Garden backing onto towpath... experiences wanted!

[SHawthorn]

Hello, I'm looking at buying a house where the garden fence backs onto a towpath. There's the back fence, then a small bush area initially and then the towpath a few metres down. I'm looking for advice from anyone who has lived somewhere similar. I love the thought of getting kayaks and paddling to a pub down the river. I'm not concerned about safety of the kids as the fence couldn't be opened by them. I'm wondering of other pros and cons to consider. Ideally from someone who lives next to or near a canal .

Just to clarify, the garden doesn't end at the water and you can't actually see the canal from the house as there are a few trees inbetween.

Sounds idyllic to me!

You could have issues from people using the towpath - dog noise & mess, youths in the evenings etc

I don't live on the towpath side (and on navigable river rather than canal) but would suggest that security is your biggest issue to check out.
In terms of the positives, we love being next to water - is there any chance of a mooring?

Rats.

I lived in a house on a towpath for a couple of years - loved it! We also had a small garden on the other side of the towpath, and then decking/mooring on the river with mooring and fishing rights. Dh kept a small boat there. We often would sail down to the next village for a drink in the riverside pubs etc. We never had any dogmess/youths/noise issues. Just people meandering along the riverside. I do miss it sometimes!

Maybe because we had 2 cats, but we never had rats.

I lived in a house next to a towpath for a few years. No problems other than the odd dog running into the garden. It was nice to be able to kayak/canoe without having to load the boat onto a car.

Our UK house has a canalside garden, no towpath though.

Things that used to drive me crazy were the lack of privacy on busy days, the fishermen who would try and take over the towpath regularly, the dogs, dogs and more yapping, barking and shitting dogs, not being able to work in your garden without a gawping audience talking about what you were doing as if you couldn't hear every word they said, I once got my furniture stolen from the garden by a boater by them just grabbing it off the end of the garden. So I'd be wary of leaving anything in the garden unattended.

However on the plus side, it's fantastic, the ducks are fantastic, the moorhens - fantastic, the swans - moody bastards but the babies were gorgeous. The wildlife in my garden was stupendous.

You may need to pay rent to access that land.

Mosquitoes 🦟

I've lived on the edge of a canal for 16 years and have never seen a rat.

The towpath is on the other side of the canal from us which affords better security as people can't get across.

Any chance of flooding, that would be my first question!

We have this. Our row of houses is collectively responsible for the land between our gardens ending and the towpath so a management company is in place. We pay for a maintenance gardening company to keep it all neat/under control and pay insurance on the land. Costs us about £300 a year each.

Depends where you are. I cycle to work 9 miles along the canal and usually see two most mornings. Both in the same place so I suspect they are residents! I am very phobic so probably have a higher than normal alertness…

Not where we are because the land on the other side is lower than our side. You would have to check this out.

It's much less likely than a river as it's controlled. It's only a bigger risk if a river flowed into it somehow nearby.

check for

• flooding
• rights of way
• dogging
• mooring (noisy, stinky diesel engines)

whdn viewing check out the amount and type of litter.

My late parents house ran down to the canal towpath and they owned the house for 67-years (we sold it earlier this year).

Being a canal there was no issue with flooding. No rats or mosquitos. Having access to the towpath (and the open countryside beyond) meant that we had a huge "playground" as kids. My dad maintained the bank (which wasn't strictly his, the garden finished a few feet from the towpath) which was great for lazing around, mooring our little boat etc.

Downsides?
If there was one it was lack of privacy, being so nicely kept with open access to the garden we did indeed get people walking up the garden and mooring narrow boats.
Later on (1980's) my dad fenced it off and planted shrubs & trees to separate the towpath from the garden. When we moved back into the house we did consider opening it up again but decided against it and sold the house instead.

Hi, my garden back unto the grand union Padding ton branch I can truly safe it is such an amazing experience, from the various wildlife, the beautiful barges and long walks along the canal. I would say go for it

surely it depends what you mean by fence?
2m high fence screening the garden from viewers and requiring deliberate effort to climb over (no overhanging trees that make it easy)?

low fence giving you a nice view but putting you on display to everyone?

Gate in fence to allow access across the bush area to the towpath? With or without a trodden path signalling to anyone "here is a security weakness"?

Rats, flooding. People deciding to moor their boat for a temporary period at the end of your garden. Narrowboats pumping nasty smoke from the engines. People walking along the path smoking weed which stinks.

I think for me it would depend on how much the path was used and whether it was in a big city. I used to run along a path in a big city and it was always full of miscreants engaging in various activities. Think of it as a bit like an alleyway. People go there to do stuff because its closed in and not in public view.