Mike Stevens' UK Inland Waterways Pages

TRIP REPORTS : THE FELIS CATUS II YEARS

LEICESTER AND THE BCN :
SUMMER 1993

Part 1 : Cowley Peachey to Rushall

[ Click here for information about our boat, Felis Catus II]

EARLY SUMMER WEEK-ENDING

As with a number of these trips, it appears that I didn't start photographing until we were off the territory we knew best.

Wendy came up mid-morning to the boat at our mooring at Cowley Peachey to do the shopping & launderette. I joined her at lunchtime. We did a few jobs on the boat. The whole family (whole of my brother Derek's tribe + Dad & his friend Norah) arrived about 18:00 to bring my niece Samara (then aged about 14) for the weekend. We all had a cuppa, then all but Sam left. It was dismal weather, so we decided to stay put. After supper the weather brightened up, so we decided to go boating for a very short run to the visitor moorings above Cowley lock

There was some bleeping of the battery-low warning in the morning, which woke us for an early start. At 06:42 Tor came up behind us as we were getting up, so we decided to join them through the locks. They were nice people but very slow. Wendy hurt her ankle jumping off to work one of the locks. We ate breakfast on the move and left Tor below Stockers lock sorting out a problem with their cooling water intake.

We stopped at Frogmoor wharf, Rickmansworth and Sam & I went into Tesco for a few things we'd forgotten yesterday, Wendy stayed on the boat because of her ankle. Tor caught up after the shopping and we continued with them again for the rest of the day. Sam had her first lesson in steering and picked it up very quickly, but she still insisted in working all the locks. We had lunch on the move. Above King's Langley lock we stopped at 17:08 for a barbecue supper. There were lots of wildfowl, including some interesting ducks that looked like muscovy/mallard crosses (there was a muscovy drake in one of the gardens, which made the theory look likely). Sam was feeding them from the galley side-hatch when one the swans got upset when she ran out of bread and bit her hand. After dinner, we played Scrabble. Sam won.

We had breakfast before moving off, and saw one of the ducks catch a fish rather too big to swallow. We were under way at 08:36. We had no boat to share with today, which resulted in faster progress! What it is to have a keen, fit youngster in the crew! More steering for Sam at various stages of the day.

We had planned a rendezvous with the rest of the family above Fishery lock. We arrived with about half an hour to spare, so Wendy washed her hair & I started polishing the brass. The family joined, as planned, on the 11:26 train from Berkhamsted, where they'd left the car, and we were on the move again soon afterwards.

Before Bourne End bottom lock we stopped for a barbecue lunch, then went on to Bridgewater Boats at Castle Wharf, Berkhamsted, arriving at 17:06. My youngest niece, Alex, played with the Fosters' daughter Mishka. We had a snack on board before the family picked up the car from Berka station. Wendy & I stayed on board overnight (since neither of us had to be at work early the next day), socialising with Lindy Foster.

We woke up later than intended, "cleaned ship", and talked to Roger at the boatyard about a few jobs we want him to do on the boat while it's there. We finally headed for London about 11:00.

Another weekend heading north

We both came up from home mid-afternoon for shopping. Roger had done various work on the boat, including fitting a new battery and curing the drip of the cabin water system. We spent some time socialising with Mike & Lindy Foster, their new kitten et al. I went to The Boat where I met Trevor and Liz from nb Arabia, with whom we'd once shared locks up Hatton. In the evening we had a barbecue in Mike & Lindy's garden.

It was a very hot day. We set off at 07:41 and dealt with elsan & rubbish disposal en passant at Cowroast., then stopped in Bulbourne lay-by to take on water. We locked down Marsworth flight with an anonymous boat who was mob-handed with folk who knew what they were doing, but were delayed by some up-hill traffic waiting for the lock-full behind to catch up and share. Below Startopsend lock we stopped to buy new side-fenders from Derek Pearson.

At Marsworth junction we turned down the Aylesbury Branch. We had a good run down until the last lock, when we, together with Solatium (ahead of us) and our anonymous friends from this morning (behind us) were delayed by a boat (ex-FMC Lion, ex-Willow Wren Bittern), laden with scrap, grounding in a bridge-hole below. Lion finally got through, thanks to an angler diving to get rubbish off the bottom, and the three of us locking down to put more water into the pound.

