Angela Barlow is making a cup of coffee and a bacon sandwich.
But when your barge is listing at a near 45 degree angle, even this simple task is difficult. The 60ft widebeam boat Angela calls home has been left high and dry after flood water caused the dramatic collapse of the Bridgewater Canal on New Year’s Day.
Her’s is one of 27 barges now stuck in the mud near the Ye Olde No.3 pub in Little Bollington near Altrincham.
And as she props the kettle up against a pile of plates to stop it sliding off the hob onto the floor, the 58-year-old, who shares her barge with six miniature schnauzer puppies, says living on a tilt is a disconcerting experience.
“It hurts the ankles,” she said. “I get pains shooting up my hip.”
Michelle and Paul Marmion
(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
Her friend, neighbour and fellow house boater Michelle Marmion, 61, agrees. “We’re marooned,” she said. “I literally fell out of bed the other night. You get up every morning worrying how much more [the boat] has moved.
“Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong all at once. But you have to be a special kind of person to live on a boat. We chose this life – we’re hardy people.”
The 260-year-old canal caved in near Dunham Massey at around 6am on New Year’s Day, in the first major breach of the waterway since the 1970s. Drone footage showed the dramatic collapse of the embankment that carries the canal 40ft above the River Bollin.
One witness described the collapse as looking like a bomb had gone off.
It was the first time the canal had breached in more than 50 years
(Image: SWNS)
“We were asleep in bed then something went bang,” said Michelle’s husband Paul. “I thought a rope had snapped.
“I got up and shone the torch on the water – it was going like the clappers. Then we all just very slowly went down. We hit the bottom about 9am on New Year’s Day and we’re still here.”
To prevent any more water being lost, 3km stretch of the canal has been drained and temporarily damned at either side of the breach. But that’s left numerous moorers, many of them elderly, trapped.
A diesel generator has been set up to provide power, while most barges also have log burning stoves. But with snow still covering the towpath and surrounding fields and with temperatures the night before plunging to around -5C, it’s very, very cold.
Diane Taylor with her son Josh
(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
While life is currently pretty uncomfortable for Angela, Paul and Michelle and their fellow permanent Bridgewater residents, at least they’re at home. Josh Taylor and his parents Diane and Andy were just passing through the 39-mile long canal on their 70ft narrowboat ‘Olive’ on their way to the Anderton boat lift in Northwich when the breach happened.
Originally from North Devon, they’re now stranded hundreds of miles from family and friends with no idea when they might be able to leave. The content creators run the Taylors Aboard a Narrowboat YouTube channel and Josh’s dramatic drone footage of the breach has been viewed more than a million times.
“We only planned to stay 48 hours over New Year,” said Josh, 23, while scraping the snow and frost off the boat’s solar panels. “We were planning to move on the morning it happened.”
“We were at a 45 degree angle, stuck in the silt or something,” said Diane, 60. “We thought she was going to sink. That was the most frightening part.
“We won’t be leaving. We’ve got nowhere else to go. My parents and other children all live miles away. And I don’t want to leave Olive. She could get broken into.”
The stranded barges sitting on the bed of the canal
(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
The canal is privately owned by the Bridgewater Canal Company, which is owned by a subsidary of property giant The Peel Group. And many of the boaters have expressed frustration at what they described as a lack of communication and mixed messages coming from the company.
Some said they’d been told all the boats were going to be refloated in seven to 10 days, while others said they’d heard of plan to crane the barges out of the canal, while some said they’d received an email telling them everybody had to leave.
Boater Paul Joy says the canal owners need to provide a clear plan. “A lot of the people here are elderly,” he said.
“They’re uncomfortable. Even boiling a kettle on the hob is difficult – you have to hold it in case it falls off. It’s dangerous.
“But even if you take the human aspect out of it, everyone’s financial assets are at risk of being lost. It’s not good for boats to be on their sides like this.
“You couldn’t have wished for a worse start to the year. I know this couldn’t have been predicted, but now it’s happened they need to do something about it. It can’t just be brushed under the carpet.
“All anyone wants to know is when they are going to refloat the boats. They could do that fairly simply and get them out of danger. Then it doesn’t matter if it takes two years to fix the canal.”
The bargers are stranded
(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
It’s understood work to refloat the boats will begin in the coming days and that while the advice from the local authority is that it’s not safe for people to be living on the boats in the meantime, no-one will be forceably removed.
In a statement Bridgewater Canal Peter Parkinson director said: “On the morning of January 1, 2025, the Bridgewater Canal team responded swiftly to reports of a possible canal breach near Dunham, adjacent to the River Bollin in Cheshire. Emergency stoplogs were installed at Adgen and Dunham to isolate the affected section, successfully dewatering approximately 3km of the canal.
“This action prevented a full loss of the canal and mitigated further flooding caused by the extreme weather. We have been working closely with the Strategic and Tactical Command Group, chaired by Cheshire Police, alongside multi-agency partners to ensure safety and support for all affected parties.
“On January 1, Cheshire Police contacted all directly affected parties, offering support and alternative accommodation. The Bridgewater Canal team followed up by phone on January 2 and in person on January 3.
“Since the stoplogs were installed, our team has prioritised efforts to stem the flow of canal water. On January 4, an additional earth dam was constructed at School Lane in Dunham Massey, and we are confident that leakage has now ceased. This will continue to be closely monitored.
“Additional water has been delivered to the Ye Old No.3 moorings, and temporary toilets and waste disposal facilities are being arranged. A generator, supplied by a moorer, is providing power to boats moored to the right of the visitor moorings, with Bridgewater Canal supplying fuel.
“We intend to install dams near the breach area to refloat the boats at Ye Old No.3 and other affected vessels. Water control specialists visited site on January 6 to assess the feasibility and time frame for this work.
“We kindly ask the public to stay away from the affected area and respect both canal and towpath closures.”