26: Bentley Canal About ½ mile from its junction with the BCN Anson Branch. This is the boring end – all the locks were out west near the W&E. There's now a community orchard here, which is noice. 👌 And signage warning against antisocial motorcycle behaviour. #ukcanals #westmidlands #40before40

25: Hatherton Canal ...or at least the link between the Hatherton and Cannock Extension canals. Much like Richard III being found under that Leicester car park... guess what's under this parking bay at KFC in Cannock! It's only Churchbridge Lock #4!!! #ukcanals #staffordshire #40before40

24: Cannock Extension Canal Suspiciously parked on the bridge to capture this 30-second exposure at about 8pm. Had to forgo getting the Curly Wyrley after this due to a road closure :( #ukcanals #Staffordshire #40before40

23: Chard Canal Visited the canal 6 years ago but a slog down the A303 yesterday allowed a stop at the Ilminster inclined plane. This incline (one of four on the canal) lifted tub boats 82' up Herne Hill towards Chard. #40before40 #ukcanals #somerset

22: Croydon Canal Just 27 years in use... abandoned in 1836, the first to be done so by an act of parliament Here it is running alongside Betts Park in Anerley. Ripples from a disturbed moorhen... #40before40 #ukcanals

21: River Wye It was navigated as far back as when Edward the Confessor had iron shipped from the forest to Gloucester. Here is Weir End. Gonna guess there was a flash lock nearby (once upon a time before trows and barges were replaced by canoes and kayaks) #40before40 #ukwaterways #herefordshire

20: Lydney Canal 🎵 Whoaaaa we're halfway there 🎵 Here's the tidal basin – the gates onto the Severn are in the background. Apparently they're borked so the basin isn't usable and is chock full of river gunk. The lock is just to the right. #40before40 #ukcanals #gloucestershire

19: Pidcock's Canal Short tub boat canal serving ironworks and collieries up and around the Lyd valley. Perhaps misnamed as it predated the Pidcocks' management of the forges... should be Tanner's Canal! These photos are the cut passing through Lydney. #40before40 #ukcanals #gloucestershire

18: North Wilts Canal Shortish canal linking the W&B and T&S. Love this stretch down to the aqueduct over the Thames (not as grand as it may sound!). First time back since 2020. Lots going on here – junction, aqueduct, lock, basin! #40before40 #ukcanals #wiltshire #almostgloucestershire

17: Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Stanley Locks, connecting the canal to Stanley Docks. Some wicked 1840s buildings going on here! #leedsandliverpoolcanal #ukcanals #40before40

16: Andover Canal Not much to explore on this – taken over by the railway, then that too was removed and most now on private land. But a rainy September drive through Clatford meant one thing... a climb through brambles! Last photo is at Rooksbury Mill in 2020. #40before40 #hampshire #andover

15: Maidenhead Waterways Here, the York Stream and Moor Cut meet and become the Brat Cut. The Weir has boat rollers, but there are plans for a pound lock here to eventually link the town's waterways ring with the Thames. #ukcanals #40before40 #berkshire

#14: Grand Junction Canal Splitting the GU up for this seems sensible (my game, my rules!) Startops End Bridge, with its double arch – on the right, the extant wide lock. On the left, the infilled and short-lived narrow lock. #ukcanals #40before40 #buckinghamshire #hertfordshire

#13: Aylesbury Arm Another GU arm... and treated to a staircase lock at the top! Wouldn't want to travel the pound between locks 3 and 4 at the moment. But that weeping willow 😍 #ukcanals #40before40 #buckinghamshire

#12: Wendover Canal Lovely short arm of the GU, winding past the old Tring Mill buildings on the way to Tringford Pumping Station. Plenty of damsons too – lavly! #ukcanals #40before40 #hertfordshire #buckinghamshire

A hint of the autumn to come this morning. LOVE IT. #ukcanals #berkshire

#11: Stratford-upon-Avon Canal One of my faves in the midlands. Just wandered from the Avon up the first 4 locks – the lock off the river (into the basin) is broad, the rest narrow... Check out the balance beam at Maidenhead Road Lock!!! #40before40 #stratforduponavoncanal #warwickshire #ukcanals

#10: Oxford Canal Despite being relatively local, I've only visited 3 times and only boated once (even then, it was from Duke's Cut to Jericho). Had a lovely pint at the Jolly Boatman at Thrupp this week. Lock and house photo from Nell Bridge Lock in 2020. #40before40 #oxfordcanal #oxfordshire

#9: Stroudwater Navigation Originally surveyed by John Hore - him off of the Kennet and the Avon (but not the Kennet and Avon) fame. Two photos of John Robinson Lock during a Feb 2023 visit with @paulwhitewick.bsky.social and @courtabovethecut.bsky.social #40before40 #ukcanals #gloucestershire

#8: Portsmouth and Arundel Canal I've explored a lot of this – Chichester Basin, the two locks on Portsea Island and the two near Chi – but this is finishing the job... The two locks near Ford. One is under that meadow somewhere! And I'm now 20% complete! #40before40 #ukcanals #westsussex

#7: Rother Navigation Nestled in W Sussex, the river was made navigable to connect Midhurst with the Arun, therefore giving it access to the both the sea and the country's waterways network. This is Coultershaw Lock – a fab little area of industrial heritage! #40before40 #ukcanals #westsussex

