Through the green carpet to Thorne

Red sky at night?

This wouldn’t have given shepherds any delight though, it rained on and off all night! It had cleared up by the time Meg and I went out, but remained dull and overcast all day.

Leaving Keadby


This end of the Stainforth and Keadby Canal is infested with duckweed, lemnoideae, and seems to be worse each time we come this way. Luckily it doesn’t have any effect on the prop, not consolidated enough I guess.

It was pretty thick as we approached our first of several moving bridges, Vazon Sliding Rail Bridge.
The line crosses the canal at an acute angle, so the solution to allow boat passage is to slide a section of the track away, at 90° to the alignment. They do like their clever engineering up here, don’t they! There’s a bridge keeper on duty, and we timed it well between trains, opening the bridge for us as we approached.

Through the gap you can see the next bridge, a conventional one, this.

Mags comes through Vazon Swing Bridge, the railway bridge in the background.


Cutting a channel through the green stuff

Built for large commercial barges the canal is wide, deep and very straight!

Since everyone cleared off from the Keadby moorings yesterday it’s been very quiet. In fact we were the only boat there for most of day. No-one was moving on the water this morning, then we had the excitement of seeing one approaching in the distance. It looked a bit odd, and as we got nearer we saw why. It was a weed collector for the duckweed.

I think they’re fighting a losing battle. I reckon it’s growing as fast as they’re removing it! There were some clearer patches where they'd been working, but they were being encroached upon again.

The farmers around here have diversified into wind!


We had several bridges to deal with, mostly swinging, some manual and some semi-automated. The last but one carries a road near Wyke Well and, just to be different, is a mechanised lift bridge.

Wykewell Lift Bridge.


The weed thins out as we get near Thorne, passing Tyler Wilson’s boatyard. Our shell was built here in Thorne and shipped to Northwich for fitting out.

One more bridge to go, and it’s the sneakily hidden footbridge, lurking under the new Thorne Road Bridge. The chap off the last boat on the permanent moorings waved us forward, then walked up and opened it for us.

The grandly-named Princess Royal Swing Footbridge being opened by the kind gentleman on the left.

It can be a bit of a pain; the latches on the gates don’t always engage properly so you can finish up walking backwards and forwards across the bridge, giving them a rattle then trying again. All with your boat waiting below and pedestrians waiting at either end.

Just beyond are end-on moorings in front of the sanitary station, and we were able to manoeuvre into one berth. This’ll do for tonight, we can fill with water before we leave and the village is handy for shopping.
Tomorrow we’ll head on, looking for somewhere quiet for the Bank Holiday weekend.

Locks 0, miles 10

A good day for a trip downriver.

We had a fairly lazy morning, we didn’t intend to move out from Torksey till noon. That would give us an hour or so punching the tide before slack water, then a faster run down as the tide turned and carried us with it.
I had engine checks to do and sorting out longer ropes for fore and aft in case we needed them when we arrived at Keadby. And Meg needed a good walk as she’d be stuck on board for a few hours. We crossed over the lock and followed the flood bank around a ways.

Torksey Lock has two opposing sets of gates, the inner ones used as normal to pen boats down from the higher level of the Fossdyke, the outer ones used for flood protection.
 

Teapot collection on the inside of one of the lock gates.

Looking downstream, a beautiful morning.


Typical Trent Path gates.

Two gates opening in opposite directions ensure that stock can’t push them open, and the shape and the sloping hinge post act as a self-closing device.

Some of the overnight boats moved out mid-morning, but it was 12:10 when we untied, chugged gently down the short cut, and turned north.

Torksey doesn’t have a lot, but it does have a castle!

Not strictly a castle, more of a fortified manor house, it was built in the 16th century by the Jermyn family. It fell victim to the destruction wrought during the Civil War, in 1645. It was occupied by Parliamentarian forces, then later burned by the Royalists. The remains, in poor condition have been stabilised by English Heritage, but there is no access to the site for the public.

We weren’t alone on the river, we were following two motor cruisers, and occasionally a boat would come upstream. 
The leader of the two cruisers ahead was lame, having only one of it’s pair of diesels running. This didn’t stop them slowly pulling away from us though. We averaged less than 4mph for the first 1¼ hours, till near Knaith.

Sparkling water…
  

With a brisk breeze blowing from behind, the tide running from ahead raised a bit of a chop at times.


There was a Roman fortification at Littleborough, protecting the ford here. Made from stone slabs flanked by oak staves, it was removed to improve the depth of the navigation in 1820. A ferry replaced it, but little remains of either crossing now.

On a hillside overlooking the river sits Burton Chateau, built as a folly on the Gate Burton Estate in 1747.
 
It’s now managed by the Landmark Trust, and is available for holiday let.

The tide is well on the turn as we approach West Burton Power Station, exposing the mud banks on the inside of the bends.
That’s not a shopping trolley, surely? No, just a tangle of branches!

Into Gainsborough and we’re really motoring now as we pass under Gainsborough Bridge.

You can tell the tide and wind are in the same direction now; there’s hardly a ripple on the surface.
Ten miles in and it's taken us two hours and ten minutes. Seventeen to go, but they’ll be a lot quicker!

West Stockwith, with the lock leading up onto the Chesterfield Canal, is about halfway.

West Stockwith
 

Just around the corner a pair of boats were waiting for the lock, having just missed out as a launch, having overtaken us at a rate of knots, beat them to it as well.

