Grandparents Gadabout - Week 4

 Monday 14th June - Fotheringhay to Wansford Railway Station

One of the locks we went through was Elton Lock, we used to go to Elton when we lived in Peterborough, have a babysitter and go out to the Crown at Elton, lovely memories!  

I was looking forward to an ice cream from this kiosk at Yarwell Lock, but unfortunately it was all locked up and a notice on the door informed us that the owner had passed away in February of Motor Neurone Disease at the age of 58, very sad! 

We moored for the evening at Wansford Railway Bridge and took a walk back into the village of Wansford.  This is the church at Stibbington, a village we walked through.  It doesn’t have a tower and I discovered that a tower was built in the 1500’s only to be demolished in 1848/49 because it became unsafe.

I rather like this house in Stibbington, it looks a little like a  gingerbread house, most edible! 

This is The Haycock at Wansford.  We used to visit here with our young children and treat ourselves to a cream tea either in the lounge or garden depending on the weather, I remember the scones were enormous and delicious!  It is in the process of a major refurbishment, so we weren’t able to sample their cream tea this time! 

Parked at the back of the Nene Valley Railway, we found Thomas the Tank Engine!  Although there was lots of activity, we had missed the actual opening times.  Later in June, Thomas is celebrating his 50th birthday.  The little blue engine spent its entire working life at the British Sugar Corporation Peterborough factory pushing wagons of sugar beet up an incline until the day came when a diesel engine replaced the steam power of Thomas. The Peterborough Railway Society purchased this delightful little engine on 9th September 1973 and he was moved to the Nene Valley Railway, where he has since delighted his friends and children of all ages.

9.5 miles, 4 locks, 4 hrs 18 mins.

Tuesday 15th June - Wansford Railway Bridge to Peterborough Embankment

Our first lock of the day was Waternewton Lock, it is one of the prettiest locks on this river.  Water Newton is world famous because of the discovery in 1975 of the 4th century Water Newton Treasure at the site of the nearby Roman town of Durobrivae, in the parish. The treasure is the earliest known Christian mass silver in the world and is now in the British Museum.  It also has a Roman tomb in the graveyard.

The Watermill taken from the other side of the lock.  Three water mills at Water Newton are mentioned in the Domesday survey, the present mill, which replaced an older structure bears the date 1791.  It has been developed into 5 dwellings.

The mounds in this picture could be the pottery kilns where calcite-gritted cooking pots were produced dating to the late 1st century AD.  Clay and wood could be brought in by the Nene and the finished pots dispatched by water.

At the last lock of the day we came across two boats with these workmen.  They were cutting back vegetation but kindly let us take their lock which they also worked for us, very kind and most helpful.  Anything to avoid working apparently!  

Festival Boat was commissioned from the artist as part of the final ‘Festival of Sculpture’ in 1989 which marked the end of the Development Corporation in Peterborough. This large scale artwork rests on the bank of the River Nene in Thorpe Meadows and takes as its inspiration from its location and the festival boats used ceremonially in the artist's native Nigeria.

After putting on water, we moored on Peterborough Embankment and walked into the city.  Peterborough Cathedral is dedicated to St Peter whose sculpture is in the centre of the magnificent West Front of the building.  

9.5 miles,3 locks, 3 hrs 24 mins.

Wednesday 16th June - Peterborough to March

We left our mooring early to get to Stanground Lock in time for 9am.  We were half an hour early but it was a pleasant morning and Dave took Toby for a gentle walk.  By 9am we were in the lock and descending on to the Middle Levels, Julie checked with us that we had the correct windlass and key to open gates and taps and we were on our way! 

Only one lock today, just outside Whittlesey.  The windlass fits on top of the metal bollard in the foreground on the photo, Dave said it was 90 turns to open or close the paddles!  Although these locks are wide, they aren’t wide enough to take 2 narrowboats, so it is one at a time. 

There are several of these pillboxes along the banks of the Old River Nene, it was part of the massive defence strategy against invasion during the Second World War.

A view along the waterway we have come along, a straight even ditch stretching away into the distance, where the water meets the horizon at a point.

The Greenwich Meridian crosses the Fens at this point and is marked by this structure.  I saw it at the last minute so it isn’t very clear, I found this fascinating, that we had cruised over the Greenwich Meridian!  

