BOATING ETIQUETTE

 

Our Tiller Pin

As we have now winded and are retracing our journey to Trent Lock, I don’t really want to bore you with all the places I have already written about in the last couple of blogs. So I am going to try and explain some of the do’s and don't s of boating.

But first I will tell you about our time in Rugeley. We found good moorings near the Tesco Superstore, and was pleased to see that a new Aldi had opened nearby, this made shopping very easy. The town also has good selection of shops.

Of course we visited a few pubs. Wetherspoons, the Plaza a lovely old cinema which has been tastefully renovated. The Vine, a real ale pub with its own brewery, as you can imagine the Captain was a happy bunny. Then we called in at the Albion, a bit of a sports bar but it was ok.

https://www.facebook.com/thevineinnbrewery/?locale=en_GB

We left Rugeley and had to cruise about a mile before we could wind (turn round) and headed off to spend the night at the Plum Pudding. With moorings right outside its easy to visit, but we never had until this time. A large impressive building which give the impression of a posh gastro pub, but it has a very family friendly vibe once inside. I got chatting to a couple at the bar and found we had friends in common, they owned a steam roller, and a number of miniature steam engines, and because they attend the local steam rallies they knew my friend Andrew, who has a miniature showman’s engine called Alison, I worked with him at Denby. It was lovely to meet them but I never got their names.

Andrew's Steam Engine

Because of the very hot weather forecast, we got up early next day and did the 8 locks through Fradley junction, and into Alrewas were we stayed for a couple of days, we tried a meal at the Crown and it was lovely.

Next day we aimed to moor at Barton Turns after putting water in, but the moorings were full so we pushed onto Branston Water.

Now what happened at Tattenhill lock is why this blog is called ‘Boating Etiquette’.

There is an unwritten, but widely acknowledge rule, that you do not moor on lock landings for any reason apart from operating the lock (unless its an absolute emergency). These area’s before and after a lock usually have bollards, and most have signs which say ‘mooring for lock operation only’. They ensure that boaters can get off their boats safely to set the lock before using it, and get back on after using it, and are particually important for people boating alone.

As we approached Tattenhill we could see a boat moored on the lock landing, but no one was setting the lock, strange. As we got closer we could see that the reason for this, was the couple on the boat were washing or polishing the side of the boat, this in our opinion is a big no no, it also meant that the Captain couldn’t pull in to let me off safely. There was a narrowing just before the lock which would allow me to jump ship, but that’s not the point. If a boat had been coming up the lock we would have had big problems.

Usually we wouldn’t call someone out, but this obvious break in etiquette needed addressing, and as we came to the side of them I asked the woman if they knew it was a lock landing, and the women said ’Yes’ and continued polishing, so I pointed out that they shouldn’t really be moored there. It didn’t go down well, the Captain addressed the man (I wont call him a gentleman) and got a mouthful of loud abuse for his troubles. I managed to get off at the narrow bit and headed off to set the lock thinking that was then end of it. But then the man approached the Captain, swearing, yelling, and generally being unpleasant. I didn’t hear much of what was said, but he was so loud a young man came out of the house on the lock to see what was going off. I explained that we had called them out for mooring on the lock landing to polish their boat, and that the boater wasn’t happy about it. The young man hung about enjoying the spectacle the man was making of himself.

My Captain handled the situation like the gentleman that he is, never resorted to swearing or shouting just pointing out how wrong it was on so many levels. Eventually the lock was ready and he went back to polishing his boat and we continued on to Branston Waters for the night. He did end up mooring a couple of boats behind us, and this is were he should have polished his boat, not on the lock landing.

So that is one piece of boating etiquette which most boaters know about and respect. Another which is not so widely accepted, is not leaving git gaps when mooring in busy places. The number of times we have cruised down a row of moored boats, and worked out that if everyone had moored closer together, there would be room for more boats to get in and enjoy whatever the area had to offer. Its just common sense and decency to me, but some just don’t seem to get it.

Coming up to the lock landing, see the bollards

Another, cruising slowly past moored boats, the reason for this is that going fast past moored boats makes them rock and can cause accidents, say if some one was cooking and the boat rocked causing something hot to spill. The problem here is that each boats tick over speed, and the steers perception of how fast they are going can differ greatly. But going to fast is going to get you yelled at eventually. Now I will say, some people expect you to almost go by so slowly you would have to be out of gear to comply. Its finding a happy medium between the moored and moving boats.

Back to locks, if you get to a lock that is not ready for you, and there is a boat approaching that could use the lock, its very bad etiquette to start setting the lock in your favour, its also bad for water conservation. The friendly thing to do is open the gates and welcome the boat into the lock and help lock it through. Occasionally its a snap judgement as to whose lock it actually is, and you don’t always make the right call, but that’s life and most boaters are understanding.

Last one, and its about running your engine to provide power or hot water when moored. This is allowed between the hours of 8am to 8pm, this protects other boaters and canal side homes from noise and exhaust fumes. This is not a guideline but is part of your license agreement with CRT.

