Category Archives: History

Stuff And Stuff, Stuffed Everywhere! 20th November

Jericho Wharf to Aristotle Bridge

Time to move on.

We’ve not got our winter clothes out from under the bed yet, this morning we wished we had. Blimey it was chilly, lined trouser weather!

Squeezing our way past College Cruisers, with all the boats in it’s a tight fit. They seem to be doing weekend breaks, but come next week the distance you’ll be able to travel will be much shorter as Dukes Lock is closing for three weeks. This means that hirers will only be able to cruise up and down through Oxford, or go out onto the Thames for a couple of locks to do a ring. We’re planning on being through Dukes Lock in the next couple of days.

We only cruised on to Aristotle Bridge, passing a stack of bikes that had been pulled out from the cut at one of the bridges. Very glad we’d not got stuck on top of them! These moorings are not that popular. You are asked to keep the running of engines to a minimum and it is only 2 days mooring, All Year. This means you can’t pull up for two weeks in the winter, but it will serve us just fine, the moorings all to ourselves. Well apart from a Fountains team who were cutting back the hedges along the towpath. One chap had laid his long reach trimmer on the towpath, turned round to help clear what he’d just trimmed. As he did this his trimmer rolled into the cut, two of them had to fish it out with a long stick, suspect it’s petrol engine needed a dry out before it would start again.

Once we’d settled and warmed up we decided to head out to visit some museums. Our friend Bridget had suggested we should visit the Pitt Rivers Museum, so that is where we headed off to.

The Natural History Museum stands proud set back from the road and the Pitt Rivers Museum clings on behind. In 1884 General Pitt Rivers, an influential figure in the development of archaeology and evolutionary anthropology, gave his collection to the University of Oxford. The building was designed to hold the collection of some 26,000 objects from around the world. The museum opened it’s doors to the public in 1887 to show part of the collection. Since then more items have been added reaching over half a million in number.

Walking through the rather chilly Natural History Museum I rather wished we’d done a torch lit tour last week. Built between 1855-60 it is a fine (if chilly today) neo-gothic building. A glass roof supported on cast iron pillars covers a square court divided into three aisles.

Cloistered arcades run around the court, each column made from a different British stone. Each pillar and column are decorated with differing natural forms such as leaves and branches mixing Pre-Raphaelite styles with that of science. What a building, filled with skeletons of various animals including dinosaurs. We had a quick look round, but decided to return at a later date to give it more time as we’d been warned of the quantity of stuff in the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Through an archway we descended into the museum, much warmer, maybe to help keep the stuff at a better ambient temperature, bones not needing much warmth in comparison.

Display cabinets filled the floor surrounded by two balconies running round the full building. In most ethnographic and archaeological museums items are arranged according to their country but here they are grouped by type. Musical instruments, masks, boats, lamps, guns, spears, baskets, the list goes on and on and on.

We took our time walking round the display cabinets, the odd item jumping out from the masses. Egypt had followed me here too, a sarcophagus, oil lamps, amulets, a boat similar to that I’d based Aladdin’s canoe on. Models of houses and boats filled cabinets, shrunken heads and skulls others. The amount of stuff was quite overwhelming. Below the cabinets were drawers filled with stuff, perched high above cabinets were more filled with stuff, slotted in between roof joists was even more stuff. So much stuff! I’m surprised that they haven’t started to add galleries crossing from balcony to balcony, but maybe the foundations wouldn’t be able to cope with the extra weight.

Various masks caught my eye and the way spears were displayed was quite an art form in itself. Each item is labelled with its details. A fantastic place for research.

After a good walk round we had had our fill of stuff. So headed to the Natural History Museums cafe for a bite to eat and a rest. Sadly with only one GF choice (a nice looking cake) we decided to return to Oleanna for lunch instead. The afternoon was spent winding up my receipts for Chipping Norton and keeping warm whilst Tilly explored the surrounding park, until the noisy kids headed home from school!

0 locks, 0.63 miles, 1 chilly morning, 2 museums, 519,897 pieces of stuff, 1 museum stuffed to the brim, 1 cake, £20 forgotten about, 27 reciepts, 4 stars, 3 rows off finishing a sock.

https://goo.gl/maps/Emxei8H78Vu

First Time Visit With Plenty Of Memories. 18th November

Blenheim Palace

Today with the sun shining we ventured forth and caught the S3 bus from the station. This bus normally goes all the way to Chippy, but that was not our destination today. We hopped off the bus a few miles short of Chippy at the gates of Blenheim Palace. Today was going to be an expensive one, Blenheim isn’t a National Trust House and costs quite a lot to get in. However a thorough look at the website meant that we knew about their Good Journey Offer. If you travel by bus or train to the house and present your ticket at the entrance kiosk when you buy your ticket then you will receive 30% off. If you also make this payment as a donation you will then be given a donation receipt to be able to convert your day ticket into a yearly pass. This we hope will be worth the queue to get such photo passes. I think this is a way for them to claim gift aid on your entrance, except we don’t pay tax so couldn’t tick the box, we still got our passes.

We’ve tried to time our visit before the house and garden get revamped for Christmas so that we could see the house rather than the Christmas displays. Yet everywhere was filled with Christmas trees, most groaning at the weight of all the decorations. Masses of Poinsettias crammed into dishes on tables. This would have made my father rush for numerous black plastic bags to give them the correct amount of sunlight a day that these Mexican weeds require. (This once dominated one Christmas for him, trying to keep the red leaves attached to the stems for as long as possible by lowering a black plastic bag over the poor plant each night, he’d even rigged the bag up on a piece of string so it could be lowered and raised at the correct times.)

An audio guide gave us information of key parts of the ground floor and on various paintings that adorn the houses walls. All we can say is, the Churchills were rich buggers!

Blenheim Palace was built as a gift to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, from Queen Anne in thanks for his victory at the Battle of Blenheim on 13th August 1704. It is the only non-royal house in the country to hold the title of Palace and was built between 1705 and 1722. The house became the subject of political infighting leading to Marlborough’s exile and damaging the reputation of it’s architect Sir John Vanbrugh. Funding for the building was never fully agreed upon, Marlborough put in £60,000, the government and Queen picked up much of the rest, but in 1712 after an argument between the Queen and Duchess funds were halted, £220,000 already spent, £45,000 still owed to workmen. The Marlboroughs were exiled to the continent until after the Queens death in 1714, when they took it upon themselves to finance the reminder of the build. Magnificence of such buildings was far more important than comfort or convenience.

Designed in the English Baroque style it became home to the Churchill family which has now spanned some 300 years. An act of parliament was passed when there were no sons to inherit the estate, so the amassed wealth could be passed down the female line. It’s most famous claim is that it was the birth place of Sir Winston Churchill. The generation that decided to open up the house to the public (helping to pay for it’s upkeep and almost certainly avoiding inheritance tax) were most probably very grateful that Winston was a premature baby. At the end of the 19th Century the palace was saved from ruin by the 9th Duke marrying the American railroad heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt.

