A neat day in Newark

Photos from Saturday 11th July

The first lock of the day in Nottingham central city

More converted warehouses

Nicer looking apartment building than most

Apartments start from 250,000 - didn't look like many were sold

Not sure if it's a private house or a club, but amazing house!


This slalom ran beside the lock and the river


Back to the big river locks

Enormous constructions with just our little boat

Abandoned factory


Australian boaties we shared a lock with

The only bridge over the Trent for 24 miles

Jill & Den enjoying a gin and tonic

There are some pretty flashy looking cruisers along the way

The crew weren't the best after the gin! No wonder the lock keeper was irate if he'd been watching this performance!

The Bromley Arms, Fiskerton, where we couldn't get a mooring - then read the next day you need to phone and book one, shame the previous lock keeper ommitted that information from his recommendation!

Look like we're travelling at quite a pace

Wharf warehouse at Newark-on-Trent

Den & Barry trying to work out the lock, after 8pm and the lock keeper had gone home - luckily he was around and came and opened it up for us

Jill checking out the floating party boat and adding a touch of dancing herself

Barry, Den & one of the Adams

Jodie, Adam, Jill & Sandra

Sunday 12th July

There were a couple of sore heads on board this morning, and both of the male variety! I didn’t get a good sleep as I kept hearing the boat banging against the side of the mooring here and wondering it the river level was going down, imagining we would be just floating in mid air held by the ropes in the morning! Of course Barry said not to be so silly (once he was conscious), and of course it was fine, but it’s amazing how night-time terrors can grip you and cause you to think the strangest things isn’t it?!

Den feeding getting up close to the cygnets

The swans off again past the Trent Bridge with the castle in the background

Our mooring in Newark - doesn't the boat look tiny on the big river?

After a full English breakfast (great bacon thanks Jill!) we all had a quiet morning. Jill and Den thought they’d catch a few rays on the roof of the boat and I think had a bit of a lie-in up there! The forecast had been for rain all weekend, but we had one slight shower yesterday afternoon and today it’s been sunshine most of the day. We all then went for a walk around the ruins of the castle and the town, before finding a Wetherspoons for some ‘hair of the dog’ for Barry and Den. It‘s a lovely little town, with some really neat buildings of all shapes and sizes and a huge market square.

Newark is situated at the junction of two old highways: the Great North Road and the Fosse Way and is of historical significance. During the English Civil War it was a Royalist stronghold and was besieged three times by the Roundheads between March 1645 and May 1646. When the Roundheads eventually took the town they unfortunately dismantled the castle (http://www.newark-sherwoodc.gov.uk/) so it lies in ruins. In its time it would have been magnificent. King John died there in October 1216 soon after his traumatic experience in ‘The Wash’, a piece of sea not far away. Barry informs me that he got bogged down there and lost overboard some of the crown jewels that have never been recovered and people still go searching for them today (something like that anyway!) …

Newark Castle ruins

We choose Newark Carnival day to look around, lots of colourful characters by the castle

The market square - all sorts of different old buildings here

The Council offices

Jill and Den pole posing in the square

St Mary Magdelene Church - building began in 1160 and completed around 1500

A very ornate frontage of a building, complete with little monk-type carved characters

The remains of a large chimney that heated the church

Not sure who the architects were in those days, these buildings just appear to rise up from one end of the square

Jill and Den at the Weatherspoons having a pint in the afternoon sunshine

The very quaint, hidden away team rooms which has been serving tea for over one hundred years, but closed on a Sunday

The church at the end of the shops

The Castle Barge - aka a very large pub and party boat

Another view of the castle from the bridge

The walk into town with 'The Mayze' directly ahead where we were drinking Saturday night - turns out to be the most expensive pub in Newark but witha great atmosphere and helpful landlord! You get what you pay for in this life

Newark lock

Back to the boat late in the afternoon for a Sunday roast before our visitors caught the train back to Tamworth. A fantastic, fun weekend; it’s really fabulous to find such spontaneous people. Few family or friends have had the time to come and stay with us so far, so it was great to have their company. It’s a bit of a tight squeeze on board, but very cosy and convivial!

They seem to be obsessed with the roof of our boat - maybe due to them recently returning from scuba diving in Egypt?

After posting Saturday’s blog this morning, my dad emailed and reminded me that Newark is also famous for the fact that Stephanie Slater was found in a garage here in 1992 after being raped and held captive in a booby trapped coffin for 8 days by Michael Sams. Stephanie befriended the kidnapper and now gives talks to police on ways to negotiate with kidnappers, but has lived with her nightmare for the last 15 years, finding it extremely hard to have anything resembling a ‘normal’ life which is very sad.

Stephanie Slater’s boss, Kevin Watts, was the person who took the ransom money and dropped it off on a walkway that he didn’t know until later was actually a bridge. Kevin is my eldest daughter’s father, and a very brave man. I believe he was presented with a medal for his actions, especially as he lost contact with the police along the way and he ended up doing the drop alone, in the dark and fog bless him.

Stories around this, if anyone's interested, can be found at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-436314/Im-kidnappers-prisoner-15-years-later.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/kidnap-victims-boss-tells-of-fear-during-ransom-drop-1492641.html

No journeys on the boat today as we would've had to travel around 30 miles to the nearest train station for Jill and Den. There also don’t appear to be any moorings for miles along the Trent, so once again we’re finding it a challenge on the river and look forward to back being on the canals sometime soon.

We studied our next journey during the evening as we will be going onto the tidal part of the Trent once through Cromwell lock. We won't go too much into the possibilities so as not to frighten any family or friends, but we will be following the sea and hoping not to find a tidal bore called the Aegir, along the way (would be quite tame though by the time it reached us apparantly and seems to only occur with spring tides so fingers crossed!). With a bit of luck we will take a slight detour off the river and visit Lincoln over the next day or so, where some of my fathers relatives came from.

Joking apart, life jackets definately at the ready for this part of the river ...