Church – Narrowboat Firecrest

Tewkesbury to Gloucester

As we’d reached the last day of our 14 night ANT licence, we only had one night in Tewkesbury. Of course I made straight for the Abbey to enjoy one of my favourite sculptures in the country. It’s called Touching Souls and depicts 4 children sitting in a circle with their feet touching. Their soles and their souls reaching out. It was created as a copy its Romanian artist Mico Kauffman, who sculpted the original for the United Methodist Church in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.
The entire high street and town centre is interesting to walk down, with a merry mix of independent shops in olde world buildings which encourage you to look beyond the modern day window displays. And even after we first stopped here in 2017, I still rate the Gloucester Old Spot sausage, from Halfords butchers the best, and we’ve done a lot of research. I also like this gate to the garden of the Tudor House Hotel on the high street.

Where antiquity walks hand in hand with time and still retains its dignity, there is peace.

Whilst I was out exploring (and buying sausage for tea) Eric was prepping the boat ready for our trip down the big River Severn

We didn’t think our mud weights would cut it if we got into trouble on the Severn

We left the Avon at its confluence with the River Severn,

and as the river is now subject to a tidal flow, from now on all the locks are manned. Not only is the river big, but so are the locks.

Albert is a proper sea worthy barge, who was planning to continue onto the Severn Estuary

The scale of our surroundings certainly reminded us what a small cog we are in the grand scheme of things

You could build a marina inside Upper Lode Lock

We say this over and over again, we love the variety of waterways that we can cruise on, from some rather grotty backwaters of neglected canals, to picturesque rivers like the Avon and onto super highways like the Severn.

Poor Firecrest, we usually travel about 2.8 miles an hour today we reached 6, and could have gone faster

Going with the flow helped our journey time down to Gloucester. We made the 13 miles to Gloucester dock in about 4 hours.

A nice manageable sized lock to see us into the Historic Gloucester dock

Now, where shall we moor….

An exciting day

Glad we don’t meet these big boys on the canals

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

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

6 weeks on the Shroppie

The Shropshire Union Canal is definitely one of the prettiest, although the double locks are heavy going, but it’s worth it to get to Chester.

Chester is one of our favourite cities and we were lucky to get moored at King Charles Garden, under the wall. ( that’s Charles I, we’re still waiting for an invitation to moor in our current King Charles garden)

It’s so close to the cathedral that I managed to almost managed to fit in a whole years worth of soul refreshment into one week

And we still had plenty of time to explore the city as well,

Of course it became a daily challenge to walk the wall

Looking up to the wall to Eastgate clock

Thankfully we had left Chester before storm Babet arrived and flooded all the rivers. The river Dee still looked a lovely place to stroll along outside the wall.

We took advantage of being able to stay 14 days in Chester before we turned round to head south, like the Airbus dolphin that flies to Toulouse everyday delivering parts from its Cheshire manufacturing plant and headquarters.

One of the Airbus dolphins flying above us

Lots of idyllic rural mooring

Although we knew we’d be cruising straight into that sun after breakfast and we wouldn’t be able to see a thing.

We stopped at the Shady just in time to avoid a torrential down pour, and took advantage of eating out, although it was a nice meal, neither of us thought it justified the price,

Bates Mill Bridge 109, with the Shady pub just the other side

As it didnt entail any more locks, we decided not to turn off onto the Middlewich Branch straight away, but to go on to Nantwich for a few days. And contrary to what we saw in the shop windows Nantwich really isn’t a dead end place

It’s a very interesting historic town, and if all the mooring wasn’t restricted we’d have stayed a whole week,

As usual I made a beeline for the local church St Marys , besides the deep spiritual calm, they are some of the most accessible historic buildings usually full of hidden gems. This time I couldn’t tear myself away from the two hanging embroideries, worked to commemorate both the queen’s silver jubilee and the people of Nanwich.

Nantwich also has a very good cheese shop, several craft brewery’s and a good market. Not to forget also mentioning some nice mooring, although it’s 2 days throughout the entire stretch of the town.

Reykjavik-Iceland part 5

Another early morning treat when we threw open the curtains, our very cartoon volcano on the horizon. Thankfully it wasn’t an erupting one.

And being up early we saw the pilot arrive to guide the ship into Reykjavik Harbour.The skyline was full of promise of an exciting city to explore

We decided to forgo the organised excusion to the famous Blue Lagoon, Back in March I had shared the locks on the Hatton flight with a family who turned out to be travel writers, I flippantly asked for any tips about Iceland and was told I must visit the Sky Lagoon, it being newer, a better location, smaller and less busy closer to Reykjavik, and cheaper to boot -with more extras. And after hearing our fellow passengers accounts it seems we chose well. Needless to say you will have to form your own picture of Amanda and I bathing in the thermal waters of the infinity pool overlooking the ocean, of course with a cocktail in hand, before we entered the 7 step spa ritual with its sauna, again overlooking the ocean, the salt scrub and whale music, (don’t picture us leaping into the ice cold plunge pool, that wasn’t so pretty) etc.

https://www.skylagoon.com/

I could say that’s it for our trip to Reykjavik, but fortunately it wasn’t. With our radiant skin and chilled out minds we followed our taxi drivers recommendation and found ourselves a cafe serving proper icelandic food. And we sat on the pavement eating soused herring on ryebread

