CHILDREN’S BOOK & TOY BANK

Katy and Daniel are on holiday on the canals with Mummy, Daddy and their dog Vic. They are on a narrowboat. This is like a caravan on water. Daddy tells them that, before railways and motorways, canals were the main way to carry food, coal, pots, pans and everything else all over the country.

They come to their first lock. Katy and Daniel do not know what this is. A large wooden gate is open and the narrowboat goes through but stops because there is another gate closed in front. The canal is higher up in front. Then the gate behind closes and the narrowboat starts to go up because water is being let slowly into the lock.

“It is like being in a giant lift,” says Katy.

Soon they reach the top, the gate in front opens and they go out of the lock.

“Can we do that again?” asks Daniel. “Don’t worry,” says Daddy, “There will be a lot more of these on this holiday,”

That night they moor the narrowboat by a field covered in buttercups. The next morning they are woken up because the narrowboat is rocking gently. Daniel pulls back the curtain and sees a giant tongue licking the window. At first he is very scared, but then he sees that the tongue belongs to a cow. A herd of cows have come to look at the narrowboat.

Soon they are on their way. They all take turns at steering with a long piece of wood called a tiller. Katy and Daniel find this very hard, until Mummy tells them that narrowboats have a rudder at the rear so the back turns first, not like cars and bikes where the wheels at the front turn first. After a few more locks they are going along the side of a hill.

“I thought canals were like rivers, in the bottom of valleys,” says Daniel.

“Just you wait,” says Mummy.

What a surprise! The canal goes over a main road. They look down and see the cars going under them.

“This is fun,” says Daniel.

That evening they moor the narrowboat with banks on either side of the canal, called a cutting and they have a surprise.