194. Narrowboating the Caldon canal: a 180 year old aqueduct!

hello and welcome to the vlog I have two extremely full toilet tanks that very much need emptying and I think the water tank could do with the top-up as well there's a facilities point only about half a mile around the corner so I'm going to set off it was a decent day not raining and quite mild though it had been damp overnight just a smattering of other boats on this stretch and some beautiful green countryside to enjoy needless to say the calden continued its somewhat wild look and feel On The Moorings approaching the water point a work boat full of work stuff these moorings look like long-term permit ones but actually they're open to all at the end a services block with not one not two but three water points and an else and point four empty in the bog an hour later duly emptied and refilled I could set off again I was beginning to expect this kind of width from this canal by now good thing it was quiet a heron hooray a sign of good water and good fishing he also attempts the moonwalk wait for it here it comes alright maybe a work in progress there at this point I was approaching the spot where the canal splits into two on the right that bit goes down towards leak but I was going straight on along the Frog Hall branch and that means I first needed to go down three locks one done and there was another boat coming up the next one so I waited while they went past into the top lock I glided glid perhaps gently into the second which they've left open for me these lock handles are very low geared so easy to wind but by golly you need to wind a lot down went the boat with me always keeping an eye on the bow fender to make sure it didn't catch on the gates one more and that was left open for me too thanks to those other boaters finally at the bottom and as I went back to shut the gates behind me I noticed one of these posts of which there are many along here canoeing is clearly popular in these parts I set off again with a special treat just around the corner the interesting thing about the canal now is that the branch I'm on actually goes underneath the other one which goes over this one on an aqueduct so we'll see it now as we go under and then when I come back and do the other bit we'll see it going over first there was a line of moorings to amble past what looks like a bridge up ahead is in fact the aqueduct carrying that other arm of the canal over this one a sharp bend underneath hence the blast on the horn let me show you this amazing structure from the air I was going up the bottom bit of canal the one running vertically up your picture the leek branch having split off at the top of the Locks comes in from the right and then does that sharp left turn over the aqueduct and off to the east since I spent a fortune on the drone here's another shot to get my money's worth you from underneath you see the plaque showing it was built a hundred and eighty years ago weird as you go under to know there's a canal above your head round the corner and a popular local pub the holly bush awaits with 24-hour moorings outside though I didn't pop in I went round another bend and stopped for the day I'm going to try to get down to the end of this branch of the Colvin canal today this is the Frog hall branch which culminates in the Frog Hall tunnel which my boat almost certainly won't fit through but there is a winding hole just before it so I'll have to turn around there it's not that far really about six miles I think and possibly five locks so I'm estimating about a 4-hour trip it was supposed to be sunny today not raining but quite a lot of cloud cover quite mild so not bad I suppose let's see how things go the mooring chains often get wedged into the metal by the movement of the boat but a bit of brute force when untying gets them free just as I was about to go though the boat in front headed off and I didn't want to sit on their tail so paused for ten minutes then chugged slowly so as not to catch them up that's the remains of a swing bridge a head buried in that foliage the doctor has clearly not yet fixed the chameleon circuit else that would look like a tree instead of a toilet the turdus perhaps squint hard and you can make out moored narrow boats on the leek branch which now runs briefly parallel to the one I was on but the Frog alarm turns south it does feel very isolated down this way almost no phone signal which says a lot these days an overspill in case of high water here's the old Flint mill at Cheddington two water mills in fact dating back to the Industrial Revolution though apparently milling was recorded here as early as 1253 the Flint ground by the mill was used in the Potteries of stoke-on-trent I've left a link to the mills website in the video description you can visit the site and do tours around the side the canal goes under this building towards a lock let's hope that's good strong wood an old canal bridge follows immediately after at the bottom lock I got help from an unexpected source Kazi boater a man who also makes videos about his canal life was passing by and jumped aboard to give me a hand I've left a link to his channel in the video description we made good progress fast interesting Gardens marauding narrow boats beware here the canal and river trust have