Relief from the Wissey!

Our boating season is drawing to a close and we are now on the Middle Levels.  It's going to take a couple of posts to bring us up to date so this one tells of our travels up the last of the three Great Ouse tributaries - the River Wissey - and our cruise down the Relief Channel.  So here goes:

The confluence of the Wissey and the Ouse is only a mile or so upstream of Denver Sluice and we turned there last Wednesday off the huge wide River Ouse onto the tiny narrow Wissey.

This picture of the Wissey was taken soon after we turned onto it and gives a good idea of the scenery - tree lined and narrow but pretty deep so no difficulty navigating this river.

About half way up the Wissey the wild natural scenery dramatically changes at Wissington where a huge factory converts sugar beet into sugar.  The river flows round two sides of the factory.  This factory is such a landmark that we had already spotted it from the River Little Ouse.

Round the back of the factory several trees have come down making it difficult to pilot a narrowboat around the fallen branches.  We have reported this to the Environment Agency so hopefully they will remove the trees from the river.

Beyond the factory the river crosses two large lakes which appear to be deep enough to navigate anywhere from side to side.

Like the Little Ouse, the Wissey crosses the Cut Off Channel on an aqueduct.  Excess water in the Cut Off Channel can be sent north out to sea or south to reservoirs in Essex.  Clever stuff.

Here's a view from the aqueduct looking north down the Cut Off Channel.

We are now coming through Stoke Ferry which is close to the navigable limit of the Wissey, some ten miles from the Ouse.

The mooring at Whittington is free to GOBA members, which we are now.  The mooring adjoins a caravan site which was handy for emptying the elsan.  A board of rules greets visiting boaters which is a bit offputting, but the lady at the site was very friendly.  One of the rules is 'no children'.

In the afternoon we walked into Stoke Ferry which has a lot of historic buildings but now looks a bit forlorn with many in disrepair.  It does have a shop but the pub closed earlier this year.  Both churches have been closed.

On Thursday we went back down the Wissey to Hilgay which is only a couple of miles from the Ouse.

But first we had to go another half a mile upstream to reach the point where you can turn round.  This blue narrowboat had passed us half an hour before we set off and we met it broadside across the river.  It was being taken out of the water on a trolley pulled up a ramp by an enormous old army lorry.

When the lorry  revved up to pull the boat up the ramp there was a huge cloud of exhaust but peering through the smoke we could just see the boat moving towards the ramp.

It was touch and go for a while as the boat went up and then slid down the ramp, but eventually the tow worked and the boat went up leaving the river free for us.

Here's the view looking up the ramp with the boat on the trailer at the top.

Past the red narrowboat the river forks with a prominent drain to the left.  This is the point where boats have to turn as the river is not navigable further up.  The turn was not too difficult and even a full sized boat can turn here.

Here we are on our way back crossing the first of the two lakes near the sugar factory.

Here is rather a surreal photo Helen took looking through the girders of a bridge to the sugar factory.

Thursday was a sunnier day for travelling downstream and here we are approaching Hilgay where there are ample moorings on a meadow before the road bridge.

There is only one shop in Hilgay which is a butcher but it also sells fruit and vegetables, groceries and newspapers and we bought a wonderful pork pie, made on the premises.  The photo is of the long avenue of lime trees leading to the church.

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Ian liked this fine carving on a gravestone in the churchyard.  It was dated 1891 but the carving looks as sharp as if it was done yesterday.

The Cut Off Channel runs parallel and close to the Wissey at this point so Ian walked up to have a look while Helen filled Leo's water tank.  It looks like a navigable waterway but this is not allowed and there is no navigable connection.

On Friday we returned to the Great Ouse but had one more adventure before going through the lock at Denver Sluice onto the tideway.

We've been trying for ages to get a decent picture of a Great Crested Grebe but every time you point a camera at one, they dive out of sight.  But this one stayed long enough to have its photo taken.

