Hello I'm Robbie this is my narrow boat home that I've been traveling on for the
last three years around the UK and I think I might have discovered one of
the most beautiful canals in the whole of the system
so the Chesterfield Canal - it used to connect right up into Chesterfield I
think so I mean there's only a few hundred yards up this way and you reach
a dead end which looks like this
so what I had to do is come to the end here
more up and then turn round in this winding hole which is where (historically) you would use
the wind turn your boat around
I did film a lovely little time-lapse just now but
I've just lost the whole clip due to the fact that there's a whiteout on the
lens, bleached white you don't need to know all this stuff, it's my problem not
yours- so let's get cranking!
But before we carry
on moving the boat I just want to mention that you can walk the rest of
the way to Chesterfield so if you don't have a boat you can always...
CRANK IT!
...on foot like Ian just there! Who for charity walked for 48 hours straight (I think)
stopping off at a pub along the way - walking all the way through the night and
all the way to the end of the canal at West Stockwith where I met with him on
my first day on the canal.
Here's my bike I've just got it out on the towpath
I'm cycling along - although if you are a cyclist I recommend a mountain bike
for some of it because it can get a bit muddy and uneven
now one of my favorite things to do is if I see a Yale lock I always try out my
BW - British Waterways key - So let's see what's
inside...
Yeah it doesn't fit - sh*t!
Not far from here - they actually had a quarry where the stone was taken to
build the Houses of Parliament when it was rebuilt in 1840 I think it was and I
We're quite far away from London, about 180 miles
but they chose this stone because it was the most durable and would
withstand all the intricate work the stonemasons would be doing and it
would also put up with a lot of the pollution in London
I don't how they work
these things out but that's why the stone was picked
The first thing you might notice is how narrow it is here!
so yeah you don't want
to meet another boat coming the other way - which I have done, only
once, getting to the end of the canal
Apologies for the state of my boat you can
probably see that I've been trying to at least patch up some of the rust with a little
bit of Red Oxide - that's about as much as I can do I'm just so limited on time at
the moment and also with the dandelion seeds and catkins there are too many
things flying around which just makes it really hard to paint anything my goal
now is to save up enough money to pay someone to do it properly but yeah how
long that will take to save up I don't know!
Right actually we've not got that far - and I've just found us another 48 hour mooring
a few hundred yards down from where I was just this morning
Er it's 9 o'clock
I've got to start work and then later on I've got to go and see my boss and go to the
Chelsea Flower Show -all these crazy things happen at the same time so yeah gotta go!!
At the end of the canal next to a 'NOT Pub of the Week' is Kiverton Park railway
station and from here you can take the train to Lincoln that way or go the
opposite direction which I did to get Sheffield to change down to
Northamptonshire and then on to London
Welcome to Chelsea
[gentle guitar music]
Yeah, enough of that! You didn't come here to watch Gardeners World!
You came come here to watch
'Crank It World' - is that a thing?!!
Anyway here is my favorite (so far) my
favourite scene from the Chesterfield canal - please enjoy I'm just going to
leave you with it, here we go...
I was on the Chesterfield canal a couple of
months and I actually started at the end of spring so there were still some of these
Ramsons around - aka 'Wild Garlic' which is one of my favorite wild plants which I've
never really seen so close to the water and at this section the canal there was
just so many of them there was a real waft of garlic coming
off the side!
I loved this part of the canal because you were enclosed by forests on both sides
but there's also gaps in the hedge you could see these wonderful
views but you just hear the birdsong and feel like you're really in the
middle of the woods
We've a lovely little mooring here it's great you just pull in and you've got
great views to watch the Sun go down and all that and yeah so that ends that
little stretch of canal
all right now we're gonna go down some locks
- quite a lot of locks
there are about 23 between this mooring here and the marina which is the
next mooring
[mock apprehension] So here we go guys...
