Birmingham`s old buried canal arms

As I said in an earlier post we moored in Cambrian Wharf during our hospital tour visit to Birmingham. As we cruise around I get a lot of enjoyment googling my location or places nearby just to see what history can be found about the canal scene for the area. Being in Birmingham which 200 years ago was the central hub of the working canal system it`s not hard to come up with enough to write a book.

The often heard phrase "Birmingham has more canals than Venice" is an interesting subject for discussion. If we say more as in numbers then that statement is false. Now
before we go any further the facts I give are a rough guide because the web produces a lot of different figures and so for a comparison I take an average to give us some idea.
Venice has around 150 canals flowing around about 100 islands. These canals add up to about 26 miles against the 35 miles within the city of Birmingham depending where you set the city boundary line.

The Birmingham Canal Navigation's total about 100 miles according to CRT and there are about 13/15 canals making up the BCN.
Birmingham is larger than Venice so the concentration of canals is greater in Venice but at least the phrase does give you an idea of what to expect in Birmingham. For sure Brum has a lot more canals than any other UK city.

Old factory basin entrance

Steering this post towards it`s historic subject there was in the mid 18c 170 miles of canal in the Birmingham area. This was made up of interconnected canals in and out of the area and the huge number of loops, arms and factory basins.

So let`s get down to what was in my view the most fascinating part of our stay in Birmingham although I must say the city has a lot to offer but time ran out for us owing to things beyond our control. But as Arnie so famously said in Terminator "I`ll be back"

On this occasion a visit to the CRT office at Cambrian Wharf produced two mouth watering photos that set me off on a fact finding trip via the map room at the library and it`s immediate area. Luckily all this took place before I ended up in the local NHS hotel.

 The map shows where we moored at Cambrian Wharf (1) alongside the Farmers Bridge lock flight(3) on the Birmingham and Fazely canal. Discovering that the basin we were in once went into the city centre  and also via an arm (2) into two large basins was enough to get me excited about an historical blog post. After some more research I then discovered what  today is built on 4,5,6 and 7 plus the significance of 8.

When I was shown this 2nd. picture in the CRT office I already knew the building as the Hall of Memory and the surrounding area. The shock was the canal lock. The receptionist at CRT photo copied the picture so that I could seek out the exact angle from which it had been taken back in 1938.

Baskerville House

I guess we should start with the site of the lock. It was uncovered in 1938 when Baskerville House was being  built. The name was fed into Google as the only Baskerville I knew was a typeface or the book by Arthur Conan Doyle, Hound of the Baskervilles featuring Sherlock Holmes.

John Baskerville`s house

It turned out to be the typeface that John Baskerville (1706-1775) developed, the present day building was named after him and his home that stood on the same site in an area called Easy Row (8) up to it`s destruction in the 1791 Priestley riots.
John Baskerville`s home and eight acres of land was on the outskirts of Birmingham when in 1812 the land was purchased by Thomas Gibson who then cut a canal from the Newhall branch (2) of the Birmingham and Fazely into what is now Centenary Square and home to Baskerville House, the library and the rep theatre, 4,5,and 6 on the map above. The Newhall Arm was cut in 1768 and went as far as a foundry at Newhall Street in what is now the city centre.

Upon Baskerville`s death his wish to be buried upright was carried out in his own grounds. When the canal basins were dug his body was removed and it is said Gibson displayed the body in one of his warehouses charging  to view the body.

Maps of later years than the one above show the arms as Baskerville and Gibsons, the latter nearer to Cambridge street and lying beneath the present day library and it`s neighbours Baskerville House and the REP.
Baskerville basin as far as i can tell was constructed by the Birmingham Aluminium Company but the lock belonged to Gibson who charged for it`s use although it later was under the control of Winfields.
 
In 1925 the city council started buying land around the area for a new civic centre and the Hall of Memory, Baskerville basin was filled in. Gibson`s arm still carried on with most of it being used by a Brass products company called Winfield who made such things as brass bedsteads, light fittings and tubing in all types of metal.  In 1936 Winifield's re-located and the Gibson arm was filled in.

