Richard Fairhurst

You can certainly walk from Thrupp - it'll be about an hour's walk. It might actually be more pleasant to moor at Shipton-on-Cherwell and walk across the fields from there, rather than mixing it with the traffic. Alternatively, you could moor at Kidlington just beyond the railway bridge, then walk a mile along Begbroke Lane (a very pleasant footpath) to catch an S3 bus. Or, of course, just catch the S3 from Oxford! Be wary of any online bus timetables you find: Oxfordshire's rural buses are all losing their subsidy in July and many of them will cease running at that point. The S3 isn't subsidised so should continue as is.

Renaming one of the (new) locks on the Junction would be a suitable tribute, perhaps? Very sad to hear the news. Max was such a kind person and had a light-hearted sparkle to him.

I'll autograph anything for a pint. Even if I had nothing to do with it in the first place.

(WW, May 2004.)

The free one comes with the Waterways World Annual - should be available from most newsagents for £6.99, or direct from http://www.waterwaysworld.com/bookshop.html. But I'm biased because I drew it!

CRT quotes 5,600 CC licences and 32,000 boats in a few places, so I'm guessing they came from CRT. Certainly in my email to the BBC this morning asking for a correction I did advise them to ask CRT.

The BBC have now changed "like most of the 32,000 canal boats" to "like 5,000 of the 32,000 canal boats".

Superb idea.

Definitely not the Cherwell - that's over on the other side of Oxfordshire and feeds the Oxford Canal!

As I think we discussed in a thread about the Trent a month or two back, CRT did have a system on the Severn a few years back where they'd let you go but only once you'd signed an indemnity waiver - their shorthand was that the river was "in indemnity". What confuses me is the red light by the Diglis canal locks, on the side of the old lock cottages. This used to mean "river closed", but certainly now is sometimes lit when the river is open. Is it automatically triggered by a level, set by the river lock-keeper, or...?

I think there's an additional "where to turn" sign on the swing-bridge as you leave the canal, but not 100% sure. Pic certainly looks like a Diamond Resorts (ABC-administered) boat.

I'll try to remember to take a pic next time I'm at the boat (we moor in Diglis Basin). As well as the poles, and the pontoon, there is of course a ramp leading between the towpath and the pontoon. "Ramp has floated off downstream" really would be an indicator to me to leave the river well alone.

There are two pontoons. Both are floating pontoons so shouldn't in theory be submerged. If the lock landing were submerged I'd personally take that as a pretty clear sign not to go out onto the river (though YMMV). The small one immediately south (downstream) of the entrance to the canal locks is a lock landing only, and not available for visitor mooring. It's still there, or at least it was when I used it last week! The long one closer to the weir is a genuine bona fide visitor mooring. If the hire-boater was trying to pick up his wife then he should have done it on the lock landing rather than trying to nose into the visitor mooring. It doesn't excuse angry gesticulation from the wooden boat-owner, but pointing your bows into a 6ft space, facing downstream, while the river is up doesn't sound the safest of strategies to me. Yes, there is (new last year, I think).

Presumably the pontoon in question was the visitor moorings rather than the lock landing?

This guide by the IWA is good: http://www.gloucesterharbourtrustees.org.uk/pdf/Boaters_Guide_(1).pdf Of the listed moorings, though, I think you can effectively discount the Coalhouse and the White Horse, and Ashleworth has been underwater the past few times we've seen it, which leaves just Upper Lode, Lower Lode, the Yew Tree and Haw Bridge. Obviously, keep an eye on the river levels and talk to the lock-keepers. Lifejackets are certainly worth wearing on this section, and make sure you're confident in your engine and your fuel.

And on Twitter just now: "10/04 HWFireWorcs, @HWFireDroitwich & @HWFireMalvern attended a boat stranded at weir, Diglis lock, Worcs, 1 elderly man rescued by Crews"

I'm not sure that's an announcement of money, is it? "A plan has now been agreed for the work, which is set to cost £30 million" doesn't necessarily mean they've got the £30m... sadly!

It was reopened in the 1990s, together with a bunch of stations in the Soar Valley, to form part of the new 'Ivanhoe Line' from Loughborough to Leicester, Coalville, Ashby, Burton and Derby. The Ivanhoe stickers were still there at the station last time I went through. Unfortunately, they never got round to reopening the middle bit (Leicester to Burton) and so it's rather marooned out on a limb, and at the mercy of CrossCountry, who are a bit ambivalent about stopping trains.

We came up-river on Tuesday and Wednesday, from Gloucester to Diglis, overnighting at Lower Lode. It was very slow going. We actually made good progress up the narrow east channel out of Gloucester - 2 to 2.5mph over land, which is better than we've done in the past - but counterintuitively, slowed right down as soon as we got to the parting by Maisemore. Upper Lode wasn't too far off making a level, with the weir visible more as a modest burbling than a raging waterfall. From Upton to Worcester was the slowest of all: we were down to 1.3mph by the bypass bridge with the engine at near to full power, and similarly by the confluence with the Teme. The Gloucester lockie advised us when to leave to avoid the tide itself, but you're right, it has been holding up a lot of fresh. What amused me most on Wednesday was that, for the first time ever in a day's boating, we saw more commercial craft on the move on Wednesday than pleasure craft: two Thompsons gravel barges (Elver and Perch), the Pride of the Midlands and Earl passenger boats, and a CRT launch, vs just one Anglo-Welsh pleasure boat heading downstream. While you're in Gloucester, the new Tank brewery tap by Llanthony Bridge is very good, and we always enjoy Café René (a pub, not a cafe) on Southgate.

"Quiet" and "small town" don't have to go together. We find Diglis Basin (where we are now) to be very pleasantly quiet, even though it's in a city - pretty much the only city noise we hear is the chimes of the cathedral.

Around 2004/2005 there were discussions about BW taking over the Bridgewater Canal, probably on a management agreement rather than actually acquiring the freehold. I don't remember the exact reason they foundered but I think it had something to do with the Coal Authority clean-up costs at Worsley. One wonders whether CRT might be interested in rekindling the idea...

We really like the Green Man at Swindon - an "honest boozer", very welcoming, simple but good food.

The hoohah about cuts has mostly focused on Oxfordshire County Council, not the city.

Indeed - if you're just posting to a canal forum, you're not really "advocating" to any effect at all, because this isn't where the decisions are made. If you want mooring rings to be put in on a towpath resurfacing project - and that's not a bad thing - then you need to be "advocating" somewhere where people actually listen. You could join a national user group and provide input to CRT's national policies that way. You could look for planning applications when they come up on your local council website, and make representations there. Or you could form a local group that advocates for boaters' facilities in your local area. Up to you. Complaining about CRT here may be therapeutic, but it doesn't actually change anything.

Yep. It's as much about familiarity with the location as anything else. Turning from a wide river, proceeding downstream, into a canal entrance isn't something that spooks me in principle - we moor at Diglis, after all. Needless to say, I ignore CRT's warning sign that tells people to continue down to the river lock, turn there, then approach from downstream. I'm familiar enough with the Severn, and with that turn, to turn in the main channel and come alongside to the pontoon in one manoeuvre. But the Erewash entrance I wasn't familiar with, and certainly wasn't expecting the strong wind to push us quite so close to the wall. No-one's fault but my own, of course; but given that we do have a short boat, and it's not a location I visit regularly, I'd choose to err on the side of caution next time if the wind's up. (Mind you, I'm not anticipating going up the Erewash again until either the Cromford or Derby is restored, so it's probably a bit academic...!)