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Post by onlyMark on Apr 4, 2024 19:32:58 GMT
I’d decide earlier that day I’d call at a canal side pub for my lunch. I was pretty hungry when I got there but was disappointed in the menu options - and the price. Maybe having the name Neil Morrissey added a premium. I saw they did triple cooked chips and never having them decided to give it a try. Being hungry I added a soup to it as well. The menu said for any sandwiches you could add a soup for three pounds and as I was ordering I expected just to pay an extra three quid for the soup. But no. They asked me for the full price of the soup. I said, it said three pounds. They said no, you have to pay the full price as a chip sandwich is not a sandwich - never mind it was in the list of sandwiches. A “discussion” occurred where I pointed to the menu, the location of the food item I wanted, the category it was included in and the fact that the next line actually stated the soup thing. The lad and lass involved had to go away and ask for clarification - wtf?! They came back and said, “We can do that for you” as if it was a one off request. I said it must be difficult for someone to ask for what it says on the menu. They went away - So it came. Mushroom soup - good but too rich, too many mushrooms and the worst being they were tinned mushrooms, or at least seemed like it. The chip sandwich was, all I can say, interesting - Anyway, with full stomach I continued - The chap in the safety vest - he told me his name is Bob the Lock. He volunteers off his own bat to help people through the locks. He was quite happy I was by myself because he could throw himself into the full service. There were a flight of four locks, I met him at the first, he apparently saw me coming and opened the gates for me so I sailed in - At the end of the lock process he’d open the exit gates, close them behind me and then get on his bike, whizz past me and sort out the next one for me. Wonderful bloke. All just for the enjoyment of helping, fresh air and exercise.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 4, 2024 6:50:41 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 4, 2024 6:15:40 GMT
Lot's of boats do have bikes, 'e' or otherwise and often for practical purposes rather than leisure. Can be quite a way to the shops.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 3, 2024 18:12:10 GMT
Good, thanks.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 3, 2024 15:01:45 GMT
A few more random photos as we go along. A memorial to someone, didn’t stop to have a look - Walking route under a road to get to the end of the lock - A bird - Stood and looked at this under a bridge as I walked along the towpath. Took me a minute to work it out after I’d checked the other end as well. It rotates and would be where the tow rope runs to stop it rubbing on the stone of the bridge - Continuing walking along the towpath - Probably a permanent mooring and trying to make it homely - One (of many seen) run down boat - The canal version of a service station - Just before entering a town - The local town and quite attractive. I stopped there for a walk round and get my hair cut -
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 3, 2024 14:40:45 GMT
Beyond my means be it London or here.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 3, 2024 7:38:59 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 3, 2024 6:49:46 GMT
I'm all for getting the old canals back into use again and it is something I'd help with if I lived back in the UK. Good for anyone who does this. Many miles have been lost and it's an asset to have one in any area.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 2, 2024 18:29:51 GMT
I'll do some research into that when I have a bit more time, but I'll certainly look at it.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 2, 2024 6:40:01 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 2, 2024 5:59:32 GMT
There is still production. Not on a scale there used to be though as you'd expect. It is the home of, for example, Wedgewood amongst other companies and even though some is still made in the area (Barlaston) most it outsourced to Indonesia.
Operating the locks is done by yourself and it is a lot quicker when there are two or more of you because a lot of the time you are just going back and forth covering the same ground to open and close things. If not solo, one would stay in the boat whilst the other does the operating. Alone you have to first moor the boat to go and have a look at the lock to see what preparation needs to be done and check if there is anyone coming from the opposite direction. It is courtesy that if you are down and the water is up, or vice versa, someone coming the other way would have priority so you'd wait for them.
After mooring and if nobody around you'd adjust the water level if it is against you by opening the gate paddles either up stream to fill the lock or downstream to empty it. Then close them. Then you'd open your gates, unmoor and drive in. If you are 'up' you step off but if 'down' you have to get to the steps inside the lock to climb out. Some times that entails walking along the roof to get to them. You'd have unwound the centre line and left it draped on the side for easy access to control the boat whilst you are out of it. The boat weighs around 15 tons or so, so it can take a bit of effort to move it around or stop it if it is moving.
You'd close the open gate(s) behind you and bear in mind this may mean getting from one side of the lock to the other, as with the paddles, by walking around, walking over the closed gates or walking across your boat. Then opening one or both or three or four paddles, depending on the design of the lock to fill or empty the lock. In doing this the boat will invariably move around so you need the centre line to stop it hitting gates or getting stuck on a ledge, called a cill, which is a feature of the upstream gates due to the way they are constructed. There is always a cill line marked in the side of the lock to tell you where it protrudes to. If you are descending and get hung up on this it may tip the boat up and sink/damage it.
