An explosive day at Royal Gunpowder Mills

We reached Milton Keynes on Sunday night and stayed moored up while we did a bit of boat work and sorting and packing on Monday; not long left on the boat now ...

Saturday 18 September

Barry and Tom ...

It was a bit of a late start this morning, getting close to 11am before emerging into a bright and sunny day. Pete hadn't long been up and was going for a bike ride, so Tom and I made the decision to go to the 'Royal Gunpowder Mills' at Waltham Abbey. We'd been past a sign last night that said it was free entry, but on getting there we found it was £7.50 each. Not sure now what we'd been reading.

The gunpowder mills have been on this site for 300 years, owned and controlled by the government who bought it from a private gunpowder supplier. Apparently privately supplied gunpowder wasn't reliable enough to kill all the indigenous people of the conquered colonial countries, so the military got involved and purchased it in 1787. The site has been 'Top Secret' and closed to the public since. From the 1850s on it was used to develop nitro based explosives and rocket propellants.

During the first world war they had a staff of 6230, mostly local women, they were more expendable who tended to be more efficient and careful with handling armaments.

During the second world war it was used to develop the explosive RDX used in 'The Bouncing Bomb' which destroyed the hydro dams in the Ruhr Valley by 'The Dam Busters'.

Once inside the grounds some old lady gave us a hard sell on the 'Land Train' trip around the park for £2 each, and as we had very little resistance left (after last night's frivolities!) handed over the cash. The grounds and buildings around the site are very overgrown and derelict looking, though with the help of the commentator we could visualise what it was all about.

The interesting thing is that all the explosives, etc, were transported around the site by canals on special barges. Being extremely dangerous, the gunpowder needed a calmer form of transport.

A lot of the tools and equipment used were made out of brass to stop any sparks. The employees were checked each day on arrival for anything that might cause an ignition, and had to wear wooden clogs and special clothing that wouldn't cause static electricity. 

 The unusual foot bridges over the canal - you weren't allowed on the bridge if a boat was coming under because of the possibility of sparks or dropping something on it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 One of the restored gunpowder barges, and a model of the system

Part of the canal system for The Gunpowder Mill. Not sure how this all works or what it did! It doesn't look like a lock setup

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A later form of transporting - I'd have thought a coal fired engine would have been a No No!

 There's a varied array of buildings scattered around the site

At 175 acres it covers quite an area - they didn't want gunpowder production areas too close together in case one blew up and took out others

The gunpowder pressing building - the blast walls between sections was in case of an explosion it wouldn't blow out into the other side

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The local railway enthusiasts have restored this little engine

Not sure what these building were, but they looked highly secretive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Still bits of the canal in water, and the bridges are surprisingly in good condition

 

 

 

Some of the research buildings and one of the many fire alarm points around the site

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom and I had thought we'd seen everything and were the last people left in the museum when the curator said we had to leave. Tom had been looking forward to seeing some Lee Enfield rifles as I'd told him they came from this area, and so we asked this bloke where we could find them. He looked at us puzzled and said "Didn't you see our collection?". He told us to make our way to the main building and he'd meet us there. On opening the room Tom's eyes lit up, the room was full of guns of all shapes and sizes. The curator said we've got about 15 minutes while he continued locking the rest of the complex up.

The collection is vast and all belonged to one collector who'd loaned it to the museum because his wife had had enough of them all around the house. As this was his retirement fund, when the time came the museum bought the lot. The curator said the bloke has now started collecting more guns.

 What a great collection from all parts of the world

Rambo! Not quite, just Tom posing with a Bren gun

After being tossed out it was a short walk back to the boat, dinner and a quiet night. Pete wasn't up for much either, so nothing more to report!

 Meanwhile, Sandra went to a friend's 50th birthday party ...

... which was sort of a surprise, but Mandy had had an inkling that something was going on - you don't reach the age of 50 without being intuitive enough to pick up clues from friends and family trying very hard to evade the truth!  I've known Mandy and her family since I was five years old when we moved to Walmley, Sutton Coldfield - 46 years to be precise!  She now lives in Edinburgh and I live in New Zealand, so it's always wonderful to get together on rare occasions, and of course all my sisters came to the celebration too - awesome ...

Viv, Kath, Mandy, Sandra & Linda

I think these are crocus flowers

Leaving the boys to it along the Lea

We spent the night in Leighton Buzzard yesterday, now moving on up to Milton Keynes ...

Friday 17 September

After surviving last night's shenanigans unscathed, this morning we ventured out to Tottenham Hale to get some cash out for Barry and Tom's weekend pocket money, then I got the tube to Euston and then the train to Lichfield, then Four Oaks, north east of Birmingham. 

Barry and Tom then continued up the River Lea with Pete ...

 Stonebridge Lock, the first of six locks today and Tom in action again

 

 

 

 

 

Painting them bright colours doesn't disguise what they really are - but does improve their appearance slightly! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Moored working boats at Ponders End Locks

They obviously like to make it comfy for the wildlife around here - brings back memories of Blackburn!

The boatyard before Enfield Lock, full of paraphernalia - hard to make an attractive photo out of this!

