We drove to Stratford St. Mary in Suffolk today to meet Jan's parents for lunch. We were early as we'd dropped Ewan off at Amazonia near Eye so he could collect his P1800 (that's his car, not forty lots of his cards), and so that I could check on progress on my Amazon (corrosion being dealt with).
We parked at one end of the village and walked to the other. Along the way we saw an interesting waterworks building ...
a charity shop with no walls or roof ...
an ancient house ...
coloured pretty houses ...
and the church (locked.)
We ended up at Hall Farm shop and restaurant where we had a very good coffee and hot chocolate. Jan says it's probably the best hot chocolate she's had. (Hmm. Should I refuse to make hot chocolate for her again?)
Back to The Swan for lunch (passable, but my steak was well done, not the medium-rare I ordered).
After chatting for a while we returned to Hall Farm for tea and cake, again, good. Jan's parents drove back home, and we walked in the direction of Dedham, one mile as indicated by a footpath sign. As we didn't have an OS map with us we just trusted that we'd find our way. And we did, but it was two miles: one mile parallel to and 20 yards from the A12 dual carriageway; the other mile along the River Stour. I remarked to Jan that the river used to be navigable ...
... then we came upon Dedham Lock. And Dedham Lock was actually in use!
A boat, the Stour Trusty II, had just descended; and the lock was being refilled to comply with Environment Agency regulations (a full lock being "safer" than an empty one). I talked to Michael Graham (the one with the handspike) and Mick Rogers (the one with the rope) of the River Stour Trust as they raised the paddles using handspikes ...
... then pulled the top gates open with ropes.
Balance beams apparently hadn't been invented when this river was originally made navigable (1705?), and the lock has obviously been restored as close as possible to its original state.
It was interesting seeing the handspikes: the last time we encountered these means of raising gate paddles was when we cruised the Calder and Hebble in 2005. The handspike itself can be any stout piece of wood about three feet long - Michael and Mick were using pickaxe handles - which slots into a cylinder mounted on top of the gate. This raises or lowers the paddle using a chain.
The need to leave the lock full, the use of handspikes for the paddle gear and detachable ropes for the gates, and the need to padlock everything afterwards, makes passage through locks on the Stour a slow process. The steerer of the boat hung about patiently before picking up the two Michaels from the lock tail.
The Stour Trusty II is electrically propelled, any form of combustion engine being banned here.
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