Up the Trent

Peter left a comment about that square chimney on yesterday’s post.  He explained this type of chimney was often used to improve mine ventilation.  The technique involved building the chimney over an air exhaust shaft and lighting a fire.  The updraft from the fire would suck air from the mineshaft below whilst simultaneously drawing air in through the mine entrance.  Peter even supplied the hyperlink <here>.  Another question solved!

At 7.30am I was standing on the floodbank looking at the River Trent.  We were due to lock out at 7.50am and the tide was going OUT.  I was expecting us to be released onto the river 2.5hours before full tide.  The lock keeper explained to me that the tide was about to turn and the river level would go up 4ft in the first 15 minutes.  He assured me the 2.5hr trip to Torksey Lock would mean we arrived at the top of the tide.  He’s the expert so I took him at his word.

We were in the lock at 7.45 and the lock keeper opened the gates at precisely 8am.  He’d already informed us three fibreglass cruisers would be following us to Torksey.

Despite the tide having just turned the current wasn’t as fierce as our exit from Keadby Lock.  I’d broken the trip into four segments and placed map waypoints on the gps so we could judge our speed.  I’d done the same for our trip up from Keadby to West Stockwith.  On that occasion I ran the engine at 1500rpm and we arrived too early.  Today I ran it at 1000rpm only to discover that when we reached the first waypoint we were running late.  I increased the engine up to 1500rpm and managed to make up some of the lost time.

There wasn’t much to see from the river.  We passed three thermal power stations but only the first was operating.  I suspect it may have been converted to natural gas. <it appears I was only 50% right.  There are two power stations, one fired by coal and the other by gas>

The first two cruisers following behind caught up with us at the halfway point and the 3rd cruiser passed by just before the ¾ waypoint.  It was on a bend at this point where we met our first boat going downstream.

A few bends further on Jan noticed an unusual house.

It appears to be a former windmill.

It was at this point we noticed the last power station.  Actually Jan was photographing the ruins!

It’s Cottam Power Station which; like the earlier West Burton; is actually two station, one coal and the other gas.

We were about to turn the final bend on the approach to the junction when three narrowboats appeared going downstream.  It appeared we may have judged our timing correctly.

The junction is well marked (large signs) and we safely made the turn to port (left) both commenting that the tide was still rising.  There is a 200 metre tidal channel to the lock with 72 hour pontoon moorings on the left (north) and a lock landing mooring to the south.  There was a red light on the lock and we assumed the last of the three cruisers that had passed us was being penned up.

Whilst we were waiting for the lock to be set in our favour a narrowboat appeared behind us.  This boater had left Keadby Lock some 2½ hours before us.  When we entered the lock I noticed the kettles in the starboard lock gate whilst Jan pointed out all the teapots in the port gate.

If any readers require a teapot you know where to come!

Torksey Lock has an interesting shape and has obviously been enlarged at least once.

We are now on the Fossdyke Navigation which links the River Trent at Torksey to the Wash at Boston.  It was reputedly built by the Romans (more EU immigrants) which would make it the oldest canal in England.  More information here.  We stopped for lunch on the Torksey visitor moorings and then moved down to Saxilby where we were fortunate enough to get the last vacant visitor mooring.

Jan had the slow cooker on during the cruise which meant we had a delicious meat pie for dinner followed by lemon upside down pudding and ice cream. 

Back to West Stockwith

The CRT vegetation contractors were very quick arriving within 90 minutes of the fallen tree being reported.  They arrived in a small aluminium boat powered by a tiny outboard motor.  The tree was removed within an hour and both boats decided to continue on to the CRT moorings at Drakeholes Tunnel for the night.  Cruising there proved to be somewhat difficult as the sun was directly in my eyes.

