Category Archives: Museums

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.

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!

Mob Handed Or Too Many? 18th February

Ellesmere Port Basin

Sunday morning, a cooked breakfast with a difference. We’d spotted in Sainsburys some mushroom saugsages, Shroomdogs, and thought we’d give them a try. They were nice, low in fat (although you have to pan fry them), but we’d rather have proper sausages, or if being good, turkey ones, but they were nice for a change.

I got to have a bit of an explore, not that there is much on this island. Somehow she thought I was up to no good, no idea what made her think that!

Once I’d seared the outside of a joint of Silverside and sat it on top of some onions and carrots in the cast iron pot, given it a tipple of red wine, I sat it on the stove top to slowly cook whilst we had a look at the rest of the museum.

A narrowboat sat in the top lock ready to do a lock demonstration, smoke could be seen rising from one of the cottage chimneys and a couple of ladies were walking round in period dress. There was certainly more activity going on today than yesterday, the volunteers were out in numbers.

We took time to look around the boats moored outside. The amount of space you get in a Leeds Liverpool short boat is vast, if we ever upgraded to a fat boat I’d want one of these.

A group of volunteers were getting ready to move George, another short boat, out from under cover. George is one of the last horse drawn short boats, therefore has no engine so was going to have to be poled and pulled out from her position. Ropes were being attached to a pontoon bridge which connects the Island Warehouse to the Toll House. We decided to take a seat and watch what was going on.

Containers under the pontoon needed to be pumped out so that it could be floated out of the way, this was going to take time so we watched the lock demo for a bit. However having already done 721 locks with Oleanna there was nothing said that we didn’t know already.

The narrow locks were built with problems. The top chamber is getting on for 8/9 feet deep the second one maybe only 5 feet. This means that there is an excess of water and the bottom lock and pound above were prone to flooding, added to this that the bottom lock is around 8 inches lower than the pound above it most probably flooded every time it was used. A channel was added linking the intermediary pound to the one between the two broad locks. This meant that the water had a much larger area to level itself out. As we came down the locks I’d noticed water coming in from the broad side and the bottom narrow lock did look like it was going to flood the towpath and surrounding area, it didn’t due to the underwater channel.

Once the bridge was moveable it was pulled across and tied up to the side, then it was George’s turn to move. Ropes were flung across to waiting volunteers and a lady poled her from the stern. From where we were it was very obvious that the gap left was far too narrow to get such a broad boat through, but they carried on, realising the bridge would need to move some more. Juggling boats here must have been such a nightmare when there were still the sunken boats about, today it was hard enough.

We moved up onto a bridge and from our higher position we could see that more space was needed, but we refrained from calling out directions and left it to the volunteers. Eventually after nudging boats about they got George clear and to the top of the locks where they would need to turn her. There were already too many people helping so we decided we’d be better off inside the museum and left them to it.

George will be going out onto the Ship Canal on Wednesday, from where she will be taken onto the River Weaver and taken to Northwich where she will be getting a fresh coat of blacking on her wooden hull.

The upper floor of the Island Warehouse is filled with even more interesting things.

NB Friendship is the centre piece and she deserves to be.

Built by Sephtons at Hawksbury Junction for Joe and Rose Skinner in 1924 she was a horse drawn narrowboat. She cost £300 and the Skinners paid an initial £140 the remainder being gradually paid off by weekly 10 shilling instalments. NB Friendship became their home for over 50 years. Joe purchased Dolly their Mule from the US army at the end of WW1, she was a faithful worker giving 40 years of service. She fell into the Oxford Canal and then developed pneumonia which sadly led to her being put down. Without Dolly it wasn’t the same and with motor boats everywhere it was hard to compete, so they decided to retire at the end of 1959. Even though they had a house at Hawksbury Junction they continued to live on board NB Friendship using the house to store Joe’s scrap and occasionally cook Sunday dinner.

They would go to boat rallies and in 1973 they did their last long trip to Northampton, Joe was now in his 80’s. Joe died following a stroke in 1975 followed a year later by Rose. They had been married 56 years. Friendship was left to Rose’s niece, by 1978 enough money had been raised to bring the boat to Ellesmere Port. Much work was needed, but it was decided that it would be best to store her on dry land and retain the original boat as much as possible. To get her to her location in the museum she had to be cut in half and craned onto the first floor, rolled into position on scaffolding bars where she was put back together.

