I'd like to live beside a canal

[Rushingfool]

Can anyone recommend anywhere? We currently live in the South East but in a tiny 2 up 2 down terrace and can't afford to buy anything bigger down here. Thinking we're going to have to move away, and was hoping to find somewhere beside a canal/backing in to one for me and my kayak in my old age...

Grew up living with a canal running along the (very long) back garden, parents lived there for their entire married life and we only sold it a few months ago (owned for 67-years). Non-urban (village location), there was a lock under 100m away and it is (and always was) a popular waterway.

No rats.
No flooding.
No insects.
No smells.
No damp.
Wonderful walks started at the end of the garden.
We used to pop our little boat in whenever we wanted to, row along the canal and lark around on the water (sometimes all day).
As children we would loiter at the lock and operate the gates for the passing narrowboats (had our own lock-key).

Downsides?
The garden was so inviting (extended right up to the canal bank) that we often had narrowboats mooring up at the end of the garden (no issue with that) but on occasions people walked up the garden itself sometimes for water (CF) and at other times looking for a way from the canal into the village itself (double CF).
In later years my dad planted along the end of the garden and this (in time) separated the garden from the canal.

It was an ideal, idyllic set-up and I can fully understand someone wanting the same. 😁

My aunt used to live in one of the cottages on this road, don’t think it was this exact one but I used to love watching the boats out her living room window. www.stephensonbrowne.co.uk/properties/15821535/sales

Check out the Grand Union canal. Lots of houses are nice and close to it - I'm about 50 yards away. Easy to carry a canoe from here!

The canal passes through lots of towns and villages from London to Birmingham. Also check out the arms of the canal - Aylesbury Arm, Tring Arm too.

No Canada geese... no extra insurance cost (there's a runoff on the other side into flood meadows, which catches any floodwater).

I live beside a canal but our side is higher than the other side so flooding isn't a possibility. There are no problems with insurance.

I absolutely love that house and only 23.2 miles from where I am now. Hmmmmmmm.

This ^^ I live in a town with canals they are everywhere brave as you like fat as spoilt cats

I'm also in a village along the Grand Union canal. I'm about 5 mins walk from the canal itself but there are plenty of houses closer.

Rats are huge in the countryside anyway. My cats bring home magnificent specimens from the fields. We lived in Loughborough 6 years. The R. Soar flooded once or twice but no floods from Grand Union canal in that time.

Oooh, thank you all - lots of places for me to investigate - great ideas, thanks so much!

Chichester ? - friends of ours backed on to a canal - not sure how suitable for kayaking as was so long ago - but very nice . Small house but back gate onto the towpath . There were certainly rowing boats.

Our house backs on to the Peak Forest canal and I can confirm we have never had any issues with flooding, insurance, rats, bugs, weirdos or dead bodies

Oh and it's gorgeous, I love it here!

Sandiacre, long Eaton, stapleford & Ilkeston in Derbyshire are all connected by the Erewash canal. It's v hilly in places too so we're 10 mins walk from the canal but up a massive hill so no chance of flooding 😁

Hebden bridge is amazing and Whaley Bridge is also nice, Uppermill is lovely!

all up north and all with houses along the canal x

Rodley or Applerley Bridge between Leeds and Bradford have some nice canal-side houses. I have never seen the canal flood once - I didn't even think it was a thing.

I've lived in a canal town my whole life and it's never flooded.

Didn’t any of you grow up on Sue Townsend? Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction discusses living next to a canal in modern, urban Britain.

tl:dr aggressive swans and acres of swan shit and shopping trolleys.

I lived near the Leeds - Liverpool canal, in Lydiate. There are no locks on this stretch between Stanley Dock, and a town called Burscough, which is about 15, miles by road so probably an over 20 mile stretch of canal. The canal collapsed and flooded many houses about 10 years ago. That's a lot of water leaving the canal because no locks to stop it. It's happened in other places along this canal.
It also stinks in high summer and there are lots of rats.

Droitwich

Slaithwaite, pronounced Slawit.