Today you enter the building from the Great Court where colonnades flank either side of the house, each opening currently filled with a Christmas tree. The large hall follows with impressive Corinthian columns and vast amounts of carved stone. 20m above you is the ceiling painted by James Thornhill, where Marlborough kneels in front of Britannia with a map of the battle of Blenheim. This gives you just a small taste of the opulence that is to come in the State rooms.

Weaving around the hall, family portraits cover the wall. The most pleasing of 20th Century women.

A large cabinet is filled with model soldiers all standing in line and huge collections of china are displayed in all their grandeur along the hallways. Where ever there is space for a Christmas tree there is one, struggling hard to stay upright with their coverings of bows, baubles and the occasional pumpkin!

Drawing Rooms and Writing Rooms of various colours follow one after the other. Silk covered walls with matching upholstery. Furniture of every size and type. Courting couches where a couple could sit on a long stretch with space for a chaperone to sit at the end making sure nothing untoward occurred. Large lounging sofas, sprawling out as wide as Oleanna to narrow bolt upright sofas which were never intended to be comfortable.

After several such rooms we arrived at the first with the walls covered in tapestries. This was one of the main reasons I wanted to visit the house. Back in 1991 at the end of my second year at Croydon College (where I studied Theatre Design) we had to realise part of a theoretical design.

I chose to realise the masking from my design for the Benjamin Britten Opera Owen Wingrave based at the old Glyndebourne along with a large globe. The masking was based on the Marlborough tapestries which surrounded a large revolving skeletal house. Thanks to my old tutor Rob Muller for the photos of my work. I had given the tapestries a bluer hue than the originals and had painted into the more dramatic scenes with red highlights. These I planned would loom out of the tapestries when the lighting changed, a specific blue lighting gel did this for me, to add to Owen’s torturous nightmares of warfare.

Today was the first time I’d seen these tapestries in the flesh, the detailed border still very familiar to me (even though I’d simplified it somewhat). My painted versions must only have been a touch smaller than the originals and those on display in the state rooms are far calmer than those I’d chosen for the opera, these must be elsewhere in the Palace. Memories of hours drawing followed by painting them came back to me, along with the complaints from the computer department further along the corridor due to the aroma the blue pigments create once painted onto flameproof canvas. I was stood in front of old friends, the recorded guide burbling along in my ears about something or other.

The Saloon sits behind the Hall and is where guests would have been directed on their arrival. The tapestries had kept me for sometime but now the incredible painting by Louis Laguerre filled the walls and ceiling around us. Originally Thornhill was to paint this room giving a quote which in todays terms would have been around £84,000. Laguerre halved the quote, but certainly didn’t scrimp on the expertise. My photos do not do his trompe l’oeil justice. The painted balcony front is painted in such away you almost have to touch it to realise it is not three dimensional, putting my panto trompe l’oeil to shame. The mouldings on the walls and ceiling are wonderful, filled with portraits of people looking into the room (one of the artist himself). What a room to have your Christmas Dinner in, the Churchill family still do.

On through a few more rooms to the Library. Originally conceived as one long room it was divided up into five sections, suggesting different rooms. Like a long gallery it takes over one side of the house, filled with books and plenty of space to enjoy their words whilst maybe listening to a tune played on the organ! Queen Anne (a svelte version of her majesty) stands looking towards the far end of the library where the organ dominates. In WW1 the library was used as a hospital for returning injured service men and in WW2 it became a home for evacuated boys. Some of these stole three of the smaller pipes form the organ, which wasn’t noticed for some years. A few years ago a parcel arrived containing a note and the three pipes. The note was anonymous and was from the wife of one of the lads who’d stolen the pipes, saying that it was one of his last requests that they should be returned.

From here you can weave your way around a display all about Winston Churchill. This we did quite quickly, the crowds in the small rooms making it hard to read all the panels. Quotes and interesting facts had been put in larger print on panels around each room so we still got to learn a few details. One of Winston’s Siren Suits stands in a cabinet, velvet with matching monogrammed slippers. The bed he was born in and a small cotton top which had to borrowed from a local solicitors wife for him to wear as his arrival was unexpected.

Another look around the Library was needed and as we did so I spotted two very familiar people sat taking a well earned rest. Pearl and Rodney are the parents of my best friend from my college days, they became my other Mum and Dad whilst at Croydon and the following years. We’d last seen them at Kathy’s wedding in Lanzarote seven years ago. What a wonderful surprise and lovely to have a good catch up with them. Despite some health issues over the last four years they both looked great. As we sat chatting the organ started up with a very capable chap at the keys and stops, so we all stayed put for a while longer to listen.

Big hugs all round and we headed off ahead of them to visit the colonnade and chapel where a subordinate organ sat in the corner.

Past lunchtime we got ourselves a sausage roll and sandwich with a slice of cake each (good GF options even if nobody can make a GF sandwich look all that exciting!) at the Pantry before checking out the stalls in the Christmas craft fayre that surrounded the entrance. Here there were all sorts of yummy things to eat, some really good looking pies (from East Yorkshire, no wonder) and plenty of well made not standard craft fayre tat. One stall did nearly see me part with cash, but with Christmas coming up I just gave a very big hint to Mick.

As the sun started to set we rode the bus back into Oxford, knowing that there is so much more for us to see at Blenheim, we’ll just have to go again.

0 locks, 0 miles, S3 bus, 7 bus, 1 very rich family, 1 car park almost full, 2000ish visitors, 30%off, 2 annual passes, 1 amazing house, 27 years later, 2nd parents, 7 years later, 2 slices cake, 1 sausage roll, 1 sandwich, 2 much to see, 0 tat bought, 1 lovely day out, 1 tension square and pattern done for the next pair of socks.

Illuminating Oxford. 16th November

Jericho Wharf

Living on a boat means that I couldn’t put off unpacking the four bags I’d returned from Chippy with for long. Any spare space on the boat had been taken up by them last night, so after a slow start to the day I started to unpack. Returning things to where they’d come from meant taking out the back steps and dismantling the dinette to return my sewing machine, steel toe cap boots and paint brush bag back to the depths they normally live in. Mick had managed to empty the washing drawer earlier in the week, but I filled in again! My dungarees, that had been gradually getting duller have now had a brightening up with primary colours, hope it clings on in the washing machine.

An afternoon of watching Lego Masters and knitting was followed with a walk into the city. My landlady in Chippy had mentioned that she would be singing this evening at the Ashmolean Museum, this was to be a small part of a light festival. Looking it up I discovered that the light festival was right across the city, lantern parades, street markets, food markets, installations and performances. A quick look through the website and we decided to head to Broad Street where there would be a market and several other things going on as it got dark.

Broad Street was cut off to traffic and filled with a market, both foody things and craft bits and bobs. Chippy panto seems to have set a trend with various camel themed items for sale throughout the market.

