Several times I have heard it said that lockdown proved most people can work from home. This was true for myself as a freelance writer and my husband as a company director. Previously, my mother had been living with us, but when she moved into a care home and my sister took over as her main family carer, it allowed us to consider a different way of living.

Narrowboating runs in my husband’s blood, but not mine. We had talked about living on a narrowboat ‘one day’ without giving it too much thought, but it had suddenly become possible. For me, the idea was both exciting but also nerve-wracking. It was going to be a huge learning experience.

Very early on, my mother-in-law gave me Susan Woolfitt’s book, Idle Women. These were the volunteers of WW2 who kept the supplies moving on the canals. Prior to their recruitment, there was a belief in some quarters that women would not be strong enough. An official from the Transport Ministry suggested women would be unable to open a lock gate. Instead, they would ‘just have to sit down and wait till somebody came along to help them.' ¹

Eventually, the Ministry of War Transport’s only requisite was that those who applied needed to be ‘of robust constitution'.¹ Looking at alternative words for ‘robust’ you will find healthy and vigorous, strong, tough and forceful. Also, but perhaps less appealing, are full-bodied and stout! It makes you wonder what a woman needs to be in order to live and work on the canals.

Since we bought our fourth-hand boat, we have met and negotiated with many engineers and craftspeople. I have come to realise that there aren’t many women involved in the canal-side nuts, bolts, grease, saws, hammers and varnish of narrowboat work and wondered why this is. In June this year, CRT had an online piece celebrating women in leading engineering roles, which was encouraging, but there were no examples of women at a more local level.²

I did an O-level in engineering many years ago, hoping to make it my career. My experience of that single year put me off due to the completely inappropriate behaviour directed at me and that was just the tutor! This experience has always made me wary of openly taking on a role, or activity that is seen as traditionally male-led. If I bury my head in the engine bay of the boat, I am just waiting for a passer-by to make a comment. This is only my perception and I know it’s not everyone’s choice, but I wonder if this fear and wariness of other peoples’ responses is what keeps women from being a visible part of the local canal workforce or being the ones maintaining the boats.

Maybe for some, it’s about self-belief. ‘Can I, as a woman, carry out such and such a task?’ An inspiring piece in the Guardian online from last year, captured how skilled women are battling to find gender parity in the boat-building industry.³

They described being ‘outsiders’ and ‘made to prove themselves’, but also believed that anything is possible. I hope that as we travel, we will meet more women who are happy with having oily hands and paint-covered trousers. I know that I am loving the learning and I am growing in confidence and I am finally using the skills of that long-ago O-level.

1. Staveley-Wadham R (2021) Far From ‘Idle:’ The Women Canal Workers of the Second World War. The British Newspaper Archive. Available here
2. Canal & River Trust (2023) Celebrating our women in engineering. CRT. Available here
3. Larner C (2022) ‘We are outsiders’: the female boatbuilders of Instagram. The guardian.org. Available here 

The Waterways Chaplaincy is a community of trained volunteers who walk the towpaths and river banks of the country, offering a friendly chat and any assistance needed by a boater or towpath user who asks for help.

Chris Upton was born in Northumberland but was brought up on Mersea Island, Essex. He says that the island, with its tides, mud and warm Essex weather was an idyllic place in which to grow up and he remembers seemingly endless summers of picnics on the islands of the Blackwater and Colne estuaries. His mother taught him to swim in the
sea, which he enjoyed all year round, and to sail. At first it was dinghies, then yachts, up and down the East coast and beyond. When he was not in or on the sea, he took long walks along the sea wall, appreciating the ever-changing distances.

He was not brought up as an active church goer and says being dragged there once a year on Christmas morning was quite enough, but he came to faith at his secondary school, a boarding school with a Christian ethos which meant attending chapel four times a week. Initially, this all left him unresponsive but, in order to escape some French homework, he attended a mission event, led by a team from Christians in Sport. Three nights later he took the plunge and decided to give his life to Christ.

From then on he became very involved in the school’s Christian Union and started leading services in the chapel. He says there was not a microphone in sight so he had to project his voice to reach over 500 pupils, which ability has been of great value.

Whilst at Newcastle University as an undergrad, indulging his love of boats “and all things watery” by studying Naval Architecture, he also led the Christian Union. He met his wife at a freshers’ fayre Christian Union event. She was part of the drama group looking to attract new members and he was unable to resist! They married the
day after his graduation and together went to Jamaica for a year, working as teachers in a small school in the mountains.

Returning to Essex for five years, they set up home and raised a family. During this time, Chris worked in a variety of jobs that included fisherman and boat builder, but he ended up combining church youth work with painting and decorating.

In 2000 he felt drawn into the ministry and they moved to landlocked Haworth in West Yorkshire, where he served as student minister at West Lane Baptist Church. ‘Student minister’ means that he was on day release whilst studying theology at Manchester university. He became the sole person in charge of the church, like a curate but with no senior cleric in place to guide him. He says, “It was daunting but I learnt fast and the congregation were very forgiving!”

