Pigeon Pie and Tooley’s Discovery Friday 27th June

We thought we would be having Pigeon Pie for tea tonight but the Racing Pigeon Association phoned us about 9.15 this morning to give us the contact details for Pilgrim pigeon, as we have christened him. I phoned and Terry said that he would come and collect him early on Saturday morning. We still wondered if he would make it for Terry to collect but after we had returned from a mornings shopping he was eating some of the rice we had put in the bowl with him. Whilst out we had bought bird seed and we put some of it in his bowl and he has been eating it all through the day. He is now quite bright and responds when we go in the cratch to check on him so all being well he should make a good recovery.

The weather has been so much better than the forecast and we have had only a couple of light showers with some lovely bright sunshine so we have been out and about in Banbury with June exploring the shops and me having a look around Tooley’s Historic Boatyard. As well as being a working boatyard it also has a fine  display of its history.

Among the exhibits is this 1912 Bolinder engine believed to be the earliest example in the country.Some of the other exhibits include the tools for making wooden boats, some very old electrical tools like drills made by Black & Decker and the 200 year old Forge.

Tom Rolt’s boat “Cressy” was prepared for his honeymoon cruise in 1939 at Tooley’s. The cruise was the basis of his book “Narrowboat” which led to the formation of the Inland Waterways Association.

Whilst walking around the exhibition looking at the photographs I spotted somebody I recognised. It was Pete off the Icebreaker Oxford No.1 we had met earlier in the week, and chatting to the lady in Tooley’s it appears that Pete used to work at the Boatyard and has done much to organise the collection of engines and memorabilia; no wonder he knew so much about the canals history and narrowboats in general. He is obviously a very talented gentleman.

At dinner time we had a call from Terry to say that he could come and collect Pilgrim Pigeon tonight so we readily agreed and he arrived about 8.15pm. We were so glad as Pilgrim was now raring to go and was fluttering around the cratch and pooping everywhere. So no Pigeon Pie tonight.