Horses were gradually replaced with steam and then diesel engines. By the end of the 19th century it was common practice to paint roses and castles on narrowboats and their fixtures and fittings. This tradition has continued into the 21st century, but not all narrowboats have such decorations. Modern narrowboats are used for holidays, weekend breaks, touring, or as permanent or part-time residences.
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The Saltisford Canal Trust has restored most of the surviving canal, which is now the mooring for colourful narrowboats and a waterside park open to the public. Over 800 visiting narrowboats come by water to Warwick each year and moor on the arm.
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They have since been restored for use by leisure narrowboats, now forming part of the Cheshire Ring.
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As no CAD information was available on narrowboats, the motion of articulated lorries were used to design the bends of the bridge approaches.
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Another historic term for a narrow boat is a long boat, this name was used in the Midlands and especially on the River Severn and connecting waterways to Birmingham. Usage has not quite settled down as regards (a) boats based on narrowboat design, but too wide for narrow canals; or (b) boats the same width as narrowboats but based on other types of boat. Narrowboats may have ship prefix NB.
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Echoing narrowboats, a widebeam's stern may be a cruiser stern or a "semi-trad"; but these days it is rare to see a widebeam with a traditional stern. The CRT gives a picture is of a boat wider than a narrowboat, but built in the style of a narrowboat. Unlike some traditional narrowboats, a modern widebeam will rarely have a walk-through engine room with an antique engine such as a Bolinder; its engine will normally be found beneath the stern deck. Whereas (except at the bow and stern) a narrowboat will normally have a rectangular cross-section below the gunwales, (although narrowboats with V-shaped bilge sections are not unknown), many widebeams may have a chined cross-section.
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The coal branch left the canal below the tunnel. The canal had 22 locks, and three tunnels. Like many English canals it was built to carry valuable cargoes by narrowboats.
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Roses and Castles is a style of art used to decorate narrowboats and their fittings. As well as depicting roses and/or castles, the designs often include other flowers and landscapes.
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A narrowboat with a center cockpit moored on the river Stort between Roydon and Harlow While the vast majority of narrowboats have tiller steering at the stern, a small number of steel narrowboats dispense with the need for a rear steering deck entirely, by imitating some river cruisers in providing wheel steering from a central cockpit. This layout has the advantage (as have many Dutch barges) of enabling an aft cabin to be separate from the forward accommodation.
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She is owned and operated by Keith and Jo Lodge. Keith first started working on canals in 1968 at the age of 15 on an ex-working narrowboat Pisces now operated by the Hillingdon Narrowboats Association, which is still running today as a community trip boat, which she was when Keith started on her. Hadar is a close copy of Pisces. Jo was introduced to canals and narrowboats when she met Keith in the year 2000.
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Modern narrowboats on the Kennet and Avon Canal The number of licensed boats on canals and rivers managed by the Canal & River Trust (CRT), a charitable trust, formerly British Waterways, was estimated at about 27,000 in 2006. By 2014 this number had risen to over 30,000. There were perhaps another 5,000 unlicensed boats kept in private moorings or on other waterways in 2006.Boating : British Waterways Most boats on CRT waterways are steel (or occasionally, aluminium) cruisers popularly referred to as narrowboats.
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It became part of a trans-Pennine route in 1811 when the Huddersfield Narrow Canal joined it at Aspley Basin. Traffic was hampered by the long narrowboats used on the narrow canal that could not use Ramsden's Canal's shorter locks. Goods were transhipped at Aspley Basin, and although shorter narrowboats were built, its success as a trans-Pennine route was overshadowed by the Rochdale Canal which had wide locks throughout and joined the Calder and Hebble Navigation at Sowerby Bridge. The canal passed into railway ownership in 1845, but prospered into the 20th century.
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Modern narrowboats for leisure cruising, Bugsworth Basin, Buxworth, Derbyshire, England A narrowboat is a particular type of canal boat, built to fit the narrow locks of the United Kingdom. The UK's canal system provided a nationwide transport network during the Industrial Revolution, but with the advent of the railways, commercial canal traffic gradually diminished and the last regular long-distance traffic disappeared in 1970. However, some commercial traffic continued into the 1980s and beyond. To enter a narrow lock, a narrowboat must be under wide, so most narrowboats are just wide.
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Two of the narrowboats belonged to the mill, having been bought in 1856 and plying between there and the Midlands for 60 years until the mill sold them in 1916. Narrowboats continued to serve Wolvercote until at least the 1950s, by which time the mill used mechanical equipment to unload them. The mill was rebuilt in 1955, ceased paper-making in 1998 and was demolished in 2004. The University of Oxford plans to develop the site as housing for its staff, but rising cost estimates and local objections have led the University to reduce the scale of its plans significantly.
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CCS ceased to exist in 1990 and this part of the canal has nearly reverted to pre-restoration condition. Attempts are being made to restore the canal and about of it remains in water. In March 2013 dredging began on a 1.3-mile length between Leawood Pumphouse and Cromford Wharf with the aim of making it navigable for narrowboats. This section is now open for narrowboats The towpath from Ambergate to Cromford is now a very popular walking route, with the Derwent Valley Line adjacent, Leawood Pump House and the High Peak Junction of the Cromford and High Peak Railway.
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The main canal was long, with branches totalling to Chippenham, Calne, Wantage and Longcot. It was cut to take narrowboats long and wide. There were 42 locks on the main line and three on the Calne branch. There were three short tunnels.
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The first sod was turned by the Lord Ward on 31 December 1855 and the canal opened on 20 August 1858, providing a waterway connection between the Black Country towns of Netherton and Tipton. It was built to relieve the bottleneck of the adjacent Dudley Tunnel which is very narrow, has alternating blocks of one-way working, and had waiting times of eight hours or more, and sometimes several days. The Netherton tunnel was built with a width of to allow two-way working of narrowboats; and is brick lined throughout. It has towpaths running through it, one on each side, which enabled horse-drawn narrowboats to be pulled through it.
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Swing bridges, which were across the Albert Dock and Wapping Basin entrances, were also replaced with fixed structures. Narrowboats at the mooring in Salthouse Dock. The remaining transit shed gable end is to the mid- left, across the dock. Liverpool Cathedral is the tallest building in the background, beyond.
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The tunnel did not have a towpath, and narrowboats were therefore pushed through the tunnel by their crews. This process of the crew pushing against the walls or roof of a canal tunnel with their legs in order to propel the narrowboat through the tunnel is called Legging.
