Month: April 2025

When the memories all come flooding back

This week we have continued our narrowboat journey in the East Midlands. This is an area we have not seen before on the canals and not one I am familiar with in real life. We have mostly been travelling on the Erewash Canal, a beautiful but badly maintained and vandalised waterway through the ex-coal towns of Long Eaton, Ilkeston and ending at Langley Mill. We had a tough time, getting grounded due to low water levels, steering past sunken boats and fallen trees, and struggling to open leaky locks.

So you can imagine my surprise when we reached the extravagantly named “Great Northern Basin” at the top of the canal and I found all the fishing signs were from Matlock Angling Club.

I grew up in Matlock and just seeing the signs took me back there. Memories of school lessons, playing in a brass band, singing in a choir, going to church where my Dad was the vicar, going to pubs for the first time, learning about girls. It was not just memories. I could feel what it was to be an adolescent again. Simpler times than now, with no social media, more freedom, fewer expectations. For me they were happy innocent times and all of that came back to me from a few fishing signs.

You may wonder why Matlock Angling Club would cover such a town. the truth is that it is only a few miles away. Great Northern Basin is at the junction of the Erewash and the defunct Nottingham and Cromford canals. Cromford is very close to Matlock. Indeed we had a school reunion there last year.

But when I grew up my parents did not drive and so my view of the world was limited to Matlock and places I would visit by public transport such as Bakewell, Buxton and Derby. Funny to think that now I think nothing of travelling around Europe for a month.

I’d give the Erewash 4 out of 10 as a canal experience, but to bring back being a teenager from a couple of signs, that must be 9 out of 10. Happy days.

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Nottingham in a Narrowboat

We have travelled most of the UK canal and river network over the past five years. There are a few loose ends and this week we ticked off another of them – Nottingham. Within a few miles this used to be a real hub for water transport. There is the wide river Trent, there used to be a Nottingham canal through the town centre and a Beeston canal past the massive Boots works. Nowadays these are merged into the Nottingham and Beeston. In addition there is the Erewash canal, the river Soar and the start of the Trent & Mersey canal. Two further canals, the Derby and the Grantham have not been navigable for many years.

These days the waterways here are no longer used for industry. There are just leisure boaters like ourselves. A wide variety of people on the cut. Around Nottingham town centre there are homeless people living in tents, and wealthy owners of gin palace yachts. Some of the canal is run down and a bit rough. Other areas have been fully gentrified and look beautiful and expensive.

We are currently moored by the steps outside County Hall, a massive piece of architecture from the early 20th Century. Rowers from the nearby National Water Centre glide past us with their coaches shouting at them from the riverside. Swans and geese keep us company. We are overlooked by Trent Bridge Cricket Ground. It all feels very different than the run down industry that dominated the local canals here a few decades ago.

I am glad we have visited Nottingham. I’m off out now to see the museums to see if I can discover more. Every day is a school day.

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When do ducklings arrive on the canal?

Our TV on the narrowboat uses old photographs as a screen saver. It shows photos from similar dates in previous years. For two weeks I have been looking at ducklings, goslings and signets. But this year we have seen nothing – till yesterday.

First we saw a new family of red headed ducks. I didn’t get a picture sadly. And then we passed three individual ducklings, including this one. Based on previous years I now expect to see more and more over the next few weeks.

So I have two questions. 1. Why do ducklings all arrive at once? 2. Why are they later this year when the weather is really warm this year?

I am guessing the answer to the first is that being born in Spring gives them the best chance of survival. It is late enough to avoid the worst cold weather, and early enough to keep numbers of predators low. The second is more tricky. Mallards have a 28 day incubation period, so perhaps the current warm weather is irrelevant. The blog I wrote a month ago was entitled “Is it too cold to live on a narrowboat?”. So did the ducks just wait another week to incubate their eggs?

Things that make you say “hmmm”.

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Where shall we go on our narrowboat?

After I finish writing this blog, we will be setting off on Narrowboat Thuis for our first long trip of the year. Since I retired in 2021, we have spent most of each summer on the boat, travelling around the UK. We have navigated most of the canal and river network now, so the big question is where to go this year.

We have a map of the water network on our fridge

In previous years I would have had a pretty clear view about the destination, although the journey from day to day would change, depending on weather, how much we were enjoying an area, and our mood. But this year is more complicated because we need to do things off the boat throughout the summer. Our new window shutters will be arriving at the house in a couple of weeks. My nephew is getting married in early May. We have a weekend away with Mandy’s brothers and partners in June.

Another complication, or perhaps benefit, is that we have paid for our marina mooring for the whole year. Instead of a single journey around the country all summer, we plan trips out for a few weeks, and then back to our home mooring in Stone.

So I am looking for somewhere to go that is a couple of weeks away. Mandy quite fancied heading back north again. But the Macclesfield Canal had a breach last week, so is closed to through traffic. We both love the Shropshire Union towards Wales but we have been on that route so many times. It would be nice to do something new. One of the few places we haven’t visited on the canals is Nottingham. Or we could go back to somewhere we have only visited once, such as Oxford.

Well let’s set off south and see where we end up. I often tell people that the best thing about narrowboating is that the destination is less important than than enjoying the journey. Maybe we will see a kingfisher today. Maybe we will meet fascinating people at the locks. Maybe I’ll find a stately home to visit.

The sun is shining. There is a light breeze. Time to untie the ropes and set off on our mystery trip. See you next week.

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