At Aylesbury Basin we moored at 18:15 outboard of one of the home boats, so it wasn't convenient for a barbecue. We had a brief chat (at a distance) with David Daines. I wondered whether to go to The Ship, but decided I was too tired to bother.

We didn't get a very good night's sleep, partly because it was very hot, and partly because of machinery noise from somewhere nearby. At 08:06 we backed out of the mooring and winded in the main basin. In another very hot morning, I had to work most of the locks because Wendy's bad ankle from last weekend was playing up. We met no downhill traffic until we got into the thick of the locks near the top, then a lot, some of which kept us waiting. Among those that didn't was Mike Porter in Seagull.

At Marsworth junction we re-joined the Grand Junction main line and stopped at the Ship Stores for me to go to the Red Lion, after which we had a barbecue lunch followed by a long snooze. The latter was broken by the sound of a Bolinder, which turned out to be on Glenn Knight's Antartic. Then it was time to "clean ship" before we both to went the Red Lion for a couple of drinks and a taxi to Tring station

A day trip

We had hoped for a longer weekend, but other things got in the way. We came by train to Tring & then taxi to the boat. And were on the move by 11:00, heading north. We had a bad road most of the way, but crossed a few boats from time to time. From Seabrook bottom we locked with Waterbug Lazy Daisy on a grand circuit from Skipton. There was a brief pause while we tried to get ashore and help a Grebe day-boat with an apparent starting problem, but they had sorted it for themselves by the time we got near enough to the bank! At Leighton Buzzard we managed to moor fairly near the bridge at 15:18. We had an impromptu meal, then set off home.

MAIN SUMMER CRUISE

At last the summer holiday was beginning! Wendy the cats & I arrived from home by about 08:30. We did a big launderette operation and main provisioning for the cruise. Then we ate lunch while waiting for Orinthia to finish exploring Tesco's shrubbery. We were away at 14:30, locking with various partners: a Wyvern boat at Leighton, Jezebel at Soulbury and Harpo (Amanda Huntley?) at Stoke Hammond and Fenny. Wendy saw a single magpie at Fenny, but decided not to worry.

We stopped for the night at The Plough at Simpson at 18:26. I went to the pub before barbecuing. The pub wasn't what it had been under the eccentric landlord we first knew. While the barbecue was cooking we got talking with a local resident (Richard), who stayed talking and drinking with us until about 23:30. Orinthia was busy exploring, but came back later.

I started at 07:10 by myself. At Cosgrove lock we chatted en passant with my friends Sue & Colin Blake who moored here. We watered at Cosgrove loo point and continued to Stoke Bruerne where I spent a lot of money on books in the Museum shop and had a chat with old friends Brian and Carol on Horace. The cats enjoyed posing for the tourists.

When we continued, we stopped at Gayton sani-station to deal with the elsan, which we'd not thought of at Cosgrove! From there on it was slow going behind other boats until 18:36 when we moored by bridge 44, a pleasant middle-of-nowhere mooring with good birdsong. Orinthia caught a mouse but lost it in a sneezing fit. We barbecued

The weather forecast suggested a dry morning & wet afternoon, so we decided to set off as soon as the cats were both back, which proved no problem today, and we moved off at 07:27. We locked up Whilton & Buckby locks with nb Marriott, with 2 English setters, both rescues. At Norton junction we turned into the Old Grand Union Canal (a.k.a. GU Leicester line). There was no queue at the foot of Watford locks, but a short wait for the staircase as the lock-keeper (no longer Eric) was working one-up-one-down. The locks were in very good condition. After the top lock we found a lot of shallows & narrows on the summit still, although perhaps not as many as some years ago.

At Kilworth, bridge 41, we found a mooring at 18:57 where we could at least get the bow in to the bank. Orinthia went exploring cornfields etc.

We made a late start at 09:37 because (a) we both wanted showers, (b) the shower-pump needed unblocking, (c) this led to other complications and (d) Orinthia wasn't back. We stopped at North Kilworth boatyard for a pump-out. This had become an Anglo-Welsh franchise. We had to wait about 20 minutes at Foxton top lock, where we found a pleasant lock-keeper and helpful gongoozlers

	Foxton

After Foxton junction we were on the Leics & N'hants Union Canal where we found some really porridgey shallows on the summit, but lots of kingfishers & good scenery. At 17:46 we moored at Newton Harcourt.