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Modern leisure narrowboats are used for holidays, weekend breaks, touring, as permanent or part-time residences. Usually, they have steel hulls and a steel superstructure, but when they were first being developed for leisure use in the 1970s glass reinforced plastic (fibre-glass) or timber was often used above gunwale height. Newer narrowboats, say post 1990, are usually powered by modern diesel engines and may be fitted inside to a high standard. There will be at least internal headroom and often or usually similar domestic facilities as land homes: central heating, flush toilets, shower or even bath, four-ring hobs, oven, grill, microwave oven, and refrigerator; some may have satellite television and mobile broadband, using 4G technology.
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A water bus near London Zoo The London Waterbus Company has a fleet of four traditional canal barges or narrowboats which have been converted to carry passengers as a water bus service. Two of the vessels are of historic interest and are noted on the National Register of Historic Ships.
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The proximity to the River Soar also means that Sileby has an active marina where some residents live on narrowboats and others store their pleasurecraft at the permanent moorings available. Boats can also be hired as well as minor repair work undertaken and boat supplies purchased at the small chandlery.
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The plane was designed by Gordon Cale Thomas, after a large-scale prototype was built at the company's Bulbourne yard and he had assessed the climb. It had two tanks, or caissons, each capable of holding two narrowboats or a barge. The caissons were full of water, and so balanced each other.
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Originally a toll point, the canal narrows significantly as it approaches the basin. There is an old toll house on the bank called Junction Cottage, built in 1814. The basin itself is a large expanse of water adjacent to the canal. It is used for turning narrowboats and filling up with water.
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The basin is becoming something of a visitor attraction. Narrowboats and cruisers can be seen along the private stretch of moorings and day boat hire was introduced in 2007. Boats can be hired for full days or half days. There is a unique narrow boat café which was itself a former canal boat.
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The tunnels also helped provide much needed drainage for the mines. Only small narrowboats with capacity could use these side tunnels. Between 1914 and 1954 an electric tug was used to pull boats through the tunnel. In 1954 a large fan was constructed at the south portal to improve ventilation for diesel-powered craft.
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Horses were still thought to be cheaper, and remained in use until the carrying business ceased. In order to fulfill the carrying business, they owned 213 narrowboats in 1870, rising to 395 in 1889 and 450 in 1902. In 1888 they experimented with locomotive haulage, running on gauge tracks, at Worleston on the Middlewich Branch.
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Narrowboats inside the lock Tuel Lane Lock is a canal lock, situated on the Rochdale Canal in Sowerby Bridge, England. It was built in 1996 as part of the canal's restoration, and replaces two previous locks, locks 3 and 4, from the original canal system. With a fall of , it is the deepest lock in the United Kingdom.
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Huddlesford is a village 2 km east of the city of Lichfield, in the English county of Staffordshire. Population details as taken at the 2011 census can be found under Whittington. It is bisected by the Trent Valley Line (part of the West Coast Main Line). Most of the population live on narrowboats around Huddlesford canal junction.
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Three Mills Residential Moorings in 2010 Three Mills Residential Moorings is a community of twenty residential narrowboats moored on the Three Mills Wall River Weir near Three Mills in Mill Meads. Historically a tidal stretch of water, the residential moorings were converted to non-tidal in preparation for the London 2012 Olympics by the construction of a weir.
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The nearby A500 gives access to the M6 motorway. Longport railway station offers direct connections south into Stoke, east to Derby and Nottingham, and north to Crewe and Manchester. The town is straddled by two major off-road cycle paths, part of the National Cycle Network. The Trent and Mersey canal is said to see over 10,000 narrowboats a year using it.
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Chundan vallams or snake boats are narrowboats over long, with a raised prow that stands above water and resembles the hood of a snake. Traditionally these were used by local rulers to transport soldiers during waterfront wars. In modern times, it has spawned a new sport – the Vallam Kali (boat race). Each Chandan vallam accommodates about a hundred muscular oarsmen.
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The Coventry paid a dividend right up to 1947 and remained navigable to the present day. Today, the canal is also a popular route for narrowboat trips. Many tourists hire narrowboats to explore Coventry's industrial heritage. It was nationalised in 1948 being operated first by the British Transport Board and then by the British Waterways Board, the forerunners of British Waterways.
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Its last were lost in the 1970s saving a disused road bridge that stands isolated in a car park. Warwick's narrowboat moorings are on the Arm by a public park partly in view of the Castle. Over 800 visiting narrowboats cruise to Warwick each year and moor on the arm. The Leicester Line has two modest arms of its own, see Grand Union Canal (old).
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Cooks Wharf is a hamlet in the parish of Cheddington, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located where the main road into Cheddington from Pitstone crosses the Grand Union Canal. At the 2011 Census the population of the area was included in the civil parish of Marsworth. Apples from the surrounding orchards were loaded onto the narrowboats here to travel down the canal to London.
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Geese rearing was once an important local activity, and a goose is still one of the village symbols. Horses and cattle are still grazed on Wolvercote Common and Port Meadow. Bridge and narrowboats on the Oxford Canal near the Plough Inn. In 1789 the Oxford Canal divided the village into two parts, and in 1846 the Oxford and Rugby Railway was built beside the canal through the village.
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The museum houses memorabilia, papers and photographs relating to the canal, which was constructed between 1794 and 1810. After falling into disuse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the canal was restored and formally reopened in 1990; the visitor book at the museum was signed by Queen Elizabeth II upon this reopening. The museum also holds models of locks and narrowboats along with traditionally decorated implements traditionally used on the working boats.
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Eyot House, footbridge and gate in front Residential narrowboats pictured in front of D'Oyly Carte Island looking west from Desborough Island D'Oyly Carte Island is a small private island in the River Thames, England, administratively and historically part of Weybridge, near its other inhabited islands and near part of Old Shepperton, on the reach above Sunbury Lock, 200 metres downstream from Shepperton Lock. Before 1890 the island was known as Folly Eyot.
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Passing through a rural landscape, there was little freight traffic to justify its continued existence - the canal was officially abandoned in 1871. Without maintenance, the canal gradually became derelict over much of its length. However, since 1970, restoration by The Wey & Arun Canal Trust has led to several miles being restored to the standard navigable by narrowboats and small tour barges. Work is continuing, with the ultimate aim of reopening the entire canal to navigation.
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Forget me not (1927), at the basin in September 2010 The Portland Basin hosts the Wooden Canal Boat Society which has restored and works six traditional narrowboats. The Society was formed as a charitable company limited by guarantee in 1996, and took over the assets of the former Wooden Canal Boat Trust in 1997. It became a registered charity in 1998, and the first boat was moved to Portland Basin Museum in 1996.
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St Pancras Cruising Club St Pancras Cruising Club (SPCC) is a members' association of boat owners located between Camden Town and Islington on the Regent's Canal in central London. Most boats in the basin are narrowboats, the most common form of craft on the British canals. As the club is near to King's Cross station, it is affected by the ongoing developments at King's Cross Central, formerly known as the Railway Lands.