Above I have used the National Library Scotland on line maps to show a side by side view of the basins. The left is OS six inch 1888-1913 against a present day map on the right. I have gone over the old map in Blue to make the canals stand out. The dotted section marks the Gibson arm that became covered in warehousing making it more like a tunnel. It was of course lower than it`s destination and as it passed under Cambridge street it entered Gibson`s deep lock that lifted boats up to the wharfs in today`s Centenary Square.

Over to the right hand image,
A is the Farmers bridge locks,  B is Cambrian Wharf with the Red dots representing the old Newhall branch and the Gibson arm travelling down towards Centenary Square with the old basins marked by me. C is the library with Baskerville House to the right and the REP theatre to the left.
The hall of memory was built in 1925 on part of the filled in Baskerville basin directly opposite Baskerville House.

Although the Gibson basin and lock were filled in by 1938 when Baskerville House was being built the arm from the Newhall branch carried on being used into the 1950`s.
Now I can finish by posting some of my own pictures and some I found together with some interesting links.
I have really enjoyed this but you must bear in mind that in the Birmingham area this is just a minute piece of canal history. Did you notice on the map at the top of this post the two other arms below the site we have covered here, perhaps another interesting story.

I have put the lock picture up again so you can compare the present day view below without to much scrolling. Of course I can`t get the same distance back from the hall of memory as the original was taken from the centre of the present Baskerville House site.

View of the Winifield's brass works with it`s tall chimney alongside the Gibson arm. The Baskerville arm is filled in and the hall of memory has been built.

Above 1931 view of Gibson's arm lock just before it goes under Cambridge road.
 On the left  the three main buildings in Centenary square built over the old basins.
The site refers to the archaeological dig before the library was built.
The Hall of Memory in the bottom right corner sits over the old Baskerville basin.




In 2009 an archaeological dig took place on the intended site of the new Birmingham library. The report can be found HERE.

This is part of the Baskerville basin.

Part of Gibson`s basin surrounded by the foundations of Winfield`s metal works.

A late 1950`s view of Cambrian Wharf

Cambrian Wharf today. Nb Valerie 1st boat on the left.

I enjoyed looking into the history of our temporary residence and look forward to coming back for more history.
The Black and White Aeriel photographs come from the Britain from Above site. As I have said previously you need to register - no contact to you is made in any way-  to be able to zoom in on images.

Baskerville house on the right and the canopy of the library sticking out.

If in Birmingham and walking between the library and the hall of Memory you now know what still lies beneath your feet as some of the finds in the dig have been left in place.
Visit the library and on the 4th floor you have easy open access to many old Ordnance survey maps plus some very good canal related reading matter.
Recent sale of a Winfield product here.   

Jaq has metal legs

Jaq has just attended her second physiotherapy session. After watching closely as Jaq walked up and down the physio room it was decided she needed crutches to take the pressure off her left knee.
Although having completed the exercises they asked her to do at home walking has become more painful. I have now promoted her to captain at the helm while I do all the lock work. Personally I thought she could cross the locks on the crutches but..........ok ok I`m joking. I spent many years single handing the boat so have no qualms about doing all the locks while Jaq sits and steers.
While Jaq has another appointment next week the better news is they had already referred her to a Orthopedic surgeon and an appointment has come through for the 17th November.

 At the moment we are moored with our stern alongside a 48hour visitor mooring. This morning two CRT chaps ambled along did some measuring and erected a winter mooring sign. The section indicated as winter mooring is about 50% of the visitor mooring but there is plenty of 14 day mooring further along so no problem there.
I noticed the winter period this year ends 29th February so seeing as it always was till end of March in previous years CRT obviously know something about the coming winter we don`t. Perhaps I should stop collecting logs.
Anyway sitting here the temptation was to phone and find out how much CRT would require from us to sit here bored out of our brains for 4 months.
£706.80 ($1059). That is remember on top of the year long license we already pay.
Four months of our license equates to £285. Yes I know as Jaq points out hard to compare the two, cruising license and mooring license, Apples and Pears.

