Footnote

Wherever I go, my interest in canals seems to follow me. If I am travelling by road or train and see the black and white of a lock gate balance beam or the unique profile of a hump-backed bridge, I try to identify the canal or waterway from a mental map of the inland waterways system. This mental map helps me to navigate when driving in unfamiliar parts of the country (provided, of course, that there are canals and waterways in the area). I also get the urge to stop for a look around, to take photographs (a good photographer always carries a camera) and take notes, either scribbled or recorded on my electronic note book.

Alcudian Canal in Majorca

A few years ago, my wife... Ange and I were on a holiday in Alcudia... a town located in the north of the beautiful Mediterranean island of Majorca. Whilst looking around the shops of the main street we unexpectedly came across a hump-backed bridge spanning what appeared to be a canal. On further investigation it turned out that it was a canal that connected lagoons and a marina to the open sea. Consequently, Ange and I decided to hire a pair of bicycles and explore this small canal network. Whilst cycling along the “towpath” we were very surprised to discover a  “Norman” 24 ft. canal cruiser tucked away in a residential area adjacent to the canal. It was on a trailer, scruffy and had no windows or engine fitted, but was readily identifiable for what it was; a British, narrow beam, fibreglass, canal cruiser. Needless to say that it was duly recorded for prosperity on my still camera and camcorder just in case some of my canal cruising friends didn't believe me! I often wonder how it got there and if the owner knows why the boat in question is only 6ft. 10 ins. beam?

The Norman 24 that we came across in Alcudia, Majorca

On another occasion, we were visiting Ange’s brother who lives on the Isle of Wight. Our visit coincided with the finish of the Round the World Yacht Race and we spent some time looking at the wonderful array of craft assembled in Cowes Harbour... “J Class” yachts (the “Josher” of the yachting world), tall ships and many other types and sizes of craft both classic and modern.

We also saw and photographed examples of “Fairy Swordfish”, “Fairy Huntsman” and “Fairy Huntress” off-shore cruisers as used in the James Bond Film “From Russia With Love” in which Bond escapes the enemy. The enemy also had "Fairy Huntsman" boats as well! (not surprising really as this section of the film was actually shot in the U.K.). They were of interest to me as they are also the craft on which Marlin Craft of Chester (“Phial”... my parents boat's builders) based their boat designs.

A Fairey Huntsman on the Solent off Cowes, Isle of Wight

Whilst we were on the island we went to an open day at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway Open Day. As well as going on the steam railway and looking at and photographing the trains, traction engines, classic cars and preserved vehicles there were a number of stalls selling various items of interest. One of the stalls, located in an old railway carriage, was selling various old magazines and there were quite a few back-copies of "Waterways World" and "Canal and Riverboat" for sale. Needless to say, the boxes containing these magazines were empty after I had been and the donation box was a little bit heavier as well!

"High Jump"... the aluminium Sea Otter that we saw on our arrival in France

When we were travelling to Paris with Lymm Cruising Club in 2007 our coach pulled in for fuel and a comfort break. Whilst walking around to stretch our legs we saw "High Jump"... a "Sea Otter", lightweight narrowboat of aluminium construction rather than the heavier and more corrosive mild steel. The boat emanated from Churt on the River Wey, near Farnham in Surrey, was on a trailer towed by a large 4x4. It's owner was, no doubt, emulating Terry Darlington's epic voyage to the Mediterranean ("Narrow Dog to Carcassonne") but missing out the bit where Terry, Monica and Jim the Whippet crossed the English Channel in their narrowboat "Phyllis May".

