The new Lock 3E is complete but does not yet have gates as sheet piles are presently being stored across the lock awaiting use in the construction of the second phase of the tunnel under Sellers Engineering. Concrete wash walls are being built to link the lock head with the concrete channel that passes behind Wickes store.

The new building constructed for Sellers Engineering is now in use. The old buildings it replaces are in the process of demolition. When this site is clear, work on the second phase of the tunnel will begin. Work is slightly behind time and it is going to be a tight schedule to get the work completed by the end of April. This is likely to be the last part of the restoration to be completed.
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I have recently added a new section to the website to cover the restoration of the Rochdale Canal. This consists at the moment mainly of "before" pictures at all the main locations where work is to take place. Although work to build a new bridge at Smithy Bridge near Hollingworth Lake was due to begin in December, nothing has happened yet. Restoration of Lock 83, near Ancoats in Manchester, is nearly complete.
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/rochdale
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The Rochdale and Ashton Canal sections have had a facelift, with improved appearance and navigation. More photographs have been added to the Rochdale Canal virtual cruise.

I previously announced that I had added links to Ordnance Survey Maps covering the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. I have now also added such links to the Rochdale Canal and Ashton Canal pages. These are provided by streetmap.co.uk and can be seen free on-line although they take a minute or two to download. These links can be seen at
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/rochdale
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/ashton
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The automatic countdown to the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal on the restoration menu page is at present reading "Only 0 years, 3 months, and 25 days left until the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal!"

The new Tesco Store opens on February 12th. Pedestrian access to the Tesco car park is being permitted, but the towpath remains closed until work on a wall near the ramp up to Mottram Road is completed.
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It was previously noted that the restored Lock 21W (Wade Lock) in Uppermill has been fitted with its new lock gates. This included a balance beam which is obstructed by a new wall. This turns out to have been a "misunderstanding" and the gate is, after all, to have a mechanical form of operation!
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In the last newsletter I mentioned that I have added a new section to cover the restoration of the Rochdale Canal.
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/rochdale
You might find it interesting to hear about some of the schemes.

One of the difficulties posed by the restoration is the fact that the M62 motorway was built across the canal. Luckily, a short distance to the east of the canal a farm access tunnel was constructed beneath the motorway. This is to be used for the canal's new route. This will mean building a new road parallel with the motorway to provide access for the farms. In order to provide sufficient depth for the canal through the tunnel, this section of canal needs to be a few feet higher. This will be achieved by building a new lock just south of the tunnel, with a rise of just a few feet. The channel from there to Lock 53, about 200 metres north of the motorway, will need to be raised by several feet. The fall in Lock 53 will therefore be reduced.

Another difficulty is caused by the fact that the tunnel slopes slightly. This means that the headroom through the tunnel will be less than the standard headroom for the canal. However, a restored bridge in Todmorden already has a reduced headroom, so this had had to be accepted. The tunnel is not wide enough for a towpath as well. On option under consideration is for a section of floating towpath that could be removed to allow the passage of full width boats. The most likely solution, however, seems to be the diversion of the towpath route along the farm access road to Manchester Road and back along the other side of the motorway.

The alternative solution for the M62 crossing was to divert the canal to the west, re-locating Locks 53 and 54 south of the motorway, with the canal crossing the motorway on an aqueduct alongside the railway bridge, returning along a raised channel to the original route before the road bridge in Castleton. This was rejected due to the high cost of that solution.
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I have started a new Web Ring for web sites covering places in the Pennines. It is called the "Pennine" web ring and already has 17 sites taking part. I invite you to click on the "Ring Hub" link on the ring panels (on the main index page and also the links page) and visit some of the interesting and varied sites that have joined. If anyone has a web site covering a Pennine-related topic, please consider joining the ring as a way to bring in additional visitors to your site.
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The automatic countdown to the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal on the restoration menu page is at present reading "Only 0 years, 3 months, and 11 days left until the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal!"

The restoration is running behind its original schedule and the new date for completion and through navigation is June 2002. I shall have to rig up one of those countdown gismos on the Rochdale pages!

An interesting piece of news concerns the bridge at Grimshaw Lane / Foxdenton Lane near Middleton Junction. This former hump bridge has been levelled at towpath level. It is to be replaced with a lift bridge. Rather than being "hinged" at one end, the entire bridge will rise to allow the passage of boats. Boaters would operate the bridge by using a swipe card. Sensors would detect when a boat had passed through and the bridge would automatically lower.

