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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Best mooring ever ❤️ Bumble Hole Nature Reserve, where Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal meets Dudley No. 2 Canal. Dudley canal continued under the bridge to the right to join the Worcester & Birmingham Canal at Selly Oak, though it only reaches Hawne Basin now. #boatlife #ukcanals #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a canal junction n a rural setting. Footbridges cross the waterway to the left, at the entrance of an arm that was once the original course of the Dudley No. 2 Canal, in the distance over the Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal, and to the right, where the Dudley No. 2 Canal continues on towards Hawne Basin.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

From colliery and steelworks to modern office/retail/leisure estate, and an old, old story playing out on a mooring at Merry Hill on the Dudley No. 1 Canal. Thar be locks ahead, millions of 'em. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a modern pub warmly lit in the fading evening light. A chimney heritage 'feature' with the word 'Banks' painted vertically down it rises behind the pub. On the opposite bank, a sign for The Copthorne Hotel is embedded in a copse on a steep slope. At the far side of the basin in the foreground, a half-sunken cruiser is tied to bollards.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Netherton Tunnel, opened 1858, the last canal tunnel to be built, watched over by the ruin of Cobbs Engine House, which between c.1831 and 1928 pumped water from mines into the canal. #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo from a bridge over a canal where a narrowboat has just emerged from a long tunnel. A brick chimney tower and the top floor of a small ruined brick building rise up from the midst of a heavily tree-covered area.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Always love the bustling life at Gas Street Basin, but not at all a fan of the Birmingham Canal Navigations main line out. 📷 Dudley Port Junction, where the Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal meets the BCN main line. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a grey narrowboat passing beneath a cast-iron footbridge as it turns off the Birmingham Canal Navigations main line onto the Netherton Tunnel Branch Canal.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

NB Scorpio, built 1935 for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company on the London to Birmingham route, passing a junction with the Birmingham Canal Old Line (which became Oozells Street Loop). #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a historic working narrowboat passing a canal junction in a heavily redeveloped part of Birmingham where the canal is lined with high-rise apartments.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

The Roundhouse next to the canal in Birmingham, built 1874 on the site of a canal wharf as stables for the Corporation of Birmingham. Acquired by British Waterways 2001, restored in partnership with the National Trust 2021. #heritage #ukcanals #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a circular, two-storey brick building in a cobble-stone yard with a tunnel beneath leading to the canal.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

On this day in 1580, Queen Elizabeth I granted Gloucester port status. The port facility then was a quay on the River Severn, today a river wall watched over by the 326-year-old former customs house, to which boats cling if Gloucester Lock is not ready (I speak from bitter experience 😨). #ukcanals

Photo of the quay at Gloucester on the approach to Gloucester Lock. The former customs house, built c.1700 on the site of the original, 1581-built customs house can be seen at the left edge of the image.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Whilst I'm in a bit of a boatlife hiatus, here's a snippet from another of my passions, the history and #heritage of #Gloucester Ruins of St. Oswald's Priory, where Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, was buried after her death 12 June 918. gloucester500.co.uk/st-oswalds.h...

gloucester500.co.uk

Gloucester 500 | St. Oswald's Priory

The golden minster of a Saxon queen in the shadow of a Norman conqueror

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

University accommodation on the Worcester & Birmingham Canal at Selly Oak. To the right is where the Dudley No. 2 Canal once joined the W&B; to the left is where a restored Dudley No. 2 Canal will one day join the W&B. #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a large, ultra modern canal-side building in three adjoining blocks of 9, 6 and 7 storeys, with little to indicate the metal works and wharfs that once occupied the site where the now lost Dudley No. 2 Canal met the still surviving Worcester & Birmingham Canal, while an only slightly less modern narrowboat is moored on the offside in the foreground.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 31/05/2026

That's a wrap on my 4th year as a boat owner. Relatively sedate year, just 193 miles travelled (2nd least) and 124 locks negotiated (least), but I was immobilised by engine failure for nearly a quarter of the year. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Night-time at Gas Street Basin, looking towards a cast-iron bridge that spanned the lock which, in 1815, twenty years after the Worcester & Birmingham began operations, finally pierced the Worcester Bar that physically separated the Worcester & Birmingham Canal from the Birmingham Canal (so jealous was the older Birmingham Canal of its water).