Well hope you have enjoyed this lesson on boating etiquette. We are now moored in Burton for a few days before heading down to Trent Lock, and hopefully our assisted passage up the Erewash to Langley Mill for our blacking at the beginning of September.

17 miles, 13 locks and 1 canal.

A STOPPAGE WITH A DIFFERENCE!!!

 

Shot at Dawn

We are experiencing plenty of stoppages on the system this year. It wouldn’t surprise you to know, that most of these are being caused by the very hot dry weather we are having, causing very low water in many places, and more than a few broken locks.

But the stoppage we had at Barton Turns was for something completely different, and not water related at all.

But I get ahead of myself. We left Willington on Sunday and headed for Burton on Trent, only 1 lock today and it was Dallow lock, the first single lock on this canal. We moored near Shobnall Fields, the moorings here are very good and plentiful, but its a bit of a walk into the town. Lidl is about a 15min walk, which was handy as we needed a good shop. We had a quiet afternoon and evening and didn’t bother with the pub. I did Google the nearest, and we happy to see that the Alfred had reopened. This pub was open the first time we passed through Burton, and we had had a very enjoyable afternoon in there. But it had closed the next time we passed through.

After shopping we decided to give it a go, and was very pleasantly surprised. It has a lovely community feel to it, and the Captain was very happy with Top Dog stout from Burton Bridge brewery. They have various things going on through out the week, so maybe on our way back we will call in again.

https://www.thealfred.co.uk/

Before we headed into the town next day to pick up a few bits we wanted, the Captain was approached by a teenage fisherman, who quite seriously asked if we would move the boat, bearing in mind there was plenty of room in front and behind us the request was ridiculous. The Captain of course said no, and we thought that was the end of the matter, but then later the young man proceeded to yell at passing boats for disturbing his fishing session. Did he not realise the canals were built for boats not for fishing, most strange.

We called in at the Alfred on our way back from town.

As we are still killing time it was only a very short hop to Branston Waters next day. We took a short walk round the lake and then headed to The Blacksmiths Arms, a nice pub with an interesting menu. We had our 2^nd pint in The Boat, which is right on the canal. The Boat is not really a pub but an Italian Restaurant, we still got a drink and the food we saw come out looked delicious.

Our next stop was Barton Turn, after calling at the marina for a pump out we moored below the lock. I wanted to moor here as the pub has changed hands since last we were in, and the new landlord uses Facebook a lot to advertise what’s on.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095390771168

This is when things took an interesting turn, the Captain received a notification from CRT that the canal was closed, between Barton Turn lock and Alrewas lock, due to an unexploded WW2 bomb that had been uncovered at a gravel pit at the side of the canal. Like I said not your usual stoppage.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clye0l63zv9o

As the afternoon wore on we were joined by boat after boat, some had heard about the bomb, and some hadn’t. We headed off to the pub, and on the way had a chat with people off the other boats, everyone was friendly and not bothered at all about the hold up.

The pub was great and we were soon joined by another boater, didn’t get his name, but he had a lovely little sausage dog called Lily who happily sat on my lap as we talked.

The bomb was exploded at around 7.30pm by the bomb squad, and we actually heard it even though it was some way away. We later found out it was a 500lb bomb, so no wonder we heard it. Here's a video of the event

https://youtube.com/shorts/dsA-dttPW9g?is=l7Er9zbk009dGDMm

All the other boats where up and gone by the time we surfaced next morning, we were only going as far as Alrewas and staying there for a few days. Alrewas is very popular with boaters, as it has a selection of shops including a Co-op and a Butchers. There are 3 pubs as well. There are plenty of moorings, but it does get very busy. Much to our surprise we managed to moor just past the bridge, which gave us easy access to the village. As we needed milk we headed to the Co-op, but stopped off at the George and Dragon for a quick pint, and on the way back we couldn’t miss the Crown, which was extremely busy.

https://thecrownalrewas.co.uk/

Next day and we planned to catch a new bus service which takes you to the National Arboretum Memorial. The last time we had walked, which meant we had to take our lives in our hands to cross the very busy A38 road. The bus went from outside the George and Dragon and cost me £5 return, but the Captain nothing with his bus pass.

The Arboretum is a wonderful place, with memorials to the armed forces, and all sorts of other groups who were involved in conflict. One of my favourites is the one to the Showman’s Guild, men who ran the travelling fairs up and down the country before joining up, are commemorated with a galloper from a carousel.

Showmans Guild Memorial

https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/247949

The Shot at Dawn memorial represents 309, mainly teenage boys, who were executed during WW1 for various minor military crimes. They were all pardoned in 2006, when it was recognised that they would have not been ‘shot at dawn’ at other times for what they did.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_at_Dawn_Memorial

It was a lovely afternoon, but there is so much to see, so we will be back. To finish the afternoon we called in at the Crown for a well earned pint or 2.

