Cardiff Bay Barrage

Last Sunday we woke to a cold dry and sunny day and looked out over Cardiff Bay to discover a small coaster entering the Queen Alexander Dock.

Ship entering the Queen Alexander Lock, Cardiff just after dawn

(Barrage in the foreground with Flat Holm and Steep Holm Islands in the background)

 I took to my Ship Finder App to discover it was the 2,600 tonne RMS Neudorf. The ship has now left Cardiff and is on its way to Rotterdam. It is currently off the Isle of Wight but last night was off Plymouth.

Before we left Cardiff we visited the barrage. On a sunny but cold Sunday morning it was busy with walkers, runners and cyclists. We walked to the exhibition about Captain Scott and his polar exploration colleagues. 

The barrage is an impressive structure and has three impressive locks. One was out of action for maintenance. 

Lift Bridges

Lock Gates

The wind was rising and the sea became quite rough. It was one of those occasions when you leaned into the wind walking one direction and then got blown back.

A choppy Bristol Channel

We then moved on to Penarth for a breezy walk along the promenade and the pier as the tide went out. 

Penarth Pier

Penarth was the scene of my first rowing (actually coxing) success. In 1959 I coxed a Llandaff  Rowing Club Senior four to win the regatta. My abiding memories of this sea regatta was how carefully you had to steer the boat under the pier when racing and celebrating our win with a drink in my commemorative half-pint mug using Vimto - I was only 12 years old! I still treasure the pewter mug - good prizes in those days. The oarsmen (as they were called) won pints and of course celebrated with beer - possibly Brains or Hancocks).

Outside Penarth Rowing Club

Sea anglers on a cold morning at Penarth

Cardiff

I spent some of my formative years in what was then the newly proclaimed Welsh Capital and, although an English lad from the North, I really enjoyed my time living there. The city had a lot going for it in the late 50s and early 60s, but with the regeneration of Cardiff Bay it now has even more. In the past we have visited the some of my old haunts, but this time we decided to push the boat out and stay in the heart of Cardiff Bay in the St Davids Hotel for a couple of nights - after all it was my birthday!

St Davids Hotel, Cardiff at Sunset

The hotel is in a prime position on the waterfront close to the National Assembly and the magnificent Pier Head building with its Gothic Revival architecture.The hotel isn't cheap but it has impact and we enjoyed being in the heart of the bay. It was a quiet weekend being just after New Year but all the facilities of the city were open.

Pier Head Building and the Bay at night

The bay and docks area of Cardiff fascinated me as a youth, particularly the shipping. I was fortunate to have a father who worked on Bute Street and was able to show me around the docks on Saturday morning. It was in the days when the office working week included Saturday mornings so I accompanied Dad to the office (doing homework) and then had my treat a visit to see what shipping had recently arrived. Nowadays the docks are very quiet but there are marinas with yachts and the lake that was formed by the barrage.  In my time living in Cardiff we had only views of the mudflats. The steamer service to Weston-Super-Mare and other points along the Bristol Channel was governed by the tides and the huge rise and fall had quite an impact on their timetable. As a youth I often went on the Campbell paddle steamers the Cardiff Queen & the Bristol Queen.The most fascinating aspect of any trip was standing by the windows to the engine room and watching the reciprocating motion and the paddle wheels. It was particularly enthralling when the steamer was being manoeuvered and the wheels were rotating in opposite directions. 

We are always up for boat trips and this stay was no exception. Although the Bristol Channel steamers have long since gone small boats operate from Mermaid Quay so we took one to travel into the city centre. The MB Princess Kathrine operates all year so were able to pick up transport from the quay and travel up to Bute Park (Cardiff Castle). The fun of doing this is obvious as you head across the bay towards Penarth with a useful commentary and then turn up the River Taff towards the city. Its certainly the best way to see the Millennium Stadium and the complex structures that overhang the river. The boat, the Princess Kathrine, has plenty of capacity but last Saturday mooring it had only four passengers.