What we’d actually come here for was to watch the Heliosphere. Up ahead a large white balloon sat tethered to a heavy truck. A lady climbed inside a harness and strapped herself in. The lights were turned on in the balloon as it was unclipped and allowed to rise from the ground taking with it the lady. In a spangley catsuit, similar to that of Queenie the Genie (Chippy Panto) the lady rose up above the crowds suspended below the balloon. Two chaps also with harnesses had guide ropes, as they moved close to each other the balloon went higher, further apart the lower it came above the crowd. The lady span round, twisting and turning in her harness floating along the street, pausing to touch hands with the crowd before rising high up between the University buildings all the time a follow spot doing it’s job (making it hard to get good photos of her) and the balloon changing colour.

Further along is the Shimmer Tree by Dan Fox. A 6m high sculpture with twelve branches which suspend a cymbal on each. Lights shine up to the cymbals and sounds are created. The cymbals act as directional speakers and resonate as the lights chase round. From a distance this didn’t seem like much, but stood below it was quite mesmerising.

We decided to hunt out the other installations around the city. Down by the Castle people took turns to sit in an ice throne lit from below.

A food market, only a few stalls, is hoping to grow in time and become a regular thing. Round the corner, after following oddly positioned signs we got to the Voice Park.

Last Sunday I’d come across people who looked like they were poor imitators of the Ghost Busters. Apparatus on their backs with empty water containers, surely to collect any stray ghosts. But no, they were collecting voices from people. Here pods not unsimilar to growing Chrysalids are joined by pipes and cables. Speakers with lights embeded inside their red pods. If you make a suitable noise next to them they respond by playing human sounds back. I got one to work by saying hello, but Mick struggled as his voice was too low for it to react. One for the kids.

We then set out to find projections on museums. These were further afield, north out of the centre. The Radcliffe Humanities Building had a large projection to do with Diseases of modern life. This was amusing in it’s animation of Victorian illustrations.

Weaving our way further east we reached the Natural History Museum where vast projections created by Luxmuralis covered the front of the building. There are to be more of these over the weekend, moving around the city and projecting onto other buildings. Torchlit tours of museums were also being held, but we were a touch pooped by now so we’ll return in day light. So we wove our way through the streets back in the direction of the canal for a quiet evening in front of the stove with some nice food.

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 poached eggs, 2 slices toast, mushrooms, 4 bags unpacked, 1 homeless bag, 0.5 glove knitted, 1 large balloon, 12 cymbals, 5 uninspired cubes, 2 SILENT signs, 1 noisy man, 3 illuminated buildings, 4 soggy bums, 1 bench a touch too close to the boat, 1 tree, 1 cat, 1 squirrel, 1 ft away, 1 unfair advantage.

The Gods In Cornwall. 11th October

Oxford

Oxford to Cornwall to Oxford

There were only 3 trains that we noticed last night, but it was more the generator going all night that disturbed our sleep. We couldn’t go and knock on the roof of a boat to get it turned off as it was on the railway line across the mill stream. Anyway the alarm went off early as I was due to be on the 7:21 train.

Gemma and I had planned our journey with the aim that I would already be on the train that she would catch at Bristol to Plymouth. I had to do a route that missed Reading and split my journey in Bristol to save almost £200 on my return ticket.

First change was at Didcot Parkway where the sun was just trying to peak through the very dark clouds. A quick count of those heading into London on the opposite platform came up with three newspaper readers out of getting on for a hundred people. Most stood looking at their phones, at least this takes up less space on the platform compared to the days of everyone reading broadsheets. Next change Swindon. Here I got on the train Gemma should be getting. There were no reserved seats, just as well as mine was meant to be in coach J which didn’t exist! I found a table and staked my claim.

As the train neared Bristol I got a message from Gemma asking if I’d like a cuppa if she had time to get one. Marvellous it now felt like an age since I’d had one back at Oleanna, however it did feel like she’d but cutting it fine. At Bristol Temple Meads the train pulled in and most people got off, I kept an eye open to see if the only other table in the carriage became free. It didn’t. I waited and waited. The train pulled out of the station, no sign of Gemma. Maybe she’d got on at one end of the train two teas in hand and was working her way along the carriages to D. She’d let me know if she’d missed the train surely. I waited and waited.

Ten minutes later I sent her a text, ‘Did you miss the train?’ nothing came back. Another ten minutes and I was so puzzled I gave her a call. ‘Just wondering where you are, and where I am?’ She was puzzled. Yesterday I thought we’d agreed to be on the train leaving Bristol at 9:12, I was on that train, but it was going to arrive 35 minutes earlier than I thought. Gemma was going to be on the train that arrived at the right time, how had that happened? No idea, but at least we’d both end up in Plymouth.

I made the most of the very grey rainy journey and moved over to the left side of the train. As we pulled out of Exeter I put down my knitting and armed myself with my camera for the journey along the coast at Dawlish.

As far as I’m aware I’ve never been along this line before, but sadly today the view wasn’t at it’s best. However the tide was in and waves were crashing against the seawall casting spray up towards the train. I didn’t manage to time my photos too well despite trying to guess which would be the seventh big wave. It was still quite dramatic.

At Plymouth I had chance to get something to eat and chat to a second carpenter who is building bits for panto. When Gemma appeared we were off and into a taxi dashing to meet the Cremyll Ferry. Down little back streets we were dropped off at Admirals Hard where a concrete jetty heads out into the bay.

Our next form of transport arrived, the Edgcombe Belle. The crew needed to get some steps so that people could get on and off at the bow as the tide was in, it looked calmer here than it had at Dawlish. A touch damp outside we opted for shelter as the boat made it’s 8 minute crossing, the later part getting really quite lumpy. I may live on a boat, but I don’t do waves if I can possibly help it!

At the Cremyll landing we were met by Lou one half of Snell scenery builders who drove us up to the workshop whilst one of her dogs in the boot kept dropping a rather soggy ball on me. Theatre life is so glamourous!

A couple of hours followed with us going through all the drawings of my set, looking at what was built so far, chatting to the scenic artist and hunting for references of Lotus flowers. There are still a few bits to build including the Dames Gin Palace. They have managed to put together enough time and materials to make my 2.5 D Gods, which is marvellous. All is going well and the next time we’ll see it is a week on Monday when it all arrives in Chipping Norton.

Once we’d finished work Adrian and Lou brought out photos for me to look at. A couple of weeks ago in an email Adrian had asked me if we’d ever been past the lock cottage at Kings Lock on the River Soar near Leicester. At the age of 19, Adrian had been on the hunt for a house in need of some TLC. He’d spotted the lock cottage, which had recently been broken into by vandals who had set light to it on Bonfire night. He contacted British Waterways to see if he could buy it. Only available as a leasehold he was told if he was interested he’d need to do something about it in the next six weeks as after that it was due for demolition.

