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Britain Afloat Narrowboat Episode


Tim Lewis

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Series starts on BBC2 tonight (Saturday).   8:00pm

I think the one shown yesterday was a one-off region-specific programme from the series, e.g. London had the Thames barge episode.

Edited by dor
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I've not seen this before, but looking at the IPlayer list the series starts / started with a different episode / day / start time depending on the region where you are. I thought I'd missed the NB one which London region had last night, but instead here in the South we get The Thames Barge tonight (Saturday) at 20:00 hrs. What a muddle.

I know regionalisation happens on BBC1 but not usually on BBC2. Anyone understands the logic behind that??

 

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Excellent programme (featured Thames Barges), well presented, I might be biased, when they filmed 'OWL' at Cowroast, I cut my leg badly and the presenter was walking past carrying a large First Aid bag, She expertly bound up the wound allowing me to drive to A&E where 16 stitches were inserted......................

 

M

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2 hours ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

I've downloaded all 6 episodes.  Watch W1A if you want to understand why TV schedules are now a bit old fashioned  .  

I started doing that until I discovered that they only last for <up to> 30 days when they self-exterminate> We only watch saved stuff when we remember and that's often more than 30 days later....

Bummer

So I've downloaded a screen grabber program which is not so nice to use.

 

 

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23 hours ago, Ray T said:

Watched it last night, I enjoyed it, well researched.

Some faces I recognised. :)

We watched the Thames Sailing Barge episode on TV last night and then watched the narrowboat episode on iPlayer. 

Both very enjoyable but especially, as narrowboaters, the latter.

I saw a few boats/faces I'd seen before, including one chap in a pink top, at the Braunston rally, that moors at our marina (Alan on nb Purton). Might not have been him but it certainly looked like him and I know he takes the boat to various rallies.

I must watch it again before it expires in 28 days. Hopefully it will be on TV at some point. I recall they did a similar thing with Canals: The Making of a Nation where we got one episode on TV, a different one in different areas with all the others on iPlayer. A while later they broadcast the whole series.

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16 hours ago, Boredrider said:

You might want to have a go at get_iplayer   Its a command line thing, but not difficult to use and can enable you to get around the time limit restriction.

Thanks - I'm having a look at that now!

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3 hours ago, Lily Rose said:

We watched the Thames Sailing Barge episode on TV last night and then watched the narrowboat episode on iPlayer. 

Both very enjoyable but especially, as narrowboaters, the latter.

I saw a few boats/faces I'd seen before, including one chap in a pink top, at the Braunston rally, that moors at our marina (Alan on nb Purton). Might not have been him but it certainly looked like him and I know he takes the boat to various rallies.

I must watch it again before it expires in 28 days. Hopefully it will be on TV at some point. I recall they did a similar thing with Canals: The Making of a Nation where we got one episode on TV, a different one in different areas with all the others on iPlayer. A while later they broadcast the whole series.

Yes it was Alan on Purton.

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Just watched the narrow boat one.

Quite a few boats and faces associated with the forum of course.

Jim (Koukouvagia) with Owl which he has since sold, get a starring role.
Fulbourne, though I didn't spot Tim Lewis or David Mack, I think.

Stanton (Peter O - though I haven't seen him post for a while)
Birmingham (The forum's former AllyBSC can be seen playing her fiddle in the hold - another who no longer posts).
And of course Lawrence Hogg.

Did I hear a few gaffes?  I would need to play it again, but thought I heard the Grand Union was widened from London to Birmingham, not Wigrams to Birmingham.

OK, but not spectacular, I thought, but the half hour format is a bit limiting to cover the entire history of narrow boats on our canals.  I might have expected some reference to motors working with butty boats - but if it was there I must have missed it.

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17 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Did I hear a few gaffes?  I would need to play it again, but thought I heard the Grand Union was widened from London to Birmingham, not Wigrams to Birminham.

Not a gaffe, the Grand Junction to Braunston was built as a wide canal and the Birmingham & Warwick was originally a narrow canal and widened from Napton to Birminham.

Edited by cuthound
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10 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Not a gaffe, the Grand Junction to Braunston was built as a wide canal and the Birmingham & Warwick was originally a narrow canal and widened from Napton to Birminham.

Surely the widening started at Braunston and not Napton. The Oxford from Braunston to Napton would have been narrow.

Edited by john6767
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30 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Not a gaffe, the Grand Junction to Braunston was built as a wide canal and the Birmingham & Warwick was originally a narrow canal and widened from Napton to Birminham.

I'm not following.

The Grand Union from London to Braunston has never been widened, (as you say).  Unless I heard wrongly, this program implied it had.

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12 minutes ago, Ray T said:

The canal running between Braunston and Napton -  Warwick Canal junction was originally The Oxford Canal. The Grand Junction Canal didn't come along 'till later.

OxfordpreGJ377.jpg

GUOpened376.jpg

I believe it is still counted at the Oxford, at least on the CRT stoppage system.  Do you remember when there was a planned winter stoppage for a culvert repair a couple of winters ago, that was under the Oxford.  So it you were planning on going to GU from London to Birmingham and did check for stoppages on the Oxford you would have come unstuck.  In the end the stoppage did not happen.

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23 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Surely the widening started at Braunston and not Napton. The Oxford from Braunston to Napton would have been narrow.

Interesting question, to which I admit I don't actually know the answer.

Was anything actually widened on the lockless section from Braunston Turn to Napton Junction?

On the Napton to Birmingham stretch obviously new locks were provided throughout, a number of larger bridges built (though I'm not sure it was very many), and quite a few miles of improved edging and piling were done.  However, even there I don't think much actual widening of the channel was ever done, was it?

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5 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Interesting question, to which I admit I don't actually know the answer.

Was anything actually widened on the lockless section from Braunston Turn to Napton Junction?

On the Napton to Birmingham stretch obviously new locks were provided throughout, a number of larger bridges built (though I'm not sure it was very many), and quite a few miles of improved edging and piling were done.  However, even there I don't think much actual widening of the channel was ever done, was it?

I would say yes some, it was certainly improved.  There is quite a bit of the 1930’s concrete edging so presumably the channel was widened.  There is also the ladder bridge at Lower Shuckburgh that has a 1933 (I think) date on it which takes a footpath across, so presumably there was a narrower  bridge there previously.  

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