Contents:

Branch Committee p3

Chairman’s Corner p4

Plague Ship p6

Arctic Trip p10

Freight News p13

Branch News p15

Obituaries p16

Reach Fair p19

River Update p20The Grand Union Canalnear Northampton

Ouse News - Summer 2012The Great Ouse Branch Newslettercovering the Great Ouse and tributaries

Campaigning for the conservation,use, maintenance, restoration and

development of the InlandWaterways.

The InlandWaterwaysAssociation

Photo: Leonard LawsonThe views expressed in this

publication are notnecessarily those of the

Inland WaterwaysAssociation or of the Great

Ouse Branch. They are,however, published asbeing of interest to ourmembers and readers.

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Membership Officer:Peter Webb35 Norfolk RoadEly, CB6 3EJTel 01353 658581e-mail: peter.c.webb@tesco.net

Webmaster:Stephen Foote14 High Street, ChrishallRoyston, SG8 8RPTel 01763 838936e-mail: g4foh@tambourine.org.uk

Member:Derek Bradley24 Witchford RoadEly, CB6 3DPTel 01353 661601e-mail: bradleyd@waitrose.com

Branch Committee

Chairman:Keith AldertonHolly Cottage, 57 Globe StreetMethwoldThetford, IP26 4PQTel. 01366 727236 e-mail:keithalderton@sky.com

Secretary:John Hodgson9 Beaufort Way, BrickhillBedford, MK41 7XQTel 01234 344884e-mail: jhodgson@rivouse.fsnet.co.uk

Treasurer:Enid Hodgson9 Beaufort Way, BrickhillBedford, MK41 7XQTel 01234 344884e-mail: jhodgson@rivouse.fsnet.co.uk

Ouse News Editor:Carole AldertonHolly Cottage, 57 Globe StreetMethwoldThetford, IP26 4PQTel. 01366 727236e-mail: carolealderton@sky.com

Sales Officer:David Anderson21 Cambridge StreetSt NeotsPE19 1JLTel 01480 477227e-mail:david.anderson70@ntlworld.com

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Chairman’s Corner

Welcome to the first newsletter of the Great Ouse Branch! The change inname from Cambridge Branch was agreed at the branch AGM in March andhas subsequently been endorsed by the trustees. It was decided to make thechange because the ‘Cambridge’ label failed to reflect the fact that our brancharea covers not only Cambridge but also the whole of the navigable RiverGreat Ouse and tributaries from Bedford in the West, into West Norfolk andon to parts of Suffolk in the East. Due to the vagaries of the post codesystem, new members living alongside the Great Ouse can find themselvesallocated elsewhere and may not be aware that they can opt to join their localbranch. The change of name will help to make everybody aware of our fullbranch area and will hopefully encourage members to participate in localactivities.

The current overriding local issue concerns the new system of charging fornavigation licences on the part of the River Cam controlled by the CamConservators. Previously, the Conservators had obtained their income froma proportion of the Environment Agency’s navigation licence fee, based on acount of the number of boats on the River Cam on one particular day. TheConservators have found this to be an inadequate way to fund the requiredmaintenance work on the river. However, the system now devised to over-come this situation has been universally condemned by river users. EAlicence holders who wish to navigate the Cam above Bottisham lock willnow have to pay a 10% surcharge on their EA licence fee at the beginning ofthe year or subsequently pay a 15% surcharge for an annual visitor’s li-cence. Boaters based on the Cam will have to purchase a combined EA/Cam licence from the Conservators at a rate equivalent to 110% of the EAlicence fee. There will be no short-term visitor’s licence and fines will beimposed if a boat is found not to have the correct licence. From next yearonwards, Gold Licences will not be valid on the Cam.

Whilst it is appreciated that the Conservators must be able to meet theirfinancial commitments and nobody deserves a free ride, there must surely bea better way of achieving the desired objective. The authorities in Cam-bridge have always done their best to discourage boaters from visiting thecity and this action will only make matters worse!

