This England (2)- Canals- the waterways system

I have just added a series of great images from my huge collection in the waterways section of my  transport photograph archives on my Flickr here:-English Waterways Images

(The images in this blog entry have been further greatly compressed from the originals so visit my Flickr to view them larger for greater effect ( although the Flickr versions are 80% reduced quality from the high quality originals, all of which are available to purchase.)

I now live in the North West of England, cradle of the Industrial Revololution living within the City of Salford which embraces the old borough of Worsley, birthpalce of of national waterways system.As a result of ground breaking ideas from the Duke of Bridgewater , an 18th century wealthy land owner and the ability of Engineer James Brindley to impliment those ideas we have today a national system of waterways , a network of canals.  The orange colour of the water in this canal is the  signature of this  original part of the national waterway system from the Bridgewater canal whose sourse is at the Delph ,Worsley in Salford. The colour is due to  iron oxide leeched out of coal bearing limestones during rainy spells. Underground coal mines were a feature of the Duke of Bridgewater's estate. The waterway idea was Bridgewater's solution to reducing the high cost of getting coal from his mines to Manchester by pack horse. 

At one time these waterways were the principle way in which manufactured items and materials such as coal were distributed across the country and indeed whole families lived and worked on the canal boats. Originally these boats, called narrow boats in the North West where I now live, were not motor driven but were towed by heavy horses and the golden age of this sytem was in Victorian times. The decline of the system for bulk transport was due to the development of the railways and motorised transport which had the adavantage of being faster. 

You can still see evidence of the use of ropes to tow narrow boats as the stonework of the walls of  various bridges over canals bare the signs of  wear as in this example art Lymm in Cheshire. 

These days , much work has been done, by British Waterways , to restore the entire canal system but principally for recreational and leisure use and narrow boats and these canals enable you to crusie ,at a leisurely pace, powered by a quiet diesel motor through some of the most picturesque scenery in the country.

The canals are punctuated by a number of locks, essentially two giant heavy doors in pairs to provide a kind of step down or step up so gradienrs could be navigated. The first lock was opened and the narrow boat moves into the lock. that lock is then manually closed and the bottom lock gradually opened until the water level and the narrow boat was lowered to the level of the water at the next section of the canal. that lcok was themn opened and the boat proceeded on its way. At stages their were small cottages where the "lock-keeper" lived and where , when the watrways were busy water highways , it was soemone's job to operate the locks on your behalf.  Here is an example of a lock keeper's cottage right in the heart of the City of Manchester, a city that is criss-crossed with a series of canals and related canal basins.

As mentioned, although many people lect to live on narrow boats as an economic alternative to dry land based residences, the majority of narrow boats these days are for leisure use.  Here is an example how the urban industrial landscape of Manchester , from Victorian times, is still in use today. the canal is in harmony below a wonderful victorian brick built railway viaduct. This particular area of the City, at Castlefields , is a veruy popular spot with a number of new bars and coffee houses and restaurants  canal side. In this area is also both the Science Museum and the Air and Space Museum as well as a number of other popular tourist attractions and within a stone's throw of the main shopping area of the city.

This gentleman has his home in a narrow boat, pictured passing the village of Astley bearing towards Manchester. Originally the working families lived in very cramped conditions in the small; cockpit area at the back of the narrow boat and the majority of the length of the boat was used for carrying bulk. these days the entire length of the boat is living space embracing clever space saving interior design. It is not however free to cruise the system and a series of licences have to be bought to allow you to access different sections of the national network. 

 

This is image was taken at the wonderful Elmesmere Port Boat Museum and illustrates  the way that space was utilised in the working days of such boats.  Elmesmere Port was once the terminus for the North West Canal system  where goods manufactured inland were transported and then transferred to ships for export.

This image was taken from the back of the Race Course near Stratford on Avon in Warwickshire "Shakespeare " country. It shows the English countryside and leisure/ recreational use of narrow boats.

Again the orange hue of the water indicates that this is the Bridgewater Canal with Worlsey Basin in the distance. You can also see the black and white mock tudor splendour of the Packet house in the Worlsey basin from whence pasengers and mail embarked to travel to Manchester and beyond.  Moving ahead here and bearing left would take you onto the Leigh Canal and on in the direction of the Leeds- Liverpool Canal section.

 

Another view of the wonderful living Museum at Elesmere Port Boat Museum , part of whose work , beyond the preservation of this series of locks and buildings and boats in the exhibitions, indoors and out, (so well worth the day out to visit)  is on-going restoration of historic waterway vessels and the presevation of exisiting exemplars and related objects.

I have huge respect for the Victorian age  and their inventiveness and their ability to find simple but effecti8ve solutions. How do you for example, keep the traffic flowing when the canal sytem is frozen over ? Here was their solution, ice-breaker boats ! 

.Notice how heavily constructed these two ice-breakers are. They were simply towed forward by pairs of heavy horses onto the actual ice and the sheer weight broke the ice ; then the process was repeated , again and again ,along that frozen section of the canal to ensure goods could be transported all year round.Here again, at Elesmere Port Boat Museum.