Blog - Beau Romer - Narrowboat Life

1 June 20251 June 2025

Friends and Neighbours

Normal service has been resumed; we’re on the move again. Plans have changed though. We are flying down the Shropshire Union Canal, en route to Birmingham. Although we have covered some miles in the past few days we are nothing like the Flyboats of old. They used to make the journey from Ellesmere Port to Birmingham in 3 days, using horsepower, never stopping, and sleeping in shifts. No wonder the canals were the superhighways of their day.

Alien seed in the wood? No, I think it’s a glamping pod

Although it’s sad and we had plans to meet friends, the Caldon Canal will have to wait.

This tree stump at Cholmondeston looks more like a character from a Star Wars film if you ask me.

We moved from Middlewich on Sunday though sheer boredom as far as Cholmondeston, but that turned out to be a real bonus, as we spent the next few days with Steve and Andy, enjoying cake and breakfast from the tearoom at Venetian Marina, and having a games evening that went on nearly to 1 am – typical boat life. The refurbished and shiny hatch doors are back. It rained too, and my newly-sealed chimney leaked like a sieve. Not sure what went wrong there, but I will have to do it again. Until such time, the plastic bag is our friend.

Adderley Locks are my favourite, complete with pretty flag irises. Just don’t look at the plastic bag …

All good things have to come to an end though, and we set off on Wednesday. We got as far as the reopened Barbridge Inn, and as we cruised by, noting there was a space just right for Beau Romer, there was a shout out of the window. It was Nigel and Diane, our former marina neighbours on nb Escapology. We stopped and had a jolly good catch up before moving on to Nantwich.

Outside the Barbridge Inn, photo copyrighted to Nigel!

Then later in the week we met up with Ian, one of the Friday nighters. He brought Sofia with him, she’s a lovely Portuguese girl hoping to get a job as a radiologist in the UK – we certainly need more like her.

Tea, cake and the evening sunshine. Shame we had to move on for the night because of the Shroppie Shelf

The day we cruised to Hack Green the strong wind and even stronger gusts were a nightmare to contend with. If the wind hadn’t been blowing in our faces instead of broadside there was no way we would have attempted moving. Rain is one thing, but in wind we turn into a 57ft sail. Talking of Hack Green, do you remember the R Whites Lemonade advert? If you sing “It’s a Secret Nuclear Bunker – Hack Green” the words fit the tune perfectly. Go on, try it!

Woodseaves Cutting is dark, narrow, and has two of these amazing high bridges. We just never want to meet another boat coming the other way

The Shroppie is a canal that plays many parts and has many faces. Most of its locks are at the top end and after Nantwich they come thick and fast in flights, 2 at Hack Green, 15 at Audlem, 5 at Adderley and 5 at Tyrley (complete with helpful ghost who opens and closes lock gates), then it’s straight as a Roman Road in many places and nothing but cuttings and embankments apart from one solitary lock at Wheaton Aston. The cuttings tend to be shady and spooky, and there are more stories of the supernatural; a shrieking spirit in Betton, and a strange monkey man in Grub Street. Neither of them troubled us this trip, although we spotted a pair of kingfishers in Betton, the first of the year. I feel sorry for poor old Thomas Telford, the famous canal builder. He never saw this canal finished, defeated by one of those embankments that wouldn’t stay in place at Shelmore.

Knighton Wharf with the factory in the background. It used be be Cadbury, then Knighton Foods, which among other things made Angel Delight. We heard it was closing in 2023, but now it’s open again,manufacturing baby milk

May is a lovely month to be cruising. The elderflower and dog roses are blooming (last year I made elderflower cordial), there are cygnets, goslings and ducklings everywhere. We got chased down the canal by a cormorant. The warm weather and the rain we’ve had over the past week have made the landscapes lush and green. Ollie is growing up and seems to love his travelling life. As long as we continue to have enough water in the canals everything is good.