On this floor there is so much, you can rock an ice breaker, I managed to clear 5.3m of ice. You can look around a wooden cruiser, virtual tours of several other boats, watch footage of the Telford Warehouse burning to the ground in 1975. Listen to a navvie having a break, look at wooden patterns that were used for casting lock pieces, 1:24 scale models of hulls and try counting the number of granny squares it took to cover Rainbow.

A good information packed afternoon and we feel that we most definitely got our moneys worth. We could even have returned for some more as we found ourselves skipping over parts. Another £4 to moor another night and some chilled medication to walk back to Oleanna with. Tomorrow when we leave the museum will be closed, so no gongoozlers to help push gates.

Our pot roast beef was delicious, we’ll defiantly be doing that again.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 more night, 1 moor hen, 4 shroomdogs, 48 hours of lights, 8+ to move a bridge and boat, 2 more voices not needed, 94 years old, 1 special boat, 5.3m, £300, 5 boaty craft stalls, 283 squares, 1 super tasty joint of beef, 1 hearth rug finished.

Pregnancy Trekking. 17th February

Ellesmere Port Basin

Last night we realised that where we are moored is opposite the Holiday Inn’s function room and we wondered if we would be kept awake tonight with a noisy disco from a wedding or some such. Mick ventured out of the museum to find a Saturday paper, he succeeded at a petrol station, most probably having had to dice with death vaulting over barriers on the big roads around here. But he returned safely for breakfast.

Across in the function room we could see people milling around, a bit early for a wedding. Maybe it was a conference. I zoomed in with my camera to some things that were on a table at the end of the room, sadly I didn’t take a photo. Next to what looked like a raffle prize of a basket of fruit was a display board. There was a map of Africa, a photo of a group of people in football shirts and across the top it said Pregnancy Trekking. All the people in the room were women of various ages, but mostly ladies who had long passed the days of child bearing. Maybe it said Pregnancy Training! They spent the day in that room, had lunch and at one point the curtains were firmly closed, either a film or some group activity that required some privacy.

Anyhow, after breakfast we walked up to reception to finish checking in. Our mooring fee for two nights was the entrance fee for us both for the first day followed by £4 a night for Oleanna, £23.50. The entrance fee covers us for a full years admittance here and at The National Waterways Museum Gloucester too. This is very handy as we plan on heading to the Gloucester Sharpness Canal this year, just hope it reopens after a refurbishment before we get there.

The Ellesmere Canal was Thomas Telfords first canal building job, linking the Mersey to the Dee at Chester and then the Severn (this section was never achieved). Ellesmere Port was a holiday destination in the 1790’s, very hard to believe now. Golden sands, a modern bathing house and the tourists were brought here by packet boat from Liverpool and Chester. The first canal basin was small, with only a lock keepers cottage, an inn, stables and an engine to pump water from the upper basin.

The red dot is where we are moored

By 1843 a new dock was opened, updated with warehouses, offices and upgraded locks, it could now be a busy commercial port. New links with the Trent and Mersey, Birmingham and Liverpool Canals meant that the port grew quickly. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, bringing with it much industry. The Shropshire Union and Railway company advertised itself as the ‘first port on the Manchester Ship Canal’. Metal work, oil and chemicals all brought with it a growth in the population, no longer a holiday destination, just a mass of industry! A lack of housing and increase in pollution followed. The port expanded.

No warehouses around us today

Oleanna would just be through that archway

Moving goods on and off ships and canal boats took time, so hydraulic cranes were used around the docks to speed the process up all powered from a central Pump House. Later a dock railway did a similar job. They even produced their own gas on site, so work could continue through the night. Where Oleanna is moored at the moment there used to be warehouses spanning the islands, with archways below where boats could be loaded and unloaded. There are still signs of the supporting pillars as we walk to and from from Oleanna.

In 1956 the docks closed, the site decayed and buildings became derelict. In 1971 an enthusiastic group wanting to preserve boats and the traditions of the canals decided to take action. They created The North West Museum of Inland Navigation, with local support Ellesmere Port became their home. The Toll House was the first to be restored and in June 1976 it housed a small exhibition. In 1980 The Boat Museum Trust was formed and in 1999 it was renamed the National Waterways Museum.

