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Having delayed a trip South to visit friends and rellies for a few days due to having succumbed to the dreaded lurg, we finally made the trip only partially cured and both with a cough which was hard to shake.
We travelled first to the Harpers where Sal was also suffering but the three of us managed a trip up to London leaving Les to fester in Worthing.
Arriving at London Bridge Station you can not fail to admire the new Shard Skyscraper soaring over 300 metres into a thankfully blue sky. It is, at present, the highest building in the EU and you can travel to the viewing platform at the top if you are stupid enough to part with £25 for the privilege! The Shangri-La Hotel occupies the 34th to 52nd floors where you can rent a superior room with an unsurpassed view of London for £375 a night which to my mind is a much better deal provided you or your wife does not suffer from vertigo looking out of the floor to ceiling picture windows from your double bed!
After a gourmet coffee from one of the many Borough Market stalls we wandered around this foodie paradise and found Bath Cheese where we bought some Barf Blue which was this years world champion and a new hard cheese for us called Wyfe of Barf, well named as I recall in the Canterbury Tales that the Wyfe of Barf did appreciate a hard one!
Then it was round the corner to Neals Yard Dairy Shop where we stocked up on Colston Bassett Stilton and Montgomery Cheddar. We had a comparison tasting test of the unpasturised Stitchelson against Colston Bassett. Stitchelson is made with organic unpasteurised milk and they can not call it Stilton because of that but it should have had a fuller flavour because of that basic ingredient. To my taste the Colston Bassett won hands down which either means this former cheese judge has lost his touch or that the best Stilton in the world is still king! James Montgomery is certainly still making the best Cheddar.
After wandering around Southwark Cathedral, Sally took us along the Borough High Street to show us the last coaching inn of the many that used to frequent this place, The George. This area was largely owned by the Bishop of Winchester who in the 19th century licensed prostitutes to ply their trade in the vicinity of his Southwark Palace, remnants of which still remain. The ladies were called "Winchester's Geese" and he was never sued for living off immoral earnings!
The George dates from 1676 and is a galleried coaching inn where Shakespeare's plays were performed. Dickens also frequented this place and refers to it is his novel Little Dorrit.
We also decided to frequent it and I had a pint of IPA while the girls had mulled wine which set me back £14!! The mulled wine was so sour that we had to send it back but they did replace it with something a little more palatable!
Quotes 'wot I like for the festive season:
I'd hate to die with a good liver, good kidneys and a good brain. When I die I want everything to be knackered.
Hamish Imlach 1940 -
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We walked all along the South Bank to Westminster before catching the tube to Victoria and the train back to Worthing. The skyline from the south bank of the Thames stretches from the classical dome of St. Pauls cathedral to the modern skyscrapers of this decade to which Londoners have of course given names but the Gherkin is hidden in this shot.
The Wobbly Bridge is a pedestrian suspension bridge built for the millennium, crossing from the Tate Modern to St. Pauls which developed a resonant vibration when it was first opened. This is a known phenomenon and marching troops were always given the order to break step when crossing a suspension bridge. You can't give such orders to ordinary pedestrians who tended to keep in step with the natural vibrations of the bridge which then became worse so it was closed for a couple of years to fix the problem but was left with it's nickname.
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After a break of two weeks for European rugby the premiership returned with Barf travelling up the M5 to Gloucester for a local derby. Last time the game was at Kingsholm the shedheads nearly ended themselves when their team went down to 11 men and collected two red cards when we beat them by a point. This time Barf had their biggest win in the fixtures history in a scrappy game with loads of collapsed scrums, penalties and little good rugby on display, the 16-39 score not reflecting the game at all. But we will take the win which keeps us second in the table, a couple of points below the Saints who had a cracking derby game against the Tiggers and won 23-19 despite losing hooker Dylan Hartley who was red carded after 10 minutes for elbowing Smith in the face.
Executer lost to Sale so that put us further ahead of them in third place while Sarries stayed at fourth after beating London Welsh 78-7.