After the right level is reached you walk around closing the paddles and then open your exit gates. Then hop into the boat or climb down to it, walking along the roof as necessary, gently drive out, stop at the lock landing, the specific mooring area for locks, hop off, walk back, close the gate(s), return to the boat, untie and drive off. Solo it takes about as much time to do this as motoring a couple of kilometres so you know and can work out travel times with this as a guideline.
There are a couple of ways you don't have to do all this yourself - firstly there are sometimes volunteers (wo?)manning a lock and they do it for you. Mostly though if there is someone waiting for you to go through because of the way the water is already set and it is in your favour, they as a curtesy will offer for you to just stay in the boat and do it all. The curtesy is returned whenever and to whomever has the priority if it is against you so it all balances out over time.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 1, 2024 21:28:25 GMT
Jam packed K2. Moorings in towns and villages are scarce, those who already have a boat go cruise about, there's waiting for locks and anything else. I wouldn't go in any school holidays that's for sure. I went just before this Easter holidays, as close to it as possible to get at least some reasonable weather, but this week or so the prices go up quite a lot and few boats are available.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 1, 2024 20:15:25 GMT
Came later to a series of four proper locks. I moored up just before and went and had a look at the other side. That’s the way down there - Got the boat in, shut the lock gates behind me and started letting the water out - That’s all the way down - Opened the bottom gates, climbed down the ladder and slowly pulled out - One possible definition of a house boat - I was now in an area called The Potteries. It’s an area of six towns based on Stoke on Trent which became the centre of ceramic production in the early 17th Century due to local deposits of clay, salt, lead and coal. There are still what are called bottle ovens/bottle kilns around but not now in use. The name is derived from the shape rather than what is fired inside - Half of an old coal mine winding wheel as a nod to that heritage as well - Eventually, out of town, moored up for the night -
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 1, 2024 20:13:49 GMT
Thanks Lugg.
A bit more to add to finish the day off.
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 1, 2024 9:39:21 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 1, 2024 9:26:32 GMT
I’d turned from one canal onto another, onto the Trent and Mersey, but there was an obstacle in my way, a large hill that had required a tunnel building underneath it. In fact there were two tunnels built but only one is in use nowadays. The Harecastle tunnel is 1.6 miles long/2.6km and the first tunnel was built in 1777. Due to the volume of traffic, a second had to be built and opened in 1827. A major thing was initially there was no tow path inside (eventually a wooden one was built) so there was the obvious difficulty of moving the boats through. They had to resort to “legging”. This is where you lie on a plank, or on the roof, and ‘walk’ the boat to propel it - Luckily this was before my time so I used the engine. It takes about 45 minutes to get through, it can be faster if you are confident, can be slower if you don’t have much of a clue. There is a one way system with officials either end controlling who goes through and when. If you turn up between 8am and 12 noon it’s as and when but you can make a booking in the afternoons for a secure place. It’s not that busy so I just turned up, had to wait for twenty minutes or so for others to come out and then was allowed in. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harecastle_TunnelA bit of a video for you to give an idea. Watch for about a minute or more from 4 minutes(ish) - Not long after I began to start going through a certain amount of old industrialisation - Then found a quiet spot to moor up - A bit of a technical thing for anyone interested in the nuts and bolts - I have a basic control panel by the tiller which has the ignition switch for the engine, a voltmeter to show if the alternator is charging properly, and gauge for the engine revs and within that an hour meter for how long the engine has been running. Not much point having a meter to measure distance like in a road vehicle. Then some labelled switches - This is the view from the steering position with the obligatory life ring thing, a warning sign showing where passengers may get in the way of the tiller and the door into the accommodation. Also a handy shelf for my mug of coffee or on frequent occasions, my flask of coffee -
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Post by onlyMark on Apr 1, 2024 7:53:57 GMT
I finished on Saturday and I had a wonderful time thank you. About the winding hole, not sure what you mean but I can say that very few people turn their boats around and it's very rare you end up doing it. For example is two weeks it was only necessary for me to turn mine round once - at the end of a week to return (there are circular routes, Rings, you can do but they take a long time and I didn't have enough of it) so any boats so far in the photos are just moored up and not going anywhere. Some may moor up for a few days or more but then are running out of water or fuel or whatever and the closest place is behind them so they turn back to there then turn again to continue.
Time does go slow on the canals and it is easy to imagine missing out on major events and nothing much seeming to change for decades.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 31, 2024 10:15:04 GMT
K2, I think it was down to the time of year as everything was getting really green. It is though very appealing.