After a busy day we moored near Handsacre, but first we did the locks through Fradley Junction, passing the start of the Coventry canal and our way home. We didn’t go to the pub, but will probably call on our way back.

The final destination on this leg of our journey was Rugeley, as we will be winding and heading back to Trent Lock after a few days here. We cruised to Rugeley passing 3 boats we know, first, Wee May owned by Paul Lumsden, he does a vlog called Narrowboat Nattering which is worth a look.

https://www.youtube.com/narrowboatnatterings

and Bearwood Boster, we met Trina and Paul in Lincoln many years ago, and finally Rogue lll, Yvonne Plant’s boat who we met in Nottingham when Sam, one of our cats that we had at the time, took up residence on a bench in the hot weather, the Captain put a note on the bench explaining where she lived, and that she was fine, this was after a concerned local thought she was lost and was going to take her home. It caused a lot of people walking and cycling the towpath to come to a halt and read the note. Yvonne had heard the story and stopped to say hi to Sam.

Sam's Bench

We have seen a kingfisher, the first for a while YIPPEE.

21 miles, 14 locks and 1 canal.

SLOW AND STEADY

 

The Silk Mill

This describes being back on the canal, and us trying to kill time before heading up the Erewash at the end of August. CRT have agreed to assist boats who have bookings at Langley Mill boatyard up the affected part of the canal.

It’s slow and steady on the canal as the speed limit is 4mph, but you rarely achieve this, if ever. Going past moored boats is done at tick over which is a slow walking pace. The slow speed does allow you to take in the beautiful countryside and interesting sights along on the way. And there is no rushing at locks, they fill in their own time, and no pushing or pulling will open a gate before its ready.

We spent a few days on the pontoons, and were entertained by a group of teenagers who were doing water based activities at an outward bound facility opposite. There was much yelling and lots of laughter as they learned to canoe, and had a go on an enormous paddle board that held 6 of them in one go. It was fine until one person started to wobble, this caused everyone to lose their balance and in the water they all went. It looked great fun.

The river was busy the days we were moored, boats going in both directions, and boats came and went on the pontoon, but on our last morning we were ‘billy no mates’.

We decided to do a short hop to Shardlow and go for tea at the New Inn. There are 4 double locks between Trent Lock and Shardlow, 2 are flood locks which at this time of the year are open. The first lock, Sawley Lock is an electric lock and usually manned by lockees, as it was on this occasion.

The next lock is Derwent Mouth Lock, it is a deep long lock. I spotted a boat coming towards us, it was fifty/fifty whose lock it was, but as I decided as we were already there it was ours so I started to empty it. I was just opening the gate when the boat arrived at the lock landing and its crew came to give me a hand.

As I have said it was a long lock, and the Captain put a line on a bollard well away from the front gates, he used this to hold the boat there. After both me and my helper got the Captains ok we opened the gates paddles fully before turning our attention to the side paddles.

This is were I must explain that everyone has a different way of operating locks, the safest way, if you are not particularly experienced, or its a short lock were the front of the boat is near the front gates, is to opened the side paddles first, allowing the water to come in below the waterline until it’s above the gate paddles, and then open these, it stops water from the gate paddles possibly flooding the front of the boat, something we have seen happen.

As you can imagine with the amount of locks I have done in the last 16yrs, I know how to assess how best to do a lock, don’t get me wrong, you never stop learning, and things can go wrong.

However we had a couple of Gonegoozlers watching us, and one decided to lecture the crew from the other boat (she was on towpath side), on how dangerous the way we had operated the lock was. The other crew took no prisoners and informed her that we knew what we were doing, the boat was never in any danger, and that the Captain had given his permission.

After the Gonegoozler walked off we had a laugh, she was a live-aboard for 18yrs, and me 12yrs so I think we knew what we were doing. I know some will complain, that in writing about this I may encourage others to put themselves in danger, my advice is always to assess each situation yourself, taking in the conditions and your capabilities, and do what you think is best.

We were now on the Trent and Mersey canal.

We got good moorings in Shardlow, right outside the pub, and after a quiet afternoon we tried a pint in the Malt Shovel first, they stopped doing food on a Wednesday at 5pm, but the menu looked interesting.

https://www.maltshovelshardlowpub.co.uk/

Then on to the New Inn, we have eaten in here a few times and the food is always good, as is the beer, they have a decent selection of real ales on, and usually a dark for the Captain, Titanic Plum Porter this time. The food was excellent, so if you’re ever passing this way I would recommend giving it a try.

https://camra.org.uk/pubs/new-inn-shardlow-143269

We only stopped 1 night, before moving on to Swarkestone for the next night. There were 4 locks for me to do, at a couple of these we managed to share with other boats and met boats coming towards us. Sharing the double locks were you can is always good for water management, even more so now with the lack of water due to the dry summer we are having.

At the last lock we joined another boat. The Captain was new to boating and was taking a helmsman course on his brand new boat. The gentleman instructing him was doing the locks, so when I went up to help we did it ‘the right way’, side paddles first, wait for the water to rise, then the gate paddles. We had a chat and I told the story from the day before, and he kind of agreed with me and said he was showing his pupil the right way, but afterwards it was down to him how he did locks. Its a personal choice.

