Narrowboat Firecrest – Page 6 – Coddiwompling with Narrowboat Firecrest

Pershore

A gentle 9 mile, 3 hour cruise, river cruising at its best. The Avon doesnt feel like a wide super highway that parts of the Severn or Trent do. It meanders through pretty farmland, it’s peaceful and calm- at least on a sunny day like this.

I was taking part in the annual international spinning challenge known as the Tour De Fleece, which runs along side a certain french bike ride. So with such favourable conditions I got my little electric spinning wheel out and sat atop the boat and spun my yarn.

We must have been feeling very energetic mooring alongside the Pershore Recreational Ground,

France was at it again with little football competition going on, The club house, only 100m across the grass, was showing the matches live, whilst I was watching “live” on iplayer, so hearing the cheers a second or two before I saw a goal was scored rather spoilt the anticipation, but at least we knew when to look up at the screen.

Looking out from the boat we saw the leisure centre to our left and the football club behind the tree, with the Abbey beyond.

The Pershore leisure centre is also part of the Rec grounds so we took the opportunity for a swim as the pool was right on our doorstep. I’d have liked to have gone paddle boarding as well but we just had to watch this group having a good time.

Our friends John and Tina joined us for the day and we all walked over to Pershore Abbey. Another Benedictine monastery that has undergone mixed fortunes over the centuries, but survived to remain a sanctuary of peace and wonder. My photos don’t do justice to how if feels inside a building like this.

Of course not everyone shares my love of heavenly old churches, sometimes nature can be just as inspiring and dramatic and moments later those black clouds broke and the heavens opened.

Quick, batton down the hatches cause there’s a lotta rain about to fall

Most of the mooring on the Avon is restricted to 2 days, so we begrudgingly moved on. Attempting to stop at the water point at the opposite end of the Rec. If there’s anything we like to have a good grouch about its overgrown mooring places, today it was an over-hung water point. Eric couldn’t see where the tap actually was to get in, so it was lucky I’d walked along and was able to call him in. So whilst Firecrest was being filled up Eric got the secateurs out and gave the weeping willows a good haircut.

Hopefully the next boaters along will appreciate the extra visibility. Our next stop was exactly what we love about a mooring. Beautifully maintained grass just perfect to sit on. (And do more outdoor spinning)

And a stretch of river so clear you could see the fish nibbling the boat,

And warm enough to tempt me in for a bit of wild swimming. In fact when we told our friends from Wawick about the swimming, they jumped in their car to join us for a dip

Me, James and Maggie enjoying a refreshing dip

Yes we like river cruising

Next stop Tewkesbury

Crossing the river in Evesham

Workman Gardens in Evesham is a super place to moor,

lots to see and nice and close to walk over the bridge into town. I didnt expect to see a whale in Evesham, but there it was in the gardens, albeit a scaled down sculpture.

Crossing over the river into the town, we found ourselves in the Abbey gardens. The Norman Abbey was built in the early 700s, it was huge, almost a town in its own rights, not only a place of worship but providing employment, health care and education and a reason for Evesham to thrive. Shamefully, it was razed to the ground during the 16th century dissolution of the monasteries, but the newly built clock tower was saved.

There’s some fascinating history in Evesham, most famously the Battle of Evesham where Simon De Montfort was fighting for democracy, in the belief that the common people would be less resistant to paying taxes if they had representatives negotiating on their behalf, as opposed to the king, (Bad King John at the time) just helped himself.

Lots of interesting little places to explore in Evesham

We’d been leap frogging down the River Avon with some lovely narrowboats all chug chugging their way to the river festival and a Russell Newby convention (big traditional thud thud engines, that are beautifully maintained and usually housed in an engine room for ventilation, ) despite Eric having a beer belly, he doesn’t smoke a pipe, have a beard or keep his brass polished so we moored at the opposite end of the gardens so as not to draw too much attention. But it looked like we were going to be in for a lively weekend

looking downstream, Firecrest is moored just where the River disappears from view

As more and more boats appeared, signs went up on the towpath saying “closed from 9am Saturday morning” We were a bit confused by this, what was closed? There was reserved mooring notices at one end for the RN boats, but nothing to indicate if it was the towpath, park or the mooring that was closed. And none of the organisers seemed to be able to give us an answer. Feeling a bit disgruntled we untied the ropes and cruised on, luckily only as far as the pontoon 200m away. And we soon realised why as the cruisers emerged from their marinas to join the party. We were treated to an array of boats in all shapes and sizes

But the best one had to be the Dutton amphibious car enjoying a trip out.

