22/5/2022
Bunting At Ricky Fest, 2022
The more astute of you will have noticed that it has been almost a year since my last entry. Naturally, I’m going to play the covid card on this one. …’Nuff said.
Upon reviewing my last entry, from August 2021, I see that on my trip from Uxbridge to Rickmansworth I mostly lamented the construction of the HS2 debacle and the pandemic’s cancellation of the Rickmansworth Canal Festival. The bad news is that the railway construction continues to put a blight on beautiful landscape of Denham: pile drivers continue to drive us all to the point of insanity. The good news is that the Rickmansworth Canal Festival is finally back on –and happened to occur in perfect time for me to attend.
The four hour trip to Ricky merrily sped past, in spite of the drizzle, thanks to my sharing the latter four of the five locks with a lovely vintage narrowboat piloted by an excellent bloke by the name of James. When moving a narrowboat through the wider locks we have down south it’s always much easier to have a lock partner. A pair of seven foot beam boats slot in perfectly and so, as the water either rushes in or gushes out (although in many of the ill maintained locks it’s more like trickles in and seeps out) they manage much better than one alone.
The festival, which took place last weekend and from which I finally recovered at about five o’clock yesterday afternoon, was a proper boaters’ weekender featuring live performances and organic cider from MJ of the Widgeon Theatre Boat (widgeontheatreboat.com), with whom I was fortunate enough to moor a mere two boats from, and a real ale beer tent with a much needed sawdust floor. There was also a plethora of stalls selling all manner of items ranging from fantastically imaginative craft ales at The Creative Juices Brewing Company (creativejuicesbrewingcompany.com) and superb Viking inspired leather goods hand stitched by Martyn Walden (www.leathercarver.co.uk).
The usual flotilla of historical boats that attends these events were all present and accounted for and, this Jubilee year, bedecked with even more bunting than the norm. Rickmansworth’s resident historical boat, Roger, was open to visitors and definitely worth viewing, just to see the astoundingly cramped conditions in which working boaters of yore, along with their, families would live. Imagine six foot by six foot space then put in two bunk beds, a wood burning stove with a cooking plate along with the pots, pans and kettle, then visualise two adults and three children of varying ages crammed in. I wonder if people ever appreciated the hardship of the lifestyles they endured so that the rest of his could have our goods and chattels delivered across the country.
Tug Of War, Rickmansworth Festival 2022
The highlight of the festival was, as always, the tug of war competitions (pictured in the second photograph) where various boats pit their engines against each other. A raucous and entertaining event that raises as many cheers as it does churn up white water. Only topped this year, at least for me, by the two WW2 aeroplane flyovers: on Saturday a spitfire and on Sunday a Lancaster. The photograph below is of one of my visiting boater guests, Mrs B, waving at the latter. It is she and her husband, Mr B, who I hold entirely responsible for my extended hangover. Although, I still look forward to a repeat performance in 2023!
Lancaster Flyover,Rickmansworth Festival 2022
That wraps up this entry – other than to mention one last piece of boaty business, which is that it appears my very expensive leisure batteries, on which a boater depends for day-to-day living such as lights, water pumps and charging devices, are completely banjaxed. My fault entirely for neglecting them, I’m afraid.
Until then, be ye boater or landlubber, may you have a wonderful Jubilee weekend – and God save The Queen.