Ice Cold in. . .Hereford

I didn't intend to post over the holiday period but after a night when the temperature in Hereford fell to -16C and was still -10C at 11.00hrs a walk into Hereford this morning found the River Wye frozen over in the city centre!

Looking east from Wye Bridge in Hereford

Ice collecting around the bridge piers

Looking west under Greyfriars Bridge (the A49)

The "Wye Princess" is going nowhere for a while

The heavy frost was widespread around Herefordshire: Here is the River Lugg at Mordiford Bridge, just before it flows into the Wye.

Roll on summer!

Live and Let Live

Even if the roads to Norbury Junction are passable in the snow, the ice on the Shropshire Union is too thick to even think about taking Starcross out. So, instead, on Sunday Hilary and I went out for the day with the Hereford Mountain Club  That's not as adventurous as it sounds. The Club also organises a lot of low level walks such as last weekend's from the small, country town of Bromyard up onto Bromyard Downs and over to Bringsty Common.
It was a glorious sunny day with snow lying on the ground - but not falling from the sky. It was, however, cold: -9.5C when we left home and not getting above -4C all day. It was the Club's annual "Breakfast walk", which means  meeting in the Falcon Hotel at Bromyard for a full English breakfast before a seven mile walk.

Looking back at Bromyard from the top of the downs

 Or at least it should have been a seven mile walk, but two of those miles were through the grounds of the National Trust property at Brockhampton. A sign at the entrance said "closed due to weather", but we were on foot and just passing through so, obviously, it didn't apply to us! Oh yes it did: Half way along the route we were stopped by a jobsworth NT person and told it was "too dangerous" for us to walk along their road. Despite the fact that we were nearer our destination than we were to the entrance he could not allow us to continue!
Fortunately we were able to divert onto a Public Footpath outside his control and so reach the "Live and Let Live" at Bringsty Common. Originally a cider house, this isolated pub, reachable only by unsurfaced tracks across the common, was saved from closure and sale as a private house by a lengthy campaign by local people led by CAMRA. After a pint or two of delicious Ludlow Brewery "Black Christmas" ale or a glass of mulled wine according to choice we returned to Bromyard after a thoroughly enjoyable walk.

Thick as a Brick in Brum

It's not just the rural waterways that are affected by the icy weather. Although the BCN in the centre of Birmingham was ice-free last Friday, not very far away - on the Birmingham & Fazeley between the bottom of Farmers Bridge locks and the top of the Aston flight the canal was completely frozen.

The ice was not only thick enough to support a traffic cone, but also several half-bricks as well as all the other assorted rubbish that the local citizenry continue to throw into the canal even in this weather. It didn't look as if there had been a boat along here for weeks and the way things are going it may be a few more weeks before anything comes this way!

Cold Enough to Stop the Clocks?

Starcross on her mooring at Norbury Jc on Friday

Live-aboard boaters have been suffering this past couple of weeks, not least those who are also "continuous cruisers" (i.e. have no fixed mooring) whose degree of discomfort has to a large extent depended on where they happened to be when the cold weather began and the canals iced over. Sue and Vic's experiences on No Problem are, perhaps, typical.
But spare a thought for those of us who don't live on our boats. At least those who live aboard are immediately aware of any problems and can take steps to rectify them. Even better, their very presence prevents many problems from arising in the first place. 
It's only natural to worry about a boat; after all, what else would you spend your life savings on and then leave lying around in an over-sized ditch in the middle of nowhere seventy miles away from home? 
I had taken some precautions: the water tank had been drained and as much of the piping as I can reach had been lagged. The new water heater had also been drained (we lost the old one two winter's ago due to frost damage) and Norbury Wharf had just completed an engine service that had included a change of antifreeze but it had been so cold (down to
 -17C) at Norbury for so long that I was beginning to have my doubts. Last year we'd also had trouble with melting snow from the roof finding its way through the mushroom vents or the pigeon box and onto the bed. So it was with a great sense of trepidation that I headed to Norbury last Friday. I needn't have worried: the engine started first time and ran sweetly for a couple of hours to put some life back in the batteries. There was no obvious sign of damage to the water system (although we won't know for sure until we re-fill it in the Spring), no sign of melting snow inside and the only thing untoward was the clock - which appeared to have suddenly become four-and-half hours slow!