Princess Kathrine approaching Mermaid Quay

Millennium Stadium from river level

Cardiff Castle Keep & Moat

We spent the day visiting the wonderful castle with its Gothic Revival interior and travelling out to Llandaff to visit the cathedral. I used to cox and row at Llandaff Rowing Club and we just had to visit their clubhouse which brought back many boyhood memories.

Llandaff Weir and Boat House

A visit to Ely

On Sunday we went with friends to Ely. It is a convenient place for a group of us to get together.

Ely Cathedral 

The weather played its part in what turned out to be a good day. Saturday was wet, Monday was wet and windy, but in between Sunday was just a perfect November day - sunny but cold. 

We had morning tea at the award-winning Peacocks Tea Room, took a stroll around the town and the cathedral grounds and then had a roast at The Cutter; it never fails to impress. Our visit was rounded off by rummaging around the Waterside Antiques Centre.  

The river wasn't particularly busy and there were spaces on the visitor moorings. We recalled out visit to Ely on Albert in 2006 when we moored up in the town for several nights. It was August then and so much busier. During our stroll along the embankment we saw a Cambridge University eight out training.

Ely Visitor Moorings

A Cambridge University crew in training from their new boathouse at Ely

Rowing Holiday by Canal in 1873 by A Farrant

Not so much a book, more of a booklet, and published just over 100 years after the journey, so what is it all about?

In the 1970’s the grandson of A Farrant, only identified in the preface to the booklet as “Mr Farrant”, transcribed the notes of a rowing journey that his grandfather and three Oxford friends made. The notes were shown to Dr Edwin Course who recognised that, although they were not a great literary work, they were of historical interest and likely to appeal to waterways enthusiasts.

In the preface Dr. Course points out that the Oxford pals journey followed the popular trend in the 1860’s and 1870’s for pleasure traffic on the waterways, probably encouraged by the publication of The Oarsman’s Guide to the Thames. He thought that many similar logs were kept but only a few were published. This is very much a log, not a literary work, not written for posterity, and although light in tone it cannot be considered alongside the hilarious Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men in a Boat which describes a contemporary journey. The log was written only for the writer and his friends and they were not even identified in the script. The dates of the journey were originally unknown but research by Course pinpointed them and the booklet includes a very handy map of the journey including a timeline.

Who were the oarsmen? Farrant’s grandson thought they were John Salter (a boat builder), T Marsh, Ansty and the author; A Farrant. The log records them starting their journey from “Salters Slope” by Folly Bridge in Oxford so I presume that John Salter was connected to the family boating business that still operates there today. Salter Bros. started at Folly Bridge in 1858 and John Henry Salter would have been 19 years-old at the time and destined to become Mayor of Oxford (1902/3). The Salters were prominent Liberals which might explain why the log mentions the Liberal Fete to be held at Gloucester (Monday 18th August 1873).

Folly Bridge, Oxford in 2010

So what of the journey? It is certainly one that could not be achieved today. They start and end their journey at Oxford but travel to Monmouth via the Oxford Canal, Warwick & Napton Canal (now part of the Grand Union), River Avon, River Severn, Hereford & Gloucester Canal (now disused) and River Wye. They then return via the Great Western Railway (more of this later), Avon Navigation (“Bristol Avon”), Kennet & Avon and River Thames. All of this achieved in just 20 days in August.

It is important to recall the era of the journey. Canals were not the predominant mode of transport and the Railway Age had arrived but many great railway developments were yet to occur; the Great Western were still operating and building broad gauge lines. However, the canal to Hereford was not completed until 1845, just over 30 years earlier. River transport was generally in decline as the pals were to find out, particularly on the Warwickshire Avon.

The four pals left Oxford and travelled upriver to the Oxford Canal. The log describes how they negotiated the narrows by lift bridges and how they overtook narrow boats (or barges as they term them). The technique appears somewhat adventurous. They would pull up alongside the barge and then “work past the barge by hanging on the side.” Once in front of the barge they would pull away sharply to avoid being run down by the moving barge. To me it is not surprising that one “bargee” near Kidlington was “ungentlemanly” and obstrepulous (sic)”. I would have thought that more than one “bargee” would object to this technique which appears reckless to me.

