From: Anthony Hilton Subject: Family Weekend We are a family of four siblings - Peter, Anthony (me), Elinor and Rosalind - who got together for a weekend on the South Stratford canal at the beginning of May (Bank Holiday weekend). The family listed in age order of the 4 siblings Peter (eldest brother) married to Moira, children Claire (11) and Emily (8) Anthony married to Rosemary, children Naomi (14), Miriam (12), Tim (7) Elinor married to Andy, children Kate (11) and Vicky (8) Rosalind with partner Nick. Over the weekend I saw mannerisms and expressions and heard phrases which prove Mum and Dad live on in their children. I haven't asked but would guess others had similar experiences. The Start On Friday afternoon we took over three boats from Anglo-Welsh at Wootton Wawen on the Stratford upon Avon canal for a family get together. We are a family of two brothers (Peter and Anthony) and two sisters (Elinor and Rosalind), each with partners and 7 children aged from 14 to 7 - Rosalind has no children (yet?!). Rosalind and Nick travelled from Blackpool on Thursday to spend the night with Peter and Moira and their two girls in Droitwich so that the 3pm take over time wouldn't require too early a start. R & N visited Tesco's and bought plenty of food for breakfasts and one cold meal each day for all 15 of us. Mum always managed to cater for crowds, so maybe R picked up some of the skills. We (Anthony and Rosemary with 3 children) travelled down from Leeds on Friday and arrived at the boat yard first, in time to have our picnic at one of the tables provided by the Navigation Inn. Elinor and Andy were not expected to arrive until about 5.30pm after collecting their two girls from school and travelling up from High Wycombe. We all eventually found the boatyard hidden behind the Navigation Inn (the sign post on the verge opposite had fallen down, and the steel aqueduct fooled some into thinking they had just passed below a railway, the name of the pub was the best clue). The three families who arrived around 3pm put our luggage onto the boats and were given the hand-over talk through, including "all the boats are identical, what I've shown you on this one is the same on the others". But they are not! The engine stop knob was in three different places. Two near the instrument panel didn't cause too much problem, but the third on the side deck just below the gear lever/throttle, on the boat we hadn't been shown, caused a few moments of searching. About 5pm we moved the two longest boats (56 foot - 6 berth with the option of 2 pipe-cots for children, and 48 foot - 4 berth with 2 pipe-cots) form the wharf and turned them the 180 degrees to face south towards Stratford and moored them on the tow-path side. Then Peter phoned Elinor to check on their progress. They hadn't left home yet and there were major delays on the M40, so expected to reach the boatyard about 7pm. At that we decided that the first two boats would move off and moor at Wilmcote, leaving Ros and Nick with the smallest boat (37 foot - three berth) to wait for Elinor and Andy, load them on board and follow us to Wilmcote. Between bridges 54 and 55 a boat coming the other way got stuck on the mud as we passed, so did our two boats at that time, the third had no problems a couple of hours later, nor did any of ours on the return. We also saw a dead lamb in the cut on this stretch, it had presumably fallen in and been unable the climb up the steep offside bank - not built or piled just steep. That was not the best decision as we ended up in different pubs - there are two, listed in my elderly Nicholson as the Masons Arms and the Swan House Hotel. I had been able to get a phone number for the Masons arms, and had, therefore, booked there for our evening meal. The other is now called the Mary Arden Inn. We should have agreed to meet Elinor and family in Wilmcote and taken all the boats down together. We did eventually meet up and get sorted who was to sleep in which boat: the six girls were all to sleep on Napton (the 4 + 2) with no adult present! Anthony and Rosemary had little Twyford for themselves and Tim - the only boy and youngest child. The other six adults used the real berths on Billesdon. We learned in the morning that the younger girls had kept themselves awake until 4am, after being banished into one cabin by Naomi (14) and Kate (11) - the eldest in their own families who wished to sleep. Saturday About 7.30am boats started moving from the mooring - we assumed they were due back at Wootton Wawen by 9am. Before we left two boats had passed us on their way towards Stratford. The girls had been left with a multi-pack of cereals, milk, bread, butter and marmalade so had their breakfast and washed it up before parents were too concerned about the start of the day. Elinor asked the girls for some cereals for Tim, and was offered the plain cornflakes and rice krispies. She insisted on a full multipack so he could also have a choice. Parents (and Tim) gathered in the biggest boat for warm croissants. While the galley slaves washed up and Andy took the girls to the newsagent to buy some papers and sweets, the other men went through the engine checks. Each prop shaft had a length of rope round it which was removed with the aid of a bread knife, and a fair