Avoiding the void

Even if I can get Chertsey through Hurleston bottom lock, I have had cause to rethink the attractions of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

Pontcysyllte may be the longest aqueduct in the UK, but the longest in England is the Edstone or Bearley aqueduct, which carries the Stratford canal across a road, a railway and the and the trackbed of a former railway. It is unusual (but similar to the other two, shorter, aqueducts on this stretch) in that the towpath is level with the bottom of the cast iron trough which carries the canal. It is like Pontcysyllte in that on non-towpath (the right hand side as I crossed it) side there is no buffer, no handrail, no nothing. Just, maybe, a lip of a few inches above the surface of the water.

I have a lovely photo (given to me by his widow) of Richard Barnett steering Chertsey across Edstone circa 1970. My biggest concern as we approached the aqueduct was that Jim, from the towpath, should try to recreate this picture. I meanwhile sailed on into the trough, looking down on him from my perch on the counter, itself well out of the water and thus a good couple of feet above the lip of the trough.

And suddenly, unexpectedly, found myself terrified. Jim's pictures (which I don't have here) show my left arm hanging instinctively onto the cabinside and my gaze fixed upon the towpath. I was standing inside the hatches and thus had no chance of falling off the boat, but the (completely irrational... I'm sure...) terror was that the whole boat would somehow tip over the edge. Early on there was a 'dong' as I nudged the trough on the right hand side... After that I, frozen to the tiller, kept the boat at an angle - as far as the narrow canal would permit - scraping along with the fore end rubbing up against the towpath side and the stern the other. My instincts simply would not allow me to steer towards the void.

I suspect the sensible thing to do would have been to retreat into the cabin and let the boat find its own way across.

It did surprise me slightly, given some of the unnecessary things done in the name of safety, that  there were no notices forewarning people, along the lines of 'terrifying aqueduct ahead, get your kids off the roof.'

Sticking point

This is the bit of Chertsey - and the only bit - that caused us to get stuck in two of the Stratford canal locks, 45 and 47.

You can see it here just to the right of the muddy patch, in line with the rearmost cross plank.

We will shave a bit off it in the hope that it won't cause so many problems in future, there or elsewhere. Overall it was good to see that Chertsey is good and straight with very few lumps and bumps. Our difficulties at Morse lock on the Chesterfield last year were more likely due to depth than width, with hindsight. Napton and Hurleston still to try!

Pretty tight

The southern Stratford canal is very pretty...

And its locks are tight - lengthways as well as widthways.

Pretty...

Tight...

A quick transformation

Here is Chertsey looking smart (well, as smart as you can look with window cloths in) on display in the arm at Braunston...

... shortly before we removed the cloths, dropped the top planks down onto the cross planks, took the stands out and replaced them with boxes, removed the deckboard, put the top planks back on the boxes and clothed it all back up again, far less tidily, with enthusiastic help from the Herbies' friend Rick.

This was all part of our cunning plan for getting through the low bridges of the southern Stratford Canal. The bridges are not only low, but narrow - they have no towpath so are only a boat's width wide. One of them, we were warned, was especially narrow, and more worryingly, narrowed sharply at a height that would be well above the gunnels of a modern boat, but which might catch the sides of Chertsey's very high fore end.

To try to reduce the chances of this happening, we made the decision to acquire some extra ballast in the front. Thus the Sunday parade saw us pause alongside Southern Cross and transfer across a tonne of coal in what was surely record time (definitely a record for us, anyway). With the invoice in the ticket drawer, we were on our way in minutes, fore end lower by some inches, and arse end correspondingly raised, with the propellor burbling away merrily.

So you don't suffer too much suspense, I will tell you now that we made it through the bridge (58) in question. On arrival at Stratford I mused that before going out onto the river, it might be an idea to shift the coal back to the back end of the hold, to give the prop a fighting chance of engaging with the water. This was not terrifically well received by Jim, but to his great credit, and with the help and encouragement of Holland's Ian, he did shift a good proportion of it, with the result, I think, that Chertsey is now as well ballasted as it has been for a long time.

Brightening up dark corners

I didn't buy any new shinies at Braunston this year, though a purchase or two was made in Stratford (which I fear I have omitted to photograph, but all will be revealed eventually)

However, I did polish up the existing brass (of course) and here it is looking a treat.

