A weedy day on the Chesterfield Canal

Saturday 18 July
I omitted my narrowboat injury from yesterday’s blog. As the name suggests, our boat is rather narrow and walking along the corridor can have its down side, especially when there are obstacles left on the floor such as discarded clothes! Yesterday morning, in our rush to get moving, we hadn’t cleared up all the debris from the previous night, and I managed to stub my toe on the underside of our bed. Boy it was painful, and I think I may have broken it as it’s swollen and bruised and I can’t bend it. Ah well, just one of the daily hazards!

West Stockwith on the left of the Trent and East Stockwith on the right, 50yds apart but about an hour by car, hence a total lack of communication between them since the ferry stopped running!

This will be us in a couple of days maybe! Doesn't the narrowboat look small on the Trent?

We motored up the Chesterfield canal today. Well, when I say ‘motored’, I’m probably exaggerating! It was so slow we thought we must be dragging something underneath us due to the amount of the weed along the canal. Apparently it (the weed) ‘appeared’ in 1852 and has been a ‘bit’ of a problem ever since! We heard later on that the weed raker machine that normally clears the canal regularly has broken down. Let's hope they get it fixed in the near future or the canal may be overgrown and hard to find!

Weed congregating at the locks

A couple of local kids and their dog Alfie helped out with one of the locks and didn't fall in!


The chanel was just wide enough to get the boat through in many places


The locks were hard work and quite slow. This picture was taken in 1872 (yeah right!)


Closing the lock now in 2009! Sandra nearly got a hernia with the effort involved!

The boat went a little pear shaped at this point and Barry tried to match Sandra's hernia inducing effort!

On the positive side, the sun was out today for a nice change

The scenery is very flat all around, lots of agriculture ...

as well as lovely tree lined areas

We moored up at a place called ‘Drakeholes’, a ridiculous sounding place! Shortly after tying up, we got chatting to the people on the boat next to us, Ray and Pauline. During the conversation Ray asked if we’d heard about the man who’d been murdered on a narrowboat in a recent ‘boat rage’ incident—OMG, you can’t be serious I thought and laughed, but yes 'twas true. It appears that a fifty six year old man died after an ‘altercation’ with a seventy two year old man over mooring rights, and apparently fists had flown and the younger man collapsed and died. Now all due to respect to his poor widow, but seriously, isn’t narrow-boating supposed to be about slowing down, chilling, taking it easy; not smashing someone’s face in and killing them because they pinched the space you were going to park your boat in?!! What is the world (well England and the English anyway!) coming to? Go to http://www.narrowboatworld.com/ for more (and other fascintaing narrowboating news!), or directly to: http://www.narrowboatworld.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=589:lancaster-killing-was-boat-rage&catid=2:latest&Itemid=16

Drakeshole Tunnel, not very long 154yds, cut through the limestone that can be clearly seen along lower part of the tunnel. Must have been built by a Mr Drake?

This evening we had a two mile round walk to Wiseton where there is very little apart from a Manor house and some very posh homes, along with stables and a race horse training circuit. It seems rather upper crust around here which was brought home to us when we went to The Swan across the road from the canal for a drink. Three people walked out of the pub and distinctly turned their heads away from us sitting outside so that they didn’t have to make eye contact and therefore say ‘hi’. What amazingly stuck up people they appeared to be! I reckon it’s because Barry hasn’t had a shave for a few days and is starting to look like a down and out!

A view across the countryside from our walk

Wiseton is a small, elegant, estate village built around the manor house along with a large stables. This is the stable and clock tower, lots of 'please keep off the soft verge' signs (no pavements though and a narrow road, so they obviously don't care if you get run over so long as you don't mess the verge up!)

This was the best way of showing you Barry unshaved without putting you through the trauma of the real thing!!




The snooty Swan pub across the road from our moorings

A photo from Nottingham showing some 'salt of the earth' people. Sandra walked past this probably homeless couple on the way to pick up Jill and Den; then walked by them again with Jill and Den; then the boat moved past them. They were so excited to see Sandra on the boat having said hello twice before, it was like seeing an old friend. Bless them!

After dinner we went for a couple of drinks onto Ray and Pauline’s lovely boat (with my poorly toe throbbing after the walk!). Spookily enough, they'd been given an AA Road Map of New Zealand today by a fellow narrow-boater, as they're planning a trip there in 2011, so we were able to give them our first hand knowledge of the Southern Hemisphere.

We’re not sure now whether we’ll turn back or carry on tomorrow, it depends how the mood takes us when we wake up …

Fighting against the tide ...

Last night we succeeded in getting my phone and Barry’s camera charged by solar power in Saxilby! There’s a pub opposite the moorings there called ‘The Sun’, so we went for a couple of drinks and luckily found seats right next to a double plug socket; very handy! So we’ll be right for a couple of days, so long as Barry restricts his camera use and I don’t chat for long periods on the phone (it’ll be hard, but I think I can do it!). The things you take for granted when you have power …

We almost missed the lock this morning as we overslept and didn’t rise until 0930! Barry threatened to go to the helm naked, but did manage to throw some clothes on and got us started within a few minutes of waking.

The canal from Torksey Lock to Lincoln is called the ‘Fossdyke Navigation’ and is reported to be the oldest canal in the system, built by the Romans (by hand, amazing people!) some 2,000 years ago, and is 11 miles long. After Lincoln it runs into the River Witham following the guillotine lock, and continues to Boston and The Wash.

We arrived at the lock by 1100, so with time to spare, but the lock-keeper then didn’t arrive until after 12, having said last night that we need to be on the river by that time due to the changing tide! A chirpy chap though, so we had to forgive him, maybe he’d had a lie-in after a heavy night!

