Granny Buttons

Rose of Lancaster to Castlefield Junction

From Chadderton to Castlefield Junction, today was a long day, taking in the entire stretch from Chadderton, through the 'fearsome' Failsworth and Ancoats stretch, down the old Rochdale Nine flight past the famous Manchester 'gay village', ending up at the modern, manicured visitor moorings at Castlefield Junction.

What a climax to the journey, and what an anti-climax to all my fears! It was a very pleasant day, starting drizzly but finishing in simply glorious sunshine and blue skies, with plenty of gongoozlers as we approached the centre of Manchester. Once again, you can take a virtual cruise courtesy of Martin Clark.

Littleborough to Rose of Lancaster

New friends Glenn and Sue of Onion Bargee took Granny from Littleborough down to Rose of Lancaster today. It's the last recommended overnight stop before one tackles the 'fearsome' Failsworth flight. There's a virtual cruise on this stretch on Martin Clark's Pennine Waterways site.

I'm very grateful for Glenn & Sue getiing the boat down here. It's good to arrive at the boat late at night with hot water in the tank.

Rochdale Observer shines on our parade

I was delighted to read the Rochdale Observer on Wednesday. It's a tradition that cub reporters on local newspapers are told to get as many names into the paper as possible. Reading about last Sunday in this article, I see how true that is. I can see what I missed.

And I can only return the compliment. So, many thanks to Rochdale Observer journalist Michael Byrne for mentioning me. And thanks to Glenn and to John and to the masters of narrowboats Cameo and Kingfisher. But above all, thanks to Mel, who had his head stuck down my weedhatch for so long and who stoically put up with his friends' jibes, such as sticking teaspoon-handles down his builder's cleavage as he laboured so stoically on my behalf.

Just one small factual correction: It was a section of security fencing, not an old mattress. But we didn't know that at the time; we only discovered it after a couple of hours of painstaking cutting and wireclipping and tugging and hacksawing. And there were over three hours more before my propellor was truly free. But frankly, having spend five hours doing all this, it now feels like more than a 'small factual correction', even if it wasn't.

What are the black Daleks lockside on the canals?

What are these black solar-powered bollards that have grown up around the canals? This one's at Eastwood Lock on the Erewash Canal, but they've popped up all over the place, including close by me on the summit of the Rochdale Canal. With their solar panels, I wonder if they are some sort of water-level sensors?

Thanks to Eastwood resident Gavin Gillespie's D.H. Lawrence site for the pic. He calls them Daleks, but if so, I think they are anorexic, and not that sinister. But as I remember, the black Dalek was the worst - the Supreme Dalek, the Big Daddy of them all, the personification of evil. Uh-oh, what have British Waterways planned for us?

Be afraid of the Anti-Bloggies

All right, I know, I'm a bore in always espousing the weblog as the ideal format for keeping a canal boat log and website. But do it well, and you might even be in with a chance for The Bloggies, the annual awards ceremony for the best in blogs.

But on the other hand, you might win one of the Anti-Bloggies.

Speculative savings from the Conservatives

The Guardian reports today that the Conservatives would plan big savings (or swingeing spendng cuts, depending on your politics) at DEFRA. Amongst the ideas is a one-off saving of over £400million by selling off some of "the property portfolio held by the British Waterways Board in areas such as London's Docklands."

I won't - can't - comment on the other ideas, but the sale of 'property portfolio' has proved a bane and vexation to every single canal and railway restoration in the last fifty years. Walk the line today of any ghost railway or derelict canal and marvel at the obstructions caused by earlier myopic property sell-offs. Indeed, the bulk of the Pennine Canals restoration cost was swallowed in buying back (or bypassing) the routes that originally passed through sold-off property, as will be much of last week's award of millions to the Cotswold Canals restoration.

Even the short hop I made last week across the Rochdale Canal's summit was made tricky and costly by the sale eighty years ago of the canal's original reservoirs for water supply The old canal company thought that as the traffic declined, they'd not need the water.

Perhaps offfice-hungry politicians, in need of quick & sexy savings, think that British Waterways will never need dockside property again. Think again.

Mentioned in the report, from 'business troubleshooter David James' is a throwaway: "disposal of the British Waterways Board's investment property, held for speculative purposes, would realise a one-off windfall of £424 million". Presumably it's to be sold off before it becomes too valuable or too useful.

Well, if my history isn't too rusty I seem to recall that most of the canals closed in the last century were sold off for speculative purposes too. After all, you only hold on for speculative purposes because you plan in the end on realising a 'one-off windfall'. You can't get the windfall twice.

The beautiful canals that remain were (luckily) part of the property portfolio that BW (sometimes against its will) never made available for 'one-off windfall'.

Back to your relaxing hot bath and think again please, Mr James.

