- 3 weeks ago
Canal Boat Diaries - Season 7 Episode 9 - Manchester to Summit
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00:09my name's Robbie Cumming that's me tussling with some trousers wrapped around my propeller
00:23and this is my old narrowboat the naughty lass for over a decade I've been exploring
00:29Britain's rivers and canals camera in hand filming every bump scrape and tricky situation and over
00:37the years there's been a few well that didn't work did it
00:48yeah I misjudged that completely this lock was shorter than I thought it was
00:55this time I'm on the Rochdale Canal
01:00my journey starts in Manchester I'll make my way to Middleton and after that it's Rochdale and then
01:10on to Smithy Bridge my destination is summit and the highest broad lock in the whole of England it's
01:19around 17 miles in all there'll be plenty to see so jump on board for my canal boat diaries
01:49right I'm up early this morning because I need to get moving where I am it's costing me 25 pounds
01:55a day so
01:56yeah I need to get going and also I've got something to sort out that's been playing on my mind
02:03boat safety
02:05scheme exam it's a little bit like an MOT basically I've just got to make sure this boat passes so
02:11it's
02:11safe for me to live on and I can carry on moving it around the system so today I'm just
02:17going to make sure
02:18I've got my carbon monoxide alarm smoke alarm I've got a new one of those I've just bought one so
02:24I'm
02:24going to install that and also make sure just obvious stuff like fire blanket is out ready hopefully
02:32they're going to pass I shall find out anyway but get going because I've also got a lot of locks
02:38to do
02:49today right my first challenge is to reverse out of here
03:04and today the weather looks so nice it's going to be perfect a little bit cold but something that's
03:11going to keep me warm is going through all of the locks I've got to tackle today at least 16
03:17of them
03:19I'll try and do them before it gets dark but this is nice at the moment so quiet no one's
03:27around
03:28just me on my boat working my way out of Manchester
03:44but I have a feeling this waterway isn't going to be easy
03:50as I've already hit a shallow spot and that means it's barge pole time
04:02well thankfully that was an easy one right after a full start here we go again
04:27I'm travelling on the Rochdale canal completed in 1804 with originally 92 locks it was built to move
04:38coal and textiles across the Pennines it later fell into decline as the railways took over the trade
04:52it's tempting to think that this canal has always been like this but no for a long time it had
04:58been
04:58abandoned filled in in places and completely unnavigable and it wasn't until 2002 actually
05:05reopened and that was only because of a huge effort from teams of volunteers clearing and campaigning and
05:12rebuilding this entire trans-pennine link from Manchester to sorby bridge in West Yorkshire
05:19without those people I definitely wouldn't be able to come through these locks today
05:28when it comes to locks I've had it quite easy of late because I've been going through the narrow type
05:35which is a lot easier for me to get through so now that I'm doing the wider ones the gates
05:45are heavier
05:47there's a lot more walking all the way around and just in general it takes a lot longer so yeah
05:55it is a
05:56lot more work than the narrow ones and although it's quite daunting taking on this challenge in winter
06:05yeah I'm ready I think
06:15next to the canal is Victoria Mill built in the 1860s by Bolton architect George Woodhouse
06:25this was a textile powerhouse producing cotton yarn and playing an important role in Manchester's 19th
06:35century cotton industry looking back at that skyline it's very clear that I'm leaving Manchester a little
06:44bit sad about because it's one of my favorite cities to visit but I've got to keep moving and I'm
06:50hoping to
06:51make a moor in the other side of Falesworth in fact it might be in Chadderton a lot of the
06:56boaters have
06:56advised me this is where you should moor because it's safe but you never know I'm traveling in winter
07:03gonna be running out of light probably about four o'clock so let's just see how many locks I can
07:09get
07:09through and see where I come more up at the end of it but this stretch is throwing up some
07:17serious challenges
07:26first I'm down the weed hatch but it's not weeds I'm dealing with I think I've got something wrapped
07:34around the propeller probably picked it up in the bottom of the lock oh it feels like an item of
07:41clothing it also feels very very cold
07:53someone strows us right how do they end up in the canal
08:03and next I've run aground for the second time today
08:16oh stuck again the propeller won't do anything here it's just too shallow caught between two locks on a
