Celebrity Britain by Barge:Then and Now featured the Leeds & Liverpool canal last week. It was actually very good with lots of history, though it jumps around location a bit, but most wont notice that!
We did bump inot at Foulridge, but did not make the program.
Highly recomend watching it.
@waterwaysworld @Welcome2Yorks @crtcomms
Lookout for December Waterways World as it has a great article on Hotel Boats. Obviously everyone looking at this post is aware of Hotel Boats on the British Waterways but a lot of people are not
It is quite surprising how long we have been going as an industry and it is great to see new hotels in London, like the Boathouse in Paddington.
For no reason, other than I love them, I will end with the picture of a sunset on the canal
All our guests on Lady Teal, and ourselves , can’t believe this weather, it has been super, but of course I start to worry about water! Haven’t seen the May rervoir report yet but I do hope there has been some rain on the tops.
There have been some huge storms around but they have passed us by. We have been basking in heat and sun forever it seems.
All the youngsters are doing well on it, see below, and it has been lovely, if a bit warm for some of the flights.
The new time limits on Wigan seem to be really good and we have to say the team there are superb, volunteers and seasonals.
Lady Teal leaving Liverpool again, such a great trip we do love it. Many thanks to Alison the keeper who gave us a hand at Stanley flight.
There is a new regime now for coming into and out of Liverpool and I have to say I think it is a lot better. It removes a lot of the time pressures that existed when you had to rush from bridge to bridge and to the locks, also you used to have to leave Salthouse at 8 but now it is up to 9.30, much more civilised.
So a lovely sail out and then a glorious sunset as we finished up dinner.
As those of you who regularly look at my ramblings know, and I hope there are some out there, I do love a good sunset.
There has been no post processing on this shot, though I do have to admit it was slightly underexposed in order to enrich the colours, I hope you like it.
We had another lovely run into Liverpool today. They have change things a bit as it is a lot more self operation and the timings are a lot more relaxed, it does take a lot of the pressure off.
We were supposed to be coming in yesterday but a hydraulic hose broke at one of the bridges. CRT were amazing and on a bank holiday Sunday the fitters came out and the specialist van to make up a new pipe. They got it all fixed and we passed through spending the evening at Litherland and then coming down Stanley flight at 10 this morning.
It was lovely run through the docks and into our mooring in Salthouse Docks.
New for this year, on 6 & 7 night cruises, we are now doing an Italian themed night.
So plenty of Italian food, Italian wine and Italian music, I even try to serve the dishes using their Italian names!
It’s fun to have a bit of variation and to challenge Gina with managing to put it all together.
Saluti
It’s very hard to believe that this is our ninth season running Lady Teal, so 10th season celebrations next year. We are still loving it and have no plans to stop, in fact we will be releasing our 2020 schedule fairly soon.
When I was on a barge holiday in the early 1980’s I never thought that one day I would be skippering a hotel boat on the Leeds Liverpool. Yes that really is my on a narrow boat in 1981!
We visited Worsley and came up Wigan flight, it was very different then.
in 2009 Lady Teal was being built and then in 2010 we had our first full season.
Nine years and still going strong, with no idea when we will finish. We even have guests still coming with us who came in that first season, it really is quite amazing.
So season nine well underway now, and it’s still fun.
Well it looks like it has aged us a bit, but I guess it has been the best part of 10 years.
Lady Teal at what has to be at one of the best parts of the whole UK inland waterways, and we get to stop here for lunch, how lucky are we.
Moored up near Gargrave last night.
Our season is now well and truly underway. We had a dampish start , that’s good it means full reservoirs, and now we have absolutely glorious weather as we pass through the spectacular Yorkshire Dales.
We have been down into Leeds and that has meant a lot of staircase locks, in particular the iconic Bingley three and Five rises. We never tire of passing through these fabulous locks, with the help of the very knowledgeable CRT keepers. @CRTContactus please thank all your staff for the great work they do in making this 200 year old canal keep on working.
