I’ve had a couple of funny cow incidents at Lechlade written on my
Facebook page. I hope the writers wont
mind me putting them on here. Allan
Keepingup said – “last time we were there one of the cows picked up our mop
which was on the roof and, holding the stringy end in its mouth, swung the
stick round and round and chased the other cows all over the field with it.
Good game! We got it back undamaged 15 minutes later” and
Martin Clark said “you were lucky it was only the cows licking the dew
off the boat that woke you up. Last time we were there we were woken at 6 am by
the boat suddenly rocking around and discovered that a cow had slipped and
fallen into the river between the boat and the bank and was forcing its way out
along the side!”
The Lock Keeper at St. John’s Lock was very pleased to see us as we were
the first people he had seen all day! He
is only a young man and lives on his own in the Lock Keeper’s cottage, so I
guess in winter it could be a bit lonely.
He explained to me that each lock has a cottage for the lock keeper and
a second one, or the main one is semi-detached, for a relief keeper. However, these days that cottage is let out -
they are not allowed to be sold. Relief keepers live in their own homes but are
given a company vehicle as they have to go from lock to lock but there is a
shortage of relief keepers. There are
two categories of locks – ‘A’ and ‘B’.
‘A’ locks have services, issue licences or similar which need a keeper
there but ‘B’ locks are put on self-service when the Keeper has a day off. I did point out that some locks always seem
to be on self-service, but he didn’t know the answer to that! I asked him about the locks with cafes which
seem to be closed. The cafes are private
businesses often run by the Lock Keeper’s wife.
The original keeper at Sonning retired so the café closed down though
apparently the new keeper wants to start it up again. Mapledurham café has closed as it was run but
a private individual whose lease wasn’t renewed. So, it wasn’t an Environment Agency
directive.
The board at Buscot Lock was on self-service as the Keeper was mowing
the grass. However, he stopped and
helped us through. He said that with the
rain the grass is growing really quickly.
We stopped to get water at Grafton Lock.
The board said Lock Keeper on Duty, but he was also mowing the grass but
stopped his mower to see us through.
Interesting how two Keepers can differ with their boards.
Next was Radcot Lock where the three photos are from. I do like the Lock Keeper’s bungalow
here. We also had two trainee volunteer
lockies helping.
Our journey today was a bit of a magical mystery tour as we didn’t know
where we were going to find Sue and Andy.
I got a message from Sue to say they were at Champagne Lawn! After a bit of thought I realised she meant
where we had met them last week. You may
remember that they came round for drinks that evening. Sue had messaged me and asked what they could
bring so I gaily said a bottle of your best champagne. She only came round with a bottle of proper
champagne! I will have to careful what I
ask for now!
When we got to Champagne Lawn a small motor cruiser had moored in the
huge space left by Andy and were having lunch on the bank – proper picnic with
table and chairs. We got in on the end
and moored up. While we were busy Muffin
took himself off to the picnic table and found chicken bones on a plate on the
ground and helped himself! They were not
best pleased. I apologised profusely but
the little horror did it again – this time when they were doing tai-chi! I have to say that I thought they might have
moved the bones!
We sat out with Sue and Andy having a little tipple (read into that what
you like). It was 8.30pm when we finally
went in – it had got a little chilly by then.
8.45 miles
4 locks
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