From Ouse to Nene including a diversion

 As I type this we are once more on the River Nene heading back upstream towards the canals. Here are some highlights of our journey over the last week:

Last Sunday morning (22 August) we crossed the tidal section of the Ouse from Denver to Salter's Lode to join the Middle Level Navigations. It was a dismal drizzly morning and here we are leaving Denver Lock onto the tidal river.

This photo taken by Helen at the bow looking back, shows us passing another narrowboat as we cross the short half mile of tidal water.

After passing the 'Slow Down' notice for boats tearing past on their way down the tide to Kings Lynn, the entrance to Salter's Lode is just visible on the left hand side. You might be able to make out the tiny channel to the lock, but the tree and the lock keeper's house are better landmarks. You need to turn in quite sharply as the tide pulls the stern downstream towards the sea. In fact this time it was almost relaxed as the ebb tide was pretty slow.

Having made the turn you have to miss the line of posts to the left of the lock channel and power ahead into the lock. I have previously made a right mess of turning in here but this time we were awarded a score of 9 out of 10 by the lock keeper, the loss of one mark being that I hit the rear end on the retaining wall to the right as we came in!

We went down about 4 or 5 feet in the lock and here we are exiting onto Well Creek, the narrow waterway that leads to Upwell. You can see the drops of rain on the camera lens - it was that sort of day.

After the wide waters of the Ouse, the Middle Level feels very narrow and has some low bridges, like this one at Nordelph. We had taken down our lovely flowering geraniums but the herbs on the roof stroked this bridge as we went under.

And here is another low arch bridge at Upwell. No more high and broad river cruisers through here!

We like Upwell and stayed the night there. There is a road either side of the narrow waterway and houses of all sorts of ages and architecture line the banks.

One pleasure of spending the summer on the waterways is seeing the passage of the seasons. So now it is harvest time and we passed this huge haystack between Upwell and March. We'd like to see the machinery that lifts these large straw bales up so high.

Here is the view from our mooring in March, a pleasant town with the waterway in a narrow ditch running through it. Strictly this waterway is the old course of the River Nene which now flows in a more direct channel from Peterborough to Wisbech and the sea. The fish and chip shop just by the mooring was closed for the owners' holiday. We had set our sights on having fish and chips so Ian cycled to another shop in the town.

There is a direct route across the  Middle Level from Denver to Peterborough but there are alternatives and we decided we wanted to visit Benwick which lies off the direct route. In the photo we are approaching Floods Ferry Junction where the main route goes right. We went left to Benwick again following the old course of the Nene. Notice the second world war pill box at the junction. There are lots of these defence positions on the Middle Level.

Benwick has two bridges, one a boring concrete one and the other this fine wooden one which carries a footpath into the village.

We went for a walk from Benwick going south across the dead flat Fenland landscape. We passed this memorial to a US military plane which came down nearby in 1989.

At the far end of our walk we came to the Forty Foot River, a long and very straight channel which is also navigable, though here it is covered with duckweed. Some of our walk had been below sea level and the map showed the highest point was where we had crossed the zero contour line!

After spending Tuesday night at Benwick we had to continue a further three and a half miles to reach the junction with the Forty Foot where we could turn round. In the photo we are approaching the Wells Bridge. Beyond this there is a T junction where turning is easy. Then we had five miles or so back on the old course of the Nene returning to Floods Ferry Junction where we turned left for Whittlesey.

Leaving Whittlesey there is a very sharp left bend just beyond the bridge shown here.

Here, close to the bridge you can make out the channel beyond. This really is a tight turn and you have to slow down to a standstill to get round. The channel is shallow on the left too and, on our first go, we went aground before backing off and trying again. We had a 10.30am appointment with the lock keeper at Stanground Lock where we went up to join the channel leading to the River Nene at Peterborough. It has been novel navigating at or below sea level for several days crossing the Middle Level. We filled with water and then set off back up the River Nene.

Before we reached the first lock at Orton we decided to explore a little branch of the river on the north bank. This leads under a footbridge, past a long straight rowing lake to reach a basin at Thorpe Meadows. Here we are going up the channel and then round a right bend to reach the moorings.