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After all of the doubts and worries over representation and finances, it nowlooks certain that the Canal & Rivers Trust will finally take over from BritishWaterways this summer! A satisfactory financial settlement has been reachedwith the Waterways Minister, charitable status has been granted and whatappears to be a good mix of enthusiasm, experience and talent has been re-cruited in the list of trustees. We look forward to the next step when the CRTwill hopefully take over the navigation duties of the Environment Agency in2014. It is only when all such navigation authorities are absorbed into onebody such as the CRT that nonsenses such as those currently being experi-enced on the Cam will finally be resolved.

Water supplies have been very much in the news this year, with waterwaysbeing closed to navigation as a result of both too much and too little water!Regrettably, flooding prevented anybody getting through Upware Lock to at-tend the proposed boat gathering at Reach in May, although 12 of us did stillmanage to have a first class meal at the Dykes End pub on the Saturday night.

However, by way of compensation, Carole & I have recently returned from aglorious week on the magnificent Caledonian Canal along with 13 fellow mem-bers of the Stort Boat Club. The Great Glen proved to be the hottest place inthe country, with temperatures reaching 28oC. I hope that those of you alsoplanning to venture further afield on the canal system will fare equally as well.

Have a great summer afloat whatever the weather.

Do you own a powerpoint projector and screen? If so,would you be kind enough to loan it to us for our

November meeting?

Contact: The Editor on 01366 727236or email: carolealderton@sky.com

Keith Alderton

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Plague Ship 90 – A Heroic Tale of Man’s Triumph Over Adversity

Who said that a boating holiday was a healthy, relaxing affair? Our tripduring the extremely hot summer of 1990 was to prove the opposite in nouncertain manner!

At the time, I was living near Chelmsford and working in North Wales. Thefirst move was, therefore, for me to drop off my car at Cassiobury Marinanear Watford on the way back from work and take the train home via Lon-don. Myself, my wife Carole, our daughter Mandy and our then baby sonRussell were to drive from Chelmsford to Hallingbury Mill near BishopStortford, board our narrowboat Betsey Trotwood and join our friend Yvonneand her daughters Natalie and Chloe on their boat Poppy.

We then intended to travel down the River Stort and join fellow members ofthe Lee and Stort Rivers Society at a barbeque at Amwell on the River Lee.We were then to go down the Lee, along the Hertford Union Canal and meetup with Yvonne’s husband Garth somewhere along the Regents Canal on his

return from a business trip to NewYork.

Next, we were to travel North on theGrand Union to a convenient point forme to take a taxi to Luton to pick upour elder son Richard who would betravelling back from a youth camp inthe Lake District. The ultimate objec-tive was to join yet more friends atMarsworth Junction and all go downthe Aylesbury Arm together.

The return leg was relatively straight-forward as we intended to leave ourboat at Cassiobury Marina, drive backto Hallingbury Mill, pick up the secondcar and drive home. What could pos-sibly go wrong with a simple plan likethat?

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All went well until with a rope in one hand and a windlass in the other Islipped on a wet ladder and fell into an empty lock, landing heavily on thegunwales, severely injuring my ankle. The pain was intense and I reallythought that it was broken! However, bearing in mind the complexities ofthe holiday plan, we decided that we should not just abandon the trip andreturn home after the first hour.

We did eventually reach Amwell with Yvonne and the girls op-erating the locks and me sitting on a stool on the back deck withmy right leg in a bucket of cold water, steering by peering alongthe boat through the open front and back doors. Luckily somefriends had driven to the barbeque by car and they offered totake me to Harlow Hospital, where my ankle was thankfullydiagnosed as being ‘severely sprained’ rather than broken.

Next day, things went from bad to worse, Carole was still very ill, my anklehad swollen up like a football and Yvonne developed chronic diarrhoea.

As we were in no fit state to travel on, we stayed put for several more days,letting the kids run riot in the woods whilst Carole lay on her bunk, I satunder a tree with my foot in a bucket and Yvonne was confined in the toiletcompartment on Poppy.