Coverage of the Rochdale Canal restoration will be found at
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/rochdale/rc10.htm
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The automatic countdown to the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal on the restoration menu page is at present reading "Only 0 years, 2 months, and 24 days left until the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal!" If I had one for the Rochdale Canal, it would say something like "Only 1 years, 3 months, and 11 days left until the re-opening of the Rochdale Canal!"

It was found that despite sealing and grouting that had already taken place, some water was seeping out through the lock chamber walls of both Lock 7W and Lock 5W. Additional grouting has had to be injected into the ground alongside these locks. A wheelchair-accessible ramp may be constructed between the towpath and the Back Melbourne Street car park near Somerfield.
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The bridge at High Street, Uppermill, is now complete. The towpath has been re-opened and the bridge tunnel is in water. The viewing area being constructed above the south portal is awaiting railings around the side.

The roadway across the bridge has been restored to two-way traffic with the traffic-signals removed. The approach of vehicles to the village has been slowed down by having to steer to the left around a small traffic island and then to the right where the pavement has been extended into the roadway. This has allowed the wall next to the tail gates of Lock 21W (Wade Lock) to be modified. The gate can now open and close fully. It has a very short balance beam and I am told that a hand-operated geared mechanical device will be fitted to assist the operation of the gate on the east side. Some minor finishing work to this lock is still taking place.
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In Slaithwaite, too, the contractors are almost finished. Some stonework is still to be completed to the bridge at Platt Lane and railings at Platt Lane and Old Bank are not quite complete. Some finishing work is taking place to Lock 21E and 22E.
Lock 21E, which had been restored previously, is undergoing minor repairs and pointing.
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In Huddersfield, the second phase of the tunnel at Sellers' Engineering is back on schedule after some delays around Christmas. The first phase was completed last year but the second phase could not be started until a new building was complete, allowing the demolition of old buildings. Two rows of piles were sunk which will become the tunnel walls. The concrete framework for the tunnel roof is in place and most of the ground between the tunnel walls has been excavated. A concrete base is being laid along the floor of the tunnel. Concrete slabs will be placed onto the roof framework to complete the tunnel. It is not expected to be complete until April.

The two new locks are complete and the press were invited to an "opening" of Lock 2E. The tunnel below Bates & Co. is complete. The channel between Queen Street South Bridge and the original Lock 2E is almost complete with minor finishing work to complete. Wire mesh is being fitted to the channel sides below the wooden fenders or rubbing strip. The recesses created by the shape of the sheet piles which form the wall are being filled with stones and will be planted with aquatic plants when the pound is filled with water.
Pictures of the work in Huddersfield were added to the website on February 21st. More pictures should be added in April.
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As work on the Huddersfield draws to an end, work on the Rochdale will start. The major schemes are scheduled to begin in June 2001 with a completion date of June 2002. I am hoping to be able to keep you updated on the Rochdale work.
Coverage of the Rochdale Canal restoration will be found at
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/rochdale/rc10.htm
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The automatic countdown to the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal on the restoration menu page is at present reading "Only 0 years, 1 months, and 20 days left until the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal!"

The only trouble is.... with much of the national canal network currently closed due to the Foot and Mouth epidemic, will the Huddersfield Canal be able to open on the planned date and will any boats be able to reach it from other canals?
Watch this space...

Some minor finishing work to Wade Lock (Lock 21W) is still taking place.
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In Slaithwaite, the stonework is still being completed to the bridge at Platt Lane. The railings at Platt Lane and Old Bank are now finished. Some finishing work is taking place to Lock 22E and 23E.
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Some news of the Rochdale Canal restoration, now: The construction of the new bridge at Smithy Bridge, near Hollingworth Lake, Rochdale, is now due to start on April 2nd. This is somewhat later than the planned start date of December. This will affect the start date of the Ben Healey bridge construction at Littleborough, which cannot begin until the Smithy Bridge work is complete.
Coverage of the Rochdale Canal restoration will be found at
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/rochdale/rc10.htm
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The big news in the waterway community at the moment is the effect on the canal system of the Foot and Mouth epidemic. Most canals throughout Britain have been closed to navigation and to towpath use. Some canals in urban area have remained open, such as the Ashton Canal and the "Rochdale Nine" section in Manchester. Elsewhere, towpaths in urban areas are often open while the towpaths in rural areas are closed. It seems likely that in the near future, some canals away from F&M outbreaks will re-open for navigation, but not for towpath use (i.e: walking, fishing, cycling).

