I purchased the Merry Miller 1, an 8ft sailing dinghy, to accompany me to the Basingstoke Canal.
Very lucky because Merry Miller was the only boat to come right up the cut to the end, to the tunnel.
The Prompt Corner stuck at the Swing Bridge.
The boat returned home to Barton Mills by road.
Merry Miller was based at Barton Mills, and subsequently at Cambridge. That will explain the extended
name of the boat, The Merry Miller from Barton Mills.
The river is actually called the Lark, and rises in the Bury St Edmunds area and
discharges into the Old West River, part of the old course of the Great Ouse. Barton Mills is between
the pound held by the Mildenhall Gas Works sluice and the pound held by the Barton Mills sluice.
The actual course of the river downstream is barred because the old Navigation Weirs at Kings Staunch
(Worlington) and Great & Little Mildenhall Staunches are without gates. The river shallows there
nowadays, making the depth insufficient to float even the Merry Miller!
I remember the afternoons I spent exploring the lower pound. It runs almost straight between Barton Mills
and Mildenhall, with a right hand bend at the lock and then a left hand bend immediately afterwards so
as run adjacent to the gardens. I was heartened to converse with two or three of the locals that didn't
mind that I was sailing in their garden! The river ran a few hundred yards futher, ending at the right
angled turn left, to finish with a weir at the top of Great Staunch.
I understood from one of locals that Great & Little Mildenhall Staunches were treated as a pound
lock!
There was formerly a double bend around the Hotel at Barton Mills, which stood at right angles to the road. The Barton Mills lock had a road bridge obscuring the tail of the lock, the gates had been removed since the head of the lock had the conversion to a up-and-over gate! It was then possible to work the lock with stop planks! The alteration