Eventually, we just had to get going and so devised a cunning plan. Wefound that if we breasted-up the two boats, I could steer both by sitting on astool with my foot in my trusty bucket, once again looking ahead through thecabin. Luckily, Yvonne was beginning to feel a bit better and with help fromthe kids was able to push gently on a balance beam; however, I did note thatshe had taken the precaution of wearing brown shorts! It was whilst work-ing the locks on the Lee that Chloe slipped and fell heavily gashing her knee.After removing the gravel from her wound and bandaging up her leg, we goton the move once again.

The first day did not start well with Carole retiring to herbunk with a nasty chest infection as soon as we got onboard, leaving me to steer the boat and operate all of thelocks whilst Mandy looked after the baby.

Cont’d over

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We stopped for a welcome lunch break at Victoria Park on the RegentsCanal, sheltering from the searing sun under the towering trees. I had justsat down to my lunch, when a pigeon that had obviously been gorging onelderberries, discharged the entire contents of its stomach from a great heightright into the middle of the mayonnaise on my salad! Forsome strange reason, nobody fancied the summer puddingand cream the girls had so lovingly prepared after that. Thisincident just about summed-up the holiday so far! It wasduring this break that Nat decided to run across the park andattempt to jump over the railings, only to catch her foot andfall heavily on the concrete towpath and lacerate her knee. A few morebandages and we were on our way again, albeit with yet one more disabledcrewmember.

All went well through London until we came to a shuddering halt in Islingtontunnel. We eventually found the problem to be caused by a baulk of timberjammed between the tunnel walls across the bows of the boats. Extractingourselves in our enfeebled state in the dark took quite some time, but weeventually managed to get free without anybody falling in.

By some miracle of timing, we managed to find Garth, hav-ing just flown in from America, standing waiting for us onthe towpath at Uxbridge and with the welcome addition ofan able bodied crewmember made quick progress up theGrand Union. At Watford, I picked up my car and drove toLuton, only to find a very embarrassed youth leader having

to apologise for the state that Richard was in. Apparently, he had been in apillow fight and had fallen off the top bunk, gashing his head on the waydown. At least having a crew member with a bandaged head made a change!

By the time we reached Marsworth our friends had long since given upwaiting for us and had started their journey home. The trip down the Ayles-bury Arm started well, but soon developed into the most frightening experi-ence we have ever had in our many years of boating.

Cont’d from previous page

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It was at this point that Garth thought that he would diffusethe situation by helpfully extending a middle digit in the fa-ther’s direction. The man, who was shaven-headed, tat-tooed all over and built like a gorilla ran down the towpath,leaped onto the back deck of Poppy, chasing Garth downinto the cabin. It was quite obvious from the shouting andbanging that a pretty serious fight was going on and so Imade an enormous one-legged leap into the reedbed on the

far side of the canal, hopped along the bank, hopped over the lock gate andmade another giant one-legged leap onto Poppy to give Garth a hand. Withme flailing my windlass around on one side and Garth thrashing around witha truncheon on the other, we eventually got the man off of the boat withoutanybody sustaining any serious damage.

However, the incident left us all severely shaken and I shall never forget thelook of fear on the ashen faces of the wives and children as they lined up onthe towpath awaiting the outcome of the battle.

After a very pleasant overnight stay in Aylesbury basin and a recuperativeswim in the local pool, we began the journey home. You may recall that1990 was one of a series of baking hot summers with temperatures well intothe nineties for weeks on end. By this time, the heat really was getting to usand so we decided to moor up under the shade of a tree during the hottestpart of the day and move on during the cool of the evening. The heat hadalso got at the Dynastart on Poppy’s engine, leaving them without propul-sion or power.

We then reverted to towing Poppy once again, only this time line-astern inthe narrow locks. The plan worked well until we got back to the Marsworthflight at dusk, only to find that the paddles had been left open and all thepounds were empty. We began the long task of cascading water backdown from the mainline, an exercise that took several hours by which timeit was pitch black.

