We've not moved far from where we left you last time have we?
Well no.
Just back around that corner is bridge 74, which is
Newport Pagnell Road Bridge and that's where Oakridge Park is, which is where
we've been moored for a couple of days and there's been an ASDA there.
It's been lovely, fresh food every day.
What shall we have for dinner? I'll have a walk to ASDA.
It makes a change, could get used to that.
Talking of Newport Pagnell, which is the name of that road bridge,
we're only about two miles away from Newport Pagnell motorway services.
So if you frequent the M1 and I was on there the other day,
I hired a car, I had to go back up north for a couple of things
and I haven't driven for that long and I'm just used to doing like 2 or 3 miles an hour.
He knows because he was my emergency contact so the police rang him first.
Errr Mr. Shaun Dobson-Fox, is there any reason why Colin's driving 30 mile an hour uo the M1.
[Laughing]
I thought i was doing 80, I'm like zeeeuum!
Just shows how you get used to the speed doesn't it.
Today we're going to, I don't know how you pronounce it, how do you pronounce it?
Stoke.
Stoke what?
Bruerne.
Stoke Bruerne.
Bruerne.
Sounds like something out of a pub doesn't it?
and we've got to start shifting.
As we mentioned in the last episode the winter stoppages start in a couple of weeks.
Now if you're not, if you don't know what these are,
every year between the end of October and the end of March,
the Canal and River Trust do maintenance work on the system.
In August they release like a final plan of what's closing and between what dates,
so that boaters can plan their winter around it so that we don't get trapped.
That's the theory.
That's the theory, yeah.
It worked last year.
It did work last year so there's no reason, I shouldn't say there's no reason
[Laughs]
Shhhh!
Don't listen.
[Laughs]
We've got to be about a hundred miles, it was 80 last week.
It was 80 last week [Laughs]
It's now 100 miles away from where we are now
and we've got a plan, so we've got to get our skates on to get where we need to be before the stoppages start.
Speaking of 100 miles, we're now 80 miles away by canal from London.
Oh thank god for that [Laughs]
I know but, it's like it's been forever that we've been in London hasn't it.
Yeah, yeah.
and then to look at the map and realise that we're actually now 80 miles from London
and when I read it in the book at 80 miles and I was just so tempted to go,
[Laughing]
[Music playing]
Milton Keynes is a place that we've driven past on the M1 probably a hundred times or more,
but this is the first time we've ever seen it from the canal
and when you look at the town on a map you just see this huge sprawl.
But from the water you don't see that, you just see the green open spaces,
parks and trees and it's lovely.
There's over 6,000 acres of parkland in the town
and there's loads of places where you can moor up and enjoy it.
[Music playing]
This amazing mural was created 32 years ago by community artist Bill Billings.
It's supposed to represent Wolverton's past and present and future,
but over the years it got covered in graffiti and the weeds started taking over and covering it up.
But a couple of years ago a team including bill's son, Ryan repainted it.
They've removed the graffiti ,cut back the weeds and although a few are growing
back it's looking more like it did 32 years ago,
[Music playing]
Right on the northwest outskirts of Milton Keynes is Wolverton
it's a town that's steeped in railway history and you know I like my trains.
They've been building them here since the 1830s
and at the height of its time the workshops employed about 5,000 people.
Back in the 19th century the two main customers were the Stoney Stratford Tramway,
that was this three foot six street tram and it had these double decker cars that
passengers travelled in and it was pulled along by a small steam engine, they had like a skirt around it.
The other was the Newport Pagnell branchline which was actually laid over parts of the old canal bed
and they used to call the steam train the Newport Nobby [Sniggers]
and that puffed away until Dr. Beeching shut the line back in 1964.
Most of the original sheds are way overdue for demolition and part of the site's
already been redeveloped with a supermarket in some houses.
The company who run it now have built some new workshops further down next to the old ones
and it still makes and refurbishes new railway carriages, but its claim to fame is that it's where
the current royal train was built and it still lives here somewhere amongst all these huge sheds.