Chris is still in Haworth 23 years later but no longer as church minister. He is still a ‘reverend’ and an accredited Baptist minister but has moved from pulpit to pew, “which is taking a little time to get used to”. However, it has opened up new areas of service and in January this year he started as church funding officer for the national charity Christians Against Poverty. This is only a part-time role and dovetails well with his new work for the Waterways Chaplaincy. He is also helping a number of clergy as an accredited pastoral supervisor.
​
Chris also enjoys running, cycling, fixing things and helping to lead the local community cinema. He finds that the beauty of the natural world with its space and silence clears his mind and speaks to his soul, which he says is very needed on occasions!

Chris is excited about the future and where the Lord will lead the Waterways Chaplaincy under his leadership. We wish him fair weather and happy sailing!

The boat gently rocks, water lapping on the hull. It's late and dark. Somewhere nearby an owl gently hoots. Then, in the blackened stillness, the boat starts to move. A passing boat? An uninvited boarder? Or perhaps one of the hundreds of ghosts and spectres on our waterways.

Richard Hill investigates...

Perhaps one of the most famous waterway ghosts is that of Christina Collins. Christina was murdered on 17th June 1839, aged 37 years. Her body was found in the Trent & Mersey Canal at Brindley Bank near Rugeley. Three boatmen, James Owen, George Thomas and William Ellis, were convicted of her murder. Two were hanged, the third transported. At the point where Christina's body was taken from the canal, there was a flight of sandstone steps (alongside the more recent concrete steps). Christina's blood ran onto and down the steps, and even today it is believed that on occasions, traces of her blood can still be seen. These steps became known as the 'Bloody Steps'. It is believed that a ghost makes presence here. Christina's ghost perhaps, or perhaps that of one of her murderers.

Another well-known ghost is that of Kit Crewbucket, a lady boggart of canal tunnels. She has often been reported as haunting the Harecastle Tunnel and sometimes is believed to be the spectre that appears in Crick Tunnel.

At Astley in Manchester, a grey lady appears searching for something near the canal. She may be the ghost of eighteen-year-old Ann Mort who died of a broken heart after her parents banished her suitor because he was a Catholic. In Cheshire, a hideous figure wearing a black shawl emits a terrifying cackling laugh at Buttermilk Bridge. This is the ghost of a woman who sold buttermilk to the navvies constructing the canal here. In Chester, where the canal (which was dug into part of the moat) passes near to Northgate, the last Roman sentry can still be seen guarding the entrance to the city.

The Shropshire Union has plenty of eerie hauntings. At Bridge 39, the famous double arched bridge, a black creature is said to appear as a phantom. This is the ghost of a boatman who was drowned here in the 19th century.

Boatmen are reported to have always feared Betton Cutting near bridge 66 of the Shroppie. Perhaps their fear is justified by various reportings over the years of a 'Shrieking Spectre'. A more recent phantom is that of an American pilot who appears in the Shroppie between Wheaton Aston and Little Onn at the spot where he crashed his plane during the Second World War. Another wartime pilot, but this time headless, appears on the south bank of the Coventry canal, between bridges 90 and 91.

Staying in Shropshire, but changing waterways, on the River Severn at Ironbridge, a phantom Trow can be seen drifting slowly. The boat is laden with corpses, piled high. At the tiller is a faceless hooded helmsman, believed to be transporting the bodies of plague victims.

Moving westward to the Llangollen canal and on moonlit nights, a figure can often be seen 'gliding' along the towpath on the Pontcysyllte aqueduct. The form often disappears suddenly, but has never been seen leaping off the aqueduct. At Clifton Gorge, where many have been known to end their lives by jumping off the Clifton Suspension Bridge, none have been reported as ghost stories. Yet the gorge has two known apparitions: one, a pilot who died in 1957 while attempting to fly under the bridge, the other of Brunel who designed the bridge. Brunel is said to haunt Leigh Woods nearby.

Boatman have always dreaded the River Wye near Hereford, particularly in the evening. What they feared was the experience of seeing the macabre 'Spectre's Voyage', for to do so meant certain death. Their fatal vision was that of a young shrouded woman, gliding past, against wind and flow.

The Thames, as one might expect, yields many apparitions. At Cheyne walk, upstream of Battersea Bridge is the ghost of a bear, believed to be one of the poor creatures forced into bear-baiting which took place here in the 16th century. Further downstream, below Westminster Bridge, echo the screams of pain of a figure jumping into the Thames from Cleopatra's Needle. Though never a splash is heard, the leap is often followed by wicked howls of laughter. At Limehouse, a ghost is seen at summer sunsets. This is the vicar of Ratcliff Cross who ran a refuge for sailors, and who murdered those with money. He dumped their bodies into the Thames at Ratcliff Cross Stairs. Much further downstream, in September each year, the screams of many can be heard at Thamesmead. These are the 640 souls who perished here when the pleasure steamer Princess Alice went down in 1878.

