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Post by postscript on Jul 2, 2006 14:32:22 GMT
Hi all. In answer to Steve's previously raised question, do I have time to walk along the towpath in my home town, here is the answer! The start of my walk either for the rail station or simple shopping within 100 yards of my home (which is a very basic flat).
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Steve H
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Post by Steve H on Jul 2, 2006 18:06:32 GMT
Hi Joe and Peter, I have been up in the loft and dug up a few pics of Megan 2 Being delivered as a shell and one of the finished project !! Steve
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Steve H
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Post by Steve H on Jul 2, 2006 18:17:26 GMT
A couple more of her... The inside, there is more room in them than you think, as long as you are under 6' 2". I will apologise now for those of you now totally bored of canal narrowboats and their history. Steve
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Steve H
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HWI Management Team / Official Site Photographer & Videographer
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Post by Steve H on Jul 3, 2006 18:04:40 GMT
Back on topic now, this is a photo I took on Sunday, a snail decided to cool off in my water feature. It looks very refreshing. Best Wishes Steve H
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Post by Andrew on Jul 3, 2006 23:15:11 GMT
Hi Steve, Many thanks for sharing the picture of your "cool snail" with us... It looks as though it's surfing! There again, maybe it's just enjoying a jacuzzi! That has to be the most unique photo I've seen in a long time! Regards, Andrew
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Joe
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Post by Joe on Jul 4, 2006 0:11:40 GMT
Hi Steve H
Thanks for your pics of the canal narrowboats. I find this very interesting as I have really learned something about this mode of transport.
Peter, Many thanks for the photos of the canal towpaths. I daresay it looks safer than walking in the High Street! Even here in America canals were an efficient means of transport until only recently. These should be preseved and maintained.
Joe
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Joe
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Post by Joe on Jul 4, 2006 0:17:47 GMT
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Post by postscript on Jul 4, 2006 9:10:11 GMT
Hi Steve.
I won't go into details but seeing your pics reminds me of what we have lost in Berkhamsted (which need not have happened) and why we are trying to preserve at least as a working possibility the last wharf in Berkhamsted, which is also the oldest inland boat-building yard in the south-east of England.
You know Lindy (Parliamentary Waterways Joint Committee) and so know its her yard I'm talking about (or was). All this took place a little fiurther down the towpath from the pics I have already posted regarding my regular walk to the shops or to the station. Peter
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Post by postscript on Jul 4, 2006 10:11:29 GMT
Absolutely fantastic photography Steve. you should consider that for some national photographic awards.
Peter
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Post by postscript on Jul 4, 2006 10:30:21 GMT
Hi Steve H Thanks for your pics of the canal narrowboats. I find this very interesting as I have really learned something about this mode of transport. Peter, Many thanks for the photos of the canal towpaths. I daresay it looks safer than walking in the High Street! Even here in America canals were an efficient means of transport until only recently. These should be preserved and maintained. Joe Hi Joe. The key is to use them as they are being used in the UK for recreational purposes. There is much money in this for general holiday and for tourism and it is that which provides the money to keep them going. The lady whom both Steve H and I know was a key instigator in ensuring the canals were not under British Waterways absolute control through researching the original 19th and 18th century canal enactments and re-affirming what are known as riparian rights--the right of those having direct canal bank access to use the canal. She was the vanguard against what one might argue was Michael Heseltine's intention of closing the waterways and of whom a Law Lord remarked, when she presented her case to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Waterways, that he had never heard a legal argument so cogently put by someone totally unqualified in law! Much later she was one of our merry band of rebels that took over the Town council to put some wellie up various backsides and I'm glad to say the town hasn't been quite the same since! However, there is also debate about the possibility of using the canals for moving water (for drinking purposes) and more likely at the moment, using them for waste movement as more environmentally friendly than container lorries. Peter
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Post by postscript on Jul 4, 2006 11:31:06 GMT
Hi all. Following on my walk from home to town centre or rail station just 2 more pics, one looking back on the way I have come and the other looking the other side of the road bridge that takes me to the station, the overhead rail cables showing in the mid-ground above the 'brick wall' which is in fact a viaduct. The station is about 300 yards behind the trees on the left, near which is an old flour mill now being converted to flats and which had its own wharf. The 'very' wide aspect of the canal is to accommodate boats tied to the wharf without impeding traffic but is also a 'winding hole', pronounced 'i' not 'I'. It is a place in the canal where, with care, it is possible to turn a narrow boat 'on a sixpence'. I think the longest boat you can have on inland waterways network is 70ft, the length of the locks. www.angelfire.com/journal/ggbtps/Private/canalwalk08bridge.jpg[/img][/center]Finally concluded in one more post which will be of interst to our Canadian friends--over a century of trading connections with Berkhamsted! Peter
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Post by postscript on Jul 4, 2006 12:23:56 GMT
Hi again. The first picture looks back to the bridge from which the two pictures in my last post were taken. The picure below is the other side of that last bridge which is close to the original entrance to Berkhamsted castle.