[Music playing]
This is the Iron Aqueduct and it crosses the Great Ouse River.
Back when they were building the canal they had to work out how to get across the river.
Now while William Jessup was working out how to build the aqueduct,
they built a temporary flight of locks on either side,
four to the south behind us and five just across the river to the north
and even though these were temporary, they wasted a lot of water
that was going into the river. Now when Jessop's aqueduct finally opened it didn't last that long.
It collapsed in 1808 and that flooded Stoney Stratford.
It took three years to build another aqueduct and this time they built it from iron
and it's the one that's still standing today over 200 years later.
[Music playing]
You've found out what Otis' new job is then.
He's the one who went up with the kites with the GoPro to get the aerial shots
seeing as Colin's not trusted with the drone anymore.
[Laughs]
We're coming up to Cosgrove Lock which marks the end of the 11 mile pound,
lock free bottom pound to here.
This is the first lock of many which is going to take us up towards Braunston.
Are we going to Braunston?
I don't think we're going to Braunston.
We always said we weren't going to Braunston.
We're not going to Braunston [Laughs]
[Music playing]
As we come out of Cosgrove Lock, on our left hand side is the Buckingham Arm,
it's an old canal, it went down to old Stratford and Buckingham.
Not where the palace is, that's where, that's what he's like, you had one line in the whole thing.
Not where the palace is.
I might look daft.
[Laughs]
It fell into disrepair in the early 1900's and never really recovered,
the last boat to go through there was a Fellows Morton and Clayton boat
and it got stuck in the silt, they had to get extra horses in to pull it through
and then it kind of just got closed down and abandoned after that.
But like so many canals, there's a trust that's been set up and they're slowly but surely restoring it.
It'd be nice to get like the whole 10 miles of the stretch open again wouldn't it?
It would yes.
You remember that bit.
[Laughs]
[Music playing]
you know that thing where somebody waves at you so you wave back all enthusiastically and say hello
and then you realise they're just trying to grab the end of the fishing line,
Oh embarrassing.
[Music playing]
That's Thrupp Marina, that caused a bit of confusion then didn't it.
because we know we do these time jumps now, but we thought we'd done this humongous time jump.
Owww!
[Laughing]
Owww, shouldn't do that.
from the Grand Union, up to, where was it, the Oxford?
I think so yes.
It was in Oxford where we had the Thrupp wasn't it?
Yeah.
and that boat then just passed us. We always have this thing,
well nobody else in the world has this thing except me.
Where you see a boat coming towards you
and it's right in the middle of the canal and we're right in the middle of the canal.
Does my breath smell like Emmental, because we've just been eating Emmental
and it's kind of, I hope they're gonna move, although we haven't moved
and it's like a duel isn't it?
[Laughs]
Is it not, in your head?
No.
where it's like a duel, where they kind of taking their 10 paces away from each other.
No, just go down the middle of the canal and then just move when you have to.
No, that's boring and the tension's building and building and you're both kind of
heading head-on for each other and then right at the last minute
or 500 yards away you start to move away.
[Laughs]
[Music playing]
Is there only me in the world who licks the crisps or the Doritos before I eat em.
Probably.
Do you do that? lick the crisps
or lick the chocolate off a digestive before you eat the biscuit.
No I don't do that either.
You think I'm a freak, but 9.8 million people disagree with you.
9.8 million?
This is lovely where we are, just outside Milton Keynes.
We're kind of straddling the Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire borders,
that means we're nearly in the Midlands.
Oh my lordy.
Nearly in the Midlands, it's only about, over there.
Owww! I've got to stop doing that.
Ahhh!
and sod's law dictates that
when you're kind of on a schedule to get somewhere after not seeing any moorings
for four months you start seeing lines and lines of beautiful moorings
with just views as far as you can see, with no people or
generators or kids or dogs or people singing Julio Iglesias records.
Yes that's it.
[Music playing]
[Shaun laughing] [Music playing]
[Music playing]
[Shaun laughing] [Music playing]
One of two things happened there.
