Category Archives: History

Phoebe Anna Traquair. 27th July

Retford and Worksop Boat Club

Cricket, the last Tour on free TV, end of the world haircuts, unicorn/uniform, and Alasdair’s under croft were this mornings subjects. Everyone was present and the screen was rather full as Mick is still in Scarborough ready to do a turn around.

St Peter’s

Dave had mentioned that there were some murals in the church his wife said were worth looking at and that there was a nice walk up to that woody bit on the hill, so today after the Geraghty zoom I set off to see if she was right.

A good door handle

There are two pubs in the village of Clayworth, The Brewers Arms and The Blacksmiths. The former is a homely pub with generous portions, the latter a gastro pub where you can get a Chateaubriand for two at £85, certainly the aromas in the village smelt good!

The east window

St Peter’s Church dates from the 12th C, added to in the 13th 14th and 15th Centuries and underwent a serious renovation in the 1870s. A mesh door covers the thick oak door, aimed to stop birds from getting trapped inside the church, they were doing a good job of trying when I came to leave, swooping in.

It was dark inside, maybe I could turn some lights on. A notice said where to turn the chancel lights on, I just needed to find the card machine to then find the switches. Job done I could see more especially in the chancel.

The north wall

Phoebe Anna Traquair was an Irish born artist who married a Scottish Palaeontologist and moved to Edinburgh were she achieved international recognition for her role in the Arts and Crafts movement. She was an illustrator, painter and embroiderer. Here in St Peter’s is one of her two English murals.

On the south side

Commissioned by Lady D’Arcy Godolhin Osborne to commemorate the safe return of her son Captain Joseph Laycock from the second Boer War. The paintings cover the chancel walls, high up over arches and around the east window, gold glints around faces. On the northern side angels trumpet as the three kings hand over their gifts to Jesus and Mary. A lady looks on could this be Lady D’Arcy? She stands in front of what looks like a viaduct painted into the background.

On the southern side is a depiction of the last supper. More faces stand out from the 1900 style, are these more portraits of locals or members of the family? Very much of their time, finished in 1905. In 1996 the murals were restored to their original splendour by Elizabeth Hirst, sadly now they seem to be deteriorating a touch.

The paintings are very worth visiting, Dave’s wife was right.

A clear path

I now chose to walk up the road alongside the church passing the cemetery and a big house where classical music filled the air. The road turned into a footpath, I was glad of my jeans today as nettles and thistles lined the edges. I joined paths between high hedges, then cut across a field ripe for harvest, today’s path far easier to see than the one a few days ago.

Views!

Skirting round fields the views stretched away into the distance, if only the sun was shining. I passed the wood and started to make my way down hill. A field of white flowering Buckwheat and purple Fiddleneck. Oleanna hid behind a farm house below, other boats tagged on to the end of the moorings visible. Dave’s wife was also right about the walk. I wonder if she’s any more suggestions for tomorrow?

Another archway of trees

Back at Oleanna I got the big vacuum cleaner out, being plugged in I could work my way through the boat which in recent times has become a little unkempt. One more step to being a clean boat again.

Another Gateway

Over in Scarborough Mick had waved goodbye to two lodgers this morning. Initially they had scored a 6 maybe 7. But they were soon demoted to a 5 when a roasting tin was found unwashed along with the juicer! One side of the house was sorted ready for a new lodger to move in mid afternoon.

Lolling on the grass

0 locks, 0 miles, 0 buses they don’t run on Sundays, 5 hours shore leave, 5! plus reminders about rent, 1 muralled church, 1 wood on a hill, 75 minutes brisk walking, 1 boat hoovered top to bottom, 1 busy washing line in Scarborough.

Waiting Day (3). 20th July

Vazon Sliding Bridge

Awake early again, just in case. Mick went to see the Signal Keeper, the lady from NB Early Rise was there having a chat. The temperature wasn’t low enough. The keeper would be on again tonight, he had our numbers and would call should the temperature of the bridge reach 15C. Back in bed we snoozed some more.