The Totem pole was carved by a member of the Kwakiutl tribe as a memento of the years of trading between this wharf and Canada. This area was the hub of boat building, wood-working and cabinet-making, to name just a few of the diverse industrial activities that were at the heart of the Berkhamsted economy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The timber would arrive from Canada either at London or Liverpool docks and be transferred to the inland waterway system which would bring the timber to Berkhamsted via the the Grand Union (formerly Junction) Canal which links the Thames with Birmingham. At Berkhamsted is the home, at Ashridge, of the father of our canal system, the Duke of Bridgewater. To the left of the totem pole is the oldest remaining boat-building yard (now derelict) in the south-east of England. Following, shortly so as to pace things for members and not overload the 'latest posts', I'll add pics of the Falkirk Wheel and my 'holiday' home. Peter
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Steve H
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Post by Steve H on Jul 4, 2006 17:20:21 GMT
Hi Peter and Joe,
Thanks for the pictures Peter, If I ever get another Narrow Boat, I will bring it down to Berkhempsted for a party! Mind you with the four mile an hour speed limit on the Canals I would feel just like that snail!
Thanks for your comments Joe, Canals were the love of Life for many years, I find the history fascinating.
Best wishes
Steve
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Steve H
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HWI Management Team / Official Site Photographer & Videographer
Posts: 1,756
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Post by Steve H on Jul 4, 2006 17:26:17 GMT
Hi All, For those of you who liked the Snail pictures, this shot from above shows how precarious he was on the edge of the water fountain. Come on guys and girls lets see some more of your handywork! Keep snapping! Steve H
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Post by Andrew on Jul 4, 2006 23:07:26 GMT
Hi All, I hope you don't mind if I barge in and share a few pics I shot this evening... These photographs were taken in the west outskirts of Edinburgh in Ratho, which stands on a ridge on the south east side of the plain of the River Almond. I was hoping to photograph at least one of several residential black swans which have been breeding in the area for a few years, but unfortunately none were to be seen today. Ratho is associated with opening of the Union Canal in 1822, which linked Edinburgh to Falkirk and the Forth and Clyde Canal. You might be interested to read some more infomation about Ratho at the link below: www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/ratho/ratho/If you're still really keen (Steve and Peter ) you can read more information about the Union Canal at the next link below: www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/falkirk/unioncanal/index.html 'Pride of the Union'
[/color][/center][/size][/b] (a restaurant boat) 'Ratho Princess' Perhaps 'HWI' should have their own boat named 'Queen Hayley' We'd need a big boat which could carry more than two though! "There is a ship, she sails the sea she's loaded deep as deep can be but not as deep as the love I'm in I know not how I sink or swim
The water is wide, I can't cross over and neither I have wings to fly give me a boat that can carry two and both shall row - my love and I and both shall row - my love and I" Regards, Andrew
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