Spring 2010 - Issue 17
The Spring 2010 issue includes the following features. You can purchase this magazine from our online Shop.
You can read the articles in this and all other NarrowBoat issues online by becoming a NarrowBoat subscriber.
Historical Profiles
Macclesfield Canal
Tim Dawson looks at a canal that was built “almost too late”; when it opened in 1831, the railway era had begun
View an excerpt.
Famous Fleets
L.B. Faulkner
Alan Faulkner looks at the fleet operated by his namesake Laurence Faulkner from its base in Leighton Buzzard
View an excerpt.
Last Traffic
Roger Wickson's Narrowboats
A series of photographs taken in the twilight of commercial narrowboat carrying around Hawkesbury Junction and the Grand Union Canal
View an excerpt.
Canals That Never Were
The Polbrook Canal
Richard Dean highlights a mystery surrounding a Cornish canal project: The Polbrock Canal
View an excerpt.
Traditional Techniques
Brindley Gates
Hugh Potter looks at an ingenious system to prevent loss of excess water in the case of a canal breaching. Thought to have been invented by James Brindley, there is serious doubt that the system would have worked, despite being installed on several canals over several decades
View an excerpt.
Early Campaigning
Cressy: The Missing Years
What did happen to Cressy between Tom Rolt's uncle Kyrle Willans selling her in 1930 and buying her back in 1936? Hugh Potter discovers that she was owned by a journalist in Leicester who was also a keen waterway campaigner
View an excerpt.
Picturing the Past
The Kimberley Experiment
In 1952 British Waterways trialled a system whereby people could take a working narrowboat from Wolverhampton to Weston Point Docks and return with a load of spelter. Not surprisingly it was not liked by the working boat community and was short lived. Will King spent a week on Kimberley and kept a photographic diary
View an excerpt.