5 Things You Never Knew About Banbury
When you’re travelling the English canals on hotel boats it’s a chance to visit quaint villages and towns and discover local traditions, anecdotes and food. If I was to take a narrowboat holiday on a hotel boat I wouldn’t mind going to Banbury. Here’s why.
1. They Have a Hobby Horse Festival
Banbury has held an annual Hobby Horse Festival since the year 2000.
Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes.
According to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes a “Cock Horse” can mean a high-spirited horse, or an additional horse to help pull a cart up a hill. It also means a child’s hobby horse or an adult’s knee.
The origins and age of the nursery rhyme are unclear, although it dates back at least to the eighteenth century. The identity of the fine lady is also a mystery, and in some versions of the rhyme she is actually an old lady.
2. For 250 years there was no cross
Banbury’s many crosses were demolished by Puritans in 1600. After 250 years the current Banbury Cross was created in 1859 at the centre of the town commemorating the marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal, daughter of Queen Victoria, to Prince Frederick of Prussia.
3. They’ve got Tooley’s Boatyard
If my previous article on the Shroppie encouraged you to read Narrow Boat then you will know of the legendary Tooley’s Boatyard. It was built in 1790, has a 200 year old blacksmiths’ shop and is an officially listed cultural site. Tooley’s was working until 1995 and is said to be the oldest continuous working dry dock in Britain. There is now a blue plaque there to commemorate the life of Tom Rolt.
4. They’ve got their own cakes
Banbury cakes are a bit like an oval version of an Eccles cake, made with mixed fruit peel, brown sugar, rose water, rum and nutmeg. These flat pastry cakes were once exclusive to Banbury, and have been made to a secret recipe since the sixteenth century.
5. ‘Ramlin Rose’ is based around Banbury
In the late 1980’s author Sheila Stewart realised that if nobody had yet captured a boatwoman’s life-story it would soon be too late. She resolved to find a boatwoman and write her biography. She put a letter in the Banbury Guardian looking for any women who had been born and bred on a horse-drawn boat on the Oxford Canal. As she could not find one woman who could provide enough memories to comprise a biography she wove the memories of several women into the fictional life story of Rose Ramlin. It’s a fascinating account of a way of life that no longer exists.
Ride a hotel boat to Banbury Cross
In late September our hotel boats will be taking a short cruise along the upper River Thames between Lechlade and Oxford and then the Oxford Canal to Banbury. If you’re interested there’s not many places left!
Have you been to Banbury? Does your local canal town have any interesting traditions or anecdotes?
Did you know you can get free updates from this blog by entering your email at the top of this page?
Canal Boat Hotel Visits Parallel World
The kind of people that are interested in UK barge holidays, long boats, English canals, hotel boats and narrowboat holidays are perhaps the kind of people who like to see the world from a different viewpoint.
One of the more unusual sights on the British canals this summer will be the trading boats gathering at Mile End on the Regent’s Canal in London, not far from the Olympic Stadium, from 27th July to 12th August. The floating market will give boating business a chance to catch passing trade from the increase in visitors to the capital this year. The boats will then move to Little Venice in West London from 20th August to 9th September.
I can just imagine what a colourful, vibrant place the boat market is going to be. Anyone who remembers the floating market in the 1996 TV series Neverwhere, might also like to imagine it as a bit of a magical place. In Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry’s TV series it was underneath Battersea power station; where as in the subsequent book of Neverwhere, Gaiman was able to return to his original plan of setting it in Harrods. Neverwhere depicted an urban fantasy world called “London Below” that coexisted alongside the London we know.
London’s canals are often an undiscovered, quieter, parallel world coexisting alongside the hustle and bustle of city life. When I was living on a narrowboat in London I’d be surprised how little many Londoners knew about the canal.
“So is the Hackney canal the same as the Camden canal then? Are they joined together?”
“Yes,” I’d explain. “You can get all the way up to Birmingham!”
I love the way the canals are a secret world; often undiscovered, even by locals. An artist afloat is moored near to me at the moment; just one of many undiscovered floating traders. Others on the canals include: The Cheese Boat, a jewellery boat, The Graphics Boat, a fudge shop and people who make cratch covers. Then there’s Mikron Theatre, travelling marine engineers, sign writers, a puppet barge and even a floating hairdressing salon.