Despite big expectations that the River Festival would be fun to watch, it turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, all the action took place on the short frontage of the gardens so we hardly saw any of it. At least the steam boats were all fired up when they returned home late afternoon

I stayed up way beyond my bedtime to watch the fireworks only to realise too late that the trees were in the way and I should have been on the other side of the river.

Still, we’d had a nice few days in Evesham and been visited by friends who live locally. Look out Pershore, we’re coming your way.

River Avon, from Stratford to Evesham

We bought a 2 week licence to cruise down the Avon. It’s a 42 mile stretch of wiggledy windy rural loveliness, lined with trees and vistas of farmland. And some villages with houses that wouldn’t be out of place gracing the Thame at Marlow or Windsor. Unfortunately for us, the opportunity for wild mooring is virtually non existent with all the official mooring is restricted to 48 hours. And back during the first fortnight of July, the amount of rainfall was making us wonder what had happened to summer. This mean we were at risk of being hit by red warnings for strong flow and high water levels. Needless to say at Stratford, the wildlife was proving noisier than the tourists- or was it just that they started earlier in the day.

Early morning on the Avon opposite the RSC

So we untied the ropes and set off. Holy Trinity Church has one of the stunning skylines in Stratford although when the sky is blue, the reflection on the river is equally as impressive.

Being a river with quite a flow means there is a need for some strong bridges. Sometimes it’s not always clear which archway has been cleared for navigation, the willow tree certainly hadn’t been trimmed so Eric was left guessing which arch to head for

Most of the locks on the Avon are nice wide doubles, but Robert Aickman’s new lock holds 3 narrowboats. Robert Aickman was instrumental in maintaining and preserving the canal network in particular reopening the South Stratford canal and the Avon Navigation. Protocol says you always leave your exit gates open when leaving the lock which makes the locks easier to work.

Most of the available mooring on the Avon is on the locking channels that bypass the weirs. At the Offenham mooring we were treated to several low flying military planes passing by.

We are always intrigued by this structure at Offenham, but it transpires it is simply a monument built by Eric Prichard who was involved with building the locks and weirs.

We were pleased to see blue sky when we woke, but the flow on the river was still very lively. The warning boards, below the lock, weren’t clear, and our impression is that they could be positioned more visibly and better maintained. Above the lock all looked calm, but as we exited, we realised we were now nudging into red but having set off we put on our life jackets and carried on.

Those weirs really add to the speed of the flow

We were confident the boat could handle the flow, it was lively but not scary. But I made the mistake of distracting Eric at the wrong moment. We were on a bend and the current had other ideas about which line we should take. Eric was a moment too late to correct his course. It’s debatable which of us came off worse, us or the overhanging tree. The tree broke a branch and we are now sporting a go faster stripe down the length of the boat.

Lessons learnt, we survived, I guess we could relate the error to skidding on an icy road and we were lucky just to sustain a scratch in the paintwork. Of course 5 minutes downstream the river straightened and you’d never have known how fast the current was. The moral here is NEVER underestimate the power of water. We’re not sure ice on the road was the cause of this car’s demise.

After our scary moment the rest of journey was a real pleasure. And we have to say we love river cruising

Nice mooring at Workman Gardens in Evesham.

Staying in Stratford

We downed a hearty breakfast to fuel us down the last 16 locks towards Stratford.

Fortunately they are all single locks and being a popular destination we met enough boats coming up as going down, some very helpful volockies, and some very pretty lock landings adopted by a local couple.

