Little Venice

On Tuesday (12/8) we left Teddington on the early morning tide and followed NB Miss Matty (from Cranford) down through Richmond in glorious sunshine. We entered Thames Lock at Brentford around 12:00 and also went up the Hanwell Locks with them.



Thames at Richmond

After Osterley Lock we manage to pick up a large sheet of builder’s film around Albert’s propeller. It took some time to get the prop clear but Miss Matty waited for us. We turned down the Paddington Arm at moored up at Willowtree Marina at about 5:30PM. It was great to use the facilities of the marina, including the showers. It turned out that the berth we were using was used until recently by Lee Pascal as his permanent mooring. In 2003, we went down the Thames with Lee and had some great times. It appears he is now continuous cruising.


Interesting boat descending Osterley Lock

On Wednesday (13/8) the plan was to meet our friends Anne & Edward Winter in Little Venice. We had a relatively uneventful trip down to London, except there was a stiff headwind and we had to overtake two very slow boats. Both boats waved us past but one accelerated as we overtook them.

We met Miss Matty as we approached Little Venice and they helped us moor up. We double moored against NB Amphora who left in the late afternoon. We then moored up against the bank and Miss Matty moored up outside us. The Winters arrived mid afternoon and we spent an interesting late afternoon and evening around Paddington visiting the new developments. It was very windy in the Paddington Basin where the waves were significant and some boats were adding some extra lines to avoid being blown away.

We decided to stay on in Little Venice on Thursday (14/8). We had a great day out visiting London Zoo, travelling there by Waterbus.


Going to London Zoo by Waterbus

Since it was at least twenty years since we last visited the zoo it was great to see how it had developed. Some of the displays were just fabulous. A display on leaf-cutter ants where they walked along an exposed rope was particularly wonderful. You could really get up close to the ants and observe their individual behaviour.


Leaf Cutter Ants at work

The larger mammals, including the gorillas were also intersting in their new more "open" enclosure. Tomorrow we leave for Limehouse Basin.

A Weekend around South Milton Keynes

Being busy with lots of other social occasions (significant birthdays and wedding anniversaries) and holidays not on Albert, we hadn’t been boating for some time. To rectify this we went south from Yardley Gobion towards Leighton Buzzard for a long-awaited long weekend. The last time we went this way was about this time last year on our Thames-based holiday.

It is amazing how things change in short time. The proposed marina at Cosgrove is now coming on rapidly with the contractors digging furiously and currently piling the supports for the landing stages. The owners appear to be calling it Thrupp Marina. In local terms this is correct since the Navigation Inn and the Taverner’s Cruising Club are based at Thrupp Wharf. Thrupp comes from the nearby village of Castlethorpe across the Tove valley which locals call Thrupp (a corruption of the latter part of the village name). However, I can imagine boaters from distance away becoming very confused with the village of a similar name on the Oxford Canal!


The New Thrupp Marina

Going through Wolverton we were also very impressed with the new housing on the site of the former Railway works. This is the former home of the Royal Train. Wolverton Park, as the development is called, is now occupied (in part) and proudly boasts some interesting vertical wind turbines. It was pleasing to see boats on the mooring rings by the development.


New housing in Wolverton

Our journey southwards on Saturday was very pleasant and it was made more enjoyable by picking up our friends Keith and Sue Weatherhead from Willen Park in Milton Keynes. Keith has often remarked to Steve that they hadn’t been boating on the canal. We entertained them for lunch by Bridge 81 and then had a pleasant trip in very good weather down to one of our local favourite mooring spots just below Stoke Hammond lock.

On Sunday we went up Stoke Hammond lock and, after passing through a fishing match, we went on to the Three Locks at Soulbury. Just below the lock we passed motor Nuffield and butty Raymond returning north after Saturday’s canal festival at Linslade. Steve Miles was acting a lock wheeler. Their crew remarked that the pound above the lock was shallow and later we found out that it was indeed.

The eponymous inn alongside the Three Locks (as Pearson calls it) is no longer eponymous. The pub has undergone a well-needed facelift but they appear to have decided that a name change is also in order and called it the Grand Union at The Three Locks. They have also gone decidedly upmarket. The prices don’t appear to us to be reasonable for a waterside pub. Let’s hope that one day the old name will return, just as with the Black Horse at Great Linford which for some time was called the Proud Perch! Lets also hope they see sense on their pricing.




