The Canal & River Trust is making journey-planning easier for boaters by making passage through more staffed locks and tunnels available to be booked in one place online.

Boaters are asked to book passage in advance for some tidal and river locks, lock flights, long tunnels, and other structures like Anderton Boat Lift and the Ribble Link.  While a few of these structures can already be booked online via the Trust’s online licensing portal, many others have individual, local booking processes.

From 2 November 2020, boaters will now also be able to book the following passages online: Thames Lock; Braunston Tunnel; Saddington Tunnel; Blisworth Tunnel; Boston Tidal Lock; Newlay & Kirkstall Forge Locks; Bingley Three and Five Rise Locks; and Harecastle Tunnel.  They join the likes of Standedge Tunnel, Liverpool Link and the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park waterways which already use the online booking system.

Before they book passage, boaters will be able to see all the information they need, including any necessary dimensions, and opening days/times.

Jon Horsfall, head of customer service support at Canal & River Trust, said: “We are pleased to be extending our online passage booking offer.  We ask boaters to book passage through some of our structures in advance so our colleagues are prepared and boaters have a smooth, uninterrupted journey.  We’re committed to offering the best possible level of service to our customers and we believe boaters will appreciate a more modern booking process that’s available 24 hours a day, and a choice of how to interact with us.

“We hope that, by reducing the admin, this will give boaters more of a chance to focus on the excitement of planning a cruise.  We are planning to bring even more of the booked passage structures into the online process ahead of next summer’s main cruising season.”

Boaters can find out more on the ‘Booking your passage online’ page of the Trust’s website.  Bookings can be made via the online licensing portal, in the ‘Bookings’ section.  The online system is already used by boaters for licence renewal, amending details and booking moorings.  Boaters will still be able to book by telephone if they are not able to book online.

Shiam and John Wilcox sell from their narrowboat wherever they happen to be on the waterways.

You can follow them on Facebook to see where they are, or you can buy direct from their website.

You may also contact Shiam by phone on 07528 802 967

Staff from waterways and wellbeing charity, Canal & River Trust were on hand to give a warm waterways welcome to their new neighbour Steph McGovern.  Today, the former BBC Breakfast presenter launched her new daily lunchtime television show - Steph’s Packed Lunch.

Steph arrived at her new studio at Leeds Dock via water taxi on the Aire & Calder Navigation, welcomed by a socially distanced crowd – with music, dancing and cheers.  Becca Dent, strategic programmes delivery manager and Jade Wilkes, community roots engagement coordinator helped to escort the water taxi in the waterway charity’s canoes.  Lizzie Dealey, partnerships and external relationships manager joined Joy Van Rensburg, community & youth events coordinator to cheer on Steph from aboard the Trust’s workboat ‘Beale’.

Local boater Caleb Price and his wife Fiona were also on hand to cheer from their narrowboat.  Caleb was one of the first to bring his boat into the newly regenerated Clarence Dock area almost quarter of a century ago, with the 1996 opening of the £42.5million purpose-built Royal Armouries Museum.

Becca Dent, strategic programmes delivery manager said: “In the absence of Leeds Waterfront Festival this year, due to Covid-19 restrictions, we’ve really missed seeing Leeds Dock draw in the crowds coming to enjoy music, performance and activities on the water, so it was especially great to be giving Steph a warm waterways welcome.  With the new studio overlooking the water at Leeds Dock, it would be great to see Steph and her guests making the most of this fabulous waterside setting and getting afloat themselves by canoe or even paddleboard.”

Pete McCabe, community engagement manager (Yorkshire & North East) for the Trust, said: “It was really great news for the city when Channel 4 decided to relocate to Leeds, and we’ve been really keen to work with them to show off our fantastic network of waterways and highlight the amazing work of our staff and volunteers.”

Steph's Packed Lunch is broadcast live on Channel 4, weekdays from 12.30-2.10pm, with a mixture of entertainment, lifestyle and celebrity guests, plus a changing panel of audience members reviewing the day’s news and chatting to celeb guests.

