Leaving Brandon and the River Little Ouse with a few hours of uninterrupted fenland cruising, we turned to port (left) on to the Great Ouse again and soon came to the outskirts of Littleport.
Littleport was the site of the Littleport Riots of 1816. War-weary veterans from the Battle of Waterloo had returned home, only to find that they could not get any work, and that the grain prices had gone up. They took to the streets and smashed shops and other buildings until troops came to put an end to the riots.
In 2003, a Harley-Davidson statue was unveiled in Littleport to commemorate the centenary of the famous motorcycle company. William Harley, the father of the company's co-founder William Sylvester Harley, had been born in Victoria Street, Littleport, in 1835, before emigrating to America and making a life over there.
The village is quite large with a lot of new housing, a railway station, a few shops with a slightly behind the times feel, rather nice.
Moving on again and we turned off the Great Ouse to explore the River Lark, another quiet peaceful fenland river.
Where the buildings you can see on the banks are often river related, like this old windmill or wind pump, and drainage pumping station.
On our way to its navigable end we passed a cleared area of bank with what looked like a headstone set in the middle.
The inscription reads:
The Reverend Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Prince of Preachers was baptised here on
May 3rd 1850.
Spurgeon was a well respected Baptist Minister, famous for his evangelical sermons. He was the minister at the London Tabernacle and there is a Baptist Training College named after him in Norwood Hill, London.
Brandon – Judes Ferry
26 miles, 1 lock
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