The Rochdale Canal close to Deansgate Tunnel in Manchester

I always try to identify various canal locations shown in television programs. I was pleased to see my old friends Ray and Thelly Corlett’s narrowboat "Charisma" used in the final episode of the television series “Watching” where the Bridgewater Canal at Lymm was used as the location. Canals feature regularly in Manchester based programmes such as “Coronation Street”. Des Barnes’ cabin cruiser was burnt on the banks of the Bridgewater Canal at Stockton Heath near Warrington and Samir Rashid (one of Deirdre's late husbands) was murdered in the Deansgate Tunnel on the Rochdale Canal, just around the corner from Castlefield Junction where the Rochdale meets the Bridgewater Canal. Steve Macdonald beat-up Vikram Desai... at one time his partner in the "Streetcars" taxi firm, on the wharf arms at Castlefield (more recently this is also where Tony Gordon from Underworld attempted to murder Roy Cropper) and the Hillman (nee Platt) family nearly came to grief at Portland Basin where where the Peak Forest and Ashton Canals meet at the hands of Richard “Tricky Dicky” Hillman (Norman Bates with a briefcase - I love that description and just had to include it!) who subsequently "drowned" in the incident.

NB "Harmony" as featured in Granada TV's "Travelling Man"

Whilst on the subject of television, some of the series that really fire the imagination of the canal enthusiast are as follows... Granada Television’s “Travelling Man” starring Leigh Lawson (Twiggy's husband) as an ex-police officer looking for his estranged son. The series was set on the Bridgewater Canal and was made in 1984. It featured the David Jones (of Taylor’s Boatyard fame) built steel narrowboat “Harmony” which was then moored on Preston Brook Marina and is now owned by fellow Lymm Cruising Club members. “Waterworld” was made more recently by Carlton Television and is a factual series that shows many facets of the canals and inland waterways of Britain but mainly concentrates on the Midlands. The series even ventures over the English Channel with Terry Darlington... the author of “Narrow Dog to Carcassonne” who later took his narrowboat across the Atlantic Ocean (on board a container ship) to cruise the American East Coast Waterway as far as the Gulf of Mexico and is documented in his second book "Narrow Dog to Indian River". "Waterworld" featured a member of Lymm Cruising Club... John Melling. John was demonstrating "Little Rosie", a remote control scale model of his narrowboat "Rosie".  Granada Television again came up trumps by producing “Locks and Quays” in which Fred Talbot (the Liverpool Albert Dock weatherman) and later another Lymm Cruising Club member... Matthew (Peter) Corbett (of "Sooty" fame) who explores the Leeds and Liverpool, Lancaster, Ashton and Rochdale Canals with excursions to the Bridgewater, Manchester Ship Canal, Shropshire Union and many other local canals and inland waterways. Another recent production is "Industrial Revelations" shown on the Discovery Channel (and other satellite and cable tv channels) in which actor/comedian Mark Williams (whose acting career started with the canal-borne Mikron Theatre Company) discusses the part that the Bridgewater Canal as well as other canals played in the Industrial Revolution in addition to many other interesting developments from that era.

John Craven and me whilst recording for the BBC's "Country File"

(Photograph - James M Wood)

