Canal Boat — January 2018

14 January 2018 Canal Boat canalboat.co.uk

NEWS

REVIEWS

APP OF THE MONTH

MORE than 500 endangered eels have been

discovered at Upper Bittell Reservoir this week, as

engineers drained the site of water for major repair

works.

The Canal & River Trust and a team of fish

experts, made the unusual find as the equivalent of

more than 12 million baths of water were drained

from the reservoir.

The European eels’ population has declined by

over 90 per cent since the 1970s and the species is

now classed as ‘critically endangered’. According to

the International Union for Conservation of Nature

this puts it at even greater risk of extinction than the

giant panda.

Canal & River Trust fisheries manager Carl

Nicholls said: “It’s an unbelievable find really.

Repairing Bittell Reservoir is a huge job and we’ve

spent a few weeks rehoming tens of thousands of

fish to other waterways.

“Just as the final few inches of water were

draining out, we made this discovery. In 20 years

working with fish I’ve never seen or heard of this

many eels in one place before. In most fish rescues

like this we might come across one or two, a couple

of dozen maximum, but this was unreal. The project

at Upper Bittell Reservoir is a good example of the

work we are doing as a charity to keep West

Midlands’ canals, and their ecosystems, thriving.”

Each eel was removed by hand and rehomed in

the local Worcester & Birmingham Canal.

All eels start their lives in the Sargasso Sea,

3,000 miles away, before using ocean currents to

journey to the estuaries, rivers and water courses of

Europe, such as the Worcester & Birmingham Canal,

which provide ideal habitat for them to mature and

grow. The eels live inland for around two decades

before returning to the Sargasso.

This winter the Canal & River Trust is investing

over £1 milllion to repair sections of Upper Bittell

Reservoir, including valves and piping which feed

the local canal network. It is part of the charity’s

programme of works across the country to restore

and improve the nation’s historic 200-year old

network of canals and rivers.

NARROW BOATS
First published in 1989, this booklet’s origins go back further – as the introduction points out, the term
‘narrowboat’ usually refers to modern leisure craft today, but this the author is concerned with the carrying craft
in regular use carrying long-distance traffic from the earliest days of the canal system until 1970. A brief history
follows their development from the choice of the 70ft by 7ft size (at a meeting in an inn in Lichfield in 1769),
through the early wooden horse-boats to steam, diesel and the steel craft of the 20th Century. Life in the tiny
cabins is described, the distinctive painting and decoration of the boats, and the background to their final decline. In just 64
pages it gives a concise and thorough all-round picture of the iconic working craft of our canals.

Narrow Boats, Tom Chaplin, Amberley, anberley-books.com, £8.99, 978-1-4456-6997-

UNUSUAL PUBS BY BOOT, BIKE AND BOAT
This book does what it says on the cover: 150 descriptions of out-of-the-ordinary hostelries suited to arriving at
on foot, cycling, or on the water. It has to be said that a large majority of them are only reachable by ‘boot’ and/
or ‘bike’, but those that you can cruise to include some memorable ones. There are famous canal pubs like the
Rising Sun at Berkhamsted with its range of snuff and cigars as well as cider and beer, or the Barge at Honey
Street on the Kennet & Avon, the crop circle HQ of the world. Then there the less well-known ones, such as the
ancient and unmodernised Scotch Piper in Lydiate. Add in a couple of converted barges – still floating (the Grain Barge, Bristol) or
sat out of the water on dry land (the Dry Dock, Leeds), and you’ve got a book that might just be worth keeping on board in case
you fancy a drink somewhere a little bit different.

Unusual pubs by boot, bike and boat, Bob Barton, Halsgrove, halsgrove.com, £16.99, 978-0-85704-305-

RIVER Canal Rescue has launched a new free SOS
Waterways app. When activated it instantly sends an
emergency request, prompting a call to confirm the issue
and where required, dispatches an engineer or rescue team
to the boater in trouble.
Users can choose how their assistance request is sent

• either via wif-fi/mobile data or text (or both) – and once
  received, are messaged to advise RCR will be in touch.
  Behind the scenes, screens detailing the UK’s inland

waterway network not only flag up the caller’s

contact details, the boat’s location, severity of the

issue and proximity to an engineer, but they track the

engineer’s or team’s progress too.

Managing director Stephanie Horton said: “I see this as an

essential piece of onboard equipment. Once the app is

installed, you simply input your name and phone number

into the app’s contact screen and when help is need, press

the ‘require assistance’ button.”

Some canals and canal locations

have romantic or rural-sounding

names and settings that are a

waterways event publicity

officer’s delight – how can you go

wrong with Little Venice, the

Stratford-upon-Avon Canal or the

Peak Forest? Some, on the other

hand, haven’t been dealt such a

good hand, and have to make the

best of what they’ve got. But if

you find yourself trying to sell an

event at the uninspiringly named

Gas Street Basin, the Chemical

Arm or Factory Junction, spare a

thought for the guys across the

Atlantic who were planning an

event on the USA’s wonderfully-

named Dismal Swamp Canal.

And came up with... wait for it...

Dismal Day! How can that

possibly be anything other than a

roaring success?

‘Unbelievable’ eel find in reservoir