Stories about boats and waterways
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.
Continue readingJust like a car, a canal boat’s engine will also require regular scheduled maintenance. In fact, it’s worse than a car because that only requires a bit of an oil
Continue readingAfter buying a boat, licensing and insuring a canal boat, you might be forgiven for expecting to sit back in a tranquil life of bliss with nary a care in
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The sun is out and it’s time to sort a few bits of the narrowboat that are looking less than prime, notably the paintwork needs a spruce-up and polish plus one or two tiny rust spots on the roof need attending to.
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Every winter the Canal & River Trust shut parts of the network down for a time in order to do maintenance which often includes taking out broken or old lock gates and replacing them. New lock gates are not something you can just order in from Amazon however, so the CRT have to make their own and in this video I visited their Birmingham workshop to see how the process works.
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Come journey with me down into the depths of an English canal, to a lock at Banbury in Oxfordshire that was emptied for maintenance by the Canal and River Trust. Find out how the locks are maintained and what unusual things have been found at the bottom!
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It’s now 3 weeks since the narrowboat became properly mine and yet I’m still not aboard and still not afloat. It’s OK, there are various reasons for this. I knew it would take a little time. Oh my, but it’s very frustrating!
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