It’s always interesting getting out for the first time to see if that particular paddle was fixed over the winter and what overgrowth has been cut back. So far pretty pleased with what has been done, but of course there is always that bit of annoying overgrowth that needs doing!
Here are a couple of pictures from last nights mooring.
Well a real mixed day today, we had some heavy showers and a very muddy tow path. In previous years we have been in shorts and t-shirts in April.
But that was all made up for with the 20 minutes watching a Barn Owl hunt in a field. How amazing, I have never watched one for so long. It swooped silently over the field, sorry too far away for pictures. I then moved on with the boat but the guests stayed to watch it land, presumably having caught something. This really is one of the magic things about this job, we get to see fabulous wildlife.
Then a bit further up the canal there were two mad March Hares on the tow path, once again too far and too quick to picture, but really lovely to see.
Certainly lots of water around in the canal, roll on tomorrows sunshine!
It’s a busy time as we continue to prep the boat for the new season. We have had our food hygiene visit and retained our score of 5, full marks!
The boat spent a week in dry dock and along with being blacked we have done a lot of less visible stuff. For instance the battery bank has all been replaced, not like changing the batteries in a torch! The old batteries each weighed about 280lbs, so getting them out was fun and we upgraded some of the associated electronics.
There have been a number of other things as well , but we will leave you to spot those!
A few more odds and ends and , weather permitting, another good polish then we will be ready to go.
What an incredible sky over the Marina.
Starting a few jobs on the boat as we begin to ready her for the new season.
It’s always amazing how quickly the new season comes around.
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from Nick, Gina, Glen and Lady.🎅
This morning we were down in Wigan. A glorious morning then our last trip up the Wigan flight. Good weather and a good time for our trip up. Two picture of them both below
Another lovely, autumnal, morning on the flashes near Wigan. The flashes are large lakes.
Canning Dock was built 1737 as an entrance sick to the now filled in Old Dock, this is under Liverpool one and can be visited.
Entrance to Albert dock is via Canning as is access to the two graving docks.
Salthouse dock in Liverpool is such a great spot, and lovely weather. We do love being in Liverpool , great mooring and fabulous place
Another great spot to moor up for the night. Every time we go by here this horse is contentedly standing on the bridge, lovely. And what wonderful weather we are having so lucky
Ok, I know I do lots of sunsets, I can’t help it I am a real sucker for them.
Here is the latest one
Our mooring for tonight
We are lucky on the Leeds and Liverpool with some many lovely places we can moor, so here is another one! A few showers today but none of the deluges of yesterday
Another lovely quiet spot for our overnight stop. Lovely light this morning.
We are on our final run along the canal across to liverpool before heading home to end the season.
The trees seem to be starting to turn and the nights are drawing in. Getting those lovely mist over the canal mornings.
We set off form lovely Reedley marina yesterday and after making our way up Barrowford locks we we headed fro the tunnel. Unfortunately we picked up a tent up on our prop on the approach for the tunnel so went through on the 2.30. It really is a lovely sight through the tunnel, about 1 mile long and pretty straight, you have to marvel at the guys who built it.
Then on toward our lovely overnight mooring, photo below and video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OutCNzF999w
We have had another trip down the Wigan flight after a lovely stop at the top.
Here is the video, overnight step before Wigan , it is great.
They have instituted some time limits on coming into and out of Wigan and I think they work very well. It means boats pair up and stay together, so that means keepers can be there and it is much better for all concerned.
Been lovely hot weather, with some overnight rain for the reservoirs, great.
Saw this boat sunk just outside Riley Green, i gather it is raised now, such a shame to see thinks like this, no pollution though which is amazing.
I am starting to post videos of our wanderings on YouTube, so please go to YouTube search for Lady Teal and subscribe to our channel to see them.
Meanwhile here is a shot of the lovely scenery we passed through today on leaving Burnley. The #Lancashire countryside really doesn’t get the credit it deserves, it really is spectacular
Surprisingly even as we pass over the Burnley mile and look down into Burnley it makes some great shots of chimneys with a lovely backdrop.