A rare meaty breakfast

I’d bought some bacon the other day to go in the quiche so the rest of that needed eating up, it was accompanied by the usual items and very nice it was too. Topics on the Geraghty zoom this morning included Rain, ‘Enry’s goats, singing bathrooms, Hamilton and Mole Hill Woman Lucky Dips.

The cat doesn’t seem to work so we’ve resorted to fly paper, but that doesn’t seem to work either!

With more rain forecast for the afternoon I headed out on my walk. Across the manual swing bridge, Reece in the signal box pressed the button to lift the barriers at the level crossing and on I walked between power stations. The first Keadby Power Station was built in the late 1940’s originally coal fired, the coal being transported by road and rail, but not by canal. The power station was so far out of town that accommodation needed to be provided, half the work force moved to Keadby.

Chipped back to the brick

At the main road I turned northwards to see how far the village continued, not very far, but there was an interesting information board. After WW2, still during rationing, everyone was allowed to keep a pig but they had to declare it and hand over their rations in return for bacon. Most people kept a pig, but didn’t hand over their rations. The locals were alarmed to hear that someone from the Ministry of Food was coming to check who owned what livestock in the village. The local bridge man was put on look out duty. When the official arrived the pub was called and everyone went home to let their pigs out, they were roaming all over the village.

The official could see the pigs and styes in gardens but didn’t know who owned which pig. When asked the locals just shrugged their shoulders, so the official was none the wiser and caught the train back to London. Another phone call was made and the villagers busied themselves reclaiming their pigs.

More boats

By the services were two new boats. NB Delhi and NB Python the Chesterfield Canal boat, they had come from West Stockwith yesterday and are on a working party trip up to Sheffield. They spent the day with a big team of people tidying up around Keadby Lock and also inside it. This included dropping down in the lock and weeding the outer walls onto the river. Tomorrow their aim is to tidy up around Thorne Services, if they can get there. What a brilliant thing to be doing even if it meant they got really quite wet in the process!

Waiting for the train to pass

I selected yarn for the next pair of ‘Jazzy’ socks and then sat down to weave the ends in on the previous pair. This is better done during daylight hours despite it being very grey outside with patches of torrential rain. As we watched a program about Sycamore Gap we heard some noises. We looked up a cruiser was arriving followed by a second one. Someone hopped off and opened the manual swing bridge. Mick opened the hatch to check they knew the railway bridge wasn’t working. It felt like they did and were going to moor in between the bridges until it opened, but once they realised we and the boat behind were also waiting they pulled back and moored on the other side. There were now four cruisers all out on a fortnights trip from Great Heck.

Inside sock

The BBC, our weather app on phones, Windy were all checked. If there was to be a night where the temperature dropped enough then tonight must surely be it. In fact it might be that we’d not have to wait until the early hours, maybe midnight, maybe 1am. We’d considered getting all the boaters together, everyone wrapping up in as many layers as possible and standing outside the signal box doing our best to persuade Network Rail that the temperature was really cold.

A bigger queue

We had a beer, our evening meal with a glass or two of wine. My phone fully charged we headed to bed. Would we get a call?

0 locks, 0 miles, 43 brisk minutes, 2 more boats, 4 more boats, 11 waiting boats, 1 work party, 1 very smart lock, 2 many annoying flies, 1 cat lacking in her duties, pair 101 finished, pair 102 cast on, 1 soggy WET day.

A Different Side To Thorne. 16th July

Thorne Visitor Moorings

Should we visit the Trolley Bus Museum? Should we visit the South Yorkshire Aircraft Museum? Both would be a couple of bus rides to get there. Instead we pottered the day away, it’s odd not working every day.

Our morning view from bed

Mick headed out to do some shopping. He’s discovered that our new connector for the yellow water tank isn’t magnetic, neither is the jubilee clip on it. So armed with a magnet he walked up to Bargain Land to see what he could purchase that was magnetic that could be wrapped round the connector. We’ve only once dropped the old one in the canal, but without it we’d need to hand pump our tank empty and then get a new one made, so it’s best we can retrieve it should the need arise.

