Finding a new home for Tastoma

31/01/2007 by Mark.Whalley.

Rolls-Royce

Having secured a contract with Rolls-Royce (www.rolls-royce.com) in Derby (well not quite true as I was still waiting to get MoD Security Clearance), my next concern was what to do about accommodation during the weekdays whilst working away from home.

Well again, that was not quite the sequence of events. The truth is more along the lines of; um, a contract at Rolls-Royce in Derby? Now before I consider applying, just how close are they to a canal, and more importantly, an available mooring? Of course, with the Trent and Mersey canal, River Trent, River Soar and the less well known Erewash canal within a stone’s throw of Derby, I was quickly onto www.waterscape.com looking for mooring locations. A phone call to the very helpful Linda at the BWML Sawley Marina (www.bwml.co.uk) assured me that there was indeed room for our 52’ Tastoma on a non-residential basis.

With my application for the contract with Rolls-Royce now with the agent (www.certes.co.uk), it wasn’t very long before I was contacted by Daniel Leahy to say that I had been shortlisted and would I be prepared to attend an interview on 31st January. With the interview planned for 09:30, we (Bev and I) decided to travel there the day before and stay overnight so that I would be ready for the interview in the morning. This is when a number of strange coincidences occurred. Not knowing the area very well, I used www.lastminute.com to help identify hotels local to RR. The one that came out at the top of the list just so happened to be The Priest House www.thepriesthouse.co.uk, a hotel that Bev and I had stayed in during our search for a narrow boat back in 2003! Further, on making a reservation, I noted that their postcode ended with 2RR – and where would I be going TO the following morning? Then, when driving from The Priest House to Raynesway (just outside of Derby), I caught sight of a car number plate that ended with ‘ABF’ – and acronym for Application By Forms and one of the essential requisites for the job!

Following the interview we drove to Sawley Marina where we met up with Linda. She gave me an application for mooring form and directed us to pontoon H – where Tastoma would be moored should we decide to move here.

To say that the marina is large is an understatement. Considering that during my time at the Titford Pumphouse where there were never more than 6-7 boats permanently moored, Sawley Marina boasts over 600 moorings!

We quickly found the pontoon – alongside one of the larger narrowboat hire companies and saw that there were a number of unoccupied slots on the pontoon. We had a quick look around the impressive facilities – boat yard, chandlery, dolls house shop and café/restaurant (where we had a cup of coffee and a huge filled baguette with chips!) before heading off home, happy that if I was successful in my interview I would at least have a decent mooring to bring Tastoma to.

Within days, a telephone call from Daniel (Certes) to inform me that I had got the contract!

There’s nothing like good planning!

In preparation for moving Tastoma from the Titford Pumphouse to Sawley, I used the trusty CanalPlan AC web site (www.canalplan.org.uk) to plan the route. This resulted in a route of 59 miles 5¾ furlongs (and 2½ inches!) with 65 locks. With the move being done in February and the prospect of inclement weather, we did not want to rush the move, so with Bev having half-term from college starting 17th February this would give us up to 9 days to play with (in theory needing about 3½) .

A little closer to the time I checked www.waterscape.com for any stoppages en-route. To my horror, I discovered that locks 2, 9 and 11 of the Aston flight on the Birmingham & Fazeley were planned to be closed between 8th January and 16th March. What were my alternatives? A further route plan on CanalPlan suggested taking the Digbeth Branch at Aston Junction then down the Grand Union to rejoin the Birmingham & Fazeley below the Aston Flight at Salford Junction. Excellent I thought. Back to the list of stoppages at www.waterscape.com, only to find that due to a culvert leakage at Artillery Bridge, a whole section of the Grand Union was to be closed starting on Monday 19th. I decided to telephone British Waterways just to confirm the stoppages before planning a further, even longer route. Fortunately, BW informed me that due to the recent DEFRA cut in their funding, they had completed work on one of the Aston locks and decided not to commence work on the other two. The emergency stoppage at Artillery Bridge however, had to go ahead. This was the news I wanted to hear and that we would now be able to take our original route.

Although we did not plan every overnight stop, we decided that as we wanted to clear the industrial part of Birmingham in one run and get out as far as Curdworth or even better, get to Bodymoor Heath (where I believed there to be some decent pubs), we would do the short leg from the Pumphouse into the centre of Birmingham on the first day, and be ready to tackle the high density of locks of Farmer’s Bridge and Aston.

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