Ollie wondering where Martyn is off to …

24 May 20251 June 2025

Glamourpuss

Mother duck bringing her brood for lunch. She’s been very successful by the look of it

It’s not all wine and roses this narrowboat lark, you know, although perhaps on reflection that should be roses and castles. We arrived in Middlewich on Sunday night, we’re still here, although we’ve been hopping from mooring to mooring. We always planned to stay a few days. We needed a small cosmetic repair on the car (my bad) and I had an appointment with my podiatrist in Nantwich. He discovered a corn, no wonder my foot has been hurting since Liverpool. I thought corns were the preserve of little old ladies, what does that say about me?

Martyn wading through brunch, a Breakfast Bagel from Bondies Bagels in Nantwich. Very good it was too!

What we hadn’t factored in was the patch of rust Martyn found last week on one of our side hatch doors, right down the bottom where it had been growing unnoticed for who knows how long. Rust never sleeps of course. Cue a call to John, Bickerstaffe’s former boat painter, who is sorting it out with a door respray, so we have a board covering the hole and no doors. They were due back tomorrow, but the tin worm has progressed further than anticipated, so we’re hoping to get them back on Monday. That’s another day stuck in Middlewich. It’s always Middlewich, I feel like it’s Groundhog Day.

Another little patch I need to sort out. I wasn’t vigilant enough, this one got hold, thankfully it’s tiny.

We wouldn’t have got far anyway. The CRT closed the Trent and Mersey between Middlewich and Kidsgrove on Monday because of low water levels, and we were going that way. Apparently it’s the driest spring since 1952. Anyway we fetched the car, and have had it here until today, so that made a nice change. Apart from the trip to Nantwich, which is one of my favourite canalside towns, we helped Steve and Andy move their car up the canal. Not only did we get to have a chat with David Bramley where we weren’t just holding boats in the middle of some canal or another, they rewarded us with a couple of pieces of delicious Victoria Sponge. We also popped into Winsford, at the end of the River Weaver a couple of times. And of course, we haven’t had to lug groceries up the towpath. I feel like a normal person for once. Shame in a way the car’s now gone back to our marina, but we aren’t inclined to go through all the hassle of bringing it along with us and finding somewhere convenient to park it.

Close, no cigar. One day I will see something with my name on it

We got some boat jobs done during our enforced hiatus. I’ve had the touch up paint out, and was up on top of the boat this morning scraping the sealant from around the chimney. I looked like a sweep when it was done! Sealing the chimney needs doing every year, or we get leaks. I’m not too worried about cleaning the rust off the top of the stove, but I don’t want the ceiling to come down, as happened to a couple of our friends.

Compulsory Ollie photo. We were in a lock at the time. He likes to lick lock walls. Words fail me.

We took the washing to Morrisons, where there’s one of those handy dandy outside launderettes, and we got a cup of coffee in their cafe while we waited for it. We have a washing machine onboard, but don’t have the easy opportunity to fill our water tank until we move. I can make a tank last comfortably for 5 days, we’ve done 6 before, but a week or more is pushing it, so every saving is a blessing.

So I definitely have itchy tiller. All our friends are at the Crick Boat Show too, so I’ve got FOMO to boot. We could have gone, but I think Ollie would have gone into meltdown with all the people and dogs. Will we move on Monday? Who knows. I can hear Sonny and Cher playing in the background …

A family on a hireboat from Andersen Boats setting off on their holiday. Apparently a lot of their customer base come from Scandinavia. I always think their boats are smart in their bright red livery

20 May 202524 May 2025

Not Beastly, just Beeston

Taken from our mooring, destination Beeston Castle

We are on go slow this year. Normally it’s rush here, rush there, always chasing a deadline or a rendezvous. This year we’re going with the flow, chilling out a bit more, getting the dog used to his travelling life . I quite like it, but whether I will continue to do so or get itchy tiller remains to be seen.

Come on Sweetheard, just another few steps

We stopped for a couple of nights above Wharton Lock, in the shadow, as it were, of Beeston Castle. You can see the castle on top of a crag for miles. We decided to visit and set off for the canal for what we thought would be quite a strenuous hike. It wasn’t in all honesty, that bad.