Here we are coming down the Ouse towards the Denver Complex.  To the left are the sluices and the lock that connect with the tidal River Ouse.  Straight ahead are the sluices that allow excess water from the Ouse into the Relief Channel that runs parallel to the tidal river to the outskirts of Kings Lynn.  And to make matters more confusing the Cut Off Channel as a sluice (not visible in the picture) which connects it to the Relief Channel.  It's all very complicated but basically excess water can be sent to Essex or out to sea by two routes.  The main aim is to prevent the Fens being flooded.  As for us we cruised up the right hand channel where a lock gives access to the Relief Channel.

 

 

Helen is setting the lock for Leo.  It's all electric, both the paddles and the gates.

The lock takes boats down about 8 feet and out onto the Relief Channel.

This view is looking back, having come out of the lock which is to the right beyond the lock landing.  The sluices straight ahead connect the Cut Off Channel beyond to the Relief Channel.

These Egyptian Geese were on the concrete by the sluices.

If you think the Great Ouse is a wide river, you should try the Relief Channel!  When we eventually turned round about 8 miles downstream there was no need for a three point turn.

The Relief Channel is also very straight.  You can see a bridge in the distance but it might be two miles away.  However we were travelling at more than 5 miles an hour which is pretty fast for a narrowboat.  We don't know how deep it is: perhaps it is bottomless.

Although there is no navigation obstacle preventing you cruising to the edge of Kings Lynn, where the Channel ends in a sluice onto the tidal river, the last few miles are the province of a water ski club and other boats are not welcome.  So here at Wigginhall Bridge we were obliged to turn round.

This sign at the bridge makes clear that it is 'no entry' and 'turn round'.

There are three new floating mooring pontoons on the Relief Channel and we stopped at the one at Wigginhall, St Mary Magdalen for lunch.  We walked up to the church which was huge for such a tiny village and there is also a pub here - the Cock Inn - which does food.

We moved back after lunch to the middle mooring at Stow Bridge which is right by the Heron pub which had been recommended to us by other boaters.  This view from the road bridge shows Leo on the pontoon by the pub.  We did not meet many boats down here, though we were surprised and pleased to see Leaside Lass, a boat that we had last seen in Bedford.  We stopped for a chat with owners Esme and Brian as they were heading back to Denver that day. We also saw Fulbourne, the working boat last seen on the Lark and previously at St Neots.

I mentioned that the tidal channel runs parallel to the Relief Channel so we walked across to it from the Heron.  The tide was going out.  Somewhere in the distance is Kings Lynn and the sea.

The Heron was as good as we had been told with lovely food and good beer at reasonable prices.  We enjoyed our evening meal there and it was but a short step back to the boat afterwards.

On Saturday we came back up the Relief Channel stopping for a few hours at the third mooring pontoon which is within 10 minutes walk of Downham Market.  As well as some fine buildings, a hill (!!) up to the church and a market we also looked in at the Downham Discovery Centre.  This is a museum, staffed by volunteers, in the old fire station and is well worth a visit. Did you know about the Downham Market Riot in 1816?

Once back up the lock we moored at Denver ready for our passage through the lock onto the tidal River Ouse on Sunday.  But more about that in our next posting.

Up the Creek without a paddle!

Here is the next update which covers our exploration of the River Little Ouse, otherwise known as Brandon Creek, hence the headline.  Having explored the Lark we turned down the Great Ouse with a brief stop in Littleport for shopping and a fill with water.  A few miles downstream at the Ship Inn we turned up the Little Ouse and here are some pictures of the three days we spent on that river:

The building is the Ship Inn which is right at the junction of the Great and Little Ouse.  The view is looking up the Little Ouse with the bridge carrying the A10 between Ely and Kings Lynn.

This gives an idea of the scenery on the Little Ouse.  At first there are plenty of trees which give some shelter from the wind, but further up the river is wider (unusually) and much more open and exposed.

We passed this desirable residence a few miles up the Little Ouse.

The stone structure among the trees is an old lock which is no longer used.  Nowadays the only lock is at Brandon - more details later on this.