The saloon clock at 12.55hrs, precisely!

I thought at first that it had just stopped, which was odd as the battery is new, but I soon realised that it was not only still going, but keeping perfect time. I can only conclude that at some stage over the last week or two it became cold enough aboard to actually stop the clocks!

Actually, the worst of it was over by Friday and it was a balmy 2C at Norbury. There was still plenty of ice in the cut though and not many moving boats.

Starcross is the fifth boat along on the off-side 

The ice has been broken but has frozen again at Norbury Wharf

Like many other boaters my plans for a bit of pre-Christmas boating have had to be abandoned, but I'm relieved to know that I'll still have a serviceable boat once the warmer weather returns.

Curious weather

It's a good job I didn't want to go cycling this morning as this was the state of my poor old bike left outside last night.

It's not snow, but a peculiar form of "soft" frost that has been forming in Hereford for the last two days not just overnight, but during the daytime as well.
The white particles seem to materialise out of thin air (and the air is very thin) and can appear to be falling as light snow, although the skies are clear and the sun is shining!
Whatever it is it's very pretty as you can see from some of this morning's scenes around Starcross Towers

A hardy cyclist on College Road

Frost, not snow, on College Road

Aylestone Tunnel on the Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal passes under this road at the bend.

The Worst Journey in the Midlands

Well, I've no doubt there are quite a few contenders for this title at the moment - but this is actually a book review.

As the title suggests, this is a tongue in cheek account of how in the autumn of 1982, Sam Llewellyn set out to travel from mid-Wales to London by water in an eight-and-a-half foot rowing boat, camping out along the way, for no good reason other than it was something he wanted to do! He made three mistakes:
- Choosing to make the journey during what turned out to be the wettest October then on record,
- Having a boat that leaked, and
- Planning a route down the River Severn to Tewkesbury, up the Avon to Warwick and then along the Grand Union and Oxford Canals to London!
Fortunately, the one major flaw in this route was pointed out to him before he got to Worcester and so he was able to divert via the Midland canal system, thus avoiding what would have been a rather difficult right turn at Warwick given the lack of a connection between the Avon and the canal and with a thirty-foot difference in levels. This also made the book much more interesting for canal enthusiasts with accounts of coping with Tardebigge locks and the various tunnels on the Worcester and Birmingham, these being some of many places on the journey when Sam feared he might end up "horribly mangled".
In typical travel-book style the author encounters a succession of interesting characters along the way (Now why don't I do that when I go anywhere?) but readers from the Midlands need to be warned that his opinion of the residents of that part of England are not exactly favourable. ("How very Midlands")
My paperback edition was published in 1984 by Pan Books, so I've no idea whether it is still available, but you know where to look!

Where Are They Stuck?

The cold snap and resultant ice and snow have led to a few problems for those intrepid bloggers that are out and about:
Poppy is stuck at Coven Heath on the Staffs & Worcester
No Problem is sitting it out at Market Drayton
Debdale has had to be abandoned at Tixall Wide
Chertsey is stuck nearby at Great Haywood
Sanity Again is there as well
Bendigedig is going nowhere from Ellesmere
Ubique's at Ellesmere too
Caxton's found a good spot - the middle of Birmingham!
Seyalla is iced in at Penkridge
Derwent6 is well and truly stuck - although I'm not sure where!
Tranquility has been left at Barbridge Junction - after a less than tranquil trip by the sound of it!
Moore2Life is at Gailey Top


So, bloggers and no doubt many other boats stuck all over the Midlands. If I was on Starcross I'd be well and truly stuck at Norbury Junction too as Norbury Wharf has reported three inches of ice and heavy snow (and there's not even any internet connection from my mooring).


And its only just December!