Saturday 30 August 2014

A canal fix

Having taken the week off and planned to spend some time with Martin during his rest days from work, unfortunately the rest days turned into work days, so yesterday I decided to go for a cycle ride, the longest cycle ride I've made for quite a number of years! 28 miles.

The route took me along the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, the weather was lovely and soon I arrived at Standards Lock looking lovely in the sunshine and the picnic tables would have been tempting if it was anywhere near lunchtime.
Standards Lock No 5 Bridgwater & Taunton Canal
The views along the way were really lovely
A view along the way - Pill Box to the right of centre
The canal is still lined with Pill Boxes.  During the Second World War the line of the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, the Chard Canal and the River Axe became a major defence line in the South West of the County to restrict Hitler’s movement to strategic docks should he invade.  All the iron bridges, which were melted down for the war effort, were removed and replaced with wooden structures that could be destroyed quickly.  Pill Boxes and Tank Traps, which can still be seen in place on the canal, were built along the whole length of the defence line. The British Transport Commission took control of the canal in 1947 and in 1962 the canal became the responsibility of British Waterways. The canal became one of the first canals to commercially carry water when Wessex Water needed more capacity during the summer months in Durleigh Reservoir.

On the way home I travelled under the M5 again and took a little delight in seeing the gridlock above, it was still gridlock when I cycled under the M5 near Bridgwater.  Nobody was walking, cycling or fishing on my return trip, peace and quiet and birdsong were the order of the day, and the rain stayed away till I'd made a cuppa at home.


Gridlock on the M5 near Taunton


Friday 15 August 2014

Disguised as de-cluttering

I’ve been looking through some old photos (disguised as de-cluttering), these shown here are over 10 years old.

Here we are moored on the water point by the Barge Inn on the K&A with our friends boat Icarus (thank you Andrew, can’t wait to share the boat build journey with you!)  We think Icarus is now on or around the Thames, as I came across these photos on flicker recently.
Moored opposite The Barge Inn on the K&A
Waking up to a very early knock on the boat to be told that all the water was gone by a hire boat crew…umm we were afloat, but a walk down to the bridge below and our route back to the mooring revealed that we weren't going anywhere. 
Low pound and our intended direction of travel
Sorry about such a poor quality photo, in my defence it is a pre-digital camera, combined with a very early morning and now scanned.

No use hurrying breakfast then, but a leisurely start to the day after lowering the paddles on the bottom gates of the lock in the pound below us, a phone call to British Waterways who had their depot at Caen Hill, and then walking a couple of locks back to get water on its way down to fill the empty pound, before British Waterways took over the task.