As we descended the Marsworth flight, a little girl from another boat shut alock gate in our face and was duly told off by Garth. She ran past us back toher boat crying and there was a bellow of protest from her father.

Cont’d on page 14

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A sojourn to the Arctic – in search of the Northern Lights

It was the afternoon of Thursday, 23 Febru-ary when we cast off from Southamptonaboard MS Boudica bound for the frozennorth. The idea of spending some time innorthern Norway, well inside the Arctic Cir-cle in winter, was at the same time excitingand daunting, wondering if we would find theelusive northern lights and just how cold it was about to become! The firstday was spent cruising across the North Sea to Bergen and was a roughpassage, many seasoned sailors not making it to dinner on the first night.Your correspondent was not amongst their number; it takes a lot to put meoff my food!

Bergen is a lovely town with a very good fishmarket on the quay and typical multi-colouredbuildings lining the street overlooking it. Thereis an impressive monument in one of the mainsquares, commemorating the country’s soldiersand sailors through the ages.

Heading further north, after another day at sea,happily somewhat calmer, brought us to Trondheim. By now it was startingto get colder and we were coming to realisewhere we were! Trondheim is another ofNorway’s major cities although very muchsmaller than cities as we understand them.The further north you travel in the country,the population becomes more thinly spread!Trondheim does, however, boast a small butremarkable cathedral by the side of the mainwaterway into the city.

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Another day at sea, fortunately calm, head-ing to Tromso and on the way, crossing theArctic Circle at 66° 33´ 44´´ north. Here thereis a marker on a small island showing the po-sition. It’s a bleak place but the weather wasfine although there was always the increasingchill in the air. This cooled as we headedfurther north especially with the wind chill fac-

tor which was starting to make its mark. However, once inside the Arcticthe prospect of seeing the northern lights became real!

Tromso is the largest of the northern Norwe-gian towns and boasts a museum giving a verydetailed history of Roald Amundsen, argu-ably the most well known Norwegian and theman who famously beat Scott to the Pole.There is also a church, known as the ArcticCathedral set at the foot of some spectacularmountains. The pavements in the main streetsare kept clear of snow by under-street heating fed from natural hot springs.The rest are treacherous when covered in snow; although the Norwegianshave a technique of walking on them that comes with a lifetime of living withthis amount of snow!

As is the norm with cruises, the food, serv-ice and entertainment were superb, so it wasafter this that most made vigil on deck insearch of the northern lights (some until theearly hours of the morning). Alas at this stagethey were absent. Experts advised that theyshow up better on a camera than to the na-ked eye. That being the case, it is difficult to

see how anyone knows when and where to point the camera! Two days inTromso failed to reveal the increasingly elusive lights!

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So off to points further north at Alta; a smaller town, almost as far north asyou can get in this wonderful country. It was cold here, particularly with thevicious wind chill factor. It was interesting to see the reactions of some of thecrew, particularly the waiters and cabin staff. Coming, some from India anda great proportion of them from the Philippines, many of them had neverseen snow before and wanted to know if we had this in England too! Afteryet more late night vigils there was still no sign of the lights.

Now the start of the journey home began with a full day at sea and the furthersouth we travelled, the less the chance of seeing the lights. Back across theArctic Circle we went after more fruitless vigils. Still a chance, although di-minishing now.

Then arriving in Alesund, a charming townsporting a new arctic small wildlife centrewhere we were treated with the sight of someremarkable fish in huge aquaria, where youcan come face to face with some amazing fish!The penguins were up to their mischievousreputation.

Whilst we thought it was cold in Norway at this time of year, by the time wewere back down to Alesund it was less so and by now it was early March.Talking to some of the local people (who fortunately all speak better Englishthan we do) it seems that it has been rather too warm for them over the last3 years or so. Children here, especially further north, are said “to be bornwith skis on”. Generally they have to learn to ski at an early age to be able toget around later. However, temperatures have been a little higher, i.e. 5°Cinstead of the usual -5°C. There was not the snow there should have been.Hence the children were not learning to ski, which was a concern for them inthe future if the snow returns and they have not developed their skill on skis.