On Sunday we stopped for the day on some GOBA (Great Ouse Boating Association) moorings at Hockwold Fen, right out in the wilds.  A cruiser later joined us here.  No desirable walks from here so Ian spent the afternoon touching up various rust spots.

Though the day had been mostly cloudy, there was some colour in the sky as the sun went down.

The river crosses a watercourse known as the Relief Channel.  This joins the upper reaches of the rivers Lark, Little Ouse and Wissey and discharges to tidal water near Kings Lynn.  It serves two purposes.  First it can be used to divert water in flood conditions and second it can hold river water at high tide when the sea is held back at Denver Sluice. When the tide drops, it can be let out to sea.  The guillotine we are about to go under comes down when the river is diverted down the Relief Channel.

Here we are on Monday morning moored at Brandon, below the lock.  Why did we not go through the lock and moor in the centre of Brandon?  Well the lock which is to the left behind us is only about 45 feet long and Leo is 57 feet long.  What a silly idea building a lock this short!

For the rest of the day on Monday we left Leo and went cycling:

First we cycled to Weeting a couple of miles away.  Here is the village sign and down below you can make out a panel showing a Neolithic man down a mine.  All will be explained in a minute.

This is the church at Weeting which as you can see has a round tower.  This is something we've seen elsewhere in Norfolk and we had crossed into Norfolk at the lock as the river is the boundary here between Norfolk and Suffolk.

Weeting has a castle which is perhaps more properly described as a Norman Manor House and these are the remaining walls.  Like many of the other buildings round here it was built of flint.  So where did the flints come from?

Some stone was used for window arches and corners but flint is the primary building material because it was local and handy.

From Weeton we followed a track and then minor roads for a few miles to Grimes Graves.  The name of this Neolithic site (c2,600BC) is a bit of a misnomer as it was primarily a place full of flint mines.  This picture shows the depressions in the ground each of which was a shaft to a flint mine.

In each case a shaft was dug (with deer antler picks) about 30 feet down and then side galleries cut out to access the flints which are in narrow layers in the chalk.  This picture is taken looking into one of the galleries having come down a ladder into the pit opened for the public to see.  The black layer at the bottom of the wall is the layer of flint.  The mines here were so productive that raw and knapped flint objects were distributed all over England and onto the continent.  And all this nearly 5,000 years ago.  Very impressive and worth a visit.

We cycled on through Thetford Forest to Santon Downham where Helen got stuck in the girders of the bridge over the Little Ouse.  No, not really.  At this point we are about two miles above Brandon Lock and some sources say the river is navigable to this point.  It looked pretty shallow to us and might be OK for a canoe but not something bigger.

Curiously there is a GOBA mooring here as shown by the blue sign.  We used a stick to measure the depth of the water at the mooring.  One foot deep, so you would need a very shallow draft to use this one!!

A couple of miles along a back road took us back to Brandon after an interesting day on the bikes.  And that's about it for our exploration of the Little Ouse.  Today (Tuesday 11th) we have come back down the Little Ouse and we are presently back on the Great Ouse ready for our trip up the final tributary, the River Wissey.  More about that one in the next post.

Larking about off the Ouse

We're now on the River Lark which is another waterway that neither we nor Leo have ever travelled before.  But let's go back to a few photos as we came back down the River Great Ouse:

This is an early morning shot out of the window with the sun rising through the low mist near Brampton Mill.  We've had some autumnal mists lately and it was a bit chilly last night, so we've got the heavier quilt out for use.

There was a lock keeper working at Hemingford Lock and he managed to pack a pretty full lock.  Difficult to see but behind us is a double long canoe full of schoolkids.

Here is Oliver Cromwell looking determined.  The statue is at St Ives where he lived for a while.

The chapel on the bridge at St Ives was open so we popped in.  Helen is on the balcony of the lower floor below the chapel.

We stopped briefly in St Ives on Sunday to buy a paper.

