Tag: Narrowboat

Is family tree research too intrusive?

Tuesday was a windy, rainy day – not a day to move the Narrowboat. So we moored up in Banbury and I decided to go on an adventure. As part of my family tree research, I have been looking into my great uncle Francis Chase Green-Price. He was a fascinating man, who joined the British Army in the First World War, and then moved to India, as part of the British Empire, eventually reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. This much I knew, but his military records are not online. They are kept in a vault of the British Library. And my adventure was to hop on a train to London to see them.

For many soldiers, records consist of a couple of notes, but for Frank, there was a large folder of around a hundred pages. I spent a very happy afternoon going through all of them and trying to recreate his military life. About thirty years, including both world wars, and working in Britain, India, China, Egypt and Sudan.

Much of the material was factual, such as lists of units he worked in. There was also a very interesting folder of correspondence about his retirement. It was 1946, his role had become redundant and India was about to become independent. The army had recognised this and ordered him to retire. But as with all big organisations there are rules, and paper pushers across India were trying to enforce the rule that he was a few months too young to retire. Eventually common sense prevailed and he returned to the UK.

The folder that was most interesting was a complete set of his annual performance reviews. I could follow his progression through the years and see his strengths and weaknesses. I also learnt a new word. Apparently he was a good “Shikar”, which means he hunted big game in his spare time.

Reading it also made me feel a little awkward. In some HR files somewhere are probably my performance reviews across the years. I am not sure I would want some geeky future family member reading them.

I do enjoy family tree research, and when I am looking at someone from many generations ago, I do not feel any guilt imagining what they were like. But Frank’s son is still alive and am I being too intrusive looking at papers like these, even if they are publicly available to any researcher?

Fortunately most of what I found was positive. Frank appears to have been a quiet, caring officer, who was loved by his soldiers, whether British or Indian. This certainly resonated with me, because when I was working I also had Indian and UK teams.

Sorry Great Uncle Frank for looking through your personal personnel files. But I think you had an interesting life, and you are remembered.

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Does March have the biggest temperature differences?

Living in a house, it is easy to ignore the weather. Central heating and good insulation literally insulate us from it. On a Narrowboat things are somewhat different. This week has given us a good example of that. We have had the most beautiful blue sky days. Great weather for Spring boating.

On Wednesday the temperature on the boat got up to 26°C, even with all the windows open. But overnight the clear skies dropped the temperature to 1°C. I think this must be the greatest daily difference I have seen. In Winter the temperatures stay cold. In Summer they are hot. And in the Autumn they tend to be mild.

It is a special time. I have loved starting the daily cruise with ice on the roof and wrapped in layers and a coat. I have loved shedding the layers as the day goes on. I have loved mooring up early afternoon and taking Lulu Dog for a walk to see fields full of lambs.

It’s a good time of year.

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Five types of narrowboaters who travel at this time of year.

We have set off on our first big Narrowboat trip of the year. For the next eight weeks we will be travelling the Trent & Mersey, Coventry and Oxford canals (plus a bit of Birmingham & Fazeley, Staffs & Worcester and Grand Union,). Our aim is to get to Oxford and back. We wanted to go there last year but had to bail out at Fenny Compton because the drought was causing more and more canals to be closed. Right now we have had a winter of rain and the canals and reservoirs are overflowing, so we should be fine.

It is a lovely time of year. The navigations (canals and rivers) are quiet. Moorings are easy to find. Fellow boaters are as excited to be out and about.

So who are these fellow boaters who brave the canals in early March? I have identified five types:

  1. The genuine continuous cruisers. These people live all year round on their boats. During the winter, when there are many maintenance closures, they tend to stay in an area they like, just travelling a mile or so every two weeks, to comply with the regulations.
  2. The lazy continuous cruisers. Like us, these boaters live in a house or in a marina over winter. It avoids the worst of the mud, and makes us very excited for our long cruises March to October.
  3. The brave hire boaters. Most of the hire boats are sitting safely in their bases at this time of year. Business begins to pick up at Easter and peaks in the summer. But there are always a few brave souls willing to take a boat out early at a lower cost. We find that often these are very experienced boaters. Perhaps they once owned a boat, or have just hired for years.
  4. The unlucky share boaters. Many narrow boats are owned by a syndicate of people, who each own a thirteenth share, and in return get four weeks a year on the boat, usually one week in each season. The winter week is usually spent in a marina but for Spring, Summer and Autumn they want to take advantage of their investment. Spring weeks are the most varied, from March to May, and the unlucky ones get a week at the beginning of Spring.
  5. The working boaters. There are always trees to be cleared, fish to be surveyed, locks to be mended. Canal & River Trust are out and about helping to keep us moving. We even called them out this week to pull a dead sheep from a lock. Not a pleasant job.

And what connects all these boaters is our love of being out on the cut. We pass each other with a cheery wave and a word of advice – “The Fazeley has reopened early!”, or “You don’t expect to meet under a bridge at this time of year” or “Watch out for the dead sheep In Weston lock”.

