Good beer on the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation

1st October 2011

The three hours of the cruise on Victoria went all too quickly. We winded at Little Baddow Lock ...


... Colin cut his cake ...


... and we returned to Paper Mill Lock.


I must mention the food and drink. The cold buffet was delicious, and the bar stocked some decent bottled ales. I can vouch for the Adnam's Southwold Bitter (4.1%).

Paper Mill Lock Cruises

1st October 2011

The trip boat we went on for Colin's birthday party was wb Victoria, operated by Paper Mill Lock Cruises. (I was sure I'd taken a photograph of Victoria before, but perhaps I didn't.) The same company runs the tea room at the lock, which, from our one visit (to date), is very good and very good value. When we got there on Saturday we'd driven down from Norfolk after a 5.5 mile walk (with the local walking group) and no lunch. The toasted teacake and two large mugs of Earl Grey went down a treat!


The weather, as I've mentioned, was perfect. After we winded at Rushes Lock we were heading towards the setting sun.


The Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation is a scenic rural waterway running from Chelmsford to Heybridge in Essex. At Heybridge there's a sea lock, so perhaps Sarah and Jim could bring Singapore onto it if they wished. Some of the bridges are low, though, so I don't know how far they'd get.


Doubtless the Tuesday Night Club has done this waterway. Yes, I've just looked it up. They did it in Earnest (how did they get it there?) and have a large number of photos on their trip report.

A trip on the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation

1st October 2011

It was Colin's surprise 60th birthday party yesterday. It wasn't much of a surprise that he was 60 (or very nearly so), no, the party was a surprise. Colin is Jan's sister Jill's husband. Jill had organised an excursion on wb Victoria, a trip boat based at Paper Mill Lock on the Chelmer and Blackwater. Despite the large number of people in the party - 36 family members, friends, neighbours and work colleagues - Colin had had no idea we were all going to be there.



At 4.00 pm we were pushed away from the bank...


... and straight into Paper Mill Lock.


It was somehow comforting to see rope marks in a coping stone at the lock.


The windlass the trip boat crew used has a curious kink. I asked them why it was shaped like that, and they could not give any convincing answer. I would think it's for artistic reasons - unless you know differently.


We had perfect weather for the trip: warm - even hot - and sunny. Standing in the bow, taking in the gently passing scenery, was excellent. I did ask if I could join the crew at the business end for some of it, but, understandably, that was not allowed.


We winded just above the next lock, Rushes Lock.


I'll write more about this trip, and the excellent tea room and beer, with more photos, later.

Papermill Lock

We drove to South Woodham Ferrers yesterday for a family birthday gathering. On the way we stopped briefly where we crossed the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation in Essex.


This is Papermill Lock, where the old stables have been converted into The Old Stables Tearoom. There's a good account of the fourteen mile waterway here: the navigation was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1793; horse-drawn barges survived into the 1950s, and the last diesel lighter loaded timber from a Scandinavian steamer for Browns Wharf in 1972.


The above photo shows the weir; the lock cut is out of shot to the left. For a bit of fun I played around with iPhoto to produce the image below.

Hoe Mill Lock

On my way to an Essex village last Sunday I crossed the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation at Hoe Mill Lock, so I stopped to take some pictures.

Another pic to come when system allows.