Jubilee clips and wire were bought along with some big hooks (useful for hanging things on) and adaptors for the bicycle pump so that the inflated fenders can be pumped up.

That’s smart

I packed up the amended bits of model to send off to Gemma the Production Manager, but then realised that I was more than likely to be with her when she delivers them to the set builders, so it doesn’t seem worth the risk of the postal service. I knitted and then headed out for a walk.

St Nicholas’ church

A different side of Thorne today. Up beyond the shops towards Peel Hill. St Nicholas church drew me in, but the gates were very firmly locked by the front door. But as I leaned through them to take a photo of the door a chap behind me said, ‘There’s someone else wanting to go in’. This turned out to be a parishioner and the vicar who I later found out was called Tim, he was about to open up and yes I could have a look inside.

Really quite pretty inside

The church sits on a sandy ridge which in Saxon times was an island surrounded by water and marshland. The original church was only a chapel of ease, funerals had to take place in Hatfield. In the 1320’s a funeral was crossing the mere to Hatfield when a storm blew up, the boats were wrecked and dozens of mourners were drowned. This led to some rebuilding of the church and it was made into a Parish church.

The rood screen

The oldest part of the church is the chancel dating back to the 6th Century. The rood screen is striking with its figures on the top, made of cast iron by a local miner.

Beautiful

My eye was immediately caught by one of the windows, it had to be by a Pre-Raphaelite artist, but which one? As I stood and studied it, Tim handed me a couple of pamphlets about the church, sadly I didn’t spot there was another regarding the stained glass windows at the time. But researching when back on the boat I discovered it was designed by Sir Henry Holiday a Victorian Painter who was greatly influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In 1861 he accepted the position of stained glass window designer for Powell’s Glass Works taking over from Burne- Jones, during his time there he fulfilled over 300 commissions most of which are in the USA. After 30 years he left to set up his own business in Hampstead.

Peel Hill

I now walked across the road to look at Peel Hill. Only the Motte still stands with the usual worn tracks from the top where people have run up and down it. At first I couldn’t find a way in, entrances at the far ends of the area. In the 12th Century the castle was used as a hunting lodge and the tower was still standing in the 16th Century. By the 1820’s the foundations of the motte top were partly destroyed by its then owner. More information can be found here LINK

Artists impression

Next a windmill pulled me off my planned route. No sails and some boarded up windows, quite an unloved sight really, but quite atmospheric. I now wound my way through a housing estate, all the houses semi-detached, the fronts boasting red brick but 18 inches to the back cheaper bricks have been used. The houses stretched on for ages.

Unloved

Across towards the railway line. Quite a few houses were surrounded by railings, some totally filled in, keeping the view or viewers out. I’d spotted a path parallel to the railway that I wanted to take, but it seemed to be below the track I was on and to keep going with purpose felt like a sensible move.

I crossed the railway line, straight and clear in both directions, then joined a fast moving road alongside the M18. I had gone from the ancient part of Thorne, through possibly the dodgy part of town, managing not to score from the blacked out windowed car, to the motorway and now distribution centre for BMW and Mini!

Oleanna at the services

Back at Oleanna I finished putting together a quinoa crust quiche with turkey steak, green beans, a naughty bit of bacon and feta cheese. Very yummy and smaller portions today means we’ll be enjoying it for another couple of meals.

Yum!

Sadly todays rendezvous with Della was called off late afternoon, so it looks like we won’t get to meet this time, hopefully next time we pass through Thorne things will align better.

0 locks, 0 miles, 0hh please move the outside! 1 sock finished, just need to redo the first one to match, 1 friendly vicar, 1 inaccessible motte, 1 unloved windmill, 0 skunk, 1 walk with purpose, 1 very tasty quiche.

Stumpy And Me. 13th July

Huddles Ground Winding Hole to opposite Stanilands Marina

White top milk, W5, Trendy Walthamstow and National Bowls were topics today on the Geraghty zoom. Maybe the TV series Scrublands should have been included, set in the heart of Australia a journalist works his way through a tragedy that befell a small town. I say this as early on Mick spotted someone walking on the parallel track with a rifle in hand! They dipped down at one point, camouflage working a treat, presumably to take a shot at something, thankfully facing away from Oleanna!