I think this is the best lockside garden we’ve seen

I have to confess we’re never sure how we’re going to feel arriving in such a busy tourist destination.

Generally we want to run a mile back to the tranquility of the countryside, but occassionally, we arrive just get a sense of, yes, let’s treat this as a holiday and be tourists, and enjoy the atmosphere. I think a lot depends on where we actually get a mooring.

The Stratford canal terminates at Bancroft Basin. The basin is in one of two remaining wharfs. The other was filled in in the 1930s and became Bancroft Gardens. It’s a hub of entertainment for all the visitors with buskers, icecream vendors, and peddlers all willing to lighten your purse.

In the mid 1800s however, I doubt it was quite so pretty. The area was heaving with commercial activity, 50 000 tonnes of coal passed through Statford each year. There were also glass and lead wharfs, a cooperage, a cider press, a skin yard and a timber yard all served by a tram way. Nowadays, Warwickshire can expect well over 6 million tourists per year and I think half of them come to take a ride on the trip boats that now operate from the basin.

Of course Statfords most famous face is the hurdy gurdy playing busker in the town centre.

He confessed to me that his wife was just glad to have him out of the house

closely followed by William Shakespeare.

And there are monuments all over the place

The fabulous Royal Shakespeare Company Theatre dominates the gardens and river. We chose to go to one of the fringe theatres, even closer to Firecrest than the RSC. The Attic, housed in the old wood yard at the end of the basin, we saw Noel Coward’s Private Lives, and thoroughly recommend this little theatre company to anyone passing through Stratford.

Mooring is restricted to 48 hours in the basin, and whilst we got one of the prime linear spots, most of the mooring is on pontoons, which aren’t quite long enough to make for the easiest of mooring venues. Although this is terminus for the Stratford canal, there is a lock which opens out onto the River Avon.

We bought our ANT licence, (£70 for 2 weeks) and spent another night on the River Avon

Leaving the lock and entering the River Avon

With everything in such easy walking distance we could easily have stayed another few nights in Stratford. Good fish and chips from the Kingfisher on Ely Street, worth the extra 10 minutes walk.

Makes a change from Canada Geese, but just as noisy

A brief change of scene

I had an unexpected call from my cousin, whilst we were having our breakfast…… “what are you doing this weekend?…. “
Di lives in Sussex had been given tickets for Glynbourne. It’s not often all our stars align so perfectly. Eric was tinkering with the boat and trainline provided an affordable off peak return, 6 hours later I was sipping something chilled in Di’s back garden.

What a giggle, we were teenagers all over again, and of course ending the day sitting in bed with Chris Martin headline at Glastonbury,

Sunday morning walk along the downs

Di forgot I wasn’t used to climbing hills on the towpath,

Followed by brunch with family and friends before we went to get our glad rags on for the afternoons performance. I have to confess that whilst I enjoy most classical music, opera isn’t anywhere near the top of my musical choices. But experiences rate highly and Glynbourne is certainly an experience.

Everything about Glynbourne is spectacular

I don’t keep a ready supply of evening gowns on-board Firecrest, but that didn’t stop us enjoying our champagne garden picnic in during the interval. Glynbourne really is an experience. The 16th century manor house is impressive in its own rights, but in 1934 the Christie family’s amateur musical soirees became the professional Glynbourne Festival Opera. John Christie added an extension to his home to accommodate a stage, a symphony orchestra and an audience of 300. In 1994 a whole new theatre complex was designed and built. It’s size allows for some truly impressive productions. Di and I were treated to a mind boggling performance of Mozart’s Magic Flute -thankyou Helen. And I can honestly say i thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next day Di and I treated ourselves to a girly trip to Brighton. We saw the sea, played the slot machines on the pier, shopped in the Lanes, drank cocktails and came home and slept soundly.

I promise we did a lot more than pose for selfies with a glass in our hands

Eric came to meet me on Firecrest on my homeward journey back to the canal, as the station at Wilmcote was a little closer to the canal than the station at Wootton Wawen. And what a spectacular station, looks like Agatha Christie might be waiting in the wings

Continuing my theatrical experiences, next stop Stratford….