Stopping for lunch today at a great spot , see picture below, I also did a short bit of video and added it to YouTube follow this link Lady Teal Video to see it. We do have a YouTube channel, just look up Lady Teal and you can subscribe, we will add videos regularly for those who want to follow what we do and generally see the great stuff we pass through. Hopefully they will be interesting, and bear with me because I will get better at it, promise!
This pair of swans are amazing. Every year they have 10 or more cygnets and keep them all.
Another lovely morning on the Leeds and liverpool in Skipton, gateway to the dales.
Heading of up into the dales today through more great scenery, this is the life!!
Sorry a bit of a blurry image from way back with my phone, but I quite like it all the same.
The Five rise at Bingley really is quite incredible and great fun to go through.
The five is the steepest flight of locks in the UK, with a gradient of about 1:5 (a rise of 59ft 2in (18.03m) over a distance of 320 ft).
The intermediate and bottom gates are also . the tallest in the country.
Staircase, or riser locks, are where the bottom gates of one lock form the top gates of the next lock, so you pass from one lock straight into the next one.
When the locks were opened in 1774 a crowd of 30,000 people turned out to celebrate. The first boat to use the locks took just 28 minutes, they tend to run them a bit more slowly these days. Unlike regular locks an odd numbered riser set works most efficiently if kept going in one direction, turning them uses at lease a lock full of water. so they are inefficient and consideration was given to changing the five rise into an incline plane or even individual locks, but the solutions were always too costly, despite the huge water usage.
The technology of riser locks, was out-of-date by the 1770s, when they were built, due to the inefficiencies in the design.
Many people tell us that one of the highlights of cruising on Lady Teal is the food, I have my wonderful wife Gina to thank for that.
Though guests do also say it means they have to make sure they walk a lot to make sure they can still get into the clothes they have brought with them.
Here are a couple of examples of what she produces, makes my mouth water!
Bradley on the Leeds and liverpoolBradley is such a lovely spot to moor on the Leeds and liverpool. So picturesque with the fields walls and old mill
A wonderful, if slightly breezy morning on the Leeds and Liverpool.
Following a couple of grey days it is lovely to see the sun again. Sitting in the lounge looking out of the windows it is lovely and warm.
Whilst the rain has not been so good for the guests, or me out helming, it will have topped up the reservoirs.
The Aire valley will be interesting in these winds.
Thanks for your interest everyone, but the dales and the sea cruise is now sold
Ok, not the best weather ever today, but I think that’s been true across most of the country. At least here we didn’t have the winds that others had.
But it’s been good fun with guests out a lot of the time and helping with locks, the tunnel is always fun and everyone loves going through it.
Then what a great place this is to moor up, middle of nowhere surrounded by drumlins, look it up.
Grey sky but great view.
It really does seem to be the year of the Buttercup, not sure what that means for the summer, though we seem to have a burst of them every few years.
They really are lovely.
Now time for a little rant, We were moored outside Blackburn yesterday and about 7’o’clock a boat went by, I had a quick chat and they said “oh we need to get through Blackburn early, heard lots of stories”. This folk memory of issue really makes us cross. We go through around lunchtime and afternoons, frequently, in bright hot weather and cooler weather, never had an issue. Yes there can be people around, its an urban environment, but we talk to the and have had no problems. Why do boaters love to think there are all these problems, are they scared of their own shadow. Blackburn is fine, in fact we frequently stop for lunch in the middle, a nice spot!
Rant over and here is a pretty picture
We thought we may have been stuck the wrong side of Whitebirk Aqueduct when CRT announced a severe leak and a 3 week closure to fix it.
Its a fairly small aqueduct taking the canal over a small stream and with a wash way, or was it and ice ramp?
But stars that they are the engineers at CRT and Kiers came up with a novel solution. They put pipes into the ground and injected foam, it worked the leak has been stopped and there will only be a few hours of stoppage on Tuesday as they complete permanent repairs.
