Author: Cheryl

We could have enjoyed a few more days at Birstall but the water point at at Friars Mill (in Leicester) wasn’t working and we were perilously close to running dry. (CRT were informed so hopefully it’s fixed now). We phoned ahead and were given permission to fill up at Leicester marina, and carried on our way.

Canal builders knew how to make the most of local features and took advantage of the navigable sections of the river Soar so canal and river intermingle which makes for an interesting journey. We love the 1860 bridge at Mountsorrel. It was built to carry the railway supporting the local pink granite quarries. At 90feet (27m) it’s one of the countries longest single span brick bridges. The track was lifted in the 1950s and although it’s now a grade II listed structure, previous restoration was badly done and it’s condition is deteriorating.

We were lucky to get onto the visitor mooring at Barrow Boating as there’s only room for 1 narrowboat and a small cruiser.

During the day there’s a steady stream of walkers crossing the bridge over the weir that permits the river to continue its meanders whilst the canal to cut the corners.

But at 6am in the morning it was all ours for one of the most breathtaking walks we’ve had so far this year. (Not that we usually walk at 6am but when I saw the sun rise and the frost, there was no way I was missing this treat) The flood plane meadow beyond the weir was shrouded in ethereal mist.

It seems like the cattle had the same idea for a morning walk, but thankfully they haven’t worked out how to open the gate over the bridge.

It’s a bit surreal with the daytime reaching teeshirt temperatures, to see a proper frost first thing.

I’m quite glad we haven’t discarded the winter duvet yet.

I usually compile a “create your own calendar” so we can enjoy looking back over our previous years travels, I fear 2022 may be full of misty morning images.

I still haven’t decided which is my favourite

I should say that Barrow upon Soar looks an interesting place to explore, I’d image it was a thriving place in the 17th/18th century looking at the houses. But with Eric suffering badly from the catkin pollen we decided to leave our daytime explorations until we can return here in another season. There’s plenty of 14 day Armco mooring just beyond the next bridge. And lots of lovely walks

We weren’t sorry to say goodbye to the horrible graffiti of Leicester on 12th April. Our spirits soared as cruising restrictions were lifted and mooring restrictions re-imposed, and we cruised along the Soar. We were the first boat to work through Birstall lock and moor up for the day.

But we weren’t the last, with 6 boats overnight and several more enjoying day trips and performing the Suez manoeuvre.

There’s a nice looking canal side pub here, but we’re still not ready to mingle so instead treated ourselves to fish and chips from the Birstall Fisheries. We wonder what it says about us when the “mini lunch” portion is still too much, but it was a good meal and we’’ll use that chippy again.

Eric set to work completing the wiring for the solar panel we had stuck onto the roof last June.

The wiring isn’t the difficult bit, it’s the locating of all the tools etc that get scattered around the boat, usually under the bed that caused the delay. And the realisation that Eric has developed a hayfever allergy that we think is connected to catkin pollen, so pretty though they are, we think we will have to avoid springtime river cruising in future as this happened when we came this way in April 2019.

But at least we are now generating sufficient power from solar to cover the power used the for the amount of cruising we do. I always thought it was a bit of a mammoth task retrofitting solar panels, but I didn’t expect to come face to face with one when we went exploring.

Several miles along this area of the River Soar, were used for sand and gravel extraction. The Watermead mammoth was discovered in the pits along side bronze age settlements and ice age bones. It must have looked very different then, now it’s a well maintained country park with the emphasis on leisure and preserving the wildlife and habitat.

Birstall’s a good mooring spot, although there aren’t any specific boaters facilities, the village has all the amenities you need, several pubs, takeaways and small supermarkets. And with extensive easy walks, there’s a happy friendly atmosphere on the Towpath.

Today is the funeral of HRH Prince Philip. I’m usually very pragmatic about the death of such an elderly person, but I felt a deep sadness at his passing and shall take a moment to reflect.
Ironically on 9th April I had gone in search of Richard III

Who is now buried in Leicester Cathedral. I wasn’t able to go inside so I enjoyed the gardens instead.

the Cathedral is now flying it’s flag at half mast.

This morning as I was reading other boat blogs I saw that NB Albert had written about Prince Philip. Not only did HRH love being out at sea, he also supported the inland waterways and canals. An interesting piece to read.