Man on a mission…


…beating these two to the lock

These boats had come down Torksey Lock this morning, and set off about 40 minutes ahead of us. There’s not a lot of point in leaving there too early, it just means you spend longer punching the tide.

The river gets considerably wider now, and much less interesting.

Two pubs in Owston Ferry, the Crooked Billet and The White Hart, can’t get any passing boater’s trade; there’s no-where to moor!

Although I’m guessing that this chap would have had some sort of wharf or staithe at one time.   

Getting wider as we pass South and North Ewster…


The delightfully named Butterwick is the next village, sitting on the west bank.

Opposite are barge lay-over moorings though if you were desperate for a pint at the Dog and Gun on this side of the river they’d do at a pinch…
It’s a long climb up the ladders, though!

Landmarks count down the distance to Keadby now…

A converted windmill, with the M180 bridge in the distance…

…Althorpe Church…


…and the amazing bascule bridge at Gunness.

The right-hand section lifts to allow taller vessels to go further upstream. River water is pumped into the tank on the end till it outweighs the road and rail bridge deck, then up it goes. Simples!

There’s often coasters unloading on Gunness wharfs, but not today.

Keadby Lock entrance isn’t easy to spot, you have to look for the control cabin just past the crane.

I motored just past the entrance, then turned across the stream, angling gently across the flow to ease into the ready-open chamber. I’d already contacted the lock-keeper to advise him of our imminent arrival.

And we’re in!


Bye bye to the tidal Trent for another trip.


With just the centre rope tied off by the lockie, he brought us up gently. Once the lock was full he opened the gates then went to swing the road bridge just above.
 

Moored just past the bridge.


It’s taken us just under 5 hours from casting off to tying up. Not bad, but that’s long enough. I’m glad it’s been fine, if a little warm. One trip was done in wet, miserable weather, and that was a bit grim!

Not sure what we’re doing tomorrow, might take a day off.

Locks 1, miles 27½

Breezy old river…

There was no rush to get away this morning, we weren’t planning to drop down Cromwell Lock onto the tideway till half-twelve. But there were so many boats about heading downstream that we thought we’d better get in the queue!

So it was 10:40 when we pulled away from The Kiln mooring pontoon, leaving just two boats still there.

The Kiln moorings in Newark


What’s this, low-rent glamping? 
A couple of wooden huts on a bit of scrubby grass wedged between the river and railway, with a portaloo!

We followed a barge in to Nether Lock joining a fat boat already waiting.

Humbrian Sea in Nether Lock


It didn’t take long to drop down the lock, and we were heading off down to Cromwell Lock at 11:00.

The fat boat was a bit slow so I went past, and the barge was gaining fast, too!

Looking back to Newark, the Trent comes in again from the right of the picture.

Under the A1 at Winthorpe Bridge


Humbrian Sea came past us at North Muskham…


…just before a tug came the other way, pushing two pans for the dredger near Nether Lock


We arrived at the moorings above Cromwell Lock with plenty of time in hand. Just as well, Dave and Barbara had driven down from Newark to see us off, so they joined us for a brew before I took the rubbish for disposal and Meg for an empty.
With Meg taking her time I missed the first penning-down, so had to wait for the lockie to refill the chamber. We were Billy-No-Mates in the lock, but at least we had company on the lock-side.
  

Bye!

Dave, Barbara and the couple off Humbrian Sea. I gave them copies of the pictures I took of their boat as they passed us heading down.

Then we were out onto the tidal Trent, still pushing against the last of the flood for a short while.

The “new” Besthorpe Jetty was built to load gravel, but sadly all commercial bulk gravel carrying has ceased on the Trent

Wide water, big skies


Fledborough Viaduct used to carry a double-track line from Chesterfield to Lincoln.
The line was closed - “Traffic ended prematurely in 1980 following a derailment at nearby Clifton-on-Trent. Closure was deemed preferable to the necessary repair work.” It didn’t just happen to canals, then!

Going downstream, keep the red markers to the right…
…even if they seem to be in the middle of the river! This is Scotsman’s Corner.
The insides of some of the bends are very shallow.

With a lot of boats about today I was worried that space on the transit moorings below Torksey Lock might be at a premium. So I gave the Torksey lockie a call, he assured me that there was space, but not a lot, so don’t hang about! Our fall-back position was the pontoon just upstream of Dunham Bridges, but that would have added an hour to an already long day tomorrow.

Dunham Bridges, we’ve just passed the moorings.


By this time the tide was well on the ebb and we’d picked up speed, up to 7½ mph at one point.

A small mid-stream island opposite Cottam Power Station is just under 2 miles from Torksey.


A fairly tight S bend, first to the right, then left, brings you to the junction with the cut up to Torksey Lock and the Fossdyke Navigation.

As we turned into the cut the stern, wanting to carry on down towards the Humber, needed a sharp burst of throttle to bring it back into line.
There was space, thankfully, and we turned around below the lock to moor right on the end of the pontoon.

Although the skies have been a bit threatening we’ve stayed dry, apart from a little bit of drizzle just after we stopped. It’s a fine evening now.

Torksey Lock taking boats up onto the Fossdyke Navigation.

The lock-free waterway to Lincoln was dug around 120AD by the Romans, and improved several times since. There’s been a lock here since 1671.

Locks 2, miles 21