More information can be found at
http://www.british-waterways.org/
and http://www.maff.gov.uk/
A summary of information for boat owners can be found at http://www.nabo.org.uk

The question on the minds of many visitors to the Pennine Waterways website must be whether this will affect the opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. At the moment, the only news I can offer is that the canal itself may open on time but the official opening may be postponed until a less delicate time.
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I must apologise to visitors to the website that there was a serious "outage" last week. The server that hosts Pennine Waterways, Ashton-under-Lyne.com and Searchbox was out of action between Friday and Monday. This was completely beyond my control and I am sorry for any loss of enjoyment over the weekend. I was not able to upload last week's major update of pictures in Stalybridge until Monday night.

One curious point is that for the last few weeks, my alternative URL, http://www.penninewaterways.com/ has been giving access to the version of the site that was lost in the big server crash of June 2000! I no longer have access to that server, so cannot update the pages. I am trying to get the URL pointed to the correct server, so this phenomenon will not last for long, but if you want a journey back in time to recall the state of the Huddersfield Canal last June or to recall my older style of web page design then give the above link a go!
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The automatic countdown to the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal on the restoration menu page is at present reading "Only 0 years, 1 months, and 6 days left until the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal!"
Anyone getting excited?

The Diggle Flight would remain closed until operations begin in Standedge Tunnel in May. I believe the tug boats will be arriving at Marsden soon and crew training on the boats will begin. The visitor centre will open once the tugs/tripboat are operating, as a trip into the tunnel will be part of the visitors' experience.

The eastern end of the canal will not be ready until the end of April. I should have some new pictures on the website of the nearly-completed work in Huddersfield in around 10 days.
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I have added a new feature to the Pennine Waterways web site - canal "wallpaper" for your computer desktop! A selection of photographs will be available in larger format to use as a backdrop for your computer desktop screen instead of a plain background. I will add to these as time permits, especially as I get photographs of boats using the Huddersfield Narrow. Check them out at: http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/wallpaper
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The Foot and Mouth precautions continue to dominate the news in the waterways community. Initially, most canals were closed to navigation and towpath use, except for a few totally urban canals, such as the Ashton. British Waterways have been commissioning risk assessments on each section of canal. Many sections of canal are now being brought back into use although most of the towpaths will remain closed as a precaution. In some areas boaters will be asked not to moor. The only canal in the Pennine area that will still have sections closed to navigation due to Foot and Mouth will be the Leeds and Liverpool.

More information can be found at http://www.british-waterways.org/
and http://www.maff.gov.uk/
A summary of information for boat owners can be found at
http://www.nabo.org.uk
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The automatic countdown to the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal on the restoration menu page is at present reading "Only 0 years, 0 months, and 29 days left until the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal!"

The rest of the canal between Dobcross and Huddersfield will open on May 1st. This includes Standedge Tunnel and the Standedge Visitor Centre at Tunnel End.

The pressure to open waterways follows the almost total closure of the canal network as part of the Foot and Mouth Disease precautions. The effect of this on the businesses and tourism based on canals was going to be enormous so risk assessments were ordered for each canal. Those deemed not to be a high risk are being re-opened, although in some cases towpaths will remain closed.

The premature opening of the western part of the canal has caused some confusion and problems. One newspaper had apparently reported that the entire canal was opening. Some people who had hoped to be there with the first boats were unable to change their plans in time. One council was upset because it had planned a photo-opportunity in May with the mayor being on one of the first boats. A British Waterways employee was painting the lock number on the balance beams of Wade Lock only moments before the fist boat entered the lock! Additional grouting work to Lock 5W had only just been completed.

The Huddersfield Canal Society's boat, planned to be the first through Stalybridge, was away for painting, so they had to use a boat they are leasing. The first boats through Lock 4W had to wait while the pound above the lock was filled. It had to be emptied when it was discovered that steel props were still in place adjacent to Lock 5W.