For a peppercorn rent of £1 for the first year Adrian took on the project. Once restoration work was completed the insurance company would pay out several thousand pounds. He arranged for a group of friends from the pub to help him one weekend to clear the site. Only one person turned up and that was Lou, this is when they got together. They worked on the cottage for many months scarfing in new roof joists etc, camping outside in all weathers until it was weather proof. The water froze and they could only flush the toilet by collecting water leaking through the lock gates in a bucket. They stayed for another nine months once the work was completed, but as the cottage would never be theirs they decided to move elsewhere. For those who don’t know the canal and cottage it is now a well known tea rooms. Kings Lock marks where the canal starts and river section ends, so is a safe haven for boaters should the river go into flood. We’ve moored there but never been inside. Three years ago when Adrian and Lou last visited very little had changed from when they lived there, just minor adjustments for the tea rooms. It’s a small world.

A lift back to the ferry now in sunshine, a shame we couldn’t take our time as I only got glimpses of the Cornish bays. The tide was now out and we had a much longer walk back up the Hard to reach our waiting taxi, we didn’t need the steps either. The journey back was much brighter outside, but Gemma and I had things to discuss and work on before we reached Bristol. Two more trains and I was back in Oxford just after the sun had gone to bed.

Mick during the day had climbed a tower to look at views of Oxford. Discovered that his phone microphone no longer worked and nudged Oleanna up by about three boat lengths hopefully enough to move us away from the generator on the railway. Unfortunately he tried a factory reset on his phone and lost any photos he’d taken.

0 locks, 0.04 miles, 6 trains, 1 ferry twice, 2 taxis, 2.5 D Gods, 4 groundrows, 1 palace, 1 backdrop, 1 canoe, 1 pyramid, 1 grubbery, 0 model box, 1 tower climbed, 1 cottage saved.

https://goo.gl/maps/APzn8TumKht

A Little Bit Closer. 10th October

Aristotle Bridge to almost Isis Lock

Our two days at Aristotle Bridge would be up today, so after breakfast we pushed off and nudged our way just that bit closer to the city centre.

Debby from NB Chuffed had given us some handy hints on the moorings further along. As we pootled we discussed our options.

1 We could stop at the back of St Barnabas Church, this is very close to railway lines therefore noisy.

2 We could head down to the far end of the canal where the road cuts off the original route. There are 2 day moorings there and a waterpoint. The trains are further away so it is quieter, but the proximity of the road and a resident cat may not be so good for Tilly. Mick had been concerned that the depth may be a problem, but we’d now seen some boats up there.

3 Which way should we face when we got there? Which ever ‘there’ was to be?

We opted for pulling up near St Barnabas Church to see how noisy it was, if it was bad we could then carry on to try at the end. The occasional train came past, but not as many as we’d been expecting. So we decided to stay put for the night. The rail traffic is mostly freight, which of course continues through the night so we still had the option to move on. Tilly was allowed out and seemed to prefer here despite the many people on the towpath.

Plans were formulated for tomorrow as I am heading off to see how the build of the Panto set is going. It looks like my route will mean that Gemma the Production Manager will be able to join me on the same train as it goes through Bristol where she lives, so we can have a catch up and chat over various things before we get there.

Mick and I had a walk into town via the station so that I could pick up my many tickets. This meant we walked along Snake Island, we’re not going to tell Tilly about it just in case. Then we passed the old railway swing bridge that crosses over the Sheepwash Channel which leads out to the Thames.

The covered market was first on our agenda today. Many shops of all sorts in a good building, not quite as stylish as Leeds. This meant we were close to Whittards so I was able to stock up on my morning brew. The Bank was visited to check for Mick’s new credit card and that had arrived. Great, not much other than sight seeing to keep us here now.

A visit to a college was next, plenty to choose from as most of them open their doors in the afternoons so that tourists can have a good nosy. The entrance price varied quite a bit between them, we decided to see what Trinity College was like, a cheaper one, most probably because it hasn’t appeared in Harry Potter, but is a location in Morse, Lewis and Endeavour. We paid our entrance and the lady buzzed the gate to let us in.

Trinity was founded in 1555 by Sir Thomas Pope and even though it is physically large it only has 400 students. Originally it was a male college but since 1979 it became co-educational. Some of the buildings date back to 1421 when it was Durham College. Large gardens surround the buildings including some very large trees. The central quadrangle focuses on a raised grassed bed, the chapel and dining room to two sides and staircases lead off to student rooms on the other two sides.

The chapel is quite small but it’s decoration more than makes up for it. It was the first chapel to be built in the Baroque style, designed by Henry Aldrich with advice from Christopher Wren in 1694. As you walk in the organ towers above you, then you walk through a screen into the chapel which more or less consists of a choir. Virtually all wood, ornately carved with bulls, men and cherubs who seem to have a big problem with cowlicks in their hair! Some of the wood was Oak, the pillars pine (I think), but much of the rest of it I wasn’t sure of, Frank Matthews would have been able to tell me, but I guessed at maybe mahogany. What a splendid room. Trinity has one of the largest choirs in the university mostly from members of the college.

We sneakily followed a group of French students into the dining room as there was a sign saying no entry. Here a large room very much as you would expect with the top table and then rows for the students. It had a slight shabby feel to it despite it’s ornate chandelier. Thousands of food trays have worn tables down through the decades. The walls are hung with portraits, at the moment they are all women, quite a few photographs of past students who’ve made it big in their profession. I assume these are here to help mark the centenary of women getting the vote. The photographs do look at little bit odd in such a room where oil paintings normally hang, but not as out of place as the very large dispenser for Heinz Tomato Ketchup.

Through the next arch way are entrances to the staircases leading to the student rooms. The college obviously has rowing teams and chalked up on the walls are various years in which they ‘bumped’ other colleges. If this had happened at my school it would have been classed as graffiti and we’d have been reprimanded. But here it is obviously tradition.

A wander around some of the shops in the Westgate Centre meant that I found a bag suitable for me to take a weeks worth of clothing to Chipping Norton. We’ve not needed anything this size for a while and it had to be able to fold down into next to nothing for storage under our bed.

Back at the boat Tilly went out and carried on enjoying her new surroundings. She was particularly interested in the semi sunk boats on the Castle Mill Stream which sits just behind us. This kept her busy far too late and I had to try to find her and encourage her home. Yet every time she surfaced from the sideways trees and brambles she’d carry on trotting up the towpath in the direction of Banbury. Eventually she tired and I managed to catch her, having to carry her back along the towpath for quite a distance without her escaping again.

0 locks, 0.63 miles, 1 proof on it’s way, 2 return tickets saving £200, 3 packets tea, 1 credit card, 1 market, 1 college, 3 hours, 6 boats, 1 surprised man on a bench, 5 trees, 1 chair, 5 minutes clinging onto a busy cat, 6 minutes out.

https://goo.gl/maps/dnZhiAa16Xy

What A Lot Of Plates! 9th October

Aristotle Bridge

The Ashmolean Museum sits on Beaumont Street almost opposite Oxford Playhouse. It is the world’s first University Museum, originally built in 1678 to house curiosities given to the University by Elias Ashmole. A new building was erected in the 1840’s and in 2009 it had a major redevelopment. Ancient artefacts housed in large Victorian rooms with modern sliding doors and modern staircases.