Slowly following

We needed to make a move today, so we opted to get moving late morning, hoping some boats might have moved on from Thorne. Not far to go, only a mile and a half.

Proffessor Plum decapitated

Ten years ago, as we set off to descend Gunthorpe Lock on the River Trent, I thought that I should maybe trim my nails before reaching our destination for the day. Well, today I opted to trim them the normal way, clippers and nail file, rather than the more drastic method I used for my little finger back then! All nine nails are now a similar length and shape with no rough edges from model making and no visit to hospital either.

Is that a giant iced ring?

We followed widebeam Lollipop in towards Thorne, so we weren’t rushing anywhere. They pulled in to moor at the first space, we carried on, finding that no boats had moved since yesterday. We opted to reverse back, but were beaten to the space by another widebeam that zoomed in to snatch the space. Oh well, we’d opt for the space on the bend with the wonky edging.

Coming in to Thorne

A shopping trip into town to stock up on veg and bananas, that was enough for today in the humidity, we settled down to potter away the remainder of the day. NB Watershed arrived and squeezed in infront of us, they plan to head to Vazon Sliding Bridge and hope to get through in the next couple of days when the overnight temperatures are due to be low enough for it to open. We will follow suit once we’ve finished in Thorne.

Front to back L to R
Heather (Lady A), Sir Alan, Laura
Sue, Ali, Paul, Jaye, Fleur, Emily, Dawn, Frank, Tigger
Andy, Kate, Lee, Ben, Michael, Ruth.

What a wonderful bunch.

Ten years ago we were headed to Newark, to moor at Kings Marina, pick up a hire car and drive up to Scarborough to celebrate the Stephen Joseph Theatre’s 60th birthday. This of course didn’t happen, Oleanna was returned to the pontoon moorings at Gunthorpe and we spent the day at Nottingham’s QMC. Today up in Scarborough the 70th birthday was being celebrated. A company of actors were to perform excerpts from plays performed at the Theatre through the decades and from it’s three homes. A large group of my contempories were in the audience to enjoy the afternoon. I wish we’d been there too to have a catch up, but I think today subliminally I needed to be on Oleanna.

Stumpy and me!

0 locks, 1.5 miles, 1 bendy mooring, 9 nails manicured, 4 bags shopping, 10th anniversary, 70th birthday, 2 outsides, 2 woofer neighbours, 1 on a lead, 1 nips at children, 2.35 miles walked, 30 minutes briskly, 1 gunman in the friendly cover!

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River’s Coming Up. 29th June

Naburn to the over hanging tree New Walk, York

Sunny day in Naburn

With temperatures set to rise over the next couple of days we needed to find a shady spot, we knew where to head. Tilly had some shore leave whilst we talked to Kath and Sean on the Geraghty weekly zoom. Hygenists, NHS and noisy boats were todays topics. Kenny the Lock Keeper was out mowing the grass at the top of the bank and the river bus arrived to pick up passenegers from the campsite, it was all quite busy for a while and I did wonder if Tilly might have ventured further away. But when I went out to call for her she appeared from behind the hedge and came running straight away, a good if noisy morning.

As we moved up to the water point we could see that the river had come up, no longer a step up onto the bank and across they way the timber on the side of the cut was at least half submerged.

New hose with some old hose

The new hose was reeled out and given a thorough flushing through before it started to fill our tank. Kenny came over to confirm the time of our departure in a few days time. Topped we were on our way back into town. I got on with work, pausing to wave to my family home and Philli’s boat as we passed. At New Walk Mick was pulling in, time to help.

He’d pulled up a little further along, hoping to put more space between us and the cruiser Orchid that was moored by Millenium Bridge. But the tree we were under was a willow, they have a tendancy to crack in the heat and the over hanging branches wouldn’t give us quite the shade we were after, so we pulled back to where we’d been last time. Here we could see how much the river had come up, the eyes that we’ve been using to tie to were half submerged. We needed to check the levels!

