The rain was supposed to be set in for the morning but when we woke it
was a lovely day. I had planned to do
all sorts as we weren’t moving on but Itchy Feet decided that we would move
on. At Hundsden Mill Lock Muffin found a
Jack Russell to play with and they went berserk – actually keeping away from
the lock edge for once.
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| Hunsden Mill Lock |
Next it was Parndon Mill Lock where the old mill is now a centre for
creative activity. Since the sixties it has been occupied by artists and
craftsmen who have gradually restored the premises. The history of Parndon Mill goes back some
time. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Successive buildings have stood on
the site, milling flour from the grain grown on the rich farmland around. Flour
can be very combustible and there have been numerous fires over the years, the
last one in 1895 destroyed the mill. Construction on the current building was
completed in 1900. A state of the art flat turbine mill wheel was installed in
1904. It is still in position in the wheelhouse, but stopped turning in 1960
when the well-respected miller Neville Smith died.
Also at Parndon Lock are two interesting artefacts. One is the sculpture, "Flowing
Onwards", by Angela Godfrey in 2007 and the other is “Over The Weir” a
footbridge by Alan Freeman and Karen Murphy.
Each glass element is cast from specific items that were found in the
vicinity of the bridge; including both natural flora as well as manmade objects
that relate to the mill and the lock.
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| "Flowing Onwards" |
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| "Over the Weir" |
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| Glass elements in the bridge |
Burnt Mill Lock doesn’t have room for traditional balance beams at the
bottom end so the bottom gates are now electric but the rest is done by
hand. Just after the lock is the Moorhen
pub and as it was passed lunchtime we pulled over and had lunch which wasn’t
brilliant.
We availed ourselves of the services at Moorhen Marina and then
continued on our way. Knowing that
mooring can be a problem along the Stort, not so much continuous moorers (oops
I’m not allowed to mention them anymore) but the fact that you can’t get the
boat into the bank, we found a small stretch of Armco and chained up to that. The fact that the concrete works was behind
the trees on the opposite bank was irrelevant – we had a good mooring! However the trees and the works scuppered our
TV signal so we settled down to watch “12 Years a Slave”. It was a good film but both us found it quite
difficult to understand what they were saying from time to time – are we just
getting old??!
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| Our mooring |
2.95 miles
3 locks
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