Geese over Hurleston Locks

I think they're geese.

No, I'm sure they're geese.

OK then, fairly sure.

Camouflaged lift bridge

On our recent cruise on the LLangollen Canal we came upon Tilstock Park Lift Bridge 42. It was at about ten minutes to ten on the morning of Wednesday 21st October. Unnecessary precision? Perhaps, but I was glad we hadn't cruised here in the dark.

Most swing or lift bridges are painted white so that they're visible in gloomy conditions. Not this one. It's been painted green so that it blends in to its surroundings, to avoid offending walkers - or car drivers - no doubt. And what is there to warn boaters of an obstruction at bow fender height? A small oval with the bridge number on it.

Yes, when you're boating after dark you do take more care. You are on the lookout for moored boats, bridges and other obstructions rearing out of the murk. But boats are usually along the edge of the canal; fixed bridges are obvious from their bulk; locks have balance beams partly painted white. Lift bridges are slender affairs and that's why they're painted white. So you can see them. But not here, not on this "pretty" canal.

Rant over.

Very old tree, very careless parking.

After the excitement of discovering the 389th Bomb Group museum at Hethel we continued our November walk past a well preserved bomb shelter...


...to one of the smallest nature reserves in the country. According to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust it has an area of 0.025 hectares (a sixteenth of an acre) - although a new fence has been erected which must have increased its size - and contains just one thing. A hawthorn tree. A 700 year-old hawthorn tree, that is, which makes it the oldest on record in East Anglia. From the website: "In the mid-eighteenth century, the hawthorn trunk measured more than 12 feet in circumference, but is now a shadow of its former self."



Hethel Old Thorn is next to Hethel Church, where we stopped for coffee (in the porch, but I don't suppose anyone would have minded if we'd sat in the pews).


Then we trudged past decaying buildings...


...through an underpass...


...over bridges...


back to the Bird in Hand for lunch.

What we didn't see on the walk was this car parked on a hedge.


Between my recce and the "proper" walk it had been cleared away.

Bombs away! The November walk

Yesterday was the occasion of the monthly Humbleyard Hoofers walk. This time it was our turn to plan the route, so a few weeks ago Jan and I recced an area around Hethel in Norfolk. On this recce we came across some old buildings from the time when Hethel was home to a second world war American air base. A small group of volunteers have preserved the chapel and created a small museum in the old gym. One of the volunteers was there and kindly opened up for us to have a look around, even though it wasn't an "official" opening day. It was amazing! A small, very friendly place, with bits and pieces of wartime paraphernalia. Fascinating. We'd known that Lotus Cars uses the old airfield as a test track but we'd had no idea these other buildings were here.

Right, we thought, we'll include this on our walk.


Back to yesterday. 14 of us (and Jo, the dog) set off from the Bird in Hand pub in Wreningham on a cool November morning. Fortunately the overnight rain had stopped and the sun was now shining: excellent walking weather. Three miles into the walk, having passed the Hethel Engineering Centre near the Lotus Cars factory (Hethel's main claim to fame these days), I directed our group towards the museum. None of the others had been there before, and we were all delighted when, again, a volunteer opened up especially for us.


The chapel had a preserved mural, and lots of artefacts.




There was more in the former gym. The 389th Bombardment Group with B-24 Liberator bombers was based here from 1943 to 1945.

Is this a B-24 propellor and engine? I was told but now I can't remember.


The caption in the photo below reads "Bits and pieces from a B24 Liberator".


I think these shells were waiting to go into a display cabinet.


I like the way lots of things are not encased, though. And the slightly haphazard arrangement leads to surprises when browsing. I could have spent all day here!

That's enough photos for this post. I'll have to continue the write-up of the walk another time.

Top Thirty, 2009 week 49

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking as it stood at 0930 on Sunday 29th November 2009. This is taken from the UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

2 JustCanals.com - Forums (+1)

3 Pennine Waterways (-1)

4 Granny Buttons (=)

5 CanalCuttings.co.uk (=)

6 Retirement with No Problem (=)

7 Towpath Treks (+5)

8 Jannock Website (-1)

9 Narrowboat Gypsy Rover (+1)

10 UKCanals Network (-2)

11 CanalPlanAC (-2)

12 Waterway Routes (+3)

13 Canal Photos (+4)

14 nb Epiphany (-3)

15 Water Explorer (-1)

16 Narrowboat Bones (-3)

17 Derwent6 (+2)

18 Narrowboat Caxton (=)

19 nb Lucky Duck (-3)

20 Tony Clayton's Canal Photographs (+9)

21 Google Earth Canal Maps (-)

22 WB Takey Tezey (-2)

23 Narrowboat Debdale (-)

24 Canal & Narrowboat (=)

25 nb Anonymous Two (-2)

26 Lazy Days (=)

27 Seyella's Journey (-2)

28 nb Warrior (-6)

29 Halfie (+1)

30 Khayamanzi (-)

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

There are 87 entries altogether.

Narrowboats on the Cam to be on BBC TV East

(fleetingly!)

If you watch Inside Out on BBC One (East) at 7.30 pm on Monday 30th November you'll spot that the presenter links (four of them) are shot with the River Cam in the background. No boat names are visible, but if you know the area (James and Amy of Lucky Duck?) you'll probably recognise the narrowboats.

There's not a feature on boating (sadly), but the first item is on a phenomenon known, apparently, as "cyclism": a sort of racism against cyclists. Julie Reinger, a weather presenter on BBC Look East, investigates some of the difficulties faced by - and created by - cyclists in Cambridge. Here's some more about it, including a short excerpt. (I don't know for how long this link will work, though). (But it's let me embed the video!)



Link to the actual programme here. This will work until Monday 6th December 2009.

(edited to add above link)

If we had an Ecofan where would the kettle go?

the boat stove

Well, we held out for a record amount of time. But last night my gas saving strategy came to an end. We switched the central heating on at home. We've been having the log burner going most evenings recently though. On Shadow last month, of course, we had the stove lit most of the time.

In a recent post Adam said that he and the other Debdale owners had agreed to buy an Ecofan for their stove ... but where would the kettle go?


the woodburner at home

BW's "barge" in Birmingham

Question: When is a narrowboat a barge?

Answer: When British Waterways says it is, apparently.


BW's press release section of its website has a photograph of two narrowboats on the BCN in central Birmingham. When you hover the cursor over it you get a caption which reads "A barge moored in Brindley Place Birmingham".

There appear to be several errors here which, considering that this is the place where media organisations look for waterways stories, doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

• There are clearly two boats here, not just one.
  

• The preferred spelling for the area seems to be "Brindleyplace" (ugh), not Brindley Place. Indeed, elsewhere on the same website is an article headed "Brindleyplace celebrates Birmingham’s canals Venetian style".
  

• Many boaters would object to a narrowboat being referred to as a "barge" (but I acknowledge that narrowboats were sometimes loosely called barges by working boaters in the past). These days most cognoscenti accept that barges have a broader beam than narrowboats.
  

Here's a more up-to-date chunk of BW's website:  this photo is hover-over-able.

All Press Releases

Volunteers to give the tern a helping hand

25 November 2009 
The Midlands in November may seem a million miles from the seaside but local families are being urged to do their bit to help Britain’s seabirds in an environment day taking place at Fradley Junction this Saturday (28 November).

This particular "barge" has somehow found its way onto the narrow Birmingham Canal Navigations.