Thursday 8 January 2009

Smashing time

We smashed our way across the canal this morning to top up with water, smashing the large shards of ice and pushing them out of the way in order to get ourselves safely back to our mooring against the Armco. It looks good for a move tomorrow but that is dependant on conditions tonight.

Prior to the epic voyage across the cut to the water point I had walked the dogs across local bridleways (spelt bridal in some cases?) to the tiny hamlet of Foston that boasts a 10th century church St Batholomew's and what was obviously the old manor house originally. Two agricultural cottages just about complete the community now but the gravestones in the churchyard are evidence of a much more vibrant community in the past - the General Enclosure Act 1845 was probably the death knell and then the gradual movement into cities (Leicester being the closest) looking for work; the First World War being the final straw at denuding the village of its population. I would love a Tardis to travel back and see these places say a 100 years ago, then 150 and then 200 what changes there would be..

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