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Now heading further south to Stavanger and still no lights! Here we took atrip on a smaller boat into Lysefjord. There were some spectacular cliffs atthe summit of one, a feature called the PulpitRock. This is a piece of rock with a flat sur-face on the top at the edge of a cliff abovethe fjord 604m below. It attracts thousandsof visitors every year and there is no barrieraround it. Here people know how to becareful and things are not spoiled by a Nor-wegian H & S E wanting to close everythingthat they can! At the time of writing nobody has fallen off.

So, finally coming to the end of this cruise, of which by necessity, this hasbeen a much truncated account, we headed back to Southampton. Wenever did see the northern lights, what a pity; we will just have to try again!

John HodgsonFreight Waterways in East Anglia

There have been a number of movements of freight on East Anglian water-ways in recent months. There has been a trial run moving sewage sludge fromEly to Clenchwarton near Kings Lynn, although the outcome is not known.One thing I did see, was some sheet piling being moved by water from Clayhitheto Milton ready for the new staging being constructed at Baits Bite Lock. Thiswas being carried out by Drake Towage, based at Peterborough.

On a recent trip to the Norfolk Broads, I saw building materials and rubbishbeing transported by barge. A cargo of cement has also been shipped fromIpswich to Burton- upon-Stather on the River Trent.

I recently suggested that the subject for the readers’ debate in the magazineShips Monthly should be ‘The UK should make more use of inland waterwaysand coastal shipping’. This idea was accepted by the editor and a very gooddebate took place with two other readers responding, one being in favour ofthe motion and the other one against it. I was glad to be able to contribute asthis subject had been chosen amongst others, and was in fact the last debatethey had. Robin Adams

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The journey down to Watford progressed as well as can be expected, withthe boats breasted-up and Garth assisting steering in the now familiar posi-tion with his foot in the bucket. However, we had one last disaster duringour final lunch break at Cassiobury Park, when Mandy stepped off of theback deck carrying Russell, missed her footing and fell heavily, striking thebaby’s head against the sharp edge of the steel piling. The wound lookedawful, with the side of his head covered in yellow, purple and black bruising.Fortunately, although it looked terrible, the injury turned out to be relativelysuperficial, with no lasting damage.

And so, we arrived at our final destination, left Garth to sort out his engineand thankfully caught the train home. Of the nine intrepid holiday makerswho had set out, only Mandy remained unscathed, although she was totallydistraught at the injury she had inadvertently inflicted on her baby brother.Any onlookers seeing our two crews saying our goodbyes as we parted musthave been reminded of those old First World War photographs showing pa-thetic lines of soldiers, bandaged from head to foot, stumbling along withtheir hand on the shoulder of the man in front! Two bandaged knees, twobandaged ankles, two bandaged heads, a dodgy stomach, a chest infectionand a traumatised daughter must surely be a record for a two week boatingholiday!

Looking back, I am amazed how, in the circumstances, we managed to com-plete a journey of some 118 miles and 166 locks in 16 days. However, wemust have enjoyed it in some perverse sort of way, as we have so far goneon to clock up a further 21 happy years boating! Keith Alderton

Our progress was interrupted by a loud scream fromGarth who had stepped into a pothole in the darkness,twisted his ankle and opened up an old wound. Weduly carried Garth back to his boat and put the bucketof cold water back to good use. We arrived totallyexhausted at the top lock well after midnight and pulledinto the nearest mooring. However, when checkingthe ropes before getting into bed, I discovered that we had moored rightbehind the gorilla’s boat! As we were far too tired to move on that night, weset off at first light, pushing the boats off into the morning mist, only daring tostart the engine when we were well clear of gorilla territory.