Sunset on the Trent and Mersey

After another quiet night we headed to Willington, only 1 lock today. A popular mooring spot as there are pubs, shops and a railway station in the village. It was quite busy but we found a spot not to far from the Dragon pub. After picking up a few bits from the Coop we had a pint in the Green Man, nice local pub with Murphys on for the Captain, and an interesting and reasonably priced food menu.

https://www.greenmanwillington.com/

Then onto the Dragon, more of a gastro pub, with a large beer garden right on the canal. They usually have a good selection of real ales, and the Captain was very happy with The Panther stout by Little Brewery. We sat in the garden and enjoyed the beer.

https://thedragonatwillington.co.uk/

https://www.littlebrewing.co.uk/

We decided to stay in Willington next day and took the bus into Derby. We visited the Silk Mill which is now the Museum of Making, a fascinating place steeped in history and well worth a visit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_Silk_Mill

We were going to visit Bess of Hardwicks tomb in Derby Cathedral, but there was a wedding on and we didn’t feel it was right to disturb the ceremony.

We nipped into the Standing Order for a quick one, I was hoping to see someone I knew and I wasn’t disappointed, as suddenly Ann Rhodes appeared, we had worked at Denby together for many years. It was great to catch up. After walking round Derby Museum, and seeing the Joseph Wright of Derby exhibition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wright_of_Derby

A Philosopher Lecturing on the Orrey by Joseph Wright

We stopped for a pint in the Tannery on Saddler Gate, a micropub belonging to the Ashover brewery, they had Stout Coffin by Church End brewery on, so the Captain was a very happy bunny.

https://ashoverbrew.co/pages/tap-rooms

He was even happier when we went to The Exeter Arms, this one belongs to Dancing Duck brewery, so of course it was Dark Drake in here, and Shiny lager for me from a brewery based in Little Eaton, we also had a most amazing meal in here. So a great end to a wonderful day.

Nom Nom

https://exeterarms.co.uk/

We left Willington next day and headed to Burton on Trent for a couple of days. But that’s for next time.

14 miles, 9 locks, 1 river the Trent and 1 canal the Trent and Mersey

DECISIONS DECISIONS

 

Who's a naughty boy

And that’s our problem at the moment. As we all know this summer has been very dry, and its playing havoc with the water levels on the canals.

We spent 5 days in Nottingham and had a great time, but it wasn’t really through choice, we were waiting for an update on the Erewash canal. This canal has been closed for many weeks, and we are due to go up to Langley Mill boatyard to be blacked at the beginning of September, but through the power of Facebook we found out that they have had a number of cancellations due to the closure.

We have decided that when the Erewash reopens we will see if we can bring our booking forward, but its just a waiting game, and we don’t want to travel to far only to have to rush back if everything falls in line. Which it probably won’t with our luck this year.

We did have a great time in Nottingham and visited a few pubs we hadn’t been in before as well as some of our old favourites. We went to the pictures, first time in many years to see Moana, it was great. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson played a wonderful Maui, the part he voiced in the original cartoon, and Catherine Laga’aia, as Moana in her first leading role was amazing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moana_(2026_film)

But the best place we visited was the National Justice Museum based in Nottingham’s Victorian courthouse and prison. There was so much to see, and a lady dressed as a female warder, gave a fascinating talk on capital punishment in the yard that housed the gallows used for execution. Sounds a bit grim I know but it was entertaining and informative. We spent a good few hours there and I think we still missed bits.

https://www.nationaljusticemuseum.org.uk/

Who's a naughty girl

New pubs we visited were The Salutation Inn, the Navigation, which is right on the lock, and Lillie Langtry’s near the Theatre Royal, and they all had a stout or porter on for the Captain, so happy days.

We still visited The Old Trip to Jerusalem and the Canal House well, we couldn’t miss them could we.

But after 5 days we had to move, we are used to moving every day, but this year its just seems to been about killing time. We made our way down to Beeston for the night and moored against a highish wall, I got off but it was a bit of a struggle to get back on, so we gave the pub a miss that night and planned to walk into Beeston the next day.

However it turned out we had a problem with our electric. As some of you might know boats run on 12volt batteries and use an inverter to convert 12volt into 240volt. Our electrical set up is amazing, we have 3 large solar panels, 2 lithium batteries and 1 lead acid starter battery. With this we can run, on 240volts, a freezer, electric kettle, air fryer, washing machine and a TV plus a few other bits. We charge the batteries 2 ways, solar obviously, but also by running the engine, so every time we move we top the batteries up, and we usually move every day or every other day. But with all the issues we have been having this year this hasn’t been the case, and we have been stopping for longer periods of time in one place. What we didn’t realise was that although the solar was putting power in, we were taking more out. The Captain usually keeps an eye on our usage, but on this occasion took his eye off the ball, and we were rudely wakened in the early hours of Saturday/Sunday to the low battery alarm going off. The only thing to stop it was to turn the inverter off and sort it out in the morning. By turning the inverter off it cut power to the freezer, which was worrying, but luckily for us the freezer was so full it would have taken hours and hours to defrost. In the morning we ran the engine (after 8am) for a good couple of hours which meant we could switch the inverter back on. I checked the freezer and everything was fine.

