Many years ago my dad hired a barge from Foxton, it was a converted 40ft coal barge we were told, the engine was a Morris car engine converted to diesel. I don't remember how much it cost him for the week.
They said be careful that you don't hit another boat because this has a thick steal hull and will rip through the hull of some of the newer boats, they also said its not a flat bottom like the newer boats, so be careful of shallow water.
None of us had ever been on a barge or steered one, so they gave us a quick crash course on how to use it and get through the locks, has some of you may know there are a lot of locks at foxton! my dad didn't have a clue, so I took over, I was about 16.
So off we went, heading south down the grand union, all was going well, and was nice and warm, mum was in the galley making tea and sandwiches.
A bit later in the day dad was driving and he let out a big shout! LES HELP!! I went running up to him, whats up I said, he said there is another boat coming through the bridge and I don't know how to slow down. I took over put the boat into reverse and managed to steer to one side to avoid collision, I must admit it was quite scary!
So a couple of days traveling all was going well, we got to near Daventry I think it was, that's when the heavens Opened! it poured it down none stop, but we kept going, that night we pulled over and moored the boat, had dinner and all went bed, mum and dad woke laying in a pool of water, the roof of the boat was leaking really bad, we managed to clean most the water up, but it was still leaking and filling their bed with water!
Next day we got as far has Watford, mum and dad had no sleep at all
we all decided to head back, because it was still raining, we had enough of getting wet.
So I managed to turn the boat around, which wasn't easy, I had to reverse the boat quite a way to find a place wide enough to turn around.
So off we sets back to foxton, still raining heavy, and getting very wet! I was steering the boat still so I was getting the wettest
We seem to get back a lot faster than we got to Watford, after a couple of days we arrived at the top of the locks, me steering the boat, my dad went ashore to operate the locks going down, we managed to get about half way down and had to pull over into a pond to let another boat pass, that's when the trouble started (as if we hadn't had enough) it was still raining very heavy that day, but when I pulled into the pond our boat grounded and wouldn't move at, all right in the middle!
Someone said, one of the locks needs to be filled so it would raise the water level where we were stuck, which was done, it took a couple of times to do before we could move.
Next thing we knew there was a big commotion coming from further down the locks near the shop, apparently filling the pond had caused the water to overflow and run down the path and into the shop! someone came up from the shop and manged to stop the flow luckily.
What else could go wrong?
Now we had to get home, our uncle had dropped us off at foxton, (we didn't have a car at the time) so he wasn't expecting us back for a couple more days, we tried calling him but no answer (no mobile phones then) Dad decided for us to walk to the A6, and maybe get a bus, it didn't seem that far, so off we trots, it seemed to take forever! We got there in the end, just has we started to walk towards Leicester someone pulled up, must have seen how we were all struggling and wet, and asked if we would like a lift, we readily accepted her offer..
She kindly took us all home right to our front door, dad offered her money towards petrol, but she refused, said she was glad to help.
You can imagine we never wanted to go on a narrow boat again!
This is the only picture I have from that time, showing my Sister not looking very happy, can you blame her
And this is the type of boat we were on.
