Narrowboating for Beginners
Other reasons you may enjoy narrowboating
Because you love history
If you’re traveling the Bridgewater Canal, then you’re really traveling history, for it was the first “true” canal in England, connecting the River Mersey and Liverpool with Manchester. It opened in 1761 (but not completed until 1776) because the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater needed to get his coal from Worsley to Manchester.
The Bridgewater Canal is not actually part of the Canal & River Trust, which manages most of the waterways in England and Wales. In fact there are several canals and navigations that remain separate from the CRT. It’s easy to overlook some of these “hidden” canals.
If you visit the boat yard at Ellesmere, which is operated by the Canal & River Trust, you can see and hold some of the patterns used to cast parts for the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, completed in 1805. When you visit the Harecastle Tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal, you can marvel at the fact there is no towpath. Boatmen would lie on their backs and “leg it” (using their legs to propel the boat) through the tunnel.
Actually there are two Harecastle tunnels. The first, engineered by James Brindley (who also consulted on the Bridgewater Canal), was completed in 1777 (when Brindley was five years dead). Brindley decided not to include a towpath through the tunnel because of the extra labor and engineering involved. Thomas Telford, the engineer who built the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, built the second Harecastle tunnel in 1827 to relieve the congestion caused by the first tunnel (it took three hours to leg it), and aided by 50 years of engineering advancements, he added a towpath.
The Anderton Boat Lift, which was completed in 1875, connects the River Weaver and the Trent & Mersey Canal by lifting boats 50 feet, eliminating the need for a great number of locks.
Your narrowboat TARDIS makes further stops when you see the stonework of a lock dated 1810 and the wooden gates dated 1999 (they last about 20 years). Or you travel right to the present when you visit the Falkirk Wheel, which opened in 2002 and looks like a piece of modern sculpture.
Because it’s relatively affordable
A narrowboat vacation is affordable if you consider that you’re paying for lodging, transportation and meals in one package, and if you’re traveling with friends, you split the cost several ways. If you restrict yourself to enjoying the scenery, walking or cycling beside the boat and cooking all your meals on board, you’ll save money, eat properly and get some exercise.
Or at least you can tell yourself that. Realistically you’ll be tempted to visit pubs and local attractions such as steam railways and stately homes.
Because you like adventure, sort of
Another draw for me is the safe sort of adventure the canals offer. I’m still reasonably fit and active. I ride my bike, practice a martial art, hike and even climbed a 14,000-foot mountain recently (setting a world record for slowest ascent), but it’s been years since my last whitewater rafting trip and my flirtation with rock climbing is a distant and painful memory. Nevertheless I still like a little adventure in my life and a narrowboat vacation is just about perfect.
Looking out over the edge of the boat while crossing an aqueduct is sufficient to get my heart pumping, passing through a tunnel cures me of any desire for spelunking and eating haggis or spotted dick is as far as I need to go to emulate Anthony Bourdain.
Navigating a narrowboat can be difficult and a boat’s layout can be an important factor when choosing which boat to hire. The kitchen arrangement of this boat makes it pretty easy to pass through even when someone is cooking.
There’s just enough real danger—falling into a lock or hanging up the boat on the cill—to keep you on your toes and just enough challenge—turning around in a winding hole or backing into a berth—to keep you from feeling complacent. If we ever do want to challenge ourselves, we can cruise in the off-off-months or take a boat out ourselves, without our friends. Two people are kept fairly busy turning a lock.
In fact a narrowboat vacation is just about perfect for an Anglophile middle-aged (soon to be senior) couple with an interest in history. But be warned. One trip is never enough.