I went down to watch Bridgnorth continue their unbroken run of wins by beating Camp Hill 53-7. They now lead the table 10 points ahead of the Old Saltleians having won all 12 of their league matches this year. The women's team were all on the sidelines in their Santa Claus outfits cheering the boys on and shouting playful abuse at the Camp blokes!
A long overdue visit to daughter and family completed our journey South to drop off the Christmas presents but what with Christmas Disco's for Matilda and Cubs for Henry we saw little of the grandchildren before scooting back to Bridgnorth with a stop at Stourbridge for a Christmas food shop. We went up to the Medical Centre to get our flu jabs and they also gave us a pneumonia vaccination as a special Christmas treat!
We both continued to suffer from the lurg over the Christmas and New Year period. Sue cooked a big duck for our Christmas dinner which provided several meals and we were honoured by a visit from the lovely Anna and Tim Barnsley. Tim was a native of Stourbridge so knows the area quite well but had forgotten what a nice place Bridgnorth was so we did the rounds and sampled the delights of the local hostelries!
After kicking out our guests we spent the usual quiet English New Year in the company of Jools Holland and a bottle of shampoo. This year we enjoyed some really good acts and much more of his rythm and blues band.
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Barf's last old year treat was to entertain Executer at the rec where they were well stuffed 31-14 in a free flowing entertaining game with both teams determined to play proper rugby. Barf's first game in the new year was a different game away against Leicester Tigers. The last time we played them was at the rec and we humiliated them 45-0 so revenge was in the air at Welford Road. We did try and play rugby but those tiggers stopped us and set out to slow us down and niggle us. They succeeded in their endevours as we conceded 10 penalties in the first half hour with numerous handbags flying as we lost our cool. The result was a 17-8 loss to Barf despite a last minute try by Ross Batty. Ford then failed an easy conversion in front of the posts which would haave earned a losing bonus point so we came away with nothing.
We kept our 2nd place in the table but Saints moved further ahead in first place with Sarries, Wasps and Tigers barking at our heels. Executer dropped out of the top four after losing at home to Gloucester in an exciting game 25-26.
Bridgnorth began 2015 with a bang completely outplaying Wellingborough in the quarter final of the RFU Midlands intermediate cup 25-6. Continuing their unbeaten record this season this win puts them into the semi-final. Win that and they will play in the final at Twickenham.
Rugby World made them their November rugby team of the month in the February edition of the magazine.
The following week saw Barf at home to Wasps. Both teams came to play rugby and our forwards dominated unlike the previous week, allowing our backs to play their great attacking game. Sam Burgess scored his first try in rugby union and was MotM but the Bananaman was in his pomp, running over Wasps full back Simpson to score, Louw was winning the ball in the rucks and also scored, Ford was at his usual best controlling the back line and Batty reigned supreme in the loose, scrum and line-out.
Barf took their foot off the pedal allowing Wasps to come back at them in the last quarter and Lozowski came on at stand-off getting his team on the front foot and scoring a bonus point try. Barf also managed a bonus point to win comfortably 39-26 and the results of other games at the weekend kept us in second place in the premiership table, only one point behind Northampton Saints who amazingly lost 20-7 to Sale.
The other surprise was Gloucester beating Sarries at Kingsholm 24-23 with Hook being raised to sainthood by the shed kicking the winning penalty from the halfway line in the last minute! Those Tiggers were well beaten at Quins 32-12, deservedly so having played so poorly but the old stager and MotM Nick Easter looks a great prospect for the number eight England spot in the 6N as Morgan was stretchered off at Kingsholm with a broken leg.
One of our Christmas presents to ourselves were a couple of tickets to a concert at Symphony Hall in Birmingham. Of course this included a pre-concert meal, this time the ubiquitous Strada pizza half price offer. Does anyone ever eat pizza these days without downloading a half price voucher? The meal still cost over £50 which, considering the content we could have eaten far better in one of the many Indian eateries round about for the same price or cheaper.