"Narrow Boat Afloat" was a series shown on the Discovery Real-time channel that covered many canal-based topics and followed Alan Herd's restoration and conversion of "Dover"... a 1937 Town Class Woolwich Type F ex-working narrowboat built by Harland and Wolfe. During the series yet another member of Lymm Cruising Club was shown in the shape of Ian Crompton ("Compo") who gave advice on the stern gear and engine of this beautifully restored craft. In addition to the afore mentioned programmes, the BBC series of programmes featuring Fred Dibnah supplied the viewer with tantalising glimpses of the canal system as did "What The Industrial Revolution Did for Us" presented by Dan Cruickshank. In this series of programmes, one of my books ("The Duke's Cut - The Bridgewater Canal") was extensively used for research in the episode dealing with canal transport. Not to be outdone... "The Big Ditch - Manchester's Ship Canal" and some of the photographs it contains were also used by the BBC as reference material for a "Countryfile" feature. On this occasion I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by John Craven about the Manchester Ship Canal and it's history. Two years later in September of 2010 the Manchester Ship Canal feature was incorporated into the BBC's "Country Tracks" but whilst re-editing it they managed to get all of the names wrong for the people being interviewed. After I drew their attention to the mistakes they promised to rectify them for future transmissions. "Rick Stein's French Odyssey" documented the popular chef's culinary journey along the Canal du Midi. As well as showing some of the mouth-watering recipes from this area it also gave tantalising glimpses of the popular French waterways. In February of 2011 the BBC also screened "The Boat That Guy Built". This was similar to Alan Herd's "Narrow Boat" but in a lighter and more humorous (if not disjointed) format with motorcycle racer and Isle of Mann TT competitor Guy Martin making a mess of fitting out a narrowboat called "Reckless" (now up for sale). Granada Television's, "Coronation Street" regularly uses Castlefield and other waterway locations in and around Manchester as a location. A recent storyline involving Ken Barlow befriending Martha... a lady played by Stephanie Beecham who lives aboard a narrowboat used Worsley as the location. Ken's dog falls into the Bridgewater Canal and after rescuing it Martha invites Ken and the dog aboard her narrowboat to dry out. They become close and Ken nearly leaves Coronation Street behind to embark on a life on a narrowboat.

NB "Contrail"... the boat that Ken Barlow's girlfriend lived aboard at Worsley

Another recent storyline involved the attempted murder of Roy Cropper by Tony Gordon. In the plot, Tony pushed Roy into one of the basins at Castlefield in an attempt to drown him but later his conscience caused him to dive into the canal and save him. Granada did not quite get the facts correct as any boater will tell you. The location where the incident took place is extremely shallow due to silting up but in the programme the viewer is lead to believe that the water is extremely deep. Not so! The BBC have produced the "Three Men" series in which the three men... Griff Rhys Jones, Rory McGrath and Dara O'Briain retrace Jerome K Jerome's footsteps (or is it wash) along the River Thames. In their second outing they venture downstream on the Thames and even sail into the open sea. However, their third outing sees them crossing the Irish Sea to Dublin where they board an ex-Guinness barge which transports them along the Grand Canal to the River Shannon. On a diversion to the Royal Canal they cruise in an amphibious car, and finally a classic sailing boat then transports them to the end of their cross-Ireland journey. For me the highlights were Griff trying to start an old hot-bulb Bolinder and their attempts to negotiate locks... including the two-step staircase lock at Ardnacrusha, renowned as the deepest locks in Europe with a total rise (or fall) of 102 feet accomplished by a thirty four foot and sixty eight feet chambers. Well worth watching and the programme also whets one's appetite for the beautiful Irish waterways. Shortly after this programme was broadcast the BBC made an edition of "Countryfile" that was centred on the Kennett and Avon Canal in Wiltshire. This programme illustrated how residential boaters fare in winter, maintenance crews in action at Caen Hill along with many shots of this beautiful canal.

The sixty eight foot rise chamber at Ardnacrusha on the River Shannon

(I pity any boats that get caught on that cill!)

Another canal orientated programme is Discovery Shed's "Water Boatman" produced by i2i Television. Alan Herd (of "Narrowboat Afloat" fame) cruises around the Stourport Ring of waterways in various boats ranging from traditional narrowboats, leisure narrowboats and cruisers to a revolutionary craft powered by a fuel cell (definitely the shape of things to come). The series starts at Gas Street Basin in Birmingham City Centre, passes along the Worcester and Birmingham Canal to join the River Severn at Worcester, upstream to Stourport where the Staffs and Worcs Canal is joined, up the Wolverhampton Twenty One at Aldersley Junction and back to Birmingham City Centre... so completing the ring. with many interesting places are visited along the way. The series was shot in 2009 and premiered on television in April 2010. A month later the BBC transmitted the short series entitled "Canal Walks". In this series Julia Bradbury walks the Caledonian, Worcester and Birmingham, Kennet and Avon and Llangollen Canals. Obviously a non-boater (judging by the way she attempted to wind-up a paddle), she examined the routes of four canals through the eyes of a gongoozler and whilst not very boat oriented was non-the-less enjoyable, interesting and watchable. A one-off programme transmitted right after the Canal Walk on the Kennett and Avon Canal on BBC 4 was "The Golden Age of Canals" which recounted the restoration of the canal network from the 1960s to the present day. It featured many canal personalities and showed how canals were restored using amateur ciné film taken at the time. This was a marvellous programme and I hope that it will be transmitted again to a wider audience on one of the main BBC channels... it most certainly deserves it.