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Sanders has also cycled to the source of the White Nile, across the Sahara to Timbuktu and the length of South America. He has also taken two narrowboats across the English Channel and along the entire length of the Danube to the Black Sea. Sanders holds a private pilot licence for a hot air balloon and flies microlights. Born in 1958 in Manchester he now lives in Wales and has three children.
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The maximum length is about , which matches the length of the longest locks on the system. Modern narrowboats tend to be shorter, to permit cruising anywhere on the connected network of British canals — including on canals built for wider, but shorter, boats. The shortest lock on the main network is Salterhebble Middle Lock on the Calder and Hebble Navigation, at about long. However, the C&H; is a wide canal, so the lock is about wide.
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In other use since the outset, the canal, for some Londoners together with the Regent's Canal provided an easy way to embark on a holiday to the countryside within a mile of many Londoners who could afford the hire of a narrowboat. The Paddington Arm retains a present tourist function. These facilities in marinas and basins also support London's communities living on narrowboats. Some facilities are provided by the Canal and River Trust which administers many British canals.
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Chesterfield Canal, in Retford, next to Town Lock Retford is connected to the UK Inland Waterways network by the Chesterfield Canal. Indeed, up to Retford the canal was built to be accessible by broad-beam boats rather than the more usual narrowboats, Retford Town Lock being the first narrow lock on the canal from its junction with the River Trent at West Stockwith. However, narrow sections now prevent such craft reaching Retford.Richardson, Christine, Lower John (2010).
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The Trent and Mersey Canal is a canal in Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire in north-central England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities to the east of Burton upon Trent and north of Middlewich, it is a wide canal. The narrow locks and bridges are big enough for a single narrowboat wide by long, while the wide locks can accommodate boats wide, or two narrowboats next to each other.
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River Thames and Lechlade Lechlade is the highest town to which the River Thames is navigable by relatively large craft including narrowboats. It is possible to travel by river or on foot from here to London. Indeed, in the early eighteenth century goods unloaded in Bristol were transported to Gloucester, carried overland to Lechlade and sent down the Thames to London.Privateer: Life aboard a British Privateer In the time of Queen Anne 1708-1711 – Captain Woodes Rogers.
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Savick Brook navigation weir; Ribble Link, near Lea In December 2000 construction began to turn a section of the brook west of Cottom Mill bridge into a navigation canal as part of the Ribble Link, a scheme to connect the previously isolated Lancaster Canal to the River Ribble. Opened in July 2002, the Link has a series of nine locks to allow small craft and narrowboats up to in length and in width to transit between the two waterways.
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Externally, their resemblance to traditional boats can vary from a faithful imitation (false "rivets", and copies of traditional paintwork) through "interpretation" (clean lines and simplified paintwork) through to a free-style approach which does not try to pretend in any way that this is a traditional boat. They are owned by individuals, shared by a group of friends (or by a more formally organised syndicate), rented out by holiday firms, or used as cruising hotels. A few boats are lived on permanently: either based in one place (though long-term moorings for residential narrowboats are currently very difficult to find) or continuously moving around the network (perhaps with a fixed location for the coldest months, when many stretches of canal are closed by repair works or "stoppages"). A support infrastructure has developed to provide services to the leisure boats, with some narrowboats being used as platforms to provide services such as engine maintenance and boat surveys; while some others are used as fuel tenders, that provide diesel, solid fuel (coal and wood) and Calor Gas.
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Usually, they have steel hulls and a steel superstructure. The hull's flat base is usually 10mm thick, the hull sides 6mm or 8mm, the cabin sides 6mm, and the roof 4mm or 6mm. The numbers of boats have been rising, with the number of licensed boats (not all of them narrowboats) on canals and rivers managed by the Canal & River Trust (CRT) estimated at about 27,000 in 2006 and over 30,000 in 2014. In 2019 this had risen to 34,367.
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The key distinguishing feature of a narrowboat is its width, which must be less than wide to navigate British narrow canals. Some old boats are very close to this limit (often built or slightly wider), and can have trouble using certain narrow locks whose width has been reduced over time because of subsidence. Modern boats are usually produced to a maximum of wide to guarantee easy passage throughout the complete system. Because of their slenderness, some narrowboats seem very long.
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To help with the unending task of repairing and maintaining the society's wooden boat fleet, Tameside Council made available a piece of land to serve as a boatyard. Heritage Lottery funding was obtained, and the boatyard frontage will be completed. Future plans include the erection of a visitor and education centre from which visitors and school students will be able to observe the restoration work on the narrowboats. In September 2015 Hazel completed some trial voyages as she neared restoration.
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While the narrowboats went via the tunnel, boat horses were led over Harecastle Hill via "Boathorse Road". A lodgekeeper (now Bourne Cottage at ) monitored the movement of the tow-horses, who were often led by boat children, as they crossed the high ground between Kidsgrove and Tunstall. Within years of the Brindley tunnel opening, its limitation in design soon became evident. The industrial revolution had resulted in rapid growth and increased demand for coal and other raw materials in the Potteries.
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British Waterways maintains a gravel shoal immediately upstream of the marina entrance past Llangollen Wharf. This maintains a draught which most narrowboats cannot pass, but which is passable by the shallow draughted trip boats. In 2005, a marina was constructed by British Waterways, just upstream from Llangollen Wharf, to relieve the acute shortage of casual moorings, and provides 33 berths. About downstream of the wharf there are about a dozen visitor moorings complete with individual electricity and water pedestals at each.
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The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct (; ) is a navigable aqueduct that carries the Llangollen Canal across the River Dee in the Vale of Llangollen in northeast Wales. The 18-arched stone and cast iron structure is for use by narrowboats and was completed in 1805 having taken ten years to design and build. It is 12 ft (3.7 metres) wide and is the longest aqueduct in Great Britain and the highest canal aqueduct in the world. A footpath runs alongside the watercourse on one side.
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There are nine locks on the next relatively short section of just from the junction to Apsley Basin. The locks are again keel-sized, and the canal was completed in 1780. Apsley Basin developed once the Huddersfield Narrow Canal opened, as the narrow boats were too long to continue along the Broad Canal, and so goods had to be transhipped. A compromise was reached with the introduction of West Riding narrowboats, which were short enough to work through both systems.
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The development of Tividale Quays was one of the first of many housing developments to help improve Tipton's reputation. The basin, and the canal side quays either side of the entrance to the basin, have mooring rings that are used by visiting narrowboats. The basin is regularly used by fishing clubs in the West Midlands and the surrounding area, with tournaments and competitions taking place on a regular basis. Surrounding streets include Monins Avenue, St Michaels Way and Wyn-Griffith Drive.
