Canals and narrowboats
Canal narrowboats. Photo by welshdan/flickr
In the podcast about Mr Speaker, I told you that I was going on holiday. I said that I would be the captain of a ship and sail away to new and interesting places. So, where did I go on my ship? Perhaps I sailed across the Atlantic. Perhaps I visited the islands of Greece.
But, no. Actually, my wife and I hired a canal boat and we went for a holiday on one of Britain’s beautiful canals.
We have lots of canals in Britain, especially in England. Most of them were built in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Boats on the canals carried coal, iron, pottery, stone, lime, salt and many other goods needed by the new industries which grew during the Industrial Revolution. Until the railways came, the canals were one of the most important forms of transport in the country.
The centre of the canal system in England is here in Birmingham, where I live. We like to tell visitors that there are more canals in Birmingham than in Venice! (This is true, but the canals in Venice are probably more beautiful!)
Originally, horses pulled the boats on the canals. The horses walked along a path at the side of the canal. Do you know the English verb “to tow”? It means to pull something which cannot move by itself. If your car breaks down, you may need to use another vehicle to tow the car to a garage. So, the horses towed the boats along the canal, and we still call the path beside a canal a “towpath”. In the 19th century, however, some canal boats had steam engines instead of horses, and today, most canal boats have diesel engines.
Compared to the great canals of the Netherlands or Germany, English canals and canal boats are tiny. The traditional boats of the English canals are only about 2 meters wide and between 10 and 20 meters long. A bigger boat could not fit through the bridges or the locks. We call these boats “narrowboats”. Why are they so small? Well, the canals are narrow, because it was cheaper and easier to build a narrow canal than a wide canal. And the boats are small because, originally, they were towed by a single horse. Traditional English narrowboats are brightly painted in red, blue, green or yellow, or all of these colours. Often they are decorated with pictures of flowers or castles.
When the railways arrived, in the middle of the nineteenth century, the canals began to decline. It was much quicker to move goods on a railway than on a canal. And in the 20th century, road vehicles took traffic from the canals as well.
Here is a typical story about the decline of the canals. There was company with a factory which made feed for animals. It was beside a canal, and the company had 11 narrowboats which brought grain and other things which it needed from a sea port. The narrowboats took 3 or 4 days to make the journey from the factory to the sea port and back. In 1923, the company bought a lorry. The lorry could make two return journeys each day. Naturally, the company scrapped the narrowboats and used the lorry instead.
And so, everyone thought, that is the end of the old canals. The narrowboats disappeared, many canals were abandoned, weeds grew in the water so that boats could not pass, the towpaths collapsed into the canals, the locks would not work any more. It was all very sad.
Then, shortly after the Second World War, people started to think that the canals could have a new use, for recreation i.e. for leisure and holidays. They saw that many canals went through beautiful, quiet countryside, where people could relax and enjoy nature. Gradually, people started to use the canals again. Abandoned canals were cleaned and re-opened; locks were repaired; and in one or two places new canals were built. Today, you can see large numbers of brightly-painted traditional narrowboats on our canals again. But they are carrying holiday-makers, not coal, or lime or pottery.
There will be more about canal boats in the next podcast. There is a quiz on the Listen to English website so that you can test how well you have understood what I have said.
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Comments (19)
This file has been downloaded 62389 times
8 September 2009
good good good thank you for ever
25 August 2009
Hellow peter :i am grateful ,all your podcast are very interesting .
17 August 2009
Dear~ teacher
i would like say " your podcast is so cool. awesome!
i really appreciate your teaching.
once again thank a lot !
your sincerly
mr hanbae
16 June 2009
Your web site is very helpful to second language English leaner.
Also usuful for listening English.
I will learn your website as most helpful english leaning site.
16 June 2009
Learn English Online using most common English expressions and learn how to speak English fluently.Learn EnglishFree lessons available online, so learn English today.
15 June 2009
Thank you for your podcast. Very descriptive.It remember me "Three Men in a Boat"
To Say Nothing of de Dog. by Jerome K. Jerome1889.My first English book in the scholl.Do yo have a dog named Montmorency?.It would be very funny ! See you next.
15 June 2009
Hello Peter,
I like your podcast very well, each story contains a lot of vocabulary, I can also listen and read the whole story.
Think you very much
14 June 2009
Hello, Mr Peter:
Best wishes HoamuaheI've got 91 percent right on the quiz. That's not bad result,is it?
The narrowboats look really beautiful and eye-catching.Do you think so? I wish i would have a trip to Birmingham to sail on these colorful boats.
14 June 2009
i am so glad todiscover such agreat podcast thankSSSSSSSSSSSS shaki from pakistan
14 June 2009
Peter, it's my first visit here, in your podcast. I'm so glad to discover such a great podcast! I'm sure i'll be able to improve my english faster then i've thought i could. I've already downloaded some episodes, i'll put them in my ipod and at that way i'll listen to you anytime, anywhere.
Thank you so much!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mauro from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
13 June 2009
Hi Peter,
thank you very much for your interesting podcast (as always). I was in England last summer to visit my family and saw many narrow boats on the Thames. I liked them very much. I like English countryside as well, and I believe that my husband and I will hire a narrow boat there to sail away sometime.
12 June 2009
Dear Peter,
I didn’ know that you can hire narroboats in Britain.4 years ago I went to Cornwall. I will never forget the beautiful landscape. I am sure — one day I will hire a narroboat in Britain. In Switzerland we often go by canoe. We like to do water-sport very much.
Thank you so much for the interesting potcast.
Have a nice time.
Beatrice
12 June 2009
Could you add covers to the tapes, not only to posts? There is a problem in iTunes: http://img.skitch.com/20090612-d7qdgwq4pjj24b31ha9yktcrya.jpg
Without the covering I can only make a right-click and then get an access to all podcasts…
12 June 2009
These kinf of boats were popular during the ottman empire are in Anatolia too. they have disappered for many years ago. A few of them still in fashion in Ä°stanul but they are especially for toruist atraction.
12 June 2009
Thank you Steve your podcast is excellent.
I´m glad you had a good time.
My wife and I got on the canal boat in Amsterdam and Paris and it was very nice and romantic.
11 June 2009
Thanks a lot, Peter for this interesting podcast. Last month, I saw a beautiful narrowboat in Camden lock. It was red and decorated with flowers. I liked it very much.
11 June 2009
thank you for your reading. It's really helpful for English learners especially in a country where English is as a second language like ours.
11 June 2009
Now I understand your replay to my comment about the water and the sea. I don't know any canal in Spain and although I went to Venice I didn't get on a boat because it was too expensive. I would like sailing on a canal , it will be quieter than the sea and also more boring, doesn't it? Thank you, I hpoe your next podcast
11 June 2009
Hi Peter,
that is again very interesting podcast.
Your website is for me the most favorite website. Thank you!!!!!!
Ilona