so there's a couple of treble staircase locks on this bit here
so there's one treble
three single ones... and then another treble
it's quite amazing
what I've got to do is- this is all to save water basically, that's
why they're designed like this - I've got to fill up this one here and then for
the next one as I go through into that one the water from this lock will go on
to the next one as I'm going through it and then I'll just carry the water
through the empty locks basically
I'll try and show you what I mean!
yeah one thing I have to remember to do is keep my fenders up
because it really is too narrow
Don't want them getting caught
I've made sure these are all closed that's just to protect the water levels really
so if someone came along I could easily well just move that and then you'd lose
a lot of water so they've got these... there's a special key here that you use to unlock
but this is the only one so put that way now!
right so I got a little bit stuck there and had to actually go back to the second
chamber and let some more water through so that both chambers were filling up and
we could lift the level of the boat - so we're not grounded out anymore
Now all we've got to do is let the water out of these gates now and we're through
that's the first triple lock done
[smug face]
Woah!
You just missed that - er...
I'm just coming out of this last lock and the bridge is so low that
I was about to completely wreck my bike thankfully I stuck it into reverse quick enough
and managed to get out the way and managed to move the bike back
now there's nothing I enjoy less than a good walk
but I do enjoy exploring the
area around me
so it was a really nice treat to see some of these woodland
areas - I mean look at that - look at all that wild garlic there - and it's a good
chance to take my mum's dog, Meg, for a walk - my parents came to see me to
help me get to the end of the canal
I didn't tell them how many locks there
would be
There was about 20+ locks so we had to go through but they were amazing and
yeah - if you're watching - thanks guys.
anyway returning to our journey back
down the locks here we are at Limehouse lock which is where they had a house
that made lime - lime mortar - the stuff that goes in between the bricks in the
lock chamber walls
Another treble coming up
right so luckily the
boat that's just come through has left a fairly full pound, it has leaked a little bit
so I'm just going to add a bit more water
[in mock cockney accent] like that!
And i'm going to check to see if the other locks are empty
yeah so unfortunately for us all of the locks were full - so I've got to empty
them all, except for the last one at the top
And unfortunately I can't just walk across these gates because there's no
footboard, no step so I have to go the long way around
actually on t his on this middle lock I've gone too far
there's a marker down there and it tells you to keep it at
that level in the middle one otherwise you run out of water and you ground out
again so yeah you've got to fill in some more water to make sure it's okay. It's not easy!
right finally all the locks are set so now we can go through them
So if you still don't understand how these things work this is the top lock
going down there
and the water level is just about equalizing now with the next one so I
can open these
this is the middle lock
it's just about full
and now we're in
the last lock and that's it, we just go out then
is that - have I explained it well?
I haven't have I?!
it's too hot!
You can't expect it to be educational when it's this hot
And when it is that hot you just want to reach for a nice ice-cold beer and in
this case a summer ale from my favorite brewery - Deya - based in Cheltenham in
Gloucestershire
my brother, my mum and my dad - they passed by and because it was my
birthday they got me a selection of beers, and this is the seasonal one that I
really really really liked
could this be beer the year 2018?
I'm not quite sure but it was exactly what I needed, unfiltered, unpasteurized
and the mouthfeel... oh I don't know what I'm talking about - it was just really really nice!
Another staircase lock - this one just a double - but I've gone and got stuck again!
and wasn't my fault this time alright?!! But yeah we're stuck
So this is fun
we're now going to flush the boat out
so here goes
yes!!
Woo!!
Oh sh*t!!
All right that worked!! I'd better stop the water now!
That's worked too well....
Actually no that's perfect!
I've had a quick change of mind - I'm not gonna carry on to Shireoaks marina
I'm going to do that tomorrow as my morning commute
because right now I think I've got plenty
to do - I've got to get some video editing done
I've got to clean up the boat inside and
and outside
I've got to clear off all this sh*t
that's on top of the roof
that's from a lime tree that's just shed all its seed/flower on top of my roof
and made it really really sticky - nice!
Ok that's it from the Chesterfield canal
for this episode but there's lots more to come so stay tuned and I'll see you
next time - bye!!