After three months in a marina, on Thursday Eric woke up to what felt like hurricane winds. He decided there was no way he was reversing out with several boats within bashing distance and begged an extra night on the pontoon. I, on the other hand, was still snug and safe in the house. But escape he did, on Friday he joined the multitude of other boats waiting both for the barricades at BoneHill to be lifted and for the fuel boat to make it through for the first time since the winter closures blocked her way in December. By 4pm we had a full tank, thankyou Kat, £136pl expected to rise to £169 in the next fortnight. And most of the boats had moved on through the now open bridge. On Saturday I said my goodbyes at home, defrosted the car and set off at 6am to make it back in time for breakfast. What a glorious sight, even if it was with a sense of deja vu. Firecrest was moored on the same spot where we were grounded in last summers drought.
Peel Wharf, Fazeley
But breakfast would have to wait. I’d barely unpacked the car before we cast off the mooring ropes, so desperate to get cruising again. We cheered as we went through Bone Hill Bridge, which had been closed for culvert repairs (for which we are truly grateful)
And I am now back in my happy place, sitting on the roof, with my knitting in my hand and Eric at the helm. Its still chilly so I doubt we’ll be cruising for more than an hour or two a day until the sun warms us up. But right now we are heading north, back up to the Paint Shed for a bit of tweaking after last year’s repaint.
Today is Mother’s day. We shall be enjoying some special memories of both our mums and our children. We hopeits a good day for you too.
….. we were asked when we finally got the bus into Lichfield. No we hadn’t, but our interest was piqued. What could be so special that a stranger on a bus asks us that. We would find this table in Lichfield Cathedral, so off we set to find out what all the fuss is about. And I have to say I am now quite happy to ask you the same question because the table is quite magnificent.
The table is known as The Table for the Nation, and came about through the discovery of a truly impressive piece of Bog Oak. Its creation was overseen by The Fenland Black Oak Project team
The table in Lichfield Cathedral
5000 years ago there was an oak forest in the Norfolk Fens. But unlike today’s oak trees, that grow to roughly 20m tall, these oak trees were giants, and grew to 50m tall. ( Firecrest is 18.3m long).
At the time this particular tree fell, the rising sea levels on the East Anglian lowlands were creating stagnant anaerobic lagoons. The lack of organic life and soluble iron deposits all helped to preserve the wood and turn it black. Over millenia it became buried in the peaty bogs, until in 2012, during routine cultivation it was exposed. Fenland farmers are well aware of how rare and valuable Bog Oak is so they had the presence of mind to call in the experts. And so the Jubilee Oak (named in honour of the late Queen’s diamond jubilee ) began a new journey.
What was particularly amazing about this piece of oak is it’s length, 13.2m long. It was undamaged, it was straight and there was no insect or fungal damage. It is incredibly rare, probably unique and a plan was made to preserve it for the nation.
The story of the of how this piece of wood became The Table for the Nation, is told so well on their website that I am not going to attempt to reproduce it. It’s a short easy read and I strongly recommend you take a look.
In 2022, after 10 years of skilled craftsmanship, borrowing a mobile sawmill from Canada, developing new innovative techniques, and a lot of love and care, this magnificent table was unveiled in Ely Cathedral
The craftsmen managed to keep the 13m length, and echoing the period when the acorn became an oak, they incorporated a bronze understructure and a wheeled folding mechanism that allowed the table to be moved by just two people.
The size of the table means it requires an equally impressive sized venue, and if you have such space you can apply to host the table. Useful for family dinner parties
The table is currently on display in Lichfield Cathedral for 10 months. One of the lovely things about this table is that the public are at liberty to touch and stroke it unlike many precious artifacts, although one of the guides nearly had a heart attack when I little boy bored of her explanations decided to race his toy tractor along it. Lichfield Cathedral itself is a beautiful building.
Both inside and out
And just for good measure, here’s Firecrest’s table
As the reports kept flooding in with dire warnings about water shortages, hosepipe bans and the summer of ’76, we cruised on with uncertainty. Our plan had been to cruise down the Coventry canal towards Rugby, probably taking in detours onto the Ashby and into Coventry, before deciding whether to go down the Grand Union aiming to overwinter around Leighton Buzzard, or whether to head up the Soar through Leicester and back onto the T&M for the winter months. We’d always planned for a meandering slow summer but this is boat life, we hadn’t anticipated quite such a slow stroll.
