Disappointed at the Pyewipe and Mugged In Lincoln!

Pyewipe Inn

Nicholson's Guide describes the Pyewipe Inn as "isolated", whilst photographs on the pub's own website appear to confirm this whilst raving about the "breathtaking" views of the castle and cathedral in nearby Lincoln as well as the "moorings for 20 boats that are free to customers".
Well, whatever sense of isolation the Pyewipe once had disappeared when the A46 Lincoln bypass was built a hundred metres away and although it is true that you can (just) see the tops of the castle and cathedral poking up above the trees in the distance the dominant feature of the skyline is a block of flats somewhere in the north of the city. The sense of isolation is not enhanced either by the huge car park, restaurant and 22-bed "lodge" that are attached to the original inn.
And the moorings. . .? Well, maybe you could get twenty boats on them, but only if none of them were more than ten feet long. They are "free to customers" though - as so they should be, being official BW Visitor Moorings!
Nevertheless, as it had been raining (again!) all the way from Saxilby I pulled up there for lunch (on the boat that is) and afterwards took a walk into Lincoln to check the mooring possibilities there.  Whilst at the Brayford Pool I was approached by a chugger ("charity mugger"). My personal radar usually alerts me to such people and enables me to avoid them, but this one was wearing a blue sweatshirt with the Canal and River Trust logo and had a CART ID badge round his neck. He wanted to talk about the new Trust and how it would all be so much better than the old British Waterways.  He claimed to work for the Trust, but something in his manner told me he was more likely to be employed by whichever fundraising consultancy the Trust has contracted to do the work. When I told him I'd like to talk about the apparent shortage of visitor moorings in Lincoln he "didn't want to get bogged down in details of specific places", but "would rather concentrate on the wider improvements CART was "bound" to bring to the whole network". (If only. . . )  And when I told him how much I and other boaters already contributed to the waterways by way of licences and mooring fees he seemed genuinely shocked. By now he'd "invited" me to become a "friend" of the Trust, which of course was the sole purpose of his approach in the first place and when it became obvious that I had no intention of doing so (I wouldn't rule it out, but I never buy "on the street or at the door") he lost interest in me and went off to look for his next victim.
On the way back to the Pyewipe I noticed that one of the four visitor moorings above the Brayford Pool had become vacant so taking a chance that no one else would be daft enough to be moving in the torrential rain that was now falling again I fired up the boat and moved swiftly back to Lincoln.