Pollington Visitor Moorings to Whitley Lock
An improvement in IT and TV was required, but it was raining. We waited for things to improve, it wasn’t raining hard, so hopefully it would just be a shower.
A couple of boats had moved before we’d got ourselves ready, the boat infront had lost it’s name, it had been TED, now it was nameless. By 11:30 we decided to make the move. I helped push the bow out and walked on up to Pollington Lock.
The moorings just below were occupied by two big boats, Freda Carless and Lonsdale one of the gravel barges that in recent years has done trips to and fro from Leeds.
I could see a boat approaching the lock behind Oleanna and up at the lock was a chap, his key of power in the panel and the lock gates wide open. Both boats got caught out by the force of the bywash which was hammering it down, maybe on full force due to there being eight boats in Goole Docks at the moment, the water needed for Ocean Lock.
I took Oleanna’s centre rope and passed it round a bollard handing it back to Mick as the other boat came in. The chap was very familiar, he resembled an actor who quite often plays sleezy landlords or people who are down on their luck on TV, unshaven, white haired, one day I’ll remember the actors name! The chap stood by the lock was also familiar because we’ve shared locks and been stranded at Naburn with him and his wife shortly after they’d bought their narrowboat in 2021 I think. I filled Mick in, he’d most probably not have remembered the couple, he didn’t when we crossed paths with them last year near Wakefield.
They were moving their boat up to Great Heck and car shuffling at the same time. A brief chat with the lady as they swapped over at the helm and she headed off to move the car. I closed up the lock and then set off to walk to Whitley, get my minutes in along the towpath as we’d be covering about 4 miles today, an ideal distance.
Walking gave me the chance to stop and have a good look on my way. Pollington Hall stands out from the countryside. Today it’s front door just about the same shade of green as the crop in the field. The photo has gone into my paintings folder, I like painting houses, I think I have a thing about bricks as well as good front doors. Built around 1750, it was the ancestral home of the Dobson family. William Dobson was born at the hall in 1818, he and his wife emigrated in 1842 to Tasmania. They had many children and became one of the pioneering families of Tasmania.
I walked under Heck Railway bridge just as an East Coast Main line train thundered overhead. Oleanna and the other boat just still in view ahead. This is a popular stretch for mooring, especially up towards Heck Bridge, the other boat pulled in, I made a note of a good place for Tilly where not too many boats were moored and away from the railway, we may stop here on our way back to the south.
A pause to have a chat with the familiar crew, the world was about to get even smaller. I remembered their boat name and where their house is, but not their names, Richard and Heather. We chatted about their trip over the Rochdale and where else we’d been last year. Then plans for this year, conversation came about that I was a set designer and that we had a house in Scarborough. Well Richard used to teach sculpture on Lady Edith’s Drive in Scarborough and had an exhibition at the theatre which coincided with Alan Ayckbourn’s first show. Well Richard doesn’t look old enough to have had an exhibition in the 50’s and he’d mentioned that it was possibly around 1975, so I think it was more likely to be when Alan became Artistic Director or when the theatre moved from the Library to Westwood. But still a close connection.
They are plucking up courage to cruise the Trent and go up the Chesterfield Canal, if we knew when we’d be heading back that way then I’d have suggested they joined us, but dates later in the year are a little unfixed at the moment. It was good to have chance for a chat and Mick had most probably moored up by now, so it was time to carry on.
The towpath changes sides as the northern bank is now filled with C&RT boats, lock beams, aggregate all sorts. As I walked over the bridge I wondered if this was the C&RT yard Mick and I once visited to collect a mooring bollard to be used in Way Upstream at the SJT. I’ve wondered about it a few times as we’ve passed on the boat and now from land it looked even more possible. It was near Eggborough Power Station, now no longer, we had to walk down a track alongside the yard and canal to a specific place, put our hand through the fence and inside a plastic bag there was a bollard for us. All done on a summer Sunday after a weekend in York.
Another opportunity to stop and take a better photo of the work boats, Robin Hood always stands out from the other boats here.
As I came round the last little kink in the canal towards Whitley Lock I could see that Oleanna was moored up, covers half done, all on the opposite side of the canal so I had to walk past and cross at the lock, clocking up just over 4 miles and plenty of minutes for the day.
Mick checked with neighbours, two woofers enjoying the grassy moorings, they were both okay with cats. I kept low just in case they could see me and skuttled across to the hedge. A pretty good outside and She and Tom seemed happier now they could tapperty tap without waiting all the time! Tilly and I had a game of stick once the woofers were inside, safer that way as otherwise they’d have tried to join in.
Fund Britain’s Waterway flotilla news spare parts have been required today, a morse cable, some hose. The boats are having a little rest before continuing on towards London, the Marsworth flight has reopened and Van sent us a couple of photos of us from the cruise through Gainsborough. Thank you Van!
1 lock, 3.7 miles by boat, 1 damp morning, 1 drier afternoon, 1 Isabella, 1 green front door, 3 pairs of socks to finish off, 4 hours shore leave, 5 sticks, 1 stove lit, 4.17 miles walked, 70 minutes briskly.
