Lichfield – Narrowboat Firecrest

Have you seen the table?

….. 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 in Ely Cathedral-Swiped from website

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

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.

Glad that didn’t get stuck in the prop, (Swiped from website)

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.

The Fenland Black Oak Project (where most of my photos have been Swiped from)

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 tables intended home, Ely Cathedral (Swiped from website)

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.

Showing the undercarriage. (Swiped from website)

I don’t know how heavy the table is, but during construction it took 18 people to move just one plank.

Showing drop leaves (Swiped from website)

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

Who would you sit at the far end…. (Swiped from website)

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

Rain Stopped Play- or rather a lack of it

Whatever happened to July.

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.

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 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.

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.

Speed Boating

Speed boating, or Endurance boating, ….Well it felt like it for us. We rarely cruise for over 3 hours a day, but with so many delays both Eric and I were keen to push on. 5 or 6 hours cruising on a few days.

Back in mid December, a few days before the breach at Scholar’s Green halted our journey south, we treated ourselves to a Gold Licence intending to spend the season cruising the East Anglia waterways. 10 weeks later we finally broke free and sailed through to Kidsgrove.

10 and half weeks later I got the phone call to return home, but now 4 weeks later we’re finally on the move again. We dutifully checked our route maps and CanalPlanAC says 115 miles, 69 locks, 57 hours.. Kidsgrove to Northampton.
But no, there’s been a major landslide at Brinklow and our direct route is blocked until mid June. We’ll have to travel via Birmingham, 125 miles and 128 locks and 68 hours. That’s almost twice as many locks to do. (James if you’re reading this, be warned we’re coming via Hatton.)
But we all love locking, especially when the sun’s shining, and we’ve already done 23.

Approaching one of our 128, somewhere below Stoke

We got very lucky with the Easter Bank Holiday weather, and we had some perfect cruising weather from Stoke. Even the occassional heavy showers ended with a rainbow

No one offered to swim across to find the pot of gold

We were surprised at how quiet the canal was, despite it being the start of the hire season and a 4 day weekend,

Dead quiet, This person obviously spent too long on their mobile

Perhaps the wild swan at Weston had seen everyone off. We’ve cruised this way a couple of times and for the past few years, this territorial swan has chased us off his patch, pecking at the boat. This time we were brave enough to moor overnight in Weston and saw him attack several trespassers.

The much nicer Swan at Fradley was doing a roaring trade and has provided a photo fit for next years self print calender

Leaving the Trent and Mersey at Fradley junction, and joining the Coventry canal

What Eric hauled up from the prop wasn’t quite so pretty,

It could have been worse, only a rope fender this time

And talking of pretty

We had a rained off day, so we caught the bus into Lichfield to have a wander around. The weather didn’t make for good photos, but we did both enjoy our mooch. It’s quite a historic place, in the 7th century, Chad established his Bishopric, and it became the ecclesiastical centre of Mercia. Unfortunately the famous 3 spired cathedral was wearing scaffolding so not looking its best.

One of Lichfields other claims to fame is that it is the birthplace of Samuel Johnson, who complied the first English Dictionary

But whilst I might enjoy words, not a lot beats sunrise on your own boat.