Last year a project funded by the Arts Council England Resilience Fund meant that many decaying sunk boats could be lifted out from the water and put into storage off site so that restoration work can be carried out on them. The Victoria Arm has funding to help develop it into a dry dock to be used to help conserve the museums boats and possibly for commercial use. The largest of the museums boats Cuddington (our nearest neighbour) will be able to fit in the dock.

We spent the morning exploring the slipway, carpenters workshops, stables, power house.

Then having home on our doorstep we returned to Oleanna for lunch before visiting the four Porters cottages which have been laid out spanning from 1830’s to 1950’s. Then we moved on to the Island Warehouse, but only managed to do the ground floor. There is so much to read and look at, things we thought we knew about, but there is so much more. Originally we thought we’d spend a day doing the museum, but because we can, we’ll finish what we started tomorrow, we may even stay another night.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 private museum, 4 cottages, 52 pregnancy trekkers, 4mm needles, 2 much to read, 2 much to take in, 2nd day needed, 1 quiet night on board.

One Tree In Chester. 7th February

Chester

A frost greeted us Wednesday morning. Down on the Dee Branch there was a layer of cat ice. Around us was still fluid but back towards the staircase lock there were patches of ice. This is why we’ve stayed put in Chester, waiting for the chilly spell to pass and for the canal to remain liquid so that we don’t get stuck up towards Ellesmere Port. Of course this morning was the morning that Tilly decided to be that little bit more adventurous and manage to cross the towpath, I hadn’t spotted the ice when she went out! I’ve been looking at the one and only tree in Chester for days, weeks, years now! It’s a bit spikey but at least I conquered it. This didn’t take long and anyhow it was cold!

As we had our breakfast a chap appeared with a windlass from down on the Dee Branch. He proceeded to empty the lock, crackling the covering of ice as the levels altered. We first thought that maybe the level gradually drops on the branch, so he was topping it up. Then another chap appeared and pushed open a gate as a boat was reversed, with difficulty, thorough the ice to the chamber. They brought the boat up backwards and reversed it from the lock where it has been sat all day, maybe waiting for some work to be done on it.

A tourist day for us. Grosvenor Museum seemed like a good place to head.

Opened in a purpose built building in 1886, the Grosvenor Museum houses artefacts from both Chester Society for Natural Science and Chester Archaeological Society. An extension was added in 1894, by 1938 the City of Chester took over full control of the museum, looking after the collections and displays. This and admission being free shows somewhat. The building is grand from the outside (peacocks decorating the gables) and the mosaics on the floors and under the dado rail must have taken some work.

The Romans are to Chester what the Vikings are to York, a large tourist attraction. A large collection of Roman gravestones fills one room, with information on those portrayed in the carvings. A video tells the story of one centurion and his wife, lots of interesting detail on what he wore and their life at Deva the Roman Garrison that became Chester. A large model shows you the layout of the garrison and how it compares to the city’s layout today. Hot water pipes and roofing tiles fill more display cabinets. There is plenty to read, just a shame nobody seems to have proof read it.

Behind the main building is a link into a period house, 20 Castle Street, which was saved from demolition and it’s first period room a Victorian Parlour was put on display in 1955. The house jumps around with it’s displays, Victorian, Stewart, 1920’s, Victorian again, Edwardian, 1970’s all very higgledy piggledy. As we climbed the stairs we felt like we were in a hall of mirrors as the walls and landings didn’t marry up, the floors changing angle every which way possible, it’s possibly the most seasick I’ve felt in a long time.

Back in the main building are collections of stuffed animals and a very large silver collection just down the corridor from the Honourable Incorporation of the King’s Arms Kitchen. This was a drinking, gentleman’s club dating from 1770 and took up residency at the King’s Arms Kitchen public house. This recreation of the room is now used for school parties to have their packed lunches and tours to await their guide.

This chap sat very patiently for me to take photos of today.

0 locks, 0 miles, 1 tree! 5 minutes off the boat, 1st cat ice, 1 reversed lock, 1 museum not to add to John’s list, 1 loud speaking lady, 1 fish crumble for tea.

Narrowboat Oleanna

Travels of Narrowboat Oleanna