Tales From The Towpath - Part Two

When you left us last time I had my map in one hand and was scratching my head with the other. My brother, Les, was meanwhile trying to get a signal on his phone so he could bring up a map on there. We came up with our answers at about the same time and for once technology and paper map were in perfect agreement - and on route!

If we just take a few steps in a northerly direction we should come upon a track leading us down to the bird hide on Wilstone Reservoir.

Abracadabra! Plenty of birds and a pretty view. A chilly wind blowing in our faces and not the Black Terns that we were hoping to see, but you can't have everything, even on such a varied walk as this. 

The path then led us along the raised bank of the reservoir. It's another of the four reservoirs built to keep the canals topped up with water, especially during the summer months. There's a car park near here so it's quite a popular walk. We took the flight of steps down to the road, then found a path over a grassy field towards the village of Wilstone.

Like almost every village in England there's a well-maintained war memorial.

There's a pub too, The Half Moon, which didn't tempt us inside as we still had a way to go (and our packed lunches were in a cool box in the car). There were once four pubs here, as well as a few shops. Most of these owed their existence to the relative prosperity brought to the area by the canals. But the coming of the car meant that more folk went to the nearest town for their shopping and entertainment.

 

We followed a track to the Aylesbury Arm of the Grand Union which was opened 1814. We could then enjoy a trouble-free and pleasant stroll on the towpath all the way back to our starting point.

A comment on the previous post said how magnificent the hawthorn blossom was this year, and nowhere more so than along this section, where many of the bushes had turned pink.

This section of the canal network almost closed in the 1960s, but the Aylesbury Canal Society was formed to care for, promote and protect it for the future. I remember some of my school friends volunteering and spending their summer holidays involved in restoration work on the canals. One met his future wife while they were digging out black sludge from the locks.

And all so that people could cruise on England's waterways today. You'll notice that the locks here are only just wide enough to accommodate the boat. They were constructed this way, just 7ft (just over 2m) wide in an attempt to save as much water as possible, though it does restrict the size of vessel which can use this branch of the canal.

But soon we reach the junction with the much wider Grand Union Canal itself, which will lead us back to Startop's End (pronounced Starrups, by the way).

Even though the canal is wider the bridges were kept fairly small as the engineers always sought to make savings. And well they might: according to the Canals and Rivers Trust there are some 2,949 bridges on Britain's canals, as well as 1,582 locks, 55 tunnels, 280 aqueducts and 71 reservoirs. Quite an undertaking then.

      

Most of the boats you see today are pleasure craft which people hire for a week or two's cruising during the summer. Some are privately owned and in use for part of the year. And it's reckoned that around 15.000 people live on boats in the UK, though this includes canals, rivers and coasts. Among that number must be my friend and former work colleague who invested in an old boat as a cheap form of housing and over the years has converted it into a bottomless pit into which he pours his hard-earned cash. Mostly though he just watches the river flow by his window and doesn't seem to worry too much about it.

This unusual bridge was encountered right at the end of our walk. You'll notice it has a double arch, one over the canal and the other over....nothing! The explanation is that there was once a plan to build a narrow lock, next to the wider one, so that if a single narrowboat wanted to pass it would waste less water. For some reason the "cunning plan" never came to fruition.

 

I went up on the bridge to take a shot down on to the canal and then we walked back towards the car, but.......

On the way we came across the Paul Mark that we'd seen earlier in the day chugging along the Wendover Arm. Since then it had negotiated half a dozen locks and the owners were now moored up for a well-earned cup of tea. Les and I had been discussing how there seemed less traditionally-painted craft afloat these days and were pleased to see at least one boat with the once-popular "castle" design.

 

We began chatting to the owners. They'd had their boat 47 years, but now only ventured on short trips in her. The water-can, painted with the roses which you used to see on so many narrowboats, was a wedding anniversary present and had to be commissioned from one of the few artists still working in the field. If you look closely you'll see that those seemingly intricate flowers are rendered with just a few highly skillful strokes of the brush.

They also had an extensive collection of the metal badges which proclaim each of the canals they've travelled on. Again you used to see a lot more of these on boats a few years back. We said our goodbyes and then took one last look at the reservoirs and part of the sluice system which allowed water to be let into the canal.

Take care.