Wootton Wawen

We found ourselves mooring up at the pretty village of Wootton Wawen- if only because I love the sound of the name Wootton Wawen. So please indulge me if I say Wootton Wawen many times in this post. And with a name like Wootton Wawen, I knew there had to be some history worth reading up on, starting with the toponomy, (study of place names). Wootton Wawen is a combination of the words Wudu, meaning wood, and Tun meaning enclosed piece of land and Wagga, (aka Wagen) who was the original Saxon thane, ruling the settlement. Thus the name is essentially “the farm near a wood belonging to Wagga”.

The oldest records of the settlement date from around 723 when Aethelbald, king of the Mercians gave Earl Aethelric 20 hides of land (about 2000acres) to build a monastery, however within 50 years the Vikings arrived and burnt it all down. Undefeated a stone church was rebuilt and the Doomsday book records Wootton as having 7 hides, land for 9 ploughs, 23 villagers and a priest, and 23 smallholders who have 6 ploughs, 2 Mills at 11s and 8 sticks of eels; woodland 2 leagues long and 1 league wide Value £4. A hide is a unit of measurement roughly equivalent to 120 acres, traditionally considered to be the amount of land to support a household and cover rent and taxes, providing food for the manor house and men to fight wars. The 2021 census show 1400 people now live there and average house prices are around £600,000 I don’t know about the eels those houses would have now. The church is still standing with various additions but is proud to be the oldest church in Warwickshire.

The church had gone to a lot of effort to make it an interesting place to visit, and I suspect it had a thriving congregation.

Just up from our mooring is Yew Tree Farm shopping village with the most amazing craft gallery. If we lived in a house with wall space and window sills I’d have spent a lot of money there. There were several browsing galleries, including a hand made chocolates shop, antiques, clothes, garden stuff and a farm shop that had honey and ginger icecream, although it’s food range was rather limited or high end. (But there’s a well stocked village store as well.)

We ended up enjoying several more days at Wootton, it was sunny and peaceful, and after a week of heavy locking we needed to put our feet up and watch the water flow by.

Mesmerising colours both on the water and in the sunset

South Stratford Canal

This month, it’s exactly 7 years since we were last on the South Stratford canal, and that time we were hurrying to meet a friend in Braunston. Now we know better, and “encourage” our friends to come to us. The Stratford on Avon canal actually starts at King’s Norton, but the little village of Lapworth is is a busy junction on the canal system, with routes going north, south, east and west, and the North Stratford becomes the South Stratford

This is where we left the Grand Union Canal and the Lapworth link to squeeze through the narrow gap to head south,

Lapworth junction turn right for King’s Norton turn left for Stratford

And where our friends James and Caroline who live locally joined us for the day.

It’s an incredibly pretty canal, with a lot of unique features. The bridges were built in two cantilevered halves which allowed the horse drawn boats to be pulled through the gap without having to untie , simple and sensible really

And there are 6 very unusual houses built for the Lengthmen, these were the men who were responsible for maintaining the Lock and their length of the canal. The navvies who built the canals weren’t house builders so they put the skills they did have and constructed the roofs the same way that they did building tunnels, hence the barrel shaped roof

The Lengthmans Barrel cottage, most of these cottages have been extended now,

James and Caroline saw us through several locks so we thought it only fair to make James take the helm

Mmmm another scratch on the paintwork doesn’t matter that much

Yes James they really do fit into that narrow gap

After all that hard work

we moored up at Lowsonford and went for a very enjoyable meal out at the Fleur De Lys.

Sharing the load

Turning right at Wigrams, onto the Warwick and Napton canal section of the Grand Union is a good place to have friends. The next 21 miles has 46 double locks, and pretty though it may be, it’s hard work without a crew, at this time of year, there are usually other boaters to share the load.

We struck lucky, making friends with a party of Australian men who had left their wives back home and come to explore the UK by narrowboat. Our heritage is certainly something to be proud of.