On the positive side, the opening has enabled British Waterways staff to be transferred from Tunnel End to help ensure the smooth operation of the locks.

Best of all for you as a visitor to Pennine Waterways - the opening has happened on a day when I was not working, so I have been able to get some wonderful photographs for you to enjoy!

I have organised these pictures into sections:
- the first three boats through Stalybridge
- the first working boat through Stalybridge
- the first horse-drawn boat through Stalybridge
- the first boat through Wade Lock (21W)
- a boater's-eye view of the passage through High Street Bridge, Uppermill.

All the photographs can be found by following the link at
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/latest or by going directly to
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/huddersfield/open01.htm
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The first boat along the canal from Ashton and through Lock 4W was Astra, owned by Ed Mortimer and currently being leased to Huddersfield Canal Society. It was accompanied by Water Gypsy and Music Maker.

The fourth boat through was the Wooden Canal Boat Society's Forget-Me-Not, carrying a load of timber to their new heritage boat yard above Lock 7W, claiming the title of first loaded boat through the newly restored section of canal. As mentioned above, the pound above Lock 4W had to be re-filled quickly to allow the first boats through.

Unfortunately the pound above Lock 5W was then lower than normal and Forget-me-not had difficulty getting over the cill as it left the lock. One of the stop planks had been left in place in case further work needs to be done to Lock 5W and because the boat was heavily loaded, a board had to be put in front of the by-wash sluice to raise the water level in the pound high enough.
The Wooden Canal Boat Society has a web site at
http://www.wcbs.org.uk
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The following day the first horse-drawn boat was taken through the newly restored section through Stalybridge. This was Olive, a 1929 railway boat also owned by Ed Mortimer, carrying the restored canal's first commercial load - a large girder originally part of Melbourne Street bridge! Olive was towed by Bonny the Boat Horse, driven by Sue Day. The boat was crewed by members of the Horse Boating Society.

The Horse Boating Society can contacted at mailto:ray.butler@dial.pipex.com

Last year, Bonny, with Sue, towed Britain's oldest surviving narrowboat, Maria (built in 1854 and owned by the Ashton Packet Boat Company), 310 miles from Ashton under Lyne to London. This voyage included the boat being legged through Braunston and Blissworth tunnels.

Sue has sought permission for Society members to leg Maria through Standedge Tunnel as one of the opening events. British Waterways were delighted and gave permission for a one-way legged passage on May 1st to add to the opening celebrations, even adding that they hoped such events could take place again from time to time.

However, British Waterways have today withdrawn permission on "health and safety" grounds. The boat was to have been legged by experienced leggers, taking turns. British Waterways staff were invited to be on board. The event would have attracted national media publicity. The Society will appeal against this decision. Anyone willing to support this appeal should contact Ray Butler at the above email address.
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In the next few days I am hoping to have some new pictures of the work still in progress at Bates and Sellers in Huddersfield. I am expecting that to be my last progress report on the HCS restoration work. The next pictures from Huddersfield, Slaithwaite, etc will hopefully include boats!
Just as I think I can have a rest, work begins on the re-building of bridges on the Rochdale...
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I have improved the Links Page on Pennine Waterways by organising the ever-growing list of links into categories. I hope this will make this page more useful and easier to use. Please let me know of any links you think I should include there.
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/links

Coming soon! I am preparing some new pages showing "before and after" photos of the HCS restoration, and a table of distances, lock names, etc.
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More information about the Foot and Mouth situation can be found at
http://www.british-waterways.org/ and
http://www.maff.gov.uk/
A summary of information for boat owners can be found at http://www.nabo.org.uk
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The automatic countdown to the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal on the restoration menu page is at present reading "Only 0 years, 0 months, and 19 days left until the *complete* re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal!"

By now you will be aware that the entire length of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal is open! The section between Ashton and Wool Road, Dobcross, was opened on April 9th while the remainder, including Standedge Tunnel, opened as planned on May 1st. Also opened on May 1st was the Standedge Visitor Centre at Tunnel End.

It has taken me until today to send you this newsletter as I have had a busy week. Unfortunately, I was at work each day, but have been very lucky to receive photographs from other people for use on the site. On May 1st, I travelled across to Huddersfield, Milnsbridge and Marsden after work, not expecting to find anything to see, and was amazed to arrive at Tunnel End at 6.50 pm and find myself just in time to see the first boats emerging from the tunnel! More about this further down...

