Canals, hats and Atherstone The Coventry Canal, winds its way from the centre of Coventry to Fradley Junction, where it meets the Trent and Mersey Canal. Along the way it passes through the small Warwickshire town of Atherstone. Atherstone is well known for its 300 year role in the manufacture and sale of hats. When […]
Don’t mention the pandemic….. It’s impossible to start my first post of 2021 without mentioning the unending roller-coaster of living through a global pandemic. We are still going through this worldwide virus and who knows when we will emerge? So, here’s a tale that weaves around an old Wedgwood teapot, dark histories and the Pea […]
Welford Remembers This past weekend marked 50 years since the Welford Arm was re-opened in 1969 after 13 years of abandonment and vandalism which began in 1946. In May 1969 Sir Frank Price, chair of the British Waterways Board and boat-owner came to Welford to mark this momentous occasion. The restoration saw the beginning of […]
Heading back By mid-August Pea Green was turned around, having reached the end of the Ashby, and bobbing back along the canal towards Sutton Wharf and the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre. First stop on my return journey was Shackerstone. There, I moored up for the night opposite a marvellous tree-topped motte. Instead of inspecting the […]
The mythical Ashby It seems that Autumn has arrived in the last few days. There is still a bit of summer to come as I share the rest of Pea Green’s adventures. My plan to head up the Ashby Canal looked in jeopardy after Monte’s swim and a weekend of trading. I decided to check […]
Canal journey ahead After the Rugby bus incident, I was keen to continue my canal journey towards the Ashby, and away from the construction work close to bridge 66. This would include navigating a tunnel, swing-bridge and a lock. My first day out of Rugby I didn’t go very far, mooring close to the ‘All […]
Blobs in the right places – starting to paint It’s almost a year since I first attempted to put the blobs in the right places and paint something that resembled the traditional painted roses found on the old working canal boats. It was a miserable time as I had just failed the written upgrade of […]
Ladybird and Canals As many of my regular readers will know my only knowledge of canals, before buying my boat was my childhood copy of the 1975 Ladybird book ‘The Story of Our Canals’. This book formed part of my -my sister didn’t get a look in- Ladybird collection, apparently it was number 66. (In […]
Where to add the name With the outside of Pea Green’s cabin painted green, and the name officially changed on the Canal and River Trust (CRT) website all that remained was to paint the new name on the boat. This of course, had to be done twice, on each side. With my usual approach of […]