Tony Hales meets Andrew Denny

At Braunston two summers ago I saw Andrew Denny (on the right) talking to someone I recognised but couldn't immediately put a name to.

It's Tony Hales, who was then the chairman of British Waterways, and who is now the chairman of the Canal and River Trust.

The occasion was the annual historic boats gathering, and I believe the location was the towpath bridge over the entrance to Braunston Marina.

Stuck south of Calcutt

Unless we can somehow get Shadow moved north of Calcutt Locks it looks like we won't be cruising to Birmingham.


I received a prompt reply from the South Eastern waterways office, which confirmed that Calcutt Locks will close for maintenance, as planned, on 11th February.

Graffiti smoke effect

It's a shame this photo is blurred, as the graffiti on the bridge could be the outline of a plume of smoke coming from Victoria's chimney.

Ashby Canal, August 2012

With regard to our route planning problem: I e-mailed Damian Kemp of CRT - he who sends out the regular Boaters' Update e-mails - and received a prompt reply. I'd asked him if the stoppage information is likely to be up-to-date, and he said it was. He gave me the e-mail addresses of the appropriate waterways regional offices and suggested I contact them for first-hand info. I'm just waiting for a reply from the South East Waterways office ...

Route planning scuppered by stoppages

The last time we were on Shadow was last September, almost half a year ago. This was the weather then:

Forward to the present ... and, oh dear. We were planning to be on Shadow for a few days, taking it from Wigram's Turn to Birmingham. The boat needs to be at BCBM's shared ownership boat show at the beginning of March, but the stoppage information from CRT seems to indicate that there would be a problem.

Grand Union Canal »

1. Stoppage: Calcutt Lock 1 to 3

   11 Feb 2013 - 01 Mar 2013

   Associated Regional Office: South East Waterways
   Relining of lock gates.
   (Enquiries: 03030 404040)

Coventry Canal »

1. Stoppage: Atherstone Lock 7

   07 Jan 2013 - 01 Mar 2013

   Associated Regional Office: Central Shires Waterways
   Repair / Rebuild Lock Landing
   (Enquiries: 03030 404040)
   The towpath is also closed

We were intending to leave Wigram's Turn Marina after 11th Feb, i.e. after the Calcutt stoppage is due to start. An alternative route to Nantwich, via North Oxford, Coventry, T&M and Middlewich Branch Canals is blocked by the closure at Atherstone Locks.

I'll have to contact CRT to ask if this stoppage info is up-to-date.

Water meter installed at home

Just before I left for work the other day (30/01/13) a large white van struggled down the driveway and a man in overalls and a dirty hi-vis vest banged on the door. I had forgotten that we'd agreed to have a water meter installed - this was the team of two from May Gurney who were about to fit it.

Here is the meter, about two feet down a tube at the top of the garden. It's now up to us to opt in to metered water. If we do nothing we'll continue to receive bills based on our house's notional "rateable value".

We've always been careful with our water use, and we stand to save at least £100 per year with metered water. I'll have to send off the form.

Water bills are something most boat dwellers don't have to worry about - although boaters have to be rather more hands-on when it comes to getting water and disposing of sewage.

Top Thirty, 2013 week 5

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 0855 on Sunday 3rd February 2013. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 CanalPlanAC (=)

4Waterway Routes (+3)

5 Retirement with No Problem (=)

6 UKCanals Network (+2)

7 Water Explorer (+2)

8 Living on a Narrowboat (-)

9 nb Epiphany (-3)

10 Granny Buttons (=)

11 nb Waiouru (=)

12 Jannock Website (=)

13 boatshare (+2)

14 Towpath Treks (=)

15 Baddie the Pirate (+4)

16 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (-3)

17 Canal Shop Company (=)

18 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (-14)

19 Contented Souls (-3)

20 Boats and Canals Forum (+6)

21 Derwent6 (+4)

22 Boatshed Grand Union (+7)

23 One Thing After Another (+1)

24 boats and cruising (-)

25 Milburn Boats Ltd (-)

26 Halfie (+4)

27 Rock n Roll (-6)

28 nb Lucky Duck (-10)

29 Narrowboat Briar Rose (-1)

30 boatrent (-)

31 Narrowboat dreaming ... Parisien Star (-4)

32 Narrowboat Bones (-12)


The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous chart;
(-) denotes new entry or re-entry into the chart;
(=) denotes no change.

There are 182 entries, up from 180 last week.

Accepting Safari upgrade means my Hotmail now works again

On my elderly Apple iMac G5 I've been struggling for years with Hotmail. I could read messages, sometimes, but it wouldn't allow me to send or forward messages. Rather frustrating, as you can imagine. For the last two or three years I've had to use the slow PC laptop, or wait until I was at work.

Also, my computer really didn't like the recent changes to Blogger. On selecting my blog it appeared without the bar at the top, so there was no "New Post" to click on. In order to create a new post I've been having to click on all sorts of things to make it work.

But a few minutes ago the icon indicating a software update started bouncing, so I clicked on it and selected an update to Safari, my computer's browser. I can't remember this ever having been updated before, and this was the reason for internetty things failing to work as they should. I was dreading the mandatory restart. Would anything work again? Would I be able to post to this blog?

Well, Safari now comes up with a funny "preview" window thing, and the tabs look slightly different - but - Hooray! Hotmail now seems to work again! I can actually send a message! And my blog has come up looking like it should, so I can easily create a new post!

To celebrate, here's a derelict warehouse by the Grand Union Canal in Wolverton. The sun shone through from the other side at the instant I snapped the photo, so I've played with the image a little.

This is what it looked like before I tweaked it in iPhoto.

Here it is again, without the blinding sun.

My online life, such as it is, is going to be a lot easier now.

Paddington Basin reflections

Paddington Basin, the terminus of the Paddington Branch of the Grand Union Canal in London, is surrounded by new-looking high-rise buildings. These crowd in on the waterway, seemingly jostling for the best position. Last month I took three photos there, and here they are.

I like these reflections ...

... which are part of the first photo.

The building at the end, resembling part of a giant electric shaver or perhaps a toast rack on its side, appears to be called "Grand Union" (photo two).

Looking this up, however, it seems that the name refers only to an upmarket bar, presumably on the ground floor. If I remember correctly the rest is a hotel (photo three).

I wonder how many of the clientele appreciate the significance of the name.