Mick, take your time.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 31, 2024 9:44:21 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 31, 2024 9:41:37 GMT
My location at this time was on the Macclesfield Canal. This joins further down the way I’m going to the Trent and Mersey canal - which is a major canal stretching a very long way. On reaching it I would turn left and soon go through the Harecastle Tunnel - which has a reputation as being quite difficult and has a nickname of the “Scarecastle tunnel”. In the meantime though I had a gentle run in that direction. Various buildings began to appear, one with random advert - A very old mile marker just in case you didn’t know where you were going - It mentions a place called Marple. This is back the way I’m heading and I wanted to try and avoid it for two reasons. Firstly there is a staircase of locks that are quite difficult but also I had signed up for notifications from the canal authority as to problems on the canals. One was that the staircase was closed due to work being carried out and I wouldn’t have been able to go any further anyway -
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 31, 2024 7:59:21 GMT
I've had to forgo posting more for a moment as a few commitments have come up where I have little time to to this justice. I will try to fit a bit in when I can.
bjd, what we do for children.....
lugg, a houseboat wouldn't travel particularly, they tend to be static somewhere but if you mean the type I've had then yes, the locks are initially difficult but it only takes a few for you to get the idea. I am solo so I do it all myself and I hope to expand on that at some time. There is plenty of tranquillity when you use the canals and/or moor up out of the towns and cities and as for routes, there are plenty and they can offer plenty of variation of town and country, locks or few locks etc.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 30, 2024 9:26:10 GMT
Thans Fumo.
bjd, they must have been really devoted to that barge to go to all that trouble.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 29, 2024 21:53:45 GMT
I had visitors as I moored up. Coming to check out who was in their patch. I'm not even sure if these are the ones I see every day or there are just a lot of ducks. I think the latter. One thing of note is the sound of the engine. As it is a rental it's not exactly filled with sound deadening material. The only thing over the engine was a plywood board. Many times I passed other privately owned boats and there was barely a whisper from their engines. Nevertheless it did the job without faltering and required no maintenance, oil checking, water checking etc at all. I was told not to bother, it's a new engine. The only thing I had to do every day at the end of the day was to turn a handle that pumped grease into the propeller shaft to stop it dripping when it wasn't turning. But it was quite good at the end of the day to have some silence.
Ahh, yes, silence. That was a thing. When it was quiet, it was as quiet as any simile you can think of (of which you can think, in proper English. I think). But, it never quite occurred to me that if canals follow the best route according to the contour lines then so will railways. A couple of evenings I was regaled by the sound of an Avanti West Coast train passing by on a line I'd not spotted not too far away.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 29, 2024 20:50:56 GMT
I'm not good with flowers so you could easily be right. Engines good, flora not good. There are plenty of houses bordering the canals but I always tried to moor out of their way. Later there are some in the report plus industrialisation. One thing about the canals is you are in areas you would rarely see around the back of things that usually front a road. It's its own little world and normally unless you live nearby and use the tow paths, the vast majority of people are completely unaware of not only what is there, but its existence in any case.
Canal boats have crossed the channel to get to the French canals and rivers but usually they need an addition or two to make the journey across the sea to make them more stable like keel boards to stop the wind blowing them off course. You can sometimes see on barges, I think the Dutch ones, where they have keel boards attached to the side and drop down for sea journeys. All the narrow boats are British made as far as I know. They are a peculiar size and it wouldn't be viable for other countries to make them and then transport them across to us. I think.
