| 55 Years of Canal Cruising... From 1960 to 2015 |
An eBook and website by Cyril J Wood
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Disclaimer
Comments and opinions are included within this eBook and website that are made by people other than the Author. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Author who cannot be held responsible for any disputes caused by comments included within these eBooks and website. While all attempts have been made to verify information provided, the Author does not assume any responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived slights of specific people or organizations are unintentional. These eBooks and website provides links to websites which may possess their own set of policies about what information is appropriate for public access. The Author cannot be held responsible for information or contents located at these sites. Information contained within these eBooks and website is provided solely for the readers' information and, while thought to be accurate, is provided strictly "as is" and without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The Author will not be liable to the readers for any damages, direct or indirect, arising out of use of information provided within these eBooks or website, or information provided at any website that can be accessed from these eBooks or website. Proceeding beyond this page acknowledges acceptance of this disclaimer.
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Click on the required section below to follow links
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| Forward | |
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Book 7 - 2011 |
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Book 8 - 2012 (In Preparation) |
| Mersey Connections (In Preparation) | |
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Foreign Forays - Canals of the World (In Preparation) |
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| Canalscape Photography | |
| Lymm Cruising Club Website | |
| Site Map | |
| Go to the | |
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| Website | |
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This shot of a misty morning near Waverton on the Shropshire Union Canal |
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is the first photograph in the "Canalscape" audio/visual presentation. |
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Even though the photograph looks monochrome it is actually in colour |
I am writing this introduction to "Canalscape" aboard "Total Eclipse" whilst moored at Daresbury... a beautiful, quiet, rural location on the Bridgewater Canal deep in the Cheshire Countryside. "Canalscape" is a true story. It originally started life in 1985 as a short Audio/Visual Presentation containing some of my favourite canal and inland waterways photographs. In the presentation, the images were originally accompanied by the theme from Granada Television's "Travelling Man" but I later changed it to include some of my favourite Enya music... “Watermark” (which should now be playing if your loudspeakers are turned on), “A Day Without Rain” (in an even later extended version) and “Orinoco Flow” (see Footnote) with a short blast of Mike Oldfield (also in the later extended version) accompanying a prologue to set the scene. Whilst writing the commentary script for another audio/visual presentation... "The Phial Story" I expanded the original script of the boat's history to encompass our boating experiences from 1959 onwards, added more photographs and called it "Canal Cruising in the 1960's" which forms the basis for the written version of "Canalscape". It seems logical to give this eBook (and subsequent website) the same title as the presentations for it contains some of the same photographs (plus a few more) only instead of being accompanied by music... text will have to suffice (but you could always play Enya's cd's whilst reading it!).
The Bridgewater Canal at Daresbury
The original title for the written version of "Canalscape"... the previously mentioned “Canal Cruising in the 1960’s” was first published in serial form in “The Grand Trunk”... the magazine of the Trent and Mersey Canal Society, although parts have also been published in “Waterways World” and other waterways magazines as well. Since then, the manuscript has gone through various format changes and grown from a short article to a single volume, then to two, three, four, five, six and is now a seven volume heptalogy. I have also included additional pieces, relevant to the main subject area that may be of interest to fellow canal and inland waterway enthusiasts including condensed versions of "The Duke's Cut - The Bridgewater Canal" and "The Big Ditch - Manchester's Ship Canal", "Shroppie - The Shropshire Union Canal System", "The History of Lymm Cruising Club" as well as my latest canal offerings... "Don't Call It A Barge!" which deals with the development of the canal cruisers and "French Connection - The Canal du Midi" plus the history of our narrowboat... "Total Eclipse". "Canis Canalus" records some of the canine companions that have accompanied us whilst canal cruising. "Canalscape" is an on-going work and the seventh volume of the ”Canalscape” saga covers over fifty years of canal cruising. An eighth volume is not beyond the bounds of possibility though. This would take me into late, middle age and (hopefully) by this time, I will have retired just as long as the Government has not changed the rules concerning retirement (yet again) and I have to work until I am ninety! Retirement would allow me to cruise some of the canals and inland waterways that lack of time has precluded me from visiting and hopefully we will not have not been priced off the canals and inland waterways by the ever-increasing fuel costs, mooring and licence fees. Retirement would also allow me to finish scanning the fifty thousands plus images I have accumulated over the years enabling me to complete the "Canalscape" project and it's component parts as well as other time-intensive projects featured in the "Diarama" website and eBook. In August 2009 I purchased the "Canalscape.net" domain name and uploaded the eBook to the Internet, enabling it to be read (and hopefully, enjoyed) by a wider audience than possible previously. Whilst on the subject of the web version... I make no apologies for the site not resembling what most websites look like. It has no frills, banners, animated Giffs (except for one) or other visual embellishments to detract from the overall view of the website. It looks how I would expect a website to look! In addition to the main body of the text some of my personal recommendations to read are as follows... a visit to the Longdon on Tern aqueduct that was Thomas Telford's prototype for the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is documented in "Shroppie" - Chapter Eight and the continuation of the Llangollen Canal at Trevor... The Ffrwd Canal (also known as Fletcher's Canal), also in "Shroppie" is explored in Chapter Six - The Canal That Never Was. "The Liverpool Docks Link" is a good read as is "Don't Call It A Barge!". I love them all really and try (at the risk of the website becoming a "blog") to update at least some of the site weekly but due to time logistics when cruising and various other reasons (3G network coverage for example) certain sections may be a little out of date. For this I'll apologise in advance. The reader may like to add the parts they like most to the "Favourites" tab on their Internet browser for quicker access but you may have to press the "refresh" button to view the latest version.
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A scan of a beautiful, 100 year old glass plate negative that is in my photographic |
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archive showing the Shropshire Union Railway and Canal Company's horse drawn |
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narrowboat "Irene" at the top of Chester Northgate Locks around the early 1900's... |
... and a more contemporary photograph of the same location taken on a
5 x 4 plate camera in 1986... unfortunately Chester's Ring Road is in the way now!
The photographs within this series of volumes are sourced from my photographic archive which currently has approximately fifty thousand images in it. They were taken mainly by myself, the earliest of which dates from 1966, although some of the old family photographs and images scanned from standard 8mm ciné film were either taken by my brother Jim or my Father and date back as far as 1960. There are also images scanned from the British Waterways Canal Cruising Booklets, the Bridgewater Canal and Manchester Ship Canal Archives plus some glass plate negatives dating back well over one hundred years. If you would like to know more about the photographs and the equipment used in taking them have a look at the latest addition to the website... "Canalscape Photography".
If you have any comments, suggestions, wish to report broken links or just want to chat about canals and inland waterways... please do not hesitate to contact me at the email address below.
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Cyril J Wood |
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email - cyril.wood@virgin.net |
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Click on the required section below to follow links |
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Book 7 - 2011 |
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|
Book 8 - 2012 (In Preparation) |
| Mersey Connections (In Preparation) | |
|
Foreign Forays - Canals of the World (In Preparation) |
|
| Canalscape Photography | |
| Lymm Cruising Club Website | |
| Site Map | |
| Go to the | |
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| Website | |
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| "Canalscape" and "Diarama" names and logo are copyright |
Updated 22-10-2011