Name That Tunnel
Hereford
8th May 2008
This tunnel is 400 metres long, was opened in 1845 and closed 40 years later. It's located about 1km from the terminus of its canal, which linked two cathedral cities in southern England. The tunnel now passes underneath a housing estate and a major north-south railway line. So, does anyone know where it might be?
Both entrances are on private land and not easily accessible, so photographs are not easy to obtain and aren't often published. My partner Hilary recently had the opportunity to take these shots - with the landowner's permission - in the course of her work.
Oh! allright, then...Its Aylestone Tunnel in Hereford on the Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal. Although I often comment on the fact that Hereford is remote from the connected waterways system and post details here of the sometimes long and difficult journeys to and from "Starcross" I actually live just a few hundred metres from the Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal and Aylestone Tunnel passes almost beneath my house!
It had a short and not particularly useful life. The H&G was built from Gloucester to Ledbury between 1793 and 1798 but there the money ran out and it was another 47 years before Hereford was reached and Aylestone Tunnel saw its first boats. Hereford was therefore the last major city to be connected to the waterway network, achieving this at a time when most other cities were already linked to each other by railways. Hereford was also late in getting its rail connection (there's a theme here - it still doesn't have a motorway or even a by-pass!) but by 1861 it was reached by rail from Worcester and the canal closed in 1885 having served the city for a mere 40 years.
As you can see, its in pretty good nick inside and holds a good depth of water - at least when its been raining, as it had been before this shot was taken. If you look carefully you can just see a spot of light that marks the far entrance.
Despite over 100 years of closure and the building of a railway line over the bed of the canal between Ledbury and Gloucester (now itself closed) enthusiasts believe it can be re-opened. The H&G Canal Trust is working away to achieve this aim and with commercial developments planned to incorporate a re-opened canal at either end of Aylestone Tunnel it could see boats again one day. Let's hope so, although I don't think I'll be bringing "Starcross" "home" very soon.
Jim Davies
1 Comment
24 Hours at Norbury Junction
Norbury Junction
26/27th April 2008
Moorings at Norbury Junction. Starcross is just past the trees on the right.
When Kris and Bernard acquired their own boat they told me that becoming a boat owner made one feel differently about boating. The urge to keep moving and cover as much ground as possible that one feels as a hire boater, with only a limited time on the cut, is absent and one can feel just as happy and satisfied sitting on a mooring, going nowhere. I'm not sure I believed them at the time, but since buying Starcross I can see what they mean. This weekend was a case in point. I arrived at the boat midday on Saturday, spent the afternoon cleaning and polishing and repainting the black bits on the bow where the paint keeps getting rubbed off by the friction of the mooring line (which is continuing to happen as every passing boat goes by and which will soon need doing again) and in between listening to the radio,reading,and chatting to neighbours Chris and Bea on Poppy and in the evening enjoying the vastly increased lighting level following the fitting of new batteries before popping down to the Junction Inn for a few jars.
The Crown - an excellent place to wait for a train at Oakengates.
On Sunday morning it rained, so I did some "inside" jobs before setting off home just 24 hours after I'd arrived; cycling to Gnosall and putting the folding bike onto the 481 bus there. The best route home involved a wait of 45 minutes either in the urban wasteland of Telford town centre (nothing but shops, shops and more shops) or a slightly longer wait at Oakengates, one of the small towns of this area of Shropshire now subsumed into - and overwhelmed by - Telford New Town. Its a bit of a sad place in many ways and as a town is clearly unable to compete with Telford but it still has a railway station and at least three excellent pubs of which I chose the Crown Inn to await my connection: not only excellent beer but also Seabrook's crisps, which as anyone from north of Crewe will tell you, are the best crisps in the world with a wacky website to boot!
Stretford End
23rd April 2008
Hereford
When Starcross' engine needed replacing last year I was faced with an unexpected bill. Fortunately, I was able to pay for the new one with some money I had put aside for repainting - which has now had to be delayed - but in order to minimise the drain on my reserves I did look around for other sources of cash. My parents chipped in with a very kind gift and the event coincided with the payment of the bribe all members of the Portman Building Society were given to get us to vote to be taken over by Nationwide (I voted against but took the money). This still left me short of a bob or two to pay Norbury Wharf for the job so I decided the time had come to get rid of an old piece of "railwayana" that had been hanging on the garage wall for 15 years - and which had been in my possession for far longer.