James Brindley, Thomas Telford and the other "members of the band" have left us an inheritance of over two thousand miles of navigable canals and inland waterways in this country. Originally, the majority of our canals were constructed to feed the Industrial Revolution with raw materials and to distribute the resulting end products around the country. The rivers however have been made navigable since well before Roman times. Some of the schemes to make these rivers navigable were to form the foundation stones for later artificial canals or cuts. Today, only a fraction of our waterways system is used for commercial transportation but the remainder are kept alive by the ever-increasing number of leisure craft that journey along their length. In fact, the waterways system handles more boat movements per year now than it did at the height of its commercial carrying days, such is the impact that leisure boating has had.

(Photograph - Robin Smithett)

I feel very privileged to be writing about Canals and Inland Waterways at this time, as it is a very exciting period for this subject. We are witnessing a new era with the accelerating restoration and development of Britain’s Canals and Inland Waterways as a heritage and leisure amenity. It is almost like a second “Canal Mania” similar to that witnessed at the birth of our canal system in the late 1700’s.There are many long-tern restoration projects that have reached fruition, such as the complete rebuilding and subsequent reopening of the Anderton Boat Lift, the restoration and re-opening of the Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow Canals (including Standedge Tunnel), the construction of completely new stretches of waterway like the extension to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to link the Albert Dock and Liverpool’s South Docks (now owned and controlled by British Waterways) with the canal, the Millennium Ribble Link (canalisation of the Savick Brook) which connects the southern end of the Lancaster Canal at Preston with the River Ribble, enabling connection to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal via the Rivers Douglas and Ribble, the construction of the Falkirk Wheel and the Millennium Link completing a cross-country route across the Scottish Lowlands via the Forth and Clyde and Union Canals, the proposed restoration of the northern section of the Lancaster Canal to Kendal, the continuing restoration of the Montgomery Canal, the possible reconstruction of the Bradford Canal, the proposed reinstatement of Runcorn Locks connecting the Bridgewater Canal to the Manchester Ship Canal. plus the announcement by British Waterways that they are committed to the complete restoration of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Phase One - Middlewood Locks (including a lock with a seven metre rise - the third deepest on the British Waterways network) and Middlewood Basin the first fifth of a mile from the junction with the River Irwell is now completed and was officially opened on 19th September 2008, the Cotswold Canals, the Droitwich Barge and Junction Canals (due to be officially opened in 2011) and the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals in addition to many more projects too numerous to mention but nonetheless, just as important.

There has long been the need for a waterway connecting the Bedford River Ouse with the Grand Union Canal near what is today Milton Keynes and it now looks as though the Bedford-Milton Keynes Link may well be constructed. One revolutionary (literally) solution to overcoming a change of levels on this canal without resorting to locks or a boat lift is the "Brogborough Whirl". Basically similar to an inclined plane such as at Foxton or Ketley with boats floating in caissons ascending the change in levels but designed as a 360° spiral rather than a straight slope. When completed this structure would be as innovative as the Falkirk Wheel and as popular as the Anderton Lift. Consequently it would attract visitors from all over the country and (hopefully) all over the world as well.

