Thursday 28th June 2012 Ramble 7: The Fishery Inn, Boxmoor to Northchurch lock

Thursday  28^th June  2012

Ramble 7:  The Fishery PH, Boxmoor Common to Northchurch lock (no. 49), a 5 mile walk. The weather was humid and sticky. Hugh, Margaret, Peter, Sue and Glynis came along too.

We re-joined the canal and immediately saw the high level of water; the lock at Boxmoor was overflowing. This was presumably after the recent heavy rainfalls and in contrast to about 3-4 months ago when boat movement was restricted due to lack of water.

Along here the canal is close to the River Bulbourne and cuts through the marshy Box Moor Trust land as does the West Coast mainline railway and A41 trunk road. We passed a group of children led by Box Moor Trust staff and went under Robert Stephenson’s girder arch railway bridge. 

Then Winkwell Wharf and the little swing bridge (mechanised in the 1980s) alongside the pretty, 16^th century Three Horseshoes pub came into view.

As we were still climbing up over the Chilterns, we regularly passed locks, some with unusual names e.g Sewer Lock,  Top Side Lock and stopped to have our picnic at Bottom Side Lock. There were several boats moving, probably due to the nice weather and we watched some go through the locks. One couple, with ‘antipodean’ accents, told us they were off to the Olympics having secured a mooring at Mile End.

We were soon entering Berkhamsted, with busy canalside pubs and recently-built urban development where previously there were wharves, mills and timber yards. One timber yard had connections with Canada resulting in a totem pole being shipped over and erected in 1968. 

Another surprise was seeing an orang-utan in a conservatory on the opposite side of the canal. Apparently it is lit up at night.

Near here we stopped for a while to have a drink at The Crystal Palace PH (so called, because it was designed by Joseph Paxton, who also designed the ‘other’ Crystal Palace)  so making a very leisurely walk.

 We finished at Northchurch Lock No. 49 where there is an unusual square brick building which we thought housed pumping equipment to maintain high water levels in this higher section of the canal.