The industrial heritage of the canals means that they pass through the big cities as well as open countryside, and the keen narrowboater can see a great deal of industrial history as well as marvellous views, and experience a tremendous sense of peace as he or she, plus family or friends, chugs along at walking pace.
Owning a canal boat can be an expensive business, if one is talking about a full-length narrowboat that has to be bought, maintained, licensed and moored throughout the year. However, there are many smaller craft that use the canals, and many companies that hire boats out by the week or fortnight, or even for single days or weekends. It must be admitted that a canal holiday is not cheap, with a week’s hire usually costing more than £500, but you certainly get your money’s worth.
The great thing about a canal boating holiday is that you can go wherever the system takes you, stop virtually where you want, for as long as you want (within reason), and let the world pass you by. You can choose to cook all your own food on board, or moor up in villages or towns and make use of the pubs and restaurants that cater for people just like you.
The canals themselves are just great places to be. In rural areas they are mostly lined by reeds and grassy banks, and inhabited by a wide range of water birds including ducks, geese, swans, coots and moorhens. You may be lucky enough to see a water vole or an otter swimming across a canal, or a kingfisher darting into the water.
The industrial architecture of the canals is also worth seeing. Because canals cannot climb hills, locks are provided for this purpose, and many old lock-keepers’ cottages are still to be seen, as well as engine-houses, forges, and canal-side workshops. Many of these buildings are more than 200 years old. Canals are sometimes carried on extensive viaducts, or through long tunnels. There are even a few boat lifts still in working order, designed to take boats and their cargoes between canals and rivers that are at different levels.
When taking to the canals, it is important to know how to work the locks, because on most canals you will encounter a good number, sometimes in “flights” that mean you have to negotiate several locks in close succession. A lock consists of a brick-lined chamber between two lock gates. Because water can only flow one way, a lock operation consists of water being allowed to enter the chamber with the top gate open and the bottom gate closed, then released with the top gate closed and the bottom gate open. A boat will therefore either rise or fall within the chamber, depending on whether it is heading up or down the canal.
The fact that thousands of gallons of water will move down the canal every time the lock is used means that canal users should always be careful to observe the etiquette of allowing boats down the canal before emptying a lock in order to go up. It is also important to close the gates before you leave, and to be careful how you treat the mechanism that winds the “paddles” up and down.
There are some other “rules of the road”, such as keeping your speed to no more than four miles an hour, and not using the canal at night when people in moored boats are asleep. There are also places where you should avoid mooring. It can, for example, often be difficult to find somewhere to stop in a big city.
Learning to steer a narrowboat takes a little time, because the boat does not respond to the helm immediately. There are places where it is not easy to manoeuvre a boat, such as round sharp bends and when approaching locks or turns, and especially when trying to avoid other boats in narrow canals!
It is important to plan your trip so that you cover as many miles as you need to each day. Some routes can make use of “rings”, namely linking canals that will bring you back to where you started. If you are going “there and back” you will need to turn the boat round, which is only possible at certain places called “winding holes” where the canal is wide enough to make a three point turn (or possibly more than three!). You will also need to work out where you will pick up water, or possibly fuel, and where you can stop to pump out your onboard toilet.
Canal boating is great fun, as well as being hard work at times when there are many locks to negotiate. However, it is at these times that you are most likely to meet other canal users and pass the time of day. It is not so much fun when it is raining, as getting dry is not always so easy on a boat. But that is an occupational hazard of living in or visiting the UK!
Once you have tried canal boating, you will always be looking forward to the next time!
© John Welford
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