Barging About Britain

[ranworthbreeze]

At 8.00pm on ITV (channel 3) Barging About Britain introduced by John Sergeant visits the Leeds & Liverpool Canal this evening.

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-02-13/barging-round-britain-john-sergeant-on-the-secrets-of-our-waterways

Signing off to watch the program

Regards

Alan

[petersjoy]

Recording it for later.

Lorna's watching QVC and buying Charlie Bears.

[retired]

Thought it was going to be a lot better. Not enough time on the water for me.

[fishtone]

Enjoyed watching it but like Retired said not enough time spent on the water. As it is only the first of 8 programmes a bit too early to judge yet.

[Hylander]

Going to watch it later.     

[ranworthbreeze]

I tend to agree with the above comments regarding the time spent on the water, but at least it was a program that was of interest and a welcomed change from soaps or reality TV.

 

Saltaire is well worth a visit, we were moored almost in the same spot on the canal between the old mills buildings.

 

I was surprised that the program did not include passage through the Bingley 3 & 5 rise locks or Skipton and the top pound above Gargrave with the canal almost coming back on itself, snaking its way across the dales.

 

One of the things I was unaware of was the arcade in Leeds, even though I worked in Leeds in the mid 70's, any leisure time was spent walking on the canal or rummaging around the electronic shops that used to be near the station arches.

 

I will record the rest of the programmes, into Wales next week so don't look down from the Chirk & Pontcysyllte Aqueducts.

http://www.pontcysyllte-aqueduct.co.uk/en-gb/top-ideas/pontcysyllte-aqueduct/

Regards

Alan

[donnygeoff]

thanks for the heads up.

will have to watch on catchup today/tomorrow....

 

I hope they do the Falkirk wheel bit before I go.....

 

[retired]

When we had a narrow boat one of our favorite trips was along the Llangollen canal. Stunning scenery. Mind you we enjoyed most of the canal system, even going through Birmingham is an adventure.

[BroadScot]

Hi Geoff frae Donny,

 

A wee taster for you, many more on this link I hope!  

 

 

Iain.

[Polly]

Llangollen was my favourite! We live near the GU ourselves and I cherish hopes of finding a slipway that we can launch the dinghy from for a regular potter, but no luck so far, they all seem to be mud and for flat bottoms not trailers.

[Siddy]

Just watched it and you it showed the River Aire up and down a few times. The only shot of the canal was the boat in the lock and a reversing boat, no mention of this been lock 1 the start of the canal. as above missed Bingley 5 rise.

 

Alan was it M&B Radio you hung out in next to the arches? Someone posted the Granany Wharf pics of the 70's on Facebook last week and it would have been good to see the lock working under the station to drop back into the Aire which the arch is bricked up now, never got past the lock due to rats running in the early 80's when I went under.

[ranworthbreeze]

Just a reminder Barging About is on ITV this evening at 8.00PM,

 

Regards

Alan

[retired]

Interesting but still missing the flavour of the canals.

[deebee29]

Good show but I agree there should be more of it on the canals

[fishtone]

Found last nights programme better than last weeks,having said that I did enjoy the first one as have never been on the canals but certainly made my wife interested  but not going to sell the boat and buy a barge. Not this year anyway. ! !!!!!!!

[GeoffandWendy]

The programme is not on long enough and didn't cover much about the Llangollen canal as a whole. No Chirk tunnel or aquaeduct was shown, neither was the horse drawn barge mentioned up to the falls.

A very skimpy programme in my opinion. Timothy West & Prunela Scales series on the canals, was much better.

[ranworthbreeze]

I tend to agree with you Geoff, the programme is not long enough, the Chirk tunnel and aqueduct were not show which is a pity, the construction of the aqueduct and the parallel railway bridge are very impressive and the passage through the tunnel feels as if you are going uphill, impossible but in narrow shallow water narrow boats slow down and struggle to make any pace.

 

I still think that any waterways programme is far better than any form of soap or reality programme.

I rather liked the Guy Martin's programmes that he did on the canals. I especially was impressed by his two programmes recently in India.

 

Regards

Alan

[GeoffandWendy]

I tend to agree with you Geoff, the programme is not long enough, the Chirk tunnel and aqueduct were not show which is a pity, the construction of the aqueduct and the parallel railway bridge are very impressive and the passage through the tunnel feels as if you are going uphill, impossible but in narrow shallow water narrow boats slow down and struggle to make any pace.

 

I still think that any waterways programme is far better than any form of soap or reality programme.

I rather liked the Guy Martin's programmes that he did on the canals. I especially was impressed by his two programmes recently in India.

