Approaching Denver lock where several cruisers are waiting – cc John Revell

This was my first time entering Salters Lode lock from the tidal Ouse and I was grateful to receive good advice from the Denver lock keeper about how to do this on an in-coming tide.

A fine converted mill at Nordelph. This has been extended but remains very distinct. John Revell

The familiar view as you approach the centre of Nordelph. The Chequers pub on the right closed in 2005.

The journey along Well Creek was uneventful though I recall being intrigued by a simple swing bridge across the river to a small cottage near Nordelph. I learnt later that this belonged to Gladys Dack and her name lives on with the Gladys Dack mooring constructed by the Well Creek Trust on the opposite side of the river. The cottage is now derelict having been badly damaged by a gas explosion which fortunately did not injure Miss Dack.

Glady Dack’s cottage and simple swing bridge. The house was badly damaged by a gas explosion and is now derelict.

After Well Creek and Marmont Priory lock we headed down Pophams Eau and moored near the junction of the Sixteen Foot and Forty Foot rivers. The following day we attempted to reach Horseways lock but gave up when we discovered there was nowhere to turn at the lock. We had to reverse to the junction with the Forty Foot which was something I have done many times since. On one occasion in 2010 this was part of a campaign cruise undertaken by the local branch of the Inland Waterways Association (IWA) which was broadcast on BBC Look East. Alastair Chambers, then Chairman of the Peterborough Borough Branch of the IWA, spoke to the camera while I just had to do the reversing.

I failed to boat the full length of the Forty Foot when I visited the Middle Level in April 1984 {see part 1} and it was a relief to get under the very low Ramsey Hollow bridge without mishap or injuring myself this time. Note that this bridge has since been raised by the Royal Engineers partly with funds raised by the local IWA at events held at Bill Fen marina [courtesy of John and Lynne Shotbolt].

Ramsey basin. Gang plank for access to town but nowhere to turn a 48′ boat round.

That evening was spent at the George Inn at Ramsey Forty Foot where we again added our name to the boater’s log book kept behind the bar before continuing the next day to Ramsey town. My notes record that this was easy boating with a good mooring at the end but nowhere to turn a 48‘ boat like mine.

We explored the town, ate fish and chips and visited the Jolly Sailor, a pub which has changed very little since then and which I last visited in September 2023.

My notes from 1984 state “Jolly Sailor. 6/10. Choice of rooms. Landlord ex RAF. Lots of brasses and locals. Beer by (Watney) Manns.

The moorings at Ramsey deteriorated over the years but have now been completely rebuilt to a high standard. There are also recently built houses on both sides. A turning point has also been provided and I have seen a 60’ narrow-boat turn there.

Plenty of help and onlookers at Lodes End lock

There was no turning point in 1984 so the following morning we therefore had to reverse all the way which took 90 mins. We then went through Lodes End lock and headed for Yaxley. Unfortunately, and not for the only time, we could not get under Exhibition Bridge which was too low to get under so we proceeded to Monk’s Lode where we moored overnight at the end of navigation.

At the end of Monk’s Lode

Our view that this was a very quiet spot was confirmed by a conversation the next day with a local man. He said that the only boats he saw these days were weed boats but this was a shame as he was looking for a wife (presumably to drift past and into his arms). This conversation took place in August when some waterways elsewhere would have been very busy. I reversed a short way and turned near an old pumping station. Monks Lode remains entirely unspoilt but the turning point is overgrown so reversing is needed for most boats.

After another quiet day we paid our second visit to C & T Fox boat yard. My notes say

“Helpful and business like. Diesel £1.20 a gallon. Mooring £6.62 per week”

We also visited the Horse and Jockey pub which was a short distance from the boatyard but has since been demolished before spending the evening in the Red Hart at Three Holes (an Elgoods pub which is also now closed).

Approaching Outwell before the church. A familiar scene still today.

We made our way to Salters Lode the next day, stopping for fish and chips at J R Stott Outwell (still there) and a drink at the Red Lion at Outwell (a splendid looking building on the busy main road, still there but no longer a pub – the prominent Bullards brewery sign  remains) and the Chequers at Nordelph (another closed pub).

Just before Outwell basin and the former junction with the Wisbech canal.

We had chosen to return via the tidal Hundred Foot (New Bedford). We went through Salters Lode at low water and waited outside for the big spring tide to arrive. We set off with the tide and reached the Riverside Inn at Earith by lunchtime. I have used this tidal route many times since then all without difficulty.