0.56m at 2pm

Viking Recorder gauge was on the rise. I tried to remember how high the river had to be before the bank started to go under water (a calculation I’d made when we were here in 2020), I think it was 0.9m. The prediction was close to that, we might require wellies.

So where was all this water coming from? It’s not rained in York. Well the catchment area for the River Ouse is up in the Yorkshire Dales where it must have been raining a couple of days ago, too much for the land to just soak it straight up.

I worked away the afternoon as the sun came out and heated up the world around us. We noticed on the Strawberry Fools group that Brian and Jo after the Wash crossing had headed home to York for a few weeks, but when they return to NB That’s It they were planning on heading onto the Middle Level. I sent Jo a message asking if they’d like to borrow our Middle Level windlass and key, saving them £23 for a windlass they’d use once maybe twice. I gave them our location and how long we’d be here for.

The first blue lining, the rest will wait for a canal mooring

As the afternoon continued the river carried on rising, the rings now below the water level. This is why on a river you should always tie off back to your boat, so you still have access to them to slacken them. We hoped someone would loosen the ropes on the cruiser down in Naburn that had been left last night.

Brian’s voice could be heard on the bank, they’d come to pick up the windlass. Lots of tales of the Fund Britain’s Waterways flotilla cruise southwards from where we left them, the Thames, upper and lower, then the Wash crossing. They’ll be making their way back northwards in about a months time after bagging another silver propellor location, well that’s if one of the locks on the River Nene reopens before then! If it doesn’t there will be quite a few boats doing the reverse journey across the Wash.

Just you be careful out there!

As we stood chatting the big loitering cruiser came past, Orchid had gone past earlier. The chap shouted from his cabin ‘The river’s coming up!’ Yes we did know and were keeping an eye on levels along with predicted levels. Predictions were around 0.9m still over 2ft below where there’d be danger of Oleanna coming over the bank.

During the evening we kept an eye on our ropes, slackening them off quite a bit. Gradually the river looked as if it was peaking and upstream levels were starting to fall. We know what the river in York can do, I grew up watching it rise and fall flooding the land infront of our house several times a year, it’s not unusual in York. If the predicted level was going to be much higher or for a prolonged period we’d have headed back to Naburn as we did in 2020. The noisy boats were more than likely heading to the end of Marygate where the bank is higher and they could tie off to mooring rings.

By the time we went to bed the river had peaked and the bank hadn’t gone under water, no need to dig the wellies out and we’d have our shady mooring for tomorrow.

0 locks, 4.9 miles, 1 wind, 1 full water tank, 1 booking confirmed, 2 waves, 1 very shady tree, 1 river rising, 55cm in 24 hours, 10pm peek, 0.81 meters, 1 windlass and key, 1st blue lining ready for florestry.

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Lock Stuff. 29th, 30th, 31st May

Aire and Calder Navigation

Thursday I spent working on the storyboard for Panto again. Editing out options, adding in the basic set to all the drawings and working on the one scene that’s still not quite right took most of the day.

The Christmas present felt catnip balls have been requested recently

I walked down one side of the river passing one bridge and crossing the next, opting to take the path inside RSPB St Aidens. The path occasionally gives you a view across the lakes that once were an open cast mine, the river lurks behind many trees on the other side.

Lakes everywhere

Soon I came across what looked very much like a disused lock. A gate recess first giving it away, then curved walls at what had been the entrance to the lock. A mooring bollard and a couple of now bent lock ladders peeked out from the earth that now fills the chamber. I checked Waterway Routes, locations of old locks are marked and we quite often try to imagine what places would have been like.

Lock stuff

In 1988 the river bank near the Lemonroyd Lock collapsed into St Aiden’s open cast mine which then of course flooded, lower seams of coal that had been mined collapsed in too, to a depth of 230 ft! An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1992 to create a new 1.9 mile waterway. Kipax and Lemonroyd Locks were replaced with one big lock, the new Lemonroyd Lock. It took ten years before mining could continue at St Aiden’s after the site had been pumped out. The coal reserves are now exhausted and the land is once again flooded and is an RSPB reserve covering 740 acres.