I don't know why I bought it really, except that it seemed a good idea at the time and that it only cost £4. Its a "totem" sign from the platform at Stretford railway station in Manchester from the good old days of state-run British Railways. Its coloured maroon because its from the "London Midland" region; each "region" of British Railways having similar signs but in different colours. Apparently its quite sought-after by railway enthusiasts because Stretford station is no longer part of the national rail network, being served instead by "Metrolink" trams running between Altrincham and Manchester. I shall find out its true value on May 10th when G W Railwayana Auctions put it up for bidding at Pershore High School in Worcestershire but I'll be disappointed if it doesn't fetch 100 times what I paid for it!
I'll let you know what it fetched.Back to Base
Dates: 12th-14th April 2008
Route: Christleton to Norbury Junction
Crew: Jim and Duncan
Saturday, 12th April: Christleton to Nantwich
Beeston Brook Bridge
Starcross had been away from her Norbury Junction mooring since 8th March, having travelled to Llangollen and Ellesmere Port over a week's holiday and a succession of weekend trips. Enjoyable though this is, the complications of finding somewhere to leave her for a week, not to mention the expense of travelling backwards and forwards every weekend, meant that the time had come to return to base for a while. Duncan and I therefore met at Chester station on Saturday morning, before walking out to Christleton (Duncan has an employee's bus pass for the "First" bus company - but they don't run to Christleton and he doesn't like to pay another bus company for something he would get free from his own!) At least this enabled us to find a few decent local shops en-route and stock up with food for the weekend.
I'd asked on an internet forum for suggestions as to where to leave a boat in the Chester area, and had drawn criticism from one member who felt I was unwisely advertising the fact that my boat would be unattended "somewhere between Chester and Beeston". However, most people are honest most of the time and I was pretty certain she'd be alright at Christleton, which she was, so we were able to get away 
just before 12.00 just as the rain and hail began. It didn't last long however and we enjoyed a trouble free run back up through the locks to Bunbury. These broad locks are very slow to fill, but can still throw a boat around if the person operating the paddles isn't careful. My normal practice in broad locks is to take a centre rope round a bollard and back to the counter so that the steerer can control both rope and engine if necessary. However, the positioning of the bollards on these locks, combined with the length of my rope, meant that this wasn't possible as Duncan demonstrates here at Wharton Lock.
We were delayed at Calveley as we were beaten to the water point by another boat and consequently had to wait for them to fill their tank before we could fill ours. It was therefore about 18.30 when we reached Nantwich, having seen the first brood of ducklings of the season at Barbridge Junction. This being Saturday night we spent the evening on a crawl of Nantwich's pubs, most of which we found very enjoyable.
Sunday, 13th April: Nantwich to Knighton
Despite last night's "enjoyment" we made an early getaway although we elected to leave before breakfast, which we took at a more civilised hour after passing through Hack Green locks at the well-known visitor moorings at Coole Pilate. After a brief stop outside Audlem's "Shroppie Fly" pub and a quick visit to the Co-Op in the village we completed the remaining 12 locks of the flight in 100 minutes despite them all being against us as we were following another boat. Later, we passed through Market Drayton for, I think, the first time without a stop and then climbed the five locks at Tyrley, where the house at the top - complete with English and British flags and an anti-EU slogan - always finds me singing a medley of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" (The EU Anthem), "The Marseilleise", "Deutschland Uber Alles" etc etc as I work the adjacent lock.
We stopped for the night at the visitor moorings provided, with many others, by the Shropshire Union Canal Society, at bridge 47 near Knighton, from where its a short walk to the "Haberdashers Arms" an excellent "unspoilt" country pub of a type once common on the canal system, but now extremely rare.
Monday, 14th April: Knighton to Norbury Junction
Its only a 90 minute run to Norbury Junction from bridge 47 so we were back on the mooring for a late breakfast. At High Offley we encountered hotel boats Duke and Duchess en-route from Brewood to Chester. After breakfast, Duncan left to walk to Gnosall for a bus to Stafford station before I did a few jobs, gave the roof and one side of Starcross a much-needed wash and polish and then called in at Norbury Wharf to ask them to look at the batteries and/or charging system as they don't seem to be holding much of a charge, resulting in very dim lighting even after a full day's run.
