Mooring costs for NB Holderness in 2015 were as follows:-
3 months at Savile Town Wharf, Dewsbury...................... 533-28
8 nights at Goole................................................................ 54-48
4 nights at Barton, Trent and Mersey................................ 38-00
2 nights at Tewkesbury (Avon Licence)........................... 20-00
Portishead locks and 1 day lay over................................... 22-00
8 nights at Newbury........................................................... 102-00
4 nights at Kings Orchard.................................................. 40-00
3 months at Kings Orchard................................................ 714-79
TOTAL for 2015 1524-55
TOTAL for 2014 1298-48
The main increase in our mooring fees for this year are the fact that we are paying for an extra month as we moored up for the winter a month earlier this year for various reasons. Plus the marina we are in now is in the Midlands and not the North! Also there was no security at Savile Town Wharf as it was all open to the public and the facilities were much more rudimentary. We decided to stay in the central area rather than get back up North as this gave us more time stooging along rather than rushing and we are expecting to be heading south next year so again would give us more time to do everything slowly. We had the same number of nights on paid for moorings this year as last, 27, and we paid a bit over £10 extra this year.
I have included the Avon Licence as a mooring fee as all we did was moor on the visitor moorings. There are moorings close to the lock on the river which we did consider using. Asking at the lock it seems that there is supposed to be a fee charged there by the private owner. However it is the Avon Lock Keeper who is supposed to collect it and it depends on how busy they are. We judge that we would be safer off the river (marginal really as it is a bit of a by water), and the Avon Trust may as well have the all the fee rather than a percentage for collecting it.
At Portishead there was a charge for accessing the lock in and out and a lay over on a pontoon for about six hours. I placed the Bristol fees in the fixed costs as we had to travel along the waterway there. However we were lucky in being able to have a reduced fee when we paid on the way out to the Kennet and Avon.
3 months at Savile Town Wharf, Dewsbury...................... 533-28
8 nights at Goole................................................................ 54-48
4 nights at Barton, Trent and Mersey................................ 38-00
2 nights at Tewkesbury (Avon Licence)........................... 20-00
Portishead locks and 1 day lay over................................... 22-00
8 nights at Newbury........................................................... 102-00
4 nights at Kings Orchard.................................................. 40-00
3 months at Kings Orchard................................................ 714-79
TOTAL for 2015 1524-55
TOTAL for 2014 1298-48
The main increase in our mooring fees for this year are the fact that we are paying for an extra month as we moored up for the winter a month earlier this year for various reasons. Plus the marina we are in now is in the Midlands and not the North! Also there was no security at Savile Town Wharf as it was all open to the public and the facilities were much more rudimentary. We decided to stay in the central area rather than get back up North as this gave us more time stooging along rather than rushing and we are expecting to be heading south next year so again would give us more time to do everything slowly. We had the same number of nights on paid for moorings this year as last, 27, and we paid a bit over £10 extra this year.
I have included the Avon Licence as a mooring fee as all we did was moor on the visitor moorings. There are moorings close to the lock on the river which we did consider using. Asking at the lock it seems that there is supposed to be a fee charged there by the private owner. However it is the Avon Lock Keeper who is supposed to collect it and it depends on how busy they are. We judge that we would be safer off the river (marginal really as it is a bit of a by water), and the Avon Trust may as well have the all the fee rather than a percentage for collecting it.
At Portishead there was a charge for accessing the lock in and out and a lay over on a pontoon for about six hours. I placed the Bristol fees in the fixed costs as we had to travel along the waterway there. However we were lucky in being able to have a reduced fee when we paid on the way out to the Kennet and Avon.
Savile Town Wharf was nice and handy for us in Hull, only about an hour and a half maximum. It is also handy for the shops as there are large chains a short walk from the basin, plus the very good market and some nice pubs too.
We stayed at the end of the Aire and Calder at Goole whilst I went to work at our local beer festival. This photo is looking west along the Aire and Calder Canal and taken from South Dock Bridge. I regularly used to bring ships into here to moor at Timms silos. I even piloted Lore Prahm several times. The construction on the left is the one and only hydraulic tower for lifting the Tom Pudding compartment boats up and tipping them into sea going vessel. There were five of these lifts in Goole at one time.
William Hammond was the Aire and Calder Engineer and came up with this method of transporting coal from Stanley Ferry and Doncaster to Goole for export. Each compartment carried 30 tons of coal. At first they were to be 6 compartments long but soon realised that they could actually fit 7 in the locks so settled on that. They were designed to use a pusher tug and a 'jebus' bow shape at the front (as can be seen in the photo). They were to steer round the corners by pulling and slacking hydraulically on wires run down each side of the compartments. They found however that they could tow more than 7, rather than push and up to 38 have been towed. Each compartment could be filled at a different site and assembled in a train. between Castleford and Goole there are no locks so bigger trains could be towed. The last Tom Pudding trip was in April 1986 after starting in 1865! At the beginning it took 8 to 12 hours to get from Castleford and 3 hours to discharge. To move the same amount of coal by train could take weeks as there was such huge delays on the train tracks. There are only four or five 'Tom Puddings' left and one jebus.
We then headed down the Trent and Helen ended up in Barton Marina on the Trent and Mersey as I had to go home again. It was interesting to see that we didn't have sun all the cruise this year! Mind you she did enjoy looking round the shops about the Marina and we did go to the cinema there when I got back.
We passed through Birmingham and down the Severn where we stopped over at the Lovely town of Tewkesbury and here we are on the visitor moorings on the Avon.
We had a marvelous trip down the Severn Estuary from Sharpness. You leave a little before high water but we didn't have the speed or power to get into Bristol, via the Avon, in one tide. We could have anchored off between Portishead and Avonmouth over low water but chose to go up into Portishead Haven. It is like a South of France Marina and well worth the money to break the jouirnel, even for a short while.
We had to both go home from Newbury so we hired a car and took Macy cat with us too. Newbury was quite a nice place to linger too, with a pretty walk into town and plenty to see when we got there. This is the Kennet and Avon heading through the centre of the town.
King's Orchard Marina is nice and remote and doesn't offer all the shopping opportunities and high numbers of boats of some other marinas in the area but it must be doing something right as there wasn't a berth free. It is close to Lichfield and actually takes a little less than 2 hours to home for us. It is dual carriage way or motorway all the way home, bar about 5 miles!
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