Stretching off into the grass

I tried to find where the top gates had been, but had no luck as the land levels out and covers any evidence.

Inventing for inventions sake

Friday. I forwarded the new storyboard to John at Chippy. There had been a staff read through of the latest draft during the week, footage posted on social media, my storyboard sat in the middle of the table. Time to crack on with the model, lots of propy set pieces this year, so my bead tray is coming in handy. I spent much of the day inventing things panto style.

Late afternoon a familiar voice saying Hello could be heard, Mick had returned from Scarborough having picked up a hire car. Well it was meant to have been a van, £20 a day rather than £60 for a car, but the only van they had was a transit which would be an inch taller than the car park Mick would be heading to in the morning, so he got an upgrade to a car. An evening off work for me and a vat of Yaxni made, which will last us for a couple of meals.

Saturday. A very early start for Mick, off the boat by 6am. He was heading to park in the centre of Liverpool and to then meet up with Marion and John for a trip on the Waverley out to Angelsey and back. A van, petrol and parking were far cheaper than a hotel for the night. If you are lucky he might come along and tell you about his voyage. If I’m lucky I might be able to upload a photo from the trip, but the internet here seems to be getting worse!

Only an empty plate to show

There was one egg left that needed eating so the start of my working day was delayed by some blueberry pancakes, well Mick was going off for a treat so I could have one too! Then Tilly and I got on with what is now just a normal day for us. She sites on the roof hatch whilst I work. Then she gets ushered indoors for me to go out for a walk, just around the block today including a trip to the bins. Just gone 11pm, I’d just tidied upmy work when Mick stepped onboard, he’d had a good day if a bit breezy and I’d managed to finish of the model for Act 1.

Metallic green critters

0 locks, 0 miles by narrowboat, 1 Paddle Steamer to Angelsey and back, 1 car not van, 3 days model making, 1 storyboard finished and sent, 1 gafforing read through, 1 Queen of Oleanna, I wonder if we could trust Tilly to lie on her bed as we cruise? Nope, she’d be off hunting as soon as the oportunity arrived!

Thwarted 3.

Next up on the thwarted list and due to dwindling water comes the Ripon Canal.

Ripon Cathedral

So, okay this wouldn’t have been new water to us, we’ve cruised up to Ripon twice, once on NB Lillyanne and in 2020 on Oleanna. It’s lovely going up stream on the River Ouse. Care should be taken at the river locks as the sight lines from the paddle gear are nonexistent, so you have no idea what is happening below in the lock.

Several cuts above your usual pub food

Back on Lillyanne I opened a paddle just one turn at Milby Lock, which sent the boat careering over to the other side of the lock, rather than holding her in. A large dint in the wall suggesting we weren’t the first to do this, however we may have been the first to loose a porthole which jumped out of it’s frame and into the lock. Houdini our second mate at the time really didn’t know what to make of it all!

There is Benningborough Hall to visit, Newby Hall, a lovely meal to be had at the Dawney Arms. Then Boroughbridge with it’s cheap diesel. The Ouse turns into the River Ure which has made it’s way down from Wensleydale, picking up water from the hills and speeding it down to York several times a year.

Newby Hall

You climb up Oxclose Lock onto the Ripon Canal. Built by William Jessop and opened in 1773 enabling goods to be carried to and from York and Goole. Coal was carried up to Ripon, lead and agricultural produce brought down stream. In 1846 the river and canal were sold to the Leeds and Thirsk Railway company who were meant to keep the navigation open and in good order. However it was neglected and started to silt up, lighter loads in boats kept boats moving, but by 1892 no boats could go past BoroughBridge, the canal now redundant.

Oxclose Lock

Thankfully in the 1950s and 60s local opposition stopped the canal from being filled in. The Ripon Motor Boat Club and IWA fought for the waterway and The Ripon Canal Society was born, the canals restoration completed by 1996, the management of the canal handed over to British Waterways.

Making it’s way from Pateley Bridge, through Studley Royal Park, passing Fountains Abbey the River Skell is used as the feeder for the Ripon Canal. At times of drought, such as now, the Environment Agency ask C&RT to stop abstracting water from the river to help conserve the wildlife on the river. This means there is little or no water topping up the canal.