They noted that Leamington Spa was “a bright looking and modern town”. Not surprising since most of the spa-related developments had occurred in the 19th century and the “Royal” prefix was only awarded by Queen Victoria in 1838.

The journey down the Warwickshire Avon appeared troublesome with lack of water just below Warwick and the boat was damaged requiring a repair by John Salter. After the Avon, they joined the River Severn at Tewkesbury and on their 8th day they entered the Hereford and Gloucester Canal. They camped each night and most nights they set traps for rabbits but without success. Farrant usually reported this as “the rabbits were very old” – meaning they were wise enough not to put their heads into the snares they had set. They also tried fishing but with limited success and entertained themselves by singing.

The passage through the 1 ¾ mile long Oxenhall Tunnel (now under the M50) required a light and two people in the bows to keep the boat in the centre of the channel with the other two in the stern “paddling with stretchers” (as opposed to rowing). It was a good job that they didn't meet any working boats in the tunnel given that the Hereford Times carried articles in May 1851 about an incident in which boats travelling in opposite directions had met in the middle, and neither would give way for 58 hours! That would definitely be “ungentlemanly”.

The journey down the River Wye was not without incident. They followed some local watermen downstream of Ross to keep in the channel but managed to capsize their boat. Arriving at Tintern, where they visited the abbey, they had a conundrum, how to get to Bristol and Bath?

After their escapades on the Wye, they recognised that crossing the Severn in a rowing boat was going to be difficult so they decided on the safer option; putting their boat onto a steamer that was leaving the next day. Unfortunately that arrangement fell through so rowed down to Chepstow where they loaded their boat onto a Great Western Railway train which took them across the New Passage.

New Passage - Portskewett Pier (G J Stodart 1887)

The New Passage ferry crossing of the Severn was opened in 1863, just 10 years before the journey, by the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway and was part of the standard route from London to Cardiff and the South Wales coalfields. The Welsh side of the crossing featured a substantial pier, presumably designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel along with the rest of the railway as the plaque at Bristol Temple Meads indicates. 

The building of the Severn Tunnel was begun in 1873 but it took until 1886 for the tunnel to be opened and the New Passage ferry to become redundant, so the four might have seen the construction work being carried out nearby. It is a pity that the log does not describe in detail what would have been the most interesting part of journey. But, as Edwin Course pointed out, the log was written for private use by the friends and not for posterity.

Severn Tunnel

Once on the “English” side the four travelled by train to Bristol Temple Meads. The boat travelled on top of the train, which was the way a lot of luggage was carried at that time, although not usually boats, a point alluded to by the author. Getting the boat onto and off the train (twice) must have taken some effort. Once at Bristol they left as soon as possible, even though it was late in the day, because the area around Bristol Temple Meads was “strong smelling” and not suitable for overnight camping.

They enjoyed their trip through Bath towards Bradford on Avon on the Kennet and Avon and then tackled the “formidable 29 (locks) at Devizes” operating some conventionally before getting the boat out of the water and putting it on wheels for the next eighteen. Just after Hungerford they took to the River Kennet which ran alongside the canal.

The weather was not always ideal for rowing during their journey, it often rained, and near Newbury they suffered strong winds. They disliked the lock mechanisms beyond Newbury because of their difficult lever-operated paddle gear and when they reached the Thames at Reading they were very pleased to find a lock operated by a lock keeper.

The fact that this  booklet exists is not only due to its writer, and his grandson, but also to Dr. Edwin Course who did much research providing not only a preface, extensive notes and footnotes, but also photographs mostly taken in the 1970’s of the sites mentioned in the log. These images, now over 40 years old, are also historic. The photographs in the booklet of the yet to be restored Kennet and Avon Navigation are perhaps the most interesting.

Edwin Course appears to have gone on to edit and write several historical books and journals mostly focussed on Hampshire and transport. It is particularly poignant that the grandson of Farrant who transcribed the log did not live to see this booklet published, he died in 1973 one hundred years after the journey described by his grandfather.

