(29-30Sept)
Arrived home straight after work on the Wednesday, loaded car, and were
off. After unloading everything into the
boat we walked down to the Victoria chippy in Owen street, Tipton (highly
recommended) for a fresh roe and chips which we ate on the tables outside The
Fountain before entering for a couple of pints before going to bed.
Off at
8.00am next morning for the trip round to Park Head. Once again we flew through
the tunnel and then you hit it. From
Windmill End round to Park head though Blackbrook, where BWB used to have a
dredging tip and so used to be quite deep, was a nightmare. Every bridge ‘ole had it’s resident ‘washing
machine’ and every few hundred yards meant chucking it astern to throw the
plastic bags off the blades as well as the encroaching weed beds reducing the
cut down to a single boats width.
Speaking to Vic Smallshire the previous week at Tipton show, we had been
informed that we were to be moored in Jack’s arm. For those of you who do not know the area,
jack’s arm is a short arm that leads off Park Head Junction at the bottom of
the locks. There were three good reasons
why we were not going to moor there, we would have left and gone home first. We
have tied across Jack’s arm previously and it is infested with rats the size of
cats! Which last time spent all night running across the boats. Secondly, for
us to get off the boat meant crossing the gates of the bottom lock, not a
problem for Dawn and I but there is no way we could get Bruce the Labrador
across lock gates. Could carry Scruff
but Bruce weighs 8 stone. The third and
final reason was that we are very proud of Darley and we take her to shows for
the public to see and to interact with them.
The show was in the tunnel pound above the 3 Park Head locks and there
was no way the public were going to come all the way down the flight thencross
the gates at the bottom lock then across to jack’s arm to see the boat. On arrival I made the turn in the basin and
entered the bottom lock. As Darley came
up in the lock we were greeted by old friends Cliff and Barbara Sherwood who I
have known for nearly fifty years. They
were the assistant harbour masters for this weekends show and said I could moor
on the towpath in the first pound as long as when the horse boat was performing
we pushed over and tied on the offside next to their boat Bellatrix.
Perfect
no problems with that, ideal spot to watch the hose boat go up and down. Friday
tea time we had arranged to have a communal tea and so Chris Shenton, Ex
boaters Johnny brooks, Henry & Phyllis Johnson and Dawn & I all
assembled on Chris Shenton’s boat for tea which consisted of a gypsy stew and
noggins of crusty bread which I had cooked in the week at home. The Friday night was spent in the beer tent
with Henry & Phyllis being entertained by two singers on acoustic guitars
who were good and drinking Banks draft mild, the best was yet to come though
with the Saturday entertainment being provided by Dr Busker & The Steam
Fair Choir who are brilliant. The more
the evening went on, the bluer the band got. On the Saturday morning, at about
11.00am we pushed Darley over to the opposite side of the canal and tied next
to Bellatrix. I then stood in the hatches to watch the fun. On the Friday afternoon the horse had been
walked up and down from the top basin to the bottom, several times to get it
‘used to the road’ and so at the due time it was hitched up to the ex-GWR
railway boat ready to, as the tannoy announced, “show the public how it used to
be done”.
After the
starting photo shoot everyone was cleared from the towpath and the horse leaned
on the line. Well what a joke- the mast
pulled out and lay flat across the bows, the boat rubbed the guard iron all up
the pound and then as the horse finally eased off the steerer got the boat very
badly cross winded in the lock mouth. I
don’t profess to know a lot about ‘oss boatin, except what I had learnt as a
youth with Caggy Stevens, but this was a fiasco and totally wrong. Overall it was a really good show with over
eighty boats in attendance and on top of that the weather was very kind.
On the
Sunday afternoon we dropped back down the bottom lock into the basin and were
off round to Tipton for a night in the Pie factory with Henry & Phyllis, Chaddy
(Kevin Chadwick) and Ann. John Blunn &
Mavis. As we entered Netherton, I got ready for my usual charge through. When I got 100yards into the tunnel, I
thought ‘that headlight ain’t very bright’ that was because it was not
working. I chucked Darley aster and came
back out to investigate. Tried
everything I knew to no avail, so I cut the cable just in front of the engine
‘ole bulkhead. When the wires were
flicked together there was a spark so I knew there was power to there. I remover the plug off the headlight and
tried it on the short cable where I had cut it, it worked and so I fixed the
headlight onto the back end rail with electrical tape and headed into the darkness. It was really bright and I could see every
brick by the cabin but in front of the bow was pitch black! Monday saw us all leaving Tipton at about
9.00am and heading off down ‘Ampton locks by about 11.00am John Blunn lead the
way followed by us then Henry and bringing up the rear was Chaddy, with all of
us drawing for each other. We were
making excellent time down the flight and would have been down in under three
hours if we had not caught up with a Vikings Adrift half way down the flight
who were that painfully slow that Mavis, who’s in her eighties, ended up
drawing for them as well. We got to the
bottom lock and all said our farewells to John and Mavis as they were going back
up the Shroppie while we were off on up the Stour cut. As we approached Gailey
lock, a hire boat was just entering in front of us. I dropped dawn off on the lock landings and
she walked down. On peering down into
the now emptying lock, was told by the elderly gentlemen on the descending boat,
“I used to work them forty years ago” pointing to Darley. “Oh you might know the couple on the boat
following us as they used to work the cut”
By this time Phyllis had arrived at the lockside and shouted down “hello
George, hello Gladys. Sure enough Henry
and Phyllis knew them. George and Gladys Carter (nee Lapworth) used to work
London boats(Grand union) and they knew Darley when she was on the Guinness
with George Radford. Quick arrangements
were made and all three boats carried on together and we all tied up at The
cross Keys for a meal and a pint or two.
The evening passed with many boatman tales being swopped like the day
George’s brother fell in the cut and jumped out that quick he never even got
his vest wet! What a lovely couple they
were, both in their eighties and still boating with their daughter and
son. A 9.00am start the next morning saw
us back at the mooring and tied up as Henry & Phyllis passed by on their
way back to their mooring at Weston. All
in all a really enjoyable few weeks and we never –
Banged
‘em about once
Blossom
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