You can also see the plates that were part of my Christmas present from Jim last year. They all have some sort of connection - one is Droitwich, where we went for the HNBC gathering in 2012; one the Houses of Parliament (I have lately taken to coming home from work and flopping on the sofa with my knitting, in front of live coverage on BBC Parliament. I am a fan of Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle.), and local ones Brighton, Hastings and Portsmouth (where I once worked). Long time readers may recall that I once professed a hatred of lace plates, so why have they grown on me after all? Put simply, I suppose, they serve a purpose - like everything else in a back cabin. The brighten up a dark corner where nothing else really could.

At Christmas I also received a new (old) headlight for Chertsey - a thirties CAV headlamp. Having finally tracked down a bulb, Jim fitted it before we left for Braunston, on the bracket that he had already made. It was tested in Braunston tunnel and did an excellent job.

When it rained on our parade

Now I've sorted the photos out, hopefully a few retrospective - illustrated! - holiday posts.

The weather was on the whole magnificent. When it did rain, it was good enough to do so at night (and on at least one night served well in keeping disruptive local youth - yes, in Stratford - away.

There was one exception though. Braunston, Saturday June 28th, on the morning parade. The only time I have been wetter while fully clothed was when I fell in at Droitwich.

Thanks to Sarah of Algonquin for the photo

Never mind. It was a good opportunity to don my sou'wester in front of an appreciative audience and demonstrate general indomitability.

Because it was a Grand Union year, we got to tie up in the Arm, where it was still raining.

We'd feared we might be disturbed by the loud music from the beer tent, but avoided this by going to the pub.... Actually, I think we went to the Nelson with the Herbies on Wednesday, and the Boat House with the Owls on Friday, so perhaps we did go to the beer tent on Saturday... Yes, we did - crowded in to get out of another downpour and by sheer luck managed to get a table near the front. And the music, though quite loud, was worth listening to.

When we got back, the rain had just about stopped.

Tonight's view from the stern end

In Worcester, showing the fenders not yet properly replaced following their forced rearrangement on the Lower Avon.

Worcester also has good charity shops.

I had not expected to like the Severn - even Nicholsons, which likes everything, describes it as featureless. But, so far at least, it has charmed me. It helps that it is wide, so the ubiquitous trees are not overwhelming. It has flowers, relieving the monochrome verdancy, even if they are mostly the hated interloping Himalayan balsam.

It even has some aggregate traffic (I'm told that this has now ceased on the Trent).

So the Severn, so far, is a hit. If there is a pattern emerging regarding my riparian preferences, it seems to be that I like 'em wide.

Onwards to Stourport tomorrow and all being right with the world, supper in the Holly Bush.

Oh, and here's last night's view (possibly this morning's)

Just right

Tewkesbury has got it just right. A genuinely historic town, proud of its history, but living with and in it, without being a theme park.

Some good charity shops too.

Turn, turn and turn again

Apologies, I have been most remiss in not posting. I will try to catch up, with photos, later. Tonight finds us in Tewkesbury. We left Stratford yesterday morning and made good time to Evesham, where we spent last night. A strange town, not what I expected, but perhaps I should have done, given its main industry. Yesterday went well, though the weather was changeable. We were warned that we would have to descend Evesham lock backwards, which we did, aided by a rather splendid female lockkeeper in a polka dot dress. We knew too that we would have also to come down Chadbury lock backwards, which was our first lock this morning. What we didn't know was that we would have to repeat the feat at both Nafford and Strensham. I have got very good at turning round in weir streams. In Evesham we could only get down at all backwards; in the other three it was a question of getting the gate open once down.

Today we have also had a broken gear linkage, fortunately when approaching a lock rather than turning round in a weir stream, and, annoyingly, unshipped the rudder in the process of mooring. As it has been rather a trying day, I am feeding Jim up in Wetherspoons before he attempts to right that in the morning.

The Avon has lots of trees.

Made it!

For now I will just paste in the post I have just put on CWF -

'Chertsey is currently tied up below lock 50 on the south Stratford - so we made it!