And here is Leo moored on the fine moorings in the small lake at the end of the waterway. Obviously there is plenty of room to turn. The remains of a fire and a few beer bottles and broken glass made us think twice about spending the night there and so, after exploring a bit on foot, we moved on after lunch. Had there been a few other boats here we would probably have stayed. There is a Chef and Brewer pub, The Boathouse, opposite the mooring and the channel goes on under a footbridge into a private marina.

So on Thursday evening we returned to Ferry Meadows where we'd stayed on our way down the river. This moorings is in a public park and on a lake so rather novel for a narrowboat. We managed to get there in time for tea and cake at the cafe!

We carried on up river on Friday going up 5 locks (more than we've done in a day for ages on the flat lands of the Fens and River Ouse). We moored at Elton and walked into the village. Unfortunately the nearer pub, the Crown, was fully booked that evening but we found the church open and were able to look round. We've found since Covid that churches are much more likely to be locked than they used to be. We like looking round village churches and, in Elton Church we found several windows with stained glass by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris from the Arts and Crafts movement. The photo shows one of them.

Elton is a delightful village with lots of delightful stone buildings.

Having stayed at Fotheringhay on our way down the river we decided not to stop there again on the way back. The photo shows Leo heading for the centre arch of Fotheringhay bridge.

And here is the church at Fotheringhay. It is a great landmark seen from miles away but we find its proportions are a bit odd. We think the nave needs an extension to make it longer to be in proportion with the splendid tower.

On Saturday afternoon we moored just beyond Oundle's North Bridge on an unofficial field mooring and walked into the town. We really liked Oundle with its streets of lovely stone buildings, mostly Georgian, plenty of shops and places to eat. We've put it on our list of places we'd probably like to live in.

This courtyard is part of the Talbot Hotel. The diagonal window above the passage marks the staircase in the hotel which was brought from Fotheringhay Castle when it was demolished. It is said that Mary Queen of Scots walked down this staircase on the way to her execution.

This is the old Courthouse in Oundle which now houses a delightful small museum.

After exploring the town we walked through to South Bridge also over the Nene. The river goes in a huge loop round the town so you can walk straight through the town and cross the river twice. We carried on into into Barnwell Country Park where we met these two wooden carved hedgehogs. The country park has paths round a number of lakes and is a popular place with visitors of all ages.

On Sunday we carried on up river and here you see Helen at Ashton Lock which is one of six locks which has a manually lifting guillotine. Helen is using the large chrome wheel to lower the gate. It takes innumerable turns to achieve this. We have a slight dodge to improving the technique. By inserting a small screwdriver into a hole in the wheel you have a handle to turn. It helps but has less leverage so it does not improve things when more effort is required on some of the stiffer gates.

At Pear Tree Farm Moorings (for members of the Friends of the River Nene) boats have a choice of mooring on the river or up a tributary called Harper's Brook. We are moored on the Brook. We shared the mooring with two other narrowboats and a large family group on two cruisers, but there is plenty of room so we spent Sunday night at this remote and quiet spot.

So this brings us nearly up to date. We will be continuing our cruise up the River Nene over the next few days seeking to visit those places we missed on our way down. Once we get to Northampton we will be returning to the canals after a couple of months on these eastern rivers.

Three more excursions off the River Great Ouse

 On our way back down the Great Ouse we have explored three waterways: the Cam, the Little Ouse (or Brandon Creek) and the Relief Channel, and this is the story of those trips.

First we swallowed our pride and paid the extortionate licence fee to visit Cambridge, though we are in correspondence with the Cam Commissioners about this. The River Cam joins the Great Ouse at Pope's Corner and the first 7 miles upstream are covered by either a Gold Licence or an EA licence. However for the six and a half miles further up from Bottisham Lock to just below Jesus Lock in the centre of Cambridge, the waterway is managed by the Cam Commissioners. We would expect to have to pay a small daily or weekly visitor fee for access. By comparison the Warwickshire Avon charges £10 per day or £50 per week: the Wey Navigation charges £23 per day or £91 for 7 days. Prices are for a 57 foot boat and both waterways are considerably longer than the top end of the Cam. So what is the Cam Commissioners charge? The answer is that they insist you buy an Anglian Pass which is an annual addition to your Gold or EA licence and costs £100 when most visiting boats might only need it for a couple of days. It's a liberty and one that we have sought to challenge.

