I went
outside and slackened the lines right off and managed to get the front free and
pushed out to the middle of the cut. The
stern wasn’t budging so it would need both of us to sort it out. We decided to put up with the weird angle
inside and had tea and coffee first.
It’s strange how disconcerting it is to be at an angle and how the brain
doesn’t adjust; we thought we would be used to it by now. Even though we know the boat is at an angle
we find it difficult to compensate and often stagger around and bump into
things.
It took us
a while to get the back free and the most effective approach was for both of us
to hang off the boat, over the water, on the side opposite where the boat was
grounded. Whilst we were freeing the
boat a CRT enforcement officer came past.
We asked if there were boats moored further down and he told us the end
was completely free and there were just two moored either side of Little Tring
bridge. As we have always wanted to moor
right at the end we set off.
 |
| The Heygate flour mill on the Wendover arm |
Immediately
after setting off we were passing a flour mill.
It’s such an incongruous building as the arm is so rural and then all of
a sudden, this building appears. I say
all of a sudden, but it takes ages to go past as the water is so shallow and
it’s particularly difficult finding the right channel around the mill. I lost count of the times we had to reverse
and retry a manoeuvre in order to move forwards. We couldn’t believe we got
down the arm in our previous boat which, at 70’, was 13’ longer.
The flour
mill was originally a windmill built in 1875.
Apparently, it was operated by two men milling half a ton of grain an
hour. Today’s automated mill still only
requires two men to operate but they mill more than 12 tons an hour.
 |
| Back in the countryside after the flour mill |
After a
while we were passing Tringford pumping station which used to house two steam
engines pumping water from the reservoirs below into the Grand Union canal. The steam engines have now been replaced by
modern electric pumps. The Wendover arm
was originally built in 1793 as a feeder to the reservoirs as there was plenty
of fresh running water available at Wendover.
As it
happened, the feeder was converted to a commercial canal and opened to horse
drawn freight in 1799 which operated until 1904 when the arm was closed as it
leaked more water than it carried to the reservoirs. A pipeline was installed in 1912 so that the
water available at Wendover could still be used to fill the reservoirs at
Marsworth.
The
Wendover arm meets the Grand Union at its summit, known as the Tring summit, which,
at 390’ above sea level, takes the canal over the Chilterns on its way from
Birmingham to London.
 |
| Remains of the gates from an old stop lock just beyond Tringford pumping station |
The stop
lock was installed in 1800 to help save water and it was said that the canal
company would not guarantee a navigable depth of water for the barges working
down to Wendover after going through the lock.
It took a
long time for us to reach the end but, as the CRT enforcement guy said, there
was no one else moored there so we had the pick of the spots.
 |
| Happy to be moored on our own again |
 |
| Our view from the current end of the navigation |
The
Wendover arm trust is very active in restoring the complete arm and has several
sections in water but as yet only this first section is connected to the main
system.
 |
| Plaque at the current end of navigation |
After
lunch we went for a walk, taking in part of the dry section of the arm and were
surprised how deep it looked following the shallowness we had encountered
in the watered section earlier in the day.
 |
Tuesday
was still dry, but the wind was up a bit and we walked the six miles or so into
Wendover along the route of the original canal.
The following picture shows the route of the canal from our navigation
book. The dotted blue line is where
there is no water currently and we are moored just at the top end of that
dotted line.
 |
| The complete Wendover arm |
The first
section we walked along has been drained and the canal bed and sides are being re-laid
by the volunteers in conjunction with the Inland Waterways Association.
 |
| Part of the canal bed that has been re-laid |
 |
| Plaques on a bridge commemorating donors and volunteers |
 |
| A sluice gate has been replaced in existing brickwork |
After the initial
dry section, the remaining five miles were still in water, albeit in different
states of repair. Some lengths had been
re-laid recently and had a good depth of water in, some lengths were very
shallow but cleared of undergrowth and reeds, whilst others were covered in
vegetation.
We stopped
for a picnic on one of the many benches that commemorate dead volunteers or
donors. This was on a straight stretch
by Halton Camp (the RAF base) called, ‘The Narrows’. It was also at a point where a clear section
turned into an overgrown section.
 |
| Buddy interested in our lunch |
Buddy is
very good and won’t beg for or take our food, but we have noticed a change in
his behaviour since his bout of gastroenteritis. You may remember that after he hadn’t eaten
for three days, we boiled some chicken and gave it to him. We did it slowly, a tablespoon at a time,
every hour or so over a couple of days.
Since then he knows the smell of cooked chicken and whenever we have any,
he becomes very inquisitive and looks at us in a way that seems to say, “Don’t
you remember that I like that?”
Fortunately,
when the new A41 was built, an allowance was made for the waterway and a
culvert was built that is large enough for narrowboats. There are, however, a couple of bridges that
will have to be replaced before the navigation can be reopened.
 |
| Bridge at Aston Clinton: one of the bridges that will need replacing with another structure or maybe even a lift bridge |
A bit
further on a new bridge had been added in the 1880s – we could tell because it
had a letter suffix to its number – 8a. It
had been added between bridges 7 and 8.
The custom of adding suffices to new bridges is fairly common across the country and
not many canals have had their bridges completely renumbered. It does get quite unwieldy in cities like
London and Manchester where it is not unusual to see bridges numbers like
145aab.
Anyway, bridge
8a which is also known as Rothschild’s bridge was added when the then Lord
Rothshild constructed Halton House.
Halton House is now used as the officers’ mess for RAF Halton.
 |
| Rothschild’s bridge 8a |
Just by
the bridge was one of the only two mileposts we found for the Wendover arm and
you can just see it to the right of the towpath above. A mile further we came across the other
milepost.
 |
| Six miles from the start of the arm back up at Bulbourne |
 |
| The end in Wendover |
The end of
the canal in Wendover; the area is still called Wendover Wharf although most of
the houses were built long after the canal became disused. We popped in for a cuppa at Ann’s and then
she gave us a lift home.
No comments:
Post a Comment