08:23lock pound I can see the gates that are open ahead of me and I've been lucky with that a
08:28lot of these
08:28locks have been in my favor and the gates open but that can mean that the lock pounds can run
08:35dry sometimes
08:38but right now I'm just using my barge pole just to lever the boat forward almost like punting the boat
08:48I knew this part of the Rochdale was going to be labor intensive a lot of locks to get through
08:53all of
08:53them wide I did get lucky with a lot of them already open but there was also low water levels
09:00because of
09:00that I think and having to barge pole my way across the canal and then jumping off battling my way
09:10through brambles slipping on wet leaves oh yeah wasn't easy just pull it far enough so I can make it
09:22to that
09:22bridge well they call this the Everest of the canals and I've not even left base camp really because
09:44it's this is already quite challenging
10:01I'm traveling through Newton Heath it's been really challenging and there's been lots of stuff in the canals cause me
10:08to get stuck
10:10and the locks haven't been easy but I'm about to meet someone who's going to tell me about the history
10:16of
10:16Manchester United so that'll be great because I'm a fan and also whilst I've been going through the locks
10:23I've been checking the updates because it was Crystal Palace Man United game a bit of a roller coaster 1
10:30-0
10:30and then we ended up winning it 2-1 so hopefully everyone in this area should be in a good
10:35mood if they support
10:46my mind I've arranged to meet a fellow fan a chap called Ian Gardner who wrote a book about the
10:53club in the early days
10:57this gate doesn't want to stay open does it I think I've got someone up there holding it for me
11:02it might be the bloke I'm supposed to meet Ian
11:09you saved the day thank you he didn't want to stay open that did he cheers
11:17right I'm gonna try and get up to the top of his lock and then have a word with him
11:24Ian how are you Robbie yeah not bad I mean good news the result today so it's always good when
11:30they
11:30win mate yeah yeah and it's great to meet you here you've come to meet me in Newton Heath because
11:36this
11:36is where Manchester United started the original Manchester United world they were called Newton
11:43Heath Lancashire and Yorkshire railways 1893 they became a limited company and became Newton Heath
11:51Football Club right and then 1902 they became Manchester United am I right in thinking the name change also
11:59involved a dog in the story somewhere well what happened was Newton Heath's captain Harry Stafford his
12:06dog went missing at a fundraising bazaar in this centre of Manchester and he was found and a guy called
12:13John Henry Davis who was a wealthy brewery owner found the dog and Stafford let him have the dog because
12:21he
12:22showed interest in putting some money behind the club no way so they were definitely going under yeah but
12:28David's got involved and the rest is history as they say in 1902 became Manchester United and you've
12:35got a picture here of the team from the turn of the last century quite an old photo what do
12:40you think
12:40those guys would have thought about players today the game today well it would have been completely
12:46alien to them all these logs were part-time footballers they all had other jobs and they were all working
12:51in
12:51workshops building site oh they'd know on earth they could even associate with it no TV in them
12:57days you have to go to the game to watch I was gonna say yeah well that's I mean it
13:02most the time
13:03I'm watching the the game on the on the telly or if I can if I've got the boat past
13:07Old Trafford I'll
13:08pop in but yeah well thanks for telling me all about that because yeah make me a hopefully better
13:13supporter no problem have a good trip I will do and I'll let you crack on with the pub if
13:19you want
13:19to go back in for another part I just try another one all right cheers bye meeting Ian was a
13:30real
13:30privilege for me because he's an author who's written about Manchester United's history so who better to
13:38learn more about my club's background how it all started and just stuff that I've never really have found
13:44out about otherwise I think yeah it's just always good to meet a fan after you've both had a good
13:50result as well right then from what I can see my mooring option for tonight I mean I'm close to
14:03all
14:03these shops and there's plenty of things locally it's just my problem is there's only one bollard to
14:10moor onto so well it's dark I need somewhere that'll have to do
14:37this is genuinely what I get up to on a rainy day I love just cooking something that takes a
14:44bit of time to
14:45do whether it's because I'm chopping up vegetables or cooking meat for a long time in this case I am