Beeston Castle, or the ruins of what we see there today, was built in the 1200s. It’s got an interesting history, in the Civil War the Castle was held by both Royalists and Parliamentarians, and it certainly sits in a commanding position with breathtaking views of the surrounding countryside. I was struck by it’s similarities to Corfe Castle. They were both destroyed about the same time, although Corfe’s building is more complex and it was older. There has been a settlement at Beeston since the Bronze Age, and English Heritage have built a very interesting replica Bronze Age roundhouse in the outer ward.

We had a very pleasant visit, even the small gift shop and the wooden tea hut were nice. And as most people would have realised by now, Martyn and I do love a high vantage point.

Pay attention, I’m trying to take your photograph

From Beeston we continued south, thankfully not getting involved with the Bunbury Shuffle at the staircase locks there, although we did help a hire boat through, it was day 2 and they were a little unsure. Let’s not talk about getting water at Calveley. Tell me, if you were at a water point with two boats hovering waiting to fill up, would you be washing your boat? No I didn’t think so, but guess what we had to wait for? No point in moaning; we’re on canal time, and that’s boat life for you, but I keep looking daggers at the offending boat which we have seen several times since and is now moored just in front of us.

Fresh off the frustration at Calveley, Martyn decided to make friends with a bush at a bridge hole—though the feeling wasn’t mutual. The resulting scratch has since polished out, and I’ve just about forgiven him (for now).

I need to remember to keep my criticism of his driving to myself though, because soon after, we approached Barbridge Junction—a place that, historically, has been my personal nemesis. My track record? Let’s just say “smooth navigation” hasn’t been on the playlist. But this time there was no clattering and no swearing, just the rare thrill of victory and a bit of a smug smile.

Martyn picked up a hitchiker (sorry about the washing!)

The next day on the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union, a very familiar route, we stopped for lunch just after Aqueduct Marina. Unbeknownst to us, Andy and Steve on Saorise, the Bears Aboard, were moored just in front of us, so we made it all of 200yds before mooring up again for drink and a jolly good catch up. That’s one of the joys of canal boating, you never know when you’re going to bump into friends.

The big worry for us now is water levels. As much as we are enjoying the lovely weather, the canals are really suffering. The Leeds and Liverpool is effectively closed from Wigan to Leeds, and one of the branches of the Caldon Canal, where we were planning on going, is now closed too. We really need some rain.

Hail fellows, well met, and thank you for the photos

15 May 202520 May 2025

Chester – Simply The Best

Martyn reading all about NB Friendship, that was the home to a working couple, Joe and Rose Skinner, towed for many years by their mule, Dolly. Stories like that really bring the history of the canals home.

While we were in Ellesmere Port we had to visit the National Waterways Museum, or the Boat Museum as everyone still calls it. Very interesting it was too, much better in our opinion than its sister museum in Stoke Bruerne, which is squarely aimed at primary school age children. It’s really important that we educate the next generations in the history and joys of the waterways if we’re going to have any hope of preserving them, but a little more adult focus is also welcome.

That said, here’s Martyn acting like a kid. He tried pressing Button B, but it wasn’t giving him any money back

We were a bit sad to leave the museum, which our mooring (£12 a night) gave us free access to, and recommend a visit if you’re in the area. They have lots of events too, the day we left it was swarming with volunteers, which was great for us as we had help up the locks, but we missed out on the VE Day celebration party.

Somehow the garment, hanger and peg all ended up in the Shropshire Union. Memo to self; peg the washing on the line more securely in future. And thank goodness for a boat hook and a bit of luck fishing it out. I most definitely did not intend to sacrifice Martyn’s Durango and Silverton Railroad t-shirt to the canal gods!

We didn’t get far that day, just stopped in a nice countryside mooring close to Chester Zoo., I was grateful to Ollie for preventing us from visiting, 2 tickets would have cost an eyewatering £73.

