River Nene - Northampton to White Mills

[SnippetySnip]

Just a short report on a short trip that I made from Northampton to White Mills and back. The Northampton Arm is shut due to low water levels, so we decided to head East down the lovely River Nene instead. I went with an old mate, the last time we went boating together was on a canvas covered camping barge rented from Union Canal Carriers in Braunston some time in the mid-1990s!

 

Water levels on the river were good (I'm not really a local so I can't say if they are normal or not) but there was a good flow in most places, with water in the weirs and weiring over some of the locks. We encountered one or two areas of shoals or gravel banks I suppose. She's a deep drafted boat so these things are probably not a problem for most, but with a bit of careful navigation we got through. As I said, in most places there was lots of lovely (mostly clear) water. We experienced some weed, but it wasn't anything terrible, the one major trip down the weed hatch was to retrieve an item of black lacy ladies clothing that we picked up in the lock near a caravan park. We were lucky with the weather, managing to dodge the showers and even seeing the sun for a fair bit of the time.

 

Mooring at White Mills was easy and the marina was super friendly and helpful. All in all recommended.

 

It's a lovely stretch of River and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it as soon as I can. If you're thinking about venturing onto the Nene, I can say that this bit of it is very nice indeed. I guess that the stoppage on the Arm meant that it was quieter than usual, but it was really very quiet and I hope more people make use of this lovely waterway.

 

As a post-script: I took a bike ride up the Arm and there seemed to be a lot of water in all the pounds including the Rothersthorpe flight, flowing strongly in the bywashes in many places, I guess that may be a temporary thing due to recent rain, or maybe CRT are just keeping it topped up to protect the lock gates.

[matty40s]

The level on the GU Weedon pound is as high as it has been for 2 months, only about 2" down on normal now. With zero loss through Stoke Bruerne and a little bit of rain, it is holding well. This will be filling the Northampton Arm though the sluices and by washes.

Our dry dock( filled) was actually 3" above canal yesterday!

[Jon57]

14 minutes ago, matty40s said:

The level on the GU Weedon pound is as high as it has been for 2 months, only about 2" down on normal now. With zero loss through Stoke Bruerne and a little bit of rain, it is holding well. This will be filling the Northampton Arm though the sluices and by washes.

Our dry dock( filled) was actually 3" above canal yesterday!

Any news on the grapevine of the Buckby flight possibly opening in the near future. 

[matty40s]

16 minutes ago, Jon57 said:

Any news on the grapevine of the Buckby flight possibly opening in the near future. 

Nothing at all, the local reservoirs are empty as they can be. We are only holding water due to the Stoke Bruerne top gates being replaced last Winter and the Northampton top gates being ashed.

[Jon57]

5 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Nothing at all, the local reservoirs are empty as they can be. We are only holding water due to the Stoke Bruerne top gates being replaced last Winter and the Northampton top gates being ashed.

Looking like we will be staying for the Christmas party then. 😲

[SnippetySnip]

10 hours ago, matty40s said:

The level on the GU Weedon pound is as high as it has been for 2 months, only about 2" down on normal now. With zero loss through Stoke Bruerne and a little bit of rain, it is holding well. This will be filling the Northampton Arm though the sluices and by washes.

Our dry dock( filled) was actually 3" above canal yesterday!

That's good to hear, fingers crossed the reservoirs don't take too long to refill. Do you know anything about this water seepage testing that is listed in the winter works programme?

 

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notices/0196ac84-9a87-7bf9-abb5-8f0bf1eff281

 

10 hours ago, matty40s said:

Nothing at all, the local reservoirs are empty as they can be. We are only holding water due to the Stoke Bruerne top gates being replaced last Winter and the Northampton top gates being ashed.

I was surprised how much water was in the flight, those short pounds are very often low/empty, but maybe that goes to show that it's boating or boaters that causes that.

[MoominPapa]

The Braunston pound is full too. Arrived at  the boat yesterday expecting to be sitting on the mud, and pleasantly surprised to be floating.

 

MP.

[alias]

9 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

The Braunston pound is full too. Arrived at  the boat yesterday expecting to be sitting on the mud, and pleasantly surprised to be floating.

 

MP.

 

The Calcutt back pumping being fixed two weeks ago has probably helped a lot with that.

[IanM]

47 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

The Braunston pound is full too. Arrived at  the boat yesterday expecting to be sitting on the mud, and pleasantly surprised to be floating.

 

MP.

 

That fits with my theory that the "lockdown" stoppages are to give the pounds and reservoirs a bit of time to recover to normal levels for a few weeks.

[Scholar Gypsy]

19 hours ago, SnippetySnip said:

Just a short report on a short trip that I made from Northampton to White Mills and back. The Northampton Arm is shut due to low water levels, so we decided to head East down the lovely River Nene instead. I went with an old mate, the last time we went boating together was on a canvas covered camping barge rented from Union Canal Carriers in Braunston some time in the mid-1990s!

 

Water levels on the river were good (I'm not really a local so I can't say if they are normal or not) but there was a good flow in most places, with water in the weirs and weiring over some of the locks. We encountered one or two areas of shoals or gravel banks I suppose. She's a deep drafted boat so these things are probably not a problem for most, but with a bit of careful navigation we got through. As I said, in most places there was lots of lovely (mostly clear) water. We experienced some weed, but it wasn't anything terrible, the one major trip down the weed hatch was to retrieve an item of black lacy ladies clothing that we picked up in the lock near a caravan park. We were lucky with the weather, managing to dodge the showers and even seeing the sun for a fair bit of the time.

 

Mooring at White Mills was easy and the marina was super friendly and helpful. All in all recommended.

 

It's a lovely stretch of River and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it as soon as I can. If you're thinking about venturing onto the Nene, I can say that this bit of it is very nice indeed. I guess that the stoppage on the Arm meant that it was quieter than usual, but it was really very quiet and I hope more people make use of this lovely waterway.

 

As a post-script: I took a bike ride up the Arm and there seemed to be a lot of water in all the pounds including the Rothersthorpe flight, flowing strongly in the bywashes in many places, I guess that may be a temporary thing due to recent rain, or maybe CRT are just keeping it topped up to protect the lock gates.

 

Nice to see this. I have to say that the river gets even better further downstream, pretty much all the way to Peterborough. Good moorings for shopping in Wellingborough, though I try to avoid stopping overnight due to a very noisy flour mill (which used to be served by narrowboats).