My copy was purchased through eBay for just over £10 but there are many others available at similar prices, according to a quick search with my browser.

Barrow on Soar

On Monday we woke early to make the most of the day since we needed to get to Debdale Wharf by Thursday. The early morning sun and mist made the mooring picturesque. The mist soon burnt off and the start to the day was warm and sunny.

Misty morning sun at Swarkstone Junction

Leaving at 8.00 we made good progress and soon reached Weston Lock where we were joined by NB Silkstone who joined us for locking right through to Kegworth. They were a jolly crew and we enjoyed sharing locks with them. At Aston Lock, for the second time in two years, we had a problem leaving the lock. I won't go into the details here because it deserves a separate post and a bit of research.

By the time we reached Shardlow the weather had deteriorated, the wind had risen and it was cloudy. It is always exiting entering the River Trent at Shardlow. The wide expanse of flowing water makes an impression and passing under the M1 is fun. 

Derwent Mouth, Shardlow

Albert passing under the M1, River Trent

Both Silkstone and Albert went through Sawley Lock together. The only difficulty was that Silkstone had used their BW key to operate the automatic mechanism and another boat was coming up. This meant the crew from Silkstone had to wait for the boat coming up to enter the lock and the gates to close before the key could be removed. They soon made up the delay on the river and they were not far behind us when we got to the first lock on the River Soar.



Navigation sign at Trent Lock

Erewash Canal Entrance

We negotiated the junction with the River Soar and headed through Redhill and Ratcliffe on Soar. Just before Ratcliffe Lock we met a Dutch Barge negotiated the bends. Luckily we met on a straight section. Silkstone had more trouble.

Kegworth Manor

At Kegworth we met up with a single boat ahead. Since we were "on a mission" to get far that day we left Silkwood and teamed up with the other crew who were heading into Loughborough. We had a good run through to Zouch where I did most of my rowing at Loughborough University in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The area certainly brought back memories of our training sessions. There were far fewer boats around then, an no narrow boats.

Normanton on Soar

We had contemplated stopping in Loughborough overnight but recognising that we still had some way to go we decided to press on to Barrow on Soar.

Wide beam about to negotiate a bridge near Loughborough - will it won't it

We arrived at Barrow around 6:00PM and moored up on the single 48-hr visitor mooring close to what is now a canal centre. Back in 1966 the centre building was the University Rowing Club. In 1967 the club left for the Loughborough Boat Club at Zouch transporting all their boats (fours) by rowing them along the canal  through the town.

Riverside Café & Canal Centre at Barrow on Soar

(formerly Loughborough University of Technology Boat Club)

We  finished the day by shopping in the village. Deciding that we deserved a take-away, we got a couple of Baltis. 

Henley

On Sunday morning, before dawn broke, we go up and drove down to Henley on Thames to support our family who were running the Henley Half Marathon. It was still, misty and frosty as dawn broke and there were some fog patches along the M40. However, it was clear that it was going to be a crisp dry autumn day. The sun began to burn off the mist as we arrived in Henley and we found that the designated car park, part of the rugby club, was alongside the Thames. A pair of cruisers was moored overnight yards from the car park. If our plan to boat to Henley had come off we could have moored there, for £8 a night, and waited for our runners - ah well maybe next time.

Although the river was not in flood, and all warning boards had been lifted, the river had burst its banks last week because part of the car park was still under water. It made for an interesting photo. The Thames is beyond the cruisers.

Cruisers moored at Henley next to a flooded field

 

Misty town reach

 

Sculling in the mist at Henley

While we waited for the race to start we watched numerous crews training along the regatta course. With a 10k road race, a half marathon and numerous cyclists the town was busy with sport.

The run went well and we watched and applauded the 1600 runners with our grandchildren.

Andy, Chris & Lucy - half marathoners

Our "team" did well and completed the course in times they were proud of. We then returned back to Aynho.

Olympic Rowing Round-up

To round off our last post about the rowing on Monday, I thought I had better add a postscript with the results.

