Longest and shortest

Extending all the way from London to Birmingham, the Grand Union Canal is Britain's longest canal and is a total of 137 miles long. Cruising the whole length, non-stop, would take you 74 hours.

Historically, the Grand Union isn't really one canal - it’s a 1920s merger of several older waterways. The longest 'single' canal is the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, a 127-mile trans-Pennine waterway between the two cities.

The longest unnavigable canal is the Wilts & Berks Canal, 51 miles long with a further 16 miles of branches. An ambitious group of volunteers are working to bring boats back to this long-abandoned canal.

The River Severn is Britain's longest river, stretching 220 miles from its source on the slopes of Plynlimon (near Aberystwyth) through Ironbridge to the Bristol Channel. But only around 65 miles of this are regularly navigated.

The River Thames, though a little shorter in total length (215 miles), offers more chances for boating. It starts to become navigable at Lechlade in the Cotswolds, from where it can be followed downstream all the way to the sea. 170 miles after Lechlade, you finally reach the ship port of Tilbury Docks.

In comparison, the world's longest river is the Nile, at 4,160 miles, closely followed by the 4,000-mile Amazon.

The Wardle Lock Branch of the Trent & Mersey Canal is arguably Britain’s shortest canal. It consists of just one 72ft-long lock and a few yards of canal on either side. The branch, in Middlewich, Cheshire, was built to connect with the Middlewich Branch of the Ellesmere & Chester Canal (now called the Shropshire Union Canal).

Standedge Tunnel, on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal, is Britain’s longest canal tunnel at 5698 yards long - that’s over three miles. Closed for 50 years, it reopened in 2001. Boaters can once again experience passage through this amazing tunnel, hewn out of solid rock - and, for the first time, the tunnel is also available to walkers and other visitors, who can take a ride on one of the trip-boats that regularly voyage into the darkness beneath the Pennine hills.