Along the Way

How often does this happen? Sitting having a read and a Kingfisher swoops across the Bow doors and settles on the mooring rope. Not only that but as you see I managed to get up for the camera and stand by the door and shoot several pics.

Natures version of CCTV cameras.

Proper working farm. Always a nice country smell and always plenty of junk around.

Not quite sure why the farmer would have an old Tug in his yard.

Here we go with some bike pics for our friend Bryce over in Canada. Something that might take your mind off those freezing temperatures. 

Bikes in town, the two on the right are old Lambrettas dating back to the 60`s.

Dan McCoy/NARA           New York City 1973. Wishes he had a Harley.

I have seen this before but it was always covered up.

That is not a Lambretta engine.

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby!!

http://www.jibjab.com/view/fKCLsO9M0Ejg2wW5QLqG

Yes Les is a quite a Daredevil!! He crossed an ocean for love, imported a foreign wife, and has fought a successful battle against cancer. Here is to many, many more birthdays.

I love you! XX

Just drifting along

Time to move on from the Cheddington area. Not sure exactly when this decision was made but I can say with certainty it was one of the seven days we experience each week. That was at one time just a dream, having no concern of the passage of time, but now it`s a reality that to us both is precious.

 Soon after casting off we pass the Dunstable and  District Boat Club with it`s wet dock.

 The slipway is in use. The club has moorings for about 45 boats.

 I have put Nb Valerie`s nose into what was the entrance to the single lock that accompanied all the double locks along this stretch.

The single lock entrance is clearer in this shot.

I always like cruising this section of the Grand Union cutting through the Chilterns. The Chiltern hills stretch for 46 miles covering 322 square miles within Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. The highest point (870 feet) is not to far from here to the west at Wendover. These hills boaters, are the reason for the 70 odd lock uphill cruise from the River Thames so far.

Not to many of these mile posts left. This one at Ivinghoe states 51 miles to Braunston.

Another Chiltern view as the clouds tell us to look for a mooring soon.

This is far enough today the weather looks to be changing and the clouds are closing in.

So for perhaps a couple of days or more this will be home until the urge to move kicks in.

Turning a London needle or two into a bit of fun.

I took a train on Friday into London for my 3 monthly CT scan, results hopefully will come via phone next week. Anyway having a bit of spare time, and the need to take my mind off having had two needles put in me,  a few things caught my eye and I could feel a blog post rising up inside me.
There is a boating connection so all is not lost for those craving a canal fix.

 Look at these, buses? they look....well delicate and plastic like. What`s the one on the right doing on the road? it needs a coat of Red paint. The Red bus like the now almost extinct Red telephone box is famous all over the world. Not how I remember buses.

http://www.mikesbuspages.com/londontransport.htm

Now these are what I not only remember but also drove for a couple of years. The one on the left is a Routemaster introduced in 1959/60. It has power steering unlike the RT type on the right seen in London 1939-1979. Bus driver training in my day was like this and yes I actually had to pass this part of the exam to get a licence. The idea was not to allow the back to swing completely around but bring it under control and finish facing the building. Notice the crowd in front of the building; in the video they are enthusiasts but back in the day it would have been trainee drivers and conductors all watching, hoping for something to go wrong. One guy came through the skid and got the bus under control but was a bit short on the braking. He finished a few inches from the building and you never saw a crowd disperse so fast. I was twenty one and looked fifteen. It was a wonder any one boarded my bus. Nowadays I`m sixty six and look it.

Another worldwide icon is London`s Black cab and they for sure were never covered in advertisements when I was younger.

The good old Black cab driver a mind of information. I was back in the early 70`s loading plate glass onto an open back truck in Regents street. A bus went by and the truck rocked and a 5 foot square sheet toppled and tried to take my thumb off. Clamping a piece of rag over the gushing wound a passing cabbie stopped next to the truck called and took me to the nearest hospital and would not charge me. Muttering my thanks in a shocked voice I left that decent man cleaning the blood off his cab floor. I still have the scar today.

With my next picture tour around the capital I wish to report a theft.

As you can see in the now and then pictures above something is missing. Look to the left. That arch was 70 feet tall, the fluted columns were 8 feet in diameter  and being a London boy I can tell you it was there in 1960.




I had some time before my train would whisk me away from this madness, where nothing is the same any more, and deposit me back to the towpath where things in places haven`t changed for 200 years. That Robert Stephenson fellow was standing around in the modern day station and as I had photographic evidence that he was standing nearby back when I last saw the arch I had to ask. It seems our previous landlords British Waterways (BW) whisked most of the demolished arch away and deposited it in Prescott Channel up by the River Lea. Link 1    Link 2

A lot of the stone was found being used as a wall in the garden of one of the demolition gang. One hundred and twenty four years it stood there thirty years before St Pancras station was built. St Pancras was tuned into the Eurostar terminus within the existing building so why could they not have kept the arch. Where was the John Betjemen that saved St Pancras when this theft took place. Yes I know he tried.
 