You could most probably spend all day wandering round the galleries, but we selected what we were interested in and headed straight to the top of the building where Monet, Pissaro, Burne Jones and Sickert paintings hang surrounded by many many more. The collection is quite something with a large room dedicated to the Camden Town Group and Sickert who was one of the most influential and controversial artists of the 20th Century. He lived in Paris for some time mixing with the likes of Degas. When he moved to London this rubbed off on his fellow artists and a trend of painting suburban landscapes and modest interiors began using bold strong colours inspired by the Post Impressionists.

I tend to walk into a room and see which painting catches my eye first, jumping out from the wall and calling me over. The rest of the paintings, sculptures are looked at first, some slowly, others merely passed by leaving the best until last. One such painting by Vilhelm Peter Karl Kyhn entitled From Kolding Fjord caught my eye. The light on the water creating a mist rising in the distance and the shadowy boats and piers, just wonderful and calm (my photo doesn’t do it justice).

Rooms full of plates and figurines. Statues from every period in history. Cellos, violins and violas all with such ornate decorative details. Signet rings. All sorts filling the galleries.

Down in the basement there are galleries covering Greece, the Aegean World and Egypt. I couldn’t help but have a look round the Egyptian carvings, the hieroglyphs and mummies. They fascinate me.

Lunchtime called and we decided to go looking for Morse and Lewis at the Turf Tavern tucked away close to the Bridge of Sighs and the Sheldonian Theatre. Have to say I was very surprised that we could get a table, but the queue was as I’d expected. Mick opted for a sour dough ham and cheese toastie which looked very tasty whilst I struggled to find anything without bread, they had run out of their jacket sweet potatoes. There was only one thing for it but to have some chips and a side of coleslaw to make it a little bit healthy.

We enjoyed sitting out in the sun with the bright blue sky overhead. No sign of the famous Thames Valley detectives. We considered creating a murder scene to see if we could flush them out, but neither of us was willing to die for the cause. We’d not quite realised how big the pub actually was, it stretches back with so many rooms. I’d hate to think what the queue would have been like mid summer! Not only are there connections to Morse, but also Harry Potter and Bill Clinton, as this is where he allegedly ‘did not inhale’ an illegal substance.

A meandering walk around the University brought us to the River Cherwell that we have followed down to Oxford. We decided to walk northwards along the river to then cut across back to the canal. Easier said than done as few paths follow the river and fewer bridges cross it. In the end we stayed on the West bank and followed the river through the University park. Numerous in depth conversations passed us, were these students going to be those who solve modern world problems in the future?

A pause to admire Lady Margaret Hall and take a photo for our friend of the same name and then another at the Dragon School before we cut our way back across to the canal.

The park was full of children when we got back. It took Tilly a couple of hours to pluck up the courage to actually step off the boat. But she soon returned to safety and to watch the squirrels, a cat and two people sitting having drinks in their garden enjoying the last of the sunny days rays, wrapped up warm in coats.

0 locks, 0 miles, 0 bridges, 1 museum, 2 many paintings, 1 Tortoise straining, 1 painting bomber, 3 rooms of plates, 4 mummies, 8 men with beards, 1 pint, 1 glass of wine, 1 toastie, 1 bowl chips, 0 Morse, Lewis or Hathaway, 0 college grounds today, 0 riverside walk, 4 punts, 1 litre milk, 1 dismayed cat.

Five Minutes Early. 25th September

Claydon Bottom Lock to Cropredy Lock

Our aim has been to reach Oxford this week so that I can visit the set builders for Panto more easily with more direct rail routes. However shortly after breakfast this morning my phone rang and it was my Production Manager. She’s been very busy looking after Ade Edmonson and Nigel Planer last week in Guildford so hadn’t been in touch for a while. Today she rang to give me possible dates to visit the builders, not next week but a couple of weeks away. They are quite a distance, so keeping visits to a minimum is needed so we don’t spend our lives travelling, a lot of things can be done over the internet too. So after we’d chatted Mick and I decided to take our time reaching Oxford. Moorings are not in abundance so we need to time our arrival well.

We took our time in getting going. Boats came past heading for Claydon Locks and then boats started to come the other way. If we’d been a few minutes earlier setting off the locks may just have been in our favour, it didn’t matter as we met a boat coming up at each lock anyway. A Black Prince Hire boat was following us, a lady stepped off and headed towards the first lock that we were just exiting. I called to her that a boat was waiting to come up several times and when eventually Mick had told her the same she let go of the handle on the bottom gate that she was about to close and walked back to her boat to wait their turn. A single hander greeted us at one lock with a jolly face, not too many people offer to give him a helping hand.

At the third lock a lady wearing lovely white trousers helped the boat in front of us. Her clothing and too big leather gloves suggested she was on her first hire boat holiday. They had stayed in Cropredy overnight and had been for an explore this morning enjoying a scone and tea in the lovely cafe. They had found their own way of working the locks, which we all do, but she was making her life a bit hard so I suggested a couple of things that would make it easier. As their boat s l o w l e y came out from the lock her husband said how exhausted he was with all the hard work he was having to do and how many more locks were there. Passing Mick I could hear exactly the same remarks. If I was his wife I’d have pushed him in by now!

Broadmoor Lock has a little stall by it, when we last came through we paused and bought a new centre line for Lillian. Today the same sign was up advertising fenders etc along with a box of freshly picked apples. We bought some, I think a couple of Russets and some Orange Pippins. As Oleanna lowered in the lock the Black Prince boat arrived behind us, the lady offered to wind a paddle that was all taped up, out of order. As soon as someone appeared from below with a windlass she asked them if they were coming up, yes, so she turned and walked away back to her boat. It takes all sorts.

A pause at Cropredy Marina for a top up of diesel and a couple of bags of coal was needed, so we pulled in and got sorted. Mick made reversing out from the service mooring look like a breeze despite the one that was coming across the water at us. Oleanna arced her way out and back down the marina to then just be able to swing round to the entrance. No body but me watching as ever.

We pulled up onto the 24hr moorings and let Tilly out. This would do for today, no need to reach Banbury and beyond quite so quickly. Tilly came back in after an hour so she was left in charge whilst we went for a nosy around the village.

The Red Lion pub looked cosy in it’s line of thatched cottages. A sign on the door suggested that it had been closed for a while, but announced it would reopen on 29th August. This still being on the door a month later suggests otherwise. A door or two up from the pub one of the cottages is for sale, a touch bigger on the inside than expected.

the way is St Mary’s Church. The earliest parts dating back to 1050, the church has undergone many alterations through it’s history.

In 1831 the present clock was installed with it’s 14ft long wooden pendulum that ticks away over head. Sadly the clock is five minutes early, maybe to help locals arrive on time. There are eight bells, six that originate from the 17th Century and the latter two Fairport and Villager were added in 2007. Last year they had a lot of work done to the roof, scarfing in new timber where joists had rotted and had beetle damage, lead from the roof was taken away, melted and then refitted. Above the chancel arch is a ‘Doom’ Painting, worse for wear after it had been white washed over, then cleaned, then given a coat of varnish in Victorian times, which did more damage sadly.