This is the consistory court in Chester Cathedral. No, I had no idea that such a thing existed either. These ecclesiastical courts are still used today, but now mostly to deal with legal issues relating to church property, and not to sentence heretics to be burned at the stake.

We haven’t visited Chester, the black and white city, since 2022 when we went to a memorial to the late Queen in the Cathedral, and watched her funeral moored in Tower Wharf. Then we picked up Stu and Carrie and set off for the Llangollen Canal at breakneck speed. We always planned to return this year.

Chester Cathedral has some stunning modern stained glass windows

There was a contemporary art exhibit in the Cathedral called Peace Doves, by sculptor Peter Walker, each paper dove had a message written by a schoolchild, and the whole effect with music and lighting was very dramatic

You might have guessed we visited the Cathedral. We didn’t however go up the tower. That must be a first. We just walked around the walls and the boat got a bit of a clean. Martyn bought a rechargeable handheld pressure washer, which does a great job. It was too hot to do much of anything else.

I always think of this as Chester’s Bridge of Sighs

Chester really is one of my favourite cities. It’s so pretty, full of history, and the shops aren’t bad either. There’s supposed to be the ghost of a Roman centurion patrolling the walls, but he’s never troubled us and I’m always sad to leave.

This has to be the prettiest shopping street in the country

My lock keeper in action at Hoole Lane Lock. The impressive tower belongs to Boughton Waterworks and dates from the 1850s

11 May 202515 May 2025

There Once Was a Ship that Put to Sea

That scary moment when the gates start to slide open and you know there’s no turning back now

Stuart Wood came to meet us on Friday morning at 7.45am, having already put in his order for a bacon butty which I duly provided (he prefers smoked). It doesn’t do to upset the pilot and Stuart is quite the one. I did some research on him. When he retired after 41 years service he was the Head Mersey river pilot, so we couldn’t have been in better hands.

“Aim for the block of flats” said Stuart

Brunswick Dock Lock is massive when you’re in it. It has a lift bridge, which totally unnecessarily raised for us, and huge semi circular iron lock gates which open before the water has equalised, so the hydraulics must be incredibly powerful. Of course that makes life more turbulent than it has to be for a few seconds, just the thing for the nervous helmsman staring out onto the vast width of the River Mersey.

Looking back to Liverpool. You can just about make out both cathedrals and the Liver Building

Then we were underway, the engine at 1800 revs from the off. That blew the cobwebs out. The breeze was gentle and there was some movement, but mostly it just felt vast and alien. The Rivers Thames and Severn don’t come anywhere near the Mersey estuary for scale.

Ollie got to wear his lifejacket as well as us. I don’t think he was impressed

After a while we turned right into the Eastham Channel, flying along while Stuart kept up a commentary on what we were seeing, The Royal Mersey Yacht Club, the vast landholdings of Unilever, coal stores, warehouses, pubs, and slipways. We passed a sand barge with a seal sunning himself at the stern, but I was too preoccupied trying to keep Beau Romer going in the right direction to grab a photo.

Eastham Lock, built for the big boys, not for the likes of us

All too soon Eastham Locks came into view. I saw a big ship in the lock and thought that was where we were headed, but no, we pulled into its neighbour, equally enormous. They made us tie on fore and aft and we needed the 15m lines required by the seaworthiness certificate. This is boating on a much grander scale than we are used to on the canals. Stuart unsuccessfully attempted to teach me how to tie a bowline while we waited for the lock, but my fingers just won’t do it. It brought back all those memories of doing my firefighter’s badge in the St John Ambulance many decades ago!

We are definitely playing with the big boys now

The Manchester Ship Canal is wide and benign. It was cut in the 1840s so the wealthy Manchester merchants didn’t have to pay the extortionate fees demanded by the Port of Liverpool. Stuart told us it took 6 years to construct, with the navvies setting up communites on the route. At one place they had to dig through solid sandstone and the spoil exists today as Mount Manisty, apparently a haven for birdlife.