To Kent, near the confluence of the Thames and Medway, the Chatham Dockyard, Nelson is said to haunt the yard as is a ghost in the Flag loft. This is probably the youngest ghost, appearing since a supervisor who worked here died in 1990. The supervisor had an unnatural habit of digging his subordinates in the ribs if they did not work hard.

And finally, to East Anglia, where there are many reported spiritual sightings and experiences. In Norwich, the cellars of the pub opposite Bishop's Bridge are said to have been used as dungeons in the 16th century. Hundreds were believed to have been imprisoned here before being burnt alive in nearby Lollards Pit. The ghost of at least one of these wretched souls haunts here. There are ghosts all over the Broads; a drummer boy drums on frosty nights at Hickling Broad. At Oulton Broad the ghost of writer George Borrow, dressed in long cloak and distinctive wide brimmed hat, can often be witnessed. At Ludham, opposite the confluence of the rivers Bure and Thurne, resides the ghost of a monk, who betrayed St Benet's Abbey to the Normans. At Nun's Bridge at Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, on a tributary of the Ouse can be seen the phantom of a nun and a monk. Both were killed, and their ghosts have been witnessed here. In nearby Holywell, a white lady appears in ‘Ye Olde Ferryboat Inn’ on the 17th March each year. She points at her own gravestone in the pub, before leaving and vanishing down the river.

Undoubtedly readers will know of more and many have written to the author about them. It is a chilling thought that so many exist.

I would guess that pretty much everyone is familiar with the battle of Waterloo in 1815, if only as a name synonymous with something this country practically made a sport of in the past - fighting the French.

This battle was the culmination of more than 22 years of on-off fighting, and although all of it had taken place overseas, the ramifications on the home front had been (and would remain) significant; more specifically for our interests, it directly affected the canals and some of it played out here on the wharf at Preston Brook.

The story starts some 30 years before the great bloodbath of Waterloo, in 1780 with the birth of a baby boy named John Pennington.

The Pennington family were fairly typical and reasonably well off; Thomas was farming while his wife, Jane, produced a child every couple of years. The building of the canal and the wharf had improved the local economy and they seem to have had the foresight to realise that the canal was going to be a steady employer for a respectable man, and so made sure their sons had a decent education.

This was a turbulent time for the country, with Britain at war with both America and France, and the country was starting to feel the pinch of funding constant warfare overseas and with the rapidly changing landscape as the industrial revolution started to pick up. We don’t yet know for certain what happened, but in around 1786 Thomas lost his land. Although the local records now record him simply as a labourer, we can be almost certain that it is him that is the ‘Peninton’ working on the wharf as an early porter.

John was apprenticed (possibly to his uncle in nearby Bartington) and learned the trade of smithing, while his brother William went on to be a farm hand, and Thomas went to be a book keeper.

What happens next we may never know the real answer behind. We can conjecture that he was friends with Joseph Bennett, another Preston Brook boy whose father had worked with John’s both on the land and at the wharf (indeed John’s sister Mary had been baptised on the same day as Joseph’s brother William), and Joseph, who had joined up in a few years earlier, had told him how great it was in the army. Or perhaps John got caught out with the King’s shilling at the bottom of a beer mug. Whatever the trigger, on the 27^th March 1809, John joined the British army at Manchester and joined the ranks of men in the 16^th Light Dragoons, a cavalry regiment.

John was a grown man when he joined the army, but Thomas Cookson was a lad of about 18 when he joined the same regiment. As can be seen in Jane Austen’s books; soldiers at this time, with their their smart uniforms and air of adventure about them, had a great deal of sex appeal. Work was becoming a little thin on the ground for unskilled labourers, and food was in short supply too. Thomas, a poor labourer’s son from Frodsham, probably didn’t need much persuading to join the army.

We don’t know for certain how much they knew of each other, but we know that at the Battle of Waterloo itself Private John Pennington was in the Centre Squadron, F Troop under the command of Captain King, and Private Thomas Cookson was in the Left Squadron, A Troop, under Captain Tomkinson.

The gory details of the battle of Waterloo are easily available online for those who wish to be put off their dinner, so I won’t go into them here. For our story here, what is important is that our players came out the other side of it alive, and with all their appendages mostly intact.

Joseph Bennett was forcibly discharged in February 1819 when his regiment disbanded and no one else would take him as he was ‘lame’ on his left foot after it had been crushed. His next move appears to have been to come back to the area and take up as a boatman. We have a description of him: 5’5, with light brown hair, grey eyes, a round face, a ‘sallow’ complexion and a noticeable limp.

John Pennington stayed with the regiment for another 17 years after the battle, until he was forcibly discharged due to a rather unpleasant inguinal hernia. His movements are difficult to track but it seems he comes back and spends some time with his brother before vanishing off the radar.

Thomas Cookson was the first one to leave the army, and he too comes back to Cheshire a changed man. How he meets her we don’t yet know, but he meets Mary Millington, a canal labourer’s daughter in Moore. Mary is a woman with something of a past herself, with a teenaged son born out of wedlock, but they marry and move to Frodsham just in time for the birth of the first of their 2 sons.