We were surprised that Symphony Hall was only about two thirds full for this concert and suspect that those responsible for selling tickets are not doing their job properly. It would surely be better to reduce the ticket prices by running promotions so that you filled the hall.
The concert began with Rachmaninov’s vocalise played by the orchestra. I once played this on the piano in the South Petherton Methodist Church with Roz Broad, our local diva, singing it which was how Rachmaninov intended it to be performed. I believe the packed church gave us a standing ovation but I do suffer from a poor memory!!
The vocalise was followed by Rachmaninov’s 3rd piano concerto with Russian pianist Nikolai Lugansky and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Vedernikov in an effortless performance for such a difficult piece.
The concert concluded with Tchaikovsky’s delightful Third Suite. Vedernikov used to be the Bolshoi music director so was well suited to conduct this ballet like piece. The links above are not by the artists who entertained us. The vocalise is sung by the late Italian/American opera singer Anna Moffo while the concerto is by the easy on the eye Russian, Olga Kern (she is "luscious in that luscious Russian way!"). Finally the link to the Tchaikovsky is by the Korean KBS orchestra.
If you are wondering what I am talking about with regard to Olga Kern, I was reminded of a song we used to sing in my caving days on Mendip and, as I had nothing better to do, I decided to transpose it to this page so here is a bit more Russian culture. The words and music are from memory and may not be correct but I doubt this song was ever published. It should be sung with a Russian accent!:
or if no player appears click here.
My Comrades used to say I was a sadist,
I used to pull the wings off little flies,
Until I met my dear beloved Olga,
And saw the masochism in her eyes.
CHORUS:
The samovars are boiling on the Gorski,
The Borscht no longer bubbles brave and free,
The Smersh has bowed it's little head in sorrow,
For love has gone from Olga and from me.
How tenderly she whispered "Sergei hit me",
And in her eyes there shone a Russian glow,
How tenderly she whispered "Sergei whip me",
But I her love could only answer no.
CHORUS:
It was torture being cruel to little Olga,
It wasn't very nice I must confess,
Until one day she whispered "Sergei drown me"
I smiled a Russian smile and I said "yes"!
CHORUS:
Now Olga was a true Siberian lover,
She was luscious in that luscious Russian way,
We used to go out boating on the Volga,
Now Olga's in the Volga AND TO STAY!
(Those last three words are shouted!)
After writing the score for the above tune I make a midi file so you can listen to the tune. I put computer code on the web page which embeds a player on that page and in the past that has been the Apple Quicktime player, however, I discovered that the latest Apple Quicktime player does not support midi files.
This is typical of software development which has no fixed standard. It has been the same since the internet was first developed and you also have to test new code in different browsers to make sure it works.
The solution in this case was either to convert all the midi files on this web site to a different file format or change all the code on the different web pages to embed another media player. I decided on the latter and chose Microsoft Media Player which continues to support midi files. The only drawback is that you will need to install the Microsoft plug-in if you are using the Firefox browser but it should work without problems if you are using Internet Explorer. Full details on how to do this are on the Firefox support pages. While I am in the process of changing over the code, some pages will work and some won't but this one does.
Interestingly, Google has warned that you should print out copies of photographs you wish to preserve as software in future will not be able to read and interpret certain types of files as technology progresses. Scientist have also said that the history of generations which has been digitised may be lost in the future so that in addition to data, hardware and software that can read them should be preserved for future generations! Floppy disk reader anyone?
We travelled over to Belgium early in January, this time by Eurotunnel as it was blowing a hooley in the channel so we didn't risk the ferries. If you book their five day saver fare it is not much more expensive than the ferries and when they are not busy they will put you on an earlier train when you arrive early at no extra charge so we caught one an hour earlier than the one we had booked.
