Woolhampton

We had a good journey down from Newbury this morning, the flows on the river sections is much less than those we were fighting against on the way up a few weeks ago.  The warm, dry weather we have been enjoying means the hedgerows, trees and river banks are looking so lush and green.  And today we have heard our first cuckoo of 2013.

We stopped at Woolhampton at lunchtime, to take a wander round the village.
 
At the crossroads is this impressive fountain commemorating Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee in 1897. The motto ‘Righteousness Exalteth A Nation’ is take from the book of Proverbs in the Bible.


Ian liked this home, and especially as it is called ‘The Old Barn’, reminding him of his favourite Just William stories.




This old sign on the side of a house shows it to have been the village bakery.  There is a little village shop, closed today for the Bank Holiday.







An unusual frontage to this house, whether a folly or for some good purpose, I don’t know.







Bridge cottage, beside the automatic swing road bridge.










The Rowbarge pub was heaving with customers at all the picnic tables and picnickers on the grass, having arrived on bikes, foot, cars and boat……..






even on surfboards!
   
    
The challenge of leaving Woolhampton could not be put off. Into the lock, and open the swingbridge, before leaving the lock and following the flow of the river round the bend and hope that we get through the gap safely, especially with all the gongoozlers at the pub.
We worked the lock with Peter and Jan on nb Liza, who are locals and quite relaxed about the procedure.  Jan worked the bridge, so Ian didn’t have to stop to pick me up on the other side, we just swept on through.


Tonight we are moored in a lovely spot at Burghfield Mill, we can just hear the hum of the M4, but we can also hear the birds singing, and see fields of cows and their calves.


13 miles, 16 locks, 10 bridges

A Sunday Surprise

This morning we enjoyed a lie-in and a slow start to the day after the busyness of the last few days, it was very welcome.  The morning service at the Baptist Church didn’t start til 11 so that was good.

At the end of the service I saw someone I recognised, Beat, the sister of my Uncle back in our home church in Sussex. I went and said hello, she remembered me too and welcomed us. Then along came David, her husband who after the introductions then said ‘Would you like treat? I’ve arranged to take some other friends up the Town Hall clock tower, would you like to come too?’

 

 

Well we were not going to miss that opportunity, so we quickly said ‘yes’ and followed him down the road.  David has been looking after the Town Hall clock for over 40 years, as well as number of others in the local area.

 

 

 

 

Once he had let us inside the front door, we made our way up part of the way in a lift, then entered a door into this small room, just a ladder going up.

I wasn’t really dressed for climbing, a long skirt and shoes with low heels, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, so up we went.

 

 

More and more ladders..

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Til we were behind the clock faces.  4 of them facing out over the town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The clock mechanism was making its lovely rhythmic tick-tocking sound, with so many cogs, rods, and wheels slowly turning, and moving the hands on the other side of the clock face minute by minute.

Just as it has been doing since 1881 when it was first installed.

 

 

David has over the years worked on, and taken apart every part of this clock, even the hands on the outside, and the green painted automatic mechanism he has  installed so that he no longer has to climb the tower to wind the clock twice a week as he once did.

 

 

 

 

The heavy pendulum swings just a little way,

regulating the clock movement just right.

 

 

Adjusted by a pile of 2p pieces.

Usually just one added or taken away, summer and winter.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the two bells which mark the quarter hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the larger bell which rings the hour.  We heard it strike for one o’clock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking down through the louvres in the bell tower to the town below.

 

 

 

 

And across the rooftops to St Nicholas' Church which has another clock looked after by David.

 

 

 

Our guide to the tower and the working of ‘his’ clock.

Thanks David we had a great time, a real bonus to our visit to Newbury.

Wootten Rivers remembered

I seem to have so many pictures from the last few days, and we have covered so many miles, I haven’t been able to include everything in each blog post.

 

So I’m hopping back to Thursday when we stopped at Wootten Rivers for the night. It is a real chocolate box type English village, with almost every property thatched, even the pub.

 

 

Houses ancient and modern with their neat and tidy, reedy roofs.

The church is interesting too, with a clock on the tower showing two faces with numerals and one with the message ‘Glory be to God.’

Today we left our quiet mooring at Picketfield lock to start our journey into Newbury. We stopped at Hungerford for bread and a paper and met up with Doug and James one last time, as they are expecting family over the weekend so we shall get ahead now.

