Froghall Tunnel

There’s been rather a gap in our recent blogging as we managed to moor in a location with poor mobile reception every night on our recent trip.  One night there was no mobile, no data, no Freeview and no analogue TV. It was lovely and quiet at Consall Forge.

We’ve been filming along the Caldon Canal and wondering how far we would get as Froghall Tunnel, near the end, has an unusually low profile and many boats simply don’t fit through.

As you exit Flint Mill Lock, the last on the Caldon Canal there’s a gauge made of plastic sheets so you can check the profile of your boat and see if you fit through the tunnel.

We had stopped at the last water point to fill up the tank in our bows and had only one third of a tank of diesel at the stern to keep the front cabin corners, which are the highest part of our boat, as low as possible.  We just touched the plastic gauge which is said to be a few millimetres pessimistic so we might just fit.

With two crew members sitting at the front, and just the steerer at the stern we went in under electric power so we could go very, very slowly.

The tunnel gets narrower inside, as the photo shows if you click to enlarge it, and I’m pleased to say we got through the tunnel without touching the roof at all.  I’d been expecting to have to touch up the paintwork on the front corners.

The only problem was kneeling on the floor to keep my head low enough and holding a torch to shine along the roof to watch the front corners.

Having passed through the tunnel we could make the right turn onto the first part of the restored Uttoxeter Canal and descend the one lock to moor in the basin and take a photo to show we made it.

We passed lots of bloggers on our journey so now we’re home with lots of bandwidth I can publish some more posts to show who we met.

Now I’ve got a summer’s worth of filming to start editing to produce the next batch of DVDs during the winter.  Which shall I do first?

Posted on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 23:18       

 

Comment »

1. Hi there - wow! How fantastic getting through the tunnel, great photos. Love the one of you in the basin alone, we wonder when the last boat ‘made it’ through? Hope the preponderance of weeds didn’t bugger up your rudder!
   xx

   Comment by Sandra & Barry — On 28-09-09 at 08:32

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Category(s): Caldon , Uttoxeter