Cheap living in central London

This is a twit, is that the right term? Anyway it is an entry on the Whilton Marina Twitter account linking to their blog post. Twitting is not my thing, this just popped up as I searched for other things.
I think there`s enough congestion in London without them giving people the idea buying a boat means you can live in central London on the cheap.

Jaq and I saw the lines of moored boats in some cases 3 abreast some with enough possessions stored on the roof to realise they do not move far if at all. The London assembly has been looking at the problem as has CaRT.  Do your own Googling.

 Copy from the article;
Well if you do and you have buckets of money this isn’t going to be a problem.  However for the rest of us who may not have large amounts of money lying around; there is another solution!

 Imagine having the Thames on your doorstep and living in a city location, and being able to enjoy nature right outside your front door.  The opportunity to live the high life for a fraction of the price; buying a narrow boat could be the answer. 

As you read down their blog post it does mention trying to get moorings but by this point the romantic, cheap idea has been implanted in the heads of those with less than enough brain matter to see this is not a good idea.
The blog post can be read HERE.

Last year this mooring came up in Battlebridge Basin which is home to the canal museum Islington. Bit hard to make comparisons with London rental prices as you are comparing bricks and mortar with a strip of water.

 The mooring guide price of £9,642 ($15,620) per annum equates to £185 ($299) per week. I did some searching and a 2 bed flat/apartment would cost around £400 ($648) per week.

Of course with the mooring you need to supply the boat and Whilton Marina just happen to be able to sell you one of those.

Battlebridge Basin showing moorings on the left.

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.

Nb Wairou postcode finder

In addition to the Tesco post our friends Tom and Jan on Nb Waiouru kindly shared in a comment a link to a postcode finder.

Just click here.  As you can see above it has found the postcode (NN12 7SW) of our last Tesco delivery.
Many thanks Tom/Jan always good to spread some knowledge amongst the boating community.

Tesco Delivers

After all the years Nb Valerie has been afloat it has taken until now to finally meet Bones. It was in fact not until the day following our spotting her boat, that Boots (her four legged canine companion) whilst out for a walk brought the lovely lady to meet Jaq and I. It was a particular pleasure for Jaq
who has fallowed Bones' blog since 2009.  Later the same day we all cruised cruised on; NB Valerie had an appointment with Mr. Tesco.

People, be it friends or towpath walkers curious about the life we lead, are always surprised about Tesco delivering to a boat. This time it was no different as we moored up at our chosen delivery point. Perhaps it was an unusual place to moor which meant even some boaters asked if all was well, and seemed mystified when I said we were just moored for an hour for a grocery delivery.

Tesco van has pulled up by the stern

Many boaters use the Tesco service including Sue on No Problem who has an information page on her blog about Tesco deliveries.

Personally before I married my lovely Jaq I had no need to have groceries delivered, preferring to get bits as I cruised along. My needs matched my cooking skills (minimal) so it was Jaq who started with deliveries to NB Valerie, having read Sue`s blog back in the U.S.

Google search for Stoke Breurne bottom lock (A)

Our delivery is about once every month when we stock up on the heavy stuff like long life milk, orange juice, flour etc. plus all the other bits. The heavy stuff being delivered is the icing on the cake but to be honest anything being delivered is our heaven. Remember life on land means jumping in the car and going shopping bringing it home in the boot (trunk). Afloat with no car- what a joy- means a bus to the supermarket and carrying it all from the shop to the bus to our boat.

Have you noticed the price of bus fares? I had no idea as I have a pass giving me free travel nationwide, but Jaq being just a youngster, has to wait a few years to get her pass. Anyway the cheapest return fare we have had in the past has been £3.90 ($6.30) and our Tesco delivery costs on average £3 ($4.86) but there are delivery slots available for £1-£6 depending on day/time.

So how to do it;  Modern technology in the form of

Google view of building

Google makes it all very simple. First we figure out roughly where we want to be then we look for where road comes close to canal. Above right, this is the Google search for Stoke Bruerne Bottom lock cottage; the postcode came up straight away but sometimes you need to use what sites come up in your search. Estate agents sites are excellent. Put the little Google man on the map to check you have the right building.

Red line is boat, stern to left.

Our chosen mooring is pictured left. The Tesco van has to pass by to reach the cottage but the special instructions we give will tell him we are on a boat and he will see it as he approaches the cottage and to phone if any doubt. This time the driver just pulled up by the boat and started unloading. We've never had a delivery problem yet.