In the winter of 2013/14 CRT had a 5 month roving winter permit that worked out at around £88 per month. I know inflation would increase this but surely not double. Plus the beauty of this roving permit was in it`s name. You could pick a different mooring each month if you wished or stay put, if you found a good place, all winter. Link to CRT 2013/14 permit. My thanks to Alan on canal forum for digging this out.

 Now just look at the above picture Nb Valerie fully licensed sits there not costing CRT anything and all we have to do is move after the permitted time which happens to be 48hrs here although it might have been 14 days. If I move the boat up past the sign and pay the cash I can stay for four months and still not cost CRT a brass nickel. Just what do they offer for my money; I will not be hounded to move on after 14 days. It will still be cold and we still need to generate electricity and hot water the same as any other mooring.

Lapworth village has little to offer the boater over four months of winter neither for that matter has CRT. Remember CRT no longer offer the roving permit so your mooring is in the one place. If you want services you will have to move a very short distance to the junction of the Stratford canal just say half a mile so no problem there unless the canal freezes but walking would be easy to dispose of cassettes and fetch water.

The village has one small shop so perhaps  a Tesco delivery could be arranged although this location is not suitable so a small cruise would be needed. No regular bus service runs through the village and the trains are every two hours.
Anyone mooring up on the towpath now has to think carefully about the location because you can`t move when you want.

Jaq and I love winter almost as good as summer. Fourteen days is plenty for anyone and a few miles movement on a journey keeps CRT happy and besides it`s good exercise.

Best wishes to everyone be they on land or water for the coming winter. Jaq`s prediction is a hard winter as the Oak trees are overburdened with acorns.
My prediction, it will be what it will be so i will spend this weekend cutting all that wood we just found. 

Ahhhhhtumn Cruising! It's the Good Life

 "O suns and skies and flowers of June, Count all your boasts together, Love loveth best of all the year, October's bright blue weather." ~Helen Hunt Jackson, American poet, writer and activist, 1830-1885 

     We woke Monday to a brilliant blue sky and sunshine dappling the boat ceiling with the reflections of rippled water. Time to move! After breakfast we set off, heading southward again back towards the Lapworth Flight. I have another Physiotherapy appointment in Warwick, and I have been told I am being referred to an orthopedic surgeon for a consultation on my damaged left knee. I've registered as a permanent patient in Warwick now, so back down we go.
     We are leaving Dickens Heath, a lovely, safe spot to stop when coming out of Birmingham (Brum). It is named after farmer Thomas Dyckens who lived in the area in the 1500's. Only eleven miles for the outskirts of Brum and three miles from the large town of Solihull, a Manorial Survery of 1632 indicates Dickens Heath was ten acres of mostly common land, but it once was a part of the ancient Forest of Arden.
     A 1901 census shows that five families lived in the hamlet--all engaged in agricultural work to the surrounding farmers with the exception of the blacksmith. The fields had ancient winsome names: Hither Side Eight Acres, Round Leasow, Six Acre Piece, Maypole Piece, Three Cornered Close and Wren's Nest Close. Some of the modern roads still bear these titles. Up until 1997 nothing had changed in the hamlet. A time traveler from the 1500's could have been plucked up and set down on Round Leasow Lane and instantly recognized where he or she was standing.

994 The Council approved a detailed Master Plan. The Master Plan was to be implemented by the consortium of developers which included Berkeley Homes, Bryant Homes, Redrow Homes, Trencherwood Homes and David Wilson Homes. - See more at: http://dickensheathpc.org.uk/about-dickens-heath/#sthash.oxvYJnru.dpuf

