Last shift at OF19 for the Winter

And as I type this, the feeling is only just coming back to my fingers.

A good five hours today with IJ at Old Ford Locks. We paid a short visit to City Mill Lock to ensure it was working properly and then spent the rest of our time helping boaters through Old Ford Lock 19.

The upper gates weren't opening fully because of weed trapped behind them, so we cleared that, and no sooner had we than another island of pennywort supporting a 6' square board and a log came floating into view.

Once more with grappling hooks and rakes and hoes and shovels and implements of destruction we bravely cleared the navigation. Sing ho! for the brave lock keepers.

Also could boaters please stop leaving us presents in the Elsan. We'll soon have more cassettes than a teenager from the eighties.

5 hours lock keeping.

Cold, so very cold!

Excellent patrol today with JH, PA & RE. Litter the main issue. Cold another one, just getting the feeling back in my fingers now!

Overflowing Bin time!

2 hours.

Long-time, no-post.

Great patrol today along the Limehouse Cut with JH and PA.

Picked up an abandoned Boris bike. Met with Nick from Customer License Support, and say Lenny and Alex too.

Reported a few instances of fly-tipping sadly.

2 hours, then coffee at the Yurt Cafe.

Lower Regents

Grey and grim in good company. PA & JH



1.5 hours.

Limehouse Patrol

We gathered the usual suspects at Old Ford Lock 19. JH, SD and me.

Foliage for the foliage survey.

Add caption

2 hours.

Tottenham to OF19

NS PA JH

Graffiti wiping and boatside trash.

2 hours.

Day Four at Old Ford Lock 19

... and three days full, still the boater bins haven't been emptied (as of 4pm Friday.) I can understand why boaters get frustrated about this.

Today's been an interesting day, with just two boat movements IJ and myself were confined to investigating customer complaints about graffiti, and minor bits of maintenance about the stables.

Early in the day volunteer manager SM turned up to borrow our benches for a meeting of volunteer lock keepers at Old Ford 8 (Regents Canal.) He arrived as IJ and I were discussing communications and whether the keys for Carpenters Road Lock should be issued sooner (now) rather than later (at the time the first boaters request passage through the lock.)

Later we were also briefly visited by waterways boating manager SA, and we discussed the improvements to the stables and the future improvements to the sanitary station.

Then the long afternoon came, with no boat movements. IJ and I chatted about work, retirement, kids and how the world has changed. It made me feel a bit old. Next time we should discuss contemporary music and today's popular beat combos.

By the evening we received an email with the welcome news that the keys for CRL should be issued sooner. We are of course waiting with bated breath.

6 hours.

Day Three at Old Ford Lock 19

Today I had a pre-arranged Towpath Ranger walk from Ponders End to Tottenham. I had to be at Ponders at 11am, so I popped into Old Ford 19 for just a few minutes at 10am to greet RA and RC who were volunteer lock keepers today.

Then I headed for Ponders End locks along a route away from the towpath so I could go a little quicker.

I returned along the Lea to Tottenham. It's fortunate there was only a little rubbish to report, so FA and I made good time.

Alfies Lock looking gorgeous in the October sun.

I returned to Old Ford  having missed our first operation of Carpenters Road Lock. RA & RC helped one of the Lee & Stort Olympic Park trip boats through on a visit up to Forman's fish smoking factory.

Then, while waiting to help them on the return passage we painted the door and frame of the stables building in quick drying gloss black, and touched up the paddle 'triangles' and some other paintwork around the lock.

Then while RA & RC worked Carpenters Road Lock for the trip boat once again, I busied myself removing some purple graffiti from signs and paintwork below Old Ford Lock.

All in all, this was a much busier day.

2 hours Towpath rangering.

3 hours Lock keeping.

Day Two at Old Ford Lock 19

There were no boat movements today, so MF and myself spent a lot of our time kicking our heels, making sure the place was tidy, handing out maps and leaflets and watching for any boats that might want to use the lock.

We may want to paint the stable door black,
to match the other side.

Inside, on the volunteer kitchen side.

Inside, on the Welcome Station side.

In the end we went home at 3pm.

5 hours.

Day One at Old Ford Lock 19

I popped into the Welcome Station early to mount some heritage displays for the public side of the station. But by 10am our full complement of volunteers had arrived:

Today's team: Me, FM, DL & BW(no relation.)

A possible future location for a bike-rack
and a definite future location of an Elsan cupboard.

"We love hard work and can watch it all day."

Codelock of doom.

We spent much of the day clearing rubbish from around the bins opposite, sweeping out gutters, repairing locks, repainting white parts of the gates, cleaning windows, removing graffiti and planning improvements to the site.