14:54just
14:54chopping up various ingredients together to make some kind of soup Robbie's canal soup it tastes better than it sounds
15:12I could be doing something like cleaning up or washing up whilst waiting for the soup to simmer but
15:19instead I'm playing solitaire with my pack of cards here I don't think I've got the rules right because
15:24I'm not doing very well that must be it but it's passing the time
15:32my chunky canal soup it's a winner it'll certainly get me through a windy wet horrible day like today
15:53it's a fresh morning on the Rochdale canal but thankfully the weather's improved
16:03well that wasn't too bad a mooring really for me my main worry today is getting through a few locks
16:10before
16:10getting to a specific location where I'm going to meet the BSS examiner get my boat safety scheme exam done
16:18so yeah I need to get there first and then hopefully it'll pass come on girl we'll get
16:25you through it don't worry I think I'm more worried actually
16:35the exam is a bit like an MOT for boats so there's plenty that can go wrong
16:42now I'm making my way along this rather quiet canal
16:47after the working boat era ended it was abandoned for years development crept in around it
16:55and even a new motorway cut across its path making restoration seem highly unlikely
17:03but that didn't stop canal campaigners thinking ahead
17:08I'm just about to take my boat through a tunnel that goes under the M60
17:12it always surprises me the stories behind these canal restorations because in this case
17:18there was a proper battle on in the 1990s as obviously they wanted to build the motorway
17:25but they didn't count on the supporters of the canal fighting their corner even though the canal didn't open
17:32until a good decade later they managed to at least secure this navigable tunnel that's built just underneath the motorway
17:40here
17:43this crucial decision preserved the canal's future
17:49ensuring it could reopen to boats years later
18:04it's not just locks and things getting wrapped around my propeller
18:08I've got another obstacle here and it's a lift bridge but it's a little bit different
18:13in fact there's only a few of these canal bridges
18:18it's a vertical hydraulic lift bridge it used to be a manual one a long time ago
18:26actually this one is 25 years old so i'm just hoping it still works because it apparently has a habit
18:34of breaking down
18:43well there really is no good time to do this i'm going to keep a lot of people waiting it's
18:48a busy road
18:52i'm pressing the button but nothing's happening who knows when this was last used
18:58it's not looking promising but with a bit of patience and plenty of pushing here we go
19:04i need to open this vertical lift bridge to get my boat underneath
19:10structures like this are quite rare on the canals and were built to carry very heavy vehicles over it
19:26right that's about it i think go go go
19:32action stations i want to keep the good people of greater manchester waiting
19:45the rochdale canal is very quiet obviously i'm traveling around in winter yeah i've only seen one
19:52boat moored up on the side no one's using the locks or the bridges a lot of people probably get
19:59put off
20:00by the amount of work you have to do at the end of the day when i'm tying up it
20:05does feel a bit like
20:07yeah i'm gonna be on my own here and although the locals are really really welcoming and they
20:13say hello to me and they say i have not seen a boat coming here for ages you wonder and
20:19hope that
20:19it doesn't attract the wrong sort of attention and safety and numbers i always like to moor next to
20:25other boats it shouldn't be a problem around here though even if there are no other boaters around
20:36it's been a bit of a logistical challenge trying to find somewhere that i can tie up and have some
20:45car parking next to it for this boat safety scheme examiner who is coming from other side of the pennines
20:53in mythenroyd which is a place that i will reach at some point but i need this exam done now
20:59just in
21:00case something happens and then i've got to get him to come back and take another look
21:04it has failed before but i'm just hoping that all the boxes get ticked and that i've done everything
21:10that i need and also that i can get to where i need to in time it should be all
21:14right it's a lovely day
21:15getting through the locks without too much trouble so hopefully everything can go smoothly today
21:22but yeah we never know gotta stay positive
21:37i'm on the rochdale canal in greater manchester
21:41where i'm about to meet my boat examiner reese right i'm here in good time i am moored on a
21:49lock
21:49landing but there is one thing i've forgotten about there's a blow torch