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Standard narrowboats and widebeams have engines with sufficient power to move the vessel in calm water; any canal boat wishing to take to the sea, or a fast-flowing river, or a tidal estuary (such as the River Severn), should have an engine with considerably more power than usual. There is a plan to make a north-south link around Bedford, but this may take decades to accomplish."Imray's Map of the Inland Waterways of Great Britain" showing the proposed north-south link.
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A cruising widebeam's LOA is limited by the length of the shortest lock, its beam by the width of the narrowest lock (or some other width restrictions), and its draft by the canal's depth. (A canal is shallower at the sides than in the centre). Compared to narrowboats, this is a significant disadvantage for widebeams, particularly when meeting other boats.). A further restriction is that, if a cruising widebeam is to negotiate bridges and tunnels, its air draft must allow adequate clearance.
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Also distances along the canals in English navigated by narrowboats are commonly expressed in miles and furlongs. The city of Chicago's street numbering system allots a measure of 800 address units to each mile, in keeping with the city's system of eight blocks per mile. This means that every block in a typical Chicago neighborhood (in either north–south or East–west direction but rarely both) is approximately one furlong in length. Salt Lake City's blocks are also each a square furlong in the downtown area.
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Olga Kevelos (6 November 1923 - 28 October 2009) was an English Motorcycle trials and enduro rider who was the only woman to win two gold medals at the International Six-Day Trial.Obituary for Olga Kevelos, The Daily Telegraph, 26 November 2009. Born in Edgbaston, Birmingham, she was educated at King Edward VI High School for Girls. Kevelos was one of the women who during the Second World War were recruited from 1943 to 1945 to work narrowboats on the Grand Union Canal between Birmingham and London.
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Students picnic on the Union Canal in 1922. The canal is now used recreationally by canoeists at the Forth Canoe Club and rowers from schools and universities, such as St Andrew Boat Club, George Heriots School Rowing Club and George Watsons College Rowing Club. The Edinburgh Canal Society, the Bridge 19-40 Canal Society and Linlithgow Union Canal Society promote general use of the canal. They hire rowing boats and narrowboats, and they provide regular boat trips on the canal for the general public.
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Parts of the channel were dredged in 2010 to improve flood defences. The canal is no longer navigable, and is maintained by the Environment Agency as a main drainage channel. The remains of the lower five lock chambers and the abutments of the tow-path bridge where the River Ancholme towpath crossed the canal are now grade II listed structures.West Lindsey Local Plan: Appendix 4: Schedule of listed buildings (Entries for South Kelsey) Despite being closed, two narrowboats successfully reached the first lock in 2002.
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The canal was the 'motorway' of its day and narrowboats carried produce and supplies to and from North Wales (coal, slate, gypsum and lead ore). Finished lead (for roofing, water pipes and sewerage), produced in the huge leadworks in Egerton Street Newtown, was exported all over the country. Grain from the Cheshire farmlands was processed in the large mills and granaries on the banks of the canal at Newtown and Boughton; and salt (for preserving food such as fish and meat) came from Northwich.
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A butty boat is an unpowered boat traditionally with a larger rudder with (usually) a wooden tiller (known as an elum, a corruption of helm) as the steering does not benefit from the force of water generated by the propeller. The tiller is usually removed and reversed in the rudder-post socket to get it out of the way when moored. A few butty boats have been converted into powered narrowboats like NB Sirius. The term butty is derived from a dialect word meaning companion.
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The first festival was held in 1950, inspired by car rallies which Tom Rolt, one of the founders of the Inland Waterways Association, had attended prior to the Second World War. It was held at Market Harborough, as the location was not restricted to narrowboats. The rally was called the Market Harborough Festival of Boats and Arts. The arts element of the festival was an addition made by Robert Aickman and was one of the elements that led to the eventual split between Rolt and Aickman.
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Inland Waterways Association, Historic Campaigns, Peak Forest Canal, accessed 2 January 2010 Work included sealing the bottom of the basin to stop leakage, stonework repair and environmental measures to conserve the site's protected water vole population. Although restoration and reopening of the basin has been achieved, waterways enthusiasts want to make future improvements and developments. These include an interpretative exhibition about Bugsworth's history and reopening part of the tramway. Bugsworth Basin was officially reopened on 26 March 2005 when 94 narrowboats attended the opening ceremony.
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Currently the tidal section is being furbished and improved by volunteers of "Friends of Dartford and Crayford Creek". to permit marine traffic, such as narrowboats and leisure cruisers to sail up to Steam Crane Wharf and beyond, to overnight or stay awhile. Much mud was laid down by river and tide from 1986 when the Creek was effectively abandoned. The tops of some mudbanks are now some two metres high; while others would need only minimal adjustment to accommodate the movement and docking of largish craft with no impact on the nature of the river.
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Traditional-stern narrowboats at Saul, Gloucestershire Many modern canal boats retain the traditional layout of a small open, unguarded "counter" or deck behind the rear doors from which the crew can step onto land. It is possible to steer from the counter, but this is not very safe, with the propeller churning below only one missed step away. The "tiller extension" allows the steerer to stand in safety on the top step, forward of the rear doors. (On a working boat, this step would have been over the top of the coal box).
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The remaining space was occupied by boat-builders, Bushell Brothers, who built narrowboats for the canal. The Heygate family took over Mead's business in 1945, and today mills 100,000 tons of wheat a year, resulting in 76,000 tons of flour. This is mainly bakers' flour, but there is also a commitment to wholemeal digestive for biscuits, bulk outlets and a large output of 1.5 kg bags from the pre-packed flour plant. In the days of the Tring windmill, only two men operated the system, milling ten stone per hour.
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The wrought iron caissons were long by wide by deep, and could each accommodate two narrowboats or a barge with a beam of up to . Each caisson weighed when empty and when full of water (because of displacement, the weight is the same with or without boats). Each caisson was supported by a single hydraulic ram consisting of a hollow long cast iron vertical piston with a diameter of , in a buried long cast iron vertical cylinder with a diameter of . At river level the caissons sat in a water-filled sandstone lined chamber.
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The runways are now home to a variety of wildlife including the scarce lowland calcareous grassland and bird species such as peregrine falcon, Eurasian skylark and common buzzard. Some of the buildings are used as an automotive storage compound for new and used vehicles. Other functions include police driving activities such as training. There is a boat builders called Kingsground Narrowboats located at building 103, this building is the oldest on the airfield and used to be the fire department originally, outside the boat-building workshop there are still parking spaces road marked as "FD".
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The canal and tunnel benefitted from a £5 million restoration project to re-open the canal. Several rock-lined parts of the tunnel were stabilised by rock bolts where possible and concrete was used to stabilise the rock face where this was impractical. In May 2001, the tunnel was re-opened to traffic. Most modern canal boats are diesel-powered and it was considered unsafe for boaters to navigate the tunnel using diesel power because of its length and the lack of ventilation and so electric tug boats haul the narrowboats through.
