Huddlesford Heritage Gathering

Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd September, 2013 at Huddlesford Junction.
On Saturday, we awoke to a grey, cloudy morning which later gave way to a warm, sunny afternoon.
After breakfast, we walked down the towpath and across the junction bridge to the "showground". Entry was a modest £3 which covers us for the weekend. The gathering is organised by the Lichfield and Hatherton Canal Restoration Trust and all proceeds go towards restoring the canal, one end of which is at this junction. The Lichfield Canal originally joined the Coventry Canal to the Birmingham Navigations, but it was closed in 1954. Good progress has been made on the restoration but completion is still a long way off.
It was cheering to see a large turnout, certainly the sunshine helped to swell the numbers.

Soon after arriving, we spotted Terry Robertson, with whom we did our Helmsman's Course five years ago. How lovely to see him again after all this time! He hadn't changed, and now that R has grown a beard, there is a definite similarity in a rather nautical way! Two "Sea Dogs" together!

Terry smiled when we teased him about being to blame for setting us off on this narrowboating life. For the first time, we met Pat, his good lady; it was so nice to meet her at last. Pat has been involved with organising the moorings for this event, much as she was involved in organising the moorings for the Olympics last year. Her own boat nb "Quercus" was one of the forty selected to take part in the Queen's Jubilee Flotilla, also last year.
We had a super time looking round the stalls.  Naturally, we bought a supply of home-made cakes! There were real gypsy caravans, there was a hilarious puppet show and a dog "gymkhana" (much barking and running over an obstacle course), as well as a fascinating collection of birds of prey from the smallest:

To the largest:

On one side of the showground there was a large and impressive collection of classic cars, from Model Ts to a huge bright red Lincoln Continental and a wonderful "Woodie".

Without question, our favourite was a beautifully restored Alvis.  How Barry would have loved it.

As this year is the 25th anniversary of the Canal Restoration Trust, there was a cake cutting ceremony with the "Bower Queen" and the Sheriff of Lichfield.

Talking to him later, he told us that one of his duties as Sheriff is to ride the bounds of his territory each year on horseback with eighty followers, also on horseback. He did reveal that he removes his 18 carat gold chain of office and puts it into his pocket when riding, in case it should fall off!
We even had a go at bell-ringing in the mobile carillon! Not as easy as it looks!

It was a joy to see so many colourful working narrowboats and so many people in traditional narrowboating dress. Even the drivers of passing Virgin Express trains entered into the spirit of the occasion with a blast on their horns as they went past. The main line of the canal was very congested with so many old boats!

On Saturday evening, back on MM, we watched a recording of the "Last Night of the Proms" from earlier this month. If you haven't seen Nigel Kennedy playing Monti's Csárdás, it is ten minutes of sheer delight, humour and fun. NK at The Last Night of the Proms. Marin Alsop, as the first ever woman to conduct the Last Night, did a brilliant job and it was a delight to see how much fun she, the orchestra, Nigel and the audience, were all having.  By contrast, the entertainment at the show was slightly less highbrow, but fun nonetheless, including a very large ukulele band and the Bojangles dance school.

We managed to get away without buying too much, although we did weaken at the cheese boat selling delicious Welsh cheeses. We bought some smoked cheese, cheese with ginger and one with leek and white wine. We opened the first two for lunch on Sunday and they were delicious!

On Sunday afternoon, we decided to move on to get ahead of the "rush" (if indeed, it is possible to rush at 3mph!). With difficulty, we threaded our way through the moored boats without touching any of them (just)!

Just north of Whittington Bridge, the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal officially becomes the Coventry Canal and the seamless "join" is defined by a small stone marker.

It was a lovely cruise in the afternoon sun.  We moored up just south of the pretty village of Hopwas and were treated to a magnificent sunset as we had dinner.

The sunset was followed by a bright, and very rosy, moonrise in a starry sky. A lovely end to a very enjoyable weekend.
Today: 5 miles, 0 Locks and 10.5 hours over the weekend.
Trip: 415 miles, 314 Locks and 350.6 hours.