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

As a year-round continuous cruiser I get to experience #boatlife in all the weather the British climate throws at us, and extreme heat is by far the worst. There's no escape 🥵 North Stratford Canal in, believe it or not, the suburbs of Birmingham. #ukcanals #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Rural-looking canal scene, with a single canal-side property lurking in the dense vegetation next to a cruiser moored with a small butty.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Echoes of a bygone age at a small arm off the north Stratford at Hockley Wharf. Ten miles and over two years from the first cut at King's Norton on the Worcester & Birmingham, this was as far as the canal had reached by 1796. #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a pair of canal bridges, the first taking the towpath over the entrance to a small wharf of roughly workboat length and width, though now overgrown and inaccessible to boats, the second spanning the Stratford Canal is it continues southwards.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

One of those #canal vignettes that seem to have more in common with some Tolkienesque fantasy world than the 21st century. Lapworth locks done 🥵 Just a few pesky lift bridges – the sole purpose of which is to torment solo boaters – to go 🤬 #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of canal in a lush, verdant setting, with a narrowboat moored against the offside vegetation and a lock in the distance looking like some kind of vaguely mythical gateway.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

🧵1/x Lock 21 at the utterly charming Kingswood Junction, Lapworth, where Stratford Canal meets Grand Union via a short link canal. This was as far as the Stratford got when funds ran out in 1802, at which time this lock did not exist. #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #heritage #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a narrowboat in a just-filled locked. Below the lock is Kingswood Basin. Two lock-keepers' cottages can be seen in the background, one with a standard gable roof which served another lock (next to the lock in the image but out of sight), the other with a barrel roof which served a lock that once linked the basin to the Warwick & Birmingham Canal.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

🧵1/4 When I expressed concerns about CRT funding to my MP, he cited the National Trust as something the CRT should learn from, which is of course utter tosh. The NT was persuaded to take on the south Stratford Canal in 1960... #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a narrowboat in a lock on the Stratford Canal. On a low wall in the foreground, a plaque reads, "THE NATIONAL TRUST The new top gate to this lock 21 was provided in 1982 with the aid of a legacy from Robert Aickman (1914-1981), founder of the Inland Waterways Association". In the background behind the wall stands an early-19th century canal engineering works building.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Ghosts 👻 Inaugural trip, Devizes to Gloucester the long, estuary-free way 3+ years ago, at the end of an 8-hour cruise, just turned off the Grand Union with its wide, fender-unfussy locks and promptly got wedged in this look 🫣 #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a rural canal lock in bright sunlight on a patchy cloud spring day, watched over by a bench unoccupied by anyone, except perhaps the couple in whose memory it is dedicated.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Joys of boating at the bottom end of the market – an account of the first day of a very nervous journey up the Severn from Gloucester published in Cotswold Life magazine a while back. #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/co...

greatbritishlife.co.uk

Travelling on a narrowboat along the River Severn

The mighty River Severn proves to be a challenging mistress as plucky little narrowboat Jimbo ventures upriver from Gloucester

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

The rather monumental locks at Knowle, the remnants of the original Warwick & Birmingham Canal narrow locks sitting alongside wide locks built 1930s, just after the canal amalgamated with others to form the Grand Union. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a flight of wide locks rising up the gentle slope of a hill, lit by the setting sun on a sunny, blue-sky spring day. In the foreground is a large, wide pound of water. To the right of the first lock, water cascades down the remains of a blocked off narrow lock.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

Catherine de Barnes, a name of early Norman origin for a village that didn't become really established until the Warwick & Birmingham Canal arrived late 18th century. Soundtrack here is birdsong and jet engine 🛥️🐦‍⬛🛫 (B'ham airport 3km away) #boatlife #ukcanals #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a tree-lined canal with a cruiser tied up at an end-of-garden mooring on the offside and a distant pair of narrowboats moored against the towpath.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Tied up just as the rain started on a heavy, 11-lock day on the Birmingham & Warwick Junction Canal and the former Warwick & Birmingham Canal (now the Birmingham end of the Grand Union). I swear #boatlife was easier a couple of year ago 👴 #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of Gas Street Basin in central Birmingham, featuring an old, refurbished, brick-built, basin-side property and a historic working boat against a background of modern high-rise architecture.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Birmingham & Warwick Junction Canal, one of the later canals not completed until 1844, long after canal mania had subsided and just as railway mania was beginning to get up a head of steam. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a narrowboat about to pass under a modern road bridge on a tree-lined canal, with Canal and River Trust canoes tied up to the offside in the foreground.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