put up signs which say underwater obstruction unfortunately there's no indication of exactly where or what it is or how you're supposed to avoid it should we stay left stay right stay in the middle who knows I went with the middle as that's the deepest but that was wrong as there was a little thump on the bottom of the boat foolishly I first tried pushing off it and that didn't work though for a moment it looked as though it might ultimately I had to do a bit of reversing it's not as if this is even wide enough to give you much scope to avoid anything it's down there somewhere watch out if you come this way on a happier note there's a heritage railway that runs alongside the canal here though sadly the trains were not chew chewing on the days I went past a most unexpected but welcome bit of help from unofficial lot volunteers at this one behind those trees is a sewage farm apparently hence this lock is known locally as stinky or smelly lock I forget exactly which these lovely people are apparently well known for spending their time helping boats through there clearly well practiced since they'd come with chairs and a picnic to see them through the day that's Ozzie boaters boat broken down at the time of filming but since fixed thank goodness he was stranded there for weeks thank goodness for a lift bridge that's always left up this lock is interesting because below it the canal turns into a river section that sign warning you to check the river levels if it's in flood it would be dangerous to proceed for me it was in the green and there's the river the churn it coming in from the left at the bottom of the log let's join it immediately this looked less like a canal and more like a river but I had a problem the tiller was shaking in fact the whole boat was vibrating weirdly I had a suspicion I'd picked something up around the propeller in that lock even the bow was wobbling around instead of the usual smooth progress unfortunately there's absolutely nowhere to stop on this river section to delve into the weed hatch so I had to carry on slowly hoping the prop wouldn't fall off or jam up completely even a blast of Reverse didn't shake whatever the problem was unexpectedly a water point with 48 hour mooring emerged just before a weir hooray here I could stop and sort out my propeller time to lift off the weed hatch and poke my arm into the vile depths at which point I pulled a huge clump of cloth off the prop shaft no wondering have been vibrating with that rounded smooth progress was restored immediately just in time to go past these ancient Mayan ruins lesser-known than their counterparts in South America asked the weir and then into an amazingly tight double bridge with no visibility to the other side huh classic calden canal this exit was atrocious you can't start turning right till the stern is out from under the bridge so you end up doing this absurd wide arc and crossed fingers there's no one waiting to come through the fun continues as the canal slides surreptitiously down the side of this railway station where the platform overhangs the water it's just wide enough for one boat did I mention it's a bit tight down here such a shame the trains weren't running you're still on the river here another overflow taking excess water away just beyond bridge 51 is a very deep lock indeed Flint mill lock the lock landing is actually on the left here but I was too lazy to walk the twenty yards from there so I pushed the nose up to the gate instead hoping the boat would stay put from the water flowing forwards when I filled the lock while it filled I inspected this sign about the forthcoming frog Hall tunnel which essentially said my boat won't fit the bottom of the lock also has this flappy plastic guide hanging over it that mimics the tunnel height so you can instantly see if you're okay I think if I totally dismantled the crash board at the front and lowered my solar I might have made it but it would have been very tight there was a little way to go before that though and the end was almost in sight given how there's no sign of civilization a surprising number of people walked along this footpath while I was there gently so gently in case another boat emerged from the other direction cherry I bridge dates from 1779 and was named after the local miners who'd use it to get home and had a cherry I appearance from the iron stone dust they'd been working in this is almost the very last absurdly narrow bit before you get to the tunnel and then the scenery turns weirdly post-nuclear with barbed wire concrete fences and abandoned buildings it feels as though you took the boat through a spacetime wormhole maybe that really was the TARDIS earlier but with the Frog Hall tunnel just around the corner this was the end for me a windy cold and beyond a space to more for the night cheerio you

Channel: CruisingTheCut

Views: 526,491

Rating: 4.9375191 out of 5

Keywords: narrowboat, canal boat, barge, barging, narrow, canal, boat, the cut, widebeam, liveaboard, continuous cruising, continuous, cruiser, RV, motorhome, campervan, sailing, tiny house, houseboat, house boat, vlog, Froghall, Caldon, Leek, aqueduct, Hollybush, Cheddleton, Flint Mill, tunnel

Id: aWgjXohUS9g

Length: 18min 28sec (1108 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 19 2019