage, UFN due to network rail, not that that matters as one can not get to it at the moment as the connecting river is also closed for the winter. However I would expect it to be avialable by the coming summer.

Any Guess.

The same canal is also trailerable (has slip ways) further up, in two places, but again I am not aware of any boats travelling along it for a good while (many years)

cheers Ian Mac

 

River Derwent and Pocklington Canal? (I am guessing, not surfing the internet)...

[Naughty Cal]

 

River Derwent and Pocklington Canal? (I am guessing, not surfing the internet)...

The Ouse doesn't close for winter so I don't think so.

[Scholar Gypsy]

The Ouse doesn't close for winter so I don't think so.

 

I had in mind Barnby Barrage, which controls access to the Derwent. But (I am cheating now) the web suggests that this barrage is now open more rather than less, for ecological reasons.

[Naughty Cal]

The Welland or Glen perhaps?

[David Mack]

Manchester Bolton and Bury - bottom end at Salford?

[Ian Mac]

David Mack wins last years star prize - only one days stay in Ordsall. Coulkd be a great place and convienient to visit the Hall which is a great little gem.
The three locks are currently closed due to the building of the new Castlefield Link by Network Rail to link Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly stations via a western route. This new link is being done on the cheap and absolutely knackers using the worlds oldest main line terminal station, which is a real shame. MMSI sold their soul and the trustees should all be shot! Another topic maybe.
However the entrance from the river has scoured and the entrance channel was getting to the point where it needed dredging. I'm hoping that NR will be paying to have this work done, as they are now exasperating the problem. Once dredged it should then be usable this year if it opens again before September which is when the River closes again for the winter floods. Only open in the summer with 72hrs notice now. and a fee for non Bridgewater licensees

[Mac of Cygnet]

David Mack wins last years star prize - only one days stay in Ordsall. Coulkd be a great place and convienient to visit the Hall which is a great little gem.

The three locks are currently closed due to the building of the new Castlefield Link by Network Rail to link Victoria and Manchester Piccadilly stations via a western route. This new link is being done on the cheap and absolutely knackers using the worlds oldest main line terminal station, which is a real shame. MMSI sold their soul and the trustees should all be shot! Another topic maybe.

However the entrance from the river has scoured and the entrance channel was getting to the point where it needed dredging. I'm hoping that NR will be paying to have this work done, as they are now exasperating the problem. Once dredged it should then be usable this year if it opens again before September which is when the River closes again for the winter floods. Only open in the summer with 72hrs notice now. and a fee for non Bridgewater licensees

 

 

I'm guessing you mean Manchester Liverpool Road, but hasn't it rather missed the train anyway, having closed to passengers in 1844?

[Dorman]

On the Wyrley & Essington in Early November and a lady photographed us passing saying she had lived near the canal for a few years and NEVER seen a boat moving on it????

and yes we where on the canal not the road!

[pearley]

On the Wyrley & Essington in Early November and a lady photographed us passing saying she had lived near the canal for a few years and NEVER seen a boat moving on it????

and yes we where on the canal not the road!

Moored in Walsall Town Arm just before Christmas and a CRT Chugger came by as I had my arm down the weedhatch and said he'd been coming to chug outside the Art Gallery every Saturday for the past year and this was the first time he'd seen a boat, let alone 3 of us. He then went on to ask why I had my hand in the water.

 

I guess being observant is not a quality inbred in Walsalls inhabitants. On our return on 22 Dec I got my keb and removed all the muck which had blown into the corner. I sent an email to the councils Clean & Green team telling them what I'd done and where the pile of rubbish was. 24 hours later I received a reply asking where the canal basin was!

[Maffi]

The Wendesbury Oak Loop. Its a short canal only a couple of miles long. Shallow and the locals use it as a tip.

 

And probably the No1 must be the Croydon Canal. It hasnt seen a boat in years.