What a way to arrive for our first show! Join us now on @Channel4@StephLunch #PackedLunchC4 pic.twitter.com/4eoJHB0xYw

— Steph's Packed Lunch (@PackedLunchC4) September 14, 2020

The Canal & River Trust has teamed up with partners, including King’s College London, and is appealing for people aged 16 or over to take part in its largest ever study of the wellbeing benefits of spending time beside water.

The academic study will enable the Trust to better understand the health benefits of waterways and will help make the case to partners and funders of the importance of looking after and investing in Britain’s former industrial canals and rivers.

Those taking part download an app onto their smart phone.  Then, three times a day over the following two weeks, they are prompted to answer ‘in the moment’ questions about how they feel and the environment around them.  On each occasion it takes about one minute to complete the survey.

Those taking part are able to access an individualised report summarising their experiences.  This could shed light on how being in different types of places, such as being close to birds, trees and water, affects their mood, as well as contributing to the wider study of the impact of different environments on mental health and wellbeing.

Jenny Shepherd, research and impact manager at the Canal & River Trust, comments: “Those of us that know and use the waterways feel instinctively that spending time beside water is good for our wellbeing.  With our academic partners, and with the help of the public, we’re able to collect our own bespoke data to record how people are affected by their environment and how this changes when they are on or beside water.

“This scale and scope of this research is a first for the Trust.  And, with the help of those taking part, we can emphatically demonstrate to decision makers and funders the importance of canals and the vital role they play, particularly in our towns and cities where green and blue space is at a premium.  We’d like as many people to take part as possible – having taken part myself, I know it literally takes a minute or so just three times a day.  It’s a fascinating area of study, both to find out about your own individual mood influencers, and for the wider social implications of the environment on wellbeing.”

The Canal & River Trust survey, which runs from 21 September to 15 November, is run on the Urban Mind app and partners King’s College London, J&L Gibbons and Nomad Projects.  The app is free to download on App Store & Google Play.  To take part please download and select the ‘custom’ study option and enter the password ‘water’ when prompted.  The survey is confidential and participants are not asked to provide their name, phone, email or any other information which could identify them.

Written by River Canal Rescue managing director, Stephanie Horton, Narrow Boat Engine Maintenance and Repair is an essential maintenance tool and perfect for those keen to keep their vessels in a good condition, inside and out.

“The idea behind the book was to combine our practical advice with our engineers’ specialist knowledge who through years of experience have unrivalled skills and repair techniques."

With a focus on diesel engines and their arrangements, it explains the theory behind the boat’s main systems, including propulsion, cooling and electrics, and gives instructions on how to identify key components, how to locate faults and where possible, how to fix them.

There are tips on everyday engine maintenance and how to complete a service and all instructions are accompanied by over 260 colour step-by-step photographs and 60 technical diagrams.

Narrow Boat Engine Maintenance and Repair retails at £18 (discounted for RCR members) and is available from River Canal Rescue and bookshops.

“My aim was to deliver a single reference tool, keeping things as simple as possible, and from the feedback received, this what it achieves. I’m delighted it’s been published.”

The East End Canal Tales weaves the memories of over 50 local residents together with historical accounts to tell of intriguing, humorous, moving and often surprising stories of life and work on the Regent’s and Hertford Union Canals over two centuries.

A fascinating insight into the social history of the canals of East London, and the people who lived and worked beside them. The book is not about boating but the way in which local people interacted with the canal - sometimes in a less-than-commendable way, and how the canal had an impact on the lives of ordinary people in the mid 20th Century. It is an unusual book, covering an under-reported part of London's canal story.

The book is published this month by London Canal Museum as part of the 200th anniversary celebrations of the Regent’s Canal.

The East End Canal Tales is lavishly illustrated with over 130 photographs, many never published before, and three maps.