That young lad who was looking so cool
as he came speeding past us and that's a clue to number one,
[Laughs]
Was going a little bit too fast and didn't account for the movement in the water as the boats passed,
which sent him careering into the side [Laughs]
which is very lucky that it wasn't like another 50 yards further on.
Otherwise he'd have hit a boat.
There's moats boored up there.
and then number two, it could have been that he was actually in full control of
his boat, but he was just so awed to see us
[Laughs] No!
that his mind just went and he just couldn't cope with it.
No, I don't think it was that.
No, I think he was going a little bit fast.
It is really nice to see so many holiday boats still out and about in October
and a few of the higher companies have extended their season through to November
and a lot of people have been taking advantage of that and they're enjoying time on the canal.
It is definitely busier than it was this time last year
and we've passed a few boaters who are taking their narrowboats back to marinas for the winter.
But there's still a lot of activity, there's people out walking and exercising, lots of fishermen
and it's great to see all these people because it's such a difference from how
it was back in the spring during lockdown.
[Music playing]
Shaun's a bit tired.
We've done just over 9 miles, that's quite a lot
Have we really?
Yeah, we've done 9 miles.
It says the first page was 5 and a half miles and the second page is 4 and a half miles,
which would be 10 miles, but it's the half a mile is to the bottom of the locks,
so we're just before.
So we've done, it could be about 10 miles, but I reckon it's about 9 and a half miles
from just outside Milton Keynes to just below
the stoke locks there's seven of them at Stoke Bruerne.
I don't know, I just still can't get my head around the word, Bruerne,
Why?
I don't know, I think it's that bit there, it just doesn't.
No, it's just that bit.
[Laughing] It just doesn't compute.
It's been weird because we've only done one lock, but Shaun's a bit tired.
I think it's the heat isn't it.
It's the heat.
Yeah and it was difficult mooring up.
because there's some moorings at the bottom of the locks down there
but it's full.
When you come around the corner and see them
there's this long line of boats on both sides, so we found a little, we had to do a little bit of grass cutting.
It's always the same, as soon as we get moored up in a nice spot, the first thing
Shaun does, is jumps out and trims his bush don't you?
[Laughs]
Every time.
What?
Gets his big chopper out and cuts all the nettles away.
[Laughs]
We're planning on a bit of a special Christmas, we're going somewhere special.
and hopefully it'll be a lovely setting for Christmas lunch.
Surrounded by friends.
Hopefully, fingers crossed it all goes well.
But that's it for today, I hope you've enjoyed your cruise with us, it's finished on a lovely note hasn't it?
It's boiling.
As Pat, from Our Narrowboat Quest would say,
I have no idea where we are.
[Laughing] Yeah.
You join us on a lovely day.
You'll leave us on a lovely day.
We're off to get some lunch,
just a few words before we go, if you're not subscribed to the channel please subscribe
and also click the like button the thumbs up if you don't mind.
If you hit the notifications icon,
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They sent us a message a few weeks ago saying that they've stopped sending email notifications out.
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So they just do it through the app and the desktop apps now.
So please don't complain at us, you can tell we've had complaints can't you, which is why I'm mentioning it.
[Laughing]
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not like, if shaun jumped on a computer that would be it wouldn't it.
Oh it'd just be million pieces.
See you next time, take care.
Ta-ra.
[Music playing]
Good morning .
Morning
and i have no idea where we are.
Look like it was, not greasing up, what's the word I'm looking for?
Steaming up.
[Laughs]
I suppose it would get steamed up if you were greased up, I don't know.
if you errr, you alright?
From Fenny Str...
Ahhhh, just ruined that all then.
Why do I have difficulty saying, Bruerne?
I can say Brue and erne.
Bruerne.
Hungry, fancy like really bad stuff for me today like a big pizza
big pizza.
Echoooooo!
Ahhh it doesn't work here does it?
If I've got Doritos between my teeth, I apologise.
Do you remember that advert that went, Arist on and on and on.
I can't get that out of my head today.
It was Val Doonican yesterday.
Oooh hello!
[Music plays to the end]
so
you