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy of books describes a romantic community of gypsy-like boat people: So the canals and rivers are an inspiration to authors, screen writers and anyone who likes to dream of a magical parallel world where time slows down.
What parallel part of the world have you not yet discovered? Visit our canal hotel boats schedule for 2012 and see which cruises still have availability.
What else is magical about the canals? Do you know of other fantasy stories inspired by the waterways?
Take me to Liverpool!
It’s nearly time for our hotel boats to cast off and get going on our grand cruise of 2012! The boats are being cleaned even as we tweet and we’re trying to source some ethical soap for our guests…
What parts of the system have you always dreamed of cruising but never had the chance to visit?
Image credit: Wikipedia
I actually fancy going to Liverpool. I’ve never been there and I’m a huge fan of the Beatles. My four year old daughter likes to sing, “We all live in a green narrowboat,” to the tune of Yellow Submarine! It would take weeks to get my boat up there though, so the only way I would manage it is if I booked myself on to a canal boat hotel at some point.
Travelling by boat you’d get a good look at the new waterfront in Liverpool city centre. The collection of dock buildings and warehouses at the Albert Dock were opened in 1846, and it was the first non-combustible warehouse system in the world. It’s the most visited multi-use attraction in the UK, (outside London) and contains the largest single collection of Grade I listed buildings anywhere in the UK. In May of this year canal hotel boats Snipe and Taurus will be moored right next to the famous Albert Dock. The hotel boats will then pass in front of the ‘Three Graces’ on the new Liverpool Link Canal: a beautiful trio of historical buildings. However, after passing through the Mersey Dock Complex, they’ll be cruising on into the open countryside north of the city.
I hope Neil and Corrine have got some Beatles tunes to play on the journey:
“Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies…”
I don’t think they’ll pass the original Strawberry Fields but there’s a surprising amount of parkland and scenic green views on this cruise. Those two Beatles songs refer to John and Paul’s nostalgia about growing up in Liverpool. This journey also includes a nostalgic passage down the Bridgwater Canal, which was the first ever canal to be built in England. Towards the end of the holiday you would get to experience the famous Anderton Boat Lift: As you may know the Anderton Boat Lift was considered one of the seven wonders of the waterways by Robert Aickman, (co-founder of the Inland Waterways Association).
If you don’t like the Beatles, perhaps you could make a Liverpool themed music compilation that includes: Long Haired Lover From Liverpool, Ferry Cross the Mersey and Mersey Paradise (Stone Roses) to put on your iPod as you drift lazily from Liverpool to Northwich.
“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn’t matter much to me.”
Read more about Liverpool to Northwich including the Anderton Boat Lift: Canal hotel boats Liverpool to Northwich
For more narrowboat news follow our blog by email (top right corner) or follow Hotel boats on Twitter.
What music would you choose for a narrowboat cruise?
How Many Miles ‘Till Braunston?
Image credit: Braunston Village Website
Have you ever played that game, How Many Miles ‘Till Braunston? Probably not because, 1) I made it up, and 2) it’s a bit silly. Whenever we’re travelling on the Grand Union Canal and there’s a pause in the conversation I like to ask my husband,
“So, how far do you think it is to Braunston now?”
He’ll smile. This is a test. Did he notice the little black knee-high signpost that we just passed?
“Oh,” he’ll say, as if pondering an estimate.
“About fifty-eight I reckon.” He did see the sign! We both grin. We’re not going to Braunston but at one time Braunston was the hub of the English canals network, and many a working boatman needed to know how much further there was to go. This little village is at the site of the old waterways depot, where the Grand Junction Canal joins the Oxford Canal.
The village is on the hill above the canal, and prospered for over 150 years when the British canals were essential to industry. It still has the busiest flight of locks anywhere in the country. The marina hosts many small boating businesses, and “The Stop House” on the towpath is where tolls were once collected from the working boats. The current village church dates from 1849 but a church has been on this site since Norman times.
The canal-side shop near the bottom lock sells souvenirs, food and ice-cream. The canal side pubs are the Boathouse or The Admiral Nelson and in the village you will find The Old Plough, the Wheatsheaf and a Tea Room.
For more information visit the Braunston Village Website. Or why not join our canal hotel boats from Warwick to Leighton Buzzard this summer? We will travel along the northern half of the Grand Union Canal, with two of the longest canal tunnels in the country at Braunston and Blisworth, the Stoke Bruerne Canal Museum and Bletchley Park to explore.