What a week it has been for British rowing with four gold, two silver and three bronze medals! Team GB topped the rowing medal table.

The British Four featured in our last post did beat the Aussies in their much talked-about showdown to retain their Olympic title, and Anna Watkins & Katherine Grainger, who looked impressive on Monday had an equally impressive final winning the gold. After winning three silvers in the last three Olympics, much was made of Katherine Grainger finally getting a gold. The Women's Quad Sculls from Team GB, that did well to reach the final on Monday, came sixth.

British eight winning their repercharge with Canada pressing strongly

in the final Canada got silver and Team GB bronze

We also saw another important Team GB crew perform on Monday, the Mens Eight. They had lost to Germany in their heat on the Sunday but on Monday we saw them ease through the repercharge despite a strong challange from Canada. In their final they again lost to Germany they were also pipped by Canada in a very tight race. They got a very well deserved bronze.

The rowing regatta has certainly played its part in this wondeful London 2012.

Olympic Rowing, 30 July 2012

As I indicated in our earlier post we have just had an Olympic weekend (Torch Relay, Road Cycling & Rowing). On Monday we went to Eaton Dorney to watch the rowing. What seems like ages ago, when we bid for the tickets, we decided to go for the Monday (Day 3) because no medals were being decided and it was likely to be least popular day.

The rowing is a morning event and starts at 9:30. This required an early start. We left Teddington just after 6:30 and caught a train to Twickenham - all very quiet. The weather was kind with bright sunshine. Then the train to Windsor arrived from Waterloo arrived and we had to squeeze into the carriage.  It was not quite as bad as I imagine Japanese commuter trains but there were only a few inches to spare over the rest of the journey. We found ourselves packed in next to a group of Aussies who turned out to be the families and partners of the Australian crews that were competing that day. Maggie had a long chat to the mother of the bow of the Australian four, Will Lockwood. It appears that they will have a showdown with the British four (Pete Reed/Alex Gregory/Tom James/Andrew Triggs Hodge). They beat Team GB at the last 2012 World Cup (III) in Munich but lost to them early in the year at World Cup (II) in Lucerne.

The process of getting into the Eaton Dorney site involved a longish walk. We could have caught a shuttle bus from near the station but with a packed 8 coach train arriving we decided to walk in to avoid the crush. However, passing the River Bus operated by French Brothers moored by the bridge in Windsor, we went for that option. What better way is there to get to rowing than by boat?

Looking down the course and flying camera

 

Boathouses and camera tower

Camera boats

The "meet and greet" by all the volunteers and staff as we walked through Windsor Race Course was very good and the Army manning the security screening were both efficient and friendly. As some in the queue next to me said "perhaps we should get them to look after our airports". The regiment  we were handled by was the Prince of Wales Regiment. The facilities inside Eaton Dorney were very good with lots of food outlets for breakfast and although there were queues for some loos (caused by spectators going for the first available) there were plenty. The whole place exuded a friendly atmosphere.

We sat in Stand 2 and had good seats looking out towards the finish. A big screen was across the course in front of us providing us with wonderful coverage from the start to the finish. There were cameras on boats, cameras on vehicles and a "flying" camera suspended from towers at either end of the course that covered action over the whole of the 2000m. The commentators were informative and managed to provide both basic and technical information which included, when a New Zealand Quad Sculler had a problem, a description of "catching a crab". They even helped control the crowds as we left.

Stand for crew friends & family

Nearly full  - not like some other Olympic venues

New Zealand Women's Quad Sculler limping home after "catching a crab"

The racing was great. We saw the GB Mens Eight win their repercharge, the GB and Australian fours win their heats convincingly and the Double Scull of Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins very convincingly win their heats.

 

 

Team GB Women's Double Sculler

 Grainger & Watkins

Team GB Women's Quad Sculler

Australia Men's Four

Team GB Men's Four winning their heat

Team GB Men's Four

Note they are Italian Rigged

As you can probably realise we had a fabulous day - a day to remember. I see that James and Amy from NB Luck Duck went on the day before us. They watched from the bank near the start, whereas we were near the finish.