Ellesmere Port has its own lighthouse, still lit at night. It’s now the local headquarters of the Fire Service Union

We arrived at Ellesmere Port lower basin at 10.30 am, quite a speedy run apparently, and over too soon. And there we sat, tied to the lock entrance until 3.30 pm. There is a swing bridge across the lock into the upper basin owned by the council, and no-one was available to open it until then. As I was working for a local authority until recently I don’t suppose I’d better say anything disparaging about that!

At this point, we weren’t going anywhere, and we had to get onto the roof to get off the boat!

Would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat. You have to be quite determined, there’s a lot to co-ordinate to make the unconventional run from Salthouse Docks to Ellesmere Port across the River Mersey, and it’s not cheap. Stuart was a marvel and we wouldn’t have entertained doing it without him and his knowledge. It’s an exhilarating voyage we never thought we would get to experience, especially not in a narrowboat. It’s about as far as shuffling down a muddy ditch in a tin bath as you can you can get.

Moored at the National Waterways Museum, prosaically right outside the Holiday Inn, and still feeling small

10 May 202510 May 2025

Escape

The English canal network is facing a challenging situation this year, effectively splitting the country into two, north and south. This predicament began on New Year’s Day when the Bridgewater Canal breached spectacularly at Little Bollington, ironically right at one of our favourite moorings, conveniently located near the National Trust property at Dunham Massey. You might recall our usual route south takes us down the Bridgwater Canal to Preston Brook and beyond.

We bumped into Marie-Therese and Peter at Litherland. Last time we saw them they were patching me up way back in 2021 when I fell over my own feet and ended up with a torn retina. Poor Marie-Therese donated the ice that was intended for her G&T to my injuries.

With the Bridgewater Canal out of commission we were left with the alternative route through Manchester leading to the Peak Forest and Macclesfield Canals. We were apprehensive about this option, as it’s a tough and arduous day’s boating on the Rochdale 9 and beyond. We had two primary concerns about it; Ollie is a puppy and is only just getting used to the boat, and we were worried it might break Martyn, who is after all still recovering from his accident last October.

We considered using a professional boat mover to get us through Manchester, but then Bailey came riding over the horizon to save the day. She offered to fly over from Washington DC and serve as crew, with the bonus of enjoying a scenic cruise along the Peak Forest Canal afterwards. Everything seemed perfect – until the Macclesfield breached too, and it’s going to take three months to repair. There was only one thing for it. With the River Trent on the wrong side of the country, we were going to have to cross the mighty River Mersey and traverse the Manchester Ship Canal to escape the North.

Young and keen lockies, even when they just got off a plane and were faced with the formidable Rufford locks!

Bailey and boyfriend Chase who came along for the ride, and his first experience of narrowboats, have had a pleasant cruise from Rufford to Liverpool, with lots of pub stops on the way, not exactly the hard labour we promised them! It’s never a trial to cruise into Liverpool and linger for a few days in Salthouse Dock. This city has so much to offer and so much to explore.

6.30am, early morning start from Melling

The view from the top of the Anglican Cathedral, looking out over the river.

We visited both of Liverpool’s Cathedrals, ate in the Philharmonic Dining Rooms (and yes, us girls did go and look at the opulent and decorative gents toilets!) We explored the Cavern Quarter and the Pierhead. I was challenged to go and find the signature on the floor in the Port of Liverpool Building, and succeeded. Apparently the floor layers were a little disgruntled at their lack of recognition at the time.

This is one of the propellers from the Lusitania, sunk 7 May 1915, hence the memorial flowers. I went to a lecture about it on the anniversary in the Museum of Liverpool.

For the football fans, Everton’s new stadium

Princes Dock Lock, with the Liver Building in the background

So, we are going to poke our bows through Brunswick Dock Lock and onto the river, with a pilot on board. Someone needs to know what they are doing. We’re going to sea in a flat-bottomed boat. Will this be the last post I ever write? That remains to be seen …

Albert Dock by night, hoping it’s this still tomorrow!

