UK Canal Maps and our Canal Boating Blog
We are working our way down our list of navigable Canal and Rivers, the latest additions are as follows
If you have any local knowledge please let me know if I have missed anything important.
You can use our Facebook group for any comments
It is a bit of a surprise that we have managed to clear the 15k members on our Facebook Group that supports our Cana/River Maps.
The project has grown in size a lot in the past 12 months we have over 50 maps completed and over 3700 data points in the system covering moorings, water points, pubs and cafes, etc etc, the latest additions being Railway Stations that are near the canals.
Traffic to the maps is growing, but I am expecting it to tail off during the winter as most boaters hunker down and the scheduled canal and river stoppages start.
Anyway, thanks for your support and we will continue to grow the maps.
David
Lots of railway lines run near the canals as they shared a common problem, Canal don’t like hills and neither did early Railways trains, so there is a tendency to find them following similar routes.
In one of the groups on Facebook it was suggested that we should includes railway stations that are near the canals on our maps. We had used railway stations in the past as good places to meet up with people coming onboard for this very reason, so this started a new set of locations to add to the maps.
So far we have added 290 railway stations that are near enough to the canals to be useful, they have been added to the Everything Map and any other maps of individual canals, I will update the canal rings maps as I get time.
It has been about 15 months since we started our mapping project, this is not a navigation aid (but it can help), but a what is near me, where is my nearest XXXX map. So if you need to find something, a Shop, Cafe, Pump-out, Moorings etc we may have the answer.
The maps are all free to use but we do use google ads to help cover the costs.
We have lots more in the works, but these are the ones we feel can be used at the moment.
Canal/River Rings
General UK Maps
Individual Canal Maps
Bit of a lay in this morning no need to get away early as we have just about 4 miles and just 15 locks, 3 of which we will have welcome help from the CRT volunteers at Hanbury locks 1,2 & 3.
Lock one of the day is Stoke Top Lock, which is the first one of six lock in this flight.
The last lock in the Stoke Locks which FYI drops the canal 40ft (12.8m), is where we first hired a canal boat from Black Prince Holidays, which is also where we purchased our boat a few years ago.
We have done this trip a few time, and depending on timing we have moored up outside The Boat and Railway Pub where you can sit and watch the boats go by.
Next we have the Astwood locks, just 5 this time and they drop the canal 42 feet (12.8m), we met a family group who Sonia showed how the locks worked while getting the kids involved, once a teacher always a teacher.
These are our last locks before we turn onto the Droitwich Canal and we get to the Hanbury locks, where we meet 3 very helpful CRT volunteers. They are there to make sure the locks are operated correctly as they are more complicated than most with side pounds.
Then we are at our home base Droitwich Spa Marina for a Pump-out and fuel. We had used approx ¼ of a tank in the past 3 weeks, of not non-stop chugging.
This has been a good test for our up and coming gap year plans, with just the two of us most of the time. We have found that we need to plan what we are trying to achieve so that we are not overdoing it too often.
Next we have to clean the boat touch up a few scratches from earlier trips. We have lent the boat out a few time this year, and it is starting to show.