Frodsham didn’t suit the family all that well and, perhaps thanks to a few words in the right place from his former comrade, Thomas gets a job at the wharf as a porter.

The wharf at Preston Brook was a busy, hard working place but, probably due to the large proportion of the workforce being firm Methodists, disabilities were worked around.

Thomas’s hearing grew progressively worse as the years went by until he was almost completely deaf, but he was a competent lip reader so the wharf just kept him where no one could sneak up on him. Even as a frail man of nearly 80 they found him light work to do, coiling ropes and sweeping floors. Interestingly, in 1871 he has Thomas Bennett and his family lodging in his house. It’s not for certain yet but it’s quite plausible that this is the nephew of Joseph Bennett.

With this small selection of veterans sat in such a busy corner of the waterways, it’s no stretch of the imagination to suggest that it was here our final character in the story emerges.

John Hopwood was baptised at about a week old in Wrenbury, appropriately enough on April 1^st, and, like many boaters, he’s rather illusive as far as paperwork is concerned. Before 1857, the only probably glimpse we have of him is when he gets accused of stealing someone’s trousers in 1839.

We know that he was an intermittent boater working between London and Manchester on the fly boats, with regular stops off at Preston Brook. In 1857 he was a widower with a 5 year old daughter. Somehow, he catches the eye of a young lady nearly 20 years his junior and that’s when it seems that the stories start.

It probably started innocently enough by John telling his new sweetheart he had been a soldier, rather than a trouser thief, but in 1861 Hopwood was working for the Shropshire Union co on “General Havelock” and was insisting to everyone he was a decade older then he actually was so he could back up his claim that he wasn’t just a soldier, but he was also a Waterloo veteran.

A decade later and he’s now on “Pacific”, and moored up at Grindley Brook. His daughter from his first marriage, Elizabeth, had married James Wildey the previous year (the Wildey family would later go on to be written about by ‘Questor’ for the Wolverhampton Express and Star) and it was around then that Hopwood started insisting that he had beaten Deaf Burke, the bare knuckle boxer, and that was how he’d got his broken nose.

In 1881 he’s master of “Dudley” and he’s now telling everyone he was born in Bengal and he’d also spent a few years travelling around with the circus before he came to the boats.

Something happens in the next few years that makes the Shropshire Union Co ask him to give their boat back, and by 1891 his youngest son is working in the Ifton colliery at St Martins to support him and his parents. This son, also called John, must have been having a hard time putting up with his father’s tall tales, not least of all with the none-existent army pension, and on one occasion went out, got blind drunk, refused to leave the pub and ended up being arrested and fined 10 shillings.

Unfortunately for Hopwood, his son died that year and left him with only his wife to support them by doing washing. She then died in 1895, and Hopwood took himself off to the workhouse and carried on embellishing his life story.

Hopwood died in 1900 having convinced everyone, including himself, that he was 101. There were doubters though, with one man noting that it was “people like (Hopwood) that convinced the world of the bargee’s habitual condition of lying”!

Pocklington Canal – Multimedia: Exposure photography, collage and acrylic by Dawn S Art

A broad canal in the North Of England which connects Pocklington, a market town in East Yorkshire, to the River Derwent. The canal is currently being restored and so far, 7 miles, from the river to Bielby Arm. The canal is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest with its site, attracting biodiversity with its rare aquatic plants and a wide variety of dragonflies and damsels.

Canal Head, near Pocklington in East Yorkshire

Last year, my Dad and I walked part of the canal, most of the stretch yet to be restored, from Pocklington Canal Head, outskirts of the town, to the Melbourne Arm. It is good to see some of the locks restored and see the remaining ones that are planned. It was a pleasant walk being surrounded by the Yorkshire Wolds countryside and seeing swans on the canal. We walked approximately 6 miles as we walked back from Melbourne Arm to the Canal Head.

Pocklington Canal

Worth noting is the Bielby Arm, which is a nature reserve and worth checking out. We do plan to walk from Melbourne Arm to the River Derwent in due course. It isn’t a busy canal with regards to boaters and walkers so if you’re for quiet spaces and beautiful countryside, this is the canal.

End of the Navigable part of the canal

We also enjoyed a drink in Melbourne at its village pub, The Melbourne Arms. Though more restaurant orientated, the pub is a pleasant place to go and just have a drink. A pleasant afternoon exploring this not as well explored canal.

This Autumn is all about enjoying a late and welcomed Indian Summer, with warm watery sunshine days and so much beauty as the leaves start to turn and the air is filled with those earthy smells as the fields are ploughed. The dry conditions have been perfect for gathering the fruits and berries of the hedgerows. Jams and chutneys are a big thing for me at this time of year and this year I have made more chutneys than jams, along with pickles and compotes. The biggest tip I can give you if you intend making preserves and chutneys is to get ahead and save those jars throughout the year.

The hint of cinnamon and warm winter spices also comes into play at this time of year, along with a return of one pot meals, the harvest festival pumpkin and squash along with those sweet treats, parkin, pies and crumbles.