The village it self is a mixture of thatched properties, some Victorian and then a mix up to the 80’s. Many of the thatched cottages have sculptures on their roofs, a fox and peacock were the ones we could recognise.

Back at the moorings a boat had pulled in behind us leaving a classic ‘git gap’. Boaters coming past made comments about the ‘boat moving up’ to us in loud voices, which sadly fell on deaf ears. Deaf due to their four stupid yappy shit-in-your-shoe woofers! They showed no respect to me and my section of towpath. They were so stupid that Tom suggested they should go home even though I was more than capable of dealing with such stupidity. My means would have been noisy for a while but then at least we wouldn’t have had to listen to them all evening!

I made use of a low section of towpath and scraped off bubbles of rust that have had chance to take hold on the bow end of the gunnels. They were sanded back and a coat of fertan applied. Hopefully I’ll get chance in the next few days to finish prepping the port side and give it a coat or two. My intention was to do them Spring and Autumn but where we’ve ended up being moored hasn’t been suitable. I’d like to get them done before I go to Chipping Norton so that I’m not finishing them in November in the snow as I did last year.

3 locks, 1.67 miles approx, 1 trip computer not charging, 2 rights, 79.6 litres diesel, 2 bags excel, 2 weeks to get to Oxford, 4 rowdy woofers, 2 deaf owners, 1 bushy tail, 45 ft gap, 15 ft gap, 2 boats luckily going in opposite directions, 3 pairs gloves complete, 2nd pair socks started, 1 stove keeping us warm.

https://goo.gl/maps/sUsM5GFr6WU2

Blown Away. 18th 19th September

Saltisford Arm to Radford Semele

I woke at around 4:40am with the first big gust of wind on Tuesday, this was the start of a few windy days.

The washing machine was worked hard again for a second day, towels, bed linen all took their turn. Maybe we should have ventured out to visit the sights, but we’ve visited quite a few of them on previous visits, leaving the Castle and Lord Leycester Hospital for another time. The Castle comes across as a bit of a theme park, £28 entrance each is a bit dear, although apparently you can save money by buying your tickets on line in advance now. As the washing went round I got on with knitting socks and refilling the damp traps around the boat amongst other chores.

In the afternoon we braved the gusting wind and walked up to Sainsburys to restock the wine cellar, not a full restock I have to say!

Emma, an old college friend of mine had invited us round for a drink to her house on West Street. She visited us three years ago when we were in Warwick and at the time was in the process of restoring a house with her then partner. Since then they have moved in and recently got married. Our visit was more of a guided tour of the house accompanied with a glass or two of wine. Sadly I didn’t take any photos as we were too busy hearing about all the work they did.

I’ve found a few photos of the house from when they bought it back in 2012. On the British Listed Buildings website the house is recorded as being listed in 1996 and was dated as early 19th Century with a brick frontage, canted bay window, 3 storey and a basement. No inspection had been done internally.

However, what lay behind the woodchip and plaster board was far far older. Link to an article. Cob walls that have now been dated to around 1433, beams, decorative paintings on panels. Really wish I’d taken photos now. They have painstakingly restored much of the house, replacing floor beams where needed and using lime based products to help the old building breath again.They have installed an eco friendly boiler, solar and have a very efficient wood burner in the back room which helps heat most of the house.

A small modern extension to the kitchen was added. During the works for this another discovery was made, a very big hole under the floor! A friend of theirs was breaking up the floor one day and his drill suddenly slipped into a gap between paving slabs. A stone was dropped through the hole, no sound of water. A 5m tape measure didn’t reach the bottom. Below their kitchen lies a hole cut into the sandstone that measures 3m diameter by 6m deep. Archaeologists are not sure what it had been used for, maybe an ice store for the castle. They then got distracted with what had been found on the house walls. Emma and Dave had to create a foundation for the rear of the house to sit on above the hole and now they have a metre glazed viewing hole in their kitchen floor. Who needed to go to a museum when you can see things like this. Their master bedroom is amazing with so many layers of beams and yet they have a modern ensuite!

It was a lovely evening catching up with them, having the tour and seeing some of their wedding photos. Hopefully we’ll get chance to meet up again this winter as we’ll be in the general area for a while.

As our boat neighbours had returned yesterday afternoon and had plans to move today we made sure we were up and dressed early, they may be wanting to be off at 8! Despite the wind having increased overnight we decided to move on ourselves. Once the water tank was topped up, rubbish disposed of and our mooring fee paid we were ready for the off, just as our neighbours were having toast.

Out of the arm we turned right back towards Cape Locks. The top lock was empty and a hire boat could be seen just about to enter the second lock, we’d not be able to catch them up to share, so I set the lock in our favour. Just as the levels equalised a boat came round the bend, we’d be able to share the locks. NB At Ease is a hotel boat and the two crew knew very well how to handle their boat. They had come down Hatton this morning and were hoping to moor up before the wind got even worse.

We followed them to Tescos where we pulled in at the 24hr mooring, another boat was already moored there. They could really do with a couple more bollards here, we managed to get the stern rope round one of the bollards but had to make use of a tree at the bow. With a big shopping list in hand we wound our way around the store. With no big shops, as far as we know, until we reach Banbury we wanted to be stocked up.

Lunch next and then we decided to stay put, the gusts of wind were very big and we didn’t fancy trying to cruise in it, Tilly would have to wait for her shore leave a while longer. 30 rows of sock and Cake week on the Great British Bake Off caught up with and we thought the wind had calmed down enough for us to move on. As soon as we were back outside the wind kicked up again. With trees surrounding us, we didn’t want to stay put so braved the gusts and set off.

The going wasn’t too bad, other than the amount of leaves. We had leaf porridge that clings to the prop for the first time this year. A quick blast of reverse gets rid of it, but the leaves soon returned again!

The artist who painted the cat, also did a couple more paintings along the stretch near the student accommodation. One is of two bunnies doing what bunnies do (I suspect a signature of hers) and the Grim Reaper in a black boat painted on an off side wall. A slightly jollier painting further along has made use of a drain pipe.

We pulled in back where we’d moored a couple of days ago as it started to rain, a bit close to the road, but up ahead looked full and we wanted to be on chains and hooks rather than spikes if the wind continues as it is. Tilly for a change wasn’t that bothered about the wind. This outside again! I bet tomorrow they tie up one where I can’t go out again, best make the most of this one.

2 locks, 4.99 miles, 1 right, 2 moorings, 4 loads washing, 2 drying, 1 fantastic house, 400 years older than originally thought, 1 big hole, 1 woofer next door, 4 full bags, 2 blowy days, 1 canal turned to porridge, 1 gluten free mac cheese tonight, 0 snakes.