The satellite view shows the boat shaded Black well away from the lock on the off side. 
The strip of water we are moored across is a slipway for launching small boats.

Our delivery slot was 1pm-2pm and the driver arrived at 1pm exactly. We had been there 15 minutes and within an hour we had put everything away and cruised on.

Banbury Lane bridge number 43 was another possible choice for this delivery. We used the Google man and saw the name of the cottage is Anchor House. Just Google "Anchor House Banbury Lane bridge" and see how easy it is to get the postcode (Zip). The postcode NN7 3JF brings up some choices on the Tesco shopping site.......









 and on the right there it is. NN7 3JF gives a choice of possible addresses. Anchor House is highlighted on the Tesco shopping page.
Did you notice the "Robins nest mooring" on the list? I think this is the mooring in front of the farm as you cruise through the bridge just out of sight in the picture.

A typical screen shot of the delivery times available and the charges.

Tesco is a bit like Marmite: love it or hate it, but for sure it`s been around a long time and is second only to Walmart as the biggest worldwide retailer.
It has over 3,378 stores with 310,000 staff. Worldwide these figures become 6,784 and 500,000. Group sales of  70.9 billion. So as is my historical bent, here are some facts you might find interesting:

 Tesco History

1919  It started on a market stall in the East end of London.

 

1929  The first shop opened in Edgware north west London.

1947  London stock exchange lists Tesco at  25p. Now 262p

1948  Self service came to St. Albans Hertfordshire.

1960  Household goods and clothing on sale in stores.

1963  Green Shield stamps given in stores. U.S. readers think S&H.

1968  The first Superstore opens in 40,000 square feet. Largest store now is 185,000sq ft.

1977  Green Shield stamps give way to the `checkout at Tesco` campaign. Heinze beans 12 1/2p now 68p.   Butter 19 1/2p now 98p.  Remember the 1/2p.

Fresh and Easy U.S.

1995   Clubcard launches.

1996   Home shopping begins.

2007   Tesco enters the USA with 200 stores in the Western states of Arizona, California  and Nevada trading as `Fresh and Easy` They pulled out in 2013.

Our latest delivery consisted of 101 items, the weight of which makes me sweat just thinking about it. I just love the way Jaq does the grocery shopping. Everything on the Tesco site is pictured and clearly priced and clicking on a product will give you all the information you would see in store. Search and click here.

Jaq reminded me to tell you that you can choose to have your groceries delivered with bags or without--in which case it all comes in plastic boxes and you unload them before the driver leaves. Shoppers can also request substitutions or no substitutions for items which Tesco may be out at the time the shopping is actually taking place and you can also leave notes next to each item in your online shopping cart. For example Jaq will type in next to casserole Beef: "No Irish beef please" and next to veg she adds " This needs to last. Please choose the furthest expiration date from today."

Also, frozen items come in a green plastic bag and refrigerated items come in blue bags. Everything else is in plain white plastic bags. The colour coding makes it easy to see at a glance what items need to be put away first. Tesco sends a confirmation email with all the details of your order and delivery slot right after  your order goes in and while they take your payment information at the time you place your order online, they don't actually charge your debit card until the groceries are gathered and ready to go on the delivery truck.

Since we purchase most of our groceries online, Tesco also sends all our coupons to us via email so we can print them out if we want or they will automatically show up at the bottom of the order when paying so you can click on the ones you want to use.

Groceries may be ordered and a delivery time set up three weeks in advance and she once put in an order while we sat at SEA-TAC International Airport in Seattle, waiting for a BA flight back to the UK.

Tesco's Click and Collect is a free service on the increase but they don't deliver--they gather it all and you pull up and load it in the boot. Still it saves you pushing the shopping cart trolley, (Ooops the American in me surfaces), all over the store for what seems hours.

Like Sue, I put this together to help boaters who might be nervous of the delivery idea and as an insight of another way our lives are similar to land bound folk. Yes we do eat and have beds, kitchens and as one little one said in a whisper from the towpath, "mummy they have a baby sink."

It`s all pretty much home from home as far as, bless her, the kitchen sink is concerned, but some things are constrained by space. Where we boaters gain is the ability to have a different view/garden every day and best of all no stress in that mad fast world away from the towpath.