 

Regards

Alan

Couldn't agree with you more Alan. We like these sort of programmes, but not enough are shown. I really enjoyed Guy's Canal programme, and he's a real nice bloke too. Talking of canal tunnels, one of the longest and most scary, is the Harecastle Tunnel near Stoke. I was glad to get out of there, as it is quiet wet and very low in places. But nevertheless, it is an experience. Not sure if the Standege Tunnel is open yet, on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which is the longest canal tunnel in Britain, at I think, three and a half miles.

I doubt whether we will do any of the canals again now, we are getting too old for all that lock work.

[ranworthbreeze]

"Talking of canal tunnels, one of the longest and most scary, is the Harecastle Tunnel near Stoke. I was glad to get out of there, as it is quiet wet and very low in places. But nevertheless, it is an experience. Not sure if the Standege Tunnel is open yet, on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, which is the longest canal tunnel in Britain, at I think, three and a half miles.

I doubt whether we will do any of the canals again now, we are getting too old for all that lock work."

Geoff we rather like going through the tunnels, the longer ones where you are spending a couple of hours underground in the cold can be taxing if you are not dressed for it, the pin prick of light when you can see it (many of the tunnels are not straight and there are a couple with kinks in them).

As I have said when we go on the canals these days we go as a group three couples, Tan is the youngest and the rest of us are in our 60's and as Chris says he has been in his late 60's for many a year.

The Standege tunnel is open and on the Timothy West & Prunela Scales series on the canals they passed through the tunnel.

I agree not enough good programmes on the TV.

Regards

Alan

[GeoffandWendy]

 Not sure if the Standege Tunnel is open

The Standege tunnel is open and on the Timothy West & Prunela Scales series on the canals they passed through the tunnel.

I agree not enough good programmes on the TV.

Regards

Alan

Yes I remember it now. They also did one of the French canals if I remember. 

[SteveO]

I rather liked the Guy Martin's programmes that he did on the canals. I especially was impressed by his two programmes recently in India.

 

Regards

Alan

 

I thought that Guy Martin's programmes on India were fantastic. They gave a whole new view of the country, which challenged our usual stereotypes about the place.

 

Have to say that I don't mind John Sergeant's prog about the canals, even though it is a bit superficial.

 

 

Steve

[retired]

Have to watch it in case I miss something interesting. Have not seen anything I have not already sen as yet , he has missed a lot though. Will watch it to the end you never know it might get better.

[ranworthbreeze]

I watched this again last night later on (we recorded it) and it was on the Trent & Mersey and featured the Anderton Boat Lift and the open Harcastle Tunnel.

 

Yes a lot of information was missing such has the Anderton Boat Lift now works on hydraulics' and the old gearing is just for show, sadly we have never been able to use the lift and the last time we moored there the visitors centre had just closed, we were able to walk around the lift whilst it had been striped prior to its full restoration and reopening in 2001.

 

The open tunnel is the second Harecastle tunnel. The first tunnel was built by James Brindley, boats had to be legged through this tunnel and the horses had to go over the hill, (closed in 1914 affer a partial collapse but suffered with subsidence for many years prior to the collapse).

Thomas Telford build the second tunnel (that is in use today) it took just three years to build, and was completed in 1827. It had a towpath so that horses could pull the boats through the tunnel. The tunnel was closed between 1973 & 1974 due to subsidence, the towpath was removed to allow boats to travel in the middle of the tunnel.

We have had many holidays over the years on the Trent & Mersey Canal and like the narrow locks (after the few wider locks at the River Trent end).

I think that the program this week was better than the previous episodes, or were we just looking through rose coloured glasses because of our love of the canal, our first canal holiday was on the Trent & Mersey in 1974, a 56 foot 10 berth narrow boat hired from Stenson Lock from a company called Barrington (sadly stopped trading in 1980 they shared the boatyard with Black Prince).

Regards

Alan

[webntweb]

Alan,

 

56 foot 10 berth; those were the days, we hired a few like that. Our last shared narrowboat was a 58 foot 6 berth and the young uns complained that was too crowded.

 

Roy

[ranworthbreeze]

Hi Roy,

 

There were only six of us so we did not use the two sets of bunk beds at rear of the boat.

The crew consisted of 5 girls and myself.

Tan of course was one of the girls but I still had looks of envy from people we saw on the canal towpath and in the pubs, happy days and a great start to boating. 

 

In 1974 that boat cost us just short of £300 plus fuel deposit, later that year and for a couple of years after we made use of their out of season 4 day special which was £60 all in (included fuel) for the same boat.

 

Regards

Alan