     In 1989 a concept for a new village was created to accommodate 8000 new homes in the borough. In 1994 the village council approved a master plan submitted by a consortium of five builders and in 1996 the plan was approved following legal agreements to secure the provision of roads, public footpaths, community facilities and open space which included parkland, the village green, canal walkways, and the nearby Dickens Heath Nature Reserve. From the start the Solihull Council established that Dickens Heath should possess the features of a traditional village instead of merely plunking down a vast modern housing estate in the middle of the hamlet, isolated from everything else around it.
       As boaters we found Dickens Heath a lovely quiet spot to moor on the upper Stratford-on-Avon canal just after bridge 14 (or before it depending on which way one is traveling), adjacent to the nature reserve. A walk into the village over the modern footbridge brings one to a large set of flats with a cascading water feature. Further on in the village proper there is a Tesco Express, a chemist (drug store), a library, and bus service to the nearby towns of Solihull and Shirley. It served our needs for a five days but it was time to cruise.

Cruising past the canal side flats of Dickens Heath.

This water feature is the central piece of this mixed use development of flats, a preschool, and other commercial endeavors.

This is the base of the footbridge over the canal that leads into the village of Dickens Heath.

Up on the top level after coming off the footbridge, one can see the water steps better. Walk forward between the main building and you will come out to the main street which leads to the grocery store, hairdressers, men's barber shop, chemist, library, charity shop and other businesses. The local pub named the Poison Chalice has very poor reviews and we wouldn't recommend it. The Italian restaurant, Giovanni's, has an excellent reputation.

Looking back down at the canal from the top of the piazza. The footbridge is just out of sight on the left and NB Valerie is moored about 800 feet down the towpath off to the right. Dickens Heath Nature Reserve is directly across the way. 

NB Valerie moored up at Dickens Heath. The foot bridge over the canal is behind us about 25 feet.  Leaf litter covers the canal and waits to snare the props of passing boats.

1996 The original outline planning application for the new village was approved following the completion of a legal agreement to secure the provision of roads, footpaths, community facilities and open space, including the parkland, the village green, canal walkways and the nature reserve. - See more at: http://dickensheathpc.org.uk/about-dickens-heath/#sthash.oxvYJnru.dpuf

1994 The Council approved a detailed Master Plan. The Master Plan was to be implemented by the consortium of developers which included Berkeley Homes, Bryant Homes, Redrow Homes, Trencherwood Homes and David Wilson Homes.

1996 The original outline planning application for the new village was approved following the completion of a legal agreement to secure the provision of roads, footpaths, community facilities and open space, including the parkland, the village green, canal walkways and the nature reserve.

1997 Building of the new village began towards the end of the year

- See more at: http://dickensheathpc.org.uk/about-dickens-heath/#sthash.oxvYJnru.dpuf     Les and I both love being on the move any time of the year but autumn and winter are our favorite times. The canals are nearly empty of boats, the weather is crisp and refreshing, and this season has its own charms. The air is scented with the tang of leaf fall, ripe berries, and the slow death of summer as the wheel of the year turns onward toward the cold, dark winter season with its own austere pleasures.

     As we travel along, the leaves are a multicolored tapestry of shadow and light. Tossed by a gentle wind they fall, spinning to the canal surface where leaves of varying sizes and color float in large rafts and tangle themselves about our prop. This spawns one of the overwhelming canal sounds every Fall: boats glide by and suddenly the engine is revved in reverse as the person steering attempts to clear a mat of fallen leaves from their prop; the boats set onward again, cruising quietly along.
     Our plan for the day is to cruise to Hockley Heath and stop in at Wedges Bakery and Deli to top up our fruit and veg, then return to the next bridge on to score more of the Oak limbs from the tree someone had coppiced earlier in summer. We picked up a good amount on the way up to Birmingham when there was still loads of thick, heavy Oak limbs laying around after we took our share.
     While I walked into the Hockley Heath for supplies, Les stayed with the boat and sharpened the chainsaw. As I walked along the lane into the village, I passed four houses backed onto the canal. There was an open piece of ground next to the last house and I was shocked to see that in the three weeks since we had first passed on our way up to Birmingham, all the trees--over thirty of them--had been cut down, with stumps protruding from the muddy ground, and long lengths of branches trimmed and laying helter-skelter. I planned to mention this to Les when I returned to the boat, and suggest we knock on some doors to see if we might have some of the wood. 