Another revolutionary device for raising and lowering boats without the need for conventional locks is the Diagonal Lock. It is a cross between an inclined plane and  a water slope (as used on the Canal du Midi) and could be the answer to canal restorers' prayers when a stretch of canal has to be realigned and a steep change of height is required. Boats would be raised or lowered through a diagonal tube that is filled or emptied of water depending upon the direction of travel. The brainchild of Terry Fogarty it has the support of British Waterways, was featured in the "Waterworld" TV series and could be an attraction on restored waterways in the future. For more information and an excellent animated demonstration go to go to  http://www.diagonallock.org.

Montech Water Slope on the Canal du Midi

(Photograph - Barging in France)

Artist's impression of how a Diagonal Lock may look

(CGI - Diagonal Lock Advisory Group)

The list of restoration (and new-build) projects just goes on and on and is added to regularly. Ultimately, when completed, these projects will increase the number of canals that will be available for cruising in the (hopefully) not too distant future. Some of these projects have come about due to the success of restored canals in other areas. These restorations bring renewed prosperity to the areas concerned in the shape of tourism and passing trade increasing an area’s affluence. All these projects confirm that at last there is an awakening of both public and corporate awareness surrounding our forgotten heritage. This awareness also confirms something that canal boaters have known for many years… that the Canals and Inland Waterways of Great Britain are amenities too valuable to loose and should be cultivated not forgotten or allowed to go to waste. In the not to distant past, if a house backed onto or overlooked a canal... the location was frowned upon and the property lost value. Today, the presence of a canal adds at least twenty percent to the property's value. Now if that is not a reversal of trends I do not know what is!

Not only are our canals and inland waterways examples of “Virtual History”... providing an insight to how the transport system that fuelled the Industrial Revolution operated and demonstrate how our forbears worked and lived, but today they provide a peaceful and (mostly) beautiful sanctuary from the pace and stresses of modern day living... in fact, the ultimate chill-out. I quite often tell interested parties that I don't care where they are, whether it be in the centre of a major city or the depths of the countryside, as soon as the canal towpath is encountered... a different world is entered and the pace of life seems to change down a few gears!

We are frequently made aware of the way that the French people encompass leisure and tourism throughout their canals and inland waterways. At least in the U.K. we do not have farmers who think that the canals and waterways should be closed and only used for irrigating their fields and vineyards, who protest by welding steel lock gates together to prevent boat passage (but we did have a farmer who cut off lock gate balance beams and caused breaches). Also in France, agriculturists have tipped 900 tonnes of mining waste into the beautiful Canal du Midi in protest of how navigation of the canals lowers the quality of water used for irrigating the oyster beds that lie at the southern end of the canal. How lucky we are! The worst we seem to have is the occasional blockage due to protests over licence and mooring fees.

A long-term project was to utilise the canal system as a “National Water Grid”. This would be similar to that used to distribute electricity throughout the country but, in this instance, to distribute water. Unfortunately, the scheme has not materialised. Although the Llangollen Canal has, for many years, supplied Cheshire with water sourced from Lake Bala via the River Dee. At Llantisilio, water from the Dee is diverted into the canal down which it passes to Hurleston Reservoir. It was this use of the canal as an open pipeline that helped to save it from closure during the spate of canal closures and abandonments in 1944. Maybe British Waterways should have explored this project a little more as it would have ensured more income and less reliance on the ever-diminishing grants from the Government via DEFRA. We will watch with interest the latest proposals to convert British Waterways into a "mutualised" (charitable) organisation similar to the National Trust which should safeguard the assets of our wonderful inland waterway network and it's infrastructure for future generations.