Well if you have read this far you must have been interested or had time on your hands to waste. Me? I have retirement on my hands and blogging anything is a joy. We also want to say hello to NB Dabchick moored at Weedon. The guy on board hailed us today as we passed saying he enjoys reading our blog! It is always a lovely surprise to hear from our blog readers--on the waterways or around the world.

So with this lovely view outside, the sun tells me it`s a choice of Pimms or a beer. Cheers.

2014 © Jaq

Scrumping in Gayton

“You young folks today think you invented the world,” Aunt Will said. “Still, a dash of unlawful scrumping might work for you."  from The Lovesick Cure by author Pamela Morsi

   Cruising once more as we did when I first arrived here in 2011, we've made decent time from a pleasant spot near Yardley Gobion. While sitting at our dinette we were passed by Tony and Helen on NB Holderness and were so besotted by the heat we didn't realize who they were until they had passed us! Sorry and hello!  
   Les and I stopped in the pound of the second lock at Stoke Bruerne for a Tesco delivery and went on up through Blisworth tunnel. I steered NB Valerie all the way through the 3076 yards of dark, dank underground, passing four boats coming in the opposite direction.
   After one night moored up just before Station Road bridge we upped sticks again as there were signs posted from beyond there all the way back to Blisworth High Street indicating mooring along that stretch of the canal was restricted to traders and officials attending the Blisworth Canal Festival. Although the Festival is the weekend of August 9th and 10th, the spaces along the canal from Blisworth clear to the Walnut Tree Inn were reserved beginning July 27th!
   So we left the next morning, stopping at Gayton Junction for H2O and rubbish disposal, after which we cruised northward until a relatively quiet spot appeared just after Bridge 45, adjacent to a horse farm, with only one other boat moored way off at the other end of the section near bridge 44.
   It didn't take long for four other boats to join us--the final one mooring closer to us than was necessary in my opinion. There was at least two and half boat lengths (57 ft average) behind them yet they chose to moor less than half a boat length in front if us and soon our quiet was shattered by the woman on the boat in front of us whose loud braying laughter and continual squawking commentary pierced our solitude frequently. 
   The sun was relentless, beating down on NB Val, making us swelter. Still, I washed two loads of clothes and Les hung them to dry on the airer out on the grassy verge. I baked another loaf of bread and whipped up some fruit smoothies for lunch. Then I took a nap while Les foraged online for some info on car hires in the area. Dinner was grilled hot dogs and potato salad, after which we sat and read. I just finished the brilliant book Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall. When we could keep our eyes open no longer,  we made our way to bed in the quiet dark, happy and sleepy. 

The gloaming--my favorite time of the day.

Looking back down the lane toward the bridge.

   After an early breakfast on the veranda of muesli (me) and granola (Les) with fresh strawberries and coffee, Les realized all the other boats had moved on and we had the entire stretch to ourselves! With joy we dressed and manually moved the boat closer to bridge 44, mooring the bow under the shade of an oak tree. 
   We grabbed our hats and sauntered up the towpath, over bridge 45 and up the lane to the village of Gayton which sits on a hill 135 meters above sea level opening out to a shallow valley in which sat our boat on the Grand Union canal.
   We took in the view as we climbed until we reached the village church, St. Mary's. It was locked tight but we wandered through the churchyard, thinking about its eternal inhabitants, enjoying the architecture (parts of it date from 1209), settling on a bench to sip water from the stainless steel bottle I brought along. 

St. Mary's Church Gayton. Like so many churches now it is locked and has a notice posted indicating the roof is wired with an alarm to discourage metal theft and vandalism.

Once upon a time...there was a door here which has since been bricked up.

In the churchyard wall another bricked up doorway.

Who was she I wonder...and how long has she gazed upon Gayton?

   Before we set off again Les informed me that every churchyard had a spigot (water tap) and he found one conveniently nearby with which he refilled our water bottle and off we went to find the High Street. Gayton is a small village of 510 inhabitants (slow in growth, as it only had a population of 427 one hundred years earlier). 

Looking down an alley at the back gardens.

Remove the blue plastic buckets, the rubbish bins and the yard lights and one might be in the 15th century. This stable is located in the heart of the village.

Is it a bird?  No...not a bird. Is it a plane? No, not a plane. Oh I know what it is...

An Alpacapoodle!