Sorry no picture on this one
We passed this set of cygnets when they were just hatched and were with mum some days later we were going the same way and they were all out and about, lovely.
This is a great time of year with all the babies appearing.
We came up Wigan yesterday, 26 locks in about 3 and a half hours not too shabby!
What is there not to like on a glorious day like today as we pass through Wigan.
We are still on the Bridgewater moving back toward the Leeds & Liverpool at Leigh. It really is interesting to be on a canal that is not CRT and to see the differences, some good some bad, bt mainly just different. I really must investigate as to why the Bridgewater was not nationalised with the other canals at the end of the second world war. I suspect it was something to do with the ports.
The canal is still closed near the Bridgewater Marina as a new bridge is going in, it is supposed to reopen toward the end of May, but there still seems a lot to do.
As you can see the canal is dammed by a causeway.
We recently moored by Astley Green and the pit museum. An interesting bit of narrow gauge track has been renewed, it used to take caol from the pit to the canal, looks like there are plans to fire up some of the engines they have, as funds become available, that would be brilliant.
Well another great trip into Liverpool
As ever a great time in Salthouse with the added bonus of the steam festival satrting up. Some great steam trucks, steam engines and steam ships. Danny has an absolutely fab art deco interior designed for the directors of the Manchester Ship canal. Having been left to rot at Ellesmere port a group of enthusiasts have done a wonderful restoration job. With interiors copied from photos and as much original kit used as possible.
Guests always love a go on the helm and this old salty seadog was no different, with a clear mastery as soon as his hand touched the helm. Coming in and out of Liverpool is such a great experience and now that Tobacco Warehouse is being restored that whole end of the dock will have a great lift.
Thanks, as ever to all the CRT guys and volunteers.
completed
We are once again in lovely Liverpool home of giant swans & , at the moment, short boat George
But also large, all be it short, boats
We are moored next to the 1910 wooden L&L short boat. It may have been horse drawn or may have been towed by a stem tug or boat. She was built in Wigan and took coal from Leigh to Liverpool, an honour to share berth space with her. Sunk and abandoned in Worsley she was rescued and taken to the Ellesmere port boat museum. She has been in a number of colour schemes over the years but her brightwork is currently National Coal Board. She was taken to Tiverton in Devon, I know so sad nowhere nearer home, to have a fabulous restoration/rebuild, she does look good.
Here she is giving some kids a nice outing in 1943, much fancier brightwork than the NCB one she now wears.
Well last night was a lovely sunset and watching all the Black Headed gulls swooping over the flashes catching bugs, gorgeous.
Then one of those great mornings when the mist rises gently over the canal, we’ve not got a bad job!
Happy St Georges day
It really is a lovely day here today, suns out, ducklings appearing and the Bluebells starting in the woods, just lovely!
Well what a day, great weather and the Wigan flight, plus a few round the corner.
We also did it in a record time for us, 3 hours 15 minutes, sorry crew on the last record!
Lovely surprise to meet Kennet, the historic Leeds Liverpool short boat coming up the flight.
She is a great boat , built 1947, and kept in great shape by the Leeds Liverpool canal society.
We do enjoy doing Wigan as it is such a lovely flight, yes some locks are heavy but the views more than make up for it.
What a glorious morning it is here on the Leeds Liverpool.
There may be too many Canada geese around England but it is still fun watching them take off
A fun run today with an aqueduct over the motorway then into lovely countryside.
We really do feel that Lancashire needs to do some much more to market itself. The vales and countryside is just lovely and even the industrial stuff is interesting.
But it is the countryside and the great views that always amaze our guests, come on come to lovely Lancashire and be surprised, we were.
A cruising day free of locks but 3 swing bridges to give us something to do, apart from helming the boat of course, oh and preparing and serving meals and drinks, and giving the odd micro lecture on the canals!
Well it was Easter with Easter eggs, bunny ears and Easter Chicks.
Bit of a damp Easter but then mooring up at one of our favourite places in Lancashire between Burnley and Blackburn.