One of the locks at the top of the Ripon Canal

A week ago, the top two locks on the canal were closed to help conserve what water there was at the top end. But on the 27th May a notice was posted that Oxclose Lock would need to be booked 48 hours in advance and was only to be used for essential passage for returning boats to their moorings or pre-booked maintenance.

Tilly spotted our Ripon visitor long before we did

So the canal is closed for the forseeable future. We have another trip planned to York in the next few weeks and may still head up stream to Boroughbridge, we’ll see how things go.

Thwarted 2.

Next waterway to thwart us this year is the Pocklington Canal.

Barmby Lock

Water we’ve never cruised. To reach the canal you leave the Tidal Ouse at Barmby Lock and Barrage and head up stream on the River Derwent. The two waterways meet at Cottingwith Junction, which for land lubbers is part way between Thorganby and East Cottingwith.

The Ferryboat not changed a jot in looks

Just north of the junction is a place that sits in my personal history, The Ferryboat Inn. This is a pub that my school friends classed as our local in the few years we all got together after we’d left school. Run by the Rogers Family, Tony was a couple of years below us at school, it was legendary, it had a six day licence and you were welcome to turn up in your wellies straight from harvesting unlike the other pub in the village which was for non-locals. If you turned up on a Sunday you’d disturb them, sat round the bar eating their Sunday roast. Dominoes match night was a good one to arrive on as there’d be a very good spread of sandwiches and should you want to cross the River Derwent there was still a rowing boat. Tony now runs Half Moon Brewery in Ellerton, and has just come third in the CAMRA Champion Beer of Britain Mild catagory.

Stamford Bridge bridge

The river used to be navigable up to Stamford Bridge, but Sutton Lock is inoperable should you want to head up stream from Elvington, another village I have very fond memories of growing up.

From Cottingwith Junction the Pocklington Canal heads off towards the east. Nine locks used to rise the canal up towards Pocklington, where Mick’s father was stationed for some of his time during WW2 in the RAF. Now the navigation stops at Coates Lock 5, a reverse back to the Beilby Arm to wind. There’s only one mooring marked on our Waterways Routes map, on the Melbourne Arm, then one back at Barmby Lock. So not a place you’d end up staying on for long, but one we’d both love to cruise.

Lock on the Pocklington Canal

Completed in 1818 it was used to carry coal and agricultural produce. It was never a financial success as goods had to be moved onto horse drawn carts to reach their destination, a couple of miles away on the other side of the York to Hull road. In 1848 it was sold to the York North Midland Railway and gradually it deteriorated, the last commercial craft to use it was keel Ebenezer in 1932. In 1959 it was proposed that the canal should be filled in, but the IWA and locals campaigned to save it and in 1969 the Pocklington Canal Amenity Society was formed.

Sadly someone left a paddle up on the canal a month or so ago. The Pocklington Canal has little that feeds it. We asked about visiting the canal when we were at Naburn last month, the CRT notice says 48 hours notice is required to book Cottingwith Lock, but Kenny at Naburn said the canal was closed, levels are not thought to be able to return to normal until the autumn.

So sadly not much point in cruising the River Derwent which will possibly be low too.

Thwarted 1

This summer’s original plans were to stay in Yorkshire and cruise waterways we’ve not been on before. We were quite looking forward to this, new waters. But for a few reasons our plans have been thwarted.

The first waterway to thwart us, The River Foss in York.

Boo!!!

When we were in York at the end of April, Mick noticed a sign at Castle Mills Lock saying that the lock would be closing that weekend and would remain closed until October as works were going to be carried out on the lock gates. This being York and very prone to flooding in the winter months is the reason the works are being carried out now.

Blue Bridge at the confluence of the Ouse and the Foss

Castle Mills Lock has to be booked at least 48 hours in advance and is operated by volunteers from the local IWA. So sadly we’d already run out of time to book the lock.