Now the issue was that we were moored in the shade with overhanging willow trees, and this has been true in quite a few places which didn’t allow the solar panels to take full advantage of the sun. The decision (there’s that word again) was to give Beeston a miss, and make for Trent Lock and the pontoons there which have no over hanging trees. The run would also help with the batteries, the Captain decided to leave it until early afternoon, in the hope that anyone out for the weekend would have vacated the pontoons to go home. It was a very windy journey with gusts of 32mph making waves on the water, only 2 locks for me to do but it took a good few hours.

We managed to get a spot on the pontoons but it was on the inside, which meant the Captain had to reverse the boat in, with a manoeuvre that could go very well, or very wrong. Well because of his expertise he did it very well, and the boater moored on the outside of the pontoon who came out to help congratulated him on his skill. Well deserved of course.

Veiw from the pub

We headed to the pub, The Steamboat, and told Simon the owner all our woes and had a couple of pints.

So we are here on the pontoons, the batteries have recovered, but I am still going easy on the using things like the electric kettle and air fryer, and I really don’t know where or what we are going to do next. We could head up the Trent and Mersey to Burton. I just don’t know. :(

Just an update, we have spoken in Vikki at Langley Mill and at this present time she doesnt have a slot for us any sooner than our original booking. The Erewash is still closed but when it does reopen we will ask again.

10 miles 2 locks, 1 canal the Nottingham and Beeston canal and 1 river the Trent.

GLORIOUS GAINSBOROUGH.

 

The Power of Water

There are visitors pontoons at Gainsborough, but even though we have done this stretch of river many times in the past we have never stopped on them to explore the town. So we decided it was about time we did.

Sunday was spent travelling to West Stockwith for a pump out and overnight moorings, and of course our Sunday lunch. We accessed the pump out with no problems. A local boater who had appointed himself king of the machine came to see if we were doing it right, and make sure everything was done to his satisfaction.

The Sunday roast at the White Hart was a little underwhelming, but it filled us up and meant I had no cooking or washing up to do.

It was and early start next morning as we had to go out with the tide, the Lock Keeper gave us a call to say the lock was ready for us, so off we went, but not before I had counted over 30 bunnies in the field by the moorings.

Our trip down to Gainsborough took about 45mins and the tide was running quite fast. The Captain instructed me to go to the front, and be ready to get a rope on the bollards to help with stopping the boat against the flow of the tide. It didn’t go exactly to plan, and we hit the pontoons side on at quite a pace. But no damage done and we were soon moored securely. As I said we have never stopped at Gainsborough before, so after lunch we took a walk into the town and were pleasantly surprised by what we found, plenty of shops, including a Lidl a short walk from the pontoons. The best find was Marshall’s Yard, a lovely open space with a dancing fountain feature, which the children were enjoying on the hot day.

https://www.marshallsyard.co.uk/

Marshall's Yard

There was a good selection of shops and restaurants. Its called Marshall’s Yard at it was the site of Marshall and Sons tractor factory, it was the largest employer in the town in the 19^th and 20^th Century, covering an amazing 16 acres it was called the Britannia Iron Works. The most famous of their tractors was the Field Marshall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall,_Sons_%26_Co.

Before we left for our stroll round the town the Captain had met a local lady, and she had recommended various things to see, the Heritage Centre and Gainsborough Old Hall being 2 of the things. So we decided to stay another day. But first we had to try the pub, a micro pub called the 8 Jolly Brewers. Great beers and loud locals.

After a couple of pints we headed back to the boat. We were just unlocking the gate on the pontoon, when a cheeky lad of about 12/13yrs, asked us to let him onto the pontoon, and when we asked why would we do that, he pointed to the good ship Avalon Two and said because that’s my boat (we were the only boat there). Of course we laughed in his face, the cheeky sod.

We were joined later by NB Star, and we had a good chin wag with its Captain and crew but never got their names.

