River – Narrowboat Firecrest

Shugborough Hall

We woke to a perfect cruising day. I was determined that as we passed Great Haywood Junction, where the the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal meets the Trent and Mersey Canal, we would moor up so I could visit Shugborough Hall.

6 or so miles travelling south, under one of my favourite bridges, Salt Bridge, (named as it leads to the village of Salt- where you’ve guessed it, they mined Salt).

The junction was busy as always, but we managed to get one of the last spaces on the 2 day mooring. Eric had some work to do, so I left him to it and went for a walk. The estate is reached by crossing over the 16th century packhorse bridge, Essex Bridge. This where the Trent and the Sow meet and the Trent becomes the major river. This is another of my favourite bridges, although only 14 of the original 40 arches remain.

Essex Bridge, worth stepping off the towpath at Haywood lock to see, even if you don’t go onto the estate.

Although the estate is a National Trust property, the grounds are open to the public to enjoy, with monuments and follies hidden amongst huge trees.

The Chinese house and bridge over the River Sow

The cat monument celebrating Lord Anson’s Persian cat and his flock of Corsican goats built in 1750. And of course some beautiful flowers in the garden

The next day Eric and I set off to explore the house

The estate lands were owned by the Bishops of Lichfield until Henry VIII threw a spanner in the works, and seized their assets. In the 1600’s the Anson family bought the estate, knocked down the manor house and built themselves a stately home. The rest they say is history

Over the years, wealth was amassed through commerce and marriage, the house was extended. They travelled extensively

And many “treasures” and design styles were brought back to the house. We particularly liked this one, a Chinese garden seat, which was was filled with potpourri to help disguise odours emitting from the sitter. Personally we thought it was a forerunner to a USB charger socket

Battles were fort and won on behalf of the crown, and titles were awarded. The most prestigious was in 1831 when the family were given a hereditary peerage, and Thomas Anson became the 1st Earl of Lichfield. However even members of the aristocracy still need to wash their smalls, or employ a small army to do it for them.

Shugborough Hall was given to the National Trust in 1960 in lieu of inheritance taxes, but the 5th Earl was granted an apartment to continue living in. He was the photographer Patrick Lichfield, and many of the items on display were photos he’d taken. This wing is now open to the public which was fascinating seeing it filled with familiar, albeit now retro, crockery and appliances-the sort of thing that savvy shoppers can pick up at car boot sales, and some of us are still using- like our trusty Kenwood Chef. We weren’t permitted to take our own photos in this wing. After so much grandeur and a picnic in the grounds, we were quite happy to return to our little narrowboat to enjoy some natural landscaping along our canal.

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

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.

Soaring into Leicestershire

So much for my good intentions suggesting we take the Leicestershire route, down the River Soar. I’d checked all the relevant websites and confirmed that the Soar was no longer in flood, but I had forgotten to check that short stretch of the River Trent between Derwent Mouth lock and Sawley marina, and yes you’ve guessed , we were still hovering on red and the flood gates were closed.

Luckily it only held us up by 2 days, and our friend Jo popped in to say hello whilst we were twiddling our thumbs. Jo has recently discovered the joys of drumming and took me to her group that meets in Nottingham.

And I’m happy to agree that it was a great way to spend an evening. But when the sun rose the next morning and CRT gave us the go-ahead we weren’t hanging around, we were off, hurtling through the swirly currents at a heady 6 mph, under the M1,

Where the Derwent River and the Trent cross paths

Throught the Sawley cut, waving to the Erewash canal and turning off before Nottingham’s cranfleet cut.

Make your mind up time, which way shall we go…

And onto the River Soar.

Turning right onto the Soar, cruising up stream, does that look a bit autumnal to you, have we missed summer?

We quite enjoy river cruising, its usually wide and has a sense of greater freedom, although we were glad to be off the strong currents.

We made it through to Loughborough, and who should we meet but Jo and her trusty windlass to help us through a lock.

We were making good progress so didn’t stay long, We wanted to moor up at Birstall,

Words fail me, not my idea of fun at all.

This is where Jo had moored in December, and why we don’t cruise rivers in the winter. But as she says, she had a whale of a time and lived to tell the tale. In the mean time we took advantage of that nice solid edge and the sunshine to do some spring cleaning.

