Does Birmingham Have More Canals Than Venice?

Busy Birmingham is at the heart of England’s canal network. As Venice has 26 miles of canal and Birmingham has 35 miles of navigations then it does technically have more canals than Venice. However, as Birmingham is much larger than Venice you will still find that Venice has a very dense network of canals considering its size, making them a more prominent feature than in Birmingham.

Whilst it does not have more canals, some would say that Liverpool has more waterways than Birmingham because of the docks, which are accessible to both canal boats and ocean going ships. Birmingham’s canals are narrow, while the waterways of Liverpool and Venice are wide.

Prior to the advent of the railways Birmingham was a hub of industry at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the extensive network of canals was used to transport raw materials and goods. By the mid- 18th Century there were 174 miles of canal in the Birmingham area, although only 114 miles of them are still navigable today. The city centre’s canals have since been redeveloped into an attractive place to live and socialise. Exploring Birmingham’s canals on foot or by boat allows you to enjoy beautiful scenery that is not normally seen on the more well-trodden city streets.

Several canals meet at Gas Street Basin, not far from Broad Street and this is a good place for visiting waterside bars, looking at the many moored boats and enjoying a relaxed atmosphere.

Canal Voyagers first cruise of 2012 starts in Warwick and heads gently into the centre of Birmingham on a journey that is rich in variety. If you’d like to see a medieval castle, the 21 locks of the Hatton flight, a drawbridge at Shirley, and the Cadbury factory at Bournville then you could join Taurus and Snipe on their trip this April.

After cruising through the Netherton tunnel, and the Dudley No1 Canal the hotel boats will travel the beautifully rural Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. Travelling through red sandstone inclines, the journey then continues until we pass under the Severn Valley Steam Railway and on to Stourport.

But, to answer the question, Birmingham has more miles of canal than Venice, and Venice has more water. Venice has its Gondolas, and Birmingham has the unique rich heritage of England’s industrial canal age.

Find out more about the Warwick to Stourport cruise here.

http://www.canalvoyagers.com/cruises/war-sto.html

Further reading.

Birmingham Council have a free eBook of the History of the Canals in Birmingham.

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite/canals?packedargs=website%3D4&rendermode=live

 

Peggy Melmoth

www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com

Long Boat Holidays in England

Do you fancy a long boat holiday on the English canals? Do die-hard boating enthusiasts correct you on your terminology? The boats that travel on the British canals and rivers are called narrowboats. People commonly mistake narrowboats for ‘long boats’ and the term reminds me of ‘long ships’; the name given to Viking boats. In contrast to those, a long boat was actually an open boat rowed by eight or ten oarsmen back in the days of sea going sailing ships. But that kind of rowing sounds like very hard work compared with the reality of a hotel boat holiday on the English canals. The variety of city-scapes and stunning rural scenery can be enjoyed at a leisurely pace, and on a hotel boat you don’t even have to do anything strenuous, but many of our guests do enjoy helping out with the locks.

Snipe & Taurus are both 70 feet long and 7 feet wide, and just like historical working narrowboats they are decorated with charming roses and castles and polished horse brasses. Each cabin is self-contained with it’s own washbasin, hot and cold running water, wardrobe, fresh linens and towels and there is a shower on Snipe and flush toilets on both boats. So you will find your stay on these hotel boats a little more luxurious than a Viking long ship or an oar powered rowing boat! There are full en-suite facilities in both the twin and double cabins, and now a brand new fully en-suite single.

Of course, if you like to be outdoors absorbing the view there’s room to sit in the well decks or on the cabin roof, and if you’d like to be more active than that you can choose to walk on the towpath, perhaps returning on board for tea and a freshly baked cake in the afternoon.

But when Neil, Corrine and the crew serve you up a four course meal around the large family table in the evening that’s when the conversation gets flowing. Perhaps you’ll have a glass of wine and launch into discussions of the correct names for boats. When is a barge a narrowboat? What is a Dutch barge? And when should a narrowboat be called a narrow boat? After dinner, you may carry on the conversation at a nearby canal-side pub with your fellow hotel boat guests. But the real reason it might be called a ‘long-boat holiday’ is because you may find that your perception of time slows down so much on the canals as you relax and unwind, that even if it’s only a few days, it feels like a long boat-holiday!

Peggy Melmoth
www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com

Introducing ‘Addictive, Perceptive, Lyrical and Tranquil’ Contributor, Peggy Melmoth

Readers of other canal blogs have probably heard Peggy’s name before. She has been on the blogging scene for a little while and her superb site The Real Life of A Narrowboat Wife is high up our blogging rounds with its fun and insightful look at day-to-day family life on board a narrowboat.

As well as being a full-time mum, Peggy is a writer specialising in narrow boating, parenting and hypnotherapy. Her recent work for British Waterways, Towpath Talk, BoatShed and, of course, her blog caught our eye and we were keen to ask her if she would like to add hotel boats to her repertoire!

Readers of her blog have described her as “constant, addictive, intrinsic, perceptive, lyrical, tranquil and super!” in this post on her web site – and who are we to argue with that assessment! Peggy has already told me she has some great ideas for blog posts about hotel boats and the waterways – we can’t wait to hear what she has to say.

I hope this serves as a good introduction to Peggy’s work, and please join me in welcoming her to our hotel boat blog.