So, celebrating the bounty of Autumn before those October mists start to roll in and the days shorten, I can share a few of my favourite seasonal recipes.

HOME MADE PICKLES
Try pickling; more or less anything goes. My general rule for pickling is 3,2,1 which is three parts white or cider vinegar, 2 parts water, 1 part sugar. Gently boil the liquids and sugar, then pour over your ingredients before jarring. Typical ingredients for pickling are cucumber, radish, peppers, cabbage, onions, spring onions, carrots. Add herbs, mustard seeds or spices such as cumin or fennel seeds for flavour. Store in the fridge and use within a few weeks. These homemade pickles tossed through a salad make the humble lettuce leaf much more interesting, or are the perfect partner to cold meats, quiche and cheese.

BLACKBERRIES
When picking make sure they “pop” off the branch, avoid soggy fruit, the centre stem as you pluck the berry should be green and not grey or brown, leave the soft ones for the birds.

BERRY AND APPLE YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS
A Sweet and fruity twist on the classic Yorkshire Pudding
60g unsalted butter
65g light soft brown sugar
1 egg
60g ground almonds
1 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp apple sauce, homemade if possible
250g mix of mostly blackberries, add strawberries, blueberries and raspberries if you have them
6 ready baked Yorkshire puddings
1 tsp caster sugar
6 tbsp crème fraiche
Icing sugar to finish
Preheat the oven to 180 fan. Cream together the butter and 60g of the brown sugar until pale and fluffy, whisk in the egg and beat in the almonds and flour until well combined. Stir in the apple sauce and 100g of the fruit. Put the Yorkshires on a baking tray and spoon in the filling, top with 50g of the remaining fruit and bake in the oven for 25 mins.
Meanwhile put the remaining fruits and the remaining brown sugar in a pan along with the caster sugar and 1 tbsp water. Place over a medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes to make a sauce.
Serve each pudding with a spoonful of crème fraiche and a drizzle of the sauce, finished with a dusting of icing sugar.

ROSEHIP SYRUP
Gather a few handfuls of rosehips and a handful of hawthorn berries and place in a pan, cover to 2cm above with water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, then allow to cool. Strain slowly and patiently through a muslin (or strong kitchen roll) carefully squeezing out excess juice. Add equal amounts of sugar to the liquid, i.e., 100ml liquid to 100g sugar or honey, and reheat slowly. Once the sugar has dissolved pour the syrup into a sterilised jar or bottle to store for up to four months.
Use served over porridge or yoghurt in a morning, as a cordial with cold water or hot toddy with cider. Can also be taken neat off a teaspoon for winter chills. Apparently, rosehips are a great source of anti-inflammatory vitamins which can help relieve the symptoms of arthritis!

MULLED HEDGEROW CIDER
1 litre apple cider
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs rosemary
50ml rosehip syrup
A few hawthorn or rosehip berries to garnish
Pour the cider into a pan and add the bay and rosemary, heat for 10 mins until warmed through. Take the pan off the heat and add the rosehip syrup. Pour into heatproof glasses or mugs and drop a few berries in to serve.

BLACKBERRY CHUTNEY
This is quick and easy to make and once left to mature for a couple of weeks makes a perfect accompaniment to meats, cheeses, sandwiches etc.
300g blackberries
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 apple peeled, cored and finely chopped
Pinch ground cinnamon
¼ tsp chilli flakes
½ tsp dried ginger or finely grated fresh
½ orange zest
100g sugar
100ml red wine vinegar

Cook everything apart from the vinegar and sugar until softened for about 15-20 mins. Add the vinegar and sugar, allow the sugar to dissolve and then boil before lowering the heat to simmer for 20 minutes. You know the chutney has reached the consistency when you can drag a spoon across the base of the pan and it leaves a clean trail. Ladle into sterilised jars and leave a couple of week before using.

One of my favourites is “Cheesy Chutney Toast”
Gently toast the thick sliced bread and then spread a layer of chutney over one side. Mix grated cheese with a dash of Worcestershire sauce, ¼ tsp English mustard and a pinch of cayenne pepper, sprinkle over the chutney and grill for a few minutes until melted and oozy!

Homemade chutneys and jams will store for a year when unopened in a cool dark place. Once opened they should be kept in the fridge and used within a month.

CABBAGE
Autumn also marks the start of cabbage season and I view this vegetable as a “superfood” providing many health benefits and versatility in the kitchen. From a vegetable alone to using in soups, stir fries, salads and casseroles, it’s always been a staple for me. Cooked in stock and finished with black pepper and butter makes it special, or sauteed in butter with a little lemon juice and fresh herbs, add a few chilli flakes for a kick or a dash of cider vinegar, garlic and smoked paprika give it a Spanish flavour, Indian spices and coconut milk or soy sauce, sesame and honey for an Asian twist.

One pot meals are always a favourite when cooking on board. I’m a big pastry lover, but if you want convenience then shop bought puff pastry makes a change. Use a flameproof casserole dish or a skillet for oven to table serving.

