The Weekend Starts Here - Narrowboats and Locks

3.77mls, 1hrs 48mins, 2locks, 3.19lmph

This morning dawned with a little drizzle, but nothing too bad. John had an appointment to give blood in the early afternoon so I spent the morning doing a bit of cleaning and then sat down with my laptop to catch up on emails and blogs. John was busy on his laptop too!

By the time he returned from the “vampire” having donated his pint of blood the rain had cleared. So after a sit down we prepared to “pull the pins”. We finally set off about 5pm as the GPS laptop was not connecting to the Internet, so John had to fiddle a bit and I had to be patient!

We went down to the winding hole as we are cruising towards the Crofton flight. Past the Pewsey Boat Club moorings, the private Wharf moorings, the 48-hour moorings and the boats moored after these! We enjoy looking at all the boats so never mind slowing down to tick over past lines of moored boats! They are part of the canal scene, they can be appreciated and enjoyed and the variety of colours, styles and state of repair makes for interesting comparison and comments!

The last time we saw this boat it was down at Bathampton – last September.



The outside belies the beauty within? I am not sure if it is still for sale.

Leviathan was a former Birmingham Canal "joey" or day boat and belonged to the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, who used her as a passenger steamboat. When the Trust sold her in 1976 the steam boiler was taken out and put in Nb President. I am sure those who worked her would be more than surprised to see inside her now!

We had an email alert that there was a tree down at Wootton Rivers and spotted it just before the lock. It was passable with care as I got off to do the lock.



Above Wootton Rivers Lock (51) there are some 24-hour moorings but unsurprisingly they were full. I suppose we could have asked one of the boats to move to share a ring with the boat behind, and then we could have got in. But we decided to go on as we had had a snack of jam and (Cornish) cream scone each to keep us going until a meal. I made the scones this morning!

We went up Heathy Close lock and I spotted a 125 stopped at lights.



There must have been a problem on the line as it was there for at least quarter of an hour. (There was - near Pewsey) We saw a convenient mooring just after the lock landing. It had piling so we could use our hooks rather than getting out the mallet and pins.

So here we are for the evening, a couple of boats ahead of us, the railway line to our starboard (but not too noisy) and the wind gently moving us around – lovely.

Final Bits And Pieces From Claverton

The Pump House at Claverton has a roof on it as you will have observed if you have been following my ramblings over the last few days.



I am sure like us you have seen other water wheels that were not roofed over. Apparently the local Lord of the Manor did not want his guests to have to look at the water wheel from his windows so ensured that the roof was built!

The Burbage Crane was dismantled at the end of last year.



The volunteers at Claverton are in the process of restoring it. This is a model of what it will look like when restored - on display at Claverton.



Also they have bits of the restoration on display in the pump house.

Below was a donation from the "Service of the Canal du Nivernais and the ACN" and is a gate opening mechanism from Vincellotes in France - Lock 74. A bit different to our systems!



Other memorabilia at Claverton include old railway and road signs, tools and other bits and pieces related to the canal.

I found it very interesting to read a couple of the accounts of memories of living by and operating the Pumping House written by children of the men in charge. I wish I had written them down but you will have to go and see for yourself. Being in charge was a dangerous work at times and if Elfin Safety was around then the Pump House would have closed!

That completes my "tour" of Claverton Pump House. I do have some videos to put up which I will do once we have a decent signal for uploading.

Tomorrow we are pulling the pins for the weekend so I will have more to blog about I hope!

More To See At Claverton Pumping House

One of the jokes we have heard about the Kennet and Avon (and I suppose it can be adapted for any canal) is that if BW get too many problems and cannot manage the upkeep of the canal they could always pull the plug in the bottom of the canal. It was only when we visited Claverton Pumping Station that we realised it is a joke founded on truth!

At one time there were many drain plugs along the length of the K & A known as "Nine Mile Pound" This is the length between the top lock at Bath and the lock at Bradford on Avon. It was divided into convenient sections by means of stop planks and each section had one of these.



Drain plugs, operated by a windlass and attached chain, were used where the canal was higher than the surrounding ground and the water would drain through a culvert into the river below.

Draining the canal for re puddling and maintenance was a common occurrence before the restoration. Now the pound is lined with plastic sheeting and concrete and sluice gates have replaced the plugs, draining into the old culverts. This seems less interesting somehow but maybe in years to come others will feel the same way about plastic and concrete!

Claverton Pumping House is set in a valley between the canal and the River Avon (unnavigable). On the wall by the pit and fly wheels are flood marks. The most recent ones are small brass plaques but the oldest one is carved in the wall, along with the traditional builders marks which dot the wall.

March 3 1842

The highest flood was in October 2000.

30 10 2000

As you can see from this photo that was well above the height of the water wheel.



So difficult to imagine and what a nightmare to clean up afterwards.

There is still more to see at Claverton so more to come from this blog in the next day or so!

Another Engineering Marvel - Claverton Pump House

There are only two ways to get to Claverton Pumping Station, by road or by canal. Both can be done under engine power and I suppose by shanks pony too!

We turned down Ferry Road - the road approach - a very narrow downhill lane. There were no parking spaces left all the way down to the railway crossing. Then it is a walk across the crossing to the entrance. It was interesting to note that because of the nature of the site it is definitely not "disabled friendly".

So failing to park we thought we would explore the other side of the valley to see if there was access via a foot path - no such luck. Having explored a very narrow road we finally asked a farmer who told us that there is no river crossing giving access. So we decided to park at Dundas Aqueduct where there is a car park for the Visitor Centre and walkers.

After a quick visit to the visitor centre for a "comfort break" and an ice cream we set off on the towpath towards Claverton - approximately three quarters of a mile. A gentle walk at my speed!

The basin at Dundas was busy and this lovely boat was moored there. She is owned by the Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath and can be booked for trips.

The Lady Sophina

On our way we saw a number of boats on the move and this was the scene at Millbrook swing bridge (179). There were a lot of cyclists too!


After this there are some permanent moorings which were very empty. Maybe boats were out or maybe it is a bit isolated from amenities etc? We arrived at Claverton Bridge (180) which is the Ferry Road bridge just as a hire boat was mooring on the 24 hour moorings there which are only a short stretch.

So we wandered down the road, across the railway line to the entrance.



As we went in we spoke to one of the volunteers there who said they had been very busy for which they were glad as they have to have 9 volunteers on site when it is a pumping day - for the Elf and Safety regulations!

We were lucky to have one of the long term volunteers give us a guided tour which made the place come alive. We were fascinated. This is the plan of the pumping station.

The water wheel is 24 feet wide and 17 feet in diameter

It has been restored now in Iroko wood as the original elm doesn't like the alternating wet and dry conditions that occur as the station is only active a few times a year.

The Pit wheel and Fly wheel

Both are 16 feet in diameter and the Fly wheel drives two cranks which are attached to the beams engines above. One end of each beam is in Watt Parallel linkage providing vertical motion to the lift pumps. These pumps lift 50 gallons of water via a pressure vessel (the green thing on the outside of the pumping house). 98,500 gallons per hour - some engineering!

More details are here.

More photos to come in the next day or so - and more about what you can see at Claverton Pump House!