The main purpose of this trip was to renew the service batteries on Harmonie. The old ones had been in service for four years and some of them were not holding their charge. This meant that the battery charger was continually trying to keep them charged and so was consuming shore power at a prodigous rate. Fortunately we had our friend Tony on Anja berthed in Eeklo who was keeping an eye on Harmonie for us during the winter months to help change the four batteries weighing a total of 246kg. Almost impossible to lift out for an old man of 74 like me but just possible if hard for two old men!
Desmond Diahatsu struggled a bit with that weight in the back as well but we made it to Battery Supplies in Deerlijk which is just North of Kortrijk. This was where I purchased the old ones from and once again they were the best price I could find. 700 Euros for four 230ah semi traction batteries is hard to beat.
On the way back to the UK we arrived at the tunnel to find lines of trucks completely blocking access so we diverted off the motorway and headed South, rejoining the motorway and approaching the tunnel from the opposite direction where there was just enough room to squeeze past the trucks and get to the terminal. The previous day all the ferries were cancelled due to the rough seas which probably caused the backlog.
Due to the recent horrific Islamic terrorist killings in Paris, security had been stepped up and every car was subject to a search with the result that we missed the train on which we were booked. The next day a truck caught fire in the tunnel and it was closed so we thought ourselves lucky to have made it back before that happened.
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Barf lost their first two European Cup games in their group. This meant that they had to win the two remaining games in order to progress to the quarter finals and the first of these was away aginst Toulouse. It was a great team effort with Jonathan Joseph especially playing out of his skull which should seal his position in the England squad for the six nationa. Barf proceeded to take Toulouse apart scoring five trys in a blistering 18-35 demolition for a bonus point win so all they had to do then was to beat Glasgow at the rec the following week to go through to the quarter finals.

One disappointing incident in the game was Huget falling to the ground, Wendyball style, pretending to have been hit by Barfs Argentinian winger Agulla when the replay clearly showed he was gently pushed away. He was perhaps trying to take the Irish referees attention away from a high tackle on Watson by Toby Flood. We can do without that sort of nonsense in rugby and I hope the IRB will do something about it.
Bridgnorth RFC continued its winning ways with a handsome win over Ludlow 70-8 at home having beaten Kidderminster 12-37 away the previous week. They remain unbeaten at the top of the West Midlands 2 (North) division, 10 points ahead of the Old Saltleians and will almost certainly progress to the Midlands West first division if they continue this performance. In the intermediate cup they have drawn a home semi-final next month which if they win they will contest the Midlands final.
The Barf v Glasgow European Cup game at the rec resulted in a 20-15 win to put us at the top of our group and through to the quarter finals. Our back line did not play well but our forwards thankfully dominated a Glasgow pack seriously decimated by injury. It was a great game to watch but the last five minutes were hard to watch for a Barf supporter with a try saving tackle by Joseph then a huge effort from Louw to stay on his feet over the ball and a penalty for Glasgow holding on to the ball in the ruck. A win is a win though and we go on to play Leinster in Dublin early in April. Wasps went through as well and, with Barf, are the only two clubs in the cups history to go through having lost two of their pool games.
Four English sides, three French and one Irish are the final eight.
Winter arrived towards the end of January so we stayed in the warm for the most part. We booked a holiday in Greece as it is years since we were last there and they need the money, especially after the way they have been treated by the EU. I know that past Greek governments have been corrupt and ineffectual but so have the EU political elite who conspired with the Greeks to falsify the accounts which allowed them to join the Eurozone in the first place. Now they have 25% unemployment and 50% of their young people unable to find a job while the EU turns a blind eye. Scandalous!
We have booked an apartment overlooking the Aegean Sea in Santorini for a week in May, then we travel by fast boat to the island of Los where we stay in a lovely boutique Hotel but as Los does not have an airport and boats are infrequent we have to travel back to Santorini for another night before flying home.