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Close attention is paid to safety issues and particularly the integrity of boilers and steam fittings. The SBA also provides boiler testing services for members via its trading arm, Steamboat Association Services Ltd (SBAS). It is estimated that of the 400 or so small steam launches in the UK (most of which are between 5–10 metres in length) around 90 or so will steam in any given summer season. The club also includes a number of larger steam boats, from inland canal narrowboats through to coastal vessels, as well as an overseas membership.
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Canal Museum at Devizes Wharf Avon and Kennet canal on winter, bridge near Newbury Bridge on the Avon and Kennet Canal The canal today is a heritage tourism destination. Boating, with narrowboats and cruisers, is a popular tourist attraction particularly in the summer months. It is a favourite haunt of several famous canal enthusiasts including canal boat veterans and original Kennet and Avon restoration supporters, Prunella Scales and Timothy West. Privately owned craft and hire boats from the range of marinas are much in evidence, and there are numerous canoe clubs along its length.
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In common with other canals in the Midlands, it was built as a "narrow" canal, that is, able to take narrowboats approximately 70 feet by 7 feet (21.3 metres by 2.1 metres). The canal was lock-free from the Birmingham Canal mainline at Horseley Fields Junction for 16.5 miles (26.5 kilometres), after which there were 30 locks descending to Huddlesford over a further 7 miles (11.3 kilometres). There was a connection to the Bentley Canal, which in turn connected to the Anson Branch and thence the Walsall Canal, but the former closed in 1961.
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This was an important connection between the Thames and the canal system, where cargoes could be transferred from larger ships to the shallow-draught canal boats. This mix of vessels can still be seen in the Basin: canal narrowboats rubbing shoulders with seagoing yachts. From the Tudor era until the 20th century, ships crews were employed on a casual basis. New and replacement crews would be found wherever they were available - foreign sailors in their own waters being particularly prized for their knowledge of currents and hazards in ports around the world.
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A horse-drawn widebeam working canal boat When English canals were first built to assist transport during the Industrial Revolution, locks were only wide. Most narrow locks are long, but some are only . It was soon realised that it would be more efficient to have wider canals with wider locks, and widebeam boats were introduced to take advantage of this change. Of course, the wider locks also meant that two narrowboats could enter a lock side-by-side, which was particularly useful if the second boat was a towed "butty".
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The start of the Birmingham Canal at Gas Street Basin, central Birmingham Birmingham Canal Old Main Line in downtown Birmingham Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) is a network of canals connecting Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the eastern part of the Black Country. The BCN is connected to the rest of the English canal system at several junctions. At its working peak, the BCN contained about 160 miles (257 km) of canals; today just over 100 miles (160 km) are navigable, and the majority of traffic is from tourist and residential narrowboats.
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Barges towed by a tugboat on the River Thames in London, England, UK A barge is a shoal-draft flat-bottomed boat,Note: some narrowboats and widebeams have a shallow V-section below the waterline: "Narrow Boasts: care & maintenance" by Nick BillingamNote: most Dutch barges have rounded hull sections. built mainly for river and canal transport of bulk goods. Originally barges were towed by draft horses on an adjacent towpath. Today, barges may be self- propelled, usually with a slow-revving diesel engine and a large-diameter fixed-pitch propeller.
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The museum site occupies the former Netherpool port that was designed by Thomas Telford, under the direction of William Jessop, for the ill-fated Ellesmere Canal. The proposed waterway in England and Wales was planned to carry commercial traffic between the rivers Mersey and Severn. The museum's historic buildings are all that remain of the inland port that transferred goods and cargo from narrowboats onto rivercraft that would then sail to the docks at Liverpool. The northern section of the Ellesmere Canal, which was built as a contour canal, connected Netherpool port to Chester Canal in 1797.
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This cut off nearly 14 miles of its length and much of the original course consequently became disused. Some of the loops remain at least in part such at the arm leading north from the boatyard at Stretton Stop. Although much of the original route has been abandoned it can still be traced and parts are still in water such as the stretch running west from the Rugby Road. The village maintains its links with the canal through the thriving boatyard and boat hire company Rose Narrowboats at Stretton Stop to the north of the village.
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The 4-lock staircase, part of Watford Locks on the Grand Union Canal Watford Locks () is a group of seven locks on the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal, in Northamptonshire, England, famous for the Watford Gap service area. The locks are formed (looking from the south), of two single locks, a staircase of four, and a final single lock. Together they lift the canal 16 m (52 ft 6 in) to the "Leicester Summit", which it maintains all the way to Foxton Locks. The locks were built to carry narrowboats, and the system was opened in 1814.
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The Kennet and Avon Canal at Southcote is still used for pleasure boating; moorings for narrowboats are located between Southcote Lock and Burghfield Bridge. The canal is accessible from footpaths near Burghfield Bridge, Southcote Mill and Fobney Lock, and the towpath through Southcote is a designated portion of National Cycle Route 4. During the First World War, an aerodrome was established near to Southcote at Coley Park. Aviator Henri Salmet based himself at Woodley Aerodrome, from which he gave "joyrides" in his Blériot Aéronautique aeroplane, but also gave flights in a Blériot XI from the Kennet meadows in Southcote.
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There are facilities for mooring narrowboats at its terminus at Ashton-on-Ribble. There are multi-million pound plans to redevelop Preston's docks (as well as large sections of the River Ribble running through the city) to introduce leisure facilities (watersports), new landmark buildings, a new central park opposite Avenham Park, office and retail space, new residential developments and the re-opening of some of Preston's old canal. However, these plans, collectively known as Riverworks, have yet to undergo public consultation, and have already raised concerns amongst locals due to the potential loss of green space and increased risk of flooding.
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The flight was opened in December 1799 on the Warwick and Birmingham Canal. In 1929, the canal was renamed as the Grand Union Canal (on unification of a number of operators) and the decision was made to widen the Hatton stretch. In order to accommodate traders with heavy cargos of coal, sugar, tea and spices up the flight, the locks were widened to - allowing navigation by industrial boats or two single narrowboats. The widening was completed in the mid-1930s using a workforce of 1,000, and the revolutionary concrete lock system was opened by Prince George, Duke of Kent.
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The Cherwell passes under the Woodstock to Bicester road and shortly after the Oxford Canal flows into it from the east. The next mile of the river is used by boats as part of the canal, passing a now-demolished cement works once supplied by canal narrowboats and which used rier water. After sharing their course for about , the watercourses diverge at Shipton Weir Lock (in larger, lozenge form) west of which is Shipton on Cherwell. East of Shipton, the deserted village of Hampton Gay fronted the river, main remnants being its disused church in the watermeadows and ruins of a manor house.
