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.