We planned next day to go out before lunch, there was a market on and we wanted to visit that, the Heritage centre, the Old Hall and the Church.

https://www.gainsboroughheritage.co.uk/

The Heritage centre first after the market. Interesting displays about the Marshall factory, and Rose Brothers who invented a machine for wrapping individual sweets such as Quality Street. During the war visitors to Mrs Rose were asked to sign a tablecloth, rather than a traditional visitor book, she then embroidered the signatures, Guy Gibson and Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris of Dambuster fame were 2 of these visitors, and we managed to find both of their signatures. An interesting piece of WW2 memorabilia.

https://www.life-publications.com/gainsborough/gainsborough-heritage-association-7/

Then on to All Saints church, a beautiful building with a 14c tower, but the rest was rebuilt in the 18c. It has unusual enclosed pews that may have been reserved for the upper class families of the town, and

a first floor gallery for the rest of the congregation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Church,_Gainsborough

Then on to Gainsborough Old Hall, a magnificent 15c Manor house. It was built in 1460 by Sir Thomas Burgh. Henry VIII visited in 1541 with his 5^th wife Katherine Howard, and then went on to marry the widow of Edward Burgh, grandson of Sir Thomas, Katherine Parr. The kitchen is thought to be the most complete medieval kitchen in England, it has 2 open fireplaces big enough to roast an ox in, and 2 bread ovens. A fascinating building with a rich history and well worth a visit.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gainsborough_Old_Hall

The Great Hall

Then off to the pub for lunch, The Sweyn Forkbeard, the local Wetherspoons. Mr Forkbeard was a Danish king of England for 5 weeks in 1014 and held his court in Gainsborough, he was succeed by his son Canute.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swein_Forkbeard

We left Gainsborough next day and headed for Torksey for the night, we had not long moored up when NB Avalon turned up. There are a few boats named Avalon on the system, but its unusual for us to cross bows.

Both Avalon's at Torskey

Next morning as we got ready to set off the Captain of Avalon asked if we were heading for Cromwell lock and Newark, and we said we were. They asked if they could join us as it was their first time on the Trent, we happily said no problem and we set off in convoy.

It was plain to see they weren’t used to the big river locks were we use risers (steel cables in the side of the lock), we use these to anchor the boat with stern and bow lines whilst in the lock so we dont get battered around when the water enters or leaves the lock. This means I stand in our front cratch and hold the boat at the front. Unfortunately they couldn’t do that, and had to go along the gunnels to achieve this.

In the Lock

But they managed and we made it to Newark without a problem. And there was room on the pontoons for both of us YIPPEE !!!

We spent a couple of days in Newark and introduced Wendy and Dave to some of the best pubs, including the Prince Rupert and Just Beer, which is now called More Than Just Beer. In the Prince Rupert an old gliding mate of the Captains appeared, we haven’t seen Pip in quite awhile, so it was great to catch up with him.

We stayed with Wendy and Dave all the way to Nottingham, they were moving there boat from Brighouse in West Yorkshire, to Castle Marina in Nottingham due to all the problems on the northern canals.

On to wildlife. This leg of the journey has all been about Oyster Catchers, pretty black and white wading birds with a striking red beak and legs, and a strident but plaintive call. We are still seeing plenty of Little Egrets, Herons and Cormorant, but the beautiful kingfisher remains elusive this year.

Oyster Catchers

An anomaly I have been meaning to mention for a couple of blogs, is the way distance is measured on the canals and rivers. On the canal everything is in miles, but on the rivers and the Fossdyke it is measured in kilometres, I have no idea why it is done this way. Answers on a post card please.

60 miles, 10 lock 1 river and 2 canals.

STUNNING SHEFFIELD.

 

Cruising the Cut

Well you can get into Sheffield by boat but we went by train. The route to Sheffield is up the Trent from West Stockwith to Keadby lock and the sliding Vazon railway bridge, onto the South Yorkshire navigation, and down Tinsley lock flight (made famous by that fantastic film The Full Monty), and you eventually arrive at Victoria Quay.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Full_Monty

We have done this trip once before, but a number of obstacles stood in our way, the lock at Keadby was closed for the week, the sliding railway bridge is only being opened when the temperature is below 16 degrees, and we know how hot the last week has been, there are low water problems on the Tinsley flight, and you have to book these is advance.

So the simple solution was to catch the train from Retford, at £18 return for both of us it was a bargain.

But back to our time at Ranby, the moorings were good, if a little noisy with road noise from the A1. We had arranged with my kids to visit a local micro brewery, The Ticking Clock at Shireoaks. We had intended to moor at Shireoaks and make our own way to the brewery, but as we had decided it wasn’t safe for us to go through the 2 dodgy locks before Worksop, we couldn’t get to Shireoaks. So my daughter Jess and Hubby Stuart agreed to pick us up from the pub. It was a bit of a squash in the car with Lowen in her car seat, but it was only a short journey. We met my son Adam and wife Julie there with Dylan. We didn’t just go for the beer, surprising for us I know, but for dinner as well. My son has a friend who runs a mobile pizza van called Pizzolu, and he was serving at the brewery that day. The pizza were amazing, as was the beer, and the 2 grand kids had a great time. The brewery had a selection of kiddy games, and I think they tried everyone. It was a great afternoon, but very tiring. 2 toddlers have so much energy.

https://www.tickingclockbrewing.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556032576246

Dylan and Lowen

So next day was a gentle cruise and moorings in the middle of nowhere. One thing I must mention about many of the mooring spots on the Chesterfield, they look great, but its so shallow you simply cannot get to the side. Even our spot for the night, which is an official visitor mooring, wasn’t the best, and we had to go half way past the start of the mooring before we could get anywhere near. But we had a much needed peaceful night.