21:56somewhere in my boat i need to make sure that's stored correctly in the right place which is actually
22:02the gas locker believe it or not doesn't sound right does it but um they're all flammables
22:10that's going in the front
22:14just like a car a boat on the uk's inland waterways needs insurance but also a license
22:23and a valid boat safety scheme certificate before you can drive it
22:32you just never know if you're going to pass or not until it actually happens
22:39my examiner reese turned up and straight away he was just thoroughly going through everything on his
22:45checklist for the boat noting down what boiler i've got what stove i've got all these sort of things
22:53and then he got to the engine bay he's checking the fuel lines they were all right
22:59but he found something with the wires what can you tell me is there something wrong here um from what
23:07i can see where the wires go through the bulkhead the metal bulkhead it needs some sort of protection
23:15to stop the wires from rubbing uh through the through the metal of the boat basically is that a fail
23:23it is it is all right okay oh man it could cause a short circuit and a worst case a
23:29fire um okay so
23:31if you could do that for me that would be great yeah so put something around to insulate it that's
23:37right yeah keep it from rubbing okay okay liam it was such a small issue to me but he said
23:44that
23:44could cause a fire and it's a fail so just on that alone the whole
23:51boats bss exam fails all right yeah see ya it's a shame the naughty lass didn't pass
23:59after spending around 100 quid on the inspection but it's an easy fix and i've been given time to get
24:05it sorted
24:12ah it's a beautiful day outside i'm all ready to get going but i did a little bit of research
24:17last night
24:18and i found out that where i'm moored is close to middleton where one of my favorite comedians
24:25grew up i couldn't find any sort of address of where he used to live but i did find where
24:33i used
24:33to go to school so i'm at least going to go and check that out now if i mention a
24:39self-important
24:40broadcaster with an inflated ego called alan partridge hopefully you should know who i mean
24:55right this is where steve coogan went to school apparently he was more into impressions and making
25:03people laugh than academics i couldn't understand that and when he was facing a level resit he had
25:11a conversation with a teacher wanted to go to drama school and they said ah that's a shame well who's
25:17having the last laugh now eh hopefully steve is but yeah it's good to find out a bit more about
25:24one of my favorite comedy actors but now it's back to the boat aha yeah i've said it i had
25:32to get that in
25:34one of my favorite comedians right i'm just going into the first lock of the day it's nice to have
25:56a little walk around wherever you moored up just to get to know the area a little bit better and
26:02um
26:03the next area i'm headed into is rochdale and it's a little bit like stoke on trend i was told
26:10don't go
26:11there don't moor there just go straight through but i stayed in stoke and it was fine in fact it
26:17was
26:18good so i am still gonna go and moor up in rochdale to see what happens that's the only way
26:24to be i
26:25think you can't just go off hearsay otherwise it just becomes a whole culture and yeah
26:32just i'm gonna try and prove it wrong hopefully rochdale doesn't let me down
26:46oh no crash
26:52yeah i misjudge that completely this lock was shorter than i thought it was natural
26:58fact probably the same length as all the rest of them
27:06poor old boat's taking a battery i can see it from here
27:10it's not completely destroyed the fender it's just very flattened at the top there
27:17the bumper or fender as us boaters call it protects the metal work
27:23but they do wear out and back in the working days one might be replaced every few weeks or so
27:31so my bow fender has lasted a solid two years
27:46right i've got to pull in anyway to go back and close the lock gates so i'll use this opportunity
27:52to
27:52fix that fender see what i can do for it because i can't have bare metal just smashing into locks
27:57i've got plenty more to do today so this is a perfect time to sort that out if i can
28:06now this fender has reached the end of its life but i've kept a spare
28:12it's not new but it'll do the job
28:19right that's all sorted carry on the journey now
28:28from here close to boar shore lock i'm off to rochdale and then passing through littleborough
28:35before i reach my destination of summit i've got about nine miles to go
28:49i was looking for a bit more relaxed winter boat move up through the rochdale take my time with
28:57it but there are some stoppages that are going to happen very very soon i need to get through
29:02places like littleborough and todmorden before the canal shuts there potentially for months i could
