An overnight stay in Cosgrove

 Having moored up just across the aqueduct we were still a fair distance from Cosgrove lock and the village centre. There did seem to be a lot more people walking by than is usual but it was not until later in the afternoon we found out the reason.
It was the Buckingham Canal Society`s annual festival to raise funds for restoration of the abandoned canal.

Failed to find anything online about the jenny Wren. The following day it had a sign on the roof "Gentleman's electric launch for sale"

As well as ice cream etc. and stainless steel chimneys and some other bits and bobs the actual name or any hint of a website was very much absent.

Another regular at the canal festivals Chamberlain Carrying Co.

The Cheese boat busy with some very different cheeses on sale. Other cheese boats are available.

The Cosgrove boat co. was doing a decent trade.

One stall had some serious footwear but I think the towpath was not a good selling site.

Canal society volunteers were operating the lock in return for a donation to the fund.

Above Raymond and Nutfield are a typical example of what the canals were built for. A working pair. Raymond (un-powered) would be towed by Nutfield. Accommodation was the cabins you can see with Raymond`s being about 8 feet long and Nutfield the same but with an extension for the engine. Some of these boats were worked by families with 4/5 children on board. Where did they sleep?  Another good site with some good pictures can be found HERE.

In the car park a 1965 Chrysler, a New Yorker I think, in not to bad a condition for it`s age.
One here for $8900 (£5493)
It`s an original left hook so I wonder how it came to be in the UK.
Jaq likes to see little bits of the U.S. as we travel.

 

 Cosgrove Park holiday home site is alongside the canal based around some worked out sand and gravel pits the products of which helped in the construction of the M1 motorway.
Today it has about a thousand sites for holiday homes, lodges and touring vans. They seem at £33k ($53k)to be expensive considering you are sharing the site with crowds of others and un-able to move on. These Holiday Homes can only be moved on the back of a truck. You could buy yourself a decent boat for odd weekends and annual holidays. Best forget that last sentence as i have just read you can only use the holiday home April to end of October. So you could buy yourself a decent boat for use ALL year round and probably find a leisure mooring for less than the £2250 ($3645) you have to pay to the Holiday Home company annually. 

 

Above is a satellite view of Cosgrove. All those white dots are holiday homes.
You can pick out a few prime spots near the lakes where you at least have a view of water unlike the general pitch on the left where the view is the people next door.
No the boat is a better bet, you can moor where it`s really busy if you get lonely or be alone with just fields for company.