More & More Arrivals

Both on the Festival Site.

And on the canal.

Keith.

They Keep on Rolling in.

The Army are here.

We kept hearing a steam whistle, but not from the railway or canal, so we headed towards where we heard it coming from, to see this traction engine arriving.

The well stocked bar in the beer tent, lots of real ales to choose from.

Keith.

More Arrivals on the Festival Site

Even more arrivals on the festival site today, mostly to do with the funfair.

Keith.

More Boats arrive

Slowly more things are arriving at the festival site, some more trucks for the funfair are now here.

More boats have arrived, especially the historic boats that had been at Alvecote for the Bank Holiday weekend.

We had decided to have lunch at the Rising Sun, before it gets too busy with festival goers. We got there 10 minutes too early and as it was raining we sat patiently in the dry under the gazebo waiting for the pub to open.

We are back at the boat and now waiting for our Tesco Delivery to arrive later this afternoon.

Keith.

Festival Site Start to take Shape Today

The Festival site here at Shackerstone has started to take shape today with fencing and marquees going up.

Where we are moored is adjacent to one of the entrances to the site from the towpath, and today they were repairing the steps between the field and the towpath.

The finished steps complete with new handrails.

Keith.

GWR 3803

This morning we took a walk up to the station to see the steam engine running on the Battlefield Line today. This is the station building.

This class 08 looks very smart in what looks like a recent paint job.

GWR 3803 arriving at the station. She is a 2884 class of 2-8-0 steam locomotive designed for heavy freight work for the GWR (Great Western Railway) and was built in 1939. C. B. Collett's 2884 class is a development of G. J. Churchward's highly capable 28xx class of heavy freight locomotives of 1903 which were the first engines to pull 2000 tons.

Running round the coaches for it’s next journey to Shenton.

These are the moorings reserved for Historic boats for the festival, will be interesting watching them fill up during the week.

Keith.

Early Boating Days

My early days of boating on “Pisces”, back then it was operated by the London Borough of Hillingdon Youth & Community Services, now by the Hillingdon Narrowboat Association. If you cannot recognise me, I am on the far left, standing in the boatman’s ‘ole. I still have the wash bowl and bucket, but the water can is now resident in Foxton Canal Museum. The picture is from a newspaper cutting and the year was 1976 when I was a mere 23years old, and thus I had been associated with “Pisces” for 8 years by then.

Happy days.

Keith.

Stoke Golding to Shackerstone

9.25 miles, no locks.

A dull but dry start to the day. Just a couple of boats along from where we were moored as Garnet, we said a quick “hello” to Mike who follows this blog.

Approaching Sutton Wharf, where we stopped briefly to top up water, etc..

We have arrived at Shackerstone, and managed to just about get into the last available space, mind you we are about 2ft away from the bank, time to christen our gangplank which we have never used before. We can now relax and await the festival next weekend.

Keith.

Burton Hastings to Stoke Golding

5.75 miles, no locks.

The Weather definitely cannot seem to make up it’s mind, but at least it wasn’t raining. Trinity Marina, Hinckley.

Stoke Golding Wharf, home of the Ashby Boat Company.

Keith.

Spring Wood to Burton Hastings

7.7 miles, 0 locks.

A shortish run today, back onto the Ashby canal. Approaching Marston junction and the start of the Ashby canal.

After lunch we took a walk into Burton Hastings.

Keith.

Grendon to Springwood Haven (Valley Cruises)

5.9 miles 11 locks.

A bright start this morning, brought us quickly to the Atherstone flight of locks. Not before passing by Grendon dry dock.

Approaching Atherstone bottom lock, and no queue!

All sizes of horses.

We moored up briefly above Atherstone top lock to do some shopping in the town. Mostly to get some cream for Jo’s arm which has come up like a balloon from an insect bite. We have to be careful with things like this because of her allergies, but the chemist made a recommendation, which hopefully will settle things down.

Keith.