I walked between the posts, and turned right on the road. Wedges Bakery is 100 yards further along. The Birmingham Railroad Engineers Society mentioned in an earlier post of Les' is on the left down the road.

     At Wedges I picked up some farm fresh potatoes, a cabbage, plums, onions, a punt of beautiful ripe strawberries--the last good ones we will get until next spring. I also decided to splash out on a loaf of fresh baked seeded brown bread, three slices of oven baked Turkey breast, a wedge of Wookie Hole cave aged Cheddar and a wedge of Apple-wood smoked Cheddar. I thought I would surprise Dear Sir with a Ploughman's lunch.
     Back at the boat Les was chatting to a friendly young bloke with long dreads, smiling brown eyes, dressed in typical gear of old, worn but mended jeans, layers of shirts and a tattered cardigan--a fellow live aboard boater dressed just like us! His arms hugged a bag full of Wedges goodies. He and his missus live on the boat we had passed back around the last bend. The men were talking wood of course, and the young man told Les about the recently cleared lot. He mentioned he had spoken to someone at the weekend who was cutting down the trees, and that bloke said it would be fine to come 'round with a wheel barrow and take as much wood as he liked. He encouraged us to help ourselves saying there was plenty of wood for everyone. Of course I could hear Mo of NB Balmaha in my head, who once wrote on his blog, "Aren't boaters  lovely?" By and large they are indeed.
     Les helped me on board with my bags and then walked down the towpath to investigate. He didn't get far. An elderly couple in one of the houses was out gathering plums from their tree. They had a brief chat with Dear Sir, saying the land had been sold at auction and cleared of nearly every tree, with the wood free for the taking. We moved the boat along and moored up adjacent to the back of the plot, where there was a low, open spot and Les climbed over and began to hoik long lengths of wood onto the towpath. 

There was Oak, Apple, Cherry, Laurel, Plum, Spruce, Holly, Hawthorn and it was clear to me that the plot of land had been someones much loved small orchard and garden plot.

Dear Sir with his happy woodsman face.

Watching Les work with wood is a thing of beauty. He revels in it and I love the security against winter's cold this wood brings with it. I look forward to stacking the cut lengths on the roof.

We are so top heavy with wood NB Valerie handles like a round bottomed wide beam!

Pigpen © 1954, Charles Shultz

     We took mostly Cherry wood lengths as they were large enough to provide good wood for burning but small enough for Les to carry on his own. My dodgy knee didn't allow me to help much. I did take lengths from the towpath and help stack them on the boat roof. Typically, Les barely broke a sweat and only had a bit of dirt and sawdust on the shoulder of his shirt; I was covered in mud, soaking wet, and filthy from head to toe. I looked like Pig Pen's older sister! Apparently the shorter one is, the closer one is to the mud and the more one is likely to be coated with it. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it. 
     We cruised on to the next bridge thinking to pick up a bit more of the Oak but lo and behold there was none left. The site had been expertly cleared of wood and the smaller branches and debris had been piled off to one side. Never mind, NB Valerie is so top heavy with wood she is sluggish to move, takes longer to start, stop, and handles completely differently.
     As Les took us further onward I showered off all the mud, changed clothes and put a load of laundry on to wash. I love a near scalding hot shower. I relished the way it warmed me from the outside in, cleaning away the debris of the day. showers aboard a boat may be short--only 3 minutes by comparison with the five, eight, and ten minute showers I used to take back at Cloud House, but I relish them more. Every drop of hot water is precious and restoring.

A lovely Autumn day cruising along in the dapples sunlight with a log loaded roof! Onward to fill up with diesel, water, dump the rubbish, replace an empty bottle of Calor Propane with a full one and Bob's your uncle!