After lunch we followed the rainbow road up to the magnificent Hallgrímskirkja, which although the most impressive of buildings, isnt the Reykjavik cathdral but the parish church. To me its sleek modern architecture summed up how artistic and stylish this island is. And interestingly it is known in English as the Church on the Hill, which is also what the Church our father in law was minister at for many years.

my photos don’t do justice to the scale of this elegant building, known in English as the Church on the Hill

And standing watch outside is a monument of Lief Ericsson, the explorer credited with discovering Iceland in the 10th century

Perhaps not all of Iceland’s art is quite as stylish

But I did like the piles of rocks all along the shoreline

We perhaps didn’t make the best of our day exploring Reykjavik, there were many many more attractions that we could have visited. But we had booked ourselves onto a whale watching trip at 3pm so we only had two hours between the spa and what was to be the highlight of our trip. We got ourselves all togged in the gear

And we’re just heading down to the awaiting RIB…..

This was to be a joy ride extraordinaire

…..when our excitement was shattered. The sea conditions had worsened and the waves were now over 2m so our trip was cancelled. To say we were gutted was an understatement. Although with that sort of swell perhaps our guts were secretly relieved. Although it was still only 4pm the last, courtesy bus back to Borealis was at 5. We could have found a taxi and stayed out longer but our spirits were dampened, until of course we got back to the ship, and were met by our favourite waiter, Julius, who gave us a hot toddy before we boarded.

We like to think we were his favourite passengers

all the crew were lovely on board, they were mainly from the Philippines, they all spoke excellent English, and nothing seemed too much trouble for them. We quickly got to know who worked where on the ship, and madam Cheryl and madam Amanda were always greeted with a smile. We’d recommend Fred Olsen as a cruise operator any day. The little extras always made us smile

(And Hi to Steven the cyclist who stopped to say hello yesterday, who let us know he was enjoying the blog- thanks Steven we appreciate knowing)

48 hours in Alrewas

We moored up expecting rain but were rewarded with a few precious moments worth of blue sky as I looked across the water meadows.

The view from the visitor moorings by the lock

We had seen the church perched on the hill as we cruised through Wychnor

So I took the opportunity to walk back along the river section for a closer look.

I climbed up the hill and found some info boards in the adjoining fields hinting of the archaeological significance of mediaeval settlements, but the village was wiped out during the plague, I didn’t stick around to investigate more. Alrewas however survived and became a thriving village with some stunning timber framed thatched cottages

And Coates, one of our favourite butchers shops.

We can recommend the pies, sausages and rump steak, however we suspected the local camel would taste a bit wooden.

We think the wise men must be on their summer holidays

We wondered if there’s an equivalent term for boaters who look wistfully at houses like gongoozlers watch narrowboats. And where does that place us with our modern electric boat, hankering after an old thatched cottage.

We didn’t make it up to the national memorial arboretum this visit, preferring to follow ratty’s advice on this Canal side cottage.

So we had to smile when we came across another Braidbar boat, appropriately named.

And we continued our journey up to Fradley

The Stump, what a view.

The good folk of Lincolnshire certainly like to make a statement. And just like Lincoln, our first sighting of Boston was the church, St Botolphs. Known affectionately as “The Stump”. This towering beacon guided us along the river to the visitor moorings, where a fellow boater said “….you do know you can go up to the top….” of course I didn’t need telling twice. Despite the clouds, the forecast suggested this would be the clearest day for the best view. So with my eager accomplice Cherryl, we persuaded our boys that it was only 220 steps and off we went. Only 220 steps indeed, we were both looking for the oxygen cylinders by the time we got to the top. But then we realised it was the view that claimed the breath taking prize. We were able to stand outside on all 4 aspects of the tower. Looking down we could see the market and some of the grand Boston properties built in its thriving heyday. And if we followed the river west, in front of the Grand Sluice, Boston lock, (under the rail bridge) the tide had retreated revealing uninviting mud going out to the estuary, but Seren Rose and Firecrest were moored safely upstream in non tidal water.Looking straight out we could see over to the Norfolk coast and the in/off shore windfarms (we’re still debating which term is correct).To the north was a “proper” 1820s windmill, this is one of the largest still operating in England. Looking to the west were the great, soon to be redundant, cooling towers of the coal power stations on the Trent and medieval Tattershal castle. On a good day you can see over 30 miles and Lincoln cathedral but it was too hazy for us.I don’t usually like heights but the stone balcony encased us safely. We had climbed 145 feet up, the remaining 100 feet was closed to public access.Coming down was harder than going up, narrow spiral stairwells are good for the defending soldiers wielding swords. Ian and Eric obviously didn’t meet the enemy as they practically flew down. Cherryl and I took a more ladylike descent, and emerged triumphant and in need of a cuppa-provided by a very pleasant cafe in the church. St Botolphs seems to be a very welcoming and inclusive church. Lots of beautiful architecture but more importantly full of people.There were several community activities going on, the local art club had an exhibition, there were some spinners and knitters creating a WWI remembrance display of red poppies, there was a replica of St Botolphs being made out of Lego, a wood carving group working on church restoration, a cafe and a large second hand book area. The following day I had the joy of attending an organ recital, but sadly as we only had 2 nights in Boston we missed taking part in any of the many Christian worship activities also advertised.