Fenny Stratford Canal Festival

We arrived at Fenny Stratford early  and managed to successful pick up our ordered items from Halford and Argos. It's great that courier companies and the stores have got together it's ideal for us as we don't have a delivery address. We were left with a few days to organise ourselves before the festival on Sunday, although on Friday it was pretty much heavy rain all day.

I went for a bit of an explore with Dudley and came across Caldecotte Lake which was huge and so much going on for a Thursday evening. 

Hard to believe this is Milton Keynes

Sunday arrived and we had a little trip round the Fenny Poppers Festival area which was the High Street, lots of stalls were going up and the fair was setting up. Back at the canal it was all go as well with the traders setting up for the Canal Festival and a few stalls as well. We set up our displays and people starting arriving, we weren't expecting it to be too busy as it was the first canal festival to be held there and we weren't sure if many people would venture down from the High Street. Well I'm pleased to say we were wrong and we had a very busy and successful day, in fact our second best trading day to date. We even had a visit from the Mayor and Mayoress of Milton Keynes and they are now the happy owners of two pens.

All set up ready for the crowds

The Pen Maker hard at work

The Mayor making his purchases

In the evening the organiser Rosemary and her husband Paul had very kindly laid on a BBQ in their garden for all the trades as a way of saying thank you for our support. All we had to do was bring what we wanted to drink, we had a lovely evening and for once we ate properly after a busy trading day. 

We were going to head off on Monday but were told there was an Ikea about a 10 minute walk and we wanted to get some more display frames so plans changed and we went to Ikea instead and left Fenny on Tuesday. We stopped at Campbell Park and managed to get a mooring on the park side. 

Park side mooring

One of the sculptures in the park

And another one

LJ just beyond the pond

Today we left in the lovely sunshine and did the journey through Cosgrove lock carrying on to the bottom of the Stoke Bruerne flight. It was a fairly quiet journey and would have been quieter if we hadn't seen all the Wyvern hire boats out.

17 Miles and 2 locks

TOTAL 423.5 miles and 390 locks

Blisworth Canal Festival

Wow what a busy weekend and soooo many people. The organisers did a fantastic job and as Festival HQ was in front of us we could see and hear all the hard work going on throughout the weekend.

Friday evening Peter and Heather came round, complete with cider, wine and crisps and we sat on our back deck listening to the music from Blisworth Marina opposite. We had a lovely evening catching up.

Peter and Heather emerging from Blisworth Tunnel

Saturday we were up early and headed off to the Chapel for the Boaters Breakfast, again very well organised and a fantastic fry up that would keep us going for a while. We got back to LJ and started setting up our displays, it wasn't long before the bells rang at the church indicating that the festival was open. Dudley was on meeting and greeting duty as usual until it got too hot. Again we met lots of lovely people who have been following us on Facebook and many sales were made.

We're behind the gazebo on the towpath

Busy with people stopping to look

Sunday morning started cloudy but still warm but it wasn't long before the sun made an appearance but luckily it wasn't as hot as Saturday. There seemed to be more people around and at times the pathway got very congested. More sales were made and we had our busiest day to date, leaving our displays looking quite empty by the end of the day, not that I'm complaining.

Another busy day

During the weekend there were reports that the A43 was gridlocked due to the amount of people flooding to Blisworth. This has to be one of the best festivals around and it's free to visitors. Three distinct areas choc a bloc with things to do. A festival field full of entertainment, a village full of open gardens, breakfasts in chapels and cream teas in churches and to top it of rows of decorated historic and trading narrowboats. We had a fantastic time and received a warm welcome from the organisers, villagers and festival attendees (all 58,000 of them).

On Monday we set off just after 8am just after Kit and Mike had passed by, we didn't get far as there was a wide beam coming through the tunnel from Stoke Bruerne and we had to wait, good thing though there was also a widebeam in the queue ahead of us which meant that we wouldn't be passing anything in the tunnel. So after a delay we set off and shared the Stoke Bruerne locks with Kit and Mike, we continued on to Cosgrove passing through the lock and stopping at the bottom before the aqueduct.