We’ve enjoyed meeting up and travelling with them over the past few weeks.  We look forward to seeing them again on our travels.

After that it seemed a long, busy day, working the locks on our own down to Newbury. It was quite windy, making it a bit tricky waiting at locks.  We have seen quite a few boats travelling today, out for the Bank Holiday weekend I guess.

 

Friday

Wootten Rivers – Picketfield: 9.5 miles, 20 locks

Saturday

Picketfield – Newbury: 10.5 miles, 15 locks, 3 bridges

Crofton Pumping Station

 

As we approached Crofton it was with great excitement we noticed smoke from the enormous chimney.  Then we realised that tomorrow was the start of the Bank Holiday weekend and they were probably preparing the boilers for steaming over the weekend.

After we had been through the lock we moored up on the well kept visitor moorings just below the pump house. Nb Chance carried on their journey to Hungerford, having ‘done’ Crofton when travelling in the opposite direction a few weeks ago.

 

We took advantage of the lovely day and the good edge on the right side of the boat and did a bit more work on the red paintwork with the T-cut and polish. It is looking better and better.

 

 

 

 

As we made our way up to the Engine House, we passed a load of coal ready to be put to use over the weekend.

In the old days it would have been delivered by boat, of course.

 

 

 

Once in the building the first thing you notice is the heat coming from the enormous boiler, which was lit and we found out had in fact been running the engines as a trial earlier this morning. Shame we missed that.

The boiler holds 18,000 litres of water and uses 1.25 tonnes of coal per day.

 

Some of the massive spanners needed to make adjustments to the engines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The steam cylinder heads and the steam valves.

 

 

The great beams connecting the driving cylinders to the pumps.  There are two engines here, together capable of pumping 20,0000 litres of water a minute.

 

The water was pumped from Wilton Water a reservoir at canal level 12 metre lower down. It would pour out of these black shutes into the canal leat taking it to the canal summit level a mile or so away.

 

 

 

Enjoying the chimney views.

A Leisure Cruise

Thursday 2nd May
After all our exertions of the day before our start today was leisurely, very much so.  We had a walk into Devizes where the street market was bustling, giving a happy, cheery atmosphere to the town. 

The day ahead was a leisurely cruise with no locks for about 13 miles.  Our neighbours James and Doug has already gone when we finally had got ourselves organised.

With no locks it was a good washing day, and soon all the bedding was hanging out at the front of the boat getting blown in the breeze as we travelled along.

We were enjoying the beautiful countryside, especially the Marlborough Downs which reminded us of the South Downs near our Sussex home.  It was quiet and peaceful, no busy road nearby, and plenty of birdsong in the air.

It's all getting greener by the day. I think you could almost see the leaves opening out in the sun today.
By the time we reached Wootten Rivers, it was about 6.30, so we just worked the first lock which had the gate open ready for us, thanks to Doug and James, and we moored up behind them in the evening sunshine.  Just a perfect leisurely day.

14 miles, 1 lock, 2 bridges

Two by Two

Wednesday 1st May
The sun was shining, the sky was blue, it was a perfect May day and we had the Devizes flight of 29 locks ahead of us to get us up the famous Caen Hill.
We slipped away from our quiet moorings, through the swing bridge and soon we were passing  nb Chance, with Doug and James standing ready to follow on so we could work the locks together.

James had his camera out ready and caught this rare picture of me steering and Ian directing proceedings from the front.

Did I mention the perfect weather, we were soon on our way up the first 7 locks at Foxhangers, before the middle section, the stunning line-up of the sixteen, like a regiment marching up the hill.

Ian and James soon got into a routine of keeping together, and entering and leaving the lock chambers two by two.

With Doug and me (Ian did some) fairly skipping along, we got into a good routine, and with help from the C&RT volunteers emptying locks ready for us, we did the sixteen locks in just 2 hours.

The wonderful views unfolded behind us as we climbed up, it really was a lovely day, maybe I already said that!

Once we got to the top, there was time to give the boat a wash and polish and after a bit of teasing from Doug and James, much encouragement and the generous gift of a bottle of T-cut, Ian even got to work bringing the colour back from pink to red.  I followed along with the polish and Tacet looks a lot better. It was good to have some help with the chores, we'll see what happens next time!

We arranged to eat out at the Black Horse later, well deserved we thought after the busy day.

Here we enjoyed good food, good company and good stories.  Thanks guys we had a lovely day. 

3.5 miles, 29 locks