These are very pleasant moorings and we had a quiet night.  By 9am we were ready to cruise and had been prepared to let the boat ahead of us go first as they draw less water.  However the curtains were closed and there was no sign of life so we quietly slipped away making the hard right turn to enter Drakeholes Tunnel.  There doesn’t appear to be much overburden above the tunnel and it wouldn’t surprise me if it had been constructed using the ‘cut and cover’ method.

When coming up this way the canal seemed to be very shallow and full of weed.  Going back today was slightly easier, one assumes this was due to three factors

• less diesel in the tank
• empty toilet tank
• the CRT weed cutter had been through.

Only four locks today.  The first has an attractive canal side cottage.

We meet the weed cutter below the second lock.  They were about to go up as we arrived to go down and the lock was in our favour.  Jan spoke with the crew who informed her they will be cutting the weed until October.  CRT stipulated they can only cut the centre channel as the weed on the edges forms a habitat for the fish.

The majority of the route was very rural with the canal contouring around slightly high ground to the south.  there are lovely views across the flat land to the north.  Another of those square old brick chimneys appeared.  We’ve now seen a number of them and I assume they must have been engine houses of some type.  Perhaps driving pumps for local mines?

  

Jan spent some time in the bow watching out for wildlife and any boats coming towards us.  I was particularly concerned about the latter as passing would have produced a major challenge.

This was one of the few wide parts but it was still very shallow on the sides.

There Is only a short pound between the final two locks and then a 400 metre straight to West Stockwith Canal Basin.  The water point is on the right past the permanent mooring and immediately before the bridge.

We topped up the water tank and then slipped around the corner to moor on the 48 hour moorings.  There is only room here for one narrowboat.  We are moored opposite the lock.

The lock  keeper was on duty (painting the lock) and I wandered around the basin to inquire about the state of the river and booking a passage to Torksey.  He informed me the river was fine and then booked us to go through the lock at 7.50am tomorrow.  We’ll go up to Torksey with the incoming tide and endeavour to arrive at high tide.  I also booked to go through Torksey Lock because we plan to visit Lincoln.

Despite the Chesterfield Canal being shallow and weedy in places, we’ve enjoyed the experience.  The canal is very rural and picturesque, and the people we’ve met have been helpful and friendly.  We’re pleased we made the effort to cruise to the top.

Oh, this afternoon I discovered eight comments in Blogger awaiting publication.  I don’t know how that happened as Blogger is supposed to email me every time a comment is received.  So if you left a comment and it didn’t appear then I apologise.  They have all now been published.

Exciting Day

The boring part was taking the empty gas cylinder to Jewsons in Retford for a replacement.  Jewsons is very close to the canal (the fence borders the towpath)and the price of a replacement cylinder was value for money at £22.30.

Right arrow is Jewsons and left arrow our mooring outside Asda.

Whilst returning from Jewsons with the sack trolley and cylinder I happened to notice the sign on the gable of the Rum Runner pub.  Back in 1901 it was known as the Ship Inn.

We decided to wait out the showers, electing to move after lunch. Daniel set Retford Town Lock and I motored Waiouru in.  Well actually I motored half into the lock and then came to a halt.  No matter what I did she wasn’t going into the lock.  I managed to reverse out using the engine and then started fishing around with the boat hook.  Four Asda shopping trolleys and one bicycle later we could get into the lock.

The staff from Asda turned up promptly and started removing their trolleys.  One of the locals mentioned its not the first time the yobs have pushed a string of trolleys into the canal.  My concern was them having pushed a second string into the lock for us to catch on.  Fortunately they aren’t that smart.

 Looking back at the lock in the distance with the local boat club to the left

Last time we were in Retford Jan noticed the diesel slick around Waiouru.  It wasn’t from us!   Today we noticed the boat that had been moored ahead of us.  It hadn’t moved off the mooring outside Aldi.

Now we know the source of the diesel.  Someone has placed a boom and absorbent mats to clean up the mess.  There’s also some type of notice (white paper) wedged between the stern cabin doors!