Nutwood makes it 5 canal blogs

I spotted a cute little boat, with a certain familiar little bear on the side, on the Llangollen over Christmas. An idle web search last week for my own domain turned up a surprise - the owners of NB Nutwood, whose emblem is the same little white bear, started a blog last month. That makes five of us boating bloggers in total. Five I know about, anyway. And I only found them because - che adulazione! - www.grannybuttons.com was the only link on their blogroll.

Unfortunately NB Nutwood's blog hasn't so far got beyond two entries. I hope they continue it. I know how hard it is to get in the habit of posting regularly.

Incidentally, they set it up with Wordpress, a weblog system I hadn't heard of before. Wordpress promises some neat little facilities, and appears to be free to use, although it's not a hosting service as such. You'll need to find someone to do it for you, and a place to put the blog, and you'll probably have to pay for that.

But examining my photos of last year suggests that I'm confusing boats here. The one I photographed near Ellesmere was Rupert, not Nutwood. I'm sure you can see how the confusion arose.

Hirers of the found ark

The Shropshire Star reports today that the boat Harrison Ford & Calista Flockwallpaper hired from Maestermyn Marine for their cruise on the Llangollen Canal was the Queen Anne.

Pootling around Littleborough

A very short trip, from just above Durn Lock to Littleborough Wharf, complete with a cargo of local dignitaries, following behind the local Mayor and his Umbrella-General.

I was going to write about a pleasant Sunday spent at the Littleborough Rushbearing festival, complete with more morris dancing, a pace-egg play, a meek little fete and fair in the Town Square, and all presided over by the local civic dignitaries.

Instead, I spent all of Sunday afternoon in the drizzle, helping to hack off my propellor a sunken security fence. I say 'helping', because in truth most of the work was done by new friends and acquaintances, half of whom were new to me today.

I need to thank Glenn, John, the crew of Cameo and Kingfisher, and in particular an astonishing guy called Mel from Gellibean, who grunted and yelled and displayed considerable builder's cleavage for the better part of two hours before finally holding up the final piece of wiring for the camera near 8pm. Thanks to you all, and thanks again. I'll write more about it later.

Snecklifter

Snecklifter the beer is "a dark beer with a reddish tinge, derived from the use of coloured malts, perfectly balanced with specially formulated brewing sugars and English aromatic hops."

Snecklifter the website is a remarkable record of a boat's building, fitting out and passage of more than two years.

Snecklifter the boat was Mike & Sue Holloway's late-life determination to see more of the Kingdom before old age suddenly appeared unbidden in front of them. In the shadow of 2001 they sold their house and started building their dream as soon as they could, commencing the still-unfinished cruise in April 2002.

Many people have now done that, of course, and few if any have regretted it. What's most remarkable about www.snecklifter.com is that it is still being faithfully updated every few days, with photos and cruising log, and is as near-complete a narrowboat log as you'll find on the web. Superb!

But more than any other canal boat website, it's a blog manque. As splendid a read and as entertaining a picture gallery as it is, I think it would be much easier to find your way from point to point in their two-year cruise if it was in weblog format. For example, the regular cruise report has the oldest date at the top and the most recent at the bottom, which makes regular checking much harder than in a blog.

Here's their current cruising news, but I'm not sure how this link will change over the months. There's an interesting pictorial record on the building of Snecklifter, and many pictures of the friends they have met along the way. And almost every picture here tells a story of people - especially couples later in life - with smiles on their faces.

Snecklifter, the name, is said by the Jennings Brewery to be from a northern dialect word 'sneck', meaning door latch. A sneck lifter was a man's last sixpence which enabled him to lift the latch of a pub door and buy himself a pint, hoping to meet friends there who might treat him to one or two more.

I do hope the expense of cruising the English canals over the last two years has not brought Mike & Sue Holloway down to their last sixpence!

Rochdale the car-dumping hotspot in the North West

The Rochdale Observer reports today that Rochdale is fast becoming "the worst car-dumping hotspot in the North West". The area mentioned is just off junction 20 of the M62, close to Milnrow. BW is quoted as saying that a dozen cars have been dumped there in the last two months.

Locals said joyriders have been stealing cars and speeding past their homes in the area for years, but alarmingly, they are now dumping them in the canal almost every other day – costing British Waterways up to £1,000 a time to pull them out.

One person living in the area said: "These days, I just go to bed early to keep out of the way. There are cars flying down the road outside at all hours."I can only be grateful that just three miles up the canal, Littleborough has a rather safer reputation.

I'm relieved that I'm staying just three miles up the canal in Littleborough.

Thanks to Charles Lyne of Aardvark World for the pic, which was actually taken on the Peak Forest, but not to worry, it's the spirit of the thing!

Littleborough Rushbearing Festival

I happen to have arrived in Littleborough just as this little old Lancashire mill town is limbering up for its biggest weekend of the year, the Littleborough Rushbearing Festival.