Pleasant place to moor near Curdworth tunnel on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal at the end of a sunny day of eight difficult locks made bearable by having superstar vlockies at three of them. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a narrowboat emerging from a short tunnel and about to pass moored boats in a pastoral, tree-lined stretch of canal at the end of a sunny day.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, Curdworth Lock 9, Cheatles Farm Bridge and the Dog and Doublet, all dating back to the late 18th century (the canal was completed 1789, just before canal mania swept the British landscape). #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a canal on a late sunny afternoon with a brick pub next to a towpath lined with pub benches and, in the distance, a lock and small bridge.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

The most excellent Jules Fuels NB Bargus, which has been an absolute angel over the last four months supplying me with coal, fuel and a tow, at Fazeley Junction on the Coventry Canal. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a fuel boat turning off the Coventry Canal to head down the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. The narrowboat is 70ft long and came in from the left, a tight turn on the best of days, and a real challenge when the wind didn't want the boat to turn and tried its best to wedge it across the canal.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

#Boatlife day 489 Tree stopped play on the Llangollen two years ago. And today, day 1294, on the feisty edges of Storm Dave, I'm listening to the branches of trees next to my boat clacking together like the bones of skeletons 🫣🌬️🍃🛥️ #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of the front half of a narrowboat against the towpath, the canal a short distance ahead blocked by a fallen tree

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

#boatlife day 527 A spot on the Llangollen that made the news last Christmas when the embankment here failed catastrophically. Interim report on the breach at Whitchurch has been published at canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/docume... #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of narrowboats moored against the towpath on a colourful early winter morning.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Saw some ruins peaking mysteriously through the trees lining the Coventry Canal at Alvecote as I puttered past, and on further investigation found the remains of the mid-12th century Alvecote Priory. #boatlife #ukcanals #heritage #HistoricEngland #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of the ruins of a stone-built Benedictine priory.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, lined on the left by the former Tolson's Mill, a textile factory built 1886, and on the right by a former Methodist Church, built around the same time. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a canal at night, flanked on either side by brick buildings, on the left a two-storey range leading to a five-storey mill with floodlit chimney, and on the right a two-storey property, with modern residential housing beyond.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 26/03/2026

Bridge 77 on the Coventry Canal at Fazeley Junction, originally built late-18th century. You have to travel over 5 miles and under another 17 bridges to get to bridge 78. "Why's that, Shad?" I'm glad you asked – read on 🧵... #boatlife #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a former toll house overlooking the junction of the Coventry Canal and the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. The Coventry emerges from under a turnover bridge, while the right bank of the Bormingham & Fazeley, which disappears out of shot behind the camera, is lined by a modern industrial building decorated with murals of birds.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Current plan is to head down the B'ham & Fazeley, the B'ham & Warwick and the Grand Union to Lapworth Junction and the South Stratford. Solo boater not in the best of health, so looking for any heads up about dodgy areas to avoid stopping in and difficult locks or bridges. #ukcanals

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Brief history of #ukcanals in one image Modern leisure narrowboat passing between the abutments of a dismantled railway bridge as it approaches a historic working boat moored at the entrance to a basin that served a colliery. #boatlife #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a modern narrowboat passing between the abutments of a dismantled railway bridge. Beyond the former bridge, a historic working boat that once transported coal from the Coventry coalfields is moored across the entrance of a basin that once served a colliery located next to the canal. Old maps show that the railway which used to cross the canal was a short branch line that linked a brickworks on the right bank with the colliery on the left bank and then connected to the main line railway that runs close to the canal. The Coventry Canal, begun 1768 but not completed until 1790, was part of the original waterway route between the Midlands and London which, unlike many other canals, remained a reasonably profitable commercial waterway into the 20th century, despite competition first from the faster Grand Union Canal route and then the railways.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Big, brutish working-boat bow of historic NB Nuneaton, built 1936 to work the London–Midlands route, moored across the entrance to a small basin that once served Tamworth Colliery, now a boat yard on the Coventry Canal. #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo dominated by the bulbous bow of a historic, working narrowboat sitting high in the water because it is not loaded with the 72 tons it was designed to carry.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