[rustydiver]

13'6" wide I think but might just be 13' - not that any of the gates open fully though. Depth is worst in the cutting coming out of the docks but not great anywhere, should think 2' would just about be OK but might struggle in places. No worry about passing other boats as you won't see any on the Bridgwater and Taunton canal!

 

Tom

 

I'm going to be sad now when i next go out for a walk around the docks ill take me tape measure to measure the footbridge with. It don't seem that wide but upon reflection I'm a 6 ft er and think its wider than me.

and the Pegotytom was a wide beam that used the canal then ended up in the docks as a live aboard.

[mross]

I'm on a lovely quiet stretch of the *********** canal but I can't tell you where it is in case you moor nearby and run your generator!

[Peter X]

The Wendesbury Oak Loop. Its a short canal only a couple of miles long. Shallow and the locals use it as a tip.

 

And probably the No1 must be the Croydon Canal. It hasnt seen a boat in years.

Although the canal was closed in 1836, there were boats on it as recently as 1934 (!) because the portion in Betts Park, Anerley was used as a boating lake:

http://dulwichonview.org.uk/2011/01/14/murder-most-foul-on-the-croydon-canal/

Rather ironically as the canal itself hasn't seen a boat for 82 years, there are boats to this day on South Norwood Lake, which was built as a feeder reservoir for the canal.

 

If anyone with a portable boat (rubber dinghy?) is up for it, it would be fun to go on it and get a few photos of the occasion for the forum. There's a slipway in Betts Park (perhaps a relic of its boating lake days) and I seem to recall it's easy to climb over the railings into it. One day in 1967 when I was 11 when the water had been drained for maintenance, my friend Nigel and I strolled down there and walked the length of the canal bed. Because it was there! Bromley Council own the park and the section of canal, so would be the navigation authority; can Nigel Moore advise us of whether we'd have a right of navigation or need a licence?

[Peter X]

I'm trying to answer my own question about the legality of boating on the Croydon Canal, and frankly it's a bit of a minefield. I think the relevant document is Bromley's "Byelaws for Pleasure Grounds", made in 1984 using the council's powers under section 17 of the Green Belt (London and Home Counties) Act 1938, in which section 12 states:

 

1. A person shall not in the pleasure ground

i. Bathe, wade, or wash in any ornamental lake, pond, stream or other water.

ii. Intentionally, recklessly, or negligently foul or pollute any such water;

iii. Intentionally disturb or worry any water fowl;

iv. Except in the pursuance of a lawful agreement with the Council or otherwise in the exercise of any lawful right or privilege, fish in any lake or stream, or otherwise kill, molest or intentionally disturb any such water;

v. Except in the exercise of any lawful right or privilege take or cause to be taken on to any lake or stream any boat or craft of any kind.

 

Item 1 covers the canal under "other water" but is only a problem if we fall in.

Item 5 appears to bar us, but does it? I'd argue it's a canal, not a lake or stream. And even if not, might there still be a lawful right to use it anyway under the original canal act? Perhaps not, because there was an Act passed specifically to close the canal.

[FadeToScarlet]

I reckon the Forty Foot to Welches Dam lock is a contender. Still technically navigable but I'd put money on it not seeing a boat at all for a few years.

[biggles47]

Wendover Arm on the GU South. It will probably stay very quiet until it's finally extended all the way to Wendover. Still worth the detour though.

 

The Aylesbury arm is also fairly quiet.

[Athy]

As mentioned earlier in another thread, n.b. Judd went past our house this weekend - probably the first boat movement since before Christmas (unless you count the bloke down the road moving his little narrowboat a couple of hundred yards because dredging is taking place along there).

[The Black Jack]

On 02/11/2016 at 10:32, bizzard said:

Gotta be the Alimentary canal, there are no boats on it at all.

There can still be stoppages though and the scenery is poor.

[bizzard]

2 hours ago, Mike A R Powell said:

There can still be stoppages though and the scenery is poor.

And hidden piles to puncture your boat.