2015-2 Hanwell and a Bottle of Wine
Sometimes our past comes back to visit. In the nicest and most unexpected way. Bringing with it a bottle of wine! Labelled "Serendipity". You will recall that yesterday we moored for the night at GlaxoSmithKline by the A40 and before bed had set the first lock (Clitheroe) for the morrow. On Sunday then, it was away at 'first light'. Shortening days mean dawn is about 7.30am. The passage from Brentford to Bull's Bridge is only about three miles but it contains the Hanwell Flight. Ten locks requiring much prior knowledge and pre-planning if you don't want to be there all day. It takes me about six hours on my own and I know Hanwell. The Flight itself runs behind Ealing (St.Bernard's) Hospital and is a 'scheduled ancient monument'. Hanwell flight of locks and brick boundary wall of St Bernard's Hospital
This story involves a small fleet of motor launches and a group of Dutch cruisers. They had trailed their boats across the Channel, dropped into the Paddington Arm, did a "London Ring" via Regent's to Limehouse and went out on the same tide as Pentargon. They had overnighted above Osterley and caught up with me while I was setting the first lock to solo up the Hanwell Flight on Sunday morning.
I let them through, set the lock for them and talked them up the flight. Just before they departed they passed a bottle of excellent white to me as a "thank you" and told me they had to be back at Highline by midday!
Clitheroe is the first lock out of Brentford and from there to Osterley the canal runs very close to the M4. There's a weir and the whole area is covered with trees which causes leaf-mugging and fills the cut with vegetation which becomes silt and impedes progress. C&RT have lost the plot in canal maintenance and in few places does this show as clearly as the vicinity of Hanwell. Between the two locks, a small flotilla of tupperware sporting Dutch Flags which I'd last seen on Saturday morning was tied up.
Arriving at Hanwell bottom and setting the lock took a few minutes when out of the gloom appeared the flotilla. Realising they could all go up together and get on with their day, I waved them through. Not only that but showed them how to best work their way up the flight and showed them how to plan forward. More smiles and chat. They were chuffed to find Paddy on a narrowboat they had last met in Limehouse.
Out of nowhere appeared a bottle of wine, which was accepted with good grace for Pentargon's meagre wine cellar. They had trailed their boats over on a ferry to Highline on the Paddington Arm, slipped and launched and completed a London Ring before the Vicky Park Closures. All that remained now for them was to finish the loop back to their cars, hitch up and head home. They were pleased to be 'let through' and shown how to work Hanwell! It was not lost to me that about that time London Boatery was in total confusion over the Old Ford Closures, yet these fine continentals had it nailed. The flight had been against me anyway. I slogged away, slowly, to Three Bridges
Arriving around midday and having done a day's 'lock-miles' it made sense to moor up in the warm sunshine and make some vitamin D.
There was plenty house-keeping to do on board if one got bored and Three Bridges is a quiet and pleasant place to sit and chill.
Sometimes our past comes back to visit. In the nicest and most unexpected way. Bringing with it a bottle of wine! Labelled "Serendipity". You will recall that yesterday we moored for the night at GlaxoSmithKline by the A40 and before bed had set the first lock (Clitheroe) for the morrow. On Sunday then, it was away at 'first light'. Shortening days mean dawn is about 7.30am. The passage from Brentford to Bull's Bridge is only about three miles but it contains the Hanwell Flight. Ten locks requiring much prior knowledge and pre-planning if you don't want to be there all day. It takes me about six hours on my own and I know Hanwell. The Flight itself runs behind Ealing (St.Bernard's) Hospital and is a 'scheduled ancient monument'. Hanwell flight of locks and brick boundary wall of St Bernard's Hospital
- List Entry Number: 1001963 Heritage Category: Scheduling Location: Non Civil Parish, Ealing, Greater London Authority
This story involves a small fleet of motor launches and a group of Dutch cruisers. They had trailed their boats across the Channel, dropped into the Paddington Arm, did a "London Ring" via Regent's to Limehouse and went out on the same tide as Pentargon. They had overnighted above Osterley and caught up with me while I was setting the first lock to solo up the Hanwell Flight on Sunday morning.
I let them through, set the lock for them and talked them up the flight. Just before they departed they passed a bottle of excellent white to me as a "thank you" and told me they had to be back at Highline by midday!
Clitheroe is the first lock out of Brentford and from there to Osterley the canal runs very close to the M4. There's a weir and the whole area is covered with trees which causes leaf-mugging and fills the cut with vegetation which becomes silt and impedes progress. C&RT have lost the plot in canal maintenance and in few places does this show as clearly as the vicinity of Hanwell. Between the two locks, a small flotilla of tupperware sporting Dutch Flags which I'd last seen on Saturday morning was tied up.
Arriving at Hanwell bottom and setting the lock took a few minutes when out of the gloom appeared the flotilla. Realising they could all go up together and get on with their day, I waved them through. Not only that but showed them how to best work their way up the flight and showed them how to plan forward. More smiles and chat. They were chuffed to find Paddy on a narrowboat they had last met in Limehouse.
Out of nowhere appeared a bottle of wine, which was accepted with good grace for Pentargon's meagre wine cellar. They had trailed their boats over on a ferry to Highline on the Paddington Arm, slipped and launched and completed a London Ring before the Vicky Park Closures. All that remained now for them was to finish the loop back to their cars, hitch up and head home. They were pleased to be 'let through' and shown how to work Hanwell! It was not lost to me that about that time London Boatery was in total confusion over the Old Ford Closures, yet these fine continentals had it nailed. The flight had been against me anyway. I slogged away, slowly, to Three Bridges
Arriving around midday and having done a day's 'lock-miles' it made sense to moor up in the warm sunshine and make some vitamin D.
There was plenty house-keeping to do on board if one got bored and Three Bridges is a quiet and pleasant place to sit and chill.
