The Story of British Canals - VHS - 1993 (Canal History Docu)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- 1993 VHS on the history of canals in Great Britain. It is a bit dated in its style (and incidental music lol) but still an enjoyable little program with some very interesting footage.
This is my favourite thing about Britain. Absolutely love this.
Will weeks
Thanks so much for uploading this! Love oldschool British documentaries, esp narrated by actors with cosy voices :)
They most definitely instill a sense of comfort and reassurance in the world. It makes you feel like there is no wrong, and for 57 minutes you are immersed in 1990s campy/eggy glamour that has aged ten fold, but is so wonderfully vivid and classic.
I was trying to think where I'd heard his voice 🤔he was the games teacher in Kes 👍
I also appreciate a well trained voice doing narration. They used to give these jobs to qualified people. Unfortunately, often that is no longer case.
I’m also a great admirer of the canal system and the efforts to preserve and even add to it. I don’t know if I would cruise it myself because of the slow pace, but it’s nice to see others living on and enjoying the system.
Fantastic video and old films. I really learned a lot. Thank you. Also at about 51 minutes it showed Bratch Lock in Wombourne, South Staffs, where we lived for a few years, 34 years ago. We used to enjoy walking along the canal there.🦆🦆🌻🌺🌳
Many of the canals, especially in Birmingham survived alongside the railways because industrial customers often had docks on site, the lack of lorries meant goods were offloaded at stations onto boats for the final few miles of delivery by canal.
A great documentary. Well narrated and very interesting. Wish we had more canals like this in America where you could crisscross the land this land. Am enjoying watching the narrowboat vlogs, too.
been wondering the same thing
I'm happy to hear you enjoy this mode of transportation. I am actually going to college to become a Civil Engineer - and I intend to change a lot about how we trade and transport (with canals and other things)
The Erie Canal is pretty extensive for US
@@skimND One lock after another would do my head in.
@@sarahredactedyl8742 hope it’s going well ⛴⛴
This seems nostalgic for some reason.
Thanks so much for uploading this!
I did not know this even existed, not even a documentary has been made on this topic in italy, so interesting
Fascinating documentary & Brian Glover’s narration was a perfect addition. Many thanks for posting.
Wonderful documentary! Thank you for this!
Loved it all, Brian Glover's voice just right and the music.Would love to have a narrow boat owning friend able to spend retirement exploring , keeping fit and happy.
The music is my favorite part; it's tied with the history of course.
That was brilliant. I already knew most of the main stuff but Brian Glover’s narration was enthusiastic and added excitement. Wish he alive so I could let him know. Cheers.
Art abe +earn
Most excellent documentary. Thank you very much!
Would like to see the canals but probably won't happen in this life time. Thank you for posting, TH-cam . . . the next best thing!
There are boats to hire for days, weekends or weeks.
That was so very interesting and informing. Thank you for this enjoyable video of the history of the waterways.
A fascinating docco telling me of something I never knew about, many thanks.
A wonderful film! Thanks for sharing this. Well done!
A wonderful video. When you see those narrow boats on the water it's hard to believe what a major part they played in bringing about the industrial revolution. Elsewhere, in the low countries, they built bigger and wider canals, but in England they had to cut through hills and the cross valleys by building viaducts, so the seven foot system worked best for them, and they did it quickly. It is also worth remembering that the Industrial revolution started in England and changed the economy of the world, thanks to the narrow boat.
i don't understand how the narrow canals ever went out of use. The restoration of the canals with a well thought out plan could be a huge boost to logistical transport and touism. I just found out about the narrow/broad boats and the canals they navigate and love watching the videos. With restoration of proper shore facilities there could be many underutilized sections of the economy that could grow. By making the narro/broadboats part of intermodal logistics (linking them better to road and rail hubs/yards) that could make goods cheaper across the islands. By incorperating them more into urban life, like new rail station sit could revive neigboorhoods that were long left derelect. One day i hope to cruise in a narrow boat.