Just in time to welcome another visitor, my friend Carol from back in the day when we were student nurses together

Having had an enjoyable day we got ready to cruise into Leicester but guess what Birstall Lock had problems,

It had been knocked off its hinges and although CRT said it was still operable with care, it took ages to empty and we had to enlist the help of 4 burly young men to help us open the gate to let us in. It didn’t take long to fill and we got through safely but not surprisingly the next day CRT changed its advise and closed it for a week until it was repaired.

But we’d made it to Leicester and within walking distance to the train station cause I was jumping ship for my next adventure

Goodbye Autumn Hello Winter

Autumn seemed to arrive late and disappear early this year, or at least we think so. But what we did see of it was worth it.

With several more commitments off the boat we needed good access to public transport. Half way between Middlewood and High Lane provided us with good options, and a lovely walking route.

We couldn’t resist a cruise down memory lane either as we decided to go onto the Peak Forest canal for a week or two.

And we managed to get a perfect view of the Halo Moon

But of course clear skies make for a frosty morning

Our neice has just moved to the area so she came to see us and enjoyed the cruise into Bugsworth Basin

We took the opportunity to catch up with several friends that we made in 2017 when we’d moved onto Firecrest but weren’t able to leave the Braidbar

We said our goodbyes to Buggy and the Sunny,

And before we knew it winter had arrived

The canal was frozen for a week and the only boat daft enough to break the ice was a CRT work boat travelling at speed. We were livid, and wish we’d thought to take a number down to complain. The snow didn’t last long, unlike the snow that fell at mum’s up in the Lake District, they got 12 inches most of it falling in just an hour or two. No wonder it took them by surprise. I caught the train up a few days after and although most had gone, the views remained spectacular

and going back to wake up to my favourite view from my teenage bedroom

And Back again, from Stortford to Limehouse

Its 33 miles and 29 locks from Bishop’s Stortford to Limehouse Basin, so we took a week to build up some steam, enjoying the prettiness of the Stort, cruising at our leisure,

Taking it carefully as instructed,

Making friends with the locals

It was looking a bit congested around the M25

With the daunting prospect of no mooring.

So someone thought they needed to check in early

But at Tottenham Marshes we struck gold. With a space that wasnt just big enough, it was in full sunshine

We now had 7 miles and only 3 more locks to complete our journey, thats roughly 3.5 hours travelling for us….. we could see the City looming ahead

At this point we could have taken the option of turning right onto the Hertford union link canal to get us back onto the Regent’s Canal. But we thought it would be fun to take the half hour detour and cruise around the olympic park ring.

The Olympic stadium which is now home to West Ham

We had teamed up with another boat who had the same intention as us, we’d checked our maps and yes it was now permitted to cruise but not to moor. As I was on lock duty I had the advantage of looking around the corner, and saw a clump of branches at one side. I dutifully called out a warning. “Go very slowly, there’s a tree down and I can’t see how much navigation its blocking. …..” hummmmm turns out it was blocking the navigation completely. Luckily we were able to reverse in and pull them off, as they were well and truly stuck.

It could have been worse, but perhaps “tug of boat” ought to become an olympic sport

It was pity not to be able to do the ring, but we weren’t short of other interesting sights, with some creative boat design

And most buildings reaching for the sky

We cruised past the Bow Locks which we are not sure if they are still operational to allow cruising on Bow creek or if it is just for tidal management only now.

And after 5 long hours we reached the end of this section of our journey by entering Limehouse Basin

Lechlade at Last

By mid morning our batteries were fully charged, (we don’t charge overnight) After a chat with Matt the lockie, to pay our dues, we were escorted by a swan towards Lechlade. It wouldn’t be a long trip, we could see the spire of St Lawrence church under a mile away.

Leaving St John’s for the final leg into Lechlade

Although we were a bit worried as we approached Lechlade, the swans were getting dangerously large.