CHICKEN, GREENS AND MUSHROOM POT PIE
300g chicken, cut into small chunks
250g mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
The leaves from 3 thyme sprigs, or 1 tsp dried herbs
300ml chicken stock
100g crème fraiche
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
100g kale or the dark leaves of savoy cabbage
2 tsp cornflour
375g pack puff pastry
Egg to glaze

Use a shallow casserole bowl or deep skillet. Heat ½ tbsp oil over a gently heat and add the onion, cook for a few minutes until soft and add the thyme and garlic, then add the chicken and turn up the heat frying until golden and part cooked. Add the mushrooms and remaining oil. Add the stock, crème fraiche, mustard and greens and a generous amount of salt and fresh ground black pepper. Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp of cold water and add to the pot, stirring well to thicken while over a low heat. Remove from the heat and cover with the rolled out puff pastry, pressing well round the sides to seal. Cut a slit in the centre to let the steam escape and then glaze with beaten egg. Bake for about 30 mins in a 180 fan, gas 6 oven. You’ll know it’s ready when the pastry is puffed up and golden brown.
A veggie version of the can easily be made by substituting the chicken for butternut squash or sweet potato.

CABBAGE, BEANS AND FISH
Cabbage, white beans and fish also make a tasty one pot meal. Use a similar method to start off with onion, bacon, carrots, garlic and herbs. Add the shredded cabbage (savoy is best) and pour in about 4 tbsp white wine and ½ pint stock. Season well and simmer gently until almost cooked then stir in a tin of white beans such as flagelot or cannellini.
Dust the white fish of your choice with seasoned flour and pan fry, skin side down first for about 4 mins then flip over for a minute and place skin side up on top of the cabbage pot, lid on and finish on a very low simmer to steam the fish through until cooked.

BACON, POTATO AND ONION BAKE
5 rashers of British bacon, rind removed and roughly diced.
750g potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 -2 onions (depending on size) thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 tsp mixed herbs
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
1 – 2 slices (depending on size) wholemeal bread made into breadcrumbs
Savoy cabbage, finely shredded and steamed or boiled to serve.

Preheat the oven to 180 fan. Gently fry the bacon in 2 tbsp olive oil until starts to crisp. Meanwhile bring the stock to the boil in a large pan and add the potatoes, onion and garlic, push down to submerge, lid on, simmer for 5 mins. Drain reserving the stock. Layer the potatoes and onion in a shallow casserole dish adding the bacon bits, 1 tsp of the herbs and fresh ground black pepper to each layer as you go. Pour over about 300ml of the reserved stock. Mix the breadcrumbs with the remaining herbs and 1 tbsp olive oil and scatter over the top. Cover loosely with foil and bake in the oven for 40 mins, removing the foil halfway through cooking to crisp up the topping.
Serve with the tender savoy cabbage.

KERALAN VEGETABLES

Finally, most of us have a love of curries. We have done a bit of travelling in India over the years and the last trip was Kerala. We first got the idea of visiting this Southern part of India after visiting a wonderful Keralan restaurant when we were moored in Newark on the river Trent. Here’s a Keralan recipe which is more of a stew than a curry!

1 tbsp oil
Spice ingredients
2 star anise
2 cloves
2 bay leaf
1” piece of cinnamon stick
1” piece of fresh ginger
8 – 10 curry leaves (available in dried spices in the supermarkets)
2 small green chillies

Vegetable ingredients
2 shallots or 1 small onion
1/2 carrot
1/2 cauliflower
2 – 3 green beans
Small handful green peas
2 cans thick coconut milk
½ tsp fresh black pepper
Pinch salt to taste

Chop all the vegetables and blanch in boiling water. Keep in cold water until ready to add to the pan.
Heat the oil in a heavy pan and all the spice ingredients and onion until soft and golden, take care not to burn the spices. Drain the vegetables and add to the pan along with the salt and pepper. Add the coconut milk and mix everything together. Cover and cook on a very low simmer with the lid on, or in the oven for about ten minutes.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my Autumn article, please feel free to email me if you have any questions or take a look at my “canal cuisine” page on Facebook. In the meantime we are working together to bring you more recipes through CanalsOnline Magazine.

The smooth underbelly of the Westway Highway swings wide over the Grand Union Canal at Westbourne Park, creating a ceiling for the towpath and ½ a dozen canal boats moored below.

For architect Matt Hopkins, it's a sight to behold whenever he cruises into Paddington on his 70’narrowboat. But the breath-taking infrastructure has a troubled history; its construction in 1971 displaced over 3000 North Kensington families. Resulting controversy helped produce much more extensive neighbourhood engagement ahead of similar developments today.

In the half century since, the City of Westminster has responded to the Westway’s intrusion with a number of measures: A sports complex at Shepherd's Bush. Offices and shops at Portobello Road. But at Westbourne Park — where a football pitch length piece of land could support an all-weather market, musical performance, or whatever else the public wants — time stands still.