Horse tunnel under the canal

Moored at Cosgrove

Tuesday we continued our journey to Fenny Stratford as James had a DPD delivery to Halfords in Bletchley and I had a couple of Ebay items being delivered to Argos. We decided to moor up in our allocated spot for this weekends first ever Fenny Stratford Festival, so we would both get on with getting stocks of pens and cases made.

Over the River Great Ouse

On this aqueduct

Amazing to think we're only a few miles from Milton Keynes

21 miles and 9 locks

TOTAL 406.5 miles and 388 locks

Middlewich FAB

We were really lucky with our reserved mooring for trading at Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival, it had been divided into food and drink related sellers and then all the others, we were the third after the winding hole so out in the open for the solar panels and by the park so a nice wide pathway. Wand'ring Bark were behind us with the lovely Jam Butty, unfortunately the organisers had only allocated them enough space for the butty so their boat had to breast up to the butty and of course was a fair bit longer, so they tagged onto the end of ours and then at least they could use our back deck to get to the path.

Ready to sell

Clinton took this great photo of us, not often we get to have a photo with both of us

The footfall was huge and lots of people looking, the mornings were very slow sales wise but in the afternoons things picked up and a good amount of sales were made. The weather let us down on occasions and we had to keep the protective plastic ready to cover up the displays. 

We met lots of previous customers who came to say hello to us and introduce themselves, most of them had bought via the internet and we posted the pens to them so it was really nice to meet them in person and it was great that they were all pleased with their pens. Clinton and Sharon, nb Tacet, also came to say hello, it was lovely to meet at last.

Unfortunately we missed all the things going on around town during the day, the crowning of the new Rose Princess, (although we did see them on their boat parade), the procession through the town and the various folk dances around the town. We did get up to the main arena on Saturday for a couple of hours.

The new Rose Princess

On the Friday evening there was a boaters supper at Middlewich Boats, we passed on the food but met up with fellow traders afterwards to enjoy the music and natter. It was a busy weekend and we were very tired once it was over so on the Monday we spent the day chilling out and relaxing before heading off again.

We had music all day from the pub next to the park

Burton-upon-Trent - Alrewas - Rugeley

We were all made to feel very welcome by the people of Burton-upon-Trent at the recent floating market. There were ten boats trading at Shobnall Fields, and I think it’s fair to say we all had a successful weekend. The weather was kind to us with only a little drizzle on the Sunday. On Saturday evening we had a boaters get together around a few BBQs over on the field side of our trading area, it also happened to be our 23rd wedding anniversary. It was great to meet up with some familiar faces again and also meet a few new people and hope to see more of them in our travels.

The floating market, we're on the first on the right

Open and ready to start selling

James at work

Not everyone had arrived when I took this

Dudley seemed to really enjoy himself and was chief ‘Meeter and Greeter’. We were the end boat on the towpath side so he was kept very busy. He was even recognised when I took him out for an evening walk to Horninglow, as I was passing someone walking with their dog he asked him if my dog was Dudley, the guy had seen us up at the market the previous day.

One lady who bought a pen was so pleased with it she came back the next day with a couple of lovely souvenirs of Burton for us.

Our last trading day was Bank Holiday Monday but I think we all stayed around recovering on the Tuesday. We had sold quite a bit of our stock so James will now be busy getting prepared for the Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival which we are booked into for the middle of June. We will slowly be making our way up there, let’s hope we get some nice weather.

We left Burton-upon-Trent on Wednesday and made our way to Alrewas, our plan was to top up with water and moor a little further on near the cemetery. We went through the river section and James dropped me off at the lock landing of Alrewas lock, I got the lock ready and James set off to enter, he seemed to be having a little difficulty and when eventually entered the lock said something was round the prop and he was hardly moving. So we went up the lock, off the river, where luckily enough there was a free mooring just after the lock landing. It was my turn down the weed hatch where I retrieved some thick brightly coloured rope, along with a couple of plastic bags and a bit of weed. It was a nice spot and as we weren't desperate for water so stayed put.

On the Rover Trent

Heron fishing in the weir

On Thursday the weather was quite nice so James was busy with his lathe whilst I did a bit of Spring cleaning and went for a stroll along the river with Dudley.