2 June 20243 June 2024

Mind Your Ps and Qs

We try not to upset people on the canals, and I’ve got matters of boating etiquette on my mind.

Great Haywood Junction. For once, we aren’t turning right

Earlier we were cruising down the Trent and Mersey past the Shugborough Estate. It was a beautiful morning, bright, sunny and drowsy. If it weren’t for the biting wind it would have been perfect. We were in no hurry, which was a good thing, as there were lots of boats moored up against the banks which made for slow progress. The topic of slowing down for moored boats is a bit of a hot potato in boating circles. I think the official line is to go no faster than 2mph causing as little disturbance to the water as possible. We were taught to crawl past on tick over and that habit is fairly ingrained, even though we privately consider Beau Romer to have the slowest tick over speed ever. This morning a boater leaned out of his hatch and thanked us for going slowly, commenting we were the first today. He also told me he was writing a song about it. I hope I’m not going to get prosecuted under copyright law, but it went something like this:

“Rushing to the queue at the lock, rushing to the queue at the lock

Got a two-week holiday and a three-week itinerary

Rushing to the queue at the lock!”

Just a sleepy day in Staffordshire – High Bridge No 60 – complete with it’s nasty bend

My smugness didn’t last long. As Martyn pulled over at Colwich Lock to let me off with my (brand new and untested) windlass, we spotted a lady opening the paddles to empty it. I was sure she hadn’t seen us approaching to descend, so I beeped the horn. She looked up and stopped what she was doing, moving to the head gates instead. When I got there she told me the lock had been only half full when she started letting the water out. I felt a bit guilty, but vindicated by the time we got through as by then there was a nice little queue of boats waiting to ascend and descend, and no water got wasted. Should I have alerted her, or let her be? Thoughts on a postcard please? We don’t plan to offend.

I can find a good G&T anywhere – even at Wedgwood

Since I last wrote while we were in Stoke on Trent we’ve passed through Barlaston and Stone, and have been on land for a week. We stopped at Wedgwood to visit the factory and thoroughly enjoyed it. Stone was a necessary stopping point because a) I had to work; b) we needed groceries and there’s a Marks & Spencer Food Hall conveniently right next to the canal; and c) secondly it lashed down with rain for a day. On days like that only hire boats move because usually they have somewhere they need to be.

The Armitage Shanks factory in, not surprising, Armitage. They’ve been manufacturing toilets and other sanitary ware here since 1817

Last weekend was the annual Crick Boat Show and even though every year we protest we aren’t going, almost every year we do. It isn’t the lure of the shiny new boats and the stalls with lots of tempting things to buy, it’s the people. We catch up with old friends and make new ones, and the whole thing is over far too quickly. Following Crick we went home for a few days. We’re leaving our car there this summer. Last year the mice got under the bonnet and had a good nibble on some of the insulation; we’re anxious to avoid a repeat.

Shopping for a new sofa at Crick? It’s hard to make up your mind

16 May 202427 May 2024

Can’t Buy Me Love

Nervously waiting to go under Harecastle Hill

Today was Harecastle Tunnel Day. Harecastle is 2,926 yards long. It’s one-way, quite wide, dead straight, pitch black, and gives me the heebie-jeebies. This isn’t anything to do with the skeleton in the alcove about 450 yards from the northern entrance, or that the Kidsgrove Boggart reputedly haunts it – it’s the fans.

The tunnel roof gets lower and lower as you go through, you end up driving in a crouch

There aren’t any ventilation shafts in the tunnel, so when all the boats taking part in a particular passage are safely in and underway they shut the doors behind you and start up the ventilation fans. The closer you are to the southern end, the louder the fans are, it’s like being in front of a jet engine, you can barely hear yourself think. Three things put the wind up me; (no pun intended) tractors, tanks and giant fans.