The Cam Commissioners claim that they are bound by their bye-laws to only issue annual licences. They say in an e mail to us: "The Anglian Pass was and still is the most effective, efficient and fair charging model for the vast majority of the region’s boaters." From the perspective of boaters visiting from more distant waters, it clearly is neither effective nor fair. Our correspondence on this continues as we understand that a few years ago the Cam Commissioners were issuing short term licences. Ultimately this will be an issue for more local boaters than us to pursue, but we shall continue to press the issue and take it up with CRT and the IWA. Anyway enough of a rant for this posting: here are some pictures and the story:

In order to get the sunniest pictures on this blog they are taken on our exit from Cambridge so we start here just below Jesus Lock in the centre. You can see the weir and lock in front of Leo. Until October you are not allowed through this lock unless you moor up there. In any event you would swiftly find yourself surrounded by punts some propelled by experts but a lot by newcomers, so probably best to stay here where there are only rowing sculls, pairs, fours and eights to avoid!

Here is the view looking back as we left Cambridge on Thursday 12th August. The public moorings are on the right and there is a water, elsan and pump out services on the left.

As we left Cambridge we passed a line of rowing clubs but fortunately not too many boats out on the river. It might be very different in term time.

Here we are coming to Bait's Bite Lock which has a guillotine on the upstream side and V gates below, though it is entirely electric so no muscles required.

We spent the night on some GOBA moorings just above Bottisham Lock. Well having paid our £100 we were determined to get some value so actually spent 4 nights on the Cam, so only £25 a day for us! The building in the photo is the rather splendid Dutch style house at Clayhithe which is the headquarters of the Cam Commissioners.

Our next excursion was on the Little Ouse which is also called Brandon Creek:

To get to the Little Ouse we had to go back down the Cam to Pope's Corner and then down the Great Ouse through Ely and Littleport. We've called this photo "a strong wind on the Ouse". The lower reaches are flat and tend to be windy but perhaps not strong enough to fell telegraph poles.

Here we are coming back through Ely. The Cutter Inn is straight ahead and worth a visit.

After shopping in Ely on Friday 13th we went another 3 miles or so to an EA mooring called 'Diamond 44'. Why this strange name. I think I might have explained this in an earlier post but it is because in 1944 the Oxford and Cambridge boat race was held on the Great Ouse (as it was also in 2021) and in 2004, the 60th anniversary of the war time race, it was re-contested with veteran university crews. The photo shows the effect of the wind down the long straight coming out of Ely. Some sizeable waves had built up.

A few miles below Littleport we reached the Ship Inn shown here where we turned right onto the Little Ouse. This tributary is the longest of the three north of Ely at nearly 14 miles to the navigation head at Brandon Bridge.

The Little Ouse is wider than the Wissey and deep and mostly weed free and so is the easiest to cruise. For the first mile or two the long line of trees planted on its banks sheltered us from the wind.

We didn't pass many moving boats on the Little Ouse and it certainly looks as if this chap has been waiting a long time for a lift!

We remembered this falling down house from our last visit here but it doesn't seem to have got a lot worse.

Here is the first opportunity for a navigational error as the Lakenheath Lode branches off the right. The Little Ouse goes left. It looks as if Lakenheath Lode is plenty deep enough for narrowboats, but I doubt there is anywhere to turn round. Unless someone knows different. Shortly after this there is a remote GOBA mooring where we stopped for lunch.

We shared the mooring with grazing cows, wildflowers, grasshoppers and teasels growing beside the river ...

... and butterflies, this is a Gatekeeper. Definitely not a Meadow Brown as it has two white spots inside the larger black spot on the wings.

