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Places with a bad reputation that don't deserve it


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48 minutes ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

Not quite  - 6 guillotines still manual I think, but easy to operate - but that was my point.  I still read lots of stuff about what a horrible river it is ...

They'd be fine if the handles were replaced. Otherwise it's a very pleasant river.

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1 minute ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

They were replaced with big wheels a few years ago. My crew found them very easy to operate. (2011 photo)

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Not too bad - if it's dry, but in the cold and wet you get cramp gripping the wheel. The large wheels have / had a hope, which I assume was for a handle. Probably removed because without a brake on the gear it could be dangerous... 

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58 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

Not too bad - if it's dry, but in the cold and wet you get cramp gripping the wheel. The large wheels have / had a hope, which I assume was for a handle. Probably removed because without a brake on the gear it could be dangerous... 

Last time I was there the wheels had a hole, but no handle. But you could put a screwdriver through the hole.

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When we were there we met and old boy (I am almost 70) who had made a handle to clamp onto the wheel, it probably took him as long to fix and remove the handle as it did me to operate the lock. Both me and his wife had our hearts in our mouths as he insisted on climbing on climbing down to the boat and then transferring from one to the other and he wasn't that steady on his pins

Edited by ditchcrawler
change mat to met
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1 hour ago, David Mack said:

Last time I was there the wheels had a hole, but no handle. But you could put a screwdriver through the hole.

We were told some years ago that the EA staff have handles designed to fit in the hole.

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10 hours ago, OldGoat said:

They'd be fine if the handles were replaced. Otherwise it's a very pleasant river.

They had handles the first time I used the Nene but had been removed the next time. I seem to recall being told that they had been removed after a boater's wrist was broken when it was hit by the handle whilst the wheel was spinning.

Tim

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5 hours ago, Bunny said:

Banbury seems to have a bad reputation. We'v never had a problem in 15 years . Bunny . 

In 30 plus years of leaving Fulbourne moored on the towpath for weeks on end between trips we have only been vandalised once, in Banbury!

Tim

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On 1/25/2018 at 00:01, Philip said:

I notice Liverpool hasn't been mentioned yet. Is the run into the city from Maghull still the 'proceed with caution' journey that it was 20-30 years ago?

Wigan still gets a bad press; I don't know how 'safe' it is the leave the boat or moor for the night near the bottom, but the locks themselves are in a rather tidy and pleasant situation pretty much from top to bottom (apart from locks 21-22 maybe).

The "normal" run encouraged by CRT these days is to go from Aintree right the way down into Salthouse dock as a single run.

There are plenty of places on that run I would cheerfully moor, but time constraints stopped us doing it last year, so we did not stop en route. (Apart from when we nearly crashed into Emily Anne at Maghull ;) )

Regarding Wigan, we often "dump" the boat by the dry dock for a week or two at a time, and have never had any problems.  A friend who thought that was too risky got his boat broken into twice at Crooke Hall which everyone regards a a "safe" mooring, and once had his car broken into when someone watched him get on the boat and sail off.

We don't tend to moor in the junction pound itself as it's too far to walk to Wigan Central! (one of CAMRA's top 16 pubs in the country last year.)

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Blackburn.

Like any other urban section there are places you would not want to moor for an extended period, but Eanam Wharf itself should be considered a destination in it's own right.

A short walk to the city centre, a restaurant/bar on the wharf itself, and very boat and boater friendly.

 

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9 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

In 30 plus years of leaving Fulbourne moored on the towpath for weeks on end between trips we have only been vandalised once, in Banbury!

Tim

We cruised Rugby to Banbury last summer, our first time, arrived on busy saturday lunchtime and got vandalised by the friggin lift bridge !. Leading boat hadnt raised it high enough and i was unaware, thought we,d just squeeze through, maybe knock my coolly hat off but just misjudged it by a knats cock and CRUNCH ! My original doubled skinned stainless steel chimly buckled under the impact.  Lots of amused gongoozlas.  The chimly was impossible to straighten and almost impossible to remove, it had welded itself on over the years.  I bought a new expensive stainless replacement but keep in the gas locker until needed. I wont be going gack to Banbury any time soon.!

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Having stood up for Reading on this topic, I must confess that the only place I've trashed a chimney (or other roof item) under a bridge was the pipe bridge in Reading Gaol loop. Fortunately it was a cheap basic chimney, but it's a mistake I intend never to repeat. Risking a chimney I mean, I will happily go to Reading again.

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15 hours ago, Irob said:

We cruised Rugby to Banbury last summer, our first time, arrived on busy saturday lunchtime and got vandalised by the friggin lift bridge !. Leading boat hadnt raised it high enough and i was unaware, thought we,d just squeeze through, maybe knock my coolly hat off but just misjudged it by a knats cock and CRUNCH ! My original doubled skinned stainless steel chimly buckled under the impact.  Lots of amused gongoozlas.  The chimly was impossible to straighten and almost impossible to remove, it had welded itself on over the years.  I bought a new expensive stainless replacement but keep in the gas locker until needed. I wont be going gack to Banbury any time soon.!

Yours is not the only chimney to come to grief there but that can happen on any lift bridge

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17 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Yours is not the only chimney to come to grief there but that can happen on any lift bridge

In the eastern flatlands, where the guillotine gate rules, it's the height of anti-social behaviour to raise the the gate just as far a necessary to slip underneath, rather than the full travel. The next boat to come along should be paying attention. but often they're not.

 

MP.

 

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21 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

Blackburn.

Like any other urban section there are places you would not want to moor for an extended period, but Eanam Wharf itself should be considered a destination in it's own right.

A short walk to the city centre, a restaurant/bar on the wharf itself, and very boat and boater friendly.

 

Yes and same for Burnley some nice spots between the two too. 

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10 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Yours is not the only chimney to come to grief there but that can happen on any lift bridge

I,ve nothing against Banbury, it seems a nice place. I,m just embarrassed locals may recognise me,  point fingers and laugh. I,m a bit sensitive you know !

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