Canals

The Canal & River Trust is the charity which is charged with managing and maintaining the majority of canals in England & Wales. Its idea of doing this seems to comprise erecting a huge number of blue signs and notices across the network. This is the old toll office at Marple which is listed Grade II. The wooden board upon which notices to boatmen were displayed is decaying, with the top to keep the rain off disintegrating. This has not prevented the placing of a hideous sign welcoming people to the Marple Welcome Station, whatever that is. Meanwhile a new notice has appeared on the porch which advises us that this is a Green Heritage Site, whatever that is. To cap it off the accessibility handles at the entrance have been made as bright and hideous as possible. Doesn't any of this require listed building consent?

Prince is one of two Royalty Class boats built in 1931 by James Pollock Sons & Co Ltd of Faversham. Kent, for Associated Canal Carriers Ltd. Seen here at Tramway Wharf in Marple on the Peak Forest Canal.

This is the River Class butty Yeo, built by EC Jones & Son of Brentford in 1959 for British Transport Waterways, a division of the British Transport Commission. The River Class boats were a new design of narrowboat, designed to be cheap and simple to construct and to have 20% extra carrying capacity over more traditional boats. They were built of welded steel sections and used blue glass fibre hatch covers instead of cloth covers.

Garden gates at the canal side of the cottages by the junction of the Macclesfield and Peak Forest Canals in Marple.

Fomer Fellows, Morton & Clayton motor boat 'Gailey' lies against the towpath on Marple Locks on the Peak Forest Canal. This 1937 built boat is now used as a maintenance boat in the Canal & River Trust heritage fleet.

Prince is one of two Royalty Class boats built in 1931 by James Pollock Sons & Co Ltd of Faversham. Kent, for Associated Canal Carriers Ltd. Seen here at Tramway Wharf in Marple on the Peak Forest Canal.

A recent trip through Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal gave an opportunity to view the great variety of finishes to the bore. Work commenced on the tunnel in 1795 and it was 1809 before the two end met. The first boat passed through in December 1810 with a grand opening ceremony on 4 April 1811. It was initially 5,445 yards long but has been extended at both ends to make it 5,675 yards. The canal was offcially abandoned in 1944 but was restored to navigation in 2001.

The Ellesmere Port lighthouse was completed in 1880 at the entrance to the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company docks and Whitby Locks. Whilst it marked the entrance from the Mersey estuary it became irrelevant once the Manchester Ship Canal was constructed and went out of use in 1894.

Norfolk Wherry Albion sails slowly upstream on the River Yare near Berney Arms. It was a great pleasure to see this rare survivor under sail. She was built for Bungay maltsters, W.D. and A.E. Walker in 1898 and has been in the care of the Norfolk Wherry Trust since 1949.

The Leamington Lift Bridge crosses the Union Canal near its terminus at Lochrin Basin in Edinburgh. The bridge was installed around 1906 where Fountainbridge crossed the canal replacing a previous bridge built in 1869. When the canal was shortened in 1922 to make Lochrin Basin the terminus it was moved to its present site to replace a wooden drawbridge. It fell out of use by the 1960s, but as part of the Millennium Link project to restore the Union Canal, it required to be restored at least to allow boats to pass. A report published in the year 2000 had suggested fixing it permanently open, but the decision was taken to restore it to full working order.

The Middleport Pottery opened in the 1880s and has continued in production to the present day. In 2009 with the business facing closure it was purchased by the Prince's Regeneration Trust and the buildings underwent restoration and regeneration. The boat is typical of those that carried pottery materials to the works and probably finished ware away for export.

The Macclesfield Canal has a long history of boathouses for storing pleasure boats when not in use. Those on the main line have been removed over the years, but there were, until recently, plenty to be seen along the High Lane arm which is used by the North Cheshire Cruising Club as a base. Sadly the move to larger steel boats has rendered these relics redundant and most have now been removed.

Narrowboat Alton at High Lane on its regular run along the Macclesfield Canal with supplies for boatowners. Diesel was a bit cheaper in 2009.

Former Fellows, Morton & Clayton motor boat 'Gailey' lies against the towpath on Marple Locks on the Peak Forest Canal. This 1937 built boat is now used as a maintenance boat in the Canal & River Trust heritage fleet.

Short narrowboat Elland at the start of the Trent and Mersey Canal at Dutton. This boat was built only 60 feet in length to enable it to use the shorter locks on many of the Yorkshire waterways. It was probably built for the Aire and Calder Navigation Company and it is believed that there were six boats of this type built, with Elland being the sole surviving example. The background has the roof over the canal company's drydock and tanker narrowboat Spey passing.