Aylesbury Duck anyone ?

Tonight we’re tied up at the end of the very rural seven mile Aylesbury Canal Arm, which drops down from just below the summit of the Grand Union Canal. It was opened in 1815, and was a well used commercial waterway for around 150 years, until trade finally petered out in the 1960s.

A very quiet waterway (with the first narrow locks we’ve come across for seven months)

One particular canal carrier, Harvey-Taylor, operated from a wharf in the town, and one of their wooden boats still exists – currently used to teach school kids about the history of working canal boats ……

Harvey-Taylor’s boat ‘Roger’

Aylesbury is also well known for ducks.

An Aylesbury Duck

The Aylesbury duck is a large duck with pure white plumage. White ducks became popular in the 18th century owing to the demand for white feathers as a filler for quilts. Over the 19th century selective breeding for size, shape and colour led to the Aylesbury duck.

Duck rearing became a major industry in the town in the 19th century and the opening of a railway to the town in 1839 enabled cheap and quick transport to the markets of London. By the 1860s the duck rearing industry began to move out of Aylesbury into the surrounding towns and villages, and the industry in the town itself began to decline. It has all now all gone.

What else is the town famous for ? – well, Ronnie Barker first took to the stage here as a 19 year old in 1948…..

This is Ronnie Barker looking at the the Waterside Theatre in the town – architecturally very impressive.

Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

Bank branches in many market towns occupy some quite impressive buildings formerly used for something else, however this one in the town looks to be a bit of a ‘hand me down’ !

 

The Summit

As most of our readers will know, canals (generally) have locks interspersed along their lengths, the purpose being to help a boat go up hills (or down).

Now, bearing in mind that almost all canals round the country are linked, once you get to the top of a hill, then what ?  Well, you go down again, the other side. The top level is called the canal summit. Filling a lock requires 50,000 gallons of water to be run into it, and the same amount run out to go down the other side – total of 100,000 gallons of water each time a boat goes over the summit; that’s one million gallons of water for just ten boats, but where does it all come from ?

A river would seem an obvious source, but remember we’re at the top of a hill. Pumped maybe ? – most canals were built before steam became widely used, so no. Waterwheel driven pumps again need a river, so a bit restricted there too.  The solution was to build reservoirs at the summit level, holding sufficient water to allow for even the busiest boating activity when the canals were the the main freight routes up and down the country.

We’re at the ‘Tring Summit’, the highest point on the Grand Union Canal (opened 1805) as it passes over the Chilterns, and up here there are four large reservoirs, dug out and with dams built using nothing more than shovels !

Here’s one of them –

The drawing below, shows the four reservoirs. The main line of the Grand Union runs from the right of the map, to the top. The arm going to the bottom is the Wendover Arm, and is the main ‘feeder’ receiving water from two of the reservoirs, the other two feed the main line directly.  The arm going off to the left is the Aylesbury Arm – more on that in the next post.

The four summit reservoirs

We see a few herons on our travels, but they usually fly away as soon as you get anywhere near them, this one at a lock didn’t though, presenting an opportunity for a photo for you.

A very tame heron