The pipe bridge in Saxilby - Barry reckons the children of the village must shimmy over this!

The mostly straight Fossdyke Navigation

Checking out the river levels before going through the lock

Moored up at Torksey awaiting the lock-keeper


Still waiting ...

Hurrah! Through the large lock at Torksey

The ruins of Torksey Castle - abandoned since the 16th century

We got through after 1230, so by the time we arrived in Gainsborough, two and a half hours away, the rain had been pelting down for over an hour and the tide had turned (it’s called ‘the flood’ when this happens as the river literally floods and fills up with water!). We phoned the lock-keeper at West Stockwith who informed us we had our timing all wrong and should have left Torksey by 11! So why did the Torksey lock-keeper not come on duty until after 12 we wonder? Seems ridiculous!

Anyway, we had to moor up at Gainsborough for an hour and watch the rising tide going in the opposite direction to our poor little boat, making it rock and roll somewhat, before we carried on up to West Stockwith against the flow of the current. Certainly not the best way of doing it!

Amazingly active power station

A large barge trying to beat the tide, overtaking us

Burton Château

The cooling towers of the West BurtonPower Station emit white steam in stark contrast with the ever darkening sky as the storm heads towards us

An array of red cranes - maybe yet another power station being built?

The waterfront at Gainsborough - not a soul to be seen

It was hard work trying to beat the tide, but we reached the lock in good time and Barry negotiated the entrance beautifully, the lock-keeper guiding us in remarked on his excellent driving skills. It’s a tricky lock to get into as you have a sharp left hand bend, and as you turn the current takes you with it, so you have to wait until you’re past the entrance and let the river take you in or you'd just miss it completely and get swept up river.

Barry called the place where our inverter has been sent to (http://www.sterling.power.com/) and surprise surprise, it's uneconomical to repair it! However the good news is that they've offered us a 30% discount on a new one, so it looks like we have little choice. It was too late by then to make arrangements to have one sent, so it'll be Monday before we can sort it out and at least Tuesday before we have 240v power restored. Ah well, I'm sure we'll survive intact and more appreciative of it when we get it.

The weather has turned stormy today with persistent rain and gusty winds; it must be the beginning of the school summer holidays! All those poor families driving down to Cornwall for a wet week in a caravan, a typical English summer …

Cousins, cathedrals and castles

Barry's early morning reflections from the canal mooring ...

One of the many rubbish trucks that went past first thing this morning

Dave and Rosalyn (forgive me if I’ve spelt that incorrectly!) came to see us this morning; we had coffee on the boat and chatted about family and life in general. It was fabulous to meet them, the last time I saw them I was about five years old and they came to our house in Walmley, Sutton Coldfield, for a weekend. I recall a photo of us all at a fountain in Birmingham and Rosalyn had long blonde hair tied back, and was wearing a shift dress. She was beautiful then and 45 years later still is. My parents are both only children so it was neat to meet some distant relations—I think we must be great cousins or something!

Dave, Rosalyn & Sandra

Following our visitors we set off for the Cathedral and Castle. We only looked at the Cathedral from just inside the doors as we're too stingy to pay the £5 entrance fee for the full tour, all these places add up if we paid to go in them all! We’re not really Cathedral people anyway and are quite happy looking at the building outside.

The Castle was a similar story, £4.20 entrance fee, so we just peeked inside the walls! They are both beautiful buildings though, made from Lincolnshire Limestone which is a luscious yellow colour, like many of the buildings around here. Also, one of only three copies of The Magna Carta lie in the Castle (can anyone enlighten us at what that is? We've heard of it and know we should know, but we don't!).

Steep Street - as the name suggests is a steep street which winds it way up to the Cathedral full of lots of little nick nacky shops


A very posh tea selling shop, in one of the oldest buildings in Lincoln


Lots of groups of schoolchildren out visiting the Cathedral - they all looked bored to tears bless them!

Very beautiful - the west front of the Cathedral

Part of an alcove in the wall

Inside the Cathedral

It towers above all that surrounds it

A rather large (!) cannon

The Castle walls

Lincoln in bloom - flowers everwhere, very well kept

Castle and Cathedral side by side

We found a large tower across from the Castle which was/is apparently a water tower—a mighty impressive building just for that we thought!

The water tower

'The Strugglers Inn' Unusually named pub???

We found a place called 'The Lawn' which was a hotel, various boutique style shops, and a hot house full of plants sourced from aorund the world that had been collected by Banks, the botanist on board HMS Endeavor with Captain Cook in 1769 when they discovered New Zealand. We were very dissapointed to find that there was mention of his journeys to South America and Australia, but not one regarding New Zealand. Barry believes it's a conspiracy of the Ozzies who he reckons sponsored the whole thing on the proviso that New Zealand wasn't mentioned. I think he's just paranoid, but there may be something in it ...

Huge goldfish in the pool in the hot house

The Lawn was a mental institution where a doctor famously treated patients without using restraint, a first in those days.

Front aspect of The Lawn building

Statue of 'mother and child' in the grounds, Not sure about the split personality!

How the patients saw the world after treatment??

No word yet on the inverter, so we’re still keeping our fingers crossed that it can be repaired. We need to move on out of Lincoln in order to charge up the 12 volt batteries this evening, heading back towards Saxilby as we have to get to Torksey Lock by 1130 in the morning to catch the tide at 12 midday. We're then returning onto the Trent tomorrow to motor up to the Chesterfield canal where we may go and take a look at Retford. More about that later ...