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Mystery photo challenge

A photo of a mystery location on the waterways will be featured in every IWA Bulletin. Send us your answer, as to where you think the photo below is, using the form below.

[If the form fails to send properly, or you have any difficulty with submission, please let us know at [email protected]]

Hint: This is a canalised river, leading from the sea to a small town. Part of the town is in the distance. The abutments in the middle distance were for a swing bridge, referred to on maps as a drawbridge.  The river was always navigable, but this 1,400 yard section was canalised in 1824 to improve access to the town. Can you name the canal and the town?

Send us your answer

Previous Answer

Hint: Where is this IWA event being held?  Bonus points if you know the name of the canal, what the event was, and which year it was held.

Answer: The photo shows moorings at the end of the Staffordshire Arm of the Bridgewater Canal in Castlefield, Manchester.  The Event was IWA North West Region’s Castlefield International Festival held on 1st to 3rd May 1993.  The photo was by the late Ian Gall, a key figure in the organisation of many of the Association’s most successful rallies and festivals in the late 20th century.  There is a plaque commemorating Ian’s contributions to the waterways nearby.

Location correctly guessed by: Heather Bacon-Campbell, Keith Barber, Harri & Rick Barnes, Malcolm Bridge, Ivan Cane, Ian Cleathero, Alan Dodds, George Eycott, John Fletcher, Rodney Hardwick, Heather Howarth, Martin Hunt, Andrew Lawton, Edd Leetham, David Mack, Andy McLaughlin, Andrew Roger Nuttall, Marion Pearse, Andrew Perry, John Revell, Penny Scott, Dave Turner, Paul White, Cyril Wood and Jack Wootton.  No one guessed the correct event and date – the 1988 National Festival, held at Castlefield, was a popular guess.

May 2025 Mystery Photo

Hint: This busy scenes shows working boats from a past era, but do you know where it is?  Bonus points if you know what the main commodity was and where it was going.

Answer: The photo is an aerial shot of Heybridge Basin on the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation, thought to be taken in the mid-1960s.  By this time, the only cargo carried on the Navigation was timber, which arrived by sea from Scandinavia, was trans-shipped into Chelmer Lighters in the Basin, as can be seen happening in this photo, and then taken up to Brown & Son timber merchants, who were based at Springfield Basin at the Head of the Navigation in Chelmsford.  The trade lasted until 1972.  The photo also shows eel barges in the Basin, storing eels for the London market.  There is a good aerial shot of Springfield Basin taken in 1934 at Historic England’s website.  Brown & Son were successors to a business originally founded by Richard Coates, the resident engineer for the construction of the Navigation, which opened in 1797.  Brown & Son were absorbed into what is now Travis Perkins, who still have premises at Springfield Basin.

Correctly guessed by: Roy Chandler, Ian Cleathero, Chris Davey, George Eycott, Rodney Hardwick, Andrew Lawton, Julius Mach, Andy McLaughlin, Mike Robards and Paul Strudwick.  There was an almost record level of entries this month, with many thinking the photo was at Sharpness on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal.

April 2025 Mystery Photo

Hint: This publicity shot from the 1962 film ‘The Young Ones’, starring Cliff Richard, was filmed in 1961 on a reservoir that was built for which canal?  Bonus points if you know the name of the reservoir and why this part of the film was filmed here.

Answer: The canal is the Grand Junction Canal, now part of the Grand Union Canal.  The reservoir is now known as Ruislip Lido, but no longer supplies water to the canal.  The reservoir was completed in 1811, and the long feeder channel in 1816 entering the canal at Hayes Bridge, Hayes.  The 8-mile length of the feeder was its downfall and it ceased being used in 1851.  Eventually the reservoir was sold to the local authority and the feeder stream abandoned, much of it now disappeared under housing and another chunk recently obliterated by HS2 without ceremony.  Read more about the feeder stream here.  The reservoir is now owned and operated by Hillingdon Council.  The site was popular with film studios of north and west London because of its close proximity, which saved on costs, including for the film ‘The Young Ones’, which was mostly filmed at Elstree studios.