Castle Mills Lock

Castle Mills Lock is the only surviving lock out of the six that were built on the river. There is a detailed history of the river and it’s use through the centuries here. In brief it suffered and still does with siltation. It was used as part of the cities defences instead of continuing the Bar Walls, the silt built up creating islands where Foss Islands Road is now. Sections of the river were canalized to save navigating the tortuous meanders to Sherrif Hutton. It was used as a sewer, to transport goods, mainly into the countryside, far less made it’s way into York.

End of navigable river

Now the river is only navigable, should the build of silt, lilies and weed allow, to just north of the old railway bridge across Huntington Road, the line used to go to the Rowntree Macintosh factory and on to Murton and beyond, it is now a cycle and footpath. Should one get to the end of the navigation, you’ll need to reverse your way back to Wormalds Cut to be able to wind and return to Castle Mills Lock. There is nowhere to moor on the river, more’s the pity, so it’s only a day trip, but one we’d very much like to do one day.

1888 map of York

Side by side map

I suspect if you watch Narrow Escapes in the next week you’ll get to see NB Perseverance going as far as they could along the River Foss last autumn.

Liquid Chocolate. 28th April

Museum Gardens, York

Being in York meant that I could accompany our friend Frank on a hospital appointment here. A slow start to the day had been planned, but then I discovered that Frank had a whole itinerary for his visit. So it was a swift breakfast, I listened for his train crossing Scarborough Bridge and then had a brisk walk to meet him at the hospital.

Buzz on top of the world at the hospital

Appointment One (Junction 5) was short, so time for a sit down by the main entrance before the next. Here I bumped into an old school friend whom I haven’t seen for most probably 40 years! Lynn and I managed a ten minute chat before her lift arrived, quickly catching up on news of other friends we’re still in touch with.

Jane, Pip, Lynn, Emma at my 5th birthday party

Then it was Junction 6 to await for Franks appointment. Followed by a much needed sit down before his final appointment of the day at Junction 8. We ended up covering quite a few steps going to and fro from department to department, so when Frank was sat on an exercise bike he was actually glad of a sit down. That was before he knew he had to cycle up the Col de Tourmalet!

Refreshments at York Tap

Unless York has changed getting a taxi has always been problematical, you really need to have booked one, well in advance, like a week! So hoping that you could just climb into one outside the front door of the hospital was not realistic. So we had a steady walk back towards the station, thankfully I knew the way, more or less a straight line through Bootham Park Hospital which was built in the 1770’s as a lunatic asylum, designed by John Carr (founder of my Dad’s architectural practice). Frank was surprised at how pleasant the walk was. At the station we met with Mick at York Tap for a beer. They had a cask of gluten free beer for me as well as a good selection of other brews for the boys.

Pizza!!

A much needed pizza was required for the man of the day, so we walked over Lendal Bridge to Pizza Express. Enjoyed far too much food and a glass of wine each. Before we all left, there was the obligatory visit to the toilets. The building used to be the Yorkshire Club and the tile work in the loos is wonderful, in the gents the old urinals have been brought back into use too.

Fab tilework

We had a cuppa back on board Oleanna whilst waiting for the next train back to Scarborough, then we waved Frank goodbye.

Cliffords Tower

I was still short on my walking so opted to walk round the block, well three bridges down and back again. The sun was going down. The road works by York Station were getting noisier. The aroma in the air was as if Rowntrees Factory had exploded, such an evocative smell from my childhood, liquid chocolate……..mmmmmm!

I walked round the back of Cliffords Tower and noticed that this side of the huge bank was covered in blue bells. How lovely, earlier in the year it is covered in daffodils.

Blue Boar in York

A quiet evening onboard was quite spoilt by noisy groups sitting on the bank by Oleanna, but they were soon drowned out by the road works across the river! These continued well past midnight, keeping Mick awake until 2am.

0 locks, 0 miles, 3 junctions, 3 appointments, 2 more narrowboats, 0 taxi, 1 pleasant walk, 2.5 pints, 3 glasses wine, 3 pizzas, 1 old school friend, 1 twilight walk, 5.45 miles walked, 58 minutes briskly, 1 noisy mooring for a Monday night.

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