The Festival doesn’t have its own web presence, but Rushbearing is one of those peculiarly English traditions that has been revived and revitalised, so naturally someone has devoted an domain and an online shrine to it. The best I’ve found is the Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing Festival, which takes place in September, just a couple of day’s cruising up and down the Rochdale canal from here. The GreenMan Morris website has a bit about rush cutting for the 1999 festival and something on the 1999 Littleborough festival itself.

But Rushbearing on its own is perhaps a slightly weak way of spending a weekend, since it started as a church-focused ritual. So to turn it into a fully-fledged weekend town bender, two other traditions tend to escort it these days. Pace Egging and Morris Dancing.

Here’s the schedule for Littleborough this weekend. The organisers warned me that all schedules are in a strange parallel time called British Morris Time, which is chiefly connected to the delays in Morris Dancers getting served at the various pubs on the way!

SATURDAY, July 24th:
10am - Rushcart Procession starts from King William IVth pub and proceeds to St Barnabas Church.
10.30am - Service and presentation of the Rushes at St Barnabas Church.
12 noon Then via Caldermoor and Hare Hill Road to Littleworth Town Square and Wheatsheaf. (arrive 12.30pm)
2pm Leave The Square for ‘Red Lion, Canal St and Hollingworth Road, to Hollingworth Lake Country Park (arrive 3.30pm)

SUNDAY, July 25th:
11am Hollingworth Lake Visitor Centre - Rushcart, Rochdale Morris and guest teams dancing and a performance of the Pace Egg ‘Play of St George’ by the Curtain Theatre Players.
12 noon: Rushcart procession then proceeds via the Fisherman’s Inn, Hollingsworth Road and Halifax Road, to the Rake Inn, arriving 12.30pm.
2 pm: Rushcart procession leaves for Canal Wharf.
2.30pm The surprise"Festival Guest" arrives on boat ‘Jacaranda’ at Littleborough Wharf. The Festival Guest joins the Rushcart Procession at the Wharf , with the Littleborough Town Band, via Church St to the conclusion of the festivities at the Town Square.

If you choose just one day and place to be in Littleborough, it has to be Sunday Afternoon in the Square, a lively fete of charity stalls, fundraising and fun - all in the most traditional sense. There’s a coconut shy, tombolas, arts & crafts, home made jams and a barbecue.
1-2pm The Littleborough Band play in the Square. The local Rochdale Morris (and guest teams) play there all afternoon.

It’s 200 years since the Rochdale Canal opened in 1804, and British Waterways have an exhibition commemorating this, in the Coach House Heritage Centre, Lodge St (opposite the Church). There’s also an exhibition of canal paintings and photographs at the Littleborough Gallery, 88 Church St.

Cotswold Canals get all but the crust

I asked a couple of days ago what on earth a "Stage One Pass" is. The Heritage Lottery Fund has just granted this benediction to the Cotswold Canals restoration, and despite the clear caveats it implies, the waterways people are cock-a-hoop that they've got the money.

Well, I've found out quickly enough. Says the Heritage Lottery Fund press office:

A ‘Stage One Pass’ means that money has been earmarked by the Heritage Lottery Fund for the project in question. Competition at this stage is tough, and while a Stage One Pass does not guarantee funding, it is an indication of positive support, and money for the scheme is set aside. The applicant can then progress to Stage Two and submit a further, fully developed application to secure the full grant. On occasion, at Stage One, funding will also be awarded towards the development of the scheme.

BW haven't been handed any money for definite at Stage One, but at least the money hasn't gone to the pyramid-on-LSD in Exhibition Road proposed by Daniel Libeskind, thank God. Not that he's worried, not now that he's got the contract to replace the Twin Towers. After all, he could build it anywhere. Las Vegas is a superb location, methinks.

You could afford (and build) a Cotswold Canal restoration in Las Vegas too, of course, but then to be logical you'd have to build the rest of the Thames as well, all the way down to London Bridge at Lake Havasu, Arizona, and coincidentally, at about 160 miles it's about the same distance as the real thing. But that's clearly silly.

But then again, what's a blog for?

Playing chicken at locks

Today the Derby Evening Telegraph reports on a new wave of children 'playing chicken' at Swarkestone Lock. The idea is the boy (for they are always boys) jumps off the bridge in front of the lock as the boat is about to enter or leave the lock, and tries to swim out of the way of the boat. As you'd expect, this is not a new phenomenon. Children have been mucking around boats for many years; certainly since the death of cargo carrying and the birth of the leisure boatman.

I'm often single-handed, so it's doubly unnerving for me. Not only must I try to beware of them from a safety point of view when I'm steering - there's no one looking out for me lockside - but when I have to come lockside myself there is no one to stand guard on the boat.

Unlike my boating, playing chicken at locks isn't a single-handed game. Not only do the kids compete against each other, but they must also have an audience of their peers. And their peers aren't just willing to play chicken themselves, they usually look ready to play the crook or the vandal as well.