Town Lock was the last of the narrow locks and the weight of the wide gates at Whitsunday Pie Lock came as an unwanted surprise.  Never mind there are only five.  The remainder of the afternoon was spent slowly cruising back down the canal to the moorings at Drakeholes Tunnel.  There was an interesting looking home at Field Farm.

Not a very good photo as I was busy steering.  We passed through Clayworth when I noticed a field of red flowers.  Daniel and Jan are of the belief they are poppies whilst I’m playing it safe stating they are red flowers.

Everything was going well until we reached Wiseton Middle Bridge (No71) where we found a boat moored under the bridge. The lady at the stern frantically waved for us to stop.    When we got closer she informed us a tree had fallen across the canal around the corner.  They had reversed back upon reaching it.

The bridge hole is the only spot where the boats can reach the bank.  I retrieved our Aldi bow saw from deep storage and headed down the towpath to see if I could remove the obstruction.  The lady had already notified CRT who were sending someone.

Upon reaching the fallen tree I realised removing it was going to be more difficult than I anticipated.  It had fallen from the far bank and three major branches were completely across the canal.  The location of the tree is marked on the map below.

My alternative plan was to cross the canal via bridge 71 and walk beside the canal until I reached the fallen tree.  That didn’t work as a high brick wall extends several hundred metres from an estate down to the edge of the canal.  After backtracking I walked to Bridge 72 where I discovered a second brick wall cut me off from the tree.  It appears the tree will have to be removed using a boat.  It will be interesting to see if the CRT contractors arrive tomorrow.  Meanwhile, we are moored in the bridge hole.

Chesterfield Canal anglers trust their maggots

By midday we had cruised back through pretty rural countryside to moor outside Asda.  No other boats on the move which makes for easy cruising.  One thing we have noticed whilst on the Chesterfield is how friendly the anglers are.  Without fail they have all smiled and passed a few friendly comments.  What a contrast with some of the anglers on the rest of the network who tend to avoid all eye contact and seem to be obsessed with the content of their maggot containers.

Jan sat in the bow for part of the cruise and today’s photos are from her.

After lunch Jan went to Asda taking one of our walkie-talkies.  Once she had completed the shopping Jan pushed the trolley as close to the towpath as possible before calling for assistance over the radio.  It was then a case of shuffling the purchases from the trolley to the side hatch.  The galley is now mostly restocked, although we will need to make a trip to Aldi in the morning for a few items.  We also need to visit the nearby Jewsons for a replacement calor gas cylinder.  At £20 for 13kg it’s value for money. 

Tomorrow we will hopefully make it to the attractive moorings at Drakeholes Tunnel.

Backtracking

The pump-out contractor didn’t arrive yesterday evening so I again phoned CRT at 9am this morning.  Then I became very self-conscious about being moored on the services.  Of course all the marina boaters have their own water taps and if the pump was unserviceable no one could use it.  But I felt guilty so we moved out of the basin and onto the visitor mooring.  By now you will realise that no sooner had we moored than the contractor arrived.  I explained the problem and sequence of events.  The pump was working so it had to be a problem with the pipe.  After about 20 minutes he managed to clear it and we then re-entered the marina to complete the pump-out.  We’re now a day behind schedule but fortunately an elderly grey haired fat obese chubby stout OAP did some lock walking for us today.  He worked Waiouru down through 11 locks over a couple of miles.

We stopped at the Lock Keeper for lunch.  They had a carvery which both Jan and I selected and it proved to be a good choice. 

Just before Worksop we met the Dawn Rose being towed back to her mooring after It completed the Chesterfield Canal Trust sponsored hand tow to Stockwith.

You can see the mast for the sail in the above photo. 

Later we passed a moored Jennifer Eccles which you may recall had accompanied us down the Tinsley Flight out of Sheffield.  We’re now moored halfway between Worksop and Retford

The best made plan can fail.

The plan was to make an early start moving onto the services mooring in Shireoak Basin for a pump-out and water refill before heading back towards Retford.  The first part of the plan went well and we were on the services block mooring before 9am. 