Sue won a monthly competition from Gemini Woman, a fashion retailer, based in Stratford-on-Avon. The prize was a £250 voucher to spend on clothes in their Stratford shop, a haircut at Matthew Curtis, a make-up by Jill Yardley, a photo shoot and a champagne afternoon tea at Bensons Restaurant for both of us to finish the day.
I was left to my own devices and as there was a programme on the TV that night about Mary Arden, who was Bill Shakespeare's Mum, I decided to have a walk around Stratford. It was not our first visit to the town and years ago we came by narrow boat but I had never really explored it properly.
Walking down to the River Avon the scene is dominated by that huge modern architectural monstrosity, the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. The original one (above left) was burnt down in 1926 and replaced with this one (above right) in 1932 then redeveloped in 2010 to make it even uglier if anything! Need I say more!
I walked downstream into the RSC gardens and on to the Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried and over the footbridge across the river to the rec but no rugby posts on this one.
From here just below the weir there was a nice view of the church before walking back along the river bank to the town.
Of course there are lots of Shakespearian half timbered houses in Stratford but I was particularly attracted by this row of Almshouses. The bard was born and lived just a few steps away from these houses where his father, John, was an alderman of the town and was even at one time the mayor. John eventually became involved in some dodgy dealings in the wool trade and almost went broke but Bill went off to London and became rich and famous, saving his family from bankruptcy.
I still had a few hours to kill so decided to visit Charlecote Park, a National Trust property a few miles upstream beside the river. Unfortunately the house itself was closed on the day of my visit so I had to be content with the outbuildings and walking round the estate on a cold and grey day.
The present house was built by Sir Thomas Lucy in 1551 but the estate had been in the family since the 13th century. Sir Thomas was a local magistrate and an MP who supported Queen Elizabeth 1st and protestant reform. In these capacities he was involved in the arrest of Edward Arden (for conspiracy to assassinate the queen) to whom Shakespeare was related through his mother so there was no love lost between the two. Shakespeare, who was brought up a Catholic, was thought to have included certain characters in his plays that ridiculed Lucy. He was also rumoured to have poached Sir Thomas's rabbits and deer!
The house was eventually inherited by George Hammond Lucy whose wife Mary Elizabeth made extensive renovations and extensions after their marriage in 1823. In 1840, following the death of their son Herbert, the pair set out in a carriage with a few servants and their six week old baby son for a grand tour of Europe. The baby fell ill during the trip and died as they crossed the alps with Mary holding her dead baby for 13 hours before reaching Turin. They were away for two years and collected many treasures for Charlecote on the way. George died four years after their return but Mary lived until she died in 1889 at the grand old age of 86. Descendants of the family still live in a wing of the house.
Back In Stratford I was met by this very happy and attractive lady who turned out to be my wife Sue transformed by her makeover and we both enjoyed afternoon cream tea with smoked salmon and cucumber sandwiches prefaced by a refreshing glass of champagne. Thank you Gemini Woman for a nice day out.
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The first weekend of the rugby six nations has opened with a Friday night game at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. England were the underdogs being a young side affected by injuries whilst the Welsh were all fit and very experienced, used to playing together. New Zealander Warren Gatland, the Welsh coach, ably backed up by Sean Edwards, the English traitor, performed their usual pre-match wind-ups followed by a "Son-et-Lumiére" before the game and tens of thousands of rabid Taffs hurling abuse at our poor youngsters. The RFU had insisted the stadium roof be opened to lessen the intimidating crowd noise. Gatland responded with "it's our roof and we should be able to open it if we want to!" Captain Robshaw refused to go out onto the cold stadium with his team until the French ref promised they could return to their dressing room if the Welsh team did not appear on the pitch straight after them. The Kick Off was delayed 7 minutes as a result.
I suppose that this behaviour is to be expected in the modern professional game with TV revenues in mind but it is something most rugby nuts like me could do without, however, it seemed to have the desired effect on the Welsh because they were 10 points up after 10 minutes and we were reminded that they humiliated us 30-5 two years ago. England heads do not go down on this occasion and in the second half we dominated as the Welsh played "Warrenball", scoring 13 points to nil to win the game 16-21 at the death. Would have been more had Haskell not collided with the post and Attwoods try been disallowed when the ref deemed Easter had blocked a defender.