Oh, and we helped two boats down through the lock.

6 hours.

Long Thursday

So I leapt out of bed at 6am to go to a Share the Space event at Old Ford Lock 19 this morning.

Old River Lea junction looking lovely in the morning light.

This was a repeat of yesterday's event with DS and DV, where we engaged with towpath users in Haggerston in the evening rush hour to hand out maplets and share the STS message.

Bobby at Old Ford 19 

Bobby at Sweetwater

It wasn't as busy as we expected, so we took the time to go on down the towpath, to Sweetwater and the Hertford Union looking for more photo-ops for Bobby.

Eventually 11am swung around and we called it a day and I met up with SD and JH at Sweetwater to lead a towpath ranger patrol down the Hertford Union.

We immediately had litter and fly-tipping issues to report, an abandoned Boris-bike and rough sleeping issues to send off to the London Enquiries office.

But the Hertford Union is short and in no-time (or so it seemed) we were at Old Ford on the Regents to say hello to the volunteer lock keepers there. SD, JH and myself are all at various stages of lock keeping experience ourselves so this was a lovely time to chat and share anecdotes.

I returned along the Hertford Union to Old Ford 19 to pick up my bike and cycle home.

6 hours.

Haggerston Lying Down

This was DV, DS and myself; National Towpath Ranger, London Towpath Ranger, and Lead Volunteer Towpath Ranger (Lower Lee). We arrived in Haggerston around 4pm to roll out Bobby and spend some time engaging the towpath using public with the Trust's Share the Space message.

Bobby in Haggerston.

Bobby's off around the country again soon, in the capable hands of DV. He's determined to get as much publicity value out of using him to spread out towpath code as he can before he eventually succumbs to the punishment that kingfisher doles out.

2 hours.

How to talk with strangers.

"Leading Practical Volunteer Events"

This was a training day at House Mill, Three Mills, a lovely, and great smelling, 18th century tidal mill building.

Mills!

There were ten people on the course: a fair mix of old staff, new staff, and old and new volunteers.

There were a few important take aways, but some of the most important for me were about the incredible importance of preparation and delegation, styles of leadership, and building confidence in how to talk with volunteers.

This excellent TED talk by Amy Cuddy on body language was referenced heavily in that second part. 

I'd like to add another useful video. A lot of my time on the towpath is spent approaching members of the public, to offer help, to ask questions and to engage generally. This one's for everyone who struggles with confidence in approaching strangers in public...

6 hours.

Limehouse KD Scooter Blues

Another wet Sunday afternoon, but the day was cheered by the unexpected arrival of KD to accompany me on today's patrol.

We walked out from Limehouse Basin, along the Limehouse cut, me pushing my bike and KD doing sterling work picking up litter as we went. We passed out the usual dozen or so maplets to visiting towpath users too.

At the floating towpath I spent 5 minutes cutting back a bit more of the overhanging foliage, then we crossed Bow Locks to Twelvetrees.

KD points out the scooter.

The remarkably clear water showed us first a scooter in the water, then, less prosaically, a delightful pair of kingfishers working on the far Bow Creek bank.

We strolled on to Old Ford Lock, where we left the rubbish and while I made tea we checked that the lock on the sanitary station door was still working properly.

2 hours.

Bits and bobs

Had a lunchtime meeting with my manager DS and TO.

Talked about the towpath ranger role and what we should be getting up to through the Winter. Then I headed for Docklands and picked up a new uniform sweatshirt (for me, to replace the one that doesn't fit), some wooly hats for volunteers now it's getting cold, and a hi-vis backpack to put the towpath ranger gear into (it doesn't fit very well in the panniers supplied. I'll use those for smaller jobs.

2 hours.

Danger Weird!

Another excellent patrol with the Thursday crew: PA, SD & JH. We walked up from Tottenham Locks through Stonebridge and Picketts Lock to Ponders End Locks.

PA & JH

Issues reported included rough sleeping, litter, a blocked Elsan and mooring problems. We also trimmed back overhanging foliage where it was thought to be causing issues and handed out a few maplets to passers by.

Not sure the plastic rose helps here.

PA & SD trimming back eye-catching stuff.

2 and a half hours.

"Just Read The Instructions"

Today I was checked out as a lock keeper for Old Ford Lock 19 and Carpenters Road Lock.

This was a Competency Assessment And Training Scheme day, alongside three other volunteers and a member of staff, learning the fairly simple operation of Carpenters Road Lock, and the specific things to make sure DON'T happen there - and the finer details of operating Old Ford Lock 19 including the various ways of triggering an emergency shutdown and reset procedures for when that happens!

