hello welcome to this video my name is Robbie and I live on a narrow boat I
have done for the last four years I've lived in pretty much all of the major
cities in England but mostly in this video will be giving you a picture of what
it's like to take a boat through Nottingham from my perspective and
mainly just looking for the 'Pub of the Week' which is what I normally would do
and in this case it's a corker because we've got potentially the oldest pub
that I've ever covered on this channel Anyway without further ado let's get
cranking and see what's happening on the river Trent...
Nottingham...
The city of ghostly zombies
*Coughs* Er ah sorry!
This is Wilfred suspension bridge it's a grade 2 listed blah blah who cares?Basically
if you're on a narrow boat this is the point at which you must not pass
this is the non-navigable part of the River Trent
but to me it looks fine
not sure how deep it is but yeah looks like it looks wide enough doesn't it
but you soon come
to Beeston weir and so you wouldn't be able to get any further than that anyway
but yeah great little stretch for rowers and canoeists I think Or 'kayakers'? I don't know...
The Nottingham and Beeston canal is only about five miles long, it's got
one lock in the middle and then there's one on either side, at either end
Here we are on my boat — the Naughty Lass — a 42 foot narrowboat so not too hard to
reverse and spin it round into the lock and this is actually the first lock I've
done in quite a while so I've got my nice shiny shoes on!
Just cruising past these facilities although I did stop here and have a little nose around
"It says they've got showers and toilets here but that is a lie!"
yeah there seems to only be an Elsan
which is toilet disposal, a general rubbish bin and a tap
one of only two official ones
so you've got to stop off at a marina if you get caught somewhere in the middle of
this canal and ask them nicely
one of the things I love about Nottingham is the architecture of
different styles of buildings from different eras and they're all made of
this red brick which comes just from the city being built on red sandstone
some parts of this canal do feel a bit grimy a little bit dodgy but then there
are other areas near to those that actually look really nice like this old
warehouse on the right and obviously all the office blocks are new but you
wouldn't want to moor here you just basically keep going until you find
another boat — safety in numbers — but it's just so funny to imagine 200 years ago
this area would have been absolute squalor
a population explosion happened in Nottingham at time and according to one local that I
spoke to this particular area that we're cruising through would have been
considered one of the worst slums in the entire British Empire to live with a
life expectancy between 14 and 18 years old it's quite astonishing anyway I
think we're coming up to a pub now and it's this one I want not that one
this one I want to point out Fellows Morton and Clayton because you would miss
it if you didn't know it was there — all these people sat outside they're
actually in another place called the Canalhouse and it's a Castle Rock
pub so you're not going to go too far wrong because there are so many different
types of beers and loads of space for big groups but its gimmick of having
these two dirty old boats inside the building I just don't think works
Next door is the place for me Fellows Morton and Clayton so this is a place that's
named after the most widely known canal carrying company
and inside you've got all this amazing history and lovely old
signs and it's just quite an interesting place to wander around even if
you're just popping in for a erm yeah a salad which is what I did one day or to
catch some live music
I really like this band! They were just in there having fun, wasn't many
people watching them but they were going for it absolutely brilliant
and they even let one of the members of the audience join in at the end
\m/ BAND PLAYS ENTER SANDMAN BY METALLICA \m/
you're coming in or out of Nottingham via train I can definitely recommend
this micro pub it's his bitter heads for just a fantastic selection of drinks and
great company!
back on the boat we're gonna go through Castle lock now so this
is the only lock on the whole 5-mile stretch and although you have to deal
with all these horrible pigeon nests which is pretty grim before long you
through the lock and on your way and start seeing these lovely converted
mills and warehouses again and get a glimpse of the castle on the rock there
which is quite a sight or it would be if it didn't have a lot of scaffolding
around it so unfortunately I wasn't allowed to go in because they're
renovating at the moment
right it's time to moor up and these are the only two week moorings that I can
recommend on the canal this is just this section here so from here all the way up
to the marina and yeah you're pretty close to the town still especially all
the pubs
this is the Old Trip to Jerusalem it's a tourist favourite
everyone loves coming here partly because they believe it's the oldest pub in England
but I don't think it's as simple as that...