Trees, Medication, Waters, Trains, Gardens And Poles. 13th to 16th September

Leamington Spa to Radford Semele

The Heritage Open Weekend has been keeping us busy. This year it has actually stretched over two weekends and a few days in between. Sadly we only remembered it after the first weekend had passed, missing out on a few things that appealed to us. But there was still plenty to choose from.

On Thursday we joined a tour of The Pump Room Gardens and Jephson Gardens. Meeting by the Royal Pump Rooms our first guide, Archie Pitt (Chairman of the Friends), has been involved for many years in raising funds to restore the Gardens back to their heyday . The gardens were used for gentle exercise by Victorians who came to the town to take the waters.

Paths are being moved back to their originally intended positions, the Linden Arches have been restored with new lighting, these date back to 1875. The band stand has been removed for renovation leaving a low wall that has seen some work. New flower beds, the river bank tidying up and works done to York Bridge which spans the River Leam in the park. The Band Stand is due back in November when there will be a small celebration, but a bigger party will be held next year when all the flowers are in full bloom and the gardens look at their best.

Next we walked across the road to Jephson Park. A very posh park originally created in 1831 as an informal garden with walks along the river. In 1846 they were redeveloped into more formal gardens for the seriously rich and given their name to honour Dr Henry Jephson who had promoted the town as a Spa. Formal flower beds and a collection of trees were planted. Tennis courts laid (Lawn tennis was invented in Leamington), it was a place to be seen.

When it was being laid out there was a slight problem of a right of way which ran straight through the park. This had to remain, but be disguised and the poor kept out from the formal garden. So a hill was built over the top of the path and planting added so that it is almost invisible from above.

The fancy flower beds were eaten by Canada Geese, so a small fence was erected around them, which did the job. However this didn’t stop them from leaving their poo everywhere. It was then realised that Geese can only take off and land on water or very soft mud, so putting a fence around the pond would do a better job. Have to say there was very little if any goose droppings. Whilst we were there something startled the geese and a group of them took off, a few aborting at the last minute. One poor bird missed the pond, clipping it’s legs on the fence and landing on the wrong side. It then spent a long time trying to return to the water, the fence being just as effective in stopping birds from entering the water as exiting!

Our guide walked us through the gardens pointing out the interesting trees and telling tales. A very informative walk, I never knew there were so many oak trees, including evergreen ones without the typical leaves. At the far end the walk ended by a gate house now used as artist studios. The majority of people headed back with the guide to enjoy tea and biscuits , but we thanked her and went to look at the art on display. Better than your usual gallery, some work very good indeed including a photographer who specialises in close ups of natural textures and colours, these were stunning.

We’d passed the rather ornate building which once housed the Aviary and went back to have a better look. Outside was a menu for chilled medication, we had to oblige in partaking of some. White chocolate and Raspberry and Chocolate Brownie and Marshmallow. My gluten free trial may have to exclude chilled medication! Very tasty it was too.

Friday we joined the tour of The Royal Pump House. A small group was guided round the building expertly by Alan a very jolly chap who knows his stuff about Leamington and its inhabitants through the years.

The Royal Pump House was the only spa north of the river, numerous other establishments had grown up on the south side where the original town was sited. Waters flowed at the southern spas, but the geology to the north was different and the salty waters were hard to come by. Plans to build other pump rooms were stopped and soon afterwards the fashion for taking the waters at such places switched to visiting seaside resorts such as Scarborough, where you could also take of the waters.

Built for the seriously rich there was a large ballroom which was used to dispense the waters, a large well on one side and table and chairs to sit and sup your water. People would come and stay in Leamington for several weeks staying at the grand Regents Hotel nearby. They would come to the Pump Rooms and drink their water in the morning, partake of gentle exercise in the gardens, have plain food at lunchtime (fruit and veg were bad for you), swim a couple of times a week in the waters and return to their hotel to indulge for the remainder of the day. The amount of food in an average meal at the time would last most of us two whole days! They would then return home, boasting of their well being having lost maybe a few pounds and having bathed the grime off their bodies. Leamington waters have been found to have no medicinal benefit whatsoever!

The pump rooms housed boilers to heat the waters, two swimming pools (male and female) and rooms of slipper baths for the upper working class to have a dip at less expense. We were shown into a marble corridor (now tiled as the marble had deteriorated before the restoration) easy to wipe clean and resistant to fire should the boilers get out of hand.

The gents swimming pool now houses the library, the ladies the art gallery and where the slipper baths once were is now office space.

Before the renovation works were done to the building it was used as a location for Mick Jaggers video for Sweet Thing. The swimming pool is shown off along with the marble corridor. Woman meld into the tiled walls and Mick struts his stuff around the Turkish themed room. It’s worth a look at the video to see what lays behind the modern interior of much of the building.

On Sunday there was an opportunity to have a tour around Leamington Spa Railway Station and gardens. About twenty people turned up including a couple we’d seen yesterday in Warwick. Two ladies showed us around the Deco station which opened in 1939. Built from granite and Portland Stone it is a very fine building. As with many buildings in the 60’s a lot of the building was covered up to make it look modern, but luckily back then this meant that the good things that laid underneath were preserved.

The first station had been opened in 1852 by the GWR, it was added to through the years and the LNWR built their own station next door. In the late 20’s unemployment was very high and the Government introduced the ‘Development Act 1929’ which provided financial assistance to public utilities for capital expenditure in the form of low interest loans. Great Western set about with a scheme of improvement works, quadrupling the Birmingham Main Line approaches and the rebuilding of Leamington Spa Station being two of them. The building was made from a prefabricated steel framed structure, sheathed in brickwork and then clad with stone and granite. There is an interesting article about the station here if you want to know more, it includes a lot of very interesting photographs taken through the buildings history.

When plans to revamp the cafes were suggested, action was very quickly taken by the friends of Leamington Spa Station, the building becoming Grade 2 listed. In 2008 the booking hall was sympathetically refurbished original tiles being revealed and in 2011 the two waiting rooms were also restored.

The deco doors into the cafes are particularly fine. Two running boards have been placed on the platforms to help announce your arrival at the station.

At the end of platform 2 is a garden, which in 2009 gained the title of Best British Garden. Volunteers work hard to keep it and the terraced gardens leading down to the front of the station in good order. Sadly the grass has suffered this year with the drought and most of the planting is now past it’s best. The star attraction though is the topiary hedge. An engine and two carriages with a plume of Pampas grass as steam. This can be seen from most of the station and is a treat.

Free tea was on offer at platform 3, but we decided to head on to our next visit, The Polish Centre.

Originally the Town Hall the Polish Centre sits on High Street south of the river where the town centre originally was before the town spread northwards across the River Leam. The building housed meeting rooms, a ballroom, magistrates court, police station and cells.

A lot of the building was built with Queen Victoria in mind. A small balcony was constructed at the front of the building where her short stature was catered for with the view of a smart building opposite, a high window frame so she wouldn’t have to see the poor people who’d come to see her. However she never visited.