Bridge 58 was not a problem; we got through easily. We did take it very very slowly, dead square, and the ballast in the front *might* have helped. Apparently this bridge has received attention from the local canal society and IWA since 2012 and has been restored to something like its proper dimensions.

The ballast may have helped also at lock 40 where the wing wall does come in a bit but we got out without any trouble.
In lock 42 we wriggled our way down but got out with no problem.

We got stuck in locks 45 and 47. In both cases it was at the bottom and on what appears to be Chertsey's widest spot, the top gaurd on the starboard side adjacent to the rearmost crossplank. In lock 45 this was just below a widening of the lock wall. We could have flushed it out except we couldn't get the gate open as I couldn't move back. So we refilled it a bit, held the boat back, emptied it, opened the gate and flushed out.

47 was trickier as the sticking point was higher above the waterline in the lock. We got over that by Jim jumping down onto the port side, though I guess any moveable ballast would have done.

Lots of CRT volunteers, only one of whom opened the top paddles, chucking the boat around and bashing the rudder against the cill.

Most thanks to Ian on Holland whose experience and quiet authority saved the day.'

Apologies to all those willing volunteers who would have turned out later in the week. We didn't expect to get here so quickly, and having done so thought we would try as soon as possible so that we could call out reinforcements if necessary. Look forward to seeing some of you at the weekend though!

Queens of Hatton

Two big boats, two blokes on bikes, and two women who can steer in perfect accord = Hatton heaven! Two hours fifty without even feeling like we were hurrying.

We left Blue Lias at 0700 and are now tied up three locks down the Stratford canal, where we arrived at 1745, having travelled most of the way with Tina and Ian on the josher Holland.

Very quick update

Sorry for the silence... sometimes you just don't feel like getting the iPad out at the end (or even the middle) of the day. Had a lovely sunny relaxing weekend at Foxton last weekend, then a leisurely run to Braunston and a few more sunny daysnat Braunston before the weekend started. A lowish key Braunston. It rained heavily on Saturday and I got soaked in the parade. Yesterday was nicer, with the Herbies playing on the deck. We sought advice about getting to Stratford and have decided we have to try - lots of people want to know how we get on! So on Sunday we dropped thenplanks before the parade, put a ton of coal in the fore end during it, and have borrowed a blue barrel from Fenny. Last night we filled it and our tanks with water at Blue Lias, having left Braunston at 3.30.

Holiday plans

The start of the Big Trip approaches at last!

The trip itself is dependent on almost split second timing, but with stops and festivities built in. The plan is this...

On Friday I have a work meeting at the British Library, so that will be handy as it takes me half way (in terms of time; a lot further than half way in terms of distance) back to Newhaven, so I will then go up with Jim in the car to Foxton, to rejoin Chertsey. Once we've unpacked the car, Jim will take it to Stretton to await our return there and come back to Foxton by train and bus. We plan to spend this weekend enjoying the Foxton Locks Festival and meeting up with the Herbies before departing for Braunston. The following weekend (27/28/29) will of course be spent at the Historic Narrow Boat Rally at Braunston, but we have to leave sharpish as we are due in Stratford upon Avon for the River Festival on Friday 4th. We'll be making the journey there by canal, but when we leave it will be by river - our (but not Chertsey's) first time on the Avon and on most of the Severn. When we get to Stourport we will stop to enjoy the delights of the Holly Bush, before continuing via the Staffs & Worcs and finally the Shroppie to Stretton.  If I've Canalplanned this correctly, it's 171 miles and 149 locks, six tunnels and one major aqueduct (which I have a lovely photo of Chertsey traversing circa 1970).

The first week's travel will be very leisurely; the second less so! Hopefully we will be accompanied for part of the way by Herbie, and for another part by Bernard with Enterprise (in case we get stuck in one of those narrow bridgeholes...). New territory includes the Avon, the Severn, the southern Stratford canal and Stratford itself.

So far I fear we have not managed to secure an organ for the hold. But at least we will be there, fifty years after Chertsey's pioneering appearance at the IWA Festival of Boats and Arts in 1964.

Orange and date cake

I fancied baking on Saturday when it was pouring with rain, but I didn't fancy going out. So I came up with this rather gorgeous vegan variation on Delia Smith's 'marmalade cake'.

You will need:
8 oz self raising flour
4 oz marg
4 oz caster sugar
grated rind of a large orange
heaped dessertspoonful of marmalade
1 teaspoonful orange juice (possibly not vital; the original recipe has vinegar!)
6 fluid oz milk (soya works fine)
4 oz chopped dates
generous teaspoonful demerara sugar.

I did it all in the Magimix, but the theory is this:

Rub together flour and marg. Stir in caster sugar, orange rind, then marmalade. Gradually add soya milk and then orange juice. Finally (especially if using Magimix) stir in dates.

Pour/scrape into a lined 2lb loaf tin and sprinkle the demerara sugar on top. Bake for about an hour at mk4/180 until you can poke something sharp into the middle and it doesn't come out gooey.

It's rather crumbly at first but firms up a bit (and the crust softens) if you keep it for a day in an airtight box. I kept it in the fridge as I thought it might be prone to mould, but then I ate it so that became academic.

Really, well worth a try. I thought it was lovely and it doesn't scream 'vegan' (not that there's anything wrong in that of course, but sometimes the most appalling stuff gets passed around in the name of vegan cake and you're supposed to make allowances - with this, like Kath/Carrie's banana cake, you certainly don't need to.)

Random record

Randomness is a great aid when one is paralysed by trivial choices. I often enlist an online random number generator to, for example, choose which CD to put on. The day before yesterday it selected the Tom Robinson Band compilation 'Winter of 89' which I'd almost forgotten I had. Being a rather old and probably inferior CD, it skipped alarmingly on 'Atmospherics' but other than that it was a lovely bit of time travel back to my not very misspent youth (although I did miss the last train home after going to the TRB 10th anniversary reunion at the 100 Club in 1987 and ended up rather embarassingly getting a lift home from Lewes in a police car). I still have the T-shirt!



Last night I enjoyed a compilation of Elizabethan anthems and organ music. However, the system cannot be relied on not to occasionally throw up some late Scott Walker, which as everyone knows, is only for decoration. Tonight I could be listening to 'The Drift', but despite having bought it when it came out, I haven't quite gathered the mental strength to actually play it yet.

Looking over Ladybower

That was the title of this weekend's walk, and here we are doing just that.

This week's walk was a bit of a contrast to the previous two.

For a start, the weather was very different - far more bracing, with frequent heavy showers, wind, and occasional horizontal rain.

Secondly, the scenery was different too; heather moorland for the most part, in contrast to the green pastures and twinkling waters of earlier walks.

We set off from (in not necessarily in) Hope and started with a fairly serious climb up towards Win Hill. Skirting the very summit, we stumbled and paddled our way down the other side, where the rocky footpath through the heather had become a brook.

We agreed to curtail the planned walk slightly on account of the weather, and finished off in the very welcoming Woodroffe Arms back in Hope.

A walk in the woods

This week's walk, on Saturday, was titled 'The hidden bluebells of the Peak' - hidden they may have been, but we tracked them down, on a splendid walk taking us fro the Grouse Inn at Grindleford via Grindleford station, through Rough Wood, the Derwent Valley Heritage Way, Hazelwood, Mill Wood, Stoke Ford, Eyam Moor, Froggatt and back to the Grouse for a very well earned pint. The walk was nine miles, but with quite a serious climb at the end.

With much of it on narrow rocky footpaths, opportunities for photostops were even more limited.

The weather was fabulous

And here we are having lunch

We were accompanied by three dogs. Wolfie was my favourite.

Last wonder

For some reason Blogger isn't letting me comment on my own blog, so in orr not to keep Halfie and Alan in suspense any longer, the last (and arguably least famous) of Rolt's seven wonders of the waterways is the Burnley Embankment on the Leeds-Liverpool. Which I haven't seen either.

The one out of the seven which I have visited - and indeed traversed - is the Standedge Tunnel.

One out of seven

How many of Rolt's 'seven wonders of the waterways' can you name without looking them up? Shockingly, I've only visited one of the seven. Must do better.

Proxy peregrine pets

I don't know why my employer advertises this webcam on the staff homepage if they want us to do any work.