Up to the Port and Back
Dates: 5th / 6th April 2008
Route: Hurleston - Christleton via Ellesmere Port
Crew: Jim and Hugh
Saturday, 5th April Hurleston to Stoak
Starcross in the Upper Basin at Ellesmere Port
We'd arrived at the boat on Friday night so were ready for an early start. However, waking to wind and rain didn't exactly encourage us and it was 8.20 before we got away down Hurleston Locks. After Hurleston its over four miles to the next locks at Bunbury which was plenty of time to get thoroughly frozen at the tiller in the bitter northerly wind. Due to his eyesight, Hugh has difficulty in steering a narrowboat, certainly through locks, so he ends up doing all the lock work. The locks down to Chester and all broad, the paddles stiff and the gates heavy, which gave him plenty to do. They are also very slow to empty and as we had an ambitious schedule - aiming to be in Ellesmere Port for the evening - we had no time to stop for lunch, which was taken on the run after Beeston. Of the two locks here the "Iron Lock" is a rather peculiar feature, built as the name suggests out of iron sections bolted together. Its also apparently distorted and not wide enough for two narrowboats to use together, but that wasn't a problem as we were one of very few boats moving.
Leaking gates at Greenfield Lock
About 15.00 we came to Christleton followed shortly by Greenfield lock. Hugh went ahead to fill it, but seemed to be having great difficulty opening a top gate. I'd been hanging back on Starcross, hoping to avoid having to stop, but it was obvious he was in difficulty. The pound above the locks is rather short and it soon became apparent that the water level was dropping rapidly, with a danger of leaving me beached in the middle of the cut. This would normally mean that there was a bottom as well as a top paddle open on the lock, also explaining why it wouldn't reach a level for Hugh to open the gate, but the actual problem was that both sets of gates leaked like a sieve and the bottom set were slightly worse than the top. I therefore edged Starcross up to the top gates, jumped off and between us we got a top gate open, but this has to be one of the most difficult locks I've ever encountered.
Storm brewing at Chester
The rest of the descent to Chester was relatively trouble free, although the heavans opened as we passed through Chester centre giving me a good soaking at the tiller. The Northgate three-rise staircase was in our favour and we were through in 30 minutes, and heading across the little-used Wirral section. Hugh can manage the steering on relatively open and uncomplicated bits so I'd left him to it while I attended to a few things in the cabin. On my return to the counter, after a while he asked me whether I'd left a kettle boiling as there was a strange whilstling sound! It turned out to be the warning buzzer from the engine which, coupled with a bright red light on the temperateure guage, was trying to tell us that the engine was getting far too hot! Having executed an emergency stop (!), the problem was soon diagnosed as two polythene sacks and a ton of weed on the prop, which Hugh had failed to notice, and once these were removed and the engine allowed to cool down, we were on our way again. By now, however, it was nearly 19.00 and it was clear we wouldn't get to Ellesmere Port before dark. The plan was changed to stop at Stoak, where the Bunbury Arms provided us with a decent meal and some beer. In our rush to get to the pub in case they stopped serving meals early we didn't bother to light a fire, which meant we returned later to a very cold cabin! I'd also managed to leave a tap partly open in the bathroom which means that the water pump had been activated and the batteries accordingly depeleted. It doesn't pay to rush on a narrowboat!
Sunday, 6th April Stoak to Christleton
Awoke this morning to a light covering of snow, although not as much as some other boaters have experienced in the midlands. Before setting off I noticed that the front fender had come loose on one side. Presumably it must have got hooked up on a bottom gate sometime yesterday and the "weak link" in the securing chain had done its job and given way, so preventing the front end of the boat from being held up on the gate whilst the stern descended into the lock as the water was let out! I was very surprised that I had not noticed this as I genuinely have no recollection of anything like that happenening at any of yestreday's locks. Luckily I found a spare link in the engine room (Thank you, previous owner) so we were able to re-attach it before getting away.
We got to the Port at 09.05 and had a look round the outside of the museum, after being challenged by a staff member who remined us that there was an admission charge (even though they don't open until 10.00) "unless you are off the boats" Of course, as the towpath alongside the Whitby locks passes right through the site I don't think they can stop you anyway. In any case we only had 20 minutes for a quick walk down the locks to the lower basin before we had to set off back towards Chester, which we reached at 12.40 after another visit to the weedhatch to clear the crud picked up in the tunnel under the M53.
Gongoozlers at Northgate Locks
At Chester, Northgate locks were again in our favour and this time we got up in 25 minutes with a small but admiring audience of foreign tourists, some of which confessed that they had assumed the locks were derelict and unused until we appeared. Greenfield lock again proved difficult to negotiate, taking both of us and a passer-by to open the top gate, due to the leak and we were back at Christleton for 15.00 where we tied up and left for home. I managed to misread the map which meant we walked about twice as far as we needed to to pick up the 84 bus back to Nantwich, but we still managed to get to the stop on time and in any case the bus was a few minutes late. As soon as we got on board it started to snow again and this continued all the way to Nantwich and in my case most of the way back to Hereford.