Grandparents Gadabout - Week 10

 Monday 26th July - St Neots to Great Barford

 

A pleasant cruise to Great Barford where we moored on the village green.  We walked into the village, about 20 minutes walk, and were impressed with the village setting, lovely houses and stunning gardens.

Later in the day we walked along the river as far as Willington Lock.  On the way we passed Barford Old Mill Lock, a disused lock on the river Great Ouse between Willington and Great Barford. Nothing remains of the old mill from which the lock takes its name.

This is the former lock keeper's cottage. Datestone "TGC 1845", TGC referrinq to Thomas Cullum, owner of navigation rights for this part of the river. It is looking very derelict now. 

An evening photo of Ella taken from the other side of the river after all the children had gone home to have their tea! 

7.5 miles, 2 locks, 3 hrs 18 mins

Tuesday 27th July - Great Barford to Bedford

Today we left Great Barford and began our cruise to the final point of this section of our journey.  Bedford is our destination where we will turn around and head back to Worcester.  This is Cardington Lock in Priory Park.  When I was a child we lived in Shortstown, living quarters for RAF personnel, whilst my Dad worked at RAF Henlow.  The hangers at Cardington have been used for a variety of purposes, recently as theatrical stage settings for several movies.  

We continued on to Bedford and passed through Bedford Town Lock, we met the John Bunyan Community Boat which offers a range of scenic river cruises along the River Great Ouse in Bedford, enabling both local people and visitors to Bedford access to the wonderful river environment.  They were on a volunteer training exercise.

The Embankment has been developed recently, but we found that the moorings were difficult for us to access because of Toby and ended up mooring in front of the water point beside the Star Rowing Club.  The river is navigable to Kempston Mill, but there are no moorings and it is unlikely we would be able to turn the boat around, so we decided against that part of the river. 

My sister, Helen, now lives in Kempston and she collected us from the boat and we went to see her new home.  At various times, both my mother and my brother have lived in Kempston.

Helen took us for a walk around Addison Howard Park, the main park in Kempston, and forms the grounds for the Grange Estate, a large residential house within the park which appears semi derelict.  The park was given to the community of Kempston by the Howards,  whose son died at the battle of the Somme aged 23.

7.25 miles, 4 locks, 3 hrs 54 mins

Wednesday 28th July - Bedford

Today we stayed in Bedford and went for a walk along the riverbank.  In the afternoon I went to visit my Mum who lives in a care home in Bedford, only the second time I have seen her since the pandemic started.  

After an exhausting day we opted for take away pizza from Zizzi’s, and it was delicious!

Thursday 29th July - Bedford to Great Barford

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A sunnier day today, so we decided to move on and begin our return journey to Worcester.  Owing to the rain over the last few days, the river was flowing a little faster and it was windy, so getting into Bedford lock was a bit of a challenge!  This is Castle Mill Lock, surprisingly deep when the water is emptied out!  

The drop over the weir is quite deep and with all the water rushing down I was struggling to slow the boat down enough for Dave to get onboard - and he had time to take a photo!  

We went for a walk into Great Barford and saw the visiting fish and chip van, we were trying to buy gherkins for our beefburgers and the lady cook kindly let us have two even though we didn’t have any cash on us - a lovely kind lady!  A lovely bbq with delicious gherkins for supper!

7.25 miles, 4 locks, 3 hrs.

Friday 30th July - Great Barford to St Neots

A wet and windy cruise into St Neots, with fast flowing water at the locks, which was a little challenging.  We got into St Neots and moored up on the Regatta Meadow moorings, just in time before the heavens opened for a torrential downpour!  Dave did some shopping and we have spent a quiet afternoon on the boat.

7.75 miles, 2 locks, 2 hrs 42 mins.

Saturday 31st July - St Neots to Houghton

Today we left our mooring on the Meadow and headed for St Neots Lock.  When we got there we were asked to wait as there was a boat travelling upstream to the boatyard in St Neots and it had been burnt out, although still drivable. Apparently it was an elderly couple, she was sat with a burning candle and he changed the gas bottle, the whole thing went up in flames, she was not hurt but he ended up in Intensive Care and then the burns unit.  Whilst we were waiting for the boat to go through the lock another cruiser turned up and stopped following a loud noise, a problem with the propeller and engine meaning that it had no power.  So we offered to tow them to their home mooring at Jones’ Boatyard in St Ives.  

We managed to find a mooring for both boats after Houghton Lock where we stayed for the night, a pretty little island with plenty of EA moorings on it.  

I would never have thought we would experience towing on our narrowboat, I haven’t even experienced towing on the road, so it was quite an event!  Apart from a couple of mishaps with some moored boats and a low bridge we came through relatively unscathed and it was lovely to meet and help out this delightful family. 

13 miles, 5 locks, 6 hrs 18 mins.

Sunday 1st August - Houghton to Holywell

This morning we woke to light drizzle and winds, set off about 9am and headed through Hemingford Lock and then down into St Ives.  The boat, Trulof, is owned by Pete Enderlein and  Katrin Linse and their son Tim, both from Germany.  They have been here for 20 years and work for British Antarctic Survey, she is a Senior Biodiversity Biologist looking at life in the deep oceans and he heads the AME Mechanical Engineering.  He is heavily involved with the work around the The RRS Sir David Attenborough, commissioned by NERC, built by Cammell Laird for operation by British Antarctic Survey, and is one of the most advanced polar research vessels in the world.

We left their boat at Jones’ Boatyard and continued in to fill up with diesel and water.  They came to wave us off as we went through St Ives Lock and headed down to Holywell.  We were fortunate to get a mooring and after some lunch went for a very soggy walk and back to the boat for a quiet evening!  

5.5 miles, 2 locks, 2 hrs, 48 mins.