Tunnel’s end, the Southern entrance. Iron causes the water to look like Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup

We survived the trip, neither of us saw the Boggart and no one was blown away, Martyn gave the tunnel wall a tiny nudge, but honours are even because two years ago, I hit the tunnel as we exited. We are now moored up just a mile from the tunnel on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent at Westport Lake. I call it Goosepoo Lake because it’s home to hundreds of Canada Geese (or that’s how it seems to me) and we all know how prolific they are with what they leave behind. There’s a visitor centre and a very nice cafe. I’m working tomorrow and if the torrential rain stops perhaps I’ll send Martyn out to investigate.

We use Thomas Telford’s tunnel, James Brindley’s original one lies unsafe and abandoned

On the way here we stopped at Middlewich to have some work done to the boat. We had new leisure batteries fitted, which we had planned, and a new bow thruster battery, which we hadn’t. That one battery alone cost over £350 which is painful, especially as we don’t even use the bow thruster that much. It doesn’t mean I’m not glad we have it, but we don’t rely on it in most situations. That got me thinking; one of the questions non-boaters wonder about – and a topic all boaters talk about – is how much it costs to run a boat. So here are our figures for last year:

Gold CRT licence from 1 July – 31 December – £602 (Gold because we spent a lot of time on the River Thames) plus about £450 from the 2022/23 licence
Insurance – £495
Mooring fees £1809 (for our marina and other odd nights in marinas and on the River Thames)
Diesel – £982 (ouch!)
Coal, logs and kindling – £323
Electricity – £150
Gas – £170 (I cook a lot)
A couple of engine services and some repairs – about £1000
The approximate basic cost of our epic 930-mile 2023 journey – £6000

That swan decided we needed to be seen off!

But the value of all that fun, friendship, new experiences and travel – priceless.

11 May 202416 May 2024

At last!

2024 cruising has been an awfully long time coming.

I’ve been working all winter and have barely seen anything apart from the view out of the window. The plan was to finish working at the end of March and set off to have some fun., but plans don’t always work out. We left the marina on 3 May and I’m still slaving away on my laptop three days each week. We’ll see how long that lasts.

Lord of all he surveys passing through Parbold

We’ve been on a mission for the past week. The canals up here are very familiar to us and the weather has been kind so we’ve been moving when when we can and picking places where we know the internet is good and there’s something for Martyn to do when we can’t. Some of the familiar stops have just been a quick touchdown; like coffee from the Horsebox in Worsley and a swift couple of pints in the Brewery Tap in Lymm. We did meet fellow Bickerstaffe owners Sean and Diane on Alchemist in Stockton Heath and had a most convivial evening over a couple of bottles of wine. There is, sadly, no pictorial evidence.

There are so many cute goslings this year. Canada Geese are honking, pooping machines, but also extremely good parents.

We still get time to stop and have a little nose around. We tried to repin an unmoored boat in Manchester and found a car boot sale in Dunham Massey. It was probably the worst one I’ve ever seen, but it was all for charity so we paid our £1 and went for a nose. We even rescued a party of lady hireboaters who got themselves thoroughly stuck coming out of the Saltersford Tunnel. Sir Martyn the Chivalrous to the rescue!

The advantage of only moving at 3mph is that on a nice day you can walk alongside the boat and admire the canalside art

So today we are sat in the sunshine at Kings Lock in Middlewich, having dodged several historic boats yesterday on their way to a festival in Anderton. We are getting new batteries and having a couple of other boat-related jobs carried out ready for this year’s cruise. You know what the acronym BOAT is, right? Bring Out Another Thousand … If the canal gods are kind to us, and we have the time we have plans this year that include Stratford-upon-Avon, but we’ll see how it all pans out.

Fish and chips and a pint in Middlewich – rude not to

22 August 20238 May 2024

There and Back Again

Ancient and modern – passing a horsedrawn boat at Copse Lock

The paucity of blog posts recently in no way reflects our disappointment with the Kennet and Avon Canal. Even though it’s a bit challenging to moor in many places, it has lovely fluffy banks harbouring reed buntings and interesting places to visit. We really rather like it. We’ve had the opportunity to go home for a couple of days, and had lots of visitors on the boat.