#6: Coombe Hill Canal This short canal was built in 1796 to serve Cheltenham with coal. It had one lock off the Severn, and terminated in a basin on the Tewkesbury–Gloucester rd. The lock was borked by a winter storm in 1876 and was never navigable again. #40before40 #ukcanals #gloucestershire

#5: Thames and Severn Canal By fluke I found myself near a part of the T&S I'd yet to visit – the Smerrill Aqueduct. It was built to cross the road from Cirencester to Kemble. It had a single arch and a stop lock, but now only the embankment remains. #ukcanals #Thamesandseverncanal #40before40

#4: Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal The Bye Street locks, nestled in a cutting in Ledbury. Less than 90 years after the canal opened, in the 1890s the canal was infilled and they plonked a railway there instead. #ukcanals #Herefordshire #Gloucestershire #40before40

#3: Parole d'oro I never said the canals had to be navigable! Parole d'oro is named after the "golden words" on the bridge at the waterworks south of Lucca, Tuscany. Waters from the hills north of Pisa collect in these canals, before running down the Nottolini Aqueduct #40before40 #italiancanals

#2: Paddington Arm That way, Birmingham! Short wander around #LittleVenice today. Stopping off at the stop lock/toll house before wine and cheese pairing on the Cheese Barge. #ukcanals #40before40

#1: Neath Canal Four locks on the canal near Glynneath today. I think a lot of the canal above these locks is infilled; there were four more locks that lifted it up into Glynneath but these are really easily accessible. And a bit of wild garlic at Maes-Gwyn Lock 👌 #ukcanals #southwales #40before40

At some point in the next 18 months I'll be turning 40. I've decided to set myself the challenge of visiting 40 different canals before then. No real rules – obvs disused is better – but anything goes! Rather arbitrarily, it starts today... #ukcanals #40before40

Annual walk along the Basingstoke Canal at Up Nately for wild garlic picking. Three vats of pesto and a freezer full of garlic butter (frozen in ice cube trays). 👌 #ukcanals #hampshire #foraging #wildgarlic

Checkin' on the sluices #ukcanals #kennetandavon

I think the lock's probably full enough! #ukcanals #stormbert

A hole in the woods... 8ft across and over 100ft deep. Down there is the Sapperton Tunnel – over two miles long with the best pair of tunnel portals going #ukcanals #tunnel

It's frosty out! -1°c yesterday morning on the K&A. #ukcanals #brrrrrr

Another abandoned lock chamber... always loved this shot as it looks more like some sort of ruin hidden in a tropical rainforest than a canal lock in #somerset #ukcanals #canal

Few things I enjoy more than bunging my boots on and walking through a disused lock chamber! Visited this one – Llanthony Lock near Gloucester – back in May 2021. #gloucester #gloucestershire #severn #ukcanals

And finally, the easternmost one is at Inglesham where the T&S meets the Thames. CCT had an open day there in 2022, so seeing the lock and roundhouse, both of which are on private land and normally inaccessible – was pretty spesh! #disusedcanals #thamesandsevern #riverthames #gloucestershire

Second to last is the one in Chalford. You can walk *right next to it* but it's hard to see it, hidden behind high hedges and trees. It's now part of a private residence. #disusedcanals #thamesandsevern #gloucestershire

And here's the one at Marston Meysey, over the border into Wiltshire. There's not much of the canal to explore in this area, and the roundhouse is on private land. It's been extended into a much bigger house, and can be seen from the adjacent footpaths. #disusedcanals #thamesandsevern #wiltshire

You didn't ask for it, but you're getting it: the other roundhouses on the Thames and Severn Canal. This one is Coates, on the summit (near Sapperton Tunnel). It's the only derelict one and the only one not Grade 2 listed. #disusedcanals #thamesandsevern #gloucestershire

I love walking the Thames and Severn Canal. This is Cerney Wick Lock and its roundhouse – one of five on the canal. The daytime photo is from back in 2020; I drove past late one night last week and took a long-exposure shot on my phone – it was pitch black so I didn't see too much! #disusedcanals

Love these autumnal mornings! 🍂

I've got loads of stuff in my 'archive'. Books, maps, stuff. This is one of my favourites – a token paid to workers on the T&S in 1795. (1/2) #yourarchive #archive30

First of the seniors through Aldermaston Lock in this year's DW

This is looking down Barrow Hill near Frome. The Dorset and Somerset Canal needed to drop about 140ft down the hill, so a 'flight' of four lifts (plus a fifth a short distance away) was planned.

I recently stopped off at Nynehead boat lift on the Grand Western Canal. The waterway had eight of these bad bois. The south west is definitely the land of boat lifts – the Grand Western, Dorset and Somerset, and Somerset Coal Canal all had a stab at this sort of thing.

Funny what chatting to people does... I'm down south west at the moment, and en route wanted to stop off at the Looe and Liskeard Canal at Terras Bridge. I took this photo, and saw people in the back garden if the house. "Do you mind me taking a photo?" I asked out of courtesy... #ukcanals

A crap photo, granted – but I've never seen a cormorant use a mooring bollard as a stool

Mistybobs this morning

I prolly should've finished this. Or find a way to cross-post from the Elon Musk vanity platform to here...

The twelve aqueducts of Christmas Day 9: Dundas Aqueduct One of the famous ones again, this one's on the K&A. It's got three arches – the main one over the Avon and the west over the railway. You can walk under the east arch and it's LITTERED with mason marks... (1/3)