     Smelling faintly of soap and rose oil, I climbed back up the stern, nestled in my down jacket. I was commenting with some satisfaction about the fact we had only encountered two other boats on the move all day, when we came round a bend to see two boats coming at us cruising side-by-side. Les slowed NB Val to a crawl while we waited to see what was happening. One boat dropped back though both kept approaching us, the rear boat with its bow practically up the stern of the vessel in front, driving the front boat into the tow path where it became grounded.     For some reason a Kate Hire boat out of Warwick was traveling with a rough looking boat of no visible name or license, roof rammed with doo-dads and a large flag with a red and black skull, helmed by a youngish man and woman and several children--all with dread-locked hair and knitted hats, running to and fro, hopping from one boat to the other like fleas between dogs.

The clueless hire boater who was apparently being helped along by a family of live-aboards.

     The bloke on the back of the Kate boat appeared to be a late middle aged hire boater totally confounded about what to do with the boat at his command. It was now good and grounded. The younger bloke was moving along its gunnels working his way from the towpath side over the bow to the off side while the young woman at the helm of the rear boat decided she would back up and then plow on through between the Kate Boat and us, driving us into the mud on the off side!
     A chorus of "Sorry! Sorry!" ensued with young Dreadlocks shrugging his shoulders and instructing Les to just carry on and shove his boat out of our way with our bow! Les kept a cool head, held NB Val stock still while the young woman scraped between the two boats, then turned us in gently and came forward of them. Meanwhile the woman moved 'round to the front and promptly bottomed her vessel in the mud. The hire boater looked at us completely baffled and said, " It's just so shallow this canal--not enough water is there?" We shook our head in consternation, perplexed by the entire shebang, and finally made it past them.  

     Les let me off the boat at draw bridge 26 and I wound up the bridge while he took it through and moored up under a nearby Oak tree. I wound the bridge down and went inside to fix lunch.
     The sun was dipping low in the sky--especially as the clocks over here in the UK moved back an hour last weekend. We stopped at Swallow Cruisers to fill up with diesel, pick up a bottle of Calor propane for the kitchen range, and top up our water and coal. 
     We had the top four locks of the Lapworth Flight ahead to do and the air was decidedly cooler now that the sun was an hour away from sinking all together. We cruised on. As the sun slowly disappeared the cold began to settle in our bones. Smoke skirled from the chimney, filling our noses with the incense of dried wood. We  went down through the first four locks and I brought the boat into the side of the cutting above the next lock so we could moor up for the night. Small bats flitted around us in the gloaming and our solar powered deck lights on the roof lit up. 
     What a glorious day for cruising and so typical of this time of year when the canals are mostly empty of boaters except us continuous cruisers and a few pleasure boaters trying out the cut for a short break. Needless to say we both slept well, waking to an oatmeal sky and warmer temperatures. We were once again the only boat on the move and we started down the rest of the Lapworth Flight. 
     Since we had the locks to ourselves we took our time. Les set the lock ahead, raising the gate paddles to fill the lock and then he opened the gate for me. I cruised in, slowed the boat to a stop with its nose at the bottom gate, and while Les walked down to set the next lock, I closed the top gate behind me and wound down the gate paddles, then walked over and wound up one of the lower gate paddles to let water out and carry the boat down. We worked our way down 8 locks in an hour and three minutes--a very good time.
     We stopped for a tea break between locks 14 and 15. A hire boat came up and we knew the rest of the locks were in our favor so we carried on down four more locks where we topped up the water tank and disposed of our rubbish. Then Les locked me through the final two locks into Kingswood Junction Basin. I turned the boat, took it through the eye of the needle as I call the narrow connection between the Grand Union and the Stratford-on-Avon canals. I slowed to pick up Les and cruised past the moored up boats, turned NB Valerie at the Junction and we moored up to stay through Saturday.
     We will take the train from Lapworth to Warwick for my next Physio appointment, then walk into the village on Saturday for a Daily Mail weekend newspaper. then we will scarper off to a bit of quiet countryside with a broad, open view where Les can saw logs into rounds and chop wood into lengths and I will stack them on the roof. That's our winter wood settled!