I hope that you do get to cruise the cut one day Cliff, but they won't ever carry commercial traffic again. Even if the canals were dredged and maintained, a pair of narrow boats leaving London with 50 tons of cargo takes 4 or 5 days to get to Birmingham! That's also assuming that they aren't held up by having to slow down for miles of pleasure boat moorings and wait at the locks while holiday makers dither about! Sorry, it's just a pipe dream.
The narrator is so Yorkshire a bowl of pork pie and mushy peas appeared in my lap, and I now own a whippet.
Sounds like Jimmy Savile
Here and There naaa its that bald actor who was the boss on the prison planet in alien 3 lol
That explains the tweed cap that suddenly appeared on my head XD
The late great Brian Glover.
W anchor thats him, ta
Lovely video. The British canal system is such a valuable resource in many ways.
Really enjoyed this history. Now the proud owners of the Helen Louise, I hope we do not forget the 'roots' of these amazing, network of canals and working narrowboats. Can't wait (but Covid-19 demands we do) to cruise those ancient; now modernized, English canals.
Wonderful story! Thank you!
What a beautiful Brilliant n relaxing documentary many thanks for uploading just Amazing
Megan I really enjoy your short films.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for a most enjoyable history. Take care!
You know it's going to be a good one when a documentary starts with a quote from Mr.Rat
Thank you for sharing. It adds to the two narrow boat chanels I am following.
Brilliant 6:35 ONE YEAR 😳😳 amazing 🤩
10:50 all of that original documentation is wondering isn’t it. ❤
Loved this! As a Vlogger though, I'll be avoiding this soundtrack!
Thank you, fantastic; and very admirable the way free men and their families made a way of life that meshed with the needs of the time; and the predictable outrage this causes among the very concerned and vocal few.
Highly enjoyed. Thank you!
AMAZING!!! TY SOOOO MUCH...aaah what a bliss! :)
Interesting and entertaining documentary. Well worth a watch. Thanks!
For any foreigners listening to this: the narration is in Yorkshireguese.
and in Yorkshire they don`t have the letter "H" in their alphabet.
I don't understand why the UK never upgraded their canals, but stayed at the technical limits of the 1770s with their narrow boats and 7 feet wide locks?
We built many canals in the Netherlands in the same era, and upgraded them over time.
And we love them! A great pleasure to navigate through your canals and rivers particularly as we have no equivalent here in Australia...(not to mention a lack of water in many states).
Many canals did of course have 14' wide locks, but the reason that we never moved on to having canals that could take barges of the continental sizes was just the terrain. Not only are the low countries flatter, but they connect to the great rivers of Europe, making canal traffic economic, as it is to this day of course.
That's the storyteller and actor brian glover who did the little red tractor stories and doctor who attack of the cybermen.
Was it him who was in the film Kez
This was an evolutionary documentary that explains how we arrived at Thomas the Train and Friends.
Superb video factual, informative and entertaining.
I'm an American kayaker who did not know that these canals existed until yesterday
I would love to fly to the UK , rent a kayak and spend a couple of weeks paddling these canals
Does GB have an infrastructure that will support those who want to paddle these canals
Possibly
There would be local trusts who would look after certain sections and could possibly do it
Google it
you would probably want a hire boat, and spend your nights there.
Nicky L they have Kayaker clubs so you would be welcome
Yes. The company I worked for arranged for a group of us to canoe all the way from Birmingham to London Docks - about 180 miles. I'll never forget going through tunnels with water dripping through and gingerly paddling along aqueducts, afraid of falling over the side 50 or 80 feet ! A great time, so unbelievably quiet and leisurely and relaxing. No special permit is required, I believe . .
Can someone explain how horses "passed" going in opposite directions on the same tow path? Thanks much. Except for lifting the tow rope over another boat I just can't seem to figure it out.
Great video, but my god the music is dire! ....you can tell this video is from the 90's hence the awful 'daytime TV style' music. An archive classic though. Much has changed since then.
well explained!
I still think that to save the environment, heavy non-perishable goods should still be moved via canals. This still happens in Europe.
It happens in some parts of Europe because the canals take barges that carry several hundred tons. Even when the English canals were maintained and dredged to a standard that permitted commercial traffic, the maximum load of a narrow boat was about 25 tons. I am afraid that the days when a canal boat took four or five days to travel from London to Birmingham with that sort of load are long gone!