Yesterday once the worst of the rain had passed we set off through Alrewas and onto Fradley where there were three volunteers helping at the locks, which was much appreciated. It was then on through Armitage where James told me we had enough pictures of the loos so I didn’t take one this time. At the old tunnel I got off with Dudley to check the way was clear to see a boat coming through in the opposite direction just sounding his horn as he came through, I can totally understand if he was on his own, but there were three people sat on the front deck. There are signs both sides which say to send a crew member to check if its clear, I wonder if anyone else actually does this.

We arrived at Rugeley where the visitor moorings looked quite busy so tagged on the end as a visit to Tesco was needed.

Moored at Rugeley

18 miles and 15 locks

Total 210 miles and 188 locks

Birmingham, Merry Hill, Tipton Catchup

Going back to Monday 23rd March we met Jess at New Street Station and headed into China Town as it happened to be lunchtime. After a lovely lunch we had a quick wander through the shops, unfortunately the markets were all closed on Monday so we bought a few supplies at the Tesco Metro in New Street. In the evening we met up with Kirsty in the Prince of Wales where we also met a couple of the resident boaters at Sherbourne Wharf, 

We headed off early on Tuesday morning as the forecast was dry in the morning with rain later, the destination was Bumble Hole/Windmill End and to get there we had to go through Netherton Tunnel again, now Jess hates tunnels even small little ones that aren't much more than a bridge so she was not too impressed with Netherton and to say she was really pleased to get out the other end is a bit of an understatement. We moored up shortly after just before the forecast rain came down.

On Wednesday we negotiated the only lock of Jess' trip this time and that was the one at Blowers Green, Jess and I worked the lock and we continued on our journey to Merry Hill. We went off for a mega trip around the shops and retail parks there and got all our supplies ready for our new arrival. Quite funny really that the supplies for Dudley were bought in Dudley.

Jess feeling a little chilly working the lock

Thursday came all too soon and it was time for Jess to head back to the South Coast. We walked the mile and a half to Cradley Heath Station where we all got the train back to Birmingham, a quick bit of lunch and back to New Street Station for Jess to get the train direct to Bournemouth, luckily the works on the landslide near Banbury had been completed the week before so she didn't have to faff around getting the replacement bus to by-pass it. James and I got the train back to Cradley Heath and then cheated and got on a bus to Merry Hill as there was a massive hill to walk up to get back to LJ.

We stayed at Merry Hill for a couple more days sitting out horrible wet windy weather before heading back to Bumble Hole for the day and then onto Tipton ready for the Friends of Tipton Cut Easter Gathering where we have just completed our first weekend of trading on The Pen Maker's Boat.

Saturday started out 'not as planned', I went to the Post Office to collect a package that James had arranged to be sent there Post Restante, when I got there I was told the package was delivered about 15 minutes before I had arrived but they had refused it as they didn't know who it was for, even though James had phoned to ask if it was OK and he had been in on Thursday to check if it had arrived. I then tried to get in touch with the Tipton Delivery Office on the phone, but no luck, we didn't want the package returned to sender as there were vital pen components inside. Instead I walked the couple of miles to the Delivery Office, knowing the package would still be out with the postman but was desperate for it not to be returned. I spoke to the most helpful guy possible in Royal Mail, unfortunately I didn't get his name, but later that afternoon we had the package delivered direct to us on the boat. I was most impressed and truly thankful.

A few of the old working boats turned up for the gathering and the music was playing at The Founatain Inn. It was fairly quite on the towpath for trading, there were only two trading boats, us and Sparks a lovely couple selling mainly plants and seeds, along with handmade bead jewellery, hats and mittens. We made a few sales and were fairly pleased with our first days trading. A photographer from the local paper turned up and James had his own photoshoot, would be great if it makes in into the paper.

All set up

The local paper took an interest

Today most of the gathered boats went off on their various ways and we thought trading would be non existant and even thought about not setting up, but the sun came out a few people were strolling past so we had nothing to lose and set up. We ended up being pleased with the result having more than doubled our unit sales from the Saturday. We even had a visit from Richard Parry, the head of CRT, who seemed geniuingly interested in what we were doing.

21 miles and 5 locks

Total 110 miles and 119 locks