The former Three Locks Inn

We had intended to wind in the flight in the pound just above the second of the three locks, but the amount of through traffic put us off. As result we went on and chose to wind by Old Linslade bridge. The shallow pound made it “challenging” and we had to make two attempts. On the return journey we stopped off at Willowbridge Marina for some oil and then finally stopped overnight at Simpson. Steve likes to carry out oil changes with hot oil so he spent Sunday evening carrying out an engine service (oil + filter). Overnight it poured with rain.

On Monday we rose late and travelled in sunshine to Cosgrove. There was much less boat traffic throughout Monday and many of the moorings that were full going south were now empty. We discovered Nuffield and Raymond moored up at Cosgrove and also saw NB Miss Matty (of Cranford) moored up on the off. Last summer we spent some time with Miss Matty on the Regents Canal. At that time they were moored on the Slough Arm.


Motor Nuffield and Butty Raymond at Cosgrove


NB Miss Matty

After a thunderstorm over lunch we went through Cosgrove Lock and came home to Yardley. It was our intention to pick up fuel from Baxter’s at Yardley Wharf but they had just run out! Evidently their weekend had also been busy with boats. We did, however, manage a long awaited pump-out. Tomorrow Steve will change the fuel filters and fix a dripping tap!

It was good to get rid of the cob-webs from Albert, figuratively and literally!

Yardley Gobion

We have arrived back home. On our short journey from Great Linford we passed Miss Matty (from Cranford) and waved to the owner who was running her engine. We last saw them in August 2008 on the River Thames and the Paddington Arm.

When we left Cosgrove Lock we found that BW had been busy planting a series of posts on the landing point above the lock. We are not certain what the posts are for. It appears to be some sort of safety measure that is designed to make operating the lock more difficult for boaters and provide more trip hazards! Perhaps, because cars can use this section to visit the lock cottages, they have been placed there to mark the edge of the canal. Surely they can't be for mooring? Who knows?


Posts on the lock landing, Cosgrove Lock

The new Thrupp Marina, that we reported was to open on October 1st, is now over 2/3 full of boats. The new sign outside the entrance, and their web site, record that the development received funding from Defra and the EU through EMDA (East Midlands Development Agency). The advertisment they placed in the November edition of Waterways World indicates that this is part of the Rural Development Programme for England.

Berkhamsted

Monday was the day when we set out to get to Berkhamsted to moor-up Albert for a few days while I took a trip to Scotland. The weather was a bit brighter than on Sunday but we appeared to have lost the long periods sunshine of earlier days.

Until Apsley we were accompanied by NB Tacet. Although Tacet was single-handed, being accompanied in locks made life easier for both boats. As we progressed north we passed Robin & Laura and NB Miss Matty on their way to Little Venice. Maggie had a good chat lockside about future boating plans.

I photographed the back of the old Ovaltine factory site (now flats), primarily because Maggie's mother Mollie, remembers it so well from the 1940s that she always asks about it when we pass this way. Unfortunately, you cannot see the conserved art-deco facade from the canal, only from the railway. I also photographed the lovely display of pansies at Lock 70 near Kings Langley.


Pretty display of pansies, Kings Langley


Former site of the Ovaltine factory from the canal

After a brief lunch stop at Boxmoor we made our way towards Winkwell (and its automated swing bridge). Before we passed under the railway bridge we passed the Yarwoods Royalty class narrowboat Victoria going south, presumably to the Little Venice Cavalcade, which is at the weekend. She looked very smart with brand new paint. The cabin sides were very much as shown on page 50 of Edward Paget-Tomlinson's Colours of the Cut, but she now has a conventional exhaust not a funnel as shown in the book. Judging from her Historic Narrowboats web site entry as recently as September 2009 she had a completely different colour scheme. No wonder I got proud smiles from the steerer when I photographed her. She does look terrific and a credit to whoever painted her.


Fore-end of Victoria approaching Albert near Winkwell


Flamboyant signwriting on NB Victoria

As we approached Top Side Lock (56) near Berkhamsted a heron began fishing in the lock as we operated it; confirming our view in an earlier post that they are becoming more bold.


Heron at Top Side Lock, Berkhamsted

We finally moored up near Castle Wharf in Berkhamsted after passing through 22 locks in about 9 miles. We plan to move Albert back to Yardley Gobion over the weekend.