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Steve Taylor has kindly sent over these photos from the Regent’s Canal – like many of us I suspect, he adds variety to the working day by strolling to the nearest body of water at lunchtime to watch whatever’s going on.  (I’ll take a peek at the Thames myself when it comes to my turn.)

One day recently he hit gold – a working scene that could have been shot at almost any time in the past 150 years (if you ignore the welded seams of the lighter), followed one that belongs very much in the modern day.

‘As I’ve been working in Oxford Street I made my way to the Regents Canal and enjoyed a short walk during which I was cheered to see the waterway being used for a genuine practical – and commercial purpose. A building is being partially demolished and rubble is removed using a small steel lighter. This of course is eminently practical, since there is no street access to the rear of the property and no doubt the presence of a skip in the street would be inconvenient.

‘An added bonus was spotting a Banksy piece which can only have been executed from a boat – presumably at the dead of night? A walk along the canal is the perfect antidote to the drudgery of life in an office. The noise and fumes of London traffic are all left behind after a few paces along the towpath and it is hard to believe you are really in the middle of the big city!’

Thanks Steve!

The British canal system is an astonishing web of narrow man-made waterways carrying long low-powered narrowboats that chug along at walking speed. The contrast with the pace of modern life could not be more complete, and so hiring a narrowboat makes for a great, peaceful day out or holiday.

So I thought I should link to these videos put up by Trafalgar Marine Services showing something of the canal around their base in Derbyshire. In the first, Brian McGuigan talks about his 70-year old motor narrow boat and butty, and the second provides a slightly scary time-lapse video of a run from Whaley Bridge to Buggsworth Basin. These boats don’t go this fast, let me tell you!

By the way, we last came across Trafalgar when the company’s Michael Dawson sent us an illustrated explanation of how to make a moustache or u-bow fender.

By the way, I’ve discovered this site selling old-style narrowboat and barge plans. There’s even a set for a Humber Keel! Now that might be a present idea for next Christmas!

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The Humber keel Comrade is a rare surviving example of a type of craft evolved to work the difficult Humber Estuary, and its tributaries and canals. She was built in 1923, at Warren’s shipyard at New Holland, and was originally named Wanda. At 61ft 6in in length and 15ft 6in in beam, she had a hold capable of carrying over a hundred tons in cargo.

The Humber is very much part of Viking invader territory, and I do wonder how much this unusual square sail may owe to those invaders of more than a thousand years ago.

For more on Comrade and her sister ship Humber sloop Amy Howson
http://www.humberships.org.uk/