We are so happy to be narrowboating again.

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Why I love March

I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about why I hate January. It was a pretty miserable post, not really like me. So this week I want to celebrate what a wonderful change I feel, now that it is March.

Spring has sprung, and as the sun has come out this week, my whole mood has lifted. I have been on a lovely walk along the coast from Morecambe to Carnforth, I have wandered amongst the trees on the edge of the Trough of Bowland and as you can see, have even found time for breakfast in the sunshine.

In general I hate gardening but the good weather has even encouraged me to repair a hedge, mow the lawns, plant a tree I found lying in the woods, and mulch the flowerbeds around my house.

As I write this morning the rain has returned, but it is still relatively warm. The daylight hours are getting longer and longer. Soon the clocks will go forward and the evenings will be lighter. All I need for even more positivity is to go on an adventure on Narrowboat Thuis. And guess what, that is where we are heading tomorrow.

I am not sure whether March is my favourite month. I do love May, and September, and December. But is is such a turnaround from January and February that I will absolutely take it.

Simply lovely.

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Is it too cold to go boating?

We have had our first couple of trips out on Narrowboat Thuis this week. Dodging the hail and rain we found a couple of days of sunshine and pootled along the Trent & Mersey.

It was very beautiful and brought home to me why we love boating. But as you can see from the photo, it was very chilly and after a couple of hours at the tiller, I felt so very cold. Fortunately, inside the boat it is not cold. We get heating from the engine, heating from our Webasto central heating, and when needed, heating from our “bubble stove”. So one of the things I have enjoyed most this week has been watching Yellowstone of an evening, in my T Shirt, while the sleet fell outside.

But I have concluded that maybe February is just a little too early to be boating. It is too wet, too windy or too cold. So we are heading back to the house for a couple more weeks, catching up with a few appointments and then heading out properly in early March for our first big trip, down to Oxford. The good news is that we have proved over the past fortnight that everything is working well. Our newly serviced engine is chugging along nicely. Nothing serious has broken inside the boat during the winter. I have even sprayed the algae that had grown on my gunwhales. It is all going well.

You can of course expect a post from me in a couple of months complaining that it is too dry and too hot. Narrowboaters like to complain. But we also really love it, and seeing the countryside at 3mph this week has reminded me of that. There were a few early lambs in the fields, geese and swans giving me evils for disturbing their canal, even a few crocuses edging out of the ground.

Just a bit cold.

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Back at the boat. What’s next?

Mandy and I have been married for nearly forty years and we get on with each other very well. This is a bit surprising because in many ways we are very different. For instance she really doesn’t like change. When we have been living on Narrowboat Thuis for a while, she does not want to leave and return to the house. When we have been living in bricks and mortar over the winter, she does not want to come down to the boat. On the other hand I am always planning the next thing to do instead of enjoying the moment.

Narrowboat Thuis, settled in Aston Marina this week.

We are back on the boat for the first time this year and Mandy is now in her happy place. She has done her jobs and is spending her time cross-stitching a picture of a narrowboat and watching an American series called “Castle”. I have done most of my jobs needed at the start of the season. The water tank has been disinfected. The engine bay has been cleaned. Our new central heating controller has been set up. The store cupboard staples have been bought and put away. The floor has been steam cleaned.

So now I just want to get back out on the cut. There are advantages staying in the marina. It means we have access to the car. there is water literally on tap. And mains electricity because at this time of year there is not enough solar to keep the batteries topped up. However, since we retired we have travelled all over the country and nothing beats waking up each morning with a new view and pootling along the canals and rivers.

The problem is that it is really too early in the year to get out and about. There are still a lot of winter works going on, and after all the rain there are flood warnings on many of the navigations. And frankly it is not much fun steering a narrowboat in the wet.

So we have compromised. Saturday weather looks cold and dry, so we hope to get the boat out. But we will spend most of next week staying in the marina. Then we will go back to the house for a couple of weeks before starting a big trip down to Oxford starting in March.

I like a plan.

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It’s looking like it’s going to be a wonderful new year

We are staying for a few days with our eldest son Robbie, and his partner Alessa, in their swanky house on the South Downs. I woke up this morning to the most beautiful sunrise.

We really are blessed to live in such a stunning country. Whether we are living on Narrowboat Thuis, or in bricks & mortar houses, there are few countries like the UK. I spent much of 2025 grumbling about the weather. When we were on the boat in the summer, it was sometimes so very hot. The canals dried up and became unnavigable. From September to December it felt like the rain never let up. The ground in some areas became like a marsh.

But on crisp, cold, clear mornings like today I could not wish for a better place to live. And having Christmas with one son and New year with the other, both with their wonderful girlfriends has been such a privilege. I am a very lucky chap.

I think it is a sign for me in 2026. My New Year’s resolution is not to complain about the weather or other challenges and what they are stopping me doing. Instead I will enjoy the moment and what it allows me to do.