[photos]

All Photos Copyright John Revell

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The following morning after a breakfast cooked on board we arrived at the Salters Lode lock for the tide crossing to Denver.  We gained an insight into what to expect from Paul the lock keeper and very soon we had crossed the tidal waters and were on to the river Great Ouse.  We moored for the evening at the Environment Agency moorings in Littleport and headed off to find the memorial to William Harley, grandfather of the ‘hog’.  William Harley was born in Littleport in 1835.  In 1859 he immigrated to Oswego and went on to have children.  One of his children was William Sylvester Harley who went on to form the Harley-Davidson Motor Company with Arthur Davidson in 1903.

William Harley memorial, Littleport

The following morning after an early start we arrived in Ely, from here we took a 20-minute train journey onto Cambridge.

In Cambridge we visited Scudamore’s to take a punt tour along the College backs.

I was intrigued to find out that the well-known Mathematical bridge is officially known as the wooden bridge and that back in 1963 students hung an Austin 7 car under the Bridge of Sighs having used 4 punts to get it there.

As a lover of cheese we then visited the Cambridge Cheese Company for some delicacies and before returning to the train we visited the Eagle pub for refreshment.  The pub has an RAF bar that has the inscriptions by World War II airmen covering the ceiling and walls.  In 1953 it was in this pub that Francis Crick interrupted the patron’s lunchtime on 28th February to announce that he and James Watson had ‘discovered the secret of life’ and they had come up with their proposal for the structure of DNA.  Here you can sample the special ale Eagles DNA.

After a fun day and short train journey we were back to Ely and the moorings where we stayed for the evening.

The following day was an early start and we headed down to Denver and crossed on the lunch time tide to wind our way back to March.  We crossed the Middle Level Main Drain at Muilicourt aqueduct before passing Outwell and Upwell, here we would have liked to stop at The Five Bells for a meal as I have previously eaten here and the food is plentiful however our holiday ended the following morning so we continued on to March for the night and moored in the town centre.

Total cruising hours for this journey 18, miles 58, locks 6.  Note there is a Tide Crossing to take into account when planning this journey.  Please consult Fox Narrowboats or the lock keepers at Salters Lode or Denver for crossing times when planning your trip.

This blog was written by Emily our general manager based on her boating holiday in May 2019

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John Revell reverses Olive Emily into and through the Salters Lode sluice gate to join the Old Bedford river.

Following on from John Revell’s previous blog about the efforts to restore the Old Bedford river to navigation.  John follows up with his latest thoughts.  Photography by Mike Daines.

In November 2016 I took my narrowboat Olive Emily, based at Fox’s Marina in March, into the Old Bedford River via the tidal river Great Ouse at Salter’s Lode. This is not as simple as it sounds. It has to be done “on the level” and the Old Bedford and the narrow tidal channel which leads to it are in poor condition. As a result few boats have been willing or able to do this in recent years.
I attempted the same journey in November 2015 and managed about a mile before being forced to turn round through lack of water and a massive amount of cott weed which completely clogged up the propeller.
This year I emailed the Environment Agency (EA) well in advance on the 7th October advising them that I proposed to navigate the Old Bedford during the period 3 November to 5 November. I further explained that I would aim to cruise all the way to Welches Dam lock and I asked for confirmation that the Welney Guillotine Gate, through which we would have to pass, would be left in the raised (navigable) position. I never received a reply from EA.
I successfully entered the Old Bedford at 7.45 am on Saturday November 5. This was not straightforward (see photos) but the Middle Level Lock keeper and an EA staff member were very helpful and together with a volunteer crew of David Venn, Chairman of IWA Peterborough branch, Chris Howes, Ivan Cane and Mike Daines, I headed off towards Welches Dam.

A view rarely seen over the last ten year!. Looking over the prow of a narrowboat navigating the Old Bedford river towards Welney and Welches Dam lock.

We made quite good progress at first and soon we managed to pass our one mile progress marker from the previous year. After another mile or so there was evidence of dredging on the west bank with the spoil piled up along the bank and the digger visible in the far distance. It was this dredging that had quite obviously enabled our progress up to and beyond our one mile limit of the previous year.
Further ahead were the overhead electrical power lines that cross the river around three miles in from Salters Lode. A previous attempt in July 2008 to reach Welches Dam in my narrowboat, accompanied by Lois and Roy Parker in their cruiser Marie 2, had failed because this section hadn’t been dredged for years.
As we approached the power lines the river took on a glazed and milky look and we became engulfed in a mass of cott weed with the water level dropping to a silted muddy depth of just one foot.

