Inland Waterways Feature - Published 15th February 2006

Many people, today, don't always realise that they live in relatively close proximity to a canal. Often it passes closely, behind a screen of trees, under the bridge your car races over, even over the road on one of the many aqueducts. Probably the most famous of the British aqueducts is the Pontcysyllte which has carried the Llangollen canal, in a single narrow channel, at a height of 120feet, over the River Dee since 1805. From the steering position on a narrowboat the boatman can, without moving, gaze down (if he has the stomach!) on the rushing waters of the River Dee. On the other side of the channel is the rail-guarded footpath, along which you can walk, if so inclined! Often the canal hides itself in tunnels as it winds its way through hillsides too steep to climb. Today, boats go through tunnels under power but, when horses pulled the boats, the boat would be propelled through the tunnel in a procedure known as 'legging'. This entailed the crew lying on boards, projecting from the sides at the front end of the boat and, bracing their feet against the tunnel walls, 'walk' the boat forward. The horse would be led over the hill to meet them at the other end.

Salford Quays

It's impossible to think of canals without also thinking of locks. Not the 'locks' that safeguard your valuables, but those that transfer the canal channel from one level to the next. They are the key to the canal system - they enable canals to pass through a landscape of changing contours. The maintenance of the lock chambers, along with the gates at each end, is of paramount importance to the survival of the system. Depending on the geography of the area, the boater might encounter single locks which enable the boats to navigate gently changing countours in the landscape. Where it is impossible 'to go round' then the boater will meet a staircase of locks (where there are no intervening pounds), or a flight of locks, each separated from the next by a pound, which can vary from a few yards to a much longer distance measured in miles by the time the last lock has been negotiated. To move uphill the boat enters an empty lock chamber; the gates are closed and the lock filled with water so that the boat is lifted up to the new level of the canal. When the water level is equalised the gate can be opened and the boat pass on its way. To go downhill the boat enters a full lock, the gate is closed behind it, then the water is released into the canal below and, when the water level is equalised, the gates can be opened and the boat continue on its way again.

In some places new engineering ideas were tried, one of these being the Anderton Vertical Lift, which was constructed to provide a link between the Trent & Mersey Canal and the River Weaver, flowing 50 feet below it. It consisted of a steel framework containing two giant tanks, each capable of holding 2 narrowboats or 1 wideboat, with gates at either end, In principle, as each tank, with its load, was emptied or filled with water, the heavier of the two would gently fall to the lower level whilst at the same time lifting the other to the higher one. The gates could then be opened and the boats released. The lift was opened in 1875 and is considered to be one of the wonders of the waterways - an unrivalled example of the creative and innovative thinking of the Victorian engineers. Other great engineering feats were the Barton Swing Aqueduct carrying the Bridgewater Canal over the Manchester Ship Canal; the Bingley Five Rise Locks on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal; Standedge Tunnel on the Huddersfield Canal; and the flight of 29 locks at Devizes on the Kennet & Avon Canal.

River Mersey

Today the enthusiast can cruise a good proportion of England (and Wales!), again. The canals meander through rural landscapes, with fields on either side, stretching away over rolling farmland to distant hills; it can take the boater far from busy roads and deep into the countryside where unspoiled villages wait to be discovered; it can take you into the heart of the city to explore the re-generated basins like those of Manchester and Birmingham, where waterside pubs and restaurants await the hungry and thirsty traveller.

The choice is all one's own.