I hope that, if and when HS2 ever gets completed it will mellow into the countryside again just before Radford Semole

It will mellow and the trees will grow again, but I doubt it will last as long as our fabulous canal network. We said goodbye to our aussies who wanted to get to Warwick to visit Castle. We decided to have a few days in Royal Leamington Spa. Leamington is an odd place, you don’t see it at its best from the canal, although there’s some amazing street art

The town itself grew up around its mineral spring, when taking the waters became a fashionable cure all in the early 1800s. (Apparently the waters were actually a mild laxative so no wonder you felt well cleansed) Parks, promenades and bandstands with fabulous floral displays were created to entertain the visitors but despite the arrival of the railway, bringing more wealthy victorians, this prosperous period didn’t last. And nowadays its sadly rundown although the local council seem keen to maintain the gardens now, so it’s still a pretty place to walk around.

A Japanese Lantern flower in the glass house

Leamington and Warwick are so close, they seem to merge into one with only the River Avon between the two.

We’ve moored in Warwick before on the Saltisford Arm, but not this trip

The Saltisford Arm, well worth £10 a night to moor if you want to explore Warwick

We’d had the offer of a helping hand from my friend Jude

who was keen and eager to help us up the Hatton flight, so we set off straight away.

I’m not sure if Jude realised what she’d volunteered for but we never say no to sharing the load.

As we keep reminding ourselves, it’s cheaper than going to the gym

It’s a great sense of satisfaction when you reach the dragonfly pond,

Glad we don’t meet any dragonfly that big for real

Although there’s still 3 more of the 21 locks to go.
The Hatton Flight was opened in 1799 as part of the Warwick and Birmingham canal. Not only did it carry coal but also tea sugar and spices were being brought to Birmingham, it was hard work for the boatmen but it became known as the Stairway to Heaven because they knew that once they reached Camp Hill in Birmingham they would get paid. In the 1930s the unification of the network incorporated as part of the Grand Union canal and the decision was made to improve capacity by widening the single locks to double width. Not only was it unusual for canals to be improved like this, the new locks were unusual because they were built out of that revolutionary new material, concrete. Economic and efficient the new flight might have been, you’d have thought those engineers would have spared a thought for us leisure boaters, who don’t get paid at the top of the flight.

Those fellas don’t look like it’s too much of a struggle

Unless you count the evening view as a reward. Thankyou Jude, your help was very much appreciated, it was lovely to spend time with you and also to meet your family.

Looking down the Hatton flight towards the castle

And just thrown in for good measure, I’ve also squeezed in a flying visit back home to Suffolk to check out the view from my back garden.

The New Plan A

It was a ridiculous sense of relief to have, having finally given up on the East Anglian Adventure. We were back on the Grand Union and had a plan, not one we were going to allocate to the second half of the alphabet, this is the New Plan A. We are now heading towards Gloucester and Sharpness. We will enjoy the journey and embrace all the new opportunities it throws at us. The DIY tweaks and improvements intended to be done whilst close to home (and Eric’s much missed workshop) will get tackled another time. We’re heading west, towards the sunset.

As we’d only just come down the Grand Union, we decided not to dwardle on this section of our journey. Although we did take time to pay hommage to our two service heros deep in thought at bridge 21. I dont know if they have official names but we call them Tim and Prue, always impeccably turned out, although missing a large glass of red today.

Tim and Prue marking the 80th anniversary of D Day at Bridge 21

We struck lucky at the bottom of the Buckby flight by meeting a lovely couple renovating an old boat. They had minimal boat handling experience but were happy to follow our routine.

Experienced or not it still makes double locks easier if you can share the load. As we gazed longingly at the lovely cottage a at Norton Junction a familiar face approached us, well familiar to me, unless he can magically see out of the TV not my face to him as it was Robbie Cummings from the Canal Diaries tv show.

