Vlog 328: The steepest lock flight!
Opened in 1774, the Bingley 5-Rise lock flight is the steepest in Britain and still going strong today. The Canal & River Trust held a media day to celebrate this milestone and I went along.
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Author: David Johns
Vlog 327: The Stream in the Sky
At 220 years old, the world-famous Pontcysyllte aqueduct in north Wales is doing very well for its age but it does need a lot of care and maintenance. Every 20 years it’s drained of water for a full inspection and I’ve been along to see what the Canal & River Trust’s engineers have found this time around.
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Vlog 326: Spaghetti Hoops
This is a follow-on from the previous video where I began to strip out the carpeting and wiring from my boat refurbishment project, named Twiggy.
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Vlog 325: Wire in the hole!
I take the first steps towards refurbishing Twiggy!
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Vlog 324: Dreamboats!
Join me on detailed tours through three brand new luxury liveaboard narrowboats, one widebeam, two cabin cruisers and a narrowboat for hire, all at the BoatLife show 2024!
Continue readingWhy buy a canal boat?
What is the attraction of a canal boat and the lifestyle? It’s a combination of things. There’s the simple tranquility of the canals; ignoring for a moment any interruptions by
Continue readingA quick history of the canals
In the middle of the 1700s, Britain was undergoing a revolution – the Industrial Revolution. Factories had begun to turn out goods en masse instead of them being made slowly
Continue readingWhat kind of people go canal boating?
It’s worth having a read of this page all about the number of people using the waterways, as a background to the rest of the information on this page. It’s
Continue readingHow many boats are on the British canals?
People often ask me whether the number of boats on the system is increasing and whether it’s getting crowded. According to the CRT’s boat licensing statistics, there has been an
Continue readingWho’s doing what on the canals?
The modern day canal is being put to all manner of uses, a far cry from its industrial birth. Whilst a fair number of people use their boat as their
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