Cosgrove

Friday/Saturday 23/24th July 2010
Moored at Cosgrove
0 Miles 0 Locks

Friday.  I had a walk up the towpath today towards Milton Keynes as far as the Aqueduct over the River Great Ouse, it looks a solid structure and has stood for nearly 200 years however this was the second attempt as the original was washed away when the river flooded.

In the other direction by the Lock you can still see the Narrow Gauge rail tracks that were used to transport Stone from a nearby Quarry to the Canal Wharf.

Straight ahead is the disused Buckingham Canal which the Bucks Canal Society hope to restore

A sign of past Industry

At 6 o'clock the Historic working boats Nutfield and Raymond arrived and I helped tie them up, after a chat with the crew that had brought them down from Braunston I left them as they were anxious to get over to the pub.

The reason that we are here over the weekend is an event organised by the Buckingham Canal Society, it is called a Lock Ransom, the idea is that boats arriving at the Lock have it worked for them by members of the society and are invited to put a donation to Society funds into the collection buckets, it seems to work well, their aim is to restore the Canal from it's junction with the Grand Union Canal at Cosgrove through to Buckingham, the first few hundred yards are still there, being used as moorings.

                            

Volunteers operate the Lock

Saturday.  These events attract a few boats that are know as "Trade Boats", these are boats that sell various things, including.

                            

Fudge

Cheese

 

This one sells ice cream, gifts and Chandlery equipment

The weather was hot sun this morning and a bit cloudy this afternoon, at 6.45 this evening 44 portions of pre-ordered Fish and Chips arrived, collected from a local shop by car, we sat up by the Lock and ate ours before returning to the boat later.

 We are struggling with the Broadband here, it's taking ages to get anything done.