volume of water was pumped from the bilges. By about 10am we were moving off in the direction of Stratford, with the hope of mooring in the basin overnight. With 3 boats to go through the locks we decided to water at least one at the water point above the first lock of the day, No 40. The tap has a thread end and the hoses supplied have a thread adaptor - but of a different diameter. By looking through all the hose lockers we found one push-fit adaptor. The tap is so close to the lock that we had to have the bows just about into the jaws of the lock to get the hose to reach. We proceeded down the locks in a fairly workmanlike manner, with one crew setting the lock for the first boat, opening the top paddles again and leaving one member to open the gate for the next boat, and similarly for the third boat. We even set some locks for "Hereford" a Black Prince boat following us. A Cornish family out for a week, I think from Stoke Wharf on the Worcester and Birmingham, planning to get to Stratford and then return the same way. Our other two boats took on water next to Bridge 63, where the threaded adaptors fitted. We moved just passed the bridge to stop for lunch. Plenty of sandwiches with spring onions celery and home-made plum chutney - complete with plum stones to prove the genuineness of the plums! Hereford also stopped for water and lunch, and passed us into the next lock. Just as we were starting off - our first boat was waiting for the lock to fill and the others hadn't yet untied - another boat came down and stopped between our first two boats. We let them have the lock, hoping there would still be space for us when we got to Stratford basin. The girls boat was named (by Andy) the gin palace. Driven by Nick with most of the girls either sitting on the roof, in the bow well or indoors, doing very little lock work. They had been warned to watch out for bridges if they were sitting on the roof, but one bridge seemed very low. Emily lay down flat and had a few inches clearance from the tip of her nose, but her elder sister Claire (11) decided quite late that there wasn't room for her. She ran along the roof towards the back - why didn't anyone have a video running - and jumped for the tow-path but landed awkwardly and bruised her ankle, it swelled up despite being treated with ice cubes an she was in quite some pain. An elastic bandage was bought and applied once we had arrived in Stratford, and with the application of arnica cream was well on the mend by the time we left the boats on Monday morning. As we approached Stratford the pounds between locks filled and a couple overflowed the top gate. Our third boat was at least the sixth down that day. One of the locks, No 53 I think, has a bridge so close that the bottom balance beam has been replaced with a steel handle which is at slightly less than 90 degrees to the gate - the end is over the lock when the gate is closed. It didn't seem particularly harder to move than many of the others. When we arrived in the Stratford Basin there was space for one boat and we moored three abreast on the side away from the theatre. Opposite there were a restaurant boat, an ice cream boat and Ragdoll complete with Rosie and Jim sitting quietly in the cabin. Sitting out enjoying the sun we became aware of the sensation of being part of the scenery to be looked upon by all who pass by. Not something we took to very readily, but it didn't drive us indoors. When the restaurant boat returned at about 11pm it turned 180 degrees immediately after leaving the lock from the river. As it turned just next to us we watched and wondered if there was enough room, especially as it seemed to keep its stern fairly close to our out-most boat. Looking across we decided it would take another couple of narrow boat widths to cause any problem. Moored immediately behind us was Bilbo, only 20 foot or so long, with a tender locked on the minimal front deck - a small motorbike with the legend "TT Bilbo" on the petrol tank. Owned by a chap from Birmingham who spends up to six months of the year cruising. He joined us for a chat and told some interesting tales of where he has been. Sunday and Conclusion After the glorious sunshine of Saturday and sitting our chatting until about 11pm we woke on Sunday morning to the sound of rain drumming on the roofs of the boats. In a break between showers Elinor went for a walk and learned that there was an antiques fair in the theatre, opening at 10am. As the forecast was for the weather to generally clear during the day and some of the party enjoy antiques fairs we decided to set off about 11am. The big topic of conversation while waiting for the antiques fair to open was do we risk the weather and plan for a barbecue for our main meal today? (A couple of disposable barbecues had been bought but no meat yet.) We decided to settle for soup and jacket potatoes with cold meats and salad which we still had plenty of. Ten of us went off to the antiques fair leaving Rosemary with Claire and the younger children. A copy of Mrs Beaton's Complete Household Management, some maps, and a Lalique glass plate were bought. Driving the outboard of the three boats I was first to leave the basin so missed the entertainment provided by the other two who failed to move out wide enough