Too much water???

What with all the canal closures down our way due to lack of water, it was ironic to get an email  warning from CRT at the weekend of potential flash flooding and strong currents at the bottom of the Hanwell flight on the Grand Union. That's where the river Brent empties into the canal . I suppose the Brent runs through a lot of built up areas with water run off.  Well there was some very heavy rain but I don't know what the result was down there.  Of course the storms of the weeknd did freshen things up a bit, but they would have done very little to ease the reservoir problems.

Meanwhile how about this little poster we saw in a pub in Shrewsbury.

Sound advice I suppose. I'm surprised something of the sort isn't seen in some canalside pubs. Canal towpaths are not wide at the best of times and some of 'em can be very narrow and slippy not to mention pitch dark.  In our years as boaters we've heard of quite a few people drowned in the canal after a night on the booze. 

I'm not sure when we'll get back out to Herbie, marooned as she is in the now sealed off Cropredy marina.  We'll probably go up and stay aboard to do a bit more painting. I just hope she won't be sitting on the mud.

A happy sight and a grim experience

First things first. After my pervious lament about the dried up stream alongside our holiday cottage, I'm pleased to report that we walked up the valley (Ashes Hollow) yesterday and found running water. (BTW we are getting more and more messages every day of canal closures through lack of water.)

Ashes Water is fed by a spring called Boiling Well near the top of the Long Mynd.  I always find it strange that a spring should be found so high up, but there it is.  Anyway the gin clear water was gurgling over the rock bed of the stream. I'm always tempted to drink from it when I'm up there but I'm well aware that there might be a dead sheep in the water round the next bend.  I have encountered such a sad sight up there in years gone by.

The mystery is, of course, why is the stream dry further down?  I think it's because it runs through a patch where there is turf and mud, so it either gets absorbed  or goes underground somewhere.

Anyway, today it rained a bit. Not nearly enough to do any good fo course, but enough to encourage us to seek indoor entertainment so we went to prison.  I'm no stranger to prison of course because I have been inside on numerous occasions, but only in a professional capacity.  I've even been inside Dartmoor, although as most people know that's a hospital not a prison, even if the man ( nurse) who showed me round did look and dress like Mr  Mackay from Porridge.

So today it was Shrewsbury Prison, no longer in active service but open for guided tours. 

It is truly a grim place and far more oppressive than others I have seen.  It was only closed in 2013, not that long ago at all.  The  tour you get is very thorough (ours took two hours) and you get lots of stories of Victorian era cruelty by the staff and more modern day brutality among the inmates.  They do lots of tours for school parties and believe you me, the sights and stories you experience are enough to scare any youngster away from crime.  Worst of all is the visit to the execution room where a number of people have been hanged. The rope is still there and you can peer down into the 'drop room'.  Strangely I was more deeply affected by a visit to the little room where the hangman would sleep on the night before an execution.  

So there it folks, a pretty dark experience, but a real education and a total rebuttal of the notion that prison is 'soft' in the 21st century. The prison officers may be interested in reform but the prisoners are very often brutal to each other.

I think the sun is due to shine tomorrow.

 

A bone dry holiday

 It's official. CRT people will be in the water at Cropredy marina tomorrow to check the bed of the basin prior in to installing stop planks on Friday to seal off the marina from the canal. I looked back at my old posts to see that in November of last year the marina staff were having to go round slackening mooring ropes because the water had risen so much that the marina was overtopping in places. The entrance road, the car park and parts of the village were flooded. In January of this year I wrote " In all my 78 years (Yes, I know! Shocking isn't it) I can't remember a wetter winter. "  

Meanwhile  we're hoidaying in this 400 yr old cottage in Little Stretton in the beautiful Shropshire hills.

I've only bumped my head on low door beams four times so far. Otherwise it's extremely comfortable.

We know this cottage well having in the past spend several summer holidays camping just a couple of hundred yards away. Now we're getting a bit old for crawling around in tents.  Access to the cottage by car  is by fording a stream, except it should be but the stream is bone dry.

Those 'steps' you see usually form a waterfall and ther little pool below always used to have a few little brown trout. Further up the valley at the campsite the kids used to catch little bullhead (aka Millers Thumb) fish with their hands. It's very sad to think that they have probably persihed.  I expect we'll have more floods next winter.

Marooned!

News flash: Cropredy cut off from the known world!

Yes , not only has it been too hot to do much painting on Herbie in recent weeks, but now we can't go cruising either. CRT have announced that due to watwer shortages, the locks above and below Cropredy will be closed from July 21st until such time as water reserves are replenished and the warn that it mihhght take several weeks of persistent rain to accomplish that.  This is climate change in action folks.

Stop Press:  In a further message today CRT warn Cropredy marina that it may become necessary to seal off the marina from the canal by installing stop planks at the entrances.  The marina in turn warns us that because of stop plank leakage and evaporation, water levels in the marina may fall even to the point of boats being unable to move to the service bay for toilet pumpouts etc. Blimey!

Every year a load of boats descend (or some probably Ascend I suppose) on Cropredy for the Fairport festival, so that will put the kybosh on their plans too. unless they get their skates on and arrive a fornight early and be prepared to be stuck there afterwards. 

Well it is what it is I suppose.  Next week we're taking the unusual step for us of taking a holiday on dry land. We're off to our beloved Shropshire hills.  Even the stream outside the cottage where we're staying has reportedly dried up. Hey ho.  We had planned to go cruising after that. Doh!

All this reminds me of our honeymoon in the summer of 1976.  Being skint, we went camping on Dartmoor after months of dry weather. Some places were rationing water and people had to get it from standpipes in the street.  Then on the Wednesday the rains came -big time, so we abandoned the rest of our honeymoon, packed up our soggy tent  and drove home.