There are also proposals to bring back commercial freight carrying of non-urgent cargoes to the canals. Pilot schemes have already started on the Southern section of the Grand Union Canal. Part of London's river network has been "de-tidalised" by the construction of Prescott Lock to allow for the transport of construction materials for the 2012 Olympic Games complex and accommodation village. The Birmingham Canal Network, the Forth & Clyde and Caledonian Canals also have pilot schemes in place. The re-introduction of commercial cargo carrying on our canal system would require considerable investment to enable some routes to be re-instated to commercial status and alter them to the dimensions suitable for the kind of craft envisaged. I have doubts that this ever will happen but if it does I hope that it does not alter significantly the beauty, heritage aspect and character of our inland waterways system. However, if it did, they would only be reverting to their original function. Tesco have recently commenced transporting wine from the Continent and other locations to their distribution centre at Irlam near Manchester via the Manchester Ship Canal. The wine comes into the Port of Liverpool loaded in a container aboard a freighter and is then trans-shipped onto the Liverpool/Manchester Shuttle Barge that is capable of transporting one hundred and sixty, twenty foot containers. The barge "Res V" is propelled by the tug "Daisy Doarado" and as well as ferrying full containers to Irlam, empty containers are carried on the return trip to be repatriated with their owners. This is one way that their "carbon footprint" can be reduced by replacing many hundreds of HGV movements with that of one barge. 

 On a recent trip along the River Weaver it was annoying to me personally that the rock salt used for road gritting in winter is mined and distributed by road transport even though the mine and storage areas are within a few metres of the river. I can think of dozens of local authorities that could receive this commodity by water and store it next to the waterways concerned for use when required. In my home town of Wallasey the salt is delivered by road and stored on the quayside adjacent to the Mersey Ferries berths next to Duke Street Bridge. It could be easily transported by water without any additional facilities except for a crane. Wallasey's refuse and recycling centre is also quite close to Birkenhead Docks and is transported to Warrington for processing by road. The location of the refuse and recycling centre in Warrington is right next to the Manchester Ship Canal at Latchford Locks and there are no obvious reasons why water transport could not be utilised. These are just two examples that I am aware of... there must be many more where a little bit of thought could utilise our wonderful waterways system more fully for transportation.

Let us hope that the current interest and investment in the Canals and Inland Waterways of Great Britain is not just a flash in the pan and will continue for future generations to enjoy and that British Waterways funding allows continued investment in their current (and future) levels of prosperity. The latest announcement to make BW a charity similar to the National Trust can only be a positive move as will allowing volunteer workers greater access to needy projects.

On a more emotional note, many of the people mentioned within this series of eBooks (and website) are no longer with us. My Mother and Father, Sidney and Marion Merral, Alec Levac, Tony Whalley to name but a few. It is only when writing this manuscript that I realised just how much impact they have had on my life. These people contributed towards the interests that I have, my memories, the values that I hold the and some of the life skills I that I possess were learned from them. I miss them all dreadfully and I shall remember them until the day I join them in the big marina in the sky.

In concluding this work I originally wrote... "So there we have it... fifty years of canal cruising. My canal cruising experiences have seen me through childhood and adolescence, two marriages, numerous careers, the digital revolution (love it or hate it), god knows how many cameras and four boats. But two things have remained constant throughout my life... my love of photography and my love for our beautiful canals and inland waterways. Since converting the original series of eBooks to a website, the readership audience has widened considerably... far wider than I could have anticipated. I originally thought that a few of my fellow Lymm Cruising Club members and other canal cruising friends would have viewed the site. Imagine my surprise when I received emails from readers in places as far apart as California and Sydney! I could not have wished for a larger readership even if I tried! I hope that you have enjoyed reading about my exploits as much as I have enjoyed living and writing about them. But it is not over yet and I look forward to seeing what life has to offer in the future". But now with the inclusion of "Canalscape Book 8" I will have to re-title this website and series of eBooks "Canalscape - Nearly 60 Years of Canal Cruising or something similar". So carry on cruising and I look forward to seeing you on the cut.