The graffiti says "Life is beautiful" but not so beautiful if you own this boat.

Another autumnal picture of a web on our mooring rope one morning.

We're back down in flat lands now with huge skies.

Here's our wake through the duckweed on the Old West River.

This round building, now part of a house, is in Little Thetford a mile or so from the river.  It is thought to have been the base of windmill.

And so on Tuesday morning we came once more to Ely.  We left Leo there for a couple of days while we travelled by train to Stratford on Avon for a celebration of two thirds of a century for our friend Nick.  Lots of other friends were there and we went on a boat trip on the Avon with them.  Curiously of the 25 or so people present, 8 own or part-own a canal boat!

Here is Nick wearing his captain's cap, with Wendy next to him and Miriam beside her.  They are pictured on the river boat.

A friend had baked a wonderful cake

And Nick of course made a speech as we enjoyed tea with the cake!
































On Wednesday we returned to the boat and on Thursday (6th September) we left Ely.  We travelled about 4 miles down a very straight and wide River Ouse to reach the confluence with the River Lark:

Well I did say this bit of the Ouse is wide and straight!

Just before the house on the right is the turn onto the River Lark.

At first the Lark is fairly straight but not quite as wide but it later gets pretty bendy as it follows the original course of the river before the Dutch straightened it in the sixteenth century.

This octagonal house is thought to have been a wind pumping house to pump water from the field drains into the river.

There are not many moorings on the Lark, so we spent our first night off the end of the lock moorings at Isleham.  We did try mooring the other side of the river but it was too shallow.

We walked into the village of Isleham and visited the church where there are some fine tombs of the Peyton family. They have been painted (as they would have been centuries ago) funded by descendants in the US.  This tomb dates from 1550.

Also at Isleham is this Priory Chapel built about 1090 and now in the care of English Heritage.

This morning (7th September) we came up the last few miles of the navigable River Lark to Judes Ferry.

Above Isleham Lock we passed this memorial to Charles Spurgeon who is described as "Prince of Preachers".  He and his predecessors used to baptise people in the river here and, more recently at a nearby weir. It only stopped in 1970 because people came out a bit smelly from the fairly stagnant water!

We passed an old working boat, Fulbourne, on one of the bends.  Surprisingly we both managed to stay off the mud and at least it confirmed that we would be able to turn at the end.  Our guide book says boats up to 13.7m can turn and we are 17.4m but people had already told us that longer boats were OK.

And here we are on the pub moorings at Judes Ferry, the head of navigation, safely turned round ready to head back down the river. We are the only visitors here at the moment.

A road crosses the river here and this is the view upstream from the bridge.  The river becomes narrow, but there are other impediments to navigation as you will see.

We cycled into Mildenhall and here is the sign for the town.  Top right is the church (see below), top left is the market cross (15th century), bottom left is the river and bottom right depicts the US air force airfield which we passed on our way to Mildenhall.

This is the village pump in the centre of Mildenhall.

Mildenhall has some fine old buildings especially around the Market Square.

Like St Wendreda's at March, the church at Mildenhall has roof angels.

Here is a close up of one.  They are life sized and carved out of the same wood as the roof beams.

This is the River Lark at Mildenhall.  This bit is easily navigable and there is even space to turn, but sadly just downstream there is a weir and no lock to by pass it.  We crossed a bridge which is described as being by the old lock, so it must have been navigable at one time.

Down by the river we saw a kestrel in a tree.

Downstream from the weir the Lark is shallow and fast flowing - not at all suitable for Leo.

On our way back we passed two more weirs including this one called King's Staunch which is less than a mile above Judes Ferry.  We wondered if it was originally a 'flash lock' where paddles were withdrawn to allow a boat to be pulled up the slope of water.  The masonry is certainly too short to be part of an ordinary lock.

So tonight we plan to eat at the Judes Ferry pub and tomorrow our way will lie back down the River Lark.  There are two more tributaries of the Ouse to explore but that will have to wait for the next update on this blog.