Walk into Uxbridge

With only a couple of days to go before we dry dock for blacking and the hard work begins, Keith and I strolled into Uxbridge to do a bit of window shopping and lunch out.

We walked down to Uxbridge Lock where there have been a lot of changes. Where the old mill used to be there are now new apartments.

Behind the Crown and Treaty there is a brand new office block. The Crown and Treaty is where Charles I and his Parliamentary opponents during the English Civil War held negotiations (the Treaty of Uxbridge) between 30 January and 22 February 1645.

We wandered into the railway station for a nose around as you do.

I like the stain glass window above our heads as we walked in to the station.

Four years ago we took a train from this station to Keith’s home town of Ruislip. One of the new Metropolitan trains in Uxbridge station.

I do love this statue ‘"Anticipation" by Anita Lafford. It was presented to the people of the London Borough of Hillingdon by the Hillingdon Arts Society. It was unveiled by HM Queen Elizabeth II during her Golden Jubilee visit on the 25 June 2002. When I have tried to photograph it before, people have been sitting around it, but not today.

As we walked around the town I spotted this lovely old cinema building.  The Regal Cinema was built for A.E. Abrahams who already operated the large Regal Cinema at Marble Arch in London’s West End and opened on 26th December 1931 screening the film “Reaching For the Moon” starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and Bebe Daniels. Although the cinema closed on 4th November 1977 screening Julie Christie in “Demon Seed”, but was immediately given a Grade II status, thus allowing it to hold on to its Art Deco style. Although it could do with a bit of TLC it is wonderful to see a building like this survive. Having stood empty for many years it was turned into a nightclub in 1984, but due to its listing and special arrangements all the fitting remained as did the Compton Organ, which is still there to this day even though now Liquid nightclub is running it.

The centre of town has two main shopping centres, The Chimes and The Pavilion, both of which are large, clean and airy. Whilst in The Pavilion I bought some 2Lamb and 2Chicken Spring Rolls, 2Onion Bargees and some 2  Samosas all of which went into the freezer. They cost me £8 and were a bargain as a lot bigger than the ones you buy in the supermarkets. We plan of having them whilst in dry dock. I really like Uxbridge, it is well laid out and very friendly.

A modern day version of a penny farthing.

Having enjoyed our wander, we had a buffet lunch at Pizza Hut which was very nice and made a nice change for us.

 

Walking back to the boat back along the towpath, this is what greeted us. Boaters rubbish just dumped on the towpath near the Swan and Bottle pub. Those who dumped this rubbish should be ashamed.

It is officially Spring?

Happy Spring Equinox, even though it still feels like winter in many parts of the country. At 7:02 a.m this morning the astronomical winter ended and spring officially began in Earth’s northern hemisphere. The birds think its Spring, the Daffodils and flowers think its Spring, but the weather is not quite so sure with snow forecast for some parts of the country and freezing temperatures. The ones who are most confused are the hibernating animals, who should be awake, some maybe sleeping through and this could cause a problem if they do not have enough fat reserves. It maybe that our wildlife rescue centres will be extra busy over the coming weeks.

After breakfast and the charging of the batteries, we took ourselves off for a walk to the Colne Valley Park.

To get to the park from the canal, we walked back up the towpath towards Denham Deep Lock and turned left into the park on the offside of the canal. With all the rain the meadows are flooded at the moment, so we kept to the footpath to the visitor centre.

The shelter with the turfed roof looks to be a new addition to the park. The Heron statue is by Gay Musty. It was erected in the park to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the park in 2005.

The Daffodils were out as were the school parties of children.

We had hoped to walk to the nature reserve on the other side of the canal, but the footpath was flooded so we had to turn back.

We did try another footpath, but came up against more flooding and this time the golf course was also flooded, so no golf for a while. With no other path to take we walked back to whence we came, with the thought of getting to the other side of the canal using the towpath.

The River Colne is in the foreground, the further weir is the Frays River, which crosses underneath the canal just above Denham Deep lock. There was quite a flow on.

Waiting to go down through Denham Deep Lock was dutch barge Swarte Schaep (Black Sheep), she is almost 105 years old, but looks amazing.

She has fabulous lines and real character.

We had hoped to get to the nature reserve by walking along the towpath but even this was blocked by a downed tree, another thing to report to the Canal & River Trust, the e-mail has gone off to report the tree down.

On closer inspection of the rotting tree, Iiside the rotting tree trunk was an old bees nest.

We could go no further unless we climbed over the fallen tree, so we turned around to walk back to the boat, but before doing so we called in at Fran’s Tea Garden at Denham Deep lock cottage for a coffee, and we had a long chat with Fran and Roger. It was a lovely way to while away and hour and a half chin wagging about the canals. Back on board Hadar, lunch was made and fires were stoked. No plns for the rest of the day, so I may just put my feet up and watch a film.