Well it may be too early to call summer but we have had some great weather.
Coming up out of Leeds on the Leeds Liverpool morning coffee and cookies was had on the roof deck. Next will be the cygnets then the Kingfishers will be back, that’s when it really is summer on a hotel boat!
Finished our first cruise of the season today. No ducklings but lots of lovely lambs. Many thanks to the guests who made it such an easy lovely cruise. Over the coming weeks I will post some pictures of some of the changes we have made. But for today here is a very contented lamb and is mum
Oh and here is a duck I rather liked
A busy day sorting things on the boat, almost there! Thanks to Ian and Glen we we ticked off lots of stuff on Ginas list. Just a glimpse of canal in the picture
list.
Decorating Lady Teal end to end has begun! All part of the many off season bits of work that have to be done.
Glen and her husband Ian working hard to help us keep the boat looking good, thanks guys.
#LTA16 @MarketingLancashire A busy day yesterday with a radio interview and the awards ceremony. Check out our interview at Radio Lancashire around the 3 hour 21 minute mark
Then it was off to the awards ceremony in Blackburn Cathedral, unfortunately no award this time, we were told we were close, and its good to be finalists!
@LLCanalSociety @CRTNorthWest #Ll200 #Kennet on the Leeds Liverpool with Kennet
Many thanks to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal Society who hosted me on board Kennet for one day of her epic end to end trip to celebrate the bi-centenary of the opening of the full length of the canal in October 1816.
I did the run from Greenberfield to the bottom of Barrowford locks, starting in the sunshine and ending in the rain! Great run and fabulous to go through the tunnel as a passenger this time.
It is a great voyage and has even got coverage in the national press. So many people, school children and others coming out to cheer her through. Also a lot of church bells being rung, which is quite magical. A huge effort of planning and a lot of effort and time undertaking the voyage, well done one and all.
There was also quite a flotilla along with them including two other Leeds Liverpool short boats, including Ribble who has been along the length with a cargoe of sand.
It took from the 1770’s through to 1816 before the canal was completed, I am sure arguments between those in Yorkshire and those in Lancashire had nothing to do with the delay. It actually came down to the problems with finance, the Napoleonic wars and the American war of independence. But after working out how they can use some of the canal already built by the Lancaster canal company and amending the route for new coalfields it was finally completed to much acclimation and helped with the industrial growth in the region and the success of Liverpool docks.
Tonight is the Gala celebration ball, looking forward to it.
Well mid October and what fabulous weather!
The last blog for a few days, ok all breath a sigh of relief. I am going to get something together about the season just gone and post that in a while. But a busy week this week with a presentation to Pendle Tourism, coming down from the summit with Kennet , the historic L&L short boat, as it makes its way from Leeds to Liverpool in a run to celebrate the bicentary of the opening of the L&L end to end. Then we have our presentations to do for the Lancashire tourism awards, and the bicentenary ball. Quiet a relaxing off season then!
@MarketingLancs Ok Blackburn summons up images of dark satanic mills in deepest Lancashire, but actually it has some interesting architecture and a lovely cathedral and an interesting flight of locks. They also have a section of methods for opening the gates as bridges have been built near locks so there is no space for balance beams. The picture below show a guest working one such lock.
Then as we move through the suburbs of Blackburn we get to nose at peoples back gardens, always fun.
Then it is off into the glorious countryside around Riley Green, Lancashire really is a spectacular and scenic county that does not get all the attention it deserves.
Some more pictures of that tomorrow.
On our run into the marina yesterday (last but one, gorgeous day today, then off through wonderful Lancashire tomorrow on our last cruise of the season) we went through the Foulridge tunnel, great fun. But before that at Foulridge we stopped and looked at the Lime kiln.
Probably built at the same time as the canal, 1790 -96, it is one of two that were built each end of the tunnel for the lime mortar for the tunnel itself.
Prior to the canal the limestone would have been brought in by ponies over old packhorse ways.