I have created a series of new web pages to display pictures of the boat movements on the canal. These can be reached by clicking
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/huddersfield/open01.htm

I have organised these pictures into sections. In April I offered:
- the first three boats through Stalybridge
- the first working boat through Stalybridge
- the first horse-drawn boat through Stalybridge
- the first boat through Wade Lock (21W)
- a boater's-eye view of the passage through High Street Bridge, Uppermill

To these I have now added:
- the Mayor of Tameside's official cruise
- the Mayor of Kirklees opens Bates' and Sellers' Tunnels
- the first boats through Huddersfield
- the first boats through Standedge Tunnel
- the new Standedge Visitor Centre
- the first boats at other locations on the canal - problems on the canal in the first week of May
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The opening of Standedge Tunnel was the big media event on the canal on May 1st, with television and press waiting eagerly at Tunnel End. The first tow of boats departed from Diggle at around 12.30 pm and were expected at Tunnel End some time after 3.00 pm. However, there was no sign of them, even at 4.00 pm, 5.00 pm, 6.00 pm...

Eventually, lights could be seen far inside the tunnel and, at around 7.00 pm, the tug emerged into daylight still towing the three boats that entered at Diggle. These were Wandering Star, Maria and Little Gypsy. A round of applause rippled around the watching crowd. The occasion was seen briefly on local television after the late evening news.

The main delay was apparently because of intruders in the tunnel. It seems that they entered via the active rail tunnel, then through the adits into a disused railway tunnel and then down to the canal tunnel. The tug operator heard them as he passed an adit. They then apparently opened a door which triggered the alarms. Rumours were also abounding that a stowaway was found on board one of the boats!

The passenger modules have not yet arrived so the boat crews have had to be taken over the "tops" by minibus. Trips into the tunnel from the Visitor Centre are at present being operated by the HCS boat "Pioneer" powered by one of the tugs.

Eventually, when the passenger modules arrive, it will be possible for passengers not arriving by boat to book places on passages through the tunnel, subject to space being available. This will be useful for people walking the length of the canal but who do not wish to walk up over Standedge.
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A number of difficulties marred the opening week of the east side of the canal. On the morning of May 1st it was discovered that the pound above Lock 4E had been drained, delaying the opening of the first section. In the end, the first boat up through Lock 1E to 3E was "Ogley" belonging to the Mayor of Kirklees, Ann Denham, at 11.30 am.

Those boats wanting to proceed beyond 4E had to wait until the water levels had risen sufficiently. Other boats turned back, but were unable to leave Lock 1E as a dredger has broken down across the entrance and could not be moved! The problem with refilling the drained pound meant that water levels were down in the pounds further up and the first boats only managed to struggle as far as Milnsbridge on the first day.

The next morning saw another surprise: rubbish had apparently prevented the paddle on Lock 1E closing properly and the pound above had drained, leaving several boats high and dry! BW have removed a number of objects from the lock, including a washing machine. Yesterday morning a diver cleared rubbish obstructing the gates and paddles.
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The first passage along the whole length of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal since 1948 was achieved on May 5th!

The horsedrawn boat "Maria" passed through Lock 1E at 10.30 am and moored overnight at Aspley Basin, ready to start the return today.

The journey would have been completed the previous afternoon but the boat has had to wait for rubbish, including a washing machine, to be cleared from Lock 1E.

The first complete passage from east to west is expected to be achieved by "The Boat" which is travelling from Stalybridge to Ashton today (6th May).

"Maria" was towed by Bonny the Boathorse, "driven" by Sue Day of the Horseboating Society. Sue has asked me to appeal for volunteers with boating experience to help crew the boat on its return journey from Huddersfield to Ashton this week, as fewer regular helpers are able to turn out on weekdays. Anyone interested can phone Sue on 07711 121056.

Further to the last newsletter: although Sue was refused permission to have "Maria" legged through Standedge on May 1st, BW are keeping open the possibility of this taking place at a future date. In view of other problems experienced on May 1st, BW was probably very wise not to allow it at that time.
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There is a problem on the Ashton Canal at the moment. The canal is temporarily closed as a building close to the canal has become dangerous.
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The automatic countdown to the re-opening of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal on the restoration menu page is at present reading... oh - it's gone!