Not far beyond our lunch stop we crossed over the Cut Off Channel. This is part of the wonderful water engineering centred on Denver. In times of flood, the channel gathers excess water from the rivers Lark, Little Ouse and Wissey and directs it towards the tidal Ouse close to Kings Lynn. The channel can also be used to send water the other way to fill reservoirs in Essex. Most ingenious. In the picture we have just come through one sluice (to the left). If there is the possibility of flooding then the left sluice is closed and the right one which connects with the Cut Off Channel is opened.

At Brandon there is a lock on the Little Ouse that would allow boats up to the town of Brandon. I say 'would' because perplexingly it is only about 40-45 feet long and therefore too short to get Leo through. There is however ample room to turn below the lock and a fine, though short EA mooring where we stayed the night on Saturday and enjoyed a visit from Lucy, Becca and grandson Nathan on the Sunday. So, who is the chap in the photo? Brandon is a town just on the edge of the fens in an area known as Breckland which is famous for flint mining. The carving is of a 'flintknapper' who doesn't seem from his expression to enjoy his work. Flints for rifles were produced here for a hundred years or more.

 

And so to our final excursion down the Relief Channel:

Returning to Denver Sluice and Lock which gives access to the tidal river and then to Salters Lode Lock and the Middle Level, there is a second lock to the right which takes boats down onto the Relief Channel. This is a continuation of the Cut Off Channel and runs alongside the tidal River Ouse to discharge potential flood waters into the tidal river close to Kings Lynn. It is navigable for about for nine miles or so to Wiggenhall Bridge. The Relief Lock shown here is about 30m long and falls about 8 or 9 feet down to the Relief Channel.

Here, we have turned left out of the Relief Channel lock and are looking back to the sluice at the end of the Cut Off Channel. So this is where the flood waters from the Lark,the Little Ouse and the Wissey would come.

Soon, on the left is the AG Wright Sluice shown here. This one lets excess water from the River Ouse into the Relief Channel.

Once past that sluice we were out on the Relief Channel itself. This is hugely wide and straight. There are three first class EA mooring pontoons with water down here, the first at Downham Market, the second by a pub called the Heron and the third near the Cock Inn (although this seems to be closed at present). So no shortage of places to go and moor. We stopped for lunch at the Downham Market mooring.

... and carried on to spend Thursday night at the mooring for the Heron at Stow Bridge. From here and the other moorings you can walk over to the tidal river running alongside to thank your lucky stars that you are on stationary water! We ate at the Heron which was very good with fine food and well kept Adnams beer. We were the only boat moored here though we had visits from a couple of canoeists and an early morning visit by some swimmers.

This old house with its characteristic Dutch gable was just behind the Heron pub. The Dutch influence here dates from the 17th century when Cornelius Vermuyden first started the engineering changes that led to flood reduction and to draining of the fens.

The morning on Friday was spent beautifying the boat with Helen cleaning and treating the vinyl covers and Ian putting a coat of Polytrol on the paintwork on the starboard side. Polytrol brings back the paint colour and puts a protective layer of hard wax over the paint to stop scratches. With jobs done we cruised back to the Downham Market mooring and walked into town for lunch. There were flowers everywhere including this planted boat at the entrance to town.

This clock in the middle of town has been restored and looks really good.

Here are more wonderful flowers and behind is a town sign. The horses on the top of the sign are because Downham used to hold a horse fair which was said to be one of the largest in Europe. St Winnold is pictured in red robes and is credited with bringing the horse fair to Downham. The other side of the sign records the fact that Lord Nelson spent his childhood here.

After lunch at Wetherspoons we returned to Leo and cruised back up the Relief Channel to Denver. Here we are approaching the AG Wright Sluice again, with the lock to the left.

By way of a change, on Saturday we walked the long way round into Denver village following the rivers Ouse and Wissey and then the Cut Off Channel. But on Sunday morning we shall go through the Denver Lock down the tidal river for just a short way and then through Salters Lode Lock onto the Middle Levels. But more about this another day.