If you haven’t heard of the narrowboat community in the UK, you’re missing something wonderful to know about. There’s a system of canals throughout the UK, and around 9000 ‘live-aboards’, many retirees, many YouTubers, own narrowboats and travel these canals. Many more are not living aboard, but have or rent narrowboats for holidays or seasons. This lifestyle has become a way for people to live less expensively, and sustainably as well. Most have solar panels and some are going all electric now. Most use diesel power, traveling about 2 miles per hour if I get that right. And there are a very few steam operated ones. It’s a slow, calm pace, allowing for peaceful viewing of nature. Mostly, all you hear is the sound of the small diesel put put putting.

It’s not for everyone. You have to love the slower pace. And most areas where you can moor up for the night, won’t let you stay more than a few days. If you want stay for a longer time, you have to find a marina and rent a slip. I think they do it this way to allow room for everyone to have a mooring as they pass through. You see some fiberglass ‘cruisers’ along the way, but the canals only allow for a narrow beam, so most cruisers would are small. You won’t see a 60 foot fiberglass (what we call a yacht) cruiser. Lately, I believe I am seeing ‘wide narrow boats’ here and there, but they would be restricted from some areas based on size. Remember you’re passing oncoming narrowboats as well, in these narrow straits. Some of the boats are small and maybe not in the best of shape; others are gleaming specimens of the good life, the way it is everywhere. Narrowboats are steered from the rear, right out in the open, although some are putting up canvas covers. But you look ALLLL the way forward as you steer, kind of like a sailboat. Imagine being 60 feet from the bow, steering. And some of the bridges are just wide enough for the boat and a few inches per side. Amazing. Many couples own narrowboats, but there are single women as well, and single men. Lots of pets, both dogs and cats. There’s a toe path along these canals where people can moor alongside and go for a walk or into town. There are sanitation stops for getting water on board and for taking care of all of the waste. Not my favorite viewing part, but part of the experience, nonetheless.

The canals are operated using locks and even a canal aqueduct, the only one of its kind. People who travel on narrowboats have to leave their boat, walk up the path and operate the lock to enter it, and then again to exit. Like the Panama canal on a tiny scale, comparatively. It’s the only way to manage the dramatic landscape there. By the way, these canals are often higher up than the surrounding land, built on berms or structures high above the land.

What makes this canal system unique in my opinion, is the amazing feat of engineering from the Victorian era, to build and sustain this lifeline, pre-railroads. Some lock ‘systems’ consist of multiple locks, back to back, when the elevation change is dramatic. Interestingly, there is a camaraderie among these boaters, similar…no exactly like…what you see in the US among live-aboards here, and they work together at the locks to help one another out when the timing allows it.

Narrowboats are usually under 60 feet long, because there are tight turns along the way, and often boaters have to find a ‘winding hole’ which is a wide area allowing these long boats to swing around and reverse course. Along the Bridgewater canal is an aqueduct, Barton Swing Aqueduct, which takes these narrowboats OVER the River Irwell. This Barton Swing Aquaduct looks like a steel swing bridge, but it is a part of the Bridgewater canal and therefore, has water in it. When a ship approaches along the River Irwell, a shipping lane, these superstructures require that the aqueduct swing out of the way. So at that time, water in the aqueduct (all 80,000 gallons) is held in by walls dropped into place on each end, and then the structure, including water, swings out of the way. By the way, this aqueduct was built in 1761. And, in case you’re wondering. There are also blocking walls that drop on either end of the canal itself, to hold water in while the Aqueduct swings around. Amazing.

I believe Queen Victoria’s seal is on that structure. These canals criss-cross the entirety of the country and are used all day, every day, by boaters whose lifestyle revolves around those waterways. As the boaters cruise along slowly, they pass wildlife, domesticated animals, people’s homes, small towns, huge towns, and one another. It’s a very tight knit community, even with as many boats as there are. I’ve watched these folks on YouTube for years now, so much so that I can be watching one channel and see a couple from another one whose boat I recognize. It’s not like being there, but it’s the next best thing.

A few days ago, the Bridgewater canal was breached due to a massive amount of rainfall, one month’s worth in two days. This part of the canal is higher than surrounding land, atop a large berm like structure, so when it breached, it drained water out. One YouTuber threw his drone up and got footage. I watched his channel when the water was down only a few inches. Now there’s a few inches of water REMAINING in that part of the canal. This person’s images are mostly what is shown on the news. His channel is Taylors Aboard a Narrowboat. But there are many, many channels. By the way, along the canal there are structures in place to hold water in, in the event of a breach. So I expect to hear more about the overall condition of that canal as days pass.

It is heartbreaking to see the devastation, and those affected boats will surely be grounded for months and months. It will take a massive amount of manpower and money to repair the damage to the canal, but I know they will start as soon as the land dries out. They will have to repair the canal structure completely in that area, before they can even let water flow and get marine equipment in there. It will be another huge engineering feat to watch.

Area around Manchester is flooded such that cars are floating, barely visible, and homes have been inundated and evacuated. Many people are displaced or stranded right now. And there is a freeze warning in the entire UK now. I hope the stranded boaters can manage.

So, check out narrowboats in the UK. It will be worth your time to see that lifestyle; I recommend YouTube. Just search narrowboat and you’ll be hooked. It is an amazing culture, an amazing feat of engineering, and a bunch of lovely folks living out there on their narrowboats. As I said, I’ve never been there, but still, I love getting to know these folks through YouTube, and I can even recognize some parts of the canals now. Check it out.