Both tries were scored by Barf boys Watson and Joseph with George Ford kicking the points. What would England do without us!
England beat Italy as expected the following weekend 47-17 but need to tighten up their defence for Ireland next in Dublin who defeated the French 18-11. A much improved Scotland might have beaten Wales at home but for some silly mistakes. They went down 23-26 so England and Ireland lead the table with 4 points each, Scotland and France second with 2 points and Italy with nothing at the bottom of the table.
In the other games Ireland had a poor game against Italy despite winning 3-26 but Scotland have improved no end following the appointment of their new Kiwi coach Vern Cotter. The Froggie heavyweight pack struggled against them in Paris and were lucky to win a close game 15-8. The Sweaties are the dark horses in this championship.
Barf lost their LV cup game against the Ospreys, probably due to so many Barf boys playing for England and the Saxons who beat the Irish Wolfhounds in Cork but dear old Bridgnorth continued their winning ways with a 25-7 win against 2nd place league contenders Old Salts, their game against 3rd place Moseley Oak having been postponed so they are 10 points ahead at the top with a game in hand.
The following weekend Barf were well beaten by Sarries 34-24 at Allianz Park. Sarries only lost one of the set piece scrums and lineouts which was the story of the game as if you don't have the ball you can't expect to score! Northampton struggled against lowly London Irish, eventually winning 15-9. We play the Saints next week at the rec. Another surprise was Wasps winning 30-9 against Quins.
I went down for lunch with Bridgnorth RFU club who were playing the Spartans in the RFU Intermediate Cup, Midlands semi final. Bridgnorth won 53-10 so they now play Northampton Old Scouts in a home final.
In case you have not noticed, Harmonie is under offer subject to a hull survey which will take place sometime in early April. The new owners will be John, like me an ex marine engineer and his wife Maureen who live down in Warwickshire and we met up for lunch in a pub about half way to sign the deposit contract which has now been paid. We all agreed to use a firm called Transpact to hold the deposit in escrow and would recommend them for any other buyers who might be concerned at safeguarding their deposit money when buying a barge, whether through a broker or privately. The costs are minimal and you get interest on your deposit.
As the deposit for Harmonie has now been made all that remains before the sale completion is the hull survey and a shipyard is booked for this between late in March and early April. We therefore decided to make a quick trip over to clear the barge of most of our personal possessions.
A few maintenance jobs remained from our last trip. I arranged for the central heating boiler to be serviced by Kabola. I have serviced it myself in the past but they have an expensive bit of kit which samples the exhaust gas and can make the adjustments to get a clean burn so we were now greener but lighter in pocket! A new LNB was purchased and fitted to the satellite dish so that a good TV reception was restored and the dud satellite finder was replaced. The blue board had stopped working and I established that there was a voltage to the actuator so I removed it and on opening the cover, water poured out. Electric motors and circuit boards do not take kindly to being immersed in water but as the actuator was at least 20 years old I was concerned that spares for it would not be readily available. Tony Millar on Anja came to the rescue with someone who could possibly help at Electro-Zeeland in Gent. I emailed them explaining my predicament and Martin Vervynck replied by return. I called him and suggested I take the old actuator into his shop to see what he could do with it if anything. This guy really knows his stuff and maintains electrical equipment on commercial vessels. He recognised the actuator as one he used to stock, called his supplier and ordered one. I left rejoicing but 320 Euroles worse off!
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The third round of the six nations involved England going to Dublin where they were outplayed, outclassed and well beaten by the Irish 19-9. They seemed a different side to the one that beat Wales in Cardiff who played better in Paris, beating the French 13-20. Scotland were beaten by Italy in the final minutes of the game at Muirfield 19-22.