to make the turn round the marker buoys and under the bridge. After some bumps and bangs someone on her own boat said, unhelpfully, "I knew that was going to happen" instead of offering advice to prevent trouble. The morning was sunny for an hour or so after we started, but rain came on and we decided to stop in the same place we had yesterday for lunch. By the time all three boats were tied up the rain had stopped so we put a table on the tow-path loaded with rolls, butter, cold meats, salad, cheese etc and everyone helped themselves. The girls took their loaded plates and went to sit in their boat to eat while the rest of us stood round the table until it started to rain again and we scrambled to get all the food indoors. We thought that a boat which went up before us during the morning had left a lot of top gates open, but we decided that it was probably wind or the way the gates hang. A number of bottom gates had given us problems yesterday and the only way to persuade them to close was let some water into the lock, so today top gates were closed by opening the bottom paddles. At one stage I was setting the next locks while Elinor and Tim were getting the first boat through. Elinor sent Tim up to see if the bottom gate of the next lock was ready and she would come to open it if it was. Next time she looked after closing the top gate the next was half open with only little 7 year old Tim pushing it. By the time we got to Bearley Aqueduct Nick was leading in the gin palace. Rosalind said "it would be nice to see a train going under here" so Nick stopped the engine to wait a while and the wind started pushing the boat backwards. When the next boat came in sight Nick decided to move on. We were looking out for a place to moor before we got back to the boatyard, but with only half-an-hour or so to travel in the morning. The stretch between the Aqueduct and the Odd Lock looked inviting but getting three boats through the lock would just about double our half-hour. Just after the lock the tow-path side bank is quite high - the children would have liked to use the planks at least once - but the cut is too shallow to get the boats close in so we continued up through the next two bridges to the area we'd had problems grounding on Friday. The bank was sheet-steel piled and the depth OK to get alongside. After we had moored, two boats passed us heading towards Stratford - a 70 footer with navigation lights and a 40 (ish) footer - both privately owned. After quite a while we realised they were both still there, the 70 footer was stuck on the mud in the bridge hole and every time he backed up and tried again he sucked all the water out and grounded again. His engine (a big Lister in a mid engine room) sounded to be ticking over faster than we had got any of our engines up to all weekend and when he put the throttle forward a touch really churned the water up. It gave the impression of an over revving engine with an excessively large prop for the canal - maybe it is powerful enough to shoot the Seven Bore! even though he seems to be based at Alvechurch. When he had provided enough entertainment he backed up, allowed the smaller boat passed and was towed through without mishap. The smaller boat (plain blue paint, no name visible) is based at Lapworth and the steerer knows this stretch well. He described his technique for shooting the narrow, shallow bridge holes as: "approach at reasonable speed, knock the engine into neutral as the bows enter the bridge hole and glide through without pulling the water out from under yourself. And this isn't the worst of them". I think he was expecting more entertainment from his companion. A quiet night, right out in the country even though less than a mile from the boatyard. Monday morning we realised that the two boats from Sunday night had worked through the Odd Lock and our two bigger boats were stuck at the stern. we pushed the bow of Billesdon out and I sent Peter and Andy (the heaviest men) to the front while Nick and I pushed with the pole from the tow-path. Once they were off Napton was easier to move and little Twyford had been moored less tight to the bank and was always afloat. Back at the yard, Peter went in and reverse parked in the middle of the wharf, so one of the staff took the boat out again and showed him how to bring it in right alongside one already there. As Nick passed the end of the wharf the boss stepped aboard to park Napton and I managed to get Twyford in near enough to pull in on the mooring line. We had all enjoyed the weekend, the first weekend we have spent together for 3 years. "Center Parcs next time please" said one, "Fewer locks another time please" said another - I guess the 16 locks in 3 and a half miles to Stratford is fairly heavy. Will we do it again? We will aim to get together for a weekend again in a couple of years, but it may not be canals, though I did jokingly suggest a restoration camp. On the other hand one of the other families may take a canal holiday for themselves, I'll be pleased if that happens. Beware - my (nuclear) family is off for a week on the Rochdale, Calder and Hebble, and Huddersfield Broad canals at the end of the month so you may be subjected to more of my drivel unless I can get someone else to write a report. Anthony