After the Hemingford's our next stop was Earith where we stopped for fuel and water at Westview. We missed out St. Ives this time.
One of the resident seals was taking it easy on the pontoon. We had been wondering if we would see them in this tidal section of the river, and one of them was. Apparently there are three adults and one pup in the area. This one didn't want to move to allow a lady to her boat and made an awful row. In the end we gave her a lift round to it when we left.
Our first over nght was just past Stretham pumping station. It was built in 1831 and had a double acting rotating beam engine that drove a scoop around at 4 rpm and picked up 30 t per hour.
We were on our way down stream again the next morning. We stopped at Ely for water and to dump the rubbish and carried on. Outside of Ely we turned right here at the junction of the River Lark.
We stopped for the day at Prickwillow, named after the willow skewers that were made here. It was a lovely day and other than a walk around the small village we took it easy in the sun.
The next day we continued up the River Lark. We passed this 'pepperpot' that is the remains of an old fenland wind pump, that before steam was the only way of keeping the water at bay.
After passing through Isleham Lock, the only one on the navigation, that is by River Island Marina, the river gets a little overgrown in parts, although there seemed to be sufficient water for us everywhere.
The head of navigation is now Judes Ferry Bridge and there is a landing, fairly rickety it has to be said by the pub garden of the pub. It would have been rude not to have called in for a pint to celebrate getting as far as we could, The place was quite nice and obviously had busy times, but this wasn't one of them. The men that were in all had a radio with them and they were listening to the air control tower at Mildenhall airbase as they were all plane spotters and expecting something 'special' coming in. Jude's Ferry has been called Ferry Inn and Ferry House, as well as Jude's Ferry House. I don't know who Jude was and there was a ford here for many years and there are articles about coach and horses being overturned here and begging the navigation to not increase the depth of water to 4'6" as it would be impassable. Maybe this was when the ferry was established. We passed a memorial to a Minister that carried out total immersion baptisms in the Lark before arriving, but it seems that they were also carried out at Jude's Ferry by the West Row Baptists Church and I have found the around 2000 people witnessed them on occasions between 1889 and 1930! In the 30's swimming galas also took place here with the drainage board raising the level in the river by 1 foot. Also in the 1930's there were repeated re-introductions of fish to the river, bream roach and brown trout. By 1890 there were calls for a bridge to be built. The wheels ground exceedingly slowly and with one of the land owners being a little awkward and the council requiring the locals to pay for some of it, it didn't get built until 1898. The iron bridge made the chain and windlass ferry redundant and this was put up for sale to be used else where.
There was only one 'real ale' on tap and this was from the Greene King Brewery. As you can see on their logo the brewery was founded by Ben Greene in Bury St. Edmunds in 1799, when he was 19. The writer Graham Greene was he great grandson. By 1806 he had bought a competitor in the town Wrights Brewery and in 1887 another local competitor, Fred King, amalgamated with Greene's and the company became Green King and sons. In 1938 they built a new brewhouse in the town and this is still in use today. They were well placed for WWII and had to use the Theatre Royal opposite as a barrel store! After the conflict they continued to grow and in 1961 they purchased Wells and Winch Brewery. They also leased the Theater to the National Trust as it was the only surviving Regency Theatre remaining. They continued to grow and obtained the Morland Brewery from Marstons with the Old Speckled Hen brand. They continued to grow and in 2005 got Belhaven Brewery as well as T.D. Ridley and Sons from Essex. The following year they bought Hardys and Hansons. Green King became ubiquitous and is in every one of the many pubs they own as well as Weatherspoon's pubs.
As there was no choice I settled for a pint of Abbot Ale, 5%. There are records in the Domesday Book of 1088 of brewers in the old Abbey at Bury St. Edmunds and so the beer is well named. It poured with a very thin head, but the deep amber colour was appealing. Lifting then glass the aroma is quite sweet and fruity. To me the taste is what some would call balanced, but I think of as bland. There was nothing that stood out that you could savour. I suppose, like larger, it is a drink that does not offend anybody, so everybody can drink it. I prefer something with a bit of character though. Still an easy to drink pint that didn't touch the sides. I only had one though!
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