Dobb's Weir to Victoria Park

26th May 2009
Heavy rain when we woke up, but it eased as the day progressed. We had consulted Canal Plan AC and decided to try to make Victoria Park that evening.





At Pickett's Lock we were surprised to see this load of long scaffolding planks being moved. One of the men explained that they were moving them from below the lock - where they were delivered - to one of the electricity pylons further upstream. Scaffolding is being built so that the insulators can be replaced. Between them the men had been provided with only one windlass, which needed to be thrown back and forwards across the very wide lock - we were expecting it to end up at the bottom. I loved their ex-military boat that they were using to push the cargo along.

We decided that we needed water and to empty the toilet cassette, so went to pull in at the services above Stonebridge Lock. Alan steered in slowly, and I jumped off the front with a rope, which was fortunate, as he suddenly found that the prop was fouled with spirogyra, which was floating in huge mats. He shouted to me, and between us we managed to stop the boat cannoning into the back of the boat that was at the water point. The owner of that boat told us that there was no point in trying to use the elsan point, as it was blocked (as it was the previous time we were there), and that the rubbish disposal was disgusting. While we were filling with water Alan spent a lot of time trying to remove the spirogyra from the prop with a boat hook. While it looks like green hair, it is very tough, and took a lot of removing.

After filling with water I steered the boat into the lock, spotting a cyclist heading past with a trailer behind, with a toilet cassette. I called to Alan to explain the problem with the elsan disposal, which he did. "Well, what am I supposed to do with this then?" he snarled. "How am I going to deal with it?" We were only trying to save him a wasted trip, but he managed to make it seem like Alan had personally put the services out of action.

The Lesney 'Matchbox' Factory - about to undergo demolition.

In Tottenham there seemed to be many groups of Orthodox Jewish men, standing or walking, while they talked. A Jewish family fed the ducks on the river, waving to us as we passed. A group of Muslim women dressed all in black crossed a field in one direction, gathering their scarves around them in the blowing wind. In the other direction a group of black clothed Jewish men passed by talking earnestly. On the river a fridge-freezer floated by - someone had presumably thought that they could dispose of it easily, forgetting that it was filled with insulation and would float.

When we got to Hertford Union Canal, shortly before 6 pm we had made good time, and realised that we could be tied up at Victoria Park in not much over half an hour. However, as we were locking through the first lock a passing cyclist shouted that the pound above the next lock was completely empty.

Alan went to investigate. It was true, we were stuck. We rang BW, but they were on answerphone by then. As the pound is a very short one we considered letting water down from the pound above. I went to look at the pound - it was completely empty, only a bare trickle of water in the middle, running around the traffic cones and other debris. It might only be a short pound, but it would take a lot of water to fill, and we had to have at least 2' 6" over the tops of the rubbish at the bottom. After consideration we decided that this might ground some of the many boats in the top pound.

We could stop where we were, and hope that BW sorted it fairly soon in the morning. However, this is one of the places on the canals where there is an alternative way of getting to the same place - albeit several miles round. Looking at the map we were in a position that we could turn around, continue down the Lee and Limehouse Cut, and moor in Limehouse Basin. Then we could carry on from there up the Regents Canal in the morning. So we set off into unknown territory again.

We went down through the massive Old Ford Lock on the Lee, although we had a moment of panic when the bottom gates wouldn't open, but turning the key to OFF and back on again worked.

Having passed huge numbers of boats up to this point we were surprised that there were none here. Not moored, not moving. Then Alan found the reference in the Nicholson's Guidebook that said that the Limehouse Cut that we were moving along, was 'semi-tidal'. What did that mean? How much 'semi-tidal'? Perhaps that was why there were no boats around.

Fortunately we also had another edition of Nicholson's - which said it is 'no longer semi tidal' - but it took us a while to find this out, in the mean time we were looking for tide marks on walls.

Three Mills

We passed Three Mills - old powder mills, and the Bow Locks onto the genuinely tidal section of the River Lee.



Bow Locks

Part of the way along Limehouse Cut we passed a large squat - most of the flat windows were boarded up, but it was covered with graffiti proclaiming it as a squat, and with loads of activity going on along the landings in front of the flats. People were carrying mattresses along the landings, moving about, or just waving to us passing by.

We eventually reached Limehouse Basin, which was filled with large, expensive looking GRP boats, and a few narrowboats. There were not many visitors moorings, they were all filled, and there was no-one on the boats, so we were reluctant to breast up. By now it was about quarter to eight, and I calculated that we still had another hour and a quarter of light.

Looking at the map again we decided to make a run for it up the Regent's Canal, to try and make it to Victoria Park after all - only five locks, perhaps a mile and a half. However, we didn't bargain with the problems we would encounter. The locks only had slow filling ground paddles, and some of the anti-vandal locks were broken so that we could only fill the locks on one ground paddle. There were groups of male youths hanging around the locks, and while they were generally friendly, all the local houses had bars on the windows and CCTV cameras.

The light was fading fast and large groups of young men were wandering past in an aimless way, as if they didn't really have very much to do.

Through the fourth lock we felt a degree of relief, the only lock left was the one by the boater's community at Victoria Park - nothing more could slow us up. At which point we heard sirens, and came upon a part of the towpath roped off with police officers standing to prevent anyone passing. The first one looked at us as if he felt he ought to tell us not to go on - but then seemed to decide that there wouldn't be much he could do if we kept going.

Finally, we got through Old Ford lock on the Regent's Canal (yes, same name, different lock), and eventually found a space that was just long enough to moor the boat, although it meant tying to some railings. We tied up under a completely clear sky, just able to see to tie the ropes. It was 9:40 pm - we'd got where we had planned, but it had taken a good three hours more than we had expected.

Locks: 20 , Distance: 23 miles
Total Locks: 98 , Total Distance: 105.8 miles