A very very happy new year to you and your family.

Pete

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Why am I so excited about new canal books?

This week I received.a package in the post. It contained not a Christmas present, but four books with maps and routes of the canal network in the UK.

Narrowboaters have many options for navigating these days. We use a website called CanalPlan AC and an app called OpenCanalMap. But most boaters also like to read the guides. Some use the ones from Pearsons, but we prefer the originals – the Nicholsons. They have good maps of the routes, helpful lists of pubs and places to visit, and honest descriptions of the towns and villages on the route.

I also have a personal connection to the Nicholsons because one of my friends is the main author, Jonathan Mosse. I met him about ten years ago at a barbecue for narrowboaters in Scotland. He lent us a long chain for an anchor when we travelled the tidal river Clyde. And since we have been in England we have used our Nicholsons to navigate the huge network of rivers ad canals across the country.

Once a year I let Jonathan know all the changes and edits we have found in the books. Perhaps a pub has closed. Perhaps a bridge is incorrectly numbered. Perhaps we have discovered a wonderful new cafê. In return he sometimes sends me new editions, and that was what I received this week. In fact, guides 2 and 3 have not even been published yet. They come out in February but Jonathan has got me early copies.

We have been living in bricks and mortar houses since October, albeit with six weeks in the Outer Hebrides. I am itching to be back on Narrowboat Thuis. We won’t get properly going till March but perhaps we can get a week or two on the boat while it is moored in the Marina. Maybe New Year in our Narrowboat, with me, Mandy, the dogs and reading my new books. Sounds good to me.

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Can you have a community when houses are miles apart?

We felt very lucky this week to be invited to join the local people at a bonfire night celebration.

North Uist is a sparsely populated island, and the cottage we are staying in is in one of the remotest areas – Balranald. It has a church, a few houses, quite a few cows and a bird sanctuary. In the summer it has a campsite that looks as if it would be pretty busy but at this time of year that is closed and there is no one here.

That suits us very well. Whether on Narrowboat Thuis, or at home, we are comfortable with our own company and have had a very relaxing time here. The nearest proper village is Bhaigh (Bayhead) which is four miles away. It has about 40 houses and a shop. It also has the High School for North Uist, and every day about twenty minibuses carry the children to school from all around the island.

On bonfire night they bring together the local community to eat burgers, drink Irn Bru and watch fireworks. It was a great night. Not the most impressive display I have ever seen but still a very good one, complemented by the bonfire, the full moon, and the reflections in the sea. But what really made it was a couple of hundred people from toddlers to ancients gathered to enjoy it together.

The Hebridean accent is probably the softest of all the Scottish areas and I could hear it in the excitement of the little ones, the bickering of the teens, and the conversations between farmers and other locals. They had all arrived in their pickup trucks from miles around to be together.

One thing that did amuse me was hearing a father telling his child how good it was to celebrate the foiling of a Catholic plot, five hundred years later. Until the five mile causeway was built between the islands in 1960, there was very little mixing between Catholic South Uist and Protestant North Uist. I guess some views remain pretty embedded.

It was a lovely evening and it was good to be able to join such a distant but close community. Thank you.

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Am I too old to pretend I am a steam train?

I went on a lovely linear walk this week – part of the Lancashire coastal path from Glasson Dock to Lancaster. It was a beautiful autumn day – cold and crisp with watery sunshine.

I used to do a lot of linear walks. Mandy drops me off, meets me half way and then picks me up. In my time I have done the Pennine Way, Coast to Coast, Cotswold Way, Ridgeway, Cleveland Way, Hadrians Wall, most of the Southern Upland Way and many others. There is something that is very good for my head, walking with the dogs with my airpods plugged in, listening to podcasts or music, and watching the world.

Unfortunately both the eleven year old dogs and I have slowed down as we have got older, and Ziggy in particular has cancer and is not able to walk very far. She still suffers from fomo and mostly refuses to let me go without her, so this time Mandy picked her up early. Lulu and I then completed the walk at a slightly faster pace

There is talk with my sister in law of us attempting the North West Way over the next year. That is a serious 205 mile walk, incorporating some of the most dramatic parts of the Ribble Way, Pennine Way, South Tyne Trail and Hadrians Wall. I will have to get fitter if we are to attempt it. One of the problems is that when we are on the Narrowboat most of my walks are flat. Canals only go up and down hills when there are locks.

Even the coastal walk this week was flat. It followed a disused railway line that once carried goods from Lancaster Port (Glasson Dock) to Lancaster. I like disused railway walks because I can pretend I am a steam train and imagine how once it would have been to travel this route surrounded by smoke and soot, through this lovely countryside. It is probably a good thing there was just me and the dogs on this walk – no one to get embarrassed when I said “choo choo” as I was walking.

Maybe I need to put the trains to one side and get back to walking with others in the hills. It would be good for my heart, my head and maybe my social skills.

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