Fradley Junction onto the Coventry Canal
At the beginning of July, we left the Trent and Mersey Canal and turned onto the Coventry canal. We’d been invited to the Friday social at the Lichfield Cruising club, so that’s where we made our first stop.
Moored opposite the Lichfield Cruising Club
Sue made us very welcome, but guess what, it rained so the BBQ was eaten inside. We were keen to explore Lichfield, but its about 2.5 miles walk in from the club at Huddlesford Junction. With no nearby bus route, we cruised on towards Whittington and it’s bus stop, but we we found it was too shallow to get in close to the bank. Ok we didnt try very hard not realising this could become the norm. On another mile and we found ourselves a beautiful mooring just beyond the village, with some nice trees to shade us from the next heatwave.
Hadmore Farm Bridge
At this point, I was quite happy not cruising because during July there are 2 major sporting events that will have me breaking my “no daytime tv” rule. Wimbledon and the TdF. No not Tour de France, but the Tour de Fleece, an online spinning extravaganza, where yarnies like me get their spinning wheels out and aim to complete various challenges of spinning skills, whilst spinning every day during the official TdF. It’s all a bit of fun on social media, but there’s nothing I like better than getting my wheel out onto the towpath and spinning in the fresh air. Or better still getting my little electric wheel out to spin whilst we are cruising
A bit of self indulgence, spinning whilst we cruise
We stayed put for a few days, watching the entertainment – competative boating- who was going to win the race to get through the bridge, and who was going to come off worst…. us…. the green boat reversed into us when he realised 3 boats dont fit.
Its not rocket science, two of you need to give way
Unfortunately it was still quite a walk to the bus stop from Hadmore farm bridge, which meant we still hadn’t been able to get into Lichfield easily. But the little Co-op in Willington kept our fridge full until we moved onto Hopwas.
A little more self indulgence at Hopwas
A perfect mooring for towpath spinning, it has to be flat and wide enough to allow the walkers and their inquisitive dogs to pass by, or stand and chat, and with some shade. Of course spinning outside means I don’t get to watch the cycling on TV at the same time, but if I’m honest I’m not really a cycling addict. The downside of Hopwas is that it doesn’t have a village shop, but it does have a good bus service into both Lichfield and Tamworth that we took advantage of.
Lichfield Cathedral- worth exploring
By now, mid July, the email alerts from CRT really were starting to pour in about closed locks and restrictions, including the Atherstone flight which was our planned route. Eric had a lot of work on(- why does contract work always happen in the summer instead of the winter when there’s nothing better to do) and I had my spinning, so we decided that even though we were still allowed to cruise, the writing was on the wall, worse was to come, so we would do our bit to help conserve our valuable water resource and not do any more locks until the situation improved. We’d heard good things about the mooring on the Birmingham and Fazeley canal near the Kingsbury water park, so that’s where we headed next. What a view.
I don’t believe it….. We finally get cruising, and ….. the memo comes through from CTR that there’s been a landslide and trees down ahead of us stopping navigation for at least 2 days. Not only that but the weather is perfect cruising weather.
We were sitting at the Fazeley Junction
Sitting at the junction, waiting to turn onto the Birmingham and Fazeley canal
Our options included staying put until we got the allclear, detouring through Aston and centre of Birmingham, or …. back tracking back to Fradley Junction, and carrying on along the Trent and Mersey then up the River Soar. Rightly or wrongly, we didn’t fancy sitting it out, or facing all the Aston locks with unknown mooring options, so we winded and back tracked.
So near yet it wasn’t to be
We’ll do the Fazeley canal another time. As I’d just had another few days off the boat sorting out mum’s affairs, we were desperate to be cruising again, and my reward was seeing our first ducklings of the year.
12th April
I had an easy lock free day, and even when we turned right at Fradley the volunteers were ready and willing to help us through,
Fradley Junction
Then we got to Alrewas, such a pretty place,
Until you see this
“Oh no, A red warning sign”
It didn’t take us completely by surprise to see the red warning signs but we’d spoken to the lockies and we knew the river levels were falling. Much to the consternation of a holiday boater we went through the lock knowing we could moor up on the other side of the village and await our go ahead.
We walked along the towpath to see what awaited us
Sure enough, CRT came along and removed the padlocks giving us the all clear ride the rapids. Several boats were itching to go through ASAP, but we decided to wait until the morning.
I think those fields would be more suited to water buffalo than our cows