Read about canal trades of coal and manure and canal-side industries ranging from timber and metalworks to ice and chocolate. Learn about the canal’s role in what was the equivalent of the Victorian internet. Relive childhood memories of diving from ‘the pipe’ and being chased by the ‘cut runners’. Join the villains’ search for the holy grail of a gold cargo. Find out what happened in the old buildings which you can still find along the canal banks and what it was like to work on the Cut.

Lonely Planet London says: ‘Pick up a copy of the museum’s newly published The East End Canal Tales by Carolyn Clark to sail through the canal’s and its industries' fascinating history, meeting a colourful cast of characters who lived and worked on them along the way. Bon voyage!’

The East End Canal Tales is written by Carolyn Clark, author of The Shoreditch Tales and The Lower Clapton Tales.

The East End Canal Tales is on sale at the London Canal Museum, local bookshops including Brick Lane Books, Broadway Books and Pages of Hackney as well as on-line.

​For further information:

Press contact: Carolyn Clark
Phone number: 07773 784 517
Email: carolynclark10@aol.com

Charity urges motorists to take care when crossing historic canal bridges after damage to Grade II* Listed gem

The Canal & River Trust, the charity caring for 2,000 miles of canals and rivers in England and Wales, is calling for motorists to slow down when crossing historic canal bridges after a driver caused major damage to one of the most ornate bridges on the waterways network.

Bridge 65 on the Grand Union Canal, known as Ornamental Bridge, was hit by a driver over the weekend causing extensive damage to one of the parapets, or walls. Police arrested the driver at the scene and the Trust will, if possible, recover the costs of repair from the driver’s insurance.

Ornamental Bridge is a 200 year old gothic limestone bridge which is Grade II* Listed, putting it in the top 10% of buildings listed in England and giving it a greater level of protection than the famous Abbey Road Studios and the BT Tower in London.

The collision has demolished a 5m length of parapet and it’s possible that other sections of the bridge that have been displaced will need to be rebuilt. Much of the historic stone will be recovered and reused in the repair but some of the ornamental elements will need to be completely replaced. Due to the bridge’s listed status the repairs will be carried out carefully and sensitively, under guidance from Historic England.

The bridge carries the main road into the village of Cosgrove, just North of Milton Keynes so temporary barriers and traffic lights have been put up to ensure that it can be used safely by local people.

It’s not known why such an ornamental bridge was built in this location but the presence of the nearby Cosgrove Priory, home to the Lord of the Manor at that time, may have had something to do with it. Today the bridge is much loved by people living in Cosgrove and is often used as a backdrop for artists, photographers and even wedding parties.

Hump-back bridges, synonymous with Britain’s canal network, were built for the passage of horse-drawn carts, not for today’s speeding motorists, who cause up to £1 million of damage to the Canal & River Trust’s bridges each year.  The majority of accidents are ‘hit and run’, leaving the Trust unable to recoup the cost of the damage from drivers’ insurers, and diverting vital funds away from work to conserve the nation’s waterways.

Richard Bennett, heritage and environment manager for the Canal & River Trust, said: “All historic canal bridges are special but this one is a real gem, it’s beautiful, eccentric and full of character so it’s especially heart-breaking to see it damaged like this.

“It’s also massively frustrating for the people of Cosgrove who really value the bridge and want to use the road.

“Each year we have to spend more than £1million across the country repairing bridges hit by drivers and that’s money which could be better used maintaining and looking after the region’s canals.

“If motorists just slowed down a bit and took more care and attention, then they would save themselves and us a lot of cost and aggravation and protect the nation’s important canal heritage.”

To find out more about the work of the Canal & River Trust, including how you can support through volunteering or making a donation go to CRT website.

• Grade I buildings are of exceptional interest, only 2.5% of listed buildings are Grade I
• Grade II* buildings are particularly important buildings of more than special interest; 5.8% of listed buildings are Grade II*
• Grade II buildings are of special interest; 91.7% of all listed buildings are in this class

Article reproduced from press release by Canal & River Trust