We cruised into March and found the visitor moorings empty apart from one boat, so we moored up for the evening.  Dave did some shopping and we went to the local key cutter to see if we could get some keys cut for the engine.  We were asked to go back in the morning as the owner wasn’t there at the time.  Weather is forecast to break down, so we stayed on board whilst the rain set in.

16 miles, 2 locks, 5 hrs 12 mins.

Thursday 17th June - March to Upwell Church Bridge

A much greyer day today with light rain showers.  The fens look dark and foreboding, as we continue our journey across them.  

There is a lot of weed in the water, and we passed these weed gathering boats collecting great shovel loads full and depositing it on the adjacent fields.

We decided to moor for the day on the visitor moorings below St Peter’s Church in Upwell, we intend to continue to Salters Lode tomorrow in time to catch the ebbing tide.  A pleasant mooring with Joanne’s Pantry across the road, perfect! 

Once the rain had dried up we went for a walk around the back of Upwell, we couldn’t do the circular route as it was too overgrown, but it was a pleasant ‘out and back’.  We saw this very young calf suckling from its mother when she would stand still long enough! 

I was intrigued by this tower in the property behind the church.  The property is Welle Manor Hall a 14th century hall, which has towers that flank the former courtyard entrance in the wall, which has since been demolished.  They are octagonal and date to around 1480, constructed of brick and retain their original brick spiral staircase.  The East tower has since been converted into a dovecote.

7 miles, 1 locks, 2 hrs  24 mins.

Friday 18th June - Upwell

Today the weather has taken a turn for the worst, heavy rain and high winds.  We have decided that we don’t want to tackle the tidal Great Ouse in these conditions and have delayed until tomorrow, when the conditions are forecast to be much better!  So a day on the boat catching up with admin and playing scrabble!

Saturday 19th June - Upwell to Denver Visitor Moorings.

A much better day weather wise, less wind and dry but still cloudy and cool.  We set out from Upwell early to make it down to Salter’s Lode for 12.40 when the passages are allowed to go through.  I think this narrowboat completes the family, with both eldest girl’s names on it!  

Crossing the fens, a flat and wide open landscape, with this line of electricity pylons marching across fields in a perfectly straight line, you could see them for miles! 

A converted windmill without the sales, called Mill House, very attractive and beautifully done on the outside. 

When we got to Salter’s Lode there were three boats ahead of us and one came after us, but as there wasn’t any mooring space left they buttied up alongside.  We had to wait for another hour before Paul the lock keeper started to let the boats through.  It was a neap tide, so he was able to let the boats out on the incoming tide once there was enough water, right through to the outgoing tide, a window of about 2.5 to 3 hours.

There were some fishermen near us and here one of them had just caught an eel, and they were trying to remove the hook.  It was a good size, but the fisherman didn’t like them and it went back in the water.  He was fishing for Zander.

We have just left the lock and turned right and heading up to Denver Sluice and onto the River Great Ouse.  The water was just beginning to ebb, so the flow was minimal and quite gentle.  We made the turn with no problems and sailed into Denver Lock beautifully.  The Denver Complex is amazing with sluices and locks regulating the water within the Great Ouse.  The stretch of water between Denver and Ely rarely floods because of the work of the sluice to keep the the water on an even level.

We moored up at the visitor moorings at Denver and spent the night there, tomorrow we shall continue down into Ely. 

6.75 miles, 2 locks, 3 hrs, 12 mins.

Sunday 20th June - Denver Sluice to Ely

We woke to grey skies and relentless drizzle, fortunately there are no low bridges between Denver and Ely so we were able to cruise with the pram hood up keeping the worst of the rain off us!  This is a lovely stretch of the river but it really didn’t do justice to itself in these conditions!  

Coming into Ely we passed the boat house, where many of the crews were out on the water practising. This was where the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race was held this year, we happened to be visiting and saw the TV presenters talking to camera outside the boathouse.

After we had moored up, Lizzie came to find us which was lovely, she came bearing gifts for Father’s Day!  We then had lunch at Peacocks Tearooms, very pleasant indeed!  

Ely Cathedral, an imposing building, and we walk past it to reach Laura’s home.  We intend staying in the area for the next two weeks to help out with our grand twins and live on the boat.  All very exciting!  

16 miles, 0 locks, 3 hrs 42 mins.