Crofton Pump House - Thursday 18th April 2013

This morning we took a walk around the village of Great Bewdyn which has some lovely cottages and a church. We found the Baker which Sue had mention and purchased some delicious bread rolls and pies for lunch.

A little further down the road we came across the Post Office with its Flea Market and next door the old Monument makers yard still with some of his work still lying about. Near to our mooring we spotted this old Morris lorry which still appeared to being used.

Returning to the boat we moved up to the water point and filled with water whilst having a pump out on the adjacent C&RT machine, which I must say worked really well. There are lots of them along the K & A, a good job as there are only a few Boat Yards.
We were soon on our way battling against a strong wind until we reached the Crofton Pump House where we moored up for lunch and then James and I went to explore its workings.

The two pumps draw water from the canal and from the Wilton Water opposite and lift it to the level of the top of Crofton Locks to keep the pound supplied with water via the Leet which can be seen in the bottom right photo..

You can see the height that the water is lifted by the pumps from the picture taken from the pump house of our boats moored below.

Had to show this picture of James with real spanners, unfortunately both James and I can remember using them.
Later I took Phoenix a walk along the Wilton Water to the village which has many delightful thatched cottages and a nice pub serving local ales and ciders, The Swan.

Talking to a local dog owner I was advise to walk the half mile up the steep hill out of the village to the Windmill on the top. The mill is only open on Sundays and Mondays but I was able to have a look around the outside and there were some fantastic views over the surrounding countryside.

Although the wind was very strong it was a lovely sunny evening and I thought I had better include this picture of Phoenix walk along the towpath with Doug.