29:10be waiting so yeah i'm just trying to get through now there's a little bit of a race against time
29:18a bit of pressure i might have to move when the weather's not so great
29:22it's just a case of trying to get through it now
29:35i'm just reaching the top of a flight of locks just done six this will be my seventh
29:40and by this slot here is a lock keeper's cottage back in the 1880s there was a chap who worked
29:47on
29:47this stretch it was called john horrocks he not only looked after all the locks and everything but he
29:53also had to record things like deaths in the canal most people couldn't swim back then they were wearing
30:01heavy clothes and also probably didn't help there's a pub somewhere along here but yeah that was part of
30:08his job and he got paid one shilling per inquest sadly drownings were quite common on the 19th century canals
30:20where busy waterways and limited safety made hazardous work
30:32as i enter rochdale i pass this big building a former cotton mill
30:39and a product of the north's once booming textile industry
30:46it's now used for storage and office space
30:54right it's all getting built up again
30:56so i'm going to try and look for somewhere tomorrow up here
30:59it might not be where they're having a fire under this bridge
31:05well you know it is bitterly cold so that's another reason why tomorrow
31:08i'm going to moor up and also the sun's gone down
31:13but yeah i'm going to probably find somewhere as nice as possible i'm not going to be silly
31:23arriving into rochdale i was looking for somewhere to moor up
31:27and the first site that greets me is basically a bridge that seems to be on fire
31:34so not the most welcoming of sites and once i've gotten past that i just couldn't see anywhere to tie
31:42up
31:48i'm just coming up to the rochdale arm the one that comes off this rochdale canal
31:55the town arm there and i was thinking i was going to be mooring somewhere near here but there's
32:00literally nowhere to tie up so i'm going to get through the next lock and hopefully there'll be
32:05something at the top
32:18oh the weather's looking pretty grim today but i have to move because i'm moored next to a lock
32:26but i will say mooring in rochdale for me was absolutely fine no problems whatsoever in fact
32:32i got a good night's sleep and now it's time to work my way towards a place called smithy bridge
32:37hopefully i can find a mooring because i need to tie up for a few days to let
32:43all this rain pass because it's not looking good
32:49that's my coffee in the flask let's go
33:05all right we're setting off it's a shame i would have wanted to stay in rochdale a little bit longer
33:09just have a walk around at least but i can't leave my boat there i don't want to moan about
33:16it too
33:16much but there's an opportunity i think if you put in more places for boats to come and settle down
33:24for a bit
33:26so
33:37ever since i started boating well over a decade ago i've always been told
33:41by other boaters watch out for various things in the lock that could end up sinking your boat
33:47things like the sill at the bottom of the lock gates as you're going down don't get caught on that
33:52because
33:53the boat will tip but no one has ever told me stay away from the sides because you might get
33:57caught on a
33:59huge block of stone that's sticking out which is exactly what happened
34:05that was a close one i that's the closest i've come to sinking in a lock i'm astonished at how
34:12easy
34:12that was it just caught caught with the side of the boat the gunwales underneath that big block of
34:19stone it lifted it right out of place as well must be my heart attack
34:32blimey i don't want any more frights like that today
34:37i'm not traveling far but there is something a bit scary coming up
34:47and whatever the weather i still love a good ghost story and this has one here clegg hall boggart
34:54a supernatural being from english folklore the story goes that back in the 17th century
35:00a servant was wrongly accused of theft locked in the attic where they tragically died since then
35:06reportings of things being moved around strange noises and also shadowy figure spotted around the place
35:20right well i've had enough of the rain so i'm gonna moor up here in smithy bridge
35:47right it's 10 pm at night i'm just about ready to go to bed but before i do i'm gonna
35:55just chill
35:56out in the main area of my boat where it is currently because the fire has been roaring
36:01away and i've got candles out 25 degrees celsius i thought what better way to just finish the day
36:10by just playing a tune on the old guitar so that's exactly what i'm gonna do
36:40in terms of facilities and the train station there's a train going past just now it's really really
