I felt so much better today that I was beginning to get itchy feet, especially when Jackie and Flo went for a shopping trip this afternoon. Common sense prevailed and I stayed at home and read four more chapters of ‘Bleak House’.
Later, I scanned the next set of Charles Keeping’s inimitable illustrations to Dickens’s novel.
‘Near journey’s end’ is startlingly accurate.
‘A very quiet night’ demonstrates the artist’s ease with architecture.
In ‘Mr Bucket takes Quebec and Malta on his knees’ the child’s expression displays her doubt about the unusual attention from a virtual stranger.
A mother’s tenderness is portrayed in ‘I used to lay my small namesake in her arms’
This evening we dined on Jackie’s wholesome cottage pie with sautéed potato topping; crunchy carrots, firm broccoli, and tender runner beans, followed by rice pudding which, having been left in my charge, needed a certain amount of revivification.
Here are further images of the journey through England’s midland waterways taken by me walking alongside Sam and James in Pacific Pete in July 2003.
This stone stork beside the Cherwell section of the Oxford Canal seemed amused by the attempts of their mother to draw her offspring away from him.
Small bridges, narrow locks and a few narrowboats on this section required careful negotiation by the rower. Navigator James looked quite thoughtful in the third picture.
The River Soar for part of the Oxford Union Canal stretch. The towpaths here were better tended than some, which was fortunate for James when he took a turn at towing. Willowherb thrived in the brickwork of this bridge.
Dragonflies mated; waterlilies bloomed; and a stone wall provided a backdrop for wild flowers.
An art group concentrated hard on a lock as we approached Leicester.
Nearing the city of my birth, we passed a derelict graffiti-bedaubed factory,
For the last few days I have really been very out of sorts. With all the symptoms of the onset of a heavy cold, including a temperature above normal, a developing sore throat, and the inability to focus on much at all we have come to the conclusion that we have all met with the Omicron variant of Covid 19 which is currently rife in UK.
I have been dozing a lot, just about able to concentrate on and respond to comments on my own blog posts, and make sporadic observations on those of others. A few ‘Knight’s Tale’ episodes have been culled from earlier posts, but until today I have been unable fully to focus on ‘Bleak House’, from which I have scanned four more of Charles Keeping’s admirable illustrations.
‘Three young ladies, wonderfully like their father’
‘By-and-by I went to my old glass’
‘The long flat beach wore as dull an appearance as any place I ever saw’
‘The fugitive is brought to bay’
Becky returned home to Southbourne this afternoon.
Jackie, Flo, and I dined on the last of the Chinese Takeaway fare with the addition of pork spare ribs and tempura king prawns. No-one imbibed.
Here the row continues along the River Thames in South Oxfordshire
This was still near enough to normal civilisation for elderly couples to be out walking along the banks.
If there were any footpaths on this stretch, they lay beneath the ripeness of, summer requiring negotiation, in the form of wild flowers attracting bees; grasses in seed; plantains tripping over; broad backlit leaves bearing shadows of other floral forms; and convovulous carrying tiny beetles.
One of the latter plants trailed over the river, reflecting on the murky water.
An avian trio perched on the coping stones of a derelict shed in need of replacement tiles;
a peacock and hen entered into head to head negotiations;
a mallard paddled along ahead of her imprinted offspring;
and a pair of swans introduced their cygnets to further reaches of the Thames.
A flock of sheep grazed alongside what I took to be farm buildings of some sort.
The sun-baked natural world disregarded the two young men taking a leisurely row along the sleepy waters, passing a dangerous-looking weir, and negotiating a narrow lock.
I may have become slightly out of sequence in this next stage of the long walk, but who cares? I never had much idea of where I was, anyway.
The first few were images from the early stages of the row, as Sam, with James’s guidance, left Henley and enjoyed the width of the River Thames, as he approached Sandford Lock.
Once through, James took the oars,
and we soon passed a young lady in a punt considering modelling for Ophelia.
Cattle and horses, with their foal, drank from the river,
while a red-legged partridge took her chicks for an airing. Can you spot two in the second picture?
Fast forward to Napton where, with far less oar-space, the lads were making their way through the moored narrowboats.
It was quite likely The King’s Head where we enjoyed a meal and a drink with friends we had found. I was not to know it at the time, but, Don in the front of the image, had given Sam a bottle of rum with instructions not to open it until he had won the Atlantic race. Fortunately he was victorious, and, as a thank you for my support, was to start on it with me.
Just beyond that location is the 250 metres long Newbold Tunnel. As we didn’t have a horse, a couple with a narrowboat offered to tow Pacific Pete through it. Here are the preparations taking place.
This underside of a bridge may or may not be part of the tunnel, but it would be similar.
Goodness knows how I reached the other side, but the standard of towpath was all downhill from here. However, I did, and was able to photograph grasses, convolvulus, and burdock clogging up the potholed paths.
Today the ladies’ colds are subsiding while mine is rising. I wasn’t up to anything else today, but Jackie and I were guided by Becky in the process of producing kiosk strips of passport photos in order to prove that we live where we do for Florence’s benefit.