21st Century Navigating: Goodbye Nicholson's Guides, Hello Electronic Maps

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." ~Arthur C. Clarke

   Most of the boaters we know use Nicholson's Guides to navigate along the 2000 miles of British waterways. To date there are seven Guides--one for each canal/river section: Grand Union, Oxford & the South East, Birmingham & the Heart of England, Four Counties & the Welsh Canals, North West & the Pennines, Nottingham, York & the North East, River Thames & the Southern Waterways, Severn, Avon & Birmingham. These Guides are printed spiral bound books with forty years of experience behind them, based on Ordinance Survey (OS) maps. Stanfords, a map sales web site, offers this description: 

     Ordnance Survey’s mapping from their Landranger series has an overprint highlighting the waterways and adding locks with their names, number and rise, also staircase locks, weirs, turning points, various facilities such as overnight moorings, water points, sewage and refuse disposal, food shops, public houses and restaurants, etc. Towpaths, which can also be used by hikers or cyclists, are clearly marked.
     The guides provide descriptions of towns and villages, contact details and where appropriate opening hours of local services, etc. Each guide also includes an introductory section with general advice, regulations and tips.

     First printed in the 1970's the Guide sold for all of 75p. Les bought his set back 2005 when he first made plans to live on a boat. Our guides are tea stained, dog eared, and full of notes about which spots are our favorite moorings, which direction to find a satellite at specific mooring places, which direction the TV antenna should be pointed, and nowadays which sites offer the best 4G wi-fi signal.
     The problem with our Guides is that they were actually printed in a date range from 2002-2006 making the data inside woefully out of date. These days the cost of a single Guide is far dearer--£16.99, and we've recently been informed that several of the newer "updates" didn't actually change any of the information inside; the only thing updated was the pictures on the covers which resulted in a fair few boaters returning their new Nicholson's Guides and asking for a refund.

Seven Nicholson's Guides plus a Fens Waterway Guide--all out of date, expensive to replace, dog eared, and taking up precious shelf space on our narrow boat.

      Enter one of our favorite boaters, Paul Balmer of NB Waterway Routes. Paul has been traveling and mapping the British waterways for about a decade now. He also uses OS maps as a base for his canal maps, however any comparison to a Nicholson's Guide should stop here. Paul's maps are far more detailed in terms of where services are located and what ones are available. His maps are easy to read, and also include all the old, disused, buried canals in a given section so if you are a canal history buff like Les, using Paul's maps saves one from slogging around on foot looking for buried signs of old canal routes. This is not to say that searching out the old canal beds isn't a fun bit of walk-about but one need not reinvent the wheel--or old canal route--based on arcane clues. Finally, and most important, Paul's maps are all electronic! 

     The entire set may be purchased on a DVD for £79.00. Once purchased, monthly updates are available for free from his web site Waterways Routes.
     We've had our set for just over a year and I must confess that after loading them on our computer along with Memory-Maps software to read them, we seldom used them when actually cruising. We always fell back on our printed Nicholson's Guides.
     Well all that has changed, thanks to a recent visit from Paul while NB Valerie was moored up in Cambrian Wharf, Birmingham. Les was in hospital, and Paul was kind enough to pay me a visit. As we talked, Paul showed me how he uses the maps on his tablet and phone. A light bulb went off in my head.
     Les will not load any apps on his phone as they suck up so much battery usage continually updating themselves; this competes with the massive amount of battery hours my Best Beloved puts in surfing Canal World Discussion Forum on his phone! But I figured I could walk down to the Birmingham Market to a cell phone stall and for £20.00 I could pick up a used Android smart phone on which I could load Paul's maps. Les would be chuffed to bits with it! Using an old phone dedicated to the maps would allow us to keep it out on the stern when we traveled and not worry about interrupting our trip data with phone calls, text messages, and incoming email alerts. Brilliant!!
     Paul talked me through the instructions step-by-step and I wrote them down. Les came home before I could get started so we made this a joint project. Rooting around in a drawer where our old cell phones are stored, he found a three year old Samsung. Here is what we did:
1. Use your phone or if you would rather have one device dedicated to maps like we do, then revive an old mobile phone. 
2. If you are doing the latter, it needs to have GPS enabled, and an minimum 8GB memory card. It will also need a SIM card. Any one will do. We had a few of those tucked away from previous phones. One of those pay-as-you go SIMS works fine. Once you've put the SIM card in, updated the memory card to 8GB, and charged the device it is time to turn on the wi-fi and go online with it. 
3. The device will ask you to register your Google account which is easy enough to do. If you use Blogger then it is your log-in and password for the blog which is also your log-in and password for your Google account. Register your Google account on the device. 
4. From the icons choose Google Play. On the Google Play site, type in Memory Maps on the search bar. Download the app to your phone. This app comes with sample maps so open them up and play around a bit. We found one of Birmingham and PING! Suddenly a round icon appeared on the map to mark our location. The GPS was working!
5. Connect the phone to your computer. 
6. Place the Waterways Routes map DVD in your computer's DVD player. 
7. Go to your computer task bar and click on the Windows icon. From the pop-up menu choose Computer and click on it. (Sorry Mac users--I have no idea what steps you take. Perhaps Tom on NB Waiouru can weigh in with some instructions. Not only is he a Mac user, he's been using Balmer's maps for quite some time. I can hear Tom and Jan clapping and welcoming us to the 21st century!!)
8. Your hard drive, and any other drives and devices will appear listed on your screen--both in the middle and over on the left side menu. Click on the DVD player in the middle of the screen and it will open a list of the items on the DVD--in this case each of the waterway maps will appear listed. 