Why a place with such potential remains a destination for rough sleepers, scofflaw dog walkers, and occasional boaters refitting their interiors is a question I hoped to answer at a discussion Hopkins recently led featuring architects reviewing old proposals to re-imagine the space.

The discussion was part of a weekend program called "Building Dialogues" ̈the latest in a history of interventions for this persistently challenging spot. Besides an architectural discussion there was music, educational workshops and a visioning exercise for boaters and borough representatives. All to demonstrate the variety of programmes the space lends itself to, and which were last seen there during a month-long 2019 London Festival of Architecture installation.

I had been a participant in that, loaning my boat and its full length stage to the team who contributed the winning entry, the ̈Co-Mooring ̈, which for 30,000 pounds attempted to unite land and water, encouraging more and better interaction between boaters and visitors to the canal. Its lofty ideas collided with reality, however, when cyclists objected to its sinuous boardwalk and local hoodlums asked for money to not burn it down.

With more continuity, these might have been valuable learning experiences, except the final stakeholders ́ discussion atop Molly Anna was interrupted, and — with Covid around the corner — never resumed.

Four years later we reviewed the list of 49 companies who had submitted proposals for the 2019 competition. Architectural firms KMBH, Sisters & Tiger, Merritt Houmoeller and Make:Good all had received £500 to further develop concepts to temporarily transform the space. Though none were ultimately selected, all wanted to publicly review their old plans and discuss what might still happen.

The architects sat on chairs sandwiched between a vendor selling samosa chaat and an upright piano wheeled in for the occasion. They joked about their professional lot...submissions for design competitions that never pay the bills...but to which they repeatedly succumb, stubbornly believing that the right mix of ingredients can turn urban blight into community gold.

Asia Grzybowska from Sisters and Tiger had driven the furthest, 5 hours from Cornwall, to discuss why no such alchemy had happened here. In a sterile space animated by graffiti but not a blade of grass she related the story of a garbage strewn median in Oakland, California, and how a surreptitiously installed ceramic Buddha had sparked a metamorphosis. People brought flowers. It became a shrine. Crime fell by 80%.

With sympathetic City of Westminster leaders showing renewed interest in canalside opportunities, could something similar happen here? Community-led, in lieu of major investment?

What user groups could be induced to adopt this space? What changes would inspire a similar transformation as Vietnamese pilgrims had brought to an unloved highway median in Oakland?

Ladbroke Grove’s musical community could play a role, suggested Ben Crockett and Jezmond Farran, musicians who waited to perform on the event ́s floating stage. Local legends Hawkwind, the first space rock band, had played there in the early 70s, demonstrating the enduring appeal of the place, the only covered — and therefore weatherproof — stretch of canal in London.

Fifty years later, what stymies a design that will transform this space? So that vendors can sell goods, boaters can responsibly dispose of rubbish, cyclists can fix their bikes and no one gets run over?

The chief impediment — the architects concluded — is the site's ́complicated ownership. Each team had had to speculate on what various entities would approve: the Highway Department which owns the overpass, the Canal and River Trust which owns the towpath, Great Western Studios which owns a sliver of land and the City of Westminster which owns the rest.

“The Borough,” Hopkins said on behalf of everyone, “is the only entity that will be here in 300 years. They need to convene the other stakeholders and see what modifications are allowable.”

• Would the highway department allow public artwork and lighting on the underside of the Westway?
• Would property owners allow a storage facility for items needed for pop-up events to encourage further use of the site? tables and chairs? bins and bin bags? work benches for boaters and cyclists to do repairs?
• Would the bus facility allow lowering of the retaining wall and removal of barbed wire as elsewhere along the retaining wall? Opening up views and allowing light to penetrate?
• Would CRT create a bookable mooring(s) for roving traders to sell items and act as caretakers? Could a uniform ground treatment be installed, to reduce conflict between users and allow for greater flexibility of use?

Hopkins cited the Royal Parks for demonstrating how a uniform surface and appropriate signage can induce cyclists to give way to crowds and during events.

With those questions answered architects could produce a final design to heal a historic wound and with it, perhaps, create a new paradigm for local government, CRT and private entities to collaboratively wring utility for canalside locations across London.

We live in a canal side cottage, or rather we did in 1805 when the Somerset Coal Canal was opened. The canal actually ran so close that they piled the earth up against the cottage, so the kitchen appears to be 3-foot underground. Indeed, the neighbours still have the bridge in the garden and the loading bay for the earth mill. An evening's walk to the pub in Combe Hay passes bridges well cut with gritty ropes, and deserted locks complete with gates that haven’t seen a barge since 1898. It was then that the canal was replaced by the Camerton Branch Railway – which ran almost through the bottom of the garden and was immortalised by the 1950s film the Titfield Thunderbolt (about a group of railway enthusiast who wanted to save their line).

This sort of leads us neatly into this article as I have just read Sou'wester, the Inland Waterways Magazine and this has got me thinking.

