Brentford

We had a rude awakening at 05:35 on Monday morning (19/07/2021) when somebody jumped onto our bow (front of boat) and stole our Raleigh Plaza folding bicycle. It was not locked so they were able to pedal away into the sunrise, unseen by us.

We set off through the Hanwell flight of locks to cover the last 3.5 miles to Brentford.

At Osterley Lock we picked up another old school friend of Steve, Peter Fordham who had cycled down to find us. We bunged his bike on the roof and took him along to Brentford. We passed several herons who seemed to be sunning themselves or drying their wings.

There were a lot of big boats and an increase in the number of buildings along the canal.

Brentford had been transformed since I was last there in the 1990’s, and it was still ongoing today. Traffic noise competed with the buzz and clatter of construction.

We made use of the C&RT Services and moored up alongside an uninhabited narrowboat at Brentford Wharf by the gauging lock, and with Pete as our local guide we went down to checkout the Thames Lock gateway to the River Thames.

We would be entering a scary new environment and were expected to wear life jackets and have our anchor ready to toss overboard in case of difficulties.

This is Thames Lock at Brentford where we were booked in to paas through at 09;45 hrs. tomorrow, Tuesday 20th July 2021.

We walked along Brentford High Street passing the Beehive pub and Goddard’s of Brentford, the furniture and removals store where I worked as a removal man for a few weeks after leaving school in 1977.

We were looking for a launderette and a pub and found both facing each other across a busy road with barely moving traffic. Lots of red double-decker buses and concrete mixer lorries. The Magpie & Crown was holding out against the developers who were building all around them. Because of this it was too noisy to sit in the beer garden and we sat out front overlooking the pavement, facing the launderette across the road.

The only traffic that seemed to make any significant headway were ambulances and police cars with blue lights flashing.

A 73 year old local painter and decorator regaled us with tales of how Brentford and Twickenham had changed since the old days, and don‘t mention Hounslow! He said he used to pay 2 pence to see bands and musicians at Eel Pie Island before the hotel burned down.

We went back the Magpie & Crown in the evening and another painter in a “Crazy Fool” Mr T. A-Team T-shirt. He said we would love it on the Thames. He had his own boat on the river, one that George Formby Bought for his wife.

LADY BERYL is a Norfolk Broads Sailing Cruiser which was built in 1950 in Wroxham. She is a unique, custom-built boat, having been designed by Graham Bunn and built by Windboats. She is one of the largest Broads cruisers ever built. Her original name was TRAUMEREI. She is of timber construction and was fitted with a Ford model 6.31 diesel engine. She was registered as a British ship with the number 167722.

The vessel was later owned by the entertainer George Formby, who renamed her after his wife. LADY BERYL cruised the Norfolk Broads in the 1950s until their deaths in 1960/61. Since then, she has had a number of owners. Her owner in 1973 was Cyril Scott of London and in 1985 she was owned by Melvyn Ryan of Old Windsor. More recently she has been used as a houseboat.

It was a nice evening where we were moored up for Monday night, nervous with anticipation of tomorrows move onto the River Thames.

We explored the guaging lock that would be our first challenge on Tuesday morning.

We were assured that this bridge which carries Brentford High Street would be OK for us to get under at 09:30 because at high tide there is not enough headroom for most boats to get under.

There doesn’t seem to be any shortage of high density living space in Brentford and building is continuing apace.

We were moored alongside this boat, which was handy for the C&RT shower block (why do people leave these facilities in such a state?).

Steve and Vera went for an evening promenade and talked to other boaters to try and find out more information about the Thames, but this lot were moored here more or less permanently.