We'd emailed the wonderful Liam of https://www.midlandsandcoast.co.uk/ to try to sort out a #coal delivery to #ourplace which fronts the #towpath of the #Bridgewater #Canal. I took a photo of his #boat last time we got #fuel from him. It's based the same distance on one side of #PrestonBrook #bridge as we are the other. This time I needed an emergency supply. He gave me a bag, lent me a barrow to carry it home and said he'd invoice me when he delivered all we have room to store.
As I collected the fuel the sun came out to reveal The Midlands & Coast Canal Carriers Ltd yard in all its glory.
A line of light on the floor illuminates the towpath by the Ashton Canal at twilight on the 25th of December 2025.
I went to a horse show.
They had shire horses done up like the horses that used to tow boats from the canal towpaths.
A horse of 800 kg could pull 100× its weight, because the load floats relatively friction free on water. These big horses were for fully loaded, massive barges.
The photo shows a woman in traditional attire leading a shire horse. Its tack has bobbins so the rope would roll without rubbing the skin off the horse.
#CanalLife #canal #horse #narrowboat #boat #barge #tow #towpath
#Austrians are so much obsessed with their Treppelwege, and with doing them right that in some parts there is an ending and begining of #Treppelweg sign in every intersection.
And portable Treppelweg signs if there is a disturbance in the Treppelweg equilibrium.
There must be some legal status beyond historical to these one migth think!
Turns out yes. And it’s not very interesting! https://www.jusline.at/gesetz/schfg/paragraf/36
Now I wonder how Germans and other countries survive without proper #towpath signage ;)
Goudomrand
NorfolkGreg
steve
Lambda Moses
Andi Chorley
Timothy B Taylor
mike
Bobbing Boat
Márton Salomváry