Butties - not the type you eat! A 'butty' boat is where two boats work in a pair (possibly coming from the term meaning 'friend' or 'fellow worker'). This meant more living space for larger families and increased capacity to carry cargo 💪 Image - Canal & River Trust Collections.

Works are complete and navigation has resumed along the Shropshire Union in Cheshire 🎉 Countless hours, £850k and 120 tonnes of clay later and this stretch (the final major engineering feat by esteemed civil engineer Thomas Telford) is back open for navigation 👏

Why guess when you can know?

Fallen trees and flooded towpaths are sadly no stranger to our network in the winter months - using @what3words to report issues helps our teams on the ground deal with obstructions quickly. Download the app today to prepare for the months ahead 👇 https://t.co/1WqDK5QoHn

From the late 1700's, hundreds of companies transported goods using narrowboats, many of which were towed by horses. The entire infrastructure of the waterways was built for the horse-drawn era, for example the smooth curves on bridges and buildings to avoid snagging towlines🐴

The Leigh Branch has fully reopened for navigation 👏 Closed in August after a large water main burst beneath the bank between Poolstock Lock and Bamfurlong Bridge, United Utilities and our engineers have since been collaborating on the bespoke canal repair 💙

Stay ready for outages with Powerwall and Storm Watch during extreme weather.

Transforming your narrowboat for the festive season? A 6ft Northern Spruce might be out of the question but there are loads of ways smaller spaces can be 'spruced up'🎄 Be inspired by the ideas on our website - send us pics of your masterpiece after! 👉 https://t.co/glfVra4bAi

Evolution of the narrowboat - Starvationers 💙 The first narrowboat model, this wooden boat was invented during the Industrial Revolution to enter the mines of underground canal systems. Sizes of starvationers varied greatly, carrying anything between 2 & 12 tonnes of cargo 💪

Send Sculptor birthday wishes - today she turns 90 🥳 Built in 1935, she has carried precious cargo and served as a WWII fire-fighting boat in London. Now proudly moored at our Canal Museum in Stoke Bruerne, Sculptor is a rare surviving link to Britain’s working-boat heritage 💙

Our National Boater Forum is coming up at the start of December 📢 📅 9th December, 19:00 📍 Online This session will focus on the Grand Union Water Transfer Scheme, with a chance to find out more and ask questions about the project. Sign up here 👉 https://t.co/kK0rfJG9F4

President Trump says it perfectly. A patchwork of 50 different state systems creates a maze of conflicting regulations, resulting in chaos. Follow me to join the conversation on leading the AI revolution.

The report (which you can read here 👉 https://t.co/YkpbKyUV3D ) of the independent Commission, set up to review the legal framework around boat licensing has been welcomed by our Board. We have considerable work ahead of us, and will consult further in due course.

Have you met Lockie yet? 🤖 Our chatbot has been helping customers get fast, accurate support. In August, Lockie resolved over 74% of queries on its own, without escalating to a human. Want to find out more about our aims to improve customer service? 👉 https://t.co/mWlEDQNEgC

Boating is central to what we do, so what did we get up to over the last year to keep our canals alive? - Removed 60,000 tonnes of dredged material - Installed 135 new lock gates - Collected 6,800 tonnes of waste Read our 2025 Boater Report for more 👉 https://t.co/249ZHrPlXK

Together with Marsh Charitable Trust, we recently celebrated our volunteers' achievements at our annual Volunteer Awards 🏆 We’d like to say congratulations to this year's recipients and a huge thank you to all our volunteers across the network – here's to you! 💙

Lenders can more easily work with state and local agencies to find grants and programs that may help borrowers afford a home thanks to our streamlined resources. Learn how.

Whilst we’re improving essential facilities, it’s no secret that toilets and showers (outside of this remit) have closed. But why? It's about making the £2million we spend on facilities annually go as far as possible and help keep essential services open and reliable.

This year's Boater Report touches on 'Boater Facilities'. So, what are we doing? 🔧 Ensuring essential facilities are prioritised for repair 💷 Investing £4.5million over 5 years to standardise water points, pump outs and Elsans Want to find out more? 👉 https://t.co/Ur2NS9Ow5w

At 11am today, we pause to remember the sacrifices made by so many during the World Wars. The canal network and those who worked on it were fundamental for wartime efforts, with both people and supplies transported around the UK by boat 💙

Save the date! Our Disabled Boater Forum is coming up later this month. 📅 19th November 18:00 📍 Online Open to disabled boaters and carers, plus anyone with an interest in accessibility, our forum this month will focus on lock gates. Sign up 👉 https://t.co/o6wsIu08Vj

We're holding our first dedicated Business Boating Forum later this month 🤝 📅 November 18th, 19:00hrs 📍 Online We have designed this session to be more business-focused, reviewing the difficult summer season and looking ahead to 2026. Sign up 👉 https://t.co/ha7Iy0FzaR

Find out more on our website 👉 https://t.co/9jNtyiwePQ

One of the themes of this year's Boater Report is 'addressing the basics' - so how we're doing? Since April, we've: 🔨 Repaired 83 lock paddles from our backlog, plus 108 more paddle faults (85% within 4 weeks) 👷‍♂️ Carried out 100% of planned maintenance on locks (May - July)