However the pump-out hose is very short and we had to move back positioning the stern in the boat ramp in order for it to reach our outlet connection.  The control box swallowed our card (and money) before starting the electric pump.  There was no suction!  We’ve experienced this before and immediately placed the end of the hose in the canal to create a vacuum.  Unfortunately this didn’t work and a local boater came over to explain the end of the hose has to be raised to shoulder height and filled with water from the ‘rinse’ hose.  We did this and there was still no suction.  The local boater departed wondering what had gone wrong.  Meanwhile we went inside Waiouru and waited until 9am before phoning CRT to advise the problem.  CRT were very helpful and phoned back within 10 minutes to tell us the contractor should arrive at noon.

At 4pm I phoned CRT back to ask when the contractor might be expected and was informed around 6pm.  It’s now 6.50pm on a Friday and somehow we’re not expecting anyone to arrive.  Looks like we’ll be making another phone call tomorrow morning.  Either the pump will be repaired tomorrow or we will be here for the weekend.  Of course we are on the services mooring and no doubt one or more of the local boaters will want access to it during the weekend.

Waiouru moored on the services in the distance

I have to thank blog reader Steve-the-Wargamer who left the following useful tip about my screw heads and the body filler.  “Cover the screw head with a disk of plastic before you bung the filler in as it will save you hassle next time you have to do it”.  An excellent suggestion!

More interesting information from reader Rojer

“The boat you caught up with was Nb Robin Hood, a hire boat from West Stockwith; C&RT have hired it not CC Trust.”  CRT must have hired two boats for the survey as we saw nb Maid Marion yesterday.
”The engine house was once the pumping house for the sewage station. It's listed.”  So not used for a coal mine.

“Sherwood Forest was an area of general countryside - not only woodland. Apart from the built up areas it was probably much the same as now in the thirteenth century.”  If that’s the case then the Sheriff of Nottingham must have been damned incompetent in not being able to track down and capture Robin.

End of the navigable canal

Six locks saw us reach the CRT services at the Shireoaks Marina.  There are another another 23 locks to the top pound including two double and two triple staircase locks.  The entire flight is very attractive.

Many of these locks are only 3-5ft deep which might make people wonder why they didn’t build fewer, but deeper locks.  Paul Balmer (Waterway Routes) informed us the canal builders were being paid by the lock so consequentially built as many as they could.

Albert’s Dock is located just before Dog Kennel Bridge.

It was here in the 1840’s that stone was conveyed from the nearby Anston Quarry and loaded into wooden narrowboats.  Each boat was pulled by horse the thirty miles down to Stockwith on the River Trent.  There was a busy inland harbour at Stockwith where the stone was transhipped into Humber Sloops.  These sailed down the Trent to Hull before entering the North Sea and down the coast to the Thames Estuary.  Eventually the vessels docked at Westminster where the stone was used to build the Houses of Parliament.  Now that’s something I didn’t know about the Chesterfield Canal!

Several hundred metres beyond Dog Kennel Bridge the canal becomes unnavigable, however it’s still possible to walk the towpath to Norwood Tunnel Portal.  The original tunnel was just over 2½ kilometres long but has partially collapsed and is now derelict.  The bricked up eastern postal can be partially seen through the vegetation.

I decided to walk part of the tunnel route and was rather surprised to see the old tunnel alignment didn’t seem to be very deep.  I do wonder why the planned restoration doesn’t include taking the top off the tunnel.

You may be able to see the black and white sign in the above photo.  If not…….

The restoration plan involves a shorter tunnel exiting near Kiveton Waters which is currently a fishing area.  The ponds will be turned into a marina.

The following extract from the Waterway Routes map of the canal shows the location of the eastern tunnel portal and the proposed marina.

Time to start heading back to the Trent.  Thank you to our local readers who have left informative comments about the Chesterfield Canal.