(Plague Ship Continued)

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Mr P Ellis, BedfordMr & Mrs B Elliott, Sandy,BedfordshireMr & Mrs D Cope, BedfordMr & Mrs J Cowan,Barrington, CambridgeMr & Mrs P Dixon, Moulton,NewmarketMr A & Mrs A Gardner,Haddenham, CambridgeshireMr O Hockin & Miss CPrince, Swavesey, CambsMr P Dawkins, Soham, ElyMs R H Nicol , Oakington,Cambridge

Members who have moved toBranch

Dr P & Mrs G Thurlby, GreatWilbraham, Cambridge,Mr & Mrs T Clarke,Brickhill, Bedford

We welcome the following newmembers to the branch andhope they will introducethemselves to us when comingto an event or meeting:

Winter MeetingsBranch Newsare at 8 pm on Thursday eve-nings at the Cole’s RoadCommunity Centre, Milton(North Cambridge) CB24 6BL.

Members & Visitors welcome.

Our November meeting will bean illustrated talk by Ian West,Chairman of the IWA FestivalsCommittee and will be held on:

THURSDAY 22ND NOVEMBER2012

Our October meeting will bean illustrated talk by Ivan Cane,on the ‘North Walsham & DilhamCanal 1825-2025’ and will be heldon:

THURSDAY 25TH OCTOBER2012

Our February meeting will bean illustrated talk by Mike Petty,Cambr idgesh i re Researcher,Lecturer & Historian on ‘TheGreat Flood of 1947’ and will beheld on:

THURSDAY 28TH FEBRUARY2013

We are a small, friendly group andwould welcome another commit-tee member to help us organisemeetings and events. Please con-tact the editor.

Ouse News Page 16Obituaries

Sadly, the deaths of two well-known friends of the local waterways havebeen reported recently:

Charlie Fox, founder of Fox Narrowboats at March died at the end of Feb-ruary after a long illness. It is true to say that without the efforts of Charlieand the like, it is doubtful that the Middle Level ‘through route’ from theRiver Nene along Well Creek to Denver would now be open to navigation.Charlie’s contribution to the development of pleasure boating in the Fens hasbeen legendary and he will be remembered with much gratitude by the manypeople he introduced to the waterways.

Sid Merry, the last traditional eel catcher on the River Ouse also died inJanuary. Sid netted eels in the Ely area for over 60 years. I rememberdiscussing the subject of Roswell Pits with him when all the controversywas going on over the proposed moorings. He refuted the claim that thewater would become stagnant with sewage as there was no flow from thepits, stating that ‘at times he could hardly row against the current to getunder the bridge in order to fish in the lake’. He also said that in all that timehe had never seen a Bittern in the Pits! Sid’s knowledge of these waterswas second to none and his passing will be a sad loss to those interested inthe history of the local waterways. Keith Alderton

Due to the ever increasing cost of producingand posting our newsletter, we would like toencourage more members to receive their

copies of Ouse News electronically. Ifyou are willing to do this for us, please con-

tact tracy.higgin@waterways.org.uk who willbe pleased to arrange it for you.

Thank you for your help!

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Phone 01638-613102www.burwellprint.co.ukRegistered Charity No. 1053026

Our newsletter is printed by:

(Non-residential boats only)

Reach Fair - Saturday, 5th May 2012

Unfortunately, all the IWA activities for the weekend had to becancelled due to heavy rain, swollen rivers and lock closures.We did, however, manage to get to Reach by car for our Saturdayevening meal!

Special Summer Dealfor boats within 20 mileradius of Ely:-Inboard Engine with gas

or heating £125Inboard engine with no

gas or heating £110Small boat with outboard

only from £95Return visit in all cases

£20Additional contact no: Ely Boat Chandlers -01353 663095

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The Inland Waterways Association is a non-profit distributing company limited byguarantee. Registered in England no 612245 Registered as a charity no 212342Registered Office: Island House, Moor Rd, Chesham, HP5 1WA. Phone 01494783453

Nathan Arnold, Rivers Manager, gave an illustrated talk afterour AGM in March showing work being undertaken locally.

St Neots Lock

St Ives Lock

Bedford Lock

St Ives Lock