Next day and back to Retford, mooring outside Aldi once again.

What I forgot to mention in the last blog, were the 3 very short aqueducts we crossed as we left and entered Retford. Aqueducts are used to transport the canal over things like rivers, roads and railways. The best known of course is the Pontcysyllte on the Llangollen canal. (and yes I did have to look up how to spell it). The Aqueducts at Retford are only about 50ft long, but come one right after the other.

Wednesday was our day in Sheffield, the railway station in Retford was about a 15min walk from our moorings, the train was on time and we were soon whizzing along through the Nottingham countryside and into South Yorkshire.

At the railway station in Sheffield we were greeted by a fantastic water feature, it really made us feel welcome to the city, and on a hot day it made things feel cooler. We were heading to the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, but it took us some time as there was so much else to see on the way. We used the Millennium gallery escalator to avoid walking up the hill in the heat, called in to look at a John Ruskin exhibition, and then discovered the Winter Gardens, I had seen this name and assumed it was a theatre of some kind, but no it was an actual tropical garden in the centre of the city, what a find. As we continued our walk to the Cathedral we passed through the cities Peace Gardens by the splendid town hall.

Sheffield Railway Station

The Winter Gardens

Our eventual destination the Cathedral did not disappoint either, I don’t think I have ever been in a church with such a mixture of styles, parts date back to the 13C, and then others are as new as 1966.

It was so interesting and we spent a while looking round. It also has connections to one of my favourite historical figures Bess of Hardwick, the founder of Chatsworth house and Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, and the most powerful woman in England after Queen Elizabeth I.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_Cathedral

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bess_of_Hardwick

After one Cathedral we decided to check the other one out. St Maries Roman Catholic Cathedral.

This didn’t disappoint either, a beautiful building with a stunning interior.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_Church_of_St_Marie,_Sheffield

By this time we were ready for a pint and headed to the Two and Six micropub. The walk took us past the picture of a Steelworker on the side of a building, commissioned by the council in 1980’s, it uses bricks to make a mosaic picture to commemorate the cities steel industry.

We finished the afternoon with a wonderful Vietnamese meal at Pho. A great day out and a city I would recommend visiting anyway you can.

https://www.phocafe.co.uk/locations/sheffield/

Back to the boat and we left Retford next day, it was still slow going on the canal, due to weed and shallowness of the water, but the water is so clear that it gave me the chance to do loads of fish watching. I can’t name the fish I saw, but they varied in size from tiny minnows at less the an inch, up to big daddies at over a foot. I did spot a couple of Zander, these pike like fish are an invasive species introduced into UK waters in the 1800’s.

At the wonderfully named Whitsunday Pie Lock I met a friendly group of Gongoozlers, and had a lovely chat, passing the time whilst waiting for the lock, and they helped out too. Many thanks to them.

We have also seen plenty of beautiful butterflies, including Red Admirals, Peacocks and plenty of Cabbage Whites.

Peacock Butterfly

We stopped at the Boat Inn at Hayton for the night, there are mooring for one boat on the off side by the pub. Of course we had a walk and tried the beer. Run by a friendly Romanian couple the beer was great, Hawkstone Black for a very happy Captain, and a decent lager for me. The food menu was interesting, and they do nightly specials, including on a Thursday night 2 ribeye steaks for £26. The barmaid was very friendly and we had a great chat with her.

https://theboatinnhayton.com/

After another night in the middle of nowhere, we headed back to West Stockwith for the weekend and a pump out, but we didn’t quite make it and decided to stop at Misterton for the night, we needed milk and there is a Coop in the village, and a pub, the Red Hart, of course we gave it a go. It was quiet for a Saturday afternoon, but I think everyone was saving their energy for the footy, England v Norway for a place in the semi finals, which start at 10pm.

We watched it on the boat and we won, YIPPEE!!

Our plans are still fluid, but we have decided not to go through Keadby lock, it is open, but the language of the notification of this suggested they may have to close it again for more repairs, and we don’t want to risk getting stuck oop norf.

So we will be heading south. The Captain had booked us to go out of West Stockwith on Monday, and is taking me out for Sunday lunch at the White Hart. Happy times.

36 miles, 2 canals, 1 river, 13 locks and 1 tunnel 154yrds long and 3 aqueducts I forgot about last time.

NORMAL SERVICE HAS RESUMED.

 

The Chesterfield Canal.

At last.

We had to be up reasonably early on Monday, the Lock Keeper said we would hopefully be going out onto the river at 7.45am, a bit early for us, but we were up and ready in plenty of time.

Of course nothing goes to plan and our departure time was pushed back to 9am. The lock keeper has to wait for there to be enough water to get us over the lock cill, and this took more time than expected.

It was great to be back on the wide river. The trip would take us between 3 and 4hrs depending on how fast the tide was running, and how much the Captain decided to push the engine. We also had to liaise with the lock keeper at West Stockwith, again to ensure there was enough water to allow us to enter the lock and join the Chesterfield canal.

