Rochdale Canal Journey

In conjunction with the Rochdale Canal Festival, the Horseboating Society are travelling the length of the canal from Castlefield to Sowerby Bridge.

Boathorse Bilbo is towing the historic narrowboat Elland. Because Elland is only 60 ft in length, when the journey to Sowerby Bridge has been completed, it is intended to continue around the South Pennine Ring to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal.

A selection of photographs taken on the journey so far can be seen here in our Photo Gallery.


Travelling up the Littleborough flight. Photo: © BAC Photography

Rochdale Canal Journey Begins

On 21st July, Elland set off from Castlefield on a journey over the Rochdale Canal, the first stage of which included the section of canal running alongside Canal Street in Manchester.

The Waterways Trust supported the Horseboating Society in getting Manchester City Council to remove all tables and chairs off the towpath in Canal Street, Manchester so Bilbo could have a free passage to pull Elland up the Rochdale Nine during the Rochdale Canal Festival 2010.

However, note the posts which the council are refusing to remove which interfere with towline use. The posts have tiny notices at the top, warning people not to climb the new high railings!

This was probably the first time in ten years that a horse-drawn boat has had unblocked passage on the towpath of Canal Street, usually totally taken over by cafe and bar furniture. Thank you, TWT, for your support.


Canal Street Photo: Keith Hallam

Canal Street Photo: Keith Hallam

Lock 86 Photo: Keith Hallam

Piccadilly Lock Photo: Keith Hallam

A selection of photographs taken on the journey so far can be seen here in our Photo Gallery.

Horses at Work event

The Horseboating Society joined the Boat Museum Society and the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port to put on the first Horses at Work event there.

Bonny the Boathorse was pleased to be back in harness for two demonstrations on the day – a harnessing demo followed by the short pull to the winding hole and back to the museum.

Bonny has done little boating since 2008 due to having two foals. With a third foal due in August, the short journey was just right “to keep her hand (hoof) in”. The third foal will be Bonny’s last foal, so she will return to horseboating more fully in 2011. The photos show Bonny’s rotund appearance as she proudly carries her foal. Nothing like getting her foals started early – horseboating while in the womb!

Note the period clothing worn with crew of Gifford. The boat was built in 1926 so Victorian clothing is inappropriate. Women wore a floral dress and a pinny.

Other work horses in attendance were a grey Shire mare with a dray of full sacks ready for unloading to a warehouse or boat, and a cob with a bread van . In addition there were horses and ponies from the Parkgate Horse Rescue Centre, reminding people that horses require much love, care and attention.

The event brought in visitors who came especially to see horses at work and to learn about the activity of horseboating, now so seldom seen. A coach party came from the North Counties Heavy Horse Society. Those able to walk the distance followed the horse-drawn boat to the winding hole and back. A great many photos were taken.

The General Manager of the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port is interested in repeating a similar type of event in the future. The HBS received the following thanks from organiser, Ken Catford, who is an HBS member and former BMS chairman.

“Thank you very much for participating in the Horses at Work event. We were very pleased with the day, with a good number of visitors over and above a normal Sunday. I think it met the objective of illustrating the importance of horses in the history of the canals, the docks and the local community.”


Demonstrating traditional boathorse harnessing. Photo: Ken Catford

Demonstrating horseboating – Bonny sets off with Gifford. Photo: Ken Catford

Bonny the boathorse takes Gifford along the canal. Photo: Ken Catford

Period clothing for 1926. Bonny due to foal in August.. Photo: Ken Catford

Really Sad News

Obituary by Sue Day

Jayne Bradley’s horse PRINCE, a Clydesdale at 16.3hh, had to be put to sleep on the morning of Sunday May 16th. Prince will be sorely missed by all who knew this gentle giant.

Prince was well known at the Black Country Living Museum where Jayne had been head horse-keeper for 8 years, and she worked Prince there in many ways, pulling a cart, dray, omnibus, or the ice-boat Ross. He gave the horseboating demo with Ross at the first Horseboating Society AGM at the BCLM in 2002.

Out of the museum, he had pulled both steamboat President and horseboat Kildare to a local yard for repairs.

He attended the Parkhead Festival every two years where he worked on the top lock, demonstrating the use of a pulley wheel to send a boat out of the lock in the opposite direction to the way the horse was walking.

Prince worked under the HBS banner in September 2009 when he pulled a loaded boat of the Coombeswood Trust to the Windmill Festival. Loaded with about 17 tons, Prince travelled 3 miles in a charity pull, comparing times with a bow-hauled boat (manpower) and a motorboat (motor power). The boat was legged through Gosty Tunnel en route. To Jayne’s delight, Prince put in a winning time.

The report came to HBS:
“Prince had been out in the field with Shire horses Toby, Polly and also Barney but had been unable to get up in the morning of Sunday May 16th. We got the JCB and lifting ropes and the vet and seven people but he just could not put any weight on his legs once hoisted up. We all tried and tried but in the end the vet said that there was nothing more that could be done.”


Prince at Delph Locks in 2008.

Interesting To See

Polly Booth, of the Waterways Action Squad (ages 16-25) wrote –

I signed up to help the Horseboating Society because I was very interested to see this old style of boating in practice. I wasn’t sure what to expect before I arrived but I did imagine it to be very arduous for the horse. I was surprised that the boat glided effortlessly and Bilbo (the boat horse) didn’t seem to struggle at all. There was a gentle silence to the boat, which is not possible with a motored barge, and when we weren’t preoccupied with the locks it was relaxing to walk alongside it. I’d never operated a lock before so that was an experience in itself, some of them were quite easy but others were rusty and they posed a bit of a challenge.

When the narrowboat, horse and crew in (mostly) full Victorian dress passed through more urban areas the difference between old and new was striking and it made a nice image.

It was exciting to ride in the boat through a long, dark tunnel in Huddersfield, which had been especially built beneath a development to accommodate passing boats. There was no room for Bilbo who had to be taken along another route to meet us at the other side. Without the horse towing us members of the crew used poles against the side of the walls to push us along. I appreciated seeing this technique but I was quite glad we didn’t need to ‘leg’ the boat through. ‘Legging’ involves lying on the narrowboat and pushing it along a tunnel with your feet using the walls or ceiling. I wasn’t sure I was quite ready for the indignity of that!

It was an interesting day and I’d encourage anyone to have a look at horseboating in action if you get the chance.

Huddersfield and Back

On 22nd April 2010 the Horseboating Society set off from Guide Bridge on the Ashton Canal to make a return trip to Huddersfield by way of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal and Standedge Tunnel.

Maria was legged through Standedge Tunnel on April 25th in a record time for the Horseboating Society of 2 hours 20 minutes. The return through Standedge Tunnel will be on Bank Holiday Monday, 3rd May. (See “Events“)


Bilbo pulls “Maria” from Lock 7w, Stalybridge. Photo: Martin Clark

See Gallery section for more photographs.