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 Not
just the canal architecture architecture and engineering is over
two hundred years old. The natural environment is also often
much as it was then, and had been for centuries before.
Canal towpaths, embankments and cuttings have
not been cultivated and chemically treated like the rest of the
countryside. Hedgerows, frequently uprooted to make larger more
profitable fields, still line the canals. Wild flowers no longer
common in intensively farmed meadows, still grow in profusion
along canal and river banks. The canals form linear parkways,
extending across wide varieties of landscape, from watermeadows
to moorland, through peat, chalk, gravel and granite, and so
play host to an enormous range of flora and fauna, often
reaching right into city centres. (Photo on left Tony Lewery)
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Although
the water in canals may sometimes look muddy it is actually
usually fairly unpolluted. Unlike rivers, canals do not
carry industrial waste or drainage away from cities. Canals have
their own reservoirs, although it must be admitted that they
sometimes take the purified waste water from sewage treatment
plants, this water has to comply with strict cleanliness
standards. Hence the canals support large numbers of birds which
feed off fish or other water creatures or plants. You can see
swans, ducks, moorhens, coots, herons and possibly the blue
flash of a kingfisher as it skims the canal ahead of your boat. |
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Canal
towpaths and surrounding areas support a large variety of
wildlife, some easier to see than others. Summer days
bring out butterflies and dragonflies, evenings you may hear
frogs and toads croaking in the rushes, foxes barking or badgers
howling in the woods. You may see bats flitting through the
dark, many living in old buildings near canals and some in
tunnels such as Barnton and Saltersford Tunnels on the Trent and
Mersey Canal which have their own resident populations. (The
rare pipistrelle bat in this case.) Watervoles can be seen
swimming across the canal, although the voracious mink has taken
a heavy toll on their numbers. Grey squirrels are common
in most woods, red squirrels less so these days. You may even be
lucky enough to see a stoat or weasel out hunting. |
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Fishing
is said to be the most popular leisure activity in Britain, a
statistic you can understand when you cruise though a fishing
competition where the anglers go on for miles! Most
stretches of canal have fishing rights owned by an angling
association. Some will sell day permits. The canal is often
specially stocked with fish by the association so they are keen
that only their members benefit. As well as the good sport, the
canals provide pleasant and tranquil surroundings, a pleasant
escape for many town and city dwellers. Common fish include
roach. bream, carp, chub, perch and pike. Most anglers have
their own favourite spots to fish, avoid places like bridges or
locks where boats will get in your way and you will get in
theirs. |
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