Correctly guessed by: Malcolm Bridge, Ivan Cane, Geoffrey Castro, Alan Dodds, George Eycott, John Hawkins, Martin Hunt and Cyril Wood

March 2025 Mystery Photo

Hint: This photo, taken in autumn 2022, shows one of the lowest (if not the lowest), in more ways than one, bridge on the connected navigable inland waterways network (unless, of course, you know differently), but which waterway does it cross?  There are bonus points if you know both names for the bridge and the height of its headroom.

Thanks to Mike Daines for the photo.

Answer: The bridge crosses the Old River Nene, part of the Middle Level Navigations.  The bridge is Exhibition Bridge, also known as Stoke’s Bridge.  The officially declared headroom is just five foot, although this can vary with water levels.  It is also a very low bridge in the sense that this part of the Old River Nene is the lowest level on the Middle Level Navigations and the bridge is about one metre below Sea Level.  There is a useful map of bridges on the Middle Level Navigation and their headroom at the Middle Level Commissioners website.  For bridge fans, there is a whole film about just this bridge on YouTube.

Correctly guessed (*with bonus points) by: Ian Cleathero*, John Foley and Rupert Smedley.

February 2025 Mystery Photo

Hint: This photo, taken in 1975, shows the north end of a tunnel no longer in use for navigation, at the heart of the Midlands canal network.  Can you identify the tunnel?

Answer: The photo shows the northern entrance to the original ‘Brindley’ Harecastle Tunnel (opened 1777).  Although often thought of as a single tunnel, there are two separate parallel canal tunnels.  The original tunnel had a network of smaller canals that lead to mines at Goldenhill, in which James Brindley, who designed the tunnel, had a share.  Operation of the canal access to the mines ceased in 1820, when it became unsafe.  The original tunnel was 2,630 metres long, had no towpath, and a low ceiling.  It’s limitations became obvious soon after opening, as it became a bottleneck on the otherwise successful Trent & Mersey Canal.  In the 1820s, Thomas Telford was commissioned to build a new tunnel of slightly greater dimensions, which opened in 1827, complete with towpath.  This is the tunnel in use today, although the towpath was taken out in the 1970s, having been disused for many years owing to collapse.  The original Brindley tunnel remained in use until the late 19th century, and has not been inspected throughout since the 1960s; it is now fenced off (since the photo was taken) to prevent access.  Thanks to John Fletcher for the photo.

Correctly guessed by: Mary Bithell, Jerry Bolter, Ivan Cane, Tony Clayton, Ian Cleathero, Chris Davey, Rodney Hardwick, Andy Lintern, Kenneth Nelson, Gwenyth Salt, Dave Turner, Cyril Wood and Jack Wootton.

January 2025 Mystery Photo

Hint: This photo shows a derelict looking lock, photographed on 20th September 1972.  The lock, is now restored and the scene now looks rather different, but this is Lock 14 on which canal?  The brick toll house in the centre of the photo might be a clue.

Answer: This photograph was of Lock 14 on the Cromford Canal at Langley Mill, near the junction of the Cromford, Erewash and Nottingham canals.  Replacement gates from the Nottingham Canal are beside the lock being readied for installation as part of restoration by Erewash Canal Preservation & Development Association, which subsequently restored and continues to look after the Nottingham Canal brick toll office (the small red brick building to the right) and swing bridge (far right) at the junction of the Cromford and Nottingham Canals.  There is more info here.  Friends of the Cromford Canal are working to restore the Cromford Canal further north.

Correctly guessed by: Malcolm Bridge, Tony Clayton, Chris Davey, Brian Ferris, Michael Golds, Jonathan Lisle, John Lower, Andrew Shipman, Doug Swain, Dave Turner and Izzie Turner.