Denham Deep Lock to Willowbank, Uxbridge.

Travelled 0.7 miles, worked 1 lock in a time of 20 minutes.

It was so quiet last night at our mooring, so I slept like a baby and did not wake until 6 am and I could hear a Woodpecker near to the boat. At 7 am I got up and made us a cup of tea and sat in bed watching the BBC news. On getting up at 8 am, breakfast was eaten and then Paddy got his walk up the towpath. The Colne Valley Park is suffering from flooding, the footpaths in places are under water, so there was no walking into the park. Back on the boat we ran the generator to charge the batteries and once they were charged up, we locked the boat up and walked down to Willowbank to see what the mooring situation was like and whether we should move down to there ready for dry docking at the weekend. On arriving at Willowbank there were places to moor so we took the decision to move the boat. We have to be there for dry docking at 9:00am, so we felt it better to not to have to start up earlier than necessary.

At 10.45 am we left our over night mooring and headed for Denham Deep Lock.

The lock was in our favour, so I had very little work to do.

The River Colne is very high following recent rainfall, this is where it crosses underneath the canal just above Denham Deep lock. There is very little room for it now to pass under the canal and it looks like it is backing up, hence the flooding in the park.

We left the lock and headed off to Willowbank.

All moored up at Willowbank, below the M40 bridge and above Uxbridge lock.

We are 81 miles from Braunston.

Water Vole Ladder.

This is a great idea to help our furry friends.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21804627

Cassiobury Park to Denham Deep Lock.

Travelled 9.1 miles, worked 10 locks in a time of 5 hours.

After a very peaceful nights sleep, we were awake early and then up by 8 am. By 8.50 am we were ready for the off on what was a misty morning.

The thing I most love about the Grand Union Canal is the width and depth. Hadar was loving the deeper water under her hull.

Ironbridge Lock as a pair of nice new top gates.

The safety catch has been fitted with an arm so you cannot leave it off when winding the paddle. I wonder if they will all be fitted with these in future? I think it is a great idea.

Have car will travel.

At Batchworth Lock we met a fellow Facebooker Steve Jay and his partner, they were filling their water tank below the lock. It was a brief meeting with Steve, perhaps next time our paths cross we will have time to have a good chat.

We stopped off at Tesco for a few bits and pieces, before moving off towards Stokers Lock.

Below the lock is Stokers Farm where Black Beauty was filmed back in the day.

Above Copper Mill Lock is Pisces home mooring at HNA. Pisces was the boat started his narrow boat journey at the tender age if 15 years of age and he has not looked back since.

The Millstream below the lock was running quite fiercely due to the rain we had yesterday, but we had no problem getting past it since fitting our new prop.

Strange looking boat.

Black Jacks Lock.

The sky was looking menacing over Harefield Marina and with the time getting on, we decided we would pull in above Denham Deep Lock, just as we did so there was a huge clap of thunder and the rain began falling, so a wise decision.

Apsley to Cassiobury Park.

Travelled 5.3 miles, worked 11 locks in a time of 3 hours 35 minutes.

A wet old start to the day, I managed to walk Paddy in the dry, but no sooner we got back on the boat, the heavens began to open. We were going to set off, so jobs had to be done and one of them was to empty the toilet cassette and get rid of a bag of fire ash, so I got the trolle y out of the hold, piled it up with rubbish and the toilet cassette and headed off to the sanity station. The rain was now lashing it down, so when I got back to the boat we decided to hold on. After the deluge of rain we decided to set off at 9.55am behind the Hillingdon Narrowboat Association boats which had a group of children on board.

We left Apsley Lock and The Paper Mill and the rain began to fall again, at first it was gentle, but in no time at all it got very heavy.

The Hillingdon boats pulled over, probably for breakfast, so we went on.

By the time we reached the Hunton Bridge pair of locks I was soaked all the way through, but as Keith tells people “Our skin is waterproof, it is our clothes which are not” and as I was not cold it really did not bother me. Unfortunately due to the weather there are not many photographs today. We met a couple of other boats on the move.

Cassiobury locks and it was still raining.  The puddles on the towpath were growing by the minute and my trousers were getting wetter by the second. Having done the second of the two locks, I was beginning to get chilled, so as there was plenty of room to moor up below the bottom lock, and plenty of deep water, we stopped, the time was 1.30pm and both of us needed something to eat and a warm up. Moored up and doors closed to the elements, I lit the back cabin stove, so I can dry all our wet clothing and made us some toasted hot cross buns with coffee. Nicely warmed up, the TV went on to watch the first F1 GP from Australia.

Last night we had a lovely time celebrating with family, and friends of Keith’s eldest sister and her husband Chas, it was their Golden Wedding Anniversary with a grand party held at their youngest son’s school in Apsley, where he is caretaker, which is rather handy seen as we were moored in Apsley. We had a wonderful evening catching up with all the family.