Heading towards Welney on the Old Bedford river in November 2016. NB Olive Emily is about to run into a mass of cott weed and an undredged length of the river that runs beneath the power cables three miles from Salters Lode. This is evident from the uncovered section of bank underneath the pylons and the continuation of dredging further along towards Welney and Welched Dam lock.

It immediately became obvious that we couldn’t proceed any further and once again we would reluctantly have to abandon our goal and turn around. With much prodigious poling by the crew Olive Emily was slowly extracted from the glue and turned back into deeper water to make her return to Salters Lode.
We had again been defeated by the same problems as last year, insufficient depth of water, lack of dredging and masses of cott weed.
We had failed in our objective to reach Welches Dam lock which was stanked off by the EA in 2006. This lock has remained closed and impassable for 10 years despite the efforts of the IWA locally and nationally, the East Anglian Waterways Association, Fox Boats and the Project Hereward team. The “temporary” piling which was installed by the EA in 2006 covers most of the entrance to the lock so it is very effective at stopping boats but rather less effective at stopping leaks which was claimed to be the reason for the piling in the first place.
Two developments occurred between my email to the EA on 7 October and my passage on 5 November. Firstly, I found out late on 3 November that the Welney guillotine gate was in the down (unnavigable) position. This came as a surprise as I had been assured that it would remain up (navigable) position unless there was a change in river conditions.
I live in East Anglia and I knew that the weather in East Anglia had been dry for some time so the closure of the Welney gate was puzzling.

Olive Emily’s volunteer crew man the poles to extract her from the silt.

More importantly, the water level in the Old Bedford had been dropped by a foot in the week after I had notified EA of the dates of my proposed passage. This is even more puzzling and I have been unable to find out why this was done and by whom.
EA is a multi-functional organisation so any part of it might have authorised this action. It might have been done by flood control, it might have been fishing, it might have been engineering, it might have been navigation, it might have been environment. Who knows?”
Whatever the reason, this had made the tidal passage into the Old Bedford at Salters Lode unnecessarily difficult and muddy. It meant that that the depth of water in the Old Bedford was shallow throughout. It also meant that an attempt to enter the Old Bedford the previous day (November 4) had been unsuccessful and had had to be abandoned.
The general lack of depth became an insuperable problem when I had reached the stretch of very shallow un-dredged water, deep mud and glutinous cott weed close to the overhead electrical lines. Everyone knows that special precautions must be taken when working near them but this situation arises routinely on other rivers and canals and is easily overcome. Indeed the same overhead lines cross the nearby navigable New Bedford river, Well Creek at Nordelph and the Great Ouse at Littleport.

The Salters Lode sluice pictured from the Old Bedford. The water mark on the guillotine door is clearly marked and was a good two feet lower.

The Old Bedford is not a dead end waterway leading nowhere but is part of a long established route that needs to be restored to full navigation. It would make an interesting cruising ring. It has been navigable since 1637, well before the main canal era started. It is a statutory navigation and it needs to be maintained.
Although the Old Bedford remains officially open it will remain off limits for all but the most determined boater until it is deep enough, and dredged properly.
The Canal and River Trust (CRT) has built on the long experience of British Waterways in managing rivers so that they remain navigable most of the time but are closed when flood conditions require. Just think of the Rivers Soar, Trent, Severn, Avon, Weaver or the river sections of the Trent and Mersey or the Caldon or the Calder and Hebble to name just a few.
Would the current lamentable state of affairs in this part of the Fens be tolerated elsewhere on the system? Would this have been allowed to go on for so long if CRT managed it? Would it not be better if responsibility for navigation matters on waterways that are currently managed by EA be transferred to CRT?

John Revell and Mike Daines
14 November 2016

The post Navigating the Old Bedford River appeared first on Fox Narrowboats.

One summer we decided it was time to venture onto the waterways between Northampton, Ely and Cambridge. As this area of the country was new to us, we asked the Hotelboat Mafia who to talk to. Everybody recommended Fox Narrowboats as being the experts in and on these waterways. They were wonderful, and gave us lots of great tips about which local towns and villages we should visit, and which of the little rivers were worth investigating.