Very, very, interesting.
does anybody know what those works were at 13:16 ? lovely brick chimneys
Great documentary I learnt a lot from this
Very enjoyable.
That was wonderful
Nothing but fantastic.
Canals built the industry, the industry built the world, the world eventually outgrewe the canals! Irony it's success led to it's replacement! Now the purpose is for the pleasure boaters and the narrow boat house boaters! These are the times no commercial value just holiday makers and water born caravaners!
Hardwork leads to good times.
🇬🇧🇬🇧🤔Great stuff 😀 teaching us how history is made 🧐👍👍✅🌹🇬🇧🇬🇧
nice 1 m8s, is there a spot that has more photos of the interior crew space of a working narrow boat?
Imagine trying to get home and seeing all those locks 🤘🤷
what a great video.
Would be lovely if someone did an update now 30 years later.
Episode 187 CruisingTheCut channel Digging Deep
55:34 I've Might Go To The Black Country Living Museum Near The City Of Birmingham In Warwickshire England In The United Kingdom Next Year In April 2023 Which Is The Home Of Rosie & Jim The Original Series In 1990 Just After Orlando Florida In The United States Of America. Wish Me Luck. Thanks A Lot Mate. X
Brian Glover...best BRITISH documentary narrator.
Thanks!
Thanks Rob!
44:05 - "the navvies had a new lease of life." I always wondered why the canals lost out to the railraods because ships still transport goods cheaper than trains and once a logistic network is set/consistanct it doesn't matter how fast the goods get there. I never thought of the navvies. They all of a sudden started building railraods and so there were few to maintain and or improve the canals as some lines started to do so they could better compete with rail lines. Because i saw a video that stated that the last canals that were built to a better standard still moved goods cheaper than teh railways, so naviies moving on to the railways must have been a major factor in the decline of the canals. SHORTAGE OF BOATMEN. It was a persinel problem not the canals being inefficnet - sad Like i say on many video the British government should make widebeam canals to attach to all the canals systems and straighten some of the canals to reopen for buissness because they would help create more jobs and help with CO2 emmissions!!!
That music, though...
Umm....... so cool I love our stories u are the best!! U post good things for people and kids again u best!!!
wonderful !!! When Britain was great!!!!
Britain is now great as well
@7.15 The cost of coal wasn't halved in Manchester otherwise the Duke of Bridgewater would have put himself out of business. No, he halved the cost of the TRANSPORT in getting it there by building the canal!
If anyone is paying attention someone needs to get as many old videos an dthen make new videos then create a channel on the history of the canal because i want to learn as much as i can and they film is hard to find on the canals (espiecilly industry) on line!!!
It's not really the story of British Canals, more of the english narrowboat. Hardly a mention of the most successful waterway in the UK, the Aire & Calder Navigation.
I have noticed in this video that the Narrow boats and barges travelled on the left hand side of the river like the on the roads today , But today the Narrow boats travel on the right hand side , Is the any particular reason why this was changed.
Some canals did keep to the left in the old days, but keeping right, passing port to port as you would at sea, is standard now.
an excellent video
Most enjoyable
Awesome
If they were carrying small cargo maybe they could use part of the cargo area for living
Oddly enough the further reach of the canals diversified the human (and probably rat) gene pool. :) Ronn
Brian Glover aka Bobby Charlton (Kes) !!!!
Plus it provided JOBS!
Interesting in doing a day trip but not renting one for a week. curious if anyone has any recommendations.
Try to stay away from bank holidays as there tends to be a large influx of rowdy drunken louts in twenty ton hire boats.
Search "narrowboat day hire" to find offerings from many firms.
Thank you.
hard times bro
Hmm, Video did not load :(
12:35 Anglesey was yet to be built in the 1800s.
neat
I need to get one of these boats and put about 500 hp of American V8 in it to get it moving properly.
And lose the peace and quiet of the canal life.
@@paulteirney3587 yeah but I want to pull 3 skiers, 60 mph through there. Now that would be peaceful.
You wouldn't be allowed to do that. The speed limit is there to stop erosion of the banks, and to avoid collisions with other boats . .