It was agreed that when we reached Gainsborough we would assess the lock situation, as there are pontoons which we could stay on if we had to wait until the next day for the right conditions.

The news was good, and the lock would be ready for us when we got to West Stockwith, this was also good as the pontoons at Gainsborough were full.

Now West Stockwith lock is notoriously difficult to enter without hitting the right hand wall. This is because the tide is still running quite fast, and you have to turn sideways on in the flow which pushed you towards the wall, if you time it just right you leave the flowing water before you hit the wall, allowing you to power into the lock. Its not easy. And we didn’t make and hit the wall with a thud, thing rattled but no damage was done.

West Stockwith Lock

Once up the lock the Lock Keeper directed us to a good mooring, and then imparted some bad news. It came in 2 parts, one we knew about, West Stockwith lock was closing for 5 days from the 6^th of July, which meant we would have to be on the canal for 2 weeks, not a huge problem. The other news however made us change our plans once again. We had intended to go all the way to the end of the canal, but now found out that 2 lock before Worksop, which is about half way, were only open at certain time with assisted passage due to leaking, and may close at any time if the situation deteriorated. If we went past these lock and they closed them then before we returned, we would be stuck on the canal for an unknown amount of time. After discussing it we decided to go as far as Ranby, just taking our time.

We just don’t seem to be able to catch a break this year.

The first night and we headed off to the pub, of course, The White Hart. It has its own brewery The Idle brewery, which is named after the Idle river which runs at the side of the pub. Of course they had a stout on so the Captain was a very happy bunny. We did get chatting to a very friendly local and had a great time.

https://thewhitehartinn.site/

We set off next morning and had 4 double locks and a short tunnel to do, before mooring up at Clayworth. We were joined at the first 2 locks by NB Mithril, he was single handing with 2 very noisy dogs, so I locked both boats through. He was making his way back to his moorings at Retford but stopped at Misterton to go to the butchers there. So we went on alone. The canal is very shallow and weedy so it was slow going. It did give us time to take in the magnificent views of North Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and South Yorkshire. The water was very clear, with plenty of fish of all different sizes. And we watched on aerobatic tern catching fish for his dinner at the back of the boat.

Common Tern

We eventually made it to Clayworth and found a decent mooring spot. Last time we were here we visited the boat club bar which was very cheap, but unfortunately it only opens at weekends, so we headed off to the local pub, The Brewers Arms. A friendly village pub, and of course we got chatting with some of the locals again.

https://brewersarmsclayworth.co.uk/

Our next stop was Retford, and we desperately needed a big shop, luckily there is an Aldi right next to the canal. We only had 1 lock to do, and that had the unusual name of Whitsunday Pie Lock. Legend says it was given this name when a local lady living by the lock, baked a pie on Whitsunday for the navvies working on the canal. A lovely story.

The visitors moorings in Retford are right by Aldi and there is a path right onto the towpath. We did a huge heavy shop and managed to wheel the trolley right to the side of the boat. There is also a Lidl and Asda within 10mins of the canal too.

I checked my blog from our previous visit 8yrs ago, and much to my surprise because neither of us could remember much about the town, it said we loved it and had tried 4 pubs. 1 Wetherspoons and 3 micropubs. We looked forward to exploring the town again. But more important we needed to find a pub to watch the England v Congo DR match. I have already mentioned the Idle brewery, and they have a tap in the town which was showing the match (thanks Facebook) and the tap was opposite Aldi, so off we set and found decent seats. The pub slowly filled up and it was a tense match but we won, eventually.

https://www.facebook.com/Idlevalleytap2017/?locale=en_GB

We spent a second day in Retford, and were very pleased we did, as it was a very very windy day. We tried a couple of the pubs, The Brew Shed and Beer under the Clock which had been called Beer Headz previously.

https://www.facebook.com/BeerUnderTheClock/?locale=en_GB

Beer Under the Clock

Next day and more locks, but now they were single locks, much easier to do. At the first 2 we had an audience, and I explained that the name for people who watch narrowboats is a Gongoozler to a gentleman who found it very funny.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gongoozler

The canal became very rural after the first 2 locks, again it was very shallow and weedy making it hard going. We had hoped to moor before Ranby for the night, but it was impossible to get to the side, so we just had to keep going. We knew we could moor outside the pub, The Chequers, and a helpful boater told us there were good moorings outside the village hall to. This is were we ended up. The Captain had truly had enough, and I am quite pleased we are not doing to whole length of the canal if this is how it was going to be. We did head to to pub, a friendly gastro pub with excellent reviews for their food, and they had a stout on for the Captain which cheered him up no end.

https://www.thechequersatranby.co.uk/

So we are stopping in Ranby until Monday and meeting up with my kids whilst here, but that’s for next time.

36 miles, 2 canals, 1 river, 13 locks and 1 tunnel 154yrds long

And the engine ran great. YIPPEE !!!!!