Attaching a video camera to my bicycle

It took most of the morning, but I eventually managed to fix my elderly camcorder to my bicycle.

I had been asked to film a short cycling tour of Wymondham in Norfolk from the cyclist's point of view. It's intended for use in a care home - residents will be able to pedal a static bicycle and see the film on a screen in front of them.

I hope it's OK - being fixed to the handlebars means that every bump and wobble is highly visible!

Old pumping engine at Wolverton Aqueduct

While I'm on the subject of Wolverton Aqueduct, here are some photos I took of an ancient static engine on the north bank of the River Great Ouse, which the aqueduct crosses.

It looks like it used to power a pump ...

... which lifted water from the river to the canal above.

I wonder when it last saw service.

Top Thirty, 2013 week 1

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 1815 on Sunday 6th January 2013. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 Pennine Waterways (=)

3 CanalPlanAC (=)

4 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

5 Waterway Routes (=)

6 nb Epiphany (=)

7 Retirement with No Problem (+2)

8 UKCanals Network (-1)

9 Water Explorer (+1)

10 Granny Buttons (-2)

11 Towpath Treks (+4)

12 boatshare (+4)

13 nb Waiouru (-2)

14 Jannock Website (-1)

15 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (-1)

16 Baddie the Pirate (+6)

17 Canal Shop Company (+2)

18 Boats and Canals Forum (-1)

19 ExOwnerships (+7)

20 Narrowboat Briar Rose (-8)

21 Halfie (+7)

22 Seyella's Journey (+5)

23 Narrowboat Bones (-3)

24 nb Lucky Duck (+1)

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

26 Boatshed Grand Union (-3)

27 boats and cruising (-3)

28 Milburn Boats Ltd (+2)

29 Waterlily (-)

30 Rock n Roll (-)


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 180 entries, up from 176 last week.

How the Great Ouse was crossed before Wolverton Aqueduct was built

When the Grand Junction Canal was built the river Great Ouse was crossed on the level. This entailed boats locking down to the river and up again the other side. Having walked through the foot tunnel under the aqueduct I found part of the original canal still in water.

The fact that it was in water might have had something to do with the high level of the river - there was a lot of the wet stuff around!

An old lock gate appeared to be floating in a lake.

Just to the south of this point I could see an actual lock, but my access was barred by all the water. I didn't fancy getting wet feet, so I left further exploration for another time.

This area has had a fair amount of money thrown at it recently. The iron trunk aqueduct itself was repainted in 2012; and a cast metal interpretation sign gives lots of useful detail. (Click on photos to enlarge).

I can't help thinking CRT's plan for a "viewing platform" is rather over the top (so to speak).

If you want to look at the aqueduct it is easily viewed, both from the towpath and from below (see yesterday's post for piccies). Why is a platform needed? Disabled access, I suppose. Is this the reason?

Cosgrove Wolverton Iron Trunk Aqueduct

A few days ago we were moored by the recently repainted 201-year-old aqueduct over the Great Ouse at Cosgrove.

It always seems to be called the "Iron Trunk Aqueduct", as if the iron trunk construction is somehow special. Yet there are several other examples of iron trunk aqueducts including at least three on the Stratford Canal, and, of course, Pontcysyllte on the Llangollen Canal. Unlike those, though, the one at Cosgrove is built to accommodate wide beam boats ...

... not that you can tell from this shot of the towpath in the morning sun.

Did you know that the embankment each side of the iron trunk is pierced by two foot tunnels?

On the northern side is a gate which appears to prevent access, but it swings open easily.

Passing through the southern tunnel enables an exploration of the original line of the canal. Find out in a subsequent post how my plan to do this was scuppered.

Plane in tree

Opposite where we tied up briefly in Cosgrove two days ago Jan spotted something in a tree.

Is it a bird? No. Is it a plane? Yes!

Oops!

Digging the Buckingham Canal, and a discussion on maximum draft

I left you with a tease yesterday about something interesting I discovered on the Buckingham Canal. The Buckingham Canal? Yes, although this has lain mostly derelict for decades, there is a Buckingham Canal Society dedicated to restoring this branch of the Grand Union from Cosgrove to Buckingham.

This is a section near Cosgrove: the line and profile easy to see. Just add water?

According to Bradshaw* the Old Stratford and Buckingham Branch is 10 miles 6 furlongs in length, with two locks - Hyde Lane Lock and Buckingham Lock. The only navigable section at the moment is a couple of hundred yards' worth at the Cosgrove end. It finishes at a filled-in and mostly destroyed bridge.

I started to walk along the pleasantly rural section when I came across a bunch of people, some in hi-vis jackets, standing in the middle of the canal.

What were they doing? Digging a hole in the canal bed, that's what they were doing!

These were members of the aforementioned BCS investigating where the puddled clay lining began and ended.

The problem was that much of the geology of the area is clay-ey, so that they were having difficulty distinguishing the natural clay from the clay puddle.

Some things were obviously not clay at all!

Want to see down the hole? Oh, all right then! (The colour is a little strange as I used flash, and the bottom looks nearer the top than it really is. See above photos of arm and spade down hole to get an idea of depth!)

I joined in a discussion on maximum draft of laden working boats: consulting Bradshaw again I find I wasn't too far out when I suggested that few boats would draw more than 3' 6"; a workable maximum being 3'. Bradshaw indicates that an unladen narrow boat would draw between 8" and 11"; adding about an inch per ton of load. With maximum loads of between 25 and 30 tons this would give 41" or 3' 5" as the maximum draft. 25 tons on a boat drawing 8" unladen gives 2' 9" draft. For boats actually to be able to move along the canal, of course, a greater depth of water is essential - the deeper the better! Am I right in thinking that many canals were designed to be dredged to 5'?

When eventually restored it will be great to cruise this almost lock-free (depending on how obstacles are overcome) canal. Here's Cosgrove Hall near the start.

I was pleased that one of the team had a supply of recruiting leaflets - I think I'm going to have to join! I have no excuse not to: the chairman of the BCS is Athina Beckett, a former colleague of mine from BBC OUPC days in Milton Keynes.

*Bradshaw's Canals and Navigable Rivers of England and Wales (1904)

New year's cruise ends with sunshine and curry

We're back at home in Norfolk now, after a very enjoyable four days on the canal. Over that time we've had rain, wind and cold; but today we had wall-to-wall sunshine with little wind. A bit chilly, too, but a price worth paying for such superb cruising conditions.

We woke on still waters opposite the Taverners Boat Club at Thrupp Wharf on the Grand Union. Funnily enough, that's where we moored last night.

The sun glared down without imparting much in the way of heat. Sometimes it was difficult to see where we were going - you can shield your eyes from the direct sun, but not so easily from the reflected sun on the water.

At Cosgrove Lock the Buckingham Canal branches off to the west (that's the fork to the right in the photo), but not much is in water now.

We tied up below the lock for a short while as Jan wanted to walk round the village. I wanted to explore the Buckingham Canal, so we went in different directions. I came across something interesting going on on my walk - I'll tell you about it in a later post!

Oh yes, the curry. After loading the car and cleaning Jubilee ready for Ally and Ben's return in a couple of days, we got a curry from the Milton Keynes Massala - the takeaway which is all of twenty paces from the bow doors - and ate it on board before driving home.