Jackie did not consider hers suitable for the blog.
Viewers of mine may question whether I was really up to it.
This afternoon I watched a recording of last week’s Women’s Six Nations Rugby match between Wales and Ireland. then today’s live contest between Wales and Scotland.
We dined this evening on Mr Chan’s excellent Hordle Chinese Take Away fare. No-one imbibed.
With all three ladies having streaming head colds, no-one was going anywhere today.
This afternoon I scanned and e-mailed to the cemetery officials a copy of Mum’s grant of probate. Apparently this is necessary to have our mother’s name added to our father’s gravestone. I then focussed on completing a form for recovery of Jean Knight’s Premium Bonds, until I realised that I cannot do this until the Bank Account has been freed.
Checking the renewal of our home insurance policy was straightforward enough.
Next, I read four more chapters of Charles Dickens’s ‘Bleak House’ and scanned the relevant illustrations.
‘Mr Tulkinghorn, standing in the darkness opposite’
‘Sir Leicester finds the cousins useful’
‘Pacing her rooms, her figure twisted as if by pain’
‘She flings the sovereigns on the floor’
This evening, while the others grazed, Jackie and I dined on her delicious chicken and vegetable stewp with which she drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Fleurie.
On the next leg of the Henley to Newark trip of July 2003
grasses and wild flowers still covered the footpaths, and I was treated to what I believe was my first sight of a damselfly.
Sheep and fields of grass occupied the landscape on the opposite bank of the Oxford Canal,
which seemed an unlikely resting place for an iconic red telephone box.
I caught up with Pacific Pete at the Braunston Turn Bridges. theoxfordcanal.co.uk website informs me that this section of the waterway, which shares its route with the Grand Union Canal Main Line as far as Napton Junction, is ‘one of the few places on the entire stretch of the Oxford Canal where there is narrow boat access to another river or canal. It is worth noting from the point of view of use by cyclists and walkers that the towpath really deteriorates very soon after Braunston Turn Bridges. In fact this section of the canal has hardly any towpath in some places and is a real mess suffering from collapse, potholes, mud, nettles and brambles. It can be all but impassable in places if there has been any sort of recent wet weather.’
Founded by Aaron Manby,[1] it is most famous for constructing the first iron steamer, The Aaron Manby, in 1821.[2][3] The boat was assembled at Rotherhithe. She was only the first of a number of steamboats built on the “knock-down” principle. The ironworks have also been responsible for the manufacture of numerous canal and railway bridges of the 19th century.
The ironworks were built near the Toll End Communication Canal[4] on the Horseley estate, which had been sold by their owner at the turn of the 19th century[5] due to demand from engineers wishing to profit on the construction of the BCN Main Line through the estate. The date when the ironworks were constructed is unknown but is believed to have been by 1815.[5] Industry in the area prospered and the location retained the name of the Horseley estate as shown in an 1822 survey of the area.[6]
With the increasing popularity of canals, the ironworks quickly became popular for manufacturing canal bridges, mainly in the local vicinity.[7]Canal bridges made by the ironworks include the Engine Arm Aqueduct(1825), two roving bridges at Smethwick Junction (1828),[8][9]Galton Bridge(1829), and Braunston Towpath Bridges (1830).[10][11] By the end of the canal construction era, Horseley Ironworks had emerged as one of the most prolific manufacturers of canal bridges in the West Midlands region,[5]especially in Birmingham.[12] This was a result of their signature bridge design which had become popular amongst canal constructors. The design has been replicated more recently, for example in Birmingham during the regeneration of Gas Street Basin where Worcester Bar is linked to Gas Street.[13]
Horseley Ironworks were also responsible for manufacturing in the railwayindustry. Railway bridges constructed included that of the viaduct for the London and Birmingham to Holyhead railway at Shifnal, Shropshire which was cast in 1848.[14] As well as manufacturing bridges, they also produced locomotives.[15]
The company also manufactued construction steelwork for the pier of Ryde, the Palace Theatre in London, Rugby railway station, a seaplane hangar in Las Palmas and the Dome of Discovery at the 1951 Festival of Britain.[16]
The firm moved in 1865 to a site on the now defunct Dixon’s Branch, off the BCN New Main Line (Island Line), near the South Staffordshire Railway line. The factory survived under a succession of owners until 1991, when it was closed down and subsequently redeveloped as a housing estate.[4]‘
I managed to keep up with Sam and James in the boat whilst, having passed under the elegant bridge from the time of Queen Victoria’s predecessor, King William IV, they negotiated their way through a narrowboat-congested area to the next flight of locks. As can be seen, there was barely room for the lengthy ocean-going oars.
Eventually the rower was once more under way.
After this, I had to find my way up and down various hilly areas, where I was surprised in the darkness by the only badger I have ever seen alive. I was amazed at how fast it could run. It was fortunate that the creature took off in the opposite direction, because running anywhere, by that time, was quite beyond me.