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Thereafter however the railway increasingly dominated coal and other freight traffic, and trade at Bourton Wharf declined rapidly. Bourton Wharf had a small revival in the 1860s but in 1876 the wharf received only 27 tons of Somerset coal, which equates to a full cargo for only one narrowboat in the entire year. Bourton Wharf handled small amounts of cargo in the mid-1890s, at least some of which was local traffic to or from Melksham and Wantage. By this time the Wilts & Berks' maintenance and dredging had deteriorated to the extent that narrowboats could not operate fully laden.
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From Smithy Houses, several private lines served the Denby Main colliery and other mines in the locality. Further extensions were made between 1827 and 1829, when lines were built to provide links to the colliery owned by Harrison, Pattinson and Davenport at Denby, to Kilburn colliery and to Salterwood pits. The waggons, built at Outram's Butterley works consisted of containers mounted loosely on a chassis, or tram, with four cast iron wheels. The container would be lifted off at Little Eaton and loaded complete into narrowboats or transferred to two-wheeled carts for carriage by road.
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An extension to the original canal feeder was built at Weddell Brook in Bury, alongside the River Irwell. The route of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was changed, however, and the planned link never materialised. The design changes to the canal were not completely without merit, since they allowed two narrowboats to use each lock simultaneously, saving passage time and water. Much of the Bury arm of the canal runs alongside the River Irwell through the Irwell Valley, and eventually required the construction of huge retaining walls to prevent the canal bank from sliding down the hill.
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What is now the West Coast Main Line railway track was built in the mid-1850s. There was a Cliffe Vale railway station, but this closed in 1865. In the Victorian era the area toward the canal specialised in carpentry, making wooden railway carriages at Cockshute sidings and narrowboats at the canal, while the area west of the train lines (Brick Kiln Lane) specialised in brick making. A new ideal 'model' factory, Cliffe Vale Pottery, was built by T.W. Twyford in 1887, and his factory manufactured the world's first flushing toilets and other innovative sanitaryware for over 100 years.
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Narrowboats had to be 'legged' through, eventually by professionally employed leggers. A company employee would chain the tunnel entrance behind a convoy of boats and walk over Boat Lane, accompanied by boat boys and girls leading the boat horses, to unchain the opposite end of the tunnel before the boat convoy arrived. This journey was made at least twice per day for over twenty years. The construction of a double railway tunnel parallel to Standedge canal tunnel adversely affected canal revenues and the canal was mostly abandoned in 1944 (a short stretch in Huddersfield survived until closure in 1963).
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Work started in 2013 to reveal and excavate the drydock next to the eastern Paulton Basin. This drydock appears to be the largest drydock anywhere on the canal system in England, being about wide and long, large enough for three full-length narrowboats to be worked on at the same time. The drainage culvert at the southeast corner of the drydock was rebuilt in December 2013, and the drydock itself completely excavated in April 2014. The entrance to the drydock, at the western end, was surmounted by a bridge, partially demolished in 2002 but rebuilt during 2014.
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The United Kingdom's first two self-powered "motor" narrowboats—Cadbury's Bournville I and Bournville II in 1911—were powered by 15 horsepower Bolinder single-cylinder hot bulb engines, and this type became common between the 1920s and the 1950s. With hot bulb engines being generally long-lived and ideally suited to such a use, it is not uncommon to find vessels still fitted with their original hot bulb engines today. Although there is a common misconception that model glow plug engines are a variation of the hot bulb engine, this is not the case. Model glow engines are catalytic ignition engines.
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Accordingly, on the British canal system the term 'barge' is used to describe a "Thames [sailing barge], Duch [barge], or other styles of barge" (the people who move barges are often known as lightermen), and does not include Narrowboats and Widebeams (see also canal craft). In the United States, deckhands perform the labor and are supervised by a leadman or the mate. The captain and pilot steer the towboat, which pushes one or more barges held together with rigging, collectively called 'the tow'. The crew live aboard the towboat as it travels along the inland river system or the intracoastal waterways.
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Narrowboats on the Macclesfield Canal in Higher Poynton The Macclesfield Canal, a canal with only one flight of locks, was first proposed in 1765, but was not commenced until 1826. Completed in 1831, it joins the Peak Forest Canal in Marple with the Trent and Mersey Canal near Kidsgrove and forms a part of the Cheshire Ring. The route was chosen so it could pass close to the Poynton Colleries, to transport coal to Macclesfield for the steam engines and 5000 houses. It shortened the canal journey from Manchester to London by and allowed easy carriage of coal to the cotton mills at Dukinfield.
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Narrowboats on the Northwich side of the Big Lock Middlewich lies on the A533 road linking it to Northwich and Runcorn in the north, and Sandbach to the south, the A54 linking it to Chester and Winsford to the west and Holmes Chapel and Buxton to the east, and A530 linking it to Crewe and Nantwich to the south.Ordnance Survey, Landranger 118 map Middlewich lies on a railway branch line between Sandbach and Northwich, but Middlewich railway station – opened in 1868 and closed to passenger traffic in 1959 – has been demolished. The branch line is still used by freight trains. The closest railway station is at Winsford, away.
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What are often called "traditional" working narrowboats were the product of the main canal system – but the craft that plied the 46 miles between Chesterfield, Retford, and the River Trent were very different. Isolated on the fringes of the inland waterways network there were no outside canal influences to change the design of craft that were adequate for the job they had to do. The cabins were below- decks, and the boatmen always had a home ashore. Short journeys, usually with a crew of two, did not generate colourful decorations of roses-and-castles, nor did engines oust the towing horse, not even as late as the 1950s.
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There was a footbridge across the main line of the canal by the junction to give access to the cement works but no trace of the bridge remains. For many years, Nelson operated its own fleet of narrowboats which in the early years of the 20th century included three steam-powered vessels named Jason, Janet and Jupiter.Canal and Rivercraft in Picture, Hugh MacKnight, David & Charles, 1970 Another large cement works at Southam was operated by the Rugby Portland Cement Co Ltd and was situated two miles west of the village. This establishment operated until the 1990s and quarrying has continued there since manufacturing ceased.
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The two Victorian coal drops sheds were used to receive coal from South Yorkshire and trans-ship it to narrowboats on the Regents Canal and to horse-drawn carts; they processed 8m tonnes a year. Coal was the only form of energy available to heat and light the buildings of London, either directly or after having been converted to coal gas in the adjacent gas works. Coal use was challenged by electricity, and electricity prevailedthe coal drops were redundant and fell into decay. They were used as warehouse units; one was gutted by fire in 1985 and another used by Bagley’s nightclub, which closed in 2007.
