Up the Great Ouse to Bedford

Our last posting took the story to Holywell just short of St Ives (that's the Cambridgeshire one, not the Cornish one).  So last Saturday (25th August) we carried on through St Ives to Godmanchester:

Here we are approaching St Ives Lock.  This was our first 'proper' Ouse lock with 'V' gates one end and a guillotine at the other.

The water in the Ouse is pretty clear and clean and St Ives Lock had freshwater sponges below the lowest level of the lock.

St Ives waterfront is very attractive and one house shows a Dutch influence, perhaps a relic of the involvement of Dutch engineers in draining the fens in the 17th century.

The bridge at St Ives is one of four in the country that has a chapel on the bridge.  Can you name the others?  We've been to all of them by boat though one of them is not for cruising under.

At Houghton Lock we missed our chance to join the fray in stacking the lock.  Many of the Ouse locks have gates about 10 or 11 feet wide but once inside the lock there is a bay to one side as shown here.

Hartford Church on the edge of Huntingdon is right beside the water.

We did not stop in St Ives but carried on to Godmanchester shown here.  We went up the lock and moored in the backwater above the lock where there is plenty of room for visiting boats.  Although the weed is unsightly the old buildings lined up along the waterfront make a pleasing picture.

This gravestone is in the churchyard at Godmanchester.  It tells a sad story of a wife murdered by her husband.  It finishes with a warning to anyone contemplating a similar crime!





























On Sunday the weather forecast was for heavy rain from about 11 am.  So we set off before 9 and aimed to get someway upriver before the rain arrived.

Above Brampton Lock they are building a by pass on the A14 to avoid Huntingdon.  This view is taken through the skeleton of the new bridge.

In the rain as we cruised through St Neots we passed the massed boats assembled for the IWA (Inland Waterways Associatioin) Festival.  It was a shame for those attending that the weather for the weekend was so wet.  Fortunately things improved for the Bank Holiday Monday.

We had arranged to meet friends William and Daphne at Great Barford and they helped us through the lock there.  We had heard of a good mooring about a mile above Great Barford in a cut leading to an old lock that is no longer used.  It was a lovely remote spot, like having your own island!

Here we are with William and Daphne having lunch.  They are in the process of buying a narrowboat and there was much discussion of this and a detailed guided tour of Leo.

A short walk took us to the old lock festooned with ivy.  We then walked back to Great Barford where we enjoyed an evening meal together at the Anchor.  It was good to see William and Daphne who live in New Zealand, though we toured North Island there with them not five months ago!

On Tuesday we were back to just the two of us again and carried on our cruise to Bedford:

Bedford has an intriguing waterscape with two parallel rivers one at a higher level than the other with Bedford Lock connecting the two.  In the picture we are on the upper river heading upstream towards the town bridge.

The upper river is a great place for rowers, but fortunately we avoided any conflict with them.

While we were in Bedford we visited the Higgins Museum in the premises of the Castle Brewery.  It is a well organised and presented museum of all aspects of local history.  Some Saxon pottery was a revelation and did you know that the R101 airship (built locally) was full of intestines of oxen filled with gas!

Painted figures in St Paul's Church include musical angels above the choir stalls.

We found these strange faces in the shopping centre.  Quite intriguing.

There are some fine Victorian buildings along the waterfront.

Bedford is presently the navigable limit of the Great Ouse.  There are plans to build a new canal from Bedford to join the Grand Union Canal at Milton Keynes.  But it will be quite a few years, if ever, before this happens.  So we turned round and we are now heading back downstream.  Here are a few pictures of sights on the way back down:

We don't cruise that early in the morning, but this swan was still asleep.

One advantage of increasing years and having to get up in the night for a pee is seeing sights like this in the early morning.  This shot was taken out of the window just after sunrise.  There was quite a mist over the water but that hasn't really come out on the photo.

Coming out of Brampton Lock the navigable channel is sign posted through a tortuous narrow channel round an island.  The direct route is marked as 'no entry'.  Having spoken to other boaters we chanced the more direct route and it was fine.  No serious shallows, so we'll go this way in future.

This afternoon we had a walk into the village of Brampton and looked round St Mary's Church.  This has some medieval miserichords - the tip up seats often seen in churches.  On the reverse side of the seats are some wonderful carvings.  A joiner is shown left and someone perhaps preparing cloth on the right with a man and his wife harvesting perhaps in the middle.

And here is another one which seems to be about bringing in the harvest with threshing on the left.

We've enjoyed our Great Ouse cruise and aim to stop in different places on the way back downstream.  We have a social engagement next week and we have to reach a railway station by Tuesday.  So some planning is required, something we don't usually do these days!