The now derelict house beside Enfield Lock - 'Lee Conservancy 1889'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Leaving Enfield Lock and passing the quaint terraced houses adjoining the canal with lots of floating gardens moored along the bank

If you want to see power pylons (and why would you?) this is the area to come to - they're everywhere

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Pete operating this lock ...

 ... and Tom working this one, sharing the day's load

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They then got a bit clever and started asking passing families to help!

After mooring up just past Waltham Town Lock, Tom and I had time to organise some dinner before a short walk into Waltham Abbey with Pete for a couple of drinks. After slightly more than a couple and a game of darts in one pub, we ended up in an after hours lock-in at another. I'm not sure what time we got back to the boat, but unsurprisingly it was in the wee small hours with all of us a little worse for wear.

... and meanwhile

Sandra arrived safely at her destination, got a bit dressed up and had a night out with her sisters, one of her nieces and lots of lovely friends at The Crown pub in Four Oaks.  After partaking of a few drinks, lots of catch up conversations and laughter, we were much more refined than the boys and left the pub just after closing time!

Mandy, Kath, Vicky, Linda, Arlene, Sandra, Sarah, Kerry & Karen - Viv & Ray had been there too but sadly had left before the photo!

 Sunflower-looking daisies - dazzling

Through the East End to the River Lee, and the dark delights of Tottenham Hale

Today we're heading back onto the Grand Union from Aylesbury, towards a place called 'Slapton' - there's some funny place names around here!  There's also an awful lot of locks ...

Thursday 16 September - part two

Firstly, here's a few more photos from the tidal Thames trip that Barry forgot to put on yesterday's blog (obviously taken by Sandra!!) ...

 

 

 

The boys at Battersea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking superimposed on Westminster!

 

 

 

 

Tom hardly put his camera down the whole trip bless him!

 Err, actually at this stage you're supposed to be concentrating on manoeuvring into Limehouse Lock!!!

We weren't sure which route to take, but soon decided on the right turning up towards the River Lee - with the challenge of finding somewhere 'safe' to moor accessible to a tube station for me to catch the train to Euston on Friday, for a weekend in Birmingham with my sisters and girlfriends.

After a short lunch stop along Limehouse Cut to fill up with water, the sun came out and with it a touch of blue sky - how different the photos would have been of the tideway in such light.  We really didn't do justice to the delights of central London in the grey and dismal clouds, however it was probably more realistic of British weather!

Approaching Bow Lock weir

A dark and gloomy sky above didn't bode well with the dismal surroundings ...

 

 

 

 

but Barry managed to make it look bright and cheerful regardless!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What an array of building designs!

The stunning building of the 'Three Mills' at Bow

 

 

If you can't have blue sky have a blue skyscraper!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure what this contraption is, though I think it's some sort of electronic signage

 

This arm is closed off for the foreseeable future as it's the site of the 2012 London Olympic Stadium - they have a bit of a job ahead cleaning up the graffiti ...

but realistically the colourful graffiti does improve the area somehow - though sadly no Banksy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part manual, part mechanical locks - and a lot of green slime on the canal which doesn't look too salubrious!

Which lock shall we enter??

Must've been some big boats passing through here many years ago

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           Taking you, taking me ...                               meanwhile Sandra sits alone in the lock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It may be seen as an eyesore - but the diversity of graffiti really does cheer the places up in a rather dilapidated looking part of London

The emerging shell of the Olympic Stadium - pretty impressive!

We continued through the East End and onto the River Lea (which can be spelt Lea or Lee it seems!) to Tottenham Hale, where we found the first (what we thought was a) decent mooring and the bonus of a nearby tube station and grocery store. 

 Another overwater - Underground

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tom looking cool at Tottenham Hale locks - another double one

Not long after we'd tied up I received a text from Pete, a fellow boater who we'd met up with last year on the Chesterfield Canal.  He asked us where we were, I told him, then about ten minutes later there was a knock on the roof - spookily he was moored just up the cut from us!  It was great to see him and he came on board and shared a few drinks with us while we caught up on his life story since our last meeting (of course he knew ours because of the blog!).

During the evening, around 2200hrs, we felt someone boarding the boat.  Tom had gone to sleep on our bed as he was very tired, so it was just Pete, Barry and I.  We went out of the front of the boat and saw (in silhouette) three black guys in dark hoodies looking menacing - it was extremely hard to see them properly and I would've been scared witless had I been on my own!  Thank goodness there were two hunky men to give them their marching orders!

When confronted they mumbled that we had to open the back up as there were 'stolen goods on board' - yeah right!  More likely they were high on drugs and just looking for a way of breaking into any property to steal what they could to fund their habit.  Barry and Pete engaged them in conversation whilst walking behind them along the towpath, Pete got his phone out and said he had a friend who wanted to chat with them and not long afterwards they were running their little legs off to get away!  Not so stupid after all maybe?!

A horrible experience, but it is seriously the only time we've had any such problems whilst cruising the cut so I count us as very lucky - we'd probably be more likely to have problems on land.

... and at the end of a long day a spa bath would be very soothing!

Pete said he'd carry up the river with Barry and Tom tomorrow while I'm away, so it's a boys weekend and a girls weekend coming up!

Luckily life has a larger proportion of loveliness than sad hooligans!