Lechlade is known to boaters for its offside mooring, which is shared by a herd of cattle. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a steak dinner, but I don’t particularly fancy becoming the steak’s dinner. And there’s many tales of the cows chewing ropes and licking paintwork and occasionally even stepping onto the deck. This herd isn’t aggressive, just inquisitive, but the canny boaters come armed with an electric fence to give a bit of space. However we saw a space at the bottom of The New Inn’s pub garden, and preferring a pint of beer to a pint of milk, we opted to moor as patrons, and enjoy the antics of the cows from a safe distance.

Perhaps its not just the cows we need to watch out for

We were well rewarded with antics when one of the cows got too close to the edge and had fallen in. The combination of the current and the steep bank meant that the cow was struggling to climb out. Some well meaning walkers called the firebrigade who dutifully turned up to assess the situation only to discover that she had climbed out unaided further downstream. They didn’t seem to mind, there wasn’t a lot else going on on a chilly grey bank holiday.

We left them to it and went to explore the village, stopping at the Fish and Chip shop

The fish and chips were worth stopping for

It had been a goal to reach Lechlade for some years now, as it holds fond childhood memories. I think I was about 7 when I helped my dad build a Canadian canoe. We then drove from our home in Liverpool to Trewsbury Mead, near Cirencester to see the spring which is hailed to be the source of this great River, in those days Old Father Thame’s statue still marked the spot until he was moved to St Johns lock in 1974. Its actually one of several springs in the area, but its unusual to see water flowing from it.

We continued our homage in our VW combi, following the growing river for about 15 miles through pretty Cotswold villages until we reached Lechlade, the first navigable section, where we set off as a family of four, mum, dad me and my younger brother paddling our way down to Windsor, pitching our tent to camp along the way. (We’d actually launched, ie tested it was water tight, the canoe in the Leeds and Liverpool canal at Lydiate.) Such a pity I don’t have any photos of this transformative holiday. However I do have some lovely memories. Eric and I walked up to the Round House which marks the joining point of the Thames and Severn canal with the river, which is probably the spot where we launched our canoe.

The roundhouse (former lock keepers cottage) at Lechlade

Sadly the weather, and being on patrons only mooring didn’t motivate us to stay more than one night in Lechlade, and depending upon how our Thames adventure pans out we might well come back to explore this pretty place.

Looking down from the bridge to us moored at the New Inn

Duke’s Cut and Beyond

Back in January we declared our intentions to cruise 110miles south to reach the River Thames in Oxford. 4 months later we have made it. That’s near enough 120 miles 120 days (we added a few miles on doing some of the Birmingham loops)

Believe it or not, we didn’t actually cruise a mile every day, but despite a few rough moments, storm Dudley, loosing my phone, loosing all the water in a canal, and recently loosing David, its been a good few months of a new adventure. And about a month later than we thought, we are finally here, leaving the Oxford Canal and going through Dukes Cut onto the River Thames.

Duke’s cut was built by George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough, to enable him to take advantage of Warwickshire coal, by joining the canal to the river. Today it’s home to a small group of permanent moorers, which could make two way traffic tricky, but we were lucky and didn’t meet anyone.

We hadn’t got the nicest of travelling days to move onto the Thames, but it didn’t take us long to reach Eynsham Lock and a lovely warm welcome from a lock keeper to show us the ropes. We’ve attached our long ropes for locking, got our anchor and mud weights ready to deploy if necessary and rescued the life savers from bottom of the cupboard just in case we fall overboard, so we are river ready. There’s plenty of quirky things to see and as we left the lock, she pointed out the Swinford toll bridge.

Its one of two toll bridge that remain over the Thames. Motorists have to pay the owner the pricely fee of 5p and endure the privilege of long queues to do so, and regularly campaign to abolish the toll. But with 10000 vehicles using it daily, it doesn’t take a calculator to work out why the owners don’t want to forfeit this tax free golden goose. George III also decreed that no other bridge was allowed to be built within 3 miles of Swinford Bridge.

Our next lock Pinkhill, was self service, which gave us a better opportunity to look around and see the wheel wind, so much easier than using a windlass. Raised Red equals paddles open, raised white equal paddles closed.

The weather really wasn’t inspiring for cruising, so we moored up for lunch at the Pinkhill picnic mooring . Another new treat for us knocking pins into a field.

And as soon as we decided to call it a day the sun came out

and we enjoyed a lovely sunset