Leicestershire’s heritage is really up my street, as it was famed for knitted hosiery. And anyone who knows me knows I like to knit socks. The more colourful the better. Sadly as the museums were still all closed I had to make do with looking for some of the public art. This sculpture across the road from the Castle Gardens represents the wool dyeing industry, which was an essential for fashionable footwear. Although William Elliot was not famed for creating colour but a pure and consistent black dye for gentlemen’s stockings made here back in the day, aka 18th century. (Circular sculpture behind the dye bucket is the Mermaids arch, which I shall discover more about next time we visit)

A lot of the hosiery was made in small workshops and hand finished in the workers homes. The Leicester seamstress pays homage to the women that did this. I reckon this stocking is rather more fancy than the socks I knit.

The clock tower was built by the Victorians to commemorate some of Leicester’s famous benefactors, including the wool merchant William Wigston, wool being used for spinning weaving and knitting. I didn’t linger as the clock tower is a prominent meeting place in the centre of town and there was an organised protest march gathering as I approached, I wasn’t sure social distancing was being respected so I left them to it.

Perhaps protesting is in Leicester’s heart, I think this campaigner is one we would have been proud to support. Alice Hawkins worked as a boot and shoe machinist in Leicester. She became a leading suffragette and through the Women’s Social and Political Union, campaigned for equal rights for women particularly the right for women to vote. She went to prison 5 times between 1907 and 1913 and was awarded the Hunger Strike medal. Sadly her husband Alfred was injured during a protest and broke his leg, although he was awarded a compensation of £100, Alice died a pauper. Women over 30 who met the property criteria gained the right to vote in 1918, ten years later the right to representation act was reformed to include all men and women over the age of 21 and again in 1970 the age fell to 18.

But it’s not all been work and no play. Back in 1996/97 Leicester’s fortunes were more athletic, their sporting prowess brought home the Coco-cola cup for the foot ballers, the Pillkington cup for the rugby players and the Britanic Assurance championship for the county cricketers in both 96 and 98. I confess to not knowing how they have done since, although one of the competitors on the BBC’s 2021 Great British Sewing Bee comes from Leicester .

Just in case you’re interested my socks are knitted on 2mm circular needles using yarn hand dyed by the yarn badger, https://theyarnbadger.com/ a lovely lady from Sheffield who specialises in making self striping sock yarn.

I guess every city has its less salubrious side, and it might be an unfair impression, but Leicester seems to fair badly. We left the pretty, well maintained rural mooring with its throngs of happy energised towpath trawlers to continue our journey north. Kings Lock Tearoom was closed when we cruised past in Spring 2019 and it still is. As it looks like someone’s home I wonder if it will ever open again.

And this is where that tiny little beck of a river and the canal merge to take us onto a river cruise.

Word has it that the River Soar can rise and fall rapidly when it rains. Some narrowboaters are reluctant to cruise on a river fearing the flow, flood and lack of suitable mooring. I think we fall into the respectful category. We’ve checked the weather forecast and know that we can limit the days we’ll spend on the river if necessary. However, apart from a bit of snow, it’s been relatively dry, both recently and for the foreseeable. So we said goodbye to the pretty countryside and drifted towards the city centre. The debris in the water and hooked around the vegetation at flood level is sad.

But the graffiti is foul. The next lock is shameful and I won’t post a photo of the worst that I saw.

Don’t get me wrong, we both enjoy seeing street art, and we dont underestimate the talent of some artists, but this is vandalism and doesn’t do anything to create a sense of pride in a community. The river runs along the West side of the city, with one or two old bridges over to the residential side of town. With bollards and hard standing, there is potentially a lot of mooring available in the city centre, but the beer bottles and cans of nitrous oxide warn us off.

But thankfully there is space at the official Castle Gardens secure visitor mooring for a few days.

The promise of spring in the air proved too much for our wanderlust to ignore, and we have taken the decision to pull the pins and cruise away from Market Harborough.

As we head off to Debdale to refuel, we intend to stay compliant within the restrictions, only cruising for essential services. So instead of returning the 12 miles back to Market Harborough we have decided to cruise onwards towards the next water point which is only 8 miles north. But slowly.
First stop, the area we have affectionately called the beech grove, because when we arrived in the autumn, it was a mass of golden copper beech leaves, which sounds a bit more inviting than it’s official name, Gallows hill.

Of course the real reason I wanted to start cruising is that it’s lambing season.

Although they might be cute, they aren’t half noisy at the start and end of the day.

And I was never quite sure who was watching who

Heavily laden with fuel, water and a well stocked larder, we continued north as we could see the light at the end of the tunnel

We’ve been warned to expect achey arms when we get our jabs in a week or two, but it can’t be worse than the aches after doing the first heavy double locks since we left Braunston back in October.

CRT are still hoping to lift the restrictions on cruising on April 12th so until then we shall remain south of Leicester. There’s a lot of rural mooring around here, and it won’t be long before the mud dries out on the Towpath, and we can enjoy some good walks again.