Passing out to Peterborough.

We were booked into passing through Stanground Lock at 1030 so we set off at about 0900 and set off for the last leg of the Middle Levels. And it is YORKSHIRE DAY by gum. (1st August).

I tried to take a photo of Briggate sharp bend and realised that I hadn't put the SD card back in the camera. This is just after we have rounded the bend with no scratches. Briggate River soon merges into King's Dyke. Note the East  Riding of Yorkshire flag.

There are several chimneys in the area. The nearest ones seem to be redundant now where as the far three must be on a working brick yard as two of them have smoke coming from them. The quarries that are utilised for the brick making are vast. The redundant ones are full of water. We were to hear more of these later in the day.

 After the brick works the next industry we bacame aware of today was the McCain Frozen Chip factory, as we could smell it! McCain's started in Canada in 1957. It is now the largest frozen chip maker in the world, and has four factories in the UK. The first was near Scarborough. The company are the largest user of UK potatoes, taking 15% of the annual harvest. The Whittlesey plant is marked by three 120m wind turbines that provide up to 70% of its energy requirements. It also has a anaerobic lagoon and a self contained water treatment plant that uses a reverse osmosis system. You can still smell the frying when the wind is in the right direction.

We arrived on time at the bottom of Stanground Lock after passing from King's Dyke into the Back River Drain. You must remember to give them 24 hours notice as they lock everything up when nobody is due. There were loads of people at the lock and it seems that EA where there with their contractors to sort out access to the offside for maintenance. Soon Tina, the lock keeper, had finished and could lock us through.

You can see the newest part of the lock, nearest the camera, when you compare it with the older part at the far end. There was only one set of gates as the River Nene will be always higher than the Middle Levels.

That's Tina closing up the lock after we have left and heading towards Peterborough.

Just outside the lock are these sluices on Morton's Leam. It was dug as a straight channel to Wisbech for the water to run away in 1470 and named after Bishop Morton whom ordered its digging. It was improved over the years and was largely superseded by Smith's Leam that was dug in 1728 to Guyhirn. We are now on the Back River which leads from Stanground Lock to the River Nene.

There are a couple of boat yards in the Stanground and each house seems to have at least one cruiser at the bottom of the garden. This is Stanground Marina, that seems to have plenty of GRP boats in it. There is also another little mostly enclosed mooring and then a back water that is quite long with boats moored along it. Once you pass under the railway you are on the wide Nene and turning left under the high road bridge you are soon at the Embankment moorings. The water point was free so we filled up and then went closer to Town Bridge for a mooring. 

After lunch we walked the short distance into Peterborough and after a look around a couple of shops we went to the Museum. It was very good. The top floor consists of a Victorian operating theatre (the building was an hospital at one time, and a Napoleonic Prison of War Camp as the very first purpose built prison of war camp in the world was built just outside the city at Norman Cross. Some of the articles the captives made for sale were truly amazing, and well worth seeing. There was a good display of fossil, many of which were found in the quarries at Whittlesey brick works. The displays were good and well laid out. Not too much and not to little, so we really enjoyed a couple of hours there. On the way home we topped up with a visit to ASDA and then spent the night quietly on the boat.