We loved our six weeks cruising this area – the waterways are so different to any others we’d travelled.

These were the things we and our guests loved most about cruising from March to Ely:

1. Super-friendly lock-keepers, who came out to help us work through the locks, sometimes with their whole family!

2. Surprise seal sightings on the tidal stretch between Denver Sluice and Salters Lode.

3. Big skies – Canals and rivers tend to follow the contours of the land, meaning lots of lovely rolling hills, but no stunning horizons, not here though!

4. Upwell and Outwell – the two villages that run either side of the Well Stream, it’s like cruising down the middle of the road, and the names raised a smile too.

5. Wind farms – there is something very surreal about boating through fields of huge wind turbines.

6. Kingfishers, kingfishers, c! We recorded over 30 sightings in one day – no photos though, you’ve got to be quick to get a picture of a kingfisher.

7. The River Nene… pronounced Neen at one end and Nen at the other, obviously.

Without the help of Paula and the team at Fox Narrowboats, we wouldn’t have had nearly such a good time; they helped with the planning, gave us a great mooring and full service for our guest changeovers – they even took in our huge Tesco shop for us, when we were a little bit late arriving – it completely filled their living room!

If you’ve never been, then you should call and book your trip today, I wonder how many kingfishers you’ll see?

This is a guest post by Corinne Thomsett

http://www.uk-va.com

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1) Long Lost Rivers and Ancient Inns

From Denver to Cawdle Fen, south of Ely, the entire course of the River Great Ouse is man-made and does not follow the ancient natural drainage pattern.  But traces of the original rivers still remain as small streams, ditches or lodes and parish and county boundaries still follow their course. The river passes through Denver, Southery and Littleport on the approach to Ely.

At the junction with the new Bedford River you’ll find that Jenyn’s Arms offers moorings, accommodation in the Sluice Lodge, a restaurant and bar snacks. Local facilities also include a public slipway, toilet pump-out and the Denver Sailing Club. In the village of Denver. Denver is also home to the eighteenth century house called East Hall Manor, the ancient and attractive church of St Mary and the Tudor Denver Hall, a local shop and a pub called The Bell.

Further upstream, you’ll discover the restored Littleport and Downham Pumping Station, built in 1819. It contained what was probably the second steam engine to be used for fen drainage and it remained steam powered until they changed to diesel engines in 1935.

At Ten Mile Bank, there are Environment Agency moorings, but from then onwards to Southery there is an uneventful stretch, giving the passing boater an opportunity for some quiet inward reflection!

2) The Murdered Ghosts of Southery

At Southery, a village built on a fenland isle, you will find the general store, post office, butcher, antique shop and the Old White Bell Inn. Between Southery and Littleport, the lonely low-lying fenland is criss-crossed by straight roads, straight railways and straight drainage ditches. Flood banks stand high above the wide fen and the land makes the sky appear majestically vast.

The Ship Inn

There are moorings for customers at the 17^th century Ship Inn, where the Little Ouse joins the Great Ouse at Brandon Creek. Here you may find local folklore and legend served up with your bar snacks and drinks. There were brutal, grisly killings: soldiers partly buried in the river banks left to drown in the rising tide, and murderers left to hang by a noose as the tide fell. They say their ghosts may still be seen on murky, foggy nights…

3) The Hanged Men of Littleport

Littleport also lies on a fenland isle and has its own gruesome history of violence and death. Poverty, exploitation and starvation lead to the Littleport Riots of May 1816. Drunk and dissenting local men attacked houses and took weapons and a wagon-mounted gun to Ely, then broke into shops and houses. A subsequent battle with the armed forces resulted in one death and many wounded. Numerous arrests were made and ultimately five men were hanged and 19 deported.

However, the local folks are friendly now, so don’t be afraid to stop in Littleport for shopping, pubs and restaurants! There are moorings for customers at The Swan on the River.

The river then cuts through lower-lying, agricultural fenland in a dead straight line; known as the Adelaide Course. The river is wide, the flood banks are high and the scenery is mostly unvaried and unremarkable for 6km, unless you encounter a Cambridge University boat-race crew in training.

This cruise will then bring you to the ancient city of Ely, where there are many more stories and ghosts to discover!  Book your summer cruise now and discover the real England!

*Before entering the tidal river, advice should be sought from the lock keeper Salter’s Lode 01366 382292 or St Ives Pilotage Co. 01480 495745

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