When the Town Hall was moved to the Parade north of the river the building was taken over by the police. Most of the interior was gutted to make better use of the space for offices, the ballroom was split in half height wise and only the main staircase remains as an original feature. Eventually in 1968 the building was sold to the Polish Catholic Mission, Monsignor Jozef Golab loaned his own money for the purchase, funds he received after successfully suing the German Government for the years he’d spent in concentration camps during WW2.

Much of the building is now rented out as a dance school, the top part of the old ballroom now being the chapel for the Polish community of Leamington.

We had a very warm welcome with tea and coffee and some very tasty looking cakes before we were given the full history of the building and the Polish community. I think we could have spent all weekend drinking tea and eating cake at various locations around town.

Back at Oleanna we decided to move to give our second mate some quality time ashore. She really hadn’t liked it here and watching the rats on the off side had become boring. So we pushed off as soon as we could and made our way back out of town mooring up by Radford Semele for the night. Once our grid reference was noted and the trip computer turned off the back doors were opened and Tilly disappeared straight through the sideways trees. A much happier cat now.

0 locks, 1.22 miles, 4 more Heritage day venues, 3 gardens, 1 pump room, 1 station, 1 evergreen engine, 2 terraced gardens, 1 ex town hall, 4 pairs pants returned, 2 chilled medications, 1 roast chicken, 1 curry, 1 happy cat in the undergrowth.

https://goo.gl/maps/yoFRfetFzCR2

Apples, Flowers And Bells. 15th September

Leamington Spa

The Heritage Open days are keeping us busy. Today we got the train over to Warwick as there were a few things there that appealed to us. Handy hint, if you want to do this journey without your boat go by train, not by bus. My train fare was £1.80 return compared to £5.50 on the bus, only downside is that the bus takes you closer to the town centre than the train, but not by miles.

We’d selected three places to visit, Hill Close Gardens, The Court House and St Mary’s Church. Starting off at the furthest we found our way to the Gardens. Just by the race course hidden away (there are brown signs to it) we came in through the visitors centre. We expected to only be there for an hour tops, but found ourselves weaving through the gardens for two.

Robin Hill Close Gardens are rare survivors of Victorian gardens once used by townsfolk who lived above their businesses, to escape the busy town. Back yards were full of wash houses, workshops and privies, no room for flowers or grass. So these businessmen rented a plot of land on the outskirts of town. In 1845 Hill Close pasture land was divided up into plots that Warwick people could rent. In these Detached Gardens they planted apple trees, grew fruit and veg, kept pigs and chickens and built small summer houses from which to enjoy their gardens. At a later date people could buy their gardens and by the early 20th Century parts were sold off for housing, but what remains today has been saved and restored by volunteers.

By the 1990’s most of the gardens had been sold off, but 16 remained, 2 still tended, the other 14 in very bad shape. By 1993 the council had bought much of the land and planning permission had been granted for 30 new houses to be built, the locals were stirred into action researching the site, one of only four left in the country. By 1994 local activists had managed to get four of the summer houses Grade 2 listed so the development was halted. The gardens themselves became Grade 2* listed shortly afterwards. By 2000 the council had helped to set up a trust to manage and restore the gardens for all to enjoy.

Heritage Lottery Funding in the mid 2000s enabled major restoration and by 2008 the gardens were opened up to the public frequently.

Each garden has a short history about its owners and has been laid out how it once would have been.

60 varieties of apples grow here, some ruby red, some huge, some abundant on their trees, all producing many windfalls.

Grape vines, figs, pears, beans (how are yours Frank?), courgettes, all sorts.

We were also taken aback by the amount of colour still in the flower beds, oranges, reds and purples shouting out at us.

The summer houses, small with their fireplaces, look out over lawned areas all hedged in for privacy from one another. These are very smart posh allotments lovingly cared for and so worth a visit.

We left by the town entrance hidden away behind a modern development and made our way into town. Hungry we decided that we’d have lunch before looking at The Court House. The Market Place Pantry had a free table so we enjoyed toasted cheese and ham sandwiches of full gluten and non gluten varieties followed by a slice of cake each, all very tasty.

By now we’d missed the start of the tour, but went to have a look at The Court House ourselves. The tour was just finishing and they must have been given access to other areas that we couldn’t get to see. The ballroom upstairs was open but that was pretty much it, we’d seen the display downstairs last time we were in Warwick. So we walked up the road to get in line for the tour of the Bell Ringing Chamber at St Mary’s.

The church is being filled with poppies at the moment. A huge community project to mark the end of WW1 is underway. Panels everywhere are already covered in knitted, crocheted, paper, felt and tissue paper poppies. The main columns have been covered in black fabric and poppies are starting to be applied to them too. By November the whole church will be a riot of red. Intermixed with all the poppies there is the occasional white and purple ones. The white are for conscientious objectors. The purple for animals. The other day I came across a poppy I’d made for my friends in Scarborough that must have got away from the others, so if we end up coming this way I’ll drop it off to be added to the thousands.

Shortly before 4pm we were allowed up the circular stone staircase to the bell ringing chamber. St Mary’s bell chamber is built at the West end, added on, as the ground wasn’t thought to be stable enough to carry it over the main church. We were joined by about twenty others along with four of the bell ringers. There are ten bells, the oldest dating back to 1701, the current clock from 1901. The clock in recent years has been electrified saving a twice weekly job of winding it up, but this has meant that the quarter hour chimes are just slightly out at the moment due to this summers hot weather.

A model of how the bells work with their wheels was demonstrated to us and then a bell was rung. Large boards around the room celebrate the peals that have been rung for certain occasions and under a box (used to stand on) there is written a note to mark Queen Victoria’s death. Much history has been marked by the ringing of the bells.

After we’d had everything explained to us we then took our time to climb the next 40 or so steps to see the bells. I’m not too keen on heights and Mick normally does such things on his own, but I felt today the official photographer should be on hand. The floor a metal grid was a touch unnerving for me, but once the ringers started to explain about the bells and point out the hammers etc I felt a lot better. Our visit here was timed so as not to coincide with any bells ringing! Then we all made our way up another 50 or so steps to the top of the tower.

From here we could see for miles. The race course, the castle stood out very easily. Leamington Town Hall and church too. We tried to spot the Hatton flight of locks, we knew where it should be but it was being shy amongst the many trees. We’ve only done the flight in spring or autumn and wondered if you still get a good view of the church at this time of year.

I still don’t understand how people can stand leaning against the bars looking over the edge of such buildings, I can not get closer than two foot away. But I did my best and took photos at arms length.

Back down the stairs, much easier to descend backwards, there was chance for people to ring the bells. Mick held back, but I could tell he really wanted a go and in the end he succumbed, not having to jump into the air as much as the younger members of our party.

A very good day had by all. Except me!

0 locks, 0 miles, 2 trains, 16 gardens, 60 varieties of apples, 2 hours around the gardens, 2 toasties, 2 pots of tea, 2 slices of cake, 1 tour missed, 10 bells, 1701, 1901, 150 steps, 1 big boy bell ringer, 4 fantastic views, 1 rat to watch all day!

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna