Shire Cruisers Links

Virtual tours

For bridge-by-bridge pictures of all our northern waterways, see www.penninewaterways.co.uk.

Canal restoration

If you'd like to put something back into the canals you love, then join the waterway recovery group in its nationwide mission to restore the unrestorable. Today's navvies are the descendants of those who started the campaign to re-open the Huddersfield in 1974; truly, nothing is impossible. No previous experience is needed, and you will find fresh air and exercise with a difference; and navvies take their fun at least as seriously as their work. The most important national campaigning body, whose work is never done, is the Inland Waterways Association. Join today!

General canal and boating sites

There's a mine of information on Canal Junction (who masterfully mastermind our site), about canal history, engineering, customs, scenery, maps, and useful lists of boatyard services, hotel boats and independent hire fleets, all of good quality.

Northern canal societies

Local canal societies do essential work in promoting and conserving their waterways. These ones have websites:
Calder Navigation Society
Leeds & Liverpool Canal Society
Huddersfield Canal Society

General not-for-profit sites

The UK Waterways Web ring gives access to a sort of controlled anarchy, with as many different uncommercial slants on canal life as you can imagine, and all the canal societies. It includes an astonishing route planner canalplan.eu.
George's Canal Pages started it all on the internet and are more personal, including accounts of trips on canals all over the world, and discussion sections.

There's an interesting route planner using Google maps on narrowboats.org.

Canal & River Trust
The official Canal & River Trust site has lots of detail and good maps.

Historic boat

To catch up with a real preserved-but-active working narrow boat, look at MB Swallow, which lives at the Black Country Museum but travels widely round the system - and has visited Sowerby Bridge for the first time in its 75 year life.

Boating manners

For calm and useful advice on boating etiquette, see Considerate Boater.

Local tourism

Sowerby Bridge has a complete directory, and Hebden Bridge has the Hebweb.

For things to do round our local canals, see visitcalderdale.co.uk. Or discover everything that's going on in Yorkshire.com.

Boating holidays

For boating holidays elsewhere in the country, look at our colleagues in Drifters - Narrowboat and canal boating holidays in the UK. UK Canal boating holidays. Narrowboat and canalboat hire from the very best operators from a choice of 30 bases around Britain. Together we offer nationwide coverage of quality-assessed boats, with instant online availability.

We also recommend Heritage Narrow Boats on the Macclesfield Canal, offering the perfect start location to cruise the outstandingly beautiful Cheshire Plains. Do contact them. It would help if you could say you came from Shire Cruisers.

Walking holidays

For walking holidays with supreme organisation and your accommodation booked, use UK Exploratory and Alpine Exploratory.

Art projects

Look at the current project of Mosaic Maker to learn about art being planned for our sanitary station!