We didn’t stop to exchange autographs although I thanked him for an entertaining show. The storm clouds were gathering so we opted for a good nights sleep before doing the Braunston tunnel and flight. As luck is now on our side we buddied up again for the locks into Braunston

And found a mooring before the next storm clouds hit

We’ve spent many an hour mooching around Braunston, it’s got history, culture and butcher who sells the Best Braunston Bangers.

However, we might be in good spirits but what had happened to summer.

Somewhere around Bridge 100, the meeting point for many marina dwellers over a weekend G&T

But when dark clouds amass, the only thing to do is get the knitting out and try a bit of reverse psychology. Having knitted a boat chicken for Firecrest,

Meet Nen the Hen, knitted in Northampton where the Nene is known as the Nen

It was time to finish a wooly jumper for me in case the weather never improved

But you know what they say, it only rains when you forget your umbrella. Let’s hope the weather warms up

And sure enough we woke to blue skies and the temperature soared.

And he marched them up to the top of the hill and he marched them down again.

Do you ever get the feeling we should have seen the writing on the wall. We’d moored up in Northampton, keen and eager to get into East Anglia, ready to enjoy some river cruising on the Nene. The drizzle had stopped so we set off on foot to speak to the team in the Enviroment Agency office around the corner at Northampton Marina …..as we were stepping off Firecrest we could see someone “doing something” at Lock 17. That “doing something” turned out to be turning the boards from green to red, indicating strong flow, navigation not advised. Undeterred we started a conversation with the man who just so happened to be from the marina office. We picked his brains as we walked along hoping to glean some local knowledge…. the board would probably be up for 4 or 5 days depending on the weather, and Warmington Lock (between Oundle and Peterborough) was closed for winter maintenance until 30th of May although that was likely to be extended and Salters Lode lock was closed for the foreseeable, at least all summer, meaning we wouldn’t be able to get to Ely or Cambridge, both being anticipated highlights for our summer. As we returned to the boat through the town it appeared that the “whole” of the centre was being dug up, there were barriers “everywhere”, not somewhere you’d explore for pleasure. We felt totally dejected. I didn’t even take any photos. At least the red boards would give us some thinking time and Aldi and B&Q were only 5 minutes walk from our mooring.

Looking towards us at Cotton End, Northampton

It wasn’t all bad, the train station was also convenient and I’d got chores to do in the Lakes so I could go home from here

But as they say, it never rains but it pours. A CRT notification arrived by email, the beam at Lock 11 on the flight has suffered a catastrophic collapse and there could be a major delay in its repair. So now we were well and truly stuck, can’t go forward and can’t go back either.

Fortunately CRT was actually on the ball and once they had done their assessment, they instigated an emergency evacuation plan before they shut the whole flight down in order to do a full repair. There was a very helpful CRT officer called Abby who was keeping us personally informed. By this time Eric and I had decided to cut our losses and make a run for it.
1)We couldn’t leave Northampton whilst the boards were red, and talking to locals it seems there were only 2 people authorised to make decisions about the river levels so if they weren’t on duty, the red boards got left up longer than necessary.
2) we didn’t know how long it would be before Warmington Lock winter maintenance was complete, for that matter when would winter be over
3) we wouldn’t be able to get to Ely or Cambridge at all, because the “authorities” were playing politics
4) and now we risked potentially getting trapped by the Northampton Arm closure, because the oak beam had rotted through.

So we turned around, this time going up the locks

Back under the M1

Back through the well rotted lock 11, which instead of being airlifted by helicopter, CRT had actually cobbled together quite a substantial temporary fix,

Then traipsing through the long grass offside to work the locks Come on CRT, you might claim this is nature friendly, but this is not boater friendly, it’s downright dangerous: the ground is uneven with rabbit holes, you can’t see the bollards or the edge of the lock, its swarming with bugs that bite in the sun and soggy and wet in the rain. It might be due to lack of funds but its neglect, and negligent. And no, more signage warning us of potential trip hazards isn’t enough, one strip of mowing would suffice, then boaters and wildlife will happily share the space.

But despite my grumbles it was a very pretty journey back up the flight

And we ended the day feeling more confident now we were back on the main canal network