Don’t you just love visiting those tiny canal-side villages and imagining the hustle and bustle of times gone by? What’s your local waterside village or town? Have you ever been on a hotel boat? Where have you dreamed of visiting? Leave us a comment below. We’d love to hear what you think.
New: You can now subscribe to our blog by email! (Top right hand corner.)
7 Wonders of the Waterways
Image from Wikipedia
What are the seven wonders of the British Canals? Robert Aickman, co-founder of the Inland Waterways Association, compiled a list in his book ‘Know Your Waterways’. I’ve already been lucky enough to visit the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct a few years ago and so have only six more to tick off my list.
One of the wonders of the English canals is obviously the Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire. It provides a link between the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal which are a vertical 50 feet apart. It was designed by Edwin Clark, built in 1875 and could carry either one barge or a pair of narrowboats. The movement was controlled by hydraulic cylinders, and powered by gravity and a steam pump up until 1908 when the lift was converted to electric power. By 1983 the mechanism had become corroded and the lift was closed. A restoration project was later funded by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and so the lift reopened in 2002. It is now operated by British Waterways and features a visitor centre and an exhibition. The only other working boat lift in the UK is the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland.
The other wonders of the English canals according to Aickman are the Devizes flight of 29 locks, the Standedge Tunnel, Barton Swing Aqueduct, The Bingley Five Rise flight and Burnley Embankment. These are all stunning achievements of engineering and fascinating parts of our English canal heritage; I am keen to see them all! But the unofficial wonders of the British canals and rivers are the peaceful atmosphere, the beautiful scenery, the swans, ducks and geese, and messing about in boats. Then there are the hidden secrets, such as discovering old canal side pubs, canal museums, and timeless country villages.
I love the rippling serenity of the Tring reservoirs, which supply the Grand Union Canal near Marsworth, and a cosy pub I know with a real fire in the hearth and boaters with corks on their key rings talking about whether the water level’s down. What is your local canal-side gem?
If you’d like to experience the Anderton Boat Lift for yourself and the hidden secrets of the waterways of Cheshire you are welcome to join Snipe and Taurus in May on our Chester to Manchester cruise.
Peggy Melmoth
Fancy a Happy Easter at Ellesmere Port?
Nb: Ferret. Image credit: The National Waterways Museum
The National Waterways Museum covers a seven acre site that was once a busy canal dock at Ellesmere Port, in Cheshire. The indoor displays are housed in charming Victorian buildings and while there are some boats inside, the majority of historical boats are outside in the canal docks. The docks were still in use in the 1950s, and today you can walk around the locks and warehouses and see the forge, stables and workers cottages. When I think of the heritage of the inland waterways I think of the traditional working narrowboats, but at this museum you can also see a 1,000 year old log boat, a concrete barge, a coracle and a steam powered dredger. At The Heritage Boatyard a dedicated team of volunteers and young trainees work to maintain and restore these historical boats. Several of the boats are listed on the Historic Boat Register.
The indoor exhibitions tell the story of Britain’s canals and waterways and the Inland Waterways collection is designated as being of national and international importance.
The Waterways Archive holds a fascinating collection of boat building plans, working records, accounts and letters. There are photographs by Robert Aickman, Michael Ware and Eric de Mare.
The museum also holds the archives of British Waterways and the early canal companies, a rich source of information, some of it dating back to the 17th century. I would love to engross myself in this archive and their books and periodicals about canal history: Access can be arranged by booking at least 24 hours in advance.
I’d also like to explore inside the motor narrowboat Ferret and imagine the lives of the boat families that once lived within. She was built by WJ Yarwoods of Northwich in 1926 and worked as part of a Fellows, Morton and Clayton pair on the Birmingham Canal Navigations.
If you share my enthusiasm for the history of the waterways you may enjoy the Nantwich to Chester cruise on Snipe and Taurus this Easter. The museum at Ellesmere port is just one of the places the hotel boats will visit. Imagine finishing your day being tucked up in your own charming narrowboat cabin dreaming of bygone days.
Read more: Nantwich to Chester via Ellesmere Port Boat Museum
Stop Press: Join British Waterways at the museum on Sunday 4 March for a unique behind the scenes look at the locks.
Peggy Melmoth
www.peggymelmoth.wordpress.com
Boatshed Grand Union
Comments