High winds are guaranteed to get me raging futilely at the skies, and they're on their way 💨🍃🤬 Mooring is tree-safe but a little exposed. Giving serious thought to emptying the lock and spending the day in there 🤔 #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of narrowboats moored against the towpath on the Coventry Canal below a distant lock on a sunny but breezy spring day.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

#Boatlife day 1261, at Hartshill Wharf, Coventry Canal Loo empty, diesel full, water topped up, pantry well stocked, and a glorious spring day for the first cruise since the engine failed in early December. All rather spiffing 😊 #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Late afternoon photo of a canal wharf flanked on the left by a three-storey brick cottage and the right by a long, two-storey covered dock with clock tower perched on the roof above the boat entance, with modern work boats and butties moored up.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

Jimbo waiting patiently in the late-18th century Atherstone lock 5 last April. Looking forward to heading back the other way very soon (and it's a joy to welcome back the idea of 'looking forward' after the breakdown). #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a half-pint narrowboat in a lock on a sunny spring day watched over by the former lock-keeper's cottage and daffodils.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

Another for #MilestoneMonday, at 'two-mile bend' on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal, indicating 14 miles to Sharpness (it's a 16-mile canal) Milepost relocated here 2006 when major roadworks rendered two-mile bend quite a bit less bendy #ukcanals #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of narrowboats moored against the towpath of an iced over canal on a bright winter day after some snow. To the right of the frame stands a white, waist high milepost marker with 'S' above '14' inscribed in black at the top.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

#boatlife day 1241, the engine nightmare continues 😱 Even in pieces in the workshop, it's obstinately refusing to reveal just what its damn problem is. And because I can't move, I'm now butting up against the CRT's continuous cruising requirements. All getting a bit scary😨 #ukcanals #narrowboat

Photo of a poorly old diesel engine half disassembled to expose various crank, cam and drive gears

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

#boatlife day 666, on the Trent & Mersey Appropriate pic from the archive given all the rain at the mo. The American on the hire boat was heard to express his appreciation for getting the full British experience ☔🌧️ #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of narrowboats moored against the towpath of a densely tree-lined canal during a downpour

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

When #boatlife goes nightmare 😱 Not cruising anywhere for a while 😪 On the bright side, it's a chance to clean up the engine bay, if it ever stops raining long enough that the bilge doesn't immediately start filling again 😠 #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Public funding has always been vital for #ukcanals, with no evidence they can survive without it. This extra funding is a welcome step in the right direction, but the principle of long-term public funding must still be defended against Govt. policy. #FundBritainsWaterways www.gov.uk/government/n...

gov.uk

Iconic canals to be better protected with £6.5 million investment

Funding will support repair, maintenance and long-term projects.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 24/01/2026

#Boatlife day 1001 Fuel boats resting up at Marsworth Yard on the Grand Union last summer. The yard produced concrete pilings for the canal until the mid 1960s, when sheet steel replaced concrete, and was redeveloped 2015. #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a pair of narrowboat cargo vessels, motor and butty, breasted up at a former wharf that has been redeveloped in modern times into a residential area.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

#boatlife day 872 (Pt. II) After an early start on a cold February morning last year, managed to catch up with the fuel boat that had passed me after dark the evening before on the Shropshire Union #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of narrowboats moored on both sides of a tree-lined canal, smoke rising from the chimneys of a couple on a cold sunny February morning. At the end of a line of three boats moored on the offside, a fuel boat is breasted up against the narrowboat it is supplying.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

#Boatlife day 872 Frosty February morning last year, Shropshire Union. This was a detour to make sure I could catch the fuel boat, but that passed after dark the night before, so spent the morning playing chase the fuel boat #ukcanals #narrowboat #photography #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of narrowboats breasted up on the offside of a canal on a cold winter morning, with the towpath frosted and the canal a perfect mirror of boats and leafless trees.

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 06/01/2026

Don't have any cool pics of this year's frozen canal, but here's one from last January at Great Haywood Junction looking down the Staffs & Worcs Canal #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of several narrowboats moored end on on a frozen canal on a partially cloudy January day

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Shadowed Eyes @shadowedeyes.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

Last light of 2025 slinks from the skies, and judging from the forecast, it's taking a fair bit of warmth with it 🥶⛸️ #boatlife #ukcanals #canal #narrowboat #KeepCanalsAlive #FundBritainsWaterways

Photo of a small canal wharf with boats moored, framed by the concrete ribbing of a modern road bridge on a cold windless night.

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