Canal path "spills" - what do you do?

[wiggydiggy]

For interest - where the canal goes through tunnels, there is no towpath. Horse-boaters would 'leg' it, and there would be a path along which the horse could be led to the other end of the tunnel. That path would go over or around the hill that the tunnel cut through.

When the towpath changed sides (variety of reasons why), that is where you would find the 'roving' bridges so the horse could change sides easily and without needing to be detached then reattached to the boat, which would cause delay and need extra man/woman/child power.

Yeah I know the legging technique, bikes have to go over too. On the Leeds/Liverpool the first time I got to Foulridge Tunnel I got lost going up and over it. I've cycled all three of the Pennine crossing canals and that one is definitely the prettiest but also the longest.

 

[Richard Fairhurst]

A few tunnels, generally the later ones, do have towpaths - in particular Thomas Telford thought legging was inhumane and tried to provide a towpath to avoid it. In particular Netherton Tunnel in Birmingham has a towpath on each side. One is usually kept locked but you can cycle the other one!

 

[ColinJ]

One is usually kept locked but you can cycle the other one!

Is it lit?

I tried cycling down a short length of unlit disused railway tunnel on the Rossendale Mountain Bike Challenge once but could not keep going in a straight line even though I was aiming for the light at the end of the tunnel. I hadn't realised how much I relied on visual cues to make micro-adjustments when riding - I had assumed that it was done using sense of balance.

 

[Tom B]

I have ridden those on a mountain bike with big tyres but they are really not designed to be cycled over!

And, yes, those board bridges are very unfriendly too. Impossible for wheelchairs, parents with kids in buggies etc. Apparently, discussions are underway on how to solve the issue... (d'uh - build wider wooden bridges like one at the Todmorden end of that stretch of towpath!)

Read this (long!) post... (and other relevant posts in that thread)...

Hey Colin - I haven't read the full thread (yet) but i am looking for something to do tomorrow...

I don't suppose you have the GPX / Strava link for that ride do you? Its a part of the world I am not 100% familiar with.

 

[ColinJ]

Hey Colin - I haven't read the full thread (yet) but i am looking for something to do tomorrow...

I don't suppose you have the GPX / Strava link for that ride do you? Its a part of the world I am not 100% familiar with.

I usually put a GPX in the first post of a ride thread but forgot to do it in that one! It finally appears in THIS POST.

It would be wise to cautious about doing that route tomorrow though... There are a few places where you would be on exposed high ground and the forecast suggests that there may be thunderstorms!

 

[Pale Rider]

Seems the answer to my low bridge question is fairly simple - the horse ducked if it needed to.

I also wonder if successive resurfacing has reduced the headroom by a few inches compared to when horses used the path.

 

[ColinJ]

Seems the answer to my low bridge question is fairly simple - the horse ducked if it needed to.

I also wonder if successive resurfacing has reduced the headroom by a few inches compared to when horses used the path.

There are still the original cobbles under the bridges on that stretch of the Rochdale canal.

As for ducking...

A colleague had been to a party and was riding back along the Rochdale canal towpath in the early hours, the worse for wear. He managed to headbutt a low-flying canal bridge and knocked himself into the canal, which was nearly freezing at the time. He said that he sobered up pretty quickly too! If he had actually knocked himself out, then he almost certainly would have drowned because there wasn't anybody about to rescue him.

 

[ColinJ]

I just got another email from the Canal & River Trust. Apparently, there was a public consultation on what to do next, but somehow I didn't even hear of it, and that consultation period has now closed!

There was a link to THIS DOCUMENT, which is an interesting read, especially in light of what we have been discussing here over the past couple of days. The weir in question is the one which actually already has improved access, but they wish to improve it further and for it to be the model for the other weirs/spillways.

 

[ColinJ]

I just read the document... They were already considering a steel mesh to allow views of the historical elements below.

 

[Drago]

This brings back memories.

Decades ago there was a bit of a crime spike on the canals in Poshshire, and British Waterways wanted something done about it.

Can't physicall patrol them by car. Unrealistic to respond to reports on foot and expedt the villains to still be there, so as one of the forces two MTB trainers it landed on my desk.

Back then you needed a permit to ride a bike on their towpaths. The public merrily ignored this requirement but the dibble couldn't. The farce weren't going to stump up for separate permits for every rider, so I tried to convince BW to grant a permit to cover the entire team. They wouldn't.

So thanks to BWs intransigence nothing happened, although they still had the cheek to complain about lack of police action in response to crime levels. Towards the end they relented and allowed people to download the permits for free - which seemed a bit pointless having permits at all if they were giving them away - but I cheered when they disappeared and the Anal and River Trust took a more enlightened view on the subject.

 

[ColinJ]

Towards the end they relented and allowed people to download the permits for free - which seemed a bit pointless having permits at all if they were giving them away

I remember that. I assume that the idea was that the permit could be withdrawn if you misbehaved, but that would mean nothing unless someone checked permits and could fine non-permit holders!

 

[Jameshow]

Yeah I know the legging technique, bikes have to go over too. On the Leeds/Liverpool the first time I got to Foulridge Tunnel I got lost going up and over it. I've cycled all three of the Pennine crossing canals and that one is definitely the prettiest but also the longest.

Don't talk to me about the foulridge tunnel my LLC race hit the fan soon after!😢🤣

 

[T4tomo]

I remember that. I assume that the idea was that the permit could be withdrawn if you misbehaved, but that would mean nothing unless someone checked permits and could fine non-permit holders!

I think I downloaded on at one time, as small part of our local MTB circuit involved a short section of tow path with the occasional vociferous knob head yelling about permits, so we all downloaded them so we could wave it in said knob head's face on subsequent visits.


I generally dont like riding on tow path anyway, but I can see in certain places they provide a handy and direct traffic free commut, partiuclalry urban areas. round me they are generally very rough bar the odd short section, and you are better off on the roads.

 

[Drago]

To this day you still get Meldrew types demanding to see your permit.

Usually I just offer them a swimming lesson, but one one occasion I pulled out my wallet and extracted a Tesco receipt and said, "Here's my towpath permit...oh wait...no, that's the permit to s**g your Mum."

 

[mjr]

I generally dont like riding on tow path anyway, but I can see in certain places they provide a handy and direct traffic free commut, partiuclalry urban areas. round me they are generally very rough bar the odd short section, and you are better off on the roads.

I really enjoy riding towpaths. Just not in most of this godforsaken country where NIMBYs and misguided Victorianaphiles seem determined that towpaths must be left almost in the state of disrepair they fell into while the canals were disused and act as a real drag on enabling wheelchair users and riders of cycles and often even horses safe access to them. And then there are freak daft designs like the one in this discussion which have somehow survived, possibly because it was already disused at some earlier time when little bridges would have been built over the towpath spillways as routine renewal.

I know it's not fair to compare the BE/NL ship canal towpaths to the narrow GB ones (although most of the Manchester ship canal doesn't seem to have a decent cycle route beside it either), but French canals don't seem much bigger yet often manage to keep their towpaths open to all.

Not at all surprised to hear about Poshshire's canal problems. Apart from the Northampton Arm and a short stretch around Stoke Bruerne, you often needed a flipping machete to clear the towpaths enough to walk when I was growing up. I don't think the canal authorities sent their brightest and best to manage that area.