I had a lie-in, then we breakfasted before starting at 09:09, as there were locks all the way. We saw more kingfishers. There were some very shallow pounds, and the lock-keeper was running water through to sort them out. A heavy storm hit us as we came through Leicester and joined the Leicester Navigation . We moored at 18:42 just above Thurmaston lock, where they were making a built-up mooring that looked as if it would be good when finished. (It was - we left the boat there between trips a few years later.) We 'phoned my father (who was recovering from an eye operation) and our regular summer crewman, Ian, (to arrange a rendezvous for him to join us the next day).

Overnight rain produced a lot of muddy paw-prints in the boat. The weather had dried up by morning and we started boating at 07:16. We crossed with the gravel-barges starting their day's work. From Mountsorrel we locked with Lily Maud, belonging to Barry Green (IWA Eastern Region Chairman). The boat had just been built for him by Stowe Hill at 59', after consultations with the Ashline lock-keeper, as Barry planned to moor it on the Middle Level, to which he was travelling via the National at Peterborough. The water here was dirty and when churned up it looked pink - local minerals?

We stopped by bridge 38 in Loughborough for a huge amount of shopping: we took it in turns so as not to shut the cats up. The market was disappointing, so nearly everything came from a big Sainsbury's. Ian joined us by train at about 15:00, and we set off again at 16:30. It was now very windy.

At Loughborough junction we joined the Loughborough Navigation and went on to moor at 19:15 just above Kegworth Shallow Lock, which is now a flood lock. Ian & I went to the Cap & Stocking, which still had Bass from the jug, but the Mild was now from a hand-pump. Otherwise the pub was unchanged since our 1976 visit, except for new loos.

There is a gap in photographic collection from here until the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal.

At 07:29 we started what was to prove a long and satisfactory day. We soon passed Soar Mouth and turned west on the Trent. We found that Sawley lock was now automated and filled a bit too quickly for comfort. At Derwent Mouth we joined the Trent & Mersey Canal and later stopped at Stenson Marina for a pump-out (expensive), water and an attempt to sort out a dodgy circuit to the horn. We had to wait until they opened after lunch.

A couple of hours later we passed Horninglow wharf in Burton-on-Trent and were once more in narrow lock territory. We moored at 18:30 before Barton lock . We had hoped to reach Alrewas, but time didn't let us. It was hard to find a mooring that wasn't right by the main road. This spot was fractionally further away than most. Such is today's road mania that there will soon be no stretch of canal out of earshot of cars and people will be wishing for their children to be born with earplugs rather than webbed feet. There was a pub there but we didn't try it. There was also a rubbish point. We barbecued.

Today we made a gentle cruise with an early finish. We set off again at 07:43 and later had a chat with some Trent & Mersey Canal Society folk who were manning one of the Fradley locks to get publicity. At Fradley junction we turned on to the Coventry Canal (detached section) and then stopped at Streethay Wharf . This had recently been taken over by Ray Bowern (whom we had known as a Canalway Cavalcade "regular"), who plans to develop its potential. He offers diesel at a good price, so we filled up. We asked him about new mooring ropes, but his chandlery arrangements weren't sorted out yet, so he didn't have anything suitable. He planned to be an outlet for Alan Boswell.

We went on to Fazeley Junction to join Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, where we saw a lot of kingfishers before stopping for the night at 16:54 above lock 3 at Bodymoor Heath. It would have been a good barbecue mooring, but drizzly, damp weather prevented that. Ian & I went to the Dog in a Doublet which we thought disappointing.

We started at 08:34 in better weather than forecast. We took on water at Dunton Wharf and the lock-keeper told us where to moor for the Curdworth village shop to get a paper. So we stopped there and Wendy went for a paper while breakfast was cooking.

We continued to Salford junction and joined the Tame Valley Canal. Perry Barr locks were very messy. We had thought of stopping at the top lock, as recommended by Kevin Maslin, but the cut was absolutely crammed with very smelly duckweed, so we went on and turned in to the Rushall Canal , stopping past Biddlestone bridge at 17:17. On reflection we could have gone a bit further away from the noise of the motorway. We had another barbecue, followed by a game of Scrabble, which Ian won.