Sometimes you have to do more than a little gardening to moor your boat

It really feels like coming home. Bradford-on-Avon, Bath, Devizes, Trowbridge; these are all places very familiar to us from work and leisure. We used to drive to Bradford-on-Avon on weekends and bank holidays to gongoozle and dream long before we were lucky enough to have Beau Romer. We’ve hired boats from there twice and one year when a week on a narrowboat wasn’t possible due to time constraints, we managed to squeeze in a day hire with most of the family for my birthday.

April 2014, Martyn’s first canal boat holiday on the Kennet and Avon. He’s still wearing that sweatshirt – see the previous photo!

Enough reminiscing. Now we’ve been down the Caen Hill flight and back up it again we’ve completed all seven Wonders of the Waterways in this boat. We aren’t interested in the IWA Silver Propeller award, although we’ve now visited several of its required locations, the Seven Wonders was something I had my eye on from the start.

If you ever find yourselves in Devizes early on a Friday evening, take yourself to Wadworth’s Brewery Tap, where the beer is superb, the welcome friendly, and they even have a pizza van that turns up outside to keep you there for just one more pint.

There’s no better place to enjoy a good pint than in a brewery

One slight disappointment was we didn’t make it to Bristol, although we did get down onto the River Avon. I phoned the lock keeper at Hanham Lock to get all the information on mooring in Bristol Floating Harbour only to find out it was going to cost £51 to stay there for one night. The cost of a mooring in a marina is usually no more than £20 and we’re miserly so Bath was as far as we got.

The views from the roof of Bath Abbey’s bell tower are awesome

We spent a good few days in Bath. It felt like we were on holiday there. Martyn and I climbed to the roof of Bath Abbey, enjoying the views and the history in equal measure. Lianna, Dan and Rowan came to visit and helped us up the locks from the River.

Bath Deep Lock is 19’5″ deep, and the second deepest lock in the country. (Tuel Lane on the Rochdale Canal is the deepest at 19’8.5″. We did that in 2021)

We like the West End between Devizes and Bath so much that we went up and down it twice. We had Becky from America visiting and it seemed such a shame not to do some proper touristing, so there’s been a lot of eating, drinking and fun.

It was in the unlikely setting of Bath’s Guildhall Indoor Market I had possibly the best cocktail ever – a marmalade martini.

On the return trip we girls went to the Thermae Bath Spa and after a couple of hours floating around in the warm Bath water, I thoroughly recommend it.

The beautiful Warleigh Weir at Claverton, complete with wild swimmers

It wouldn’t be my blog if I didn’t find out something obscure to tell you. We were having a stroll around Bathampton one evening when I happened on a plaque on the side of a building. After Wiliam Harbutt invented Plasticine in 1897, until 1983 the factory that made it was sited there. What a shame Wallace and Gromit weren’t from Bath instead of Yorkshire!

William Harbutt looks rather friendly, don’t you think?

Caen Hill is made up of 29 locks, the Lower Seven, or Foxhangers Locks, the main hill of 16, and the 6 Devizes Locks at the top. There are wonderful volunteer lock keepers who help with the 16, but you’re on your own for the rest. On the way down with Penny and Andrew as a pair we did all 29 in one day. I’m not in a hurry to repeat that. On the way up we moored at the bottom of the hill, waited for the locks to open and went up as a single boat. Martyn and I share the driving, but poor Becky wound every single lock. Thank goodness for that brewery at the top.

There she is, waiting for the hard graft in the morning

We think the attraction between us and the K&A must be mutual. The canal wants to keep us here. We are currently moored at Pewsey, and for a few more days at least, we’re stuck. Both the old and new electric pumps failed at the Crofton Summit. They had to resort to firing up the boilers and running the steam pumps to rewater the canal. Those pumps date from 1812 and 1845, thank goodness they are still operational. Now we are just waiting for a repair to a lock at Hungerford (which was due to be fixed during the winter, but it wouldn’t wait) and hoping that another one that looks dodgy a bit further east holds out long enough for us to get through. It’s a long way back to Lancashire.