36:49useful mooring that and today i'm hoping the weather is going to perk up a little bit because it has
36:56been
36:56really stormy yeah you know what that means in terms of trees falling in the canal so there's hopefully
37:02not going to be any of those we'll see but at least i can see the sun behind the clouds
37:14right i'm in little bro now just coming into the first lock of the day
37:18the gates are open brilliant i've been so lucky with this on the rochdale
37:24because it just reduces the amount of stopping i have to do normally i'd have to stop get off the
37:28boat open the gates get back on the boat and then go in again so yeah loving it
37:43what was i saying about fallen trees i've not gone far this morning before running into my first
37:50potential obstacle possibly a bit of a gap at the side i'm hoping but i know how shallow it is
37:56at the
37:57side as well let's see come on yes literally barge my way through there
38:12i've been trying to find a place to refill my water tank as it's running low
38:19and i've arranged to meet someone near a facilities point marked on my map
38:25right finally there's a water point on this canal i can see it
38:29it's on the off side not on the towpath side but also i can see a gentleman in a high
38:36vis i think
38:37that will be the chap that i want to talk to one of the original volunteers that restored this canal
38:44helped dig it out and everything so yeah i've got a few questions for him and i bet he's got
38:48a few stories
38:53hi chris hi thanks for coming to meet me out here pleasure this is your patch though i suppose is
38:58it
38:58your local area well it's one of the canals i spent a lot of time on starting with a restoration
39:03a long
39:03time ago when i was a young lad yeah yeah so this beer any other parts of the rochdale well
39:09we i started
39:10in the about 1973 74 down on the rochdale nine which runs from cassfield up to piccadilly through the
39:17middle of manchester wow i bet you've seen some stuff in there that was full of all sorts that
39:22we even found a couple of hand grenades in the bottom of the canal which caused chaos because you
39:27have to shut all the roads while the bomb squad came and safely exploded them up here it's just
39:33mainly mud washing off the hills and yeah yeah we've got a couple of pictures yeah let's have a look
39:38back in the day well this this was a working party just above the next lock at the wharf
39:44and you can see the state of the canal then yeah and that was about 1978 and that's
39:53when it had been cleared out as it is now chris you've done a lot of work for this canal
39:57so i've
39:58got to be very grateful to you but i wouldn't mind if you did a bit more volunteering maybe next
40:03lock
40:03yeah i'll get the next lock set and then i'll head off for my lunch nice one all right cheers
40:08cheers chris
40:12right that was lovely meeting chris and hearing more about how they actually restored this canal
40:18but i've got to now pull over and get some water
40:27well to be honest i didn't have much luck topping up as the water supply had been cut off
40:42and to top it off i then ran into a bit of trouble in a lock chris helped to restore
40:51just when i think things can't get any more challenging this is an absolute beast of a thing
40:56that's wrapped around the propeller it's a massive sack with a bit of rope on it yeah come on
41:16right that's off and i can hopefully get on the move again now
41:25you know what i can see why they call this the everest of the canals
41:30as there's a challenge around every corner
41:37i knew that this would not be easy but i'll tell you what it's been a tough slog this afternoon
41:44getting through these locks the working boatmen of the day would have definitely
41:48earned their wages on these but there's one thing i definitely can't complain about and that's the
41:53amount of water i've got in the canal there's a lot of it it's just spilling down over these lock
41:59gates
42:02it's been a difficult stretch with short daylight hours
42:06and i still need to sort out those wires at the back of my boat which has been like that
42:11for years
42:13so the naughty lass can pass her exam but that's the job for the next day or two
42:31this is it the last lock just above this is the summit of the everest of the canal system and
42:38i've done it in winter
42:39it's been an absolute mission roughly 17 miles countless locks one after the other getting trousers
42:46wrapped around the propeller grounding out all over the place and after this lock that's it what an
42:53achievement and hopefully i can find a mooring where i can rest up and get my breath back before i
42:59carry on my next adventure it will all be downhill from here
43:07so
43:19it's
43:24it's
43:28it's
43:35Transcription by CastingWords
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