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In 1805, the Wirral section of the Ellesmere Canal was opened, which ran from Netherpool (now known as Ellesmere Port) to meet the Chester Canal at Chester canal basin. Later, those two canal branches became part of the Shropshire Union Canal network. This canal, which runs beneath the northern section of the city walls of Chester, is navigable and remains in use today. From about 1794 to the late 1950s, when the canal-side flour mills were closed, narrowboats carried cargo such as coal, slate, gypsum or lead ore as well as finished lead (for roofing, water pipes and sewerage) from the leadworks in Egerton Street (Newtown).
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This made these medium-sized diesels a very popular choice for use in generator sets, replacing the hot bulb engine as the engine of choice for small-scale power generation. The development of small-capacity, high-speed diesel engines in the 1930s and 1940s, led to hot bulb engines falling dramatically out of favour. The last large-scale manufacturer of hot bulb engines stopped producing them in the 1950s and they are now virtually extinct in commercial use, except in very remote areas of the developing world. An exception to this is marine use; hot bulb engines were widely fitted to inland barges and narrowboats in Europe.
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The canal basin at Brecon along the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal A canal basin is (particularly in the United Kingdom) an expanse of waterway alongside or at the end of a canal, and wider than the canal, constructed to allow boats to moor or unload cargo without impeding the progress of other traffic, and to allow room for turning, thus serving as a winding hole. For inland waterways, a basin may be thought of as a land-locked harbour.Shorter Oxford Dictionary - Vol 1 - "basin" A basin was often associated with wharves around its perimeter, to support commercial users. In modern times, canal basins are more usually used to moor residential and recreational narrowboats.
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The city also has an extensive network of canal systems which converge into Manchester. The Manchester Ship Canal, built in 1894, was the largest ship canal in the world on opening and is incomparable to any other canal in the United Kingdom, which are mostly built for narrowboats and barges. It was the first city in the United Kingdom to re- introduce trams to the streets with the 1992 opening of Manchester Metrolink, which is currently undergoing significant extension and is now the largest network in the UK, having surpassed the Tyne & Wear Metro. As of August 2020 it has 99 stops, with the line to the Trafford Centre having opened in March 2020.
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Using sheet materials in boat construction is cheap and simple, but whereas these sheet materials are flexible longitudinally, they tend to be rigid vertically. Examples of steel vessels with hard chines include narrowboats and widebeams; examples of plywood vessels with hard chines include sailing dinghies such as the single-chined Graduate and the double- chined Enterprise. Although a hull made from sheet materials might be unattractively "slab-sided", most chined hulls are designed to be pleasing to the eye and hydrodynamically efficient. S-bottom hull (A), compared to a hard (B) and soft (C) chine hull Hulls without chines (such as clinker-built or carvel-built vessels) usually have a gradually curving cross section.
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The ring now follows an active commercial waterway, where narrowboats may meet 600-tonne oil tankers and sand barges. Most of the locks on the River Aire section from Leeds to Castleford Junction are , while those on the River Calder section from Castleford to Wakefield are . The ring does not include the navigation below Castleford, where locks were long, to allow them to be used by a tug and 19 Tom Pudding compartment boats. Development of the Aire and Calder began in 1699, and continued to be improved at intervals, with the construction of bigger locks and imaginative solutions such as the compartment boats, which resulted in it flourishing until the twenty-first century.
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However, the route does not keep as strictly to contours as the early canals of James Brindley did; the worst potential diversions were avoided by cuttings, embankments, and two significant tunnels, one of at Crick and another of at Husbands Bosworth, both of which were wide enough for narrowboats to pass. From the junction with the Leicestershire and Northamptonshire Union Canal, at Foxton, the new canal immediately climbed through the ten Foxton Locks, to its summit level. By late 1812, the Foxton flight was completed, and the canal to the eastern portal of Husbands Bosworth Tunnel was opened. The tunnel was completed by May of the following year, opening up of the main line.
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Bryan Whitby (13 May 1932 - 1 July 2016), born in Cheshire, started out as a bodywork apprentice at J.H. Jennings in Sandbach, and later did national service in the Royal Army Ordnance Corps. He subsequently worked again for Jennings and at Crewe's Rolls-Royce car works before joining Shavington-based S.C. Cummins in 1955, working on ice cream vans and narrowboats. He worked with Sid Cummins to develop the Direct Drive System, and, after establishing his own company in 1962, filed a UK patent in January 1965 for mobile ice cream producing equipment through which soft serve units were powered off the van's drive mechanism. He built his first ice cream van in 1965.
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Aerial view of a typical marina (harbor dredge and lighthouse in lower right) Hohe Düne Marina and Yacht club in Rostock, Germany Kuopio Marina in Kuopio, Finland Kochi Marina in Kochi, India is the only marina in the country A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : marina, "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo from freighters. The word marina may also refer to an inland wharf on a river or canal that is used exclusively by non-industrial pleasure craft such as canal narrowboats.
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The museum opened in 1988, it was formerly known as the "National Waterways Museum, Gloucester", one of three museums operated by The Waterways Trust that focused on the history of canals in Britain. The museum went through extensive refurbishments between 2007 and 2008, adding new galleries. In the Summer of 2010 the Gloucester site was renamed the Gloucester Waterways Museum, focussing on the local area and meaning that they could apply for different types of funding than that available to a national museum.BBC news website - Waterways Museum in Gloucester to lose national status(14 March, 2010) The museum features a collection of boats including narrowboats, river barges, canal and river tugs, and a steam-powered dredger.
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Many boatmen (and their families) spent significant time on narrowboats and barges, and the artwork became a source of pride as well as individuality. One theory suggests that the amount of time families spent on the canals meant they were undereducated and became ostracised from society, and so the artwork became their "proud statement of separateness, self esteem, and a traditional way of doing things". The art would be applied at the expense of the boatman rather than the boatowning company, who would have ensured the boat was dressed in company livery. Items typically painted in the roses and castles style include internal furniture and fittings, as well as the boat's headlamp and water cans.
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On almost all narrowboats steering is by tiller, as was the case on all working narrow boats.Some use a steering wheel at the back in place of the tiller (), some others use a centre cockpit(), and a few also have a front steering wheels as well as tillers at stern () The steerer stands at the stern of the boat, aft of the hatchway and/or rear doors at the top of the steps up from the cabin. The steering area comes in three basic types, each meeting different needs of maximising internal space; having a more traditional appearance; having a big enough rear deck for everyone to enjoy summer weather or long evenings; or protection outside in bad weather. Each type has its advocates.
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Richmond, London, UK Temporally moored narrowboats (near bank) and permanently moored houseboats (far bank) on the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal in Little Venice Beached hull house boats at Hayling Island, UK In the United Kingdom houseboats come under various authorities depending on where they are moored. Those that usually do not move from year to year and are in marinas come under local authorities. Those moored on tidal waters (estuaries and coastal harbours come under various authorities. Most navigable inland waterways in England and Wales come under the authority of either the waterways managed by Environment Agency (EA, sponsored by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) or the waterways managed by the Canal and River Trust (CRT).
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Statue of Falstaff in Bancroft Gardens This area of Stratford, which runs from the foot of Bridge Street to Holy Trinity Church (and leads directly off Sheep Street and Chapel Lane) runs alongside the River Avon and offers access to the Waterside Theatre and all areas of the RST. The Bancroft GardensFormerly the Bank Croft, a piece of common land by the river used as pasture: and river area is a very popular place for people watching, enjoying picnics and river activities. In the summer the River Avon is busy with rowing boats, motor boats and river cruises. The Birmingham to Stratford Canal is busy with colourful narrowboats passing through or mooring up in the canal basin Stratford-upon-Avon Canal.
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The CRT In gives no precise definition of a "widebeam", merely distinguishing it from other types of canal craft such as: narrowboats, Thames sailing barges, Dutch barges, other barge types, grp cabin cruisers, and wooden boats. Nevertheless, the salient features of a modern widebeam are: A widebeam is built in the style of a cruising narrowboat, that is to say, a steel-hulled barge used mainly by leisure boaters. Typically, this entails a bow well-deck with doors leading aft to the living accommodation. The long saloon typically has numerous side- windows, and while its coachroof may have fitments such as solar panels and skylights, the overall height (as with a narrowboat) must be low enough to negotiate canal bridges.
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Dazzle camouflage, painted by Felipe Pantone, on the widebeam Growbeautifully moored on the Lee Navigation at Leyton Marshes A widebeam moored inside three narrowboats in a canal basin in Falkirk, on the Forth & Clyde Canal A widebeam has beam of or more.In April 2020 two additional pricing bands were be introduced by the CRT for boat widths over and those over —. This applies to both widebeams and other types of boats, and the CRT has not split widebeams into two new named groups based on width. Any widebeam with a permanent mooring and which is used a houseboat may be almost any size; but a widebeam intending to cruise the waterways must comply with size restrictions which dependant upon the dimensions of the waterway.
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Old Harlow is the historic part of the new town and district of Harlow, Essex in England. Narrowboats moored on the River Stort Navigation, Harlow Train station in Old Harlow 12th century beams in Harlowsbury Chapel Old Harlow is situated in the north-east area of the town and is the oldest area of the town. Old Harlow pre-dates the first written record in the Domesday Book of 1086, so it is unknown when the town first came into existence. Originally Old Harlow was going to be the central area of Harlow New Town, but due to the amount of demolition works and the loss of agricultural land it was decided to build Harlow New Town to the west of Old Harlow.
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The Roman theatre in the Bull Ring A highly regarded folk and boat festival has been run in the town every year since 1990, except for 2001 when it was cancelled because of a foot and mouth epidemic. During the three-day festival (which takes place over a long weekend) folk artists play at a number of locations in the town, and it is estimated to bring in an extra 30,000 visitors to the town during the festival period, along with 400 narrowboats. In addition to this annual event there have been a number of ad-hoc events, including the Middlewich Roman Festival in 2001. This Roman Festival led to a Heritage lottery fund grant which allowed the construction of a Roman theatre at the Bull Ring near to St Michaels and All Angels church.
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Brindley's reputation spread rapidly and he was soon commissioned to construct more canals. He extended the Bridgewater to Runcorn, connecting it to his next major work, the Trent and Mersey Canal. At this time Brindley had never built a lock and he first built an experimental lock in the grounds of Turnhurst, a house he had bought near the summit, and this determined the design of the narrow canal lock which characterised most of the canals in the Midlands, with a single upper gate and double mitre lower gates. These were for an elongated version of the boats designed for the underground system at Worsley, the so-called 'starvationers', which were subsequently known as narrowboats and this decision was to cast a long shadow on the English canal system.
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He paid particular attention to the traditional narrowboat decorations of Roses and Castles and the installation of a short bath, unusual even now on narrowboats. In Part Two 'on an afternoon of the last week in July' [1939] Tom and Angela set out up the Oxford Canal and into a different world of contours and canal pubs where boat captains with gold rings in their ears play games apart from their wives. They follow the Grand Union Canal to Market Harborough (alas no market) and north through Leicester to the Trent and Shardlow, where the scene in the Canal Tavern 'would have delighted Hogarth or Rabelais'. They make their way up the still busy Trent and Mersey Canal through the Potteries before emerging into the rural landscape of Church Minshull where they stay and enjoy the unspoilt English countryside.
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They included Sir Malcolm Campbell's Blue Bird of Chelsea, the Breda from the TV series The Prisoner, and MTB102 which also carried Churchill and Eisenhower on 3 June 1944 to view the D-Day fleet. Forces vessels included Royal Naval Steam Cutter No. 438, built the year of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee; RASCV Humber, the last wooden vessel in service with the Army, and Atta Boy, a launch from at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The Cornish fishing lugger Barnabas, built in 1881, had sailed 450 miles from Cornwall for the pageant, and carried St Piran's Flag, the largest flag born by any vessel in the flotilla.Maritime Trust Narrowboats and barges came from all over the UK, many travelling for weeks along hundreds of miles of inland waterways and through many locks to take part in the parade.
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Gower Branch Canal viewed from Albion Junction Signpost at Albion Junction for Brades Hall Junction. Top staircase lock and Brades Hall Junction (behind the iron bridge) Brades (staircase) locks, photographed from the bridge The Gower Branch Canal is a half-mile canal at Tividale in England, linking Albion Junction on the Birmingham Level (453 feet above sea) of the Birmingham Canal Navigations, and Brades Hall Junction (sometimes written Bradeshall JunctionThis alternative is found only in the guides edited by David Perrott and published by Nicholson.) on the BCN's older Wolverhampton (473 ft) level, via three locks, the Brades Locks, at the Southern, Brades Hall end. It has a towpath on its eastern side and is crossed by only one road, the A457, just north of the middle lock. The branch is suitable for narrowboats of up to 70 foot length and 7 foot beam.
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There was a sluice at the entrance to the lode, with two sets of mitre gates, pointing in opposite directions, one to prevent flood waters from the Great Ouse entering the lode, and the other to raise the water level in the lode to make navigation easier. When the Anglian Water Authority was created by Act of Parliament in 1977, the lode was not listed as a navigation, and their successors, the Environment Agency, have taken this to mean that there is no right of navigation.East Anglian Waterways Association, The Easterling, Feb 2008, accessed 30 May 2009 There is now a pumping station and a set of mitred flood doors at the start of the lode, and although it is not officially navigable, two narrowboats navigated part of it in 2001,Tuesday Night Club, 2001 cruising log, Page 20, accessed 29 May 2009 and there is increasing evidence that boats can and do use it as far as it is possible.
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