“Perhaps the best example of a canal village in this country”, according to Nicholson. Warehouses and cottages along the canal ae now pubs, shops, Air B&Bs, restaurants and of course the famous museum.
Of course we went to the museum – you’ve probably gathered by now that that’s something we tend to do. We also went to have a look at the “perpendicular church with its Norman tower”, but it was closed. That’s also not unusual.
In the museum we were given a guided tour by Steve, one of the CRT volunteers, and yes, we did learn something new! Did you know that leggers – the guys that legged barges through tunnels, were employed by the wharf? So they would leg a barge through the 2.8 km Blisworth tunnel, then walk back over the top for their next job. They would not pick up a job at the other end, as that wharf was managed by another company.
Stoke Bruerne is a tourist destination, and on that sunny afternoon not many boats had gone through the locks. That meant that the tourists were hungry for photos, so our boat had to suffice. At the first lock we were helped by yet another friendly volunteer while Spanish, Italian, Polish and more local tourists took photos of Steve taking Galveston down the flight. It was a somewhat surreal moment. We were in tatty shorts and t-shirts, eating a sandwich on the hoof, but maybe that is what they saw as the real deal.
I was doing the locks, so had plenty of time to talk to gongoozlers. I had a particularly long conversation with an Italian couple, who were genuinely interested in boat life, so we invited them to have a look inside Galveston. They really were lovely and very appreciative. She said, in her broken English that I made her as happy as a baby. Maybe that’s the same as “I made her day”. Well, the pleasure was all mine. I also had a lovely day.
Towpaths and Turnpikes 
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