{"id":773,"date":"2016-06-18T22:43:06","date_gmt":"2016-06-18T21:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/?p=773"},"modified":"2016-06-18T22:55:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-18T21:55:09","slug":"urban-degradation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/?p=773","title":{"rendered":"Urban Degradation"},"content":{"rendered":"

We left our mooring on the Peak Forest Canal and turned into the Aston Canal which we had heard was not one of the best. \u00a0Our initial impression was “well this is actually quite nice”.<\/p>\n

\"Day<\/a>
A Pleasant View At The Turn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The towpath was well surfaced with pleasant grounds to the side and lights inset\u00a0at regular intervals. \u00a0Unfortunately after an hour we came across our first hazard and it became clear that little was being done to keep the canal clear or to maintain the locks. \u00a0Several paddles were not working and some gates were extremely hard work.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a>
How Long Has This Been Here?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And it became clear that people were getting concerned about security.<\/p>\n

\"Keep<\/a>
Keep Out – We Are Watching You.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We then found ourselves in increasingly dull industrial surroundings.<\/p>\n

\"Day<\/a>
Not Quite So Pretty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A large tree had obviously been left across the canal for some time.<\/p>\n

\"Too<\/a>
Too Big For Our Saw<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The\u00a0industrial past begins to close in.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Dinge Continues<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It becomes more and more gloomy and the crew begins to look as if the strain is telling as the trudge their weary way to the next lock. \u00a0How many more? Dunno but it’s 27 all told today!<\/p>\n

\"Are<\/a>
Are We There Yet?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were not aware that there were temporary closures between locks 2 and 1 as the wall in the pound was being rebuilt so we had to wait for an hour or so which was not too bad.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A Slight Hold Up<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The “underground” section at Ducie Street after the Piccadilly Basin was frankly awful. \u00a0It was dark, \u00a0inhabited by prostitutes and druggies and very intimidating. \u00a0The “anti vandal locks” had been vandalised and could not be released. \u00a0This made the\u00a0paddles inoperable and the only reason we could get through was that the water was flooding over the top of the gates. \u00a0It took two people to open one gate and leaving the boat without anyone on board would have been very risky. \u00a0We all agreed that this area is not worth tackling\u00a0\u00a0with only two people on board. \u00a0The whole area seems to have been left to decay after the end of the Olympics and the locks have\u00a0had no maintenance since then.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to all members of the crew for stalwart efforts throughout the day.<\/p>\n

We were very relieved to reach Castlefield Quay where we found one of a very few empty spaces. \u00a0Only two boats got in during the next 24 hours and they both moored just behind us on what we understood to be private land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We left our mooring on the Peak Forest Canal and turned into the Aston Canal which we had heard was not one of the best. \u00a0Our initial impression was “well this is actually quite nice”. The towpath was well surfaced with pleasant grounds to the side and lights inset\u00a0at regular intervals. \u00a0Unfortunately after an hour … Continue reading Urban Degradation<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leeds-2016"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8PLyH-ct","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":785,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions\/785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toby200.net\/oliver\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}