Acknowledgements

First of all I would like to thank my wife Ange, for her encouragement, putting up with me whilst working on yet another project, for her invaluable suggestions, her help in making the manuscript “readable” and for “taking a turn” with the proof reading. Thanks also to my brother Jim for loaning old family photographs and standard 8mm ciné film for scanning, the late Alec Levac for his continued support and my old friend Steve Jones ("Alright mate!") who accompanied me on many photographic expeditions to unobscure and attractive as well as some of the less attractive locations. Acknowledgements must be given to Tom Merral at Grindley Brook, Caroline Docherty late of Beeston Stone Lock and Chas Hardern at Beeston Castle Wharf for their help in the writing of this story. Thanks also to Bruce Harding in British Waterways Photographic Archive for allowing reproduction of photographs from the original British Waterways Board Canal Guides, Helen Hall - also of British Waterways for allowing reproduction of the Liverpool Link CGIs and photographs, Simon Marks from Wirral Metropolitan College for the loan of an Epson V500 large format negative transparency scanner as well as Margaret and Brian Hamilton at Thorn Marine, Stockton Heath for their continuing support promoting "The Duke's Cut" and "The Big Ditch", and for coming up with unusual photographs for me to scan every so often. I would like to thank my dear departed friend and fellow “Mooer” (canal cow joke!)… Tony Whalley to whom "Don't Call It A Barge" is dedicated. Tony “sewed the seed” by suggesting that I wrote about the various designs of canal boats. I would also like to thank my ex-colleague… Eino Shaw for suggesting the title "Don't Call It A Barge" which was eventually used and another colleague... Simon Wilson for writing "About the Author" and for uploading it to Wikipedia (it is also at Amazon's Cyril J Wood Author's Page). Simon also wrote my entry in "Uncyclopedia" and coined the phrase "Good Ship Google" as used in Canalscape Book 6 - Canalmanac 2010. Thanks also to my friends too numerous to mention individually who have donated photographs and consciously or unconsciously contributed to the happenings and memories that made this story possible, especially for the clarification of facts or when my memory needed some jogging. I’ll apologize beforehand for any inaccuracies that may have crept into the text or any embarrassment caused by relating any of the stories or incidents or if the reader disagrees with any of the opinions expressed by either myself or related by others.

This e-Book and the subsequent website was written in HTML format using Microsoft "SharePoint Designer" and "Expression Web" (FrontPage reborn) on my Toshiba Tecra  and Toshiba Satellite laptop computers (in some very unusual and beautiful locations). As well as on the Internet "Canalscape" can be viewed in eBook format on a computer or a dedicated eBook reader such as the Amazon Kindle or W H Smith's Kobo, on an iPad or Android equipped tablet with the necessary software (app) downloaded from Android Market. If you would like a copy of the latest version of "Canalscape" (and it's sister website... "Diarama" plus a couple of "extras" not published on the Internet) on CD contact me via e-mail at cyril.wood@virgin.net for details. If you would like to know more about my links with photography and the photographs used within "Canalscape" go to Canalscape Photography.

A screenshot of Cyril J Wood being interviewed by John Craven on the Manchester Ship Canal for BBC TV's "Countryfile" TV programme

Return to top

or select another book below...

		Introduction
		Book 1 - 1960 to 1982
		Book 2 - 1983 to 1999
		Book 3 - 2000 to 2005
		Book 4 - 2006 to 2007
		Book 5 - 2008 to 2009
		Book 6 - 2010
		Book 7 - 2011
		Book 8 - 2012 (In Preparation)

The History of Lymm Cruising Club

The Duke's Cut - The Bridgewater Canal

The Big Ditch - Manchester's Ship Canal

Shroppie - The Shropshire Union Canal System

Mersey Connections (In Preparation)

2011 Gardner Engine Rally Report

Foreign Forays - Canals of the World (In Preparation)

Worsley Canal Heritage Walk

Castlefield Canal Heritage Walk

The Liverpool Docks Link

Canis Canalus

NB Total Eclipse

Don't Call it a Barge

Canalscape Photography

Lymm Cruising Club Website

Site Map

Go to the

Website

"Canalscape" and "Diarama" names and logo are copyright