There are other boats like barges, houseboats and fibre glass cruisers, especially like on the Norfolk Broads, that could well be made abroad but narrow boats and their more spacious cousins, the double width narrow boat called a Wide Beam I doubt very much. Wide beams are quite common but are severely restricted as to where they can sail and often end up just in a marina being lived in. I'm told there is a sweet spot for a narrow boat, and that is 58 feet long (17.68m) that is big enough and yet small enough and the costs for buying, running and permits etc are reasonable in comparison to others.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 29, 2024 18:13:28 GMT
This though is an original bridge. This is where the tow path changes from one side to the other and made with easy access ramps for the horses to cross over whilst continuing pulling and not needing to disconnect them. Not sure how they would cope with the few steps though. All the bridges are numbered, as are locks, so with a map, or now an app, you can’t get too lost. Also it becomes easy to estimate timings between places. You can see the gap the boat has to go through. Just, and I mean just, wide enough - There is a length of metal shown here. There's one each side. I'm sure in your own mind you can guess what their purpose was. Don't be ashamed if you can't. It just means you're not old enough - View from the top of the bridge one way and then the other - Nice TV aerial on the roof. Also a radio aerial. Other things to note is the boarding plank (I never needed it), the proverbial I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole, there are two rubber fenders back and front each side for when moored up and a very important centre rope. This is heavily used. When stopping you pull to the side, jump off with the rope and control the boat. There are mooring ropes front and back for use when tying up but the centre on is used for control and a temporary mooring option for doing locks or whatever. The problem single handed is normally a “crew member” would jump off the front as you angled in with the rope whilst you operated the engine to stop. I didn’t have this option so I had to always bring the rear in to give me access to the bank (note to self, mention later centre rope and deep locks) - I had difficulty, especially with the gusty wind we had, steering the boat and taking photos. Invariably as soon as I whipped the camera out of my pocket a gust would blow the front of the boat one way or the other. As can be seen, you don’t have a lot of width to play with - and this brings me to this photo. There is on the left what looks like a space opening up. I didn’t get chance to photo it properly but I did another day with a different one. It is called a winding hole - pronounced as in wind and not wind. Hah, meaning not to wind a rope but to have a gusty wind. It’s for tuning the boat around as the length is usually greater than the width of the canal - Dappled sunlight, trees encroaching the banks, not a person in sight and all is well with the world. Until you want a pee that is, as single handed you have to stop and moor up again. Couldn’t manage peeing off the side and steering at the same time. I did try. Same with a mid-morning coffee and biscuits. I solved this by bringing a flask outside with me I’d fill up before setting off and a plastic waterproof container with chocolate hobnobs in it - The tulips were always a welcome sight - Moored up at the end of the day. Generic pipe bridge again with a rail bridge tucked in behind it and an original in the back ground. Also people walking their dog I think. Very popular past time -
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 29, 2024 18:08:45 GMT
Narrow boats were originally horse drawn - and that is the reason virtually everywhere there is a path running down the side. Left or right doesn’t matter as long as there is/was one. Called surprisingly a tow path. They do change over from one side to the other and I’ll show you how they managed to cope with that in a second. The power for the boats comes from a diesel engine and an agricultural one at best. You don’t need a high performance one, just one that is low revving and with plenty of pulling power (torque). Steam was tried but having a boiler and all the rest of it wasn’t popular so horses continued up to the installation of basic diesel engines. Electric power comes from batteries and whereas all the ancillaries were powered by the batteries, recent developments mean electric propulsion is being given a go. Cooking now is on gas whereas it was on wood but also, if you have the battery power, modern electric hobs can be used. Lighting is also electric now. Bear in mind there are also bilge pumps, toilet pumps, water pumps, heating pumps and so on. The problem occurs when you need to charge the batteries. Unless you are connected to mains power in a marina or a private mooring area, you have a couple of choices to do this. The diesel engine runs quite often and charges up, a separate generator is used, or solar panels. Or a combination of all three. I just had the boat engine to do it so it meant at least for a few hours each day I needed to run it - and it isn’t/wasn’t the quietest of things. A quick mention of heating. Many have central heating of one form or another be it powered by gas or diesel and often residential ones have a scenic wood or multi-fuel fire for effect. Hot water radiator heating is the norm, just like in a house though there are variations regarding on demand gas boilers again as also with a normal house. I must have stopped at one point, as I often did, to have a coffee and some toast and jam for breakfast. I noticed they seemed to have a generic bridge for taking pipes over the canal. I must have seen about five or six each day of the same style -
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 29, 2024 16:36:30 GMT
Yes, you are right about the locks. There is a system to passing through them depending if you are going up or down and if the water in the lock is for you or against you as to it's level when you get there. It means with one person a lot of going back and forth, mooring up twice, first to have a walk and a look, after to then shut the open gates, climbing up and down, walking around the lock to get from one side to the other when the gates are open/or closed and so on.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 29, 2024 8:13:14 GMT