9. Click and drag each Memory Map Icon waterway map over to the phone or device icon in the left menu. They should go to the CARD not the PHONE. You want to store all these maps on the memory card--not on the actual device memory which will not be large enough to hold them all. The file used for their storage on the CARD is titled DCIM. Park a copy of each map in this file. 
Viola!! It is finished! Now you can begin. Find the Memory Maps app icon on your device and open it. Choose the map of the waterway you wish to view. In some cases you may have to access the list of maps by clicking on the My Files icon on the memory card--not the device. If you are on your boat with this device then a round gray icon will appear exactly where your GPS chip has located you. 

The gray icon is NB Valerie moored up at Cambrian Wharf, Birmingham.

    If you gently but firmly make a slow tap at the top of the device screen showing the map, a tab will appear. Pull it down with your finger. This is where you can track all the data for your trip. See those gray dotted lines to the right of green M24h flag? Those are old, buried canal basins! All the old, buried or disused canal routes and basins appear on Paul's maps in gray dotted lines. This is a fabulous feature because if you are cruising past an old bit of buried canal bed such as one of the old Oxford canal loops, your GPS locater will show you exactly when you are adjacent to the buried section. No, you don't have to be on a boat to use this. It works just fine hand held while walking the canals!

All you need to do is tap "Start Logging" and the device will begin logging your trip data! You can re-arrange the data modules on the tabbed screen with the arrow icon.

      Once you start moving your boat, the gray icon turns red and it moves on the map in real time along with you! As you travel along it will draw a thin red line behind it, marking your route.If you turn off your device or accidentally hit "Stop Logging," the device draws a red line directly from where you were when it was last logging and where you are now; otherwise it uses GPS to draw a direct route which follows your boat exactly. We set our tabbed logging info as shown above while we are cruising so we don't accidentally turn of logging--which I did several times. This also allows us to see the map and just the few bits of logging data in which we are interested.  

    Below is the legend of Paul's Waterways Routes maps and the maps allow you to add your own colored flags along the canals to mark the things you find important, like good 4G signals, good satellite reception, and favorite mooring spots! I would like to thank Paul Balmer for allowing me to use snips of his material to illustrate this blog. All graphics and data related to Waterways Routes is copyrighted.

     One final note: Boaters and walkers update Paul about any changes they find along the waterways that may not appear on his most recent map versions. Paul hops a train and investigates the next day to check out the siting and then updates his maps immediately. In comparison, Nicholson's Guides become an historical artifact soon after purchase rather than a relevant means of navigation. Waterways Routes electronic maps are my kind of magic!