Happy Birthday Epiphany, Cowroast to Berkhamsted

Friday, 31 October 2008 18:45

Yet another sunny day as we celebrate Epiphany's second birthday. She went in the water at Bradford on Avon Marina on this day 2006.


She is still the best idea we have ever had and the best home we have ever had too! Thanks once again to Colecraft and Bath Narrowboats, now our home is where our boat is.

We are Didicoys - a really new word to me   I found it in a puzzle I was just doing and as our dictionary did not have it, we googled it. A good name for a boat? I think I will use it next time someone asks me where I live or what I do - that will flummox them!

Back to our Didicoyal activity! We made for Berkhamsted down Cowroast lock and then Dudswell locks. Here we met Nuneaton and Brighton. They left the bottom lock 3 bags of Taybright lighter!


We recognised the area below the lock as where we had moored when we hired a broad beam from Adelaide Wharf in 1997.


The outskirts of Berkhamsted became apparent as we locked down through the next two locks. After the 2 Gas locks (51 & 52) the town center is marked by lots of moored boats! It is quite pleasant with parkland on the off side.

We moored at the end nearer the next lock. It is handy for the supermarket and the high street. We shopped in the supermarket and then wandered down the high street.

Berkhamstead has a long history, has some historic buildings and has been home to some famous people. Notably Chaucer and Thomas a'Becket (at the now ruined castle built in 1066), William Cowper (poet and hymn writer), Graham Green (author), Clementine Hozier (later married to Sir Winston Churchill) and Sir Michael Hordern (actor).

The canal reached here in 1797, later to be extended to Birmingham. Very appropriately the nearby Ashridge House was home to the "Father of Inland Navigation" the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater.

We had a look in the Parish Church of St Peter, a very large church with a mixture of styles. It was restored by the well known church architect Butterfield in 1871.



By this time we were ready to wander back to the boat via Castle Street (once home of 6 pubs and still home of the impressive Berkhamsted School) and the towpath!

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