back in the late 90s there was even a TV
program all about trying to find out which of these three pubs was the oldest
they put The Bell Inn at the top because they believed it was the oldest building
but they couldn't prove that it was the oldest inn, so as confused as can be I
went into Ye Olde Salutation Inn which according to the landlord Jay has just
strengthened its claim as the oldest pub in England
J: "That is actually not a Y - that is a letter
that means 'th' so it's The Old Salutation
Now according to the Royal archives it was
actually built by the Royal butcher he was granted the land because he wanted
the caves underneath to store meat. Now it's where the word 'landlord' and' titled
lord' come in - a titled Lord could own land commoners couldn't own land unless they
were granted it and there was always the proviso if they were granted the land
they had to build an inn. As buildings go this is the oldest licensed building."
Got that?!
The caves below the pub are really really quite exciting I mean
these date back to the 9th century apparently so even older than the
building above them and for a long time they were just part of a farm used for
servants accommodation and brewing beer and then fast forward to 1642
you've got the English Civil War and apparently both sides met in places like this
There is also a ghost down there called Rosie and she's a Victorian
street urchin but I didn't see her BUT if you look closely at this video
footage and zoom in!! you'll see that the small ghostly figure is...
no it's just the refraction on
my camera isn't it well if you want to find out more about Rosie and
catch a glimpse of her yourself just ask behind the bar the staff here...
ROCK and I've worked in a number of rock bars and clubs and stuff like that and I
can tell you these guys are dedicated each one of them have a tattoo of the actual logo of the pub
They're just 'dabbing on the haters' dabbing on every other bar staff in the country
so they all deserve a shot!!
little taste of metal karaoke up in the attic where you have gigs happening
there as well and if you're lucky you might bump into this chap this is Dave
'the fish man' Bartram and he will serve you cockles until this happens!!
I was so impressed by how the alternative music scene was represented in Nottingham
there's so many places to go shopping or hang out or meet people and watch bands
I mean if you ever felt like your own city was becoming just a bit too safe a
bit too boring then definitely check out Nottingham because I reckon you'll love it *THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN ENTIRELY UNPAID FOR BY THE NOTTINGHAM TOURIST BOARD*
Back on the canal here we are enjoying the lovely moorings here by the
noisy students!!! — I love students — and so does Nottingham because they've got two
universities here and they're building more accommodation on the left and then
we've got Nottingham Castle marina customers of which may fill up with fuel
or get a pump out or even just fill up with water like I did — just round this blue boat
is the entrance to the marina it's such a tight turning I almost scraped off all the
blacking on my boat trying to get in there but afterwards you've got all
these other permanent moorers who I think only pay about thirty pound a week
so it's quite a good deal and these moorings are also owned by the marina
well this is it! I'm leaving Nottingham and I'm quite sad about that because
it's a really really cool city there's so much more that I haven't seen and that I
just haven't had a chance to film for you but that's just the way it goes sometimes you go
to a really nice place and you only get a few days
this is the only good day at
the moment so I'm gonna see if I can get as far as I can and then just
moor up wherever I end up
that's the end of the video I hope you enjoyed it thank you so much for
watching and subscribing and liking and all that good stuff 'peace out guys'
'what up' why do people do I don't understand
BAND PLAYS 'HOLD THE LINE' BY TOTO
right theres always a secret bit at the end of the video I'm up to something I can't
tell you what it is right now but I am filming doing loads and loads of filming
I've got a new job so and that's why I haven't been posting too many videos
sorry about that but that's just yeah... You'll see by the end of this year
you'll see what my masterplan has been and you'll be like 'oh I get it yeah
ok that makes sense' but yeah until then thank you very much for for supporting me!
bye bye!