The two present day lodges shown above were erected in 1870 and used as information and parcel
collection buildings. Nowadays you won`t find your parcels there but you can get a beer. Notice the names of places served by the railway carved into the Quoins.
The crest of the London and North Western Railway is carved above the Quoins.

It could look like this (http://www.joerobson.co.uk/sai/home.html)  with the present day modern station to the rear. Just like along our canals to much of our history is just swept aside. Network rail intend a £1 billion modernisation of Euston and the Euston Arch trust would like to see the arch included. Just as a balance in case you think the arch should not be built. Personally I say bring it back, it just needs a clean.

Last picture in the camera on this trip is Greater London House a fine example of an Art Deco building in Camden It was nice to see it wasn`t on the missing list.

It started life in the early 1920`s as a cigarette factory owned by Carreras - Craven A Black Cat brand of cigarettes.
In 1959 Carreras merged with Rothmans and the building was converted into offices.
More about the building here. 
also an interesting story about the Black Cat brand.

A 1928 view from the Britain from above site.

My Victor Meldrew moment

 Spot the difference, my quiz for boat licence payers everywhere. To make it easy all the differences will be in the grass section closest to the water.

 If you say no difference then my next question is what the hell are we paying the fella below for.
I heard the grass cutter coming along and just snapped the pictures.

When the grass has stopped growing this is what they should be doing. Hedge cutting two days earlier as we cruised along.

For U.S. readers not aware of Victor Meldrew.
Plus short clip here.

You Never Know What`s Over the Hedgerow

After the heavy rain, hail stones, and high winds we decided to stay moored in the Pitstone area even though we had covered just two locks and as many miles since Marsworth. There was nothing much to do with the weather as it was, so Jaq posted a blog and I put together my "all change at the junction post".

I needed an old picture of  Marsworth Wharf for that post and whilst searching I came across Cheddington Airfield.  It appeared we were moored just 1400 yards from the old runway.

As I stand on the towpath taking this picture it`s hard to imagine working boats passing along this stretch in the 1940`s with United States American Armed Forces (USAAF) B24`s (read on) coming and going across the fields to and from missions in Europe.

So as you read in the last post, the planning application for the houses at Marsworth Wharf were submitted in Nov. 2009. All that was going to happen here was some people would make some money out of folks' paying fortunes for a few bricks in the shape of a home. It dragged on for six years so inflation affected both parties. More important than this and also in Nov. 2009 was the planning of a memorial to remember and commemorate the crew of a USAAF B24 that crashed here 65 years previously in Nov. 1944.

The airfield close to Marsworth and Long Marston villages opened in 1942 and was named Cheddington as this was the nearest rail station--a fact that often dictated the naming of an airfield. It was used initially by the Royal Air Force (RAF) for bomber training with both Vickers Wellingtons' and Avro Ansons' being based here. Later that same year it was handed over to the USAAF who then soon after transferred to Norfolk. In 1943 once again the RAF handed the airfield back to the USAAF who returned to Cheddington. There is a lot of reading in the links I will provide so I will be brief. The first memorial is for the crash I refer to above.


In November 1944 a USAAF B24 Liberator crashed soon after take off, killing a Navigator and Gunner. Pilot Norman Landberg and Gunner George Eberwine attended the memorial ceremony at Cheddington in 2009. LINK





In December 1944 seven B24 Liberators were returning to Cheddington after their mission. Bad weather diverted four to Shrewsbury and the remaining three to Anglesey. Whilst waiting to land, one of the three ditched in the sea after running out of fuel. Eight of the crew are still to this day listed as missing. LINK




In February 1945 a B24 crashed half a mile from the runway after take off from Cheddington. Three Ariel Gunners perished. The plane had the nickname Beast of Bourbon. LINK



Another link HERE. The main information text here is under NOV 2009 and MAY 2011 but there are other references throughout the pages. Another link HERE for the Welsh disaster.

Light planes can still land on a grass strip at Cheddington; the concrete runway has long since been torn up. I can see a windsock blowing in the wind to the left side of the site.

Regardless of the connection Nb Valerie has with the U.S. I felt this was worthy of a blog post. So many brave people gave a lot, some sacrificed everything, for the freedom we have today. Those that were based here are a good example.

on the Leeds and Liverpool

I remember a memorial to Polish Airmen up on the Leeds and Liverpool canal and the National Memorial Arboretum which is very close to the Trent and Mersey at Alrewas. The NMA covers 150 acres, with 50,000 trees and 300 dedicated memorials to the Armed Forces and civil services of this country. The link below is a 90 second look around the NMA. There is a longer video on the main site. I highly recommend a visit.
 http://youtu.be/XPpIBvPz04A 

As we travel the canals I will never stop being amazed at the history of the places we pass through.