The Australian Connection on the Nene

Sun 11th Sep to Today – Moored Denford, River Nene

I’m Back!

Lunch on Sunday at The Cock Inn here in Denford was absolutely mouth watering, even better than the last time we ventured into that pub back in April I think it was.  I am almost tempted to stay here till Monday just to go again!

The trip ‘dan saff’ was quite arduous, and I was totally whacked by the time I got back home here.  I had to wait for an hour for a bus for the last part of the journey from Kettering to Denford, and I missed it because I was standing at the wrong bus stop, so had to wait another hour!!

Andrew Denny gave my name to a young lady in Australia who was given a project..

My name is Katie and I am 7 years old and I live in Australia.  Your friend Andrew Denny said that you may be able to help me with my school project.  I would like to do my project about english narrowboats.  I have to answer some questions and then make a model.  Please would you tell me about living on your narrowboat?  would you please answer my questions?

I was delighted to answer Katie's questions, in fact some of the questions I had to really think about.. they were good questions.  So here they are then with my answers!

Q1. How has the environment (climate, land type, amount of water etc) affected the type of house the people live in?
Because the climate in England is fairly good, we are able to live on our narrowboat all year round.  We have an authority called British Waterways who we pay a fee to each year to look after the waterways and the environment around them.

Q2. What is the house built of?
The narrowboat is built of steel on the outside, and on the inside it has wooden panels and floor.  Between the wooden panels on the inside and the steel outside there is a gap where foam is poured to help insulate the narrowboat and keep us warmer. 

Q3. what sort of people live in the house? (eg farmers, nomadic herdsmen etc)
In our narrowboat my husband Vic and I have retired, so the answer for us is retired.  But all sorts of people live on narrowboats.  Some are students, some are workers who work on British Waterways, or work for boatyards.

Q4. give two good points about living in that syle of house
1. To be able to relax in my retirement by travelling around the countryside at 3 miles an hour
2. To meet lots of new friends who also live on their narrowboats

Q5. Give two bad points about living in that style of house
1. We have to go to special places to fill up our tank of water which takes about 250 gallons when full.  It means we have to move even if we don't want to.
2. Sometimes ice on the waterways mean that we cannot move.

Andrew did a wonderful blog on Granny Buttons here, and provided Katie with loads and loads of information.  I decided to keep it brief because she had to take in such a lot of information from Andrew… any more than straight answers from me, and I think poor Katie would have been overloaded for her project… mind you it is interesting to compare the answers given to Katie from Andrew and myself!

I think Katie wanted a bit of action.. in the next email she was disappointed that I didn’t fall in!!

Do you ever fall in the canal?  I think that would be a bad point.  In the story I read about narrowboats the children had to learn to swim and the babies were tied to the roof with rope so that they didn't fall in the water.

My reply..

I have not fallen in the canal for over 25 years Katie, but I very nearly did last winter, I just hung on, but only just!  If it had been the summer, maybe I wouldn't have tried so hard and would have let myself fall in the canal to cool off.  This time of year in England it is very hot!

And Katie’s model?  Well hey how about this then… Katie had help from her baby sister on this one.  For 7 years old, this young lass sure is a star!