A lot was made of contacting M&E when things go wrong and can't be reset. And the best way to do this is to call London Enquiries or the weekend emergency number.

The most emphasis was on being observant, watching not only the controls but what was going on in and around the locks, and keeping in communication with the skippers through the locking process.

I enjoyed all of this and asked a lot of questions about a things around the locks to our instructor AF, who fortunately shares my sort of engineering curiosity and could answer all of them.

Check out my trained fox too!

4 hours.

East Wick to Tottenham

Good company for this patrol along the Lee navigation: PA, SD and JH always have a great supply of banter and good questions for me.

JH, PA & SD

We encountered and reported some rough sleeping issues, fly-tipping and overflowing bins, as well as answering questions from boaters and the towpath-using public. Here and there we also pruned back some of the thorny wild roses overhanging the towpath.

At Lea Bridge, this sign needs replacing:

Need a couple of new signs on this bridge.

We finished with a tea break at Markfield Park.

2 hours.

B*ll*cks Twist-Tweak.

Bow locks to East Wick. With SD.

Time to try out the new super-duper ranger kitbag as we broke out the graffiti wipes to tackle a little more of the racist offensive stuff we've seen on the Limehouse Cut.

Then on via Three Mills to Bow where the floating towpath was at last being dismantled.

We finished at East Wick moorings, pleasantly surprised not to have to deal with too much rubbish or fly-tipping.

2 hours.

Move Jena from Old Ford 19 to Lea Bridge OM

A simple cruise with Jack Newman.

I collected a higher security key (which I'll take as a token of the trust the Trust has in me) and I also picked up a towpath ranger kit-bag and a nice all weather hat (thanks Jack & Darren.)

When I fired up Jena's engine there was a puff of smoke from the exhaust inside the engine hole, which was worrying, so I noted that and the dripping stern gland and emailed Steve Tanner about both.

09:30 arrived at Old Ford 19.
10:00 completed engine checks and check over.
10:20 departed Old Ford 19.
11:00 filled with water at East Wick Leisure Mooring service point.
12:15 arrived Lea Bridge Operational Mooring
12:30 completed shut-down and check out.

3 hours.

East London Waterways Festival

This post in lieu of anything more coherent.

08:00 - 19:00 - Crewing/helming Jena.

11 hours.

Old Ford 19 and Bunting!

Rather than do my patrol around the Bow Back Waters today I concentrated on handing out Share the Space information from the new Welcome Station at Old Ford Lock 19 with G who was volunteer lock keeping there.

The new Welcome Station at the stable building has been completed and has a very nice kitchen and useful materials for volunteers.

At 3pm, I joined a crew of staff and a few volunteers to help put up signage and bunting for the East London Waterways Festival the next day. This wasn't as easy as it sounds especially as the bunting had to be hung from lamp posts rather than the mopre easily accessed, but fiercely protected, trees.

4 hours.

Another hop for Jena

This time we moved Jena from Old Ford 19 to Three Mills at Steven Wilding's request.

2 hours.

Graffiti busting and slaying the rubbish beast of Bow

Today I have mostly been painting over obscene and racist graffiti between Bow Locks and Old Ford Locks (19).

A team of four volunteers (SD, VS, PE & NS) and myself, took masonry paint and line marking spray to the rather nasty stuff that had appeared in places along this route. We tried our best to leave less offensive and more artistic street art untouched.

SD tackles some unpleasantness.

VS obliterates racism.

And I snap a quick pic while everyone grabs some lunch
and watches the TV crew setting up to film The Royals.

At the end we still had enough energy to deal with this:

...the dreaded big rubbish bag that has lurked on the Lee towpath between Bow and the Greenway for over a year. Finding it light enough for four of us to drag, we pulled it to Old Ford Locks and left it with the rubbish for a truck or van to collect in due course. Begone foul trash bag!

4 hours.

Hertford Union August 20

This was a solo effort, using the mobile number for London Enquiries to check in and out of Lone Working.

Mostly, I just reported rubbish and fly-tipping on the Hertford Union.

1 hour.

A short hop for Jena

Moving Jena with RE from Three Mills to Old Ford 19.

2 hours.

Old Ford on The Lee

The Lee and Old Ford Foliage

This was a long day moving the workboat The Lee with crew JG, from Lea Bridge OM down to Old Ford to support a foliage cut with young ladies from various London schools, then returning The Lee to its mooring at the end of the day.

There was a small issue where I couldn't open The Lee's M3 (or M5 or M7) security padlocks and I had to be loaned a key by Aidan Slater, which I returned to him at the end of the day.

9 hours