You'd be very disappointed. The boats are extremely heavy (40,000 pounds or so for the one we hired), do not have a hull form that would support high speeds, and are in such shallow water that most of your power would go into sucking air and stirring up the water rather than moving the boat. These boats typically have around 35 hp (if they have modern four cylinder diesels) and would be quite happy with half that. They spend a lot of time (when moored boats are near) at idle -- what the Britons call tickover speed. The highest permitted speed on the canals is four mph, and typical speed is less. A couple hundred miles travel in two weeks is a comfortable pace.
This is completely aside from the hundreds of thousands of pounds you could be charged for the damage you did to the canal, the locks, and other boats.
WHY IS IT CALLED A WINDLESS?
Windlass, James.
as it never farts
Bravo Britain. Clap for yourselves. You did well. God bless. I honestly wish I can learn how to build these boats
@Ian Mangham Thank you my dear
Great video, terrible music...DA.
Isn't that Jimmy Saville speaking?
aka Brian Glover !
only 2 feet of water wow
Canals
im watching this to hear hurdy gurdy music! lol jk
good vid
nutz
d
American werewolfin london
Jimmy Saville narrating
Teddy NO WAY, IT WAS BRIAN GLOVER HE ALSO DONE THE hOVIS HILL ADVERT
Now then now then
It does sound a lot like our Jimmy
hushshshshshshshshssh !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
💰 ~ What I don’t understand is how could it really save money to transport goods and services over the water versus the already built roads when you have to build the canals out of nothing? Maybe had the canals flowed without the need to be pulled by horses then I could see how they’re saving money on that area, but horses were still needed. I presume it did save money because why else would you do it, it’s just hard for me to understand how that could be. But I wonder if it’s kind of like modern day where you have different lobbying groups who make big claims to get some thing paid for by the government and then don’t actually delivered in the end. It’s still amazing what they accomplished, but I don’t understand how it can make economic sense.
Like the railroads, nearly all of Britain's industrial canals were built by private companies. As you suggested, the initial idea was to save money on transportation. The canals proved to be enormously less costly than horse-drawn carts. From the standpoint of simple physics, water is a stupefyingly more effective lubricant than the wheel. Compared to roads, inland waterways are also significantly less bumpy.
A canal boat, drawn by a single horse with one paid person minding it, can transport 25 tons of cargo; say coal. That same cargo drawn in a cart by a single horse would max out at hundreds of pounds and do much more costly damage to the road than a canal boat does to the canals. Once built, the canal is much easier to maintain than a road; and moving freight from the road hugely reduced wear on the road.
That is why, in 1769, when Brindley's first canal was complete, the price of coal in Manchester dropped by 50% and that was the spark that ignited the Industrial Revolution.
The next key feature that made canal transportation to industry was the reduced breakage. That's how the potteries got involved. Wedgwood experienced more than 50% breakage when transporting their goods to market by horse-drawn wagons. On the canal boat, the breakage dropped to near zero, so the cost of pottery at the market dropped by half.
@@camdenmcandrews- Thanks for the information. I have some more documentaries I’ll end up getting around to watching. I don’t know if they done with the economics of it though. But just a massive amount of infrastructure and engineering needed seems like it would’ve been a problem. But I guess it’s just not something my mind can really completely imagine right now.
But I did think previously about what you said in your comment, that water I guess great such less friction that you’re able to pull the goods without as many horses. And of course you have feeding and watering and everything else that you have to take care of. I guess it’s just the upfront cost that seems so astronomical.
My wife and I truly hope to visit the canals one day. It all seems so beautiful and serene. Have been wondering about the history of them. Now I know a bit more.
I love how he said Steering around a cut like it's some hard core war fighting.
On a gloomy winter morn, this with crumpets and a hot tea is exactly what I needed
I wonder if anyone ever said " I'm watching this to hear hurdy gurdy music"
Rob Dunkes sr yep they did lol
Lovely doco, written with interest and narrated by Brian Glover with just the right amount of passion... Thanks for the upload:-)
"this is rumour control here are the facts"
an unmistakable voice! Love him.