   We followed the meandering lanes overlooking the valley, enjoying the scenic view as well as the old homes and farms in the village. I plucked a Beech nut from an overloaded tree to check on the ripeness of the nuts. Eventually we made our way back around and stood on the kitty corner (or opposite corner) from the church. We were on the sidewalk in front of the ancient Gayton Manor--once a grand manor house dating back to the reign of Henry II (d. 1189)--now a farm with stone walls hugging the perimeter.
   As I stood  in the shade of overhanging trees I looked up as short people often do and lo and behold glistening globes of ripe purple hung just out of my reach! Les brought the branches down to my height and we plucked a few ripe plums. Just further on were two more large trees with branches overhanging the manor's stone wall. Cherry plums and large green plums respectively fell into my hands. It was then Les told me with a wicked grin that I was "scrumping!"
   I beg your pardon??? I thought Les was suggesting I was engaged in some louche and unsavory behavior of a sexual nature when my Best Beloved informed me it means stealing the fruits from someone else's trees, which could--on the face of it--also be a metaphor for louche and unsavory behavior of a sexual nature. Hmmph!!
   I had never heard of the word scrumping and a check in the American Miriam-Webster's Dictionary indicated it wasn't even a word in American English, however the Oxford Unabridged English Dictionary did indeed include it and underscored that scrumping was less a crime than stealing in general but still frowned upon. Well!!!

large unripe plums, purple plums, cherry plums, a hairy beech nut in its husk and a couple of chamomile flowers.

   Well indeed and where I come from any food hanging outside a person's lawful yard is fair game. As an herbalist I have spent many happy hours foraging in the woods, ditches and old homesteads of Eastern Washington for medicinal herbs and wild food sources. I also availed myself of windfalls from the yards of folks who grew fruit but never picked and used it.  I figure what the manor doesn't know won't hurt them. 
   As we walked back down the hilly lane to the boat I discovered a small patch of Chamomile! All in all it was a lovely day--a bit of history, some foraging about, and scenic views which took our breath away. 

Busy little bees!

   I also took the opportunity to try a new technique or walking, based on the running techniques in the book above, and for the first time since I broke my foot in December 2011 it did not hurt me after a mile of walking! I don't know if I will ever become one of the Running People, but I am hopeful I can engage in walking for exercise again without suffering pain and swelling which makes it a miserable chore instead of the freedom and fun of moving. I've got 60 pounds to lose so I am feeling very motivated. 
   As we sat on the veranda (as I call the bow) eating sandwiches made from fresh baked bread, Les noticed a hole in the ground under the oak tree which had many, many insects buzzing in and out. Closer inspection indicated a bee's nest. They buzzed harmlessly around Les as he squatted nearby to film their coming and going. My guess is a species of non-stinging bee. 
   The next morning we were watching the horses at pasture when Les spotted a young fox take a rabbit in a field across from our present mooring. Of course a clutch of Magpies showed up uninvited for breakfast so the fox took its kill back to its den. Les was tickled pink and I was excited by his pleasure in discovering nature.

Wolverton and Cosgrove

Entering the former railway town of Wolverton it was nice to see the train mural still graffiti free after it`s refurbishment.
It was created in 1986 by the late Bill Billings a community artist. It covered a wall of what had been some very distasteful graffiti.  Recent years had seen the graffiti return and the refurb` was badly needed
Just a half minute of video showing part of the mural.


Wolverton was the largest carriage works in the UK.  Up until 1863 it produced steam locomotives but this was transferred to Crewe works and Wolverton became the centre of carriage production and maintenance. The site was huge and parts of the town was built by the railway company. In the video the wall enclosed the paint shop.

 Tesco has built over a large part of the site and a lot of the buildings have been converted into commercial use and residential. The Royal Train shed has been preserved and is now residential. Just a small part of the site is still used for railway maintenance.

Try this site for a breakdown of the map including index

On the left the paint, sewing and trimming shops of the old works are now commercial units within the original walls. On the right brand new housing on what was mostly the works recreation ground but there were some workshops as well.

From this site.  Thousands were employed in these works. Now the contracts go to non UK companies although at least these will be built here.

More views of inside the works HERE.

In time these remaining carriage sheds will also see a new lease of life and the cruise through Wolverton will be easier on the eye.

 Approaching Cosgrove and the end of 12 lock free miles.

Into Cosgrove over the Cast Iron trough built in 1811 to replace eight locks that crossed the valley and the Great Ouse river.

Just the edge of the trough on this side.

and it`s a long drop. The canal crossed the river just to the right before it was diverted. It must have been hairy when the river was in flood.

Just a narrow towpath this side.