Barf, having been thumped by Sarries, continued their poor run of form by losing to Saints 13-21 at the rec and then again to Exeter 16-6 at Sandy Park so we went from 2nd place in the table down to fifth. Fortunately we managed to beat Sale at the rec 12-3 to restore our league position but not for long as subsequent results bought everyone close together with barely a point separating the top six teams apart from Saints who are safely ahead at the top with a home play-off virtually secured. Barf have a good run in for the last games this season and with our internationals and injured players back we should at least make the play-offs.
Bridgnorth continued their unbroken winning run this season with a 3-42 win away at Shrewsbury then giving Ludlow a thumping at home 73-0 and Stourbridge away 6-54. They remain at the top of the table with 88 points, 10 points clear of second place Old Salts.
They recently signed Matt Farrington (second from left in photo) who will play in the RFU intermediate cup final next week against Northampton Old Scouts. One more win after that will see them playing at Twickenham. Matt (24) has been coaching at Bridgnorth since suffering injury and used to play for the Worcester A team. Pictured with their sponsors Wolverhampton BMW, Bridgnorth chairman Peter Parkes (second from right in photo) reckons Matt is capable of playing well above this level of rugby so should have a significant impact on the 1st XV as a player.

On a sunny early spring day we drove over to the Ironbridge Gorge and parked beside the Bedlam Blast Furnaces. These furnaces were built in 1757 by the Madeley Wood Furnace Company and taken over by Ironmaster William Reynolds in 1794. They were built to a design by Abraham Derby who discovered how to smelt iron using coal instead of charcoal which heralded the birth of the industrial revolution. Once lit the furnaces had to operate 24 hours a day with men working 12 hour shifts to prevent the linings cracking. It was thirsty work hence the large number of pubs in the Ironbridge Gorge!
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We climbed up the stairs on the left of the furnaces which zig zagged up a steep landscaped hill through a series of arbours and emerged at the Golden Ball Inn which was closed! We continued up through the woods to the top of the escarpment then followed a level path to Blists Hill where we dropped down to the Blists Hill Museum. Monarchs Way follows the road down this valley.

Skirting round the museum fence we found ourselves next to the Shropshire Canal. This was built by William Reynolds to bring coal from the East Shropshire coalfield to the River Severn at Coalport for his furnaces. To do this he built the Hay Incline to transport 20 foot iron tub boats loaded with 5 tons of coal down the steep sided 1 in 4 gradient of the gorge 63 metres vertically in wheeled cradles on rails. To do this conventionally he would have needed about 27 locks and the transit would have taken about three hours whereas the incline could pass six boats per hour. Reynolds also built factories, warehouses and cottages for workers in what must have been one of the first "new towns" ever.

At the bottom of the incline is Coalport where John Rose founded the Coalport China Company in 1795 whose products became world famous. Some of the coal was used to fire his kilns and the china products were then transported down the River Severn by Severn Trows, flat bottomed shallow draught sailing boats hauled upstream by teams of men before horses were used. Coalport china ceased production here when the company moved to the Staffordshire potteries in 1926 and in 1967 became part of the Wedgewood group. A china museum is now in part of the old factory.

Continuing downstream we found the Brewery Inn open. Unfortunately their local ale was cloudy so I changed it for another but we both tucked in to a plate of two eggs and a mountain of chips with a salad for a mere three quid! Gourmet food at a budget price! Suitably refreshed we crossed the Coalport bridge built in 1818 which was of similar design to the first cast iron one at Ironbridge built in 1781 but this one still takes vehicles.
Heading back upstream we arrived at Jackfield where there has been major subsidence of the river banks for many years. The banks falling into the river and narrowing the stream have caused significant flooding upstream so there is a huge ongoing £17.6 million project to try and stabilise the ground and prevent future landslides. Some of the old properties in the area may also be in danger of ending up in the river!
Harmonie was recently sold and on the next page we describe the final process.
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