Search Results

These are Soulbury Three Locks on the Grand Union Canal north of Leighton Buzzard. The lady is using the rope over the gate to take the last forward movement off the butty boat.

The 1960s was a turning point for the canals as the working boats' cargoes were switched to the roads, particularly the new M1 motorway.

From here the canal maintains a level for over twenty miles until it reaches Tyrley, where a flight of five locks alter the level by 33 ft.

Chasewater was built as a canal feeder in 1800; it was so efficient that its owners, Wyrley and Essington Canal Company, sold surplus water to other companies.

This view is slightly upstream of the locks that give access to the Staffordshire and Worcester Canal. The area in the foreground is today a large amusement park.

The Wyrley and Essington Canal recalls an earlier development boom, when Britain was gripped by canal fever. Opened in 1797, it is now known affectionately as the Curly Wyrley.

The River Weaver creates a link with the Trent & Mersey Canal by way of Northwich's mighty Anderton Boat Lift, where a pair of narrow boats could be lifted 50 feet in two caissons.

The canal pictured here is the Peak Forest Canal, completed in 1801.

Today the canal comes to an end near here. Evidence of the docks has nearly all gone and trees have been planted.

To the left, and above the bow of the tanker Dauphine, we can see the huge lock gates that give access to the Manchester Ship Canal. The canal was opened on 1 January 1894.

The Rochdale Canal was built as a cheaper alternative to turnpike roads for Rochdale`s woollen trade.

Created in 1790, this successful canal was built to ship Bedworth coal to the town of Coventry. At Hopwas, just beyond Tamworth, the canal threads its way through attractive wooded country.

The canal runs through Gilwern; it is very picturesque, and there are now moorings in Gilwern for pleasure boats outside the Bridgend Inn. This view was taken further along the canal.

Timber barges from Avonmouth Docks await discharge on the Lydney Canal. The Lydney was once connected to Pidcock's Canal, itself less than two miles in length, which ran to Middle Forge.

The Ulverston Canal was opened in 1796 to connect the town with the Leven Estuary, and to enable trade, both exports and imports, to be increased.

Construction of the Coventry Canal began in the late 1760s; the objective was to link industrial Coventry with the coalfield around Bedworth and to open a navigation to the Grand Trunk (Trent

This is part of the marvellous system which by 1933 comprised the Grand Junction or Union Canal, linking the Thames with the Midland canal system, and providing a direct waterway link between London

In 1797 a committee of seven was appointed by the trustees to negotiate with the proprietors of the newly formed Grand Junction Canal Company who required land for the extension of their canal.

This canal was constructed in 1796; it runs for nearly forty miles through northern Hampshire.

At Great Haywood Junction, the Trent & Mersey meet the Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal.

The Tontine, overlooking the canal basin, offers traditional draught beers and food, but in 1788 it was owned by the Canal Company; the houses on each side of the original inn were used by hop merchants

A little beyond the 450yd-long tunnel at Chirk, the Llangollen Canal is suddenly carried 70 feet in the air over this spectacular stone aqueduct.

The Lancaster Canal was never connected to the main canal system. Its rugged stone bridges and its proximity to the Pennines make it a most picturesque line.

There were ten locks at the end of the Bridgewater Canal linking it with the docks below; figures for 1883 show that in that year alone 60,300 craft passed up and down.