Albert, boat, Prince Consort, and pub

Our boat was named by the previous owners, Mike & Katherine Hurd. We understand they chose the name because Albert has a floating cottage fit-out, is furnished with Victoriana, and Mike liked the Stanley Holloway story of Albert and the lion. Yesterday, April 19th, we spent some time in London attending a Van Morrison concert in the Royal Albert Hall. Van is giving a series of concerts where the whole of his great album, Astral Weeks, is performed with a string-augmented band similar to the group on his legendary live album from the 1970s “Too Late to Stop Now”. I won’t report on the concert, except to say it really lived up to our expectations, and even though we3 were travelling north the next day, we stayed until the last note was played. Because the weather was warm and sunny, before the concert we spent some time in the Royal Parks and visited the Albert Memorial. The memorial looks splendid after its £11.5m refurbishment. The gold coating of the statue looked particularly bright in the late evening sunshine. It appears that on the first Sunday of the month, the Royal Parks arrange special tours inside the railings where the frieze along the base of the monument is explained in full. So for Albert aficionados, the Prince Consort that is, here are some images.




Albert memorial, Hyde Park, London


We also had another Albert moment earlier in the day when we walked along Victoria to see the building where our eldest daughter works. Next door is a pub that is called the Albert. I suppose there must be several in London, but few can compare to the Victorian splendour of this one. The elaborate decoration is thrown into stark relief by the simple modern lines of Windsor House next door.


Albert pub, Victoria, London

Anderton Lift Video

Below is a video of Albert going down the Anderton lift last week. Steve took the video with his Nokia N95 and then edited it using Windows Moviemaker. We hope you enjoy it.

Most Out of Date BW Licence Still on Display?

When we were on the River Weaver we passed a GRP cruiser with an even older BW Licence on display than the boat we saw near Braunston. The boat was moored near Acton Bridge and, although it was without its outboard, it was floating well and was not derelict. The date on display? - 1994.

To Preston Brook and Home (8-9 April)

On Wednesday morning we left Anderton and negotiated the tunnels and Barnton and Dutton to Preston Brook.

The two historic boats moored in front of us, who were making their way to Ellesmere Port for the Easter Boat Gathering, had breasted-up and gone down the lift.


Lacetera and Runcorn entering the Anderton Lift

In the end we became the middle boat of a convoy of three. This was handy when we negotiated the tunnels. All the tunnels on this section have good air draught. We didn't need to drop our exhaust or remove our chimneys. Barnton tunnel is however quite twisty. We reached the stop lock at the end of the Trent & Mersey Canal just, which is just short of Preston Brook Tunnel, shortly before twelve so we didn't have to wait long for the scheduled time for north going boats. Boats going north have to leave during the period on the hour to ten minutes past the hour.


Waiting to go north through Preston Brook Tunnel

As we left the tunnel we found some boats waiting to go south including Beatty, the historic boat belonging to the Grundy family. We last met Beatty at Brinklow, but before in 2003 we had moored up by her in Bath. On both occasions we had passed the time of day with Martin Grundy, who purchased the working boat Beatty in 1968. Martin, who was a Vice-President of the IWA sadly died a couple of years ago. It appears that Beatty is still with the family and has had her wooden cabin re-built in steel at Brinklow. This took about three years. She was also on her way to Ellesmere Port.

We moored up by the gauging house at Preston Brook and then visited the marina where will be keeping Albert for a few days over Easter while we return home to cut the grass and sort out a few household chores. We also visited Midland Chandlers so Steve could get the necessary materials to put a new cutter on our exhaust. The old cutter appears to have failed with fatigue. The new cutter is wider but made of a thinner gauge brass.

On Thursday we moved into Preston Brook Marina and met some very friendly people who helped us moor up and will be keeping a eye on Albert. The journey back home to Northants by train took less than two and a half hours!

To Anderton (7 April)

On Tuesday, we woke to bright sunshine, after the night’s rain, and decided to go ahead with our plan to travel downstream to the end of the navigation. Overnight the solitary shellduck was joined by a mate. They spent some time flying around the area together making calls that sounded like they were discussing nesting sites. The Devil’s Garden looked a picture in the morning sun so we walked over to the bank above the mooring to look at the clumps primroses.


Mooring at Devil's Garden


Primroses at the Devil's Garden

The journey down to Frodsham was delightful although from being dead calm the wind began to get up. After we went under the M56, and passed Runcorn Rowing Club, we got into the area of heavy chemical industry. It is certainly an enormous complex. At Marsh Weston lock, where you can branch off to the Manchester Ship Canal (MSC)if you have permission and is signed as Marsh lock, BW were installing some floating pontoons so it was not possible to stop even if we wanted. The next section of the navigation is the Weston Canal. We went on right to the end. Pearson quite rightly describes as the “end of the world”. As Maggie put it, we went from the Devil’s Garden to the end of the world, very apt really.


Chemical Works alongside the Weston Canal



The "End of the World" - Limit of Navigation Weston Canal

The limit of navigation is very desolate with the bottom lock gates of the Runcorn flight, which connected to the Bridgewater Canal, lying in ruins. This lock is the other end of the flight that appears in the 2009 IWA Calendar as photographed by Granny Buttons. Turning was not easy in the wind but we managed it.


Entrance to the disused locks on the Runcorn and Weston Canal

We moored up and walked through the industrial detritus to see the view across the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal. It appears that this point is where the MSC store their spare lock gates. The mountains of North Wales were clearly visible but it was very windy, making the experience even more intense.


Manchester Ship Canal lock gates and views of the River Mersey.

The return journey upstream appeared a lot quicker, perhaps it was because we had the wind behind us, or perhaps it was because return journeys always appear to be quicker. We took on water, had a sandwich lunch at Dutton’s Lock, and met a pair of families with six little boys who were full of questions about boats and locks. They were particularly intrigued about the process of taking on water and why.


Iris Abbott on her way to the Easter boat gathering at Ellesmore Port

We arrived at the Anderton Lift at about 3.30PM and immediately went up the lift. The process of going up was equally fascinating. The high wind didn’t appear to cause us much problems. However, we had to turn south out of the junction and immediately wind (turn) to get ourselves “pointing in right direction”. The wind didn’t make this at all easy. However, we managed to reverse up to the 24 hour moorings.


Entering the Anderton Lift from the River Weaver

Tomorrow we plan to get to Preston Brook. We hope the wind drops.