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In 1977 we hired our first narrowboat from Anglo Welsh at Market Harborough.From that moment our destiny was set. In 2006 we finally purchased our own brand new 57' narrowboat which we named 'Free Spirit'. Our aim is to travel the length and breadth of all the navigable rivers and canals of the UK. This will be our story as it unfolds.

Tuesday 1 October 2013

Gulp!!!! Blisworth tunnel again

 Today I noticed that 666 visitors viewed my blog in the last week. 666 is also, in biblical terms, an evil number. This didn't bode well for the trip through Blisworth tunnel today! It freaks me out without having the devils number at the back of my mind! With much trepidation we left Blisworth moorings by 9am and I particularly wanted to see the side shaft and possibly photograph it. 2 boats had already passed by earlier on route for the tunnel and with no more in sight we set off with the idea of stopping at the shaft and having a good look. Just before the entrance to the tunnel is a small brick building, possibly an old stable block, and by the building was a few decent sized logs. There was no way this amount of boaters gold ( Sue from No Problem calls the logs this ) could be ignored so a quick reverse out of the tunnel entrance and we pulled onto the landing. Having gathered the wood we got into conversation with a newbie boat owner on NB Wibs residing in Blisworth Marina. He introduced himself as Dave and was in charge of two fabulous Springer spaniels. (or maybe the Spaniels were in charge of him!) Anyway after having a long and very pleasant conversation with Dave we  were just about to leave when a boat appeared from behind us. Letting them go through first we were once again ready to set off when another two boats appeared. Finally we pulled into the tunnel entrance and  made our way to where we thought the shaft would be. Then blow me down yet another boat entered the tunnel behind us. This meant that the plan to stop and have a good look at the shaft went out of the window. Not only that but a boat was coming toward us and we met just before the shaft. So although we were going as slow as we dared this is the only photos I managed to get. We could definitely see that there was a shaft leading to another opening at the end as the end was bathed in light. But this was not what I saw when I entered the tunnel on my own. Then I saw a single light looking more like a candle flame which appeared to disappear into the wall. So I'm even more determined to get a proper photo on our way back through the tunnel again after the weekend and see if there was something in the shaft that may have caused the phenomena.



Mural of the canal painted on all the walls in the small brick building ( could have been the old stable )



Lovely boaters gold

And finally:-








2 comments:

Unknown said...

I read a book, I think Sonia Rolt, but one of the old ones talking about her days as a boat woman in the war. Anyway she was coming through Blisworth tunnel with a butty and she saw a boat coming hell for leather towards her, with a woman steering (it HAD to be a woman driver eh?) and she said to avoid crashing the boats she had to steer over to the right and hit the wall in doing so. The boat passed with the steerer not acknowledging her.Her colleagues steering the butty called out to her: What did you do that for, so she replied I had to miss that boat, it was coming right at us and they asked: what boat? as they hadn't seen it at all!! Now THAT is spooky. One day (when I get my boat) I will probably have to go through there and as I will be single handed I don't know if I will wait for another boat to accompany me!! LOL

Unknown said...

The building you mention is the hut that the Leggers used to use waiting for their trips to leg the boats through the tunnel whilst the horses were taken over the hill to the other end of the tunnel.

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