The work being carried out and dedication to the cause should be applauded and recognised: parts of the old Coal Canal in Timsbury and Paulton now have water in them for the first time in over 120 years. Add this to work on Wilts and Berks, various canals in Gloucester etc., and it could be true to say that there are as many canal projects on the go now as there were during the  canal mania (the period of intense canal building in England and Wales between the 1790s and 1810s). One cannot but think the future of our network is a foregone conclusion considering the benefits to wildlife and to humans with walking, cycling and water pursuits. Plus the re-instatement of a simpler slow pace of life.

However, my concern is history will repeat itself.

The Somerset Coal Canal is a good point: it was extremely profitable in its day, making money for the company and more importantly for its share holders,  by moving a commodity that was becoming essential for the industrial revolution - coal. The canal was shut down and business converted to rail, because you could move more coal quickly and easily and thus make even more money. Until, eventually, 50 years after it was built, that too closed down because they mined out. The Bath council made good use of the canal's bed by filling it with the town's rubbish- which promptly caught fire and burnt for years !!! but is still a good source of old railings, glass bottles - you name it (even most of the toilet block from the old Somerset and Dorset railway station)!

So here’s the rub in the same magazine DEFRA have cut the grant to CRT by £12.6m a year. to quote the magazine, that means that means:

• Being unable to do winter maintenance on 586 miles of waterway.
• Being unable to operate maintain and repair 156 miles of waterway.
• 50 0/0 of the spend on reservoirs will be unfunded (one assumes these are to feed the canals with water?)

Add into this a recent BBC article on the Regent Canal boat dwellers, which I felt was skewed to highlight the fact that most residential canal boaters burn fossil fuel – the very thing the canals were built to transport - as well as running their diesel engines for hours in the winter to make and store a minimal amount of electricity compared to the energy used to make it – all rather bluntly pointed out in the article.

We are all struggling financially, none of us can really sustain an increase in licence fees, along with fuel costs etc. We have tightened our belts to the last hole and there’s worse: we have no time. Many of the people who are near retirement, or have already retired, are now raising grandchildren to keep their own children working to pay the endless bills. The skills required to maintain and restore a canal are dwindling, "retired stone masons , blacksmiths, brickies..." Soon the only skill any one can offer will be  "management or IT".

If we are going to save our way of life, we all need to start thinking up better arguments than environmental / green and social benefits and concentrate on the only thing government ministers ever understand. They are, I suppose, the equivalent of the old shareholders £ Sterling, and their 20% cut on any revenues raised. Today we have grown weary of the deadline headline. Ten years to save the planet, etc and gluing yourself to a canal could be problematic. However, I am concerned that history will repeat itself and the slow painful decline of our precious waterways will become evident by the end of my time.

Our travels this year so far have been anything but straightforward with the amount of different issues we've had with every canal we've been on.

We've had restrictions due to low water levels, broken locks and bridges on the Macclesfield, Trent and Mersey and the Peak Forest canals so far.

We're currently 'stuck' on the Peak Forest Canal because of a broken lift bridge, although we did have the opportunity to leave the canal on an assisted passage before CRT closed the bridge a few weeks ago.

We chose to make the decision to stay between Bugsworth Basin and the broken bridge (24) because there's just so much to do in the area and we love the town of New Mills.

There are 2 train lines running through New Mills giving us access to Sheffield, Manchester, Buxton and the Peak District and as we're keen walkers, we're happy to be able to walk in so many beautiful places.

We've been to Edale, Hathersage and Grindleford to walk in the surrounding areas and visited the East Lancashire Railway via Manchester and Bury.

New Mills is a great little town with a real community and there are fabulous cafés and pubs everywhere.

It seems perverse to choose to stay in one place whilst living on a narrow boat, but being able to fully immerse ourselves in the area feels very special and it really will be a struggle to leave when the bridge is finally mended....let's hope it's not too soon, we've still got walks to do!

I've been feeling wishy washy
On this narrow boat of mine
I'm an uneasy Widow Twanky
Cast in a personal pantomime

I have urgent laundry needs
The basket is very full,
But the weather's not looking too favourable
The skies are grey and dull

You can almost guarantee it
As the machine begins to drain
There'll be a few preliminary spots
Followed closely by biblical rain

There are hazards of drying inside
There'll be moisture in the air
But I need to get my washing on
Because I'm short of underwear

There'll be a lot of condensation
On windows, blinds and bungs
Misting up my plastic cratch covers
And settling on my lungs

With dripping knickers and socks
and damp clothing in my face
Every available surface gets used
But there's really not the space

I've a couple of collapsible airers
And folding spider creations
And radiators that I won't turn on
Not keen on steamy inhalations

Towels are a drying nightmare
They don't vaporise as they should
In Winter I put them by the fire
But then they stink of coal and wood

Drying bedding is most unwieldy
Ghostly sheets hang upon the doors
Pillow cases drape like wet bunting
And I can't cope with all the vapours

I could book for a service wash
If I can find a launderette
But I don't air my washing in public
Preferring my soils to stay private