Narrowboat Hire Homepage - Types of Narrowboat Holiday - Towpaths, Moorings & Bridges - Planning Your Narrowboat Holiday - Canal & River Navigations

Towpaths, Moorings & Bridges

Before you set out on your holiday look at the map and plan where you will be able to moor and find provisions. There are many villages dotted along the canal but many stretches of canal are quite a distance from 'civilisation'. However, canalside pubs and hostelries are quite plentiful! You can moor at most places along the towpath side of the canal (exceptions being where there are BWB (British Waterways Board) moorings for private boats or where it would cause an obstruction to other passing craft. The canal bank on the side opposite the towpath is usually private and you should not moor or land there.

Every canal has a public towpath running its whole length. Historically these were, literally, the paths for the horses towing the narrowboats. Where the canal goes through a tunnel the towpath will usually go around it and meet up again at the end of the tunnel. The old boaters would have to 'leg it' through, ie., lie on their backs on top of the boat and move it along by 'walking' along the roof of the tunnel. Don't worry - today's hireboats boats have a very efficient engine! The towpath will usually follow the canal under one of the many, many bridges you will pass under. Take time to admire the masonry skills needed to construct some of the more interesting and impressive examples where lines of bricks and stone lie along smooth, curving lines. Sometimes the towpath will change from one side of the canal to the other and to accommodate this there are 'roving bridges' also known as 'turnover bridges' where the towing horse can pass from one side of the canal to the other without dropping the towrope.

Some bridges that you will encounter along the way are 'lift' or 'swing' versions carrying footpaths or even roads across the canal. Some need a key or windlass to operate them, whilst some just need your own weight hanging from a chain!