Ashby st Ledgers, seat of the ‘gunpowder plot’ of 1605. I cycled through there yesterday on the way to Daventry. This is the manor house where the plot took shape. It was gifted by William the Conqueror around the dates of the Norman conquest to one of his subjects, Hugh de Grandmesnil. It’s a manor house in a classical style. The gunpowder plot was planned in the building you see straight ahead, the gatehouse, set back in privacy from the…
Step 1: Braunston to Watford Locks Two flights of locks. One of them staircase locks at Watford.The other Braunston Locks. One that I’ve done a few times now. Braunston Locks are very tiring. And I was kind of happy when I found that due to water shortages, the Watford flight closed at night when the volunteers went home. Being staircase locks, only one boat can go through at a time. And the CRT like you to book ahead, (which I…
People do moor in-between, but there’s no road access, so it’s useless to me. Fairly picturesque and popular. Old Braunston At the moment, I’m at Braunston, ancient Bargee village. All things barge are here, chandlers x 3. Marina x 1. Canalside pubs x2. And some other shops and services connected to the trade. I was moored here for the winter on the Rugby arm. This time I’m on Oxford arm. There’s no piling and I’m moored up on pins but…
This is a short guide to installing flexible solar panels to a narrowboat. Background I’ve lived on my boat for 2 years. When I first started, I was located in a Marina. Everything was laid on, showers, water, electrical hook-up. It reminded me of a high-rise flat for boats. After my boat was painted, I took it up on a journey to the most Northern and Southern reaches of the UK canal system. It was called Bonnie Journey, in the…
It’s amazing the power a little post on social media has… Imagine. My little problem with invoicing at Calcutt boats magically disappeared! Simply paid the bill and left. Social media and complaining I was discussing this with my respondents the other day. If you’ve got a grievance with a company these days, often the only way to get someone to take notice of you is posting some nasty stuff about it and spamming it out on social media. They no…
Calcutt Boats Supposedly to get a Eberspächer fitted, which on arrival, they claim to know nothing about. As well as that, they’ve given me an invoice with a cost from my last visit. That was on the 8th July 2017. An invoice that was paid at the time. On my querying it. The guy Matt, went off and brought out another invoice. This time the invoice, which was again paid at the time, had been “entered it into the system…
** Update 27th July, 2018.** During last summer, the heat of the sun on the hull and the cool of the interior of the water-tank caused a lot of the coating, previously discussed in this post, to flake off. This left flakes of toxic residue in my water and made it unsuitable as a potable water source. As an alternative to climbing into the water-tank and getting myself covered in toxic bitumen water-tank paint in the blazing hot summer sun,…
I’m hoping it’s an isolated incident, but I’m writing a blog about it anyway. Amazon tried to charge me postage on a free postage item So, I’ve been a member of Amazon since 2007. Over 11 years on the current email address. I’m used to the way they do business, as I also work as a ‘Flex’ driver. I know that you don’t get anything for not calling these people out. That’s what I’m doing. Buying a postage free item…
Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve been planning to upgrade the electrics of Bonnie Lady narrowboat. One of the first jobs has been to add to the battery bank Battery Bank Is a collection of batteries which feed the boat and all the appliances on it. Currently, we have 2 AGM 120ah leisure batteries in the bank. (There’s a starter battery, since none of the appliances run off this, I’ve not included it. It starts the engine….
Or thereabouts… This is my new home. It’s perhaps 800m from the car. A little way. Flore Bypass There is a meadow opposite and some constructions where they are building the new road connecting the A45 to the M1, bypassing Flore, which it currently runs right through… The A45 is a noisy, busy road. They are building some new houses in Flore, so I guess it’s going to alleviate residents concerns by removing a lot of the ‘through’ traffic. It’s…