The famous (since 2004) bridge was dismantled and taken to Portsmouth where it currently resides at Fort Cumberland in Eastney. Few know its there. It seems the stored remains are not even labelled as Brunel’s bridge. At the time of its dismantling there was every promise it would be stored for a short while and […]
Read MoreThe Coventry Canal opened on this day in 1769, that’s 250 years ago. Its architect, James Brindley, worked on the scheme for a few months before being sacked. It must be the only occasion which this most notable engineering genius was told he was no longer wanted. Despite that the first part of the canal […]
Read MoreThe Coventry Canal was one of the country’s earliest waterways to be opened following the success of the Bridgewater Canal. The section from Coventry to Atherstone was opened in 1769, and the rest of the canal followed as time went on eventually bringing it a total of 27 miles to Fradley junction (not forgetting the […]
Read MoreDoes anyone ever wonder where all the docks around Canary Wharf get their water? The liquid stuff doesn’t grow on trees like the money does lol! Seriously, there has always been some form of pumping in these docks (as in the other London Docks such as St Katherine’s and Royal Victoria and all the others […]
Read MoreOver three weekends in August 2019 some of the ‘Go Boats’ on London’s canal system became Good Hemp Boats – and this is what this is all about! Over these three weekends people were able to hire a Good Hemp Boat, along with a steerer, free food and drinks. Labelled on Twitter under the hashtag […]
Read MoreSome years ago the then sibling charity Canal and River Trust had thought to themselves ‘the duckweed war is being won’. It was very wishful thinking! A series of articles extolling their success against the infernal green stuff soon proved somewhat immature. At the very time one of the more confident articles was published, the […]
Read MoreThe dam at Toddbrook. Source: Twitter By now most of the world will have read of the calamity at Toddbrook Reservoir above Whaley Bridge and seen the huge efforts to prevent the town becoming inundated by any collapse of the dam. Toddbrook reservoir is in Derbyshire and was built in 1838 for the Peak Forest […]
Read MoreThe Woolwich Ferry did run a quite limited service at the start of this week. I discussed it very briefly in the sidebar news update whilst another blog Murky Depths also covered it too. On Monday morning I was alerted by a single tweet on the fact the ferry had run. It was subsequently found […]
Read MoreThe debate between the builders of the New River and the later, more famous waterways engineer, James Brindley, continues to be a part of debate. Was one or the other the more original concept in terms of waterways construction? In some respects neither were really original although the New River was more original than Brindley. […]
Read MoreDouble bonus! This is a update on Crossrail Woolwich – plus the Woolwich ferry! As some readers will know, the two brand new Woolwich ferries arrived in the UK, they first went to Tilbury before continuing to Woolwich. There’s a further look at the Crossrail station – and yes London’s new railway is so terribly […]
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