The Stalybridge Festival took everyone who attended it by surprise with its enormous success. Everyone was commenting that there had never been so many people in Stalybridge town centre before. Judge for yourself by looking at the pictures on -
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/huddersfield/open21.htm
and also on the Stalybridge web site -
http://www.stalybridge.org.uk/aday.htm

Both sides of the canal between Armentieres Square and Mottram Road were lined with visiting boats. There were traditional fairground rides in Trinity Street and modern fairground attractions in Tesco car park. There were craft stalls and street entertainers, an ice skating rink and live performances on stage in Armentieres Square.

Marsden Shuttle and Astra provided short boat trips from Armentieres Square and were on the go all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Tom Pendry, the retiring MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, unveiled a commemorative plaque to open the new section of canal. Two local people unveiled plaques that will appear on two of the new bridges in the town, which will be named after them in recognition of the parts they have played in the return of the canal. They are Councillor Roy Oldham, Leader of Tameside Council and Chairman of the Huddersfield Canal Company, who has played an important role in securing the funding for the Stalybridge regeneration, and Frank Ruffley, former councillor, whose campaigning for the area's canals began with his support for the Peak Forest Canal when that was is danger of being closed down some 30 years ago. The opening and unveiling ceremonies can be seen at
http://www.penninewaterways.co.uk/huddersfield/open20.htm
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On the Rochdale Canal, work is beginning to take shape on the reconstruction of the bridges over the canal at Smithy Bridge and Ben Healy, Littleborough. Photographs of the work will be appearing on the Rochdale pages of Pennine Waterways in the next 24 hours.

Work on some of the major schemes in the Rochdale restoration is due to begin during June.
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A smart new booklet entitled "A Guide to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal" is available free from Tunnel End, Portland Basin and other local sources. It can also be obtained free by telephoning British Waterways on 0161 819 5847 or by emailing
enquiries.spring@britishwaterways.co.uk

Observant readers of the booklet will notice that several sections of the text have been taken from Pennine Waterways' pages and the companion Ashton under Lyne site. The publishers have not credited the source and British Waterways are asking them to print slips to be inserted into booklets not yet distributed.

A new online map guide to the Huddersfield Narrow Canal can be found by going to
http://www.waterwaysguides.co.uk and clicking "HNC".
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The horsedrawn boat "Maria", as reported in the last newsletter, was the first boat to make the complete passage along the full length of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. She has now returned to her base at Guide Bridge. On the way back from Huddersfield she had another eventful passage through Standedge Tunnel. The boat that she was being towed through with, called "Hieronymus Bosch" I believe, became jammed in the tunnel due to having a broad profile below the waterline. The two boats had to be backed out to Tunnel End again, and Maria did not appear at Diggle until six hours after starting off!

Maria was then present at the opening event at Uppermill on May 18th and at Stalybridge throughout the weekend of the Renaissance Festival. Visitors to the festival may well have seen me with Maria during that time! On Tuesday I helped crew her return to Guide Bridge, a journey which required two young recruits to leg her under Asda! I shall put some more photographs of Maria's journey on the web site shortly.

Those interested in the Horseboating Society may email
ray.butler@dial.pipex.com
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With the completion of the Huddersfield Narrow restoration, I am getting more time to catch up with other jobs on the web site. I have finally found time to change the Peak Forest pages into the current house style of the web site. I have decided to discontinue the "Latest" page and to concentrate on putting details of the latest information on the site's Home Page. This will include brief details of canal news or website changes with links to more details on other pages. I will develop a panel which will show what is new or changed on the site in response to requests.

The Discussion Board has had a regeneration. This has been forced on me by the announcement that Coolboard will stop providing their service after June. I have found a new provider called Aimoo and the new board, which is now working, has several differences:
- The messages are arranged in folders according to their topic.
- You will be able to see a message and its replies on screen at the same time.
- It does not have the pop-up ads that were becoming annoying with Coolboard.
It does also seem to be faster to load. Please visit it and try it out.

The simplest way to use it is simply to type your message into the panel. If you are feeling whizzy, you can experiment with altering the font, etc.
You will still be able to read the existing messages on the old discussion board until it vanishes, but will not be able to post new messages there.
Follow the links to the new or old boards on the Home Page.
(Please Note: The message board described above has since been replaced with a simpler one.)