Canals

The Wyrley Branch canal was originally northern end of the main line of the Wyrley and Essington Canal when it opened in 1795 to a wharf close to Cannock Lodge Colliery. It became a branch shortly after when the extension from Sneyd to Huddlesford on the Coventry Canal was completed in 1797. Several further branches were constructed off this line, but all had fallen derelict by 1954 when this section was abandoned. This view is looking into the bottom lock at Sneyd Junction.

The tarboat is out and about and headed up the Macclesfield Canal today. 'Spey' is seen here leaving lock 4 on the Bosley flight.

I walked the dogs along the canal towpath today but there were no boats moving as the cut was frozen over. The ice had been broken by a boat a day or so ago, but the channel was now well frozen.

Alongside the Rochdale Canal in Ancoats are this fine group of cotton mills. From the right are Murray's Decker Mill (1801-02) and Old Mill (1798), McConnel & Kennedy's Sedgwick Mill (1819-20) and Royal Mill 1912), with Brownsfield Mill (1825) in the left distance.

Tanker narrowboat Spey enters the top lock at Etruria in the Trent & Mersey Canal. Shirley's Etruscan Bone and Flint Mill forms the background. These days it forms the Etruria Industrial Museum although financial problems afflict the museum since the local council pulled out of any interest in order to save money.

The open day at Bullholme Lock, Castleford, proved very popular with many people taking the opportunity to descend into the drained chamber and inspect the gate replacement works close-up. The lock is about 460ft long although there are intermediate gates at the point I was standing which allow just 200ft of the chamber to be used when a 700-tonne Euro-barge standard vessel is passing. The longer chamber was used when trains of compartment boats were passing through.

The Canal & River Trust held an open day today at Bullholme Lock, Castleford, on the Aire & Calder Navigation. The lock has had two new sets of gates fitted and now awaits the new cills. Stairways had been erected to allow visitors to descend to the bottom of the lock chamber to see the work close-up. These two craftsmen were answering questions about fitting the gates and the various techniques necessary to make everything fit and to keep the seals watertight. It can be a heavy, cold and dirty job and they deserve recognition for their work. Thanks lads for answering all my questions so patiently and thoroughly.

Good Friday at Bosley Locks and not a boat to be seen in the ice. This must be the first Easter that I haven't seen a boat on the move at the locks, but then the canal isn't usually frozen at Easter.

Photographs of the Macclesfield Canal showing working boats are scarce and I have been seeking a view of a boat associated with the fireclay traffic for some time. The best I have managed so far is this newspaper photograph from 1934 which was taken from Sugar Lane bridge in Adlington looking toward the Clarence Mill in Bollington. If you look closely at the canal near to the chimney it appears that there is a boat there, probably bringing in coal for the boilers. Nearer to the camera is a boat at the wharf for the Clarence fireclay mine operated by John Hall & Son (Dukinfield) Limited which supplied their works in Dukinfield with up to six 18 ton boatloads of clay per week. Clay, and a small amount of coal, was brought from the mine off in the fields to the left in tubs and tipped down chutes into the boat. The boat is most likely to be named "Benefactor" as this was a regular on this run at the time. The mine closed in 1938.

Sunset at Rossmore Quay on the Galway shore of Lough Derg. Jefferson surveys the barge that had brought us to this quiet place for the night.

Tanker narrowboat descending the lower section of the Rushall Locks near Walsall on the Birmingham Canal Navigations. There isn't much traffic on these further reaches of the BCN which is a great shame as the boating is lovely.

Dereliction at the entrance lock to Weston Point Docks from the Manchester Ship Canal. The current owners, Stobart Group, have since demolished much of the old infrastructure on this area.

Pyrotechnic celebrations at the bicentenary of the Pontcysyllte aqueduct on the Llangollen (Ellesmere) Canal.

I suppose this could be called a waybill, although it does not list the consignor(s) or consignee(s) of the goods. It was used to give details of the cargo for use in charging toll by the Canal Company. On November 3rd 1832 Pickford & Co's Boat was loaded at Preston Brook with sundries and cotton twist for delivery at Stoke, Horninglow, Derwent Mouth, and Derby, on a journey that would have been on the Trent & Mersey Canal to Swarkestone and then along the Derby Canal. The Railway Age was yet to arrive and the canals were the main bulk carriers of goods.

The Strépy-Thieu boat lift was designed during the Canal du Centre's modernisation program in order to replace a system of two locks and four 16-metre lifts dating from 1888 to 1919. Building started in 1981 and was completed in 2002 after which 1350 tonne standard barges were able to pass between the Meuse and Scheldt rivers. It is the tallest boat lift in the world with a rise of 73.15 metres.

The steam engines that assisted the waterwheels in powering George Andrew's cotton mill at Compstall required coal for the boilers and this was supplied for a time by a mine high up in Ernocroft Wood to the east of the River Etherow. The coal was brought down a self-acting incline and across the river on a trestle bridge to a staithe at the side of the canalised leat feeding the mill reservoirs from a weir upstream. From here tub boats hauled the coal in loads of about 8 tons to the mill. This is the remains of the last surviving tub boat which now sits rotting at the edge of the pool near the weir. These boats were 22 feet 6½ inches long by 6 feet 5 inches wide at the gunnels and at the bottom of the hold they were 18 feet 10 inches long, the vertical sides being 3 feet 2½ inches high. They were constructed of wrought-iron plates riveted together and towing rings were attached to the gunnels. There were also four rowlocks, used for steering purposes, as there was no rudder. The coal traffic on the navigation seems to have ended at some point between 1848 and the 1860s.

A whole fleet of tarboats are tied up here at the yard of Thomas Clayton (Oldbury) Limited on the Titford Canal. Thes boats carried gasworks bye products such as gas tar and ammonia water to Midland Tar Distillers at Oldbury and from the mid 1950s at Four Ashes on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Until the mid 1950s they also brought gas oil from Stanlow on the Manchester Ship Canal. Clayton's canal operations ran down in the 1960s and their yard seen here disappeared under the M5 motorway viaduct after 1966.

Tanker narrowboat having just turned off the New Cut towards Chester at Barbridge Junction. The boat was heading to its old destination at Ellesmere Port where it once regularly loaded gas oil on the Manchester Ship Canal at Stanlow.