A question: there is no way to walk on the edges of the boat on either side? There is a very slim ledge enabling you to do so. Bear in mind the limit of 7 feet to the width so the more ledge you have, the less internal space. So it is kept to a minimum. I think the new project in France is joining two rivers, maybe, can't remember for sure. In the UK I can't detail why we don't build them anymore but it'd be a combination of factors ending up with it not commercially viable to do so. Originally the canals were all privately built and then nationalised in the 20th Century and I can't see the government or any private individual nowadays wanting or needing to build one. You'll probably answer this later in the thread, but did you come across people living on their canal boats? There are about twenty thousand people who live on the canals (figures vary). Every boat has to have a licence but it isn't really recorded accurately how many of those live on the boat on the canal or just use it for leisure purposes. There are those that live on a boat in a Marina or other private moorings whereby certain paperwork is not needed but other paperwork is and those that use their boat as what are called "continuous cruisers" which means they have no set home base but by regulation, have to move on every 14 days to somewhere new - quite if this could be just a hundred metres or so along the bank is not specified but as with most things, as long as it isn't abused, nobody is bothered.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 28, 2024 19:05:06 GMT
I mention locks - but I’ll get to more description of them another time. They’re there to go up and down hills is the thing. With a large range of knowledge on the forum I’m probably repeating what some know but I hope also informing others. A few photos then. Drove through some nice Derbyshire scenery to get to my starting point near Stoke on Trent - I didn’t pick the boat up until mid-afternoon but then only cruised a few miles to get to a decent stop off to sort out my stuff and have a good look around and what I’d rented. This is capable of sleeping five, but any more than two would I’m sure be quite a pain. It’s not short, but not long either. Somewhere mid-range at 45ft (13.7m). It is also not a posh one at all. Quite basic and getting worse for wear. Not a bother to me because in the season they are quite expensive to rent. Before Easter as I have done they are taking everything into consideration, a reasonable price. Bear in mind I paid for the boat, went food shopping before I picked it up but then, unless you want to stay in a Marina and with mains electric hook ups, mooring at the side of the canal is free, water fill ups are free, there are no tolls, no campsite fees, fuel is included, gas for cooking is included, central heating be it by gas or diesel is included and the only thing you pay for is if you block up the toilet(s) and have to have them pumped out - but then the boatyard you got it from reimburses you. This was my first mooring spot. Nice and quiet - There are different styles/types of narrow boats with traditionally the bed being at the back, but ‘reverse layout’ ones are getting more and more popular and I would prefer that. Looking from the front there is a dinette(?) to the left, the kitchen area in the middle with a TV and radio, the toilet and shower/sink opposite each other in the corridor and the bed at the back. There are doors front and back - The cooker and fridge are normal domestic size (small freezer compartment in the fridge), standard sized sink and drainer - Shower and toilet, one each side - Looking from the bed back up to the front. The bed a generously called a double and is 1.30m wide and longer than I am tall by a few centimetres - More another time.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 28, 2024 19:02:17 GMT
Managed to get some photos sorted so I'll carry on for a minute but that will be all for today.
There are currently about 2000 miles/3200km of canals in England and Wales. They were built for the obvious reason of transferring goods from one place to another and were originally built somewhat piecemeal to join rivers or make a spur to a factory or mine. This preceded the industrial revolution but as soon as that came about, the system and design of canals increased dramatically.
The first “modern day” canal was built in 1757 but it was only the first step - “In the mid-18th century the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater built the Bridgewater Canal. Its purpose was to transport coal from his mines to the industrialising city of Manchester. It opened in 1761 and was the longest canal constructed in Britain to that date. Canal boats could carry thirty tons at a time; one horse could tow more than ten times the amount of cargo that was possible with a cart. The Bridgewater Canal reduced the price of coal in Manchester by nearly two-thirds within a year of its opening. The canal was a huge financial success and repaid the cost of its construction within just a few years.”
It wasn’t long though until a new method of transporting goods came on the scene. This provided the death knell for the canals. In 1825 George Stephenson connected the towns of Stockton and Darlington in England by rail. Both canals and rail ran in tandem for a while but gradually most canals fell into disuse. “The period between the 1770s and the 1830s is often referred to as the "Golden Age" of British canals. During this period of canal mania, huge sums were invested in canal building. The canal system expanded to nearly 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometres) in length.”
Shortly after the end of WWII, the leisure aspect of canals became prominent and many were repaired, refurbished, maintained again and so on until we have the situation we have today. The last recorded use of a canal to transport goods commercially though was in 1996. Canals tend to vary in width but one feature which became standardised, as with rail track width, was the width of canal locks. The first canals were built with an eye on the costs and the ‘newness’ of the technology and idea. So rather than go for something grand, they hedged their bets and made the infrastructure as small as possible but still practical for usage. Over the decades as more and more were built it was prudent to keep the same sizes for practicality.
This is why generally locks are 7 feet/2.13m wide - bear in mind also that in the early days everything was built by hand and an extra few inches here and there would easily add up. Also there was a limit to how long a boat could be and still navigate around bends etc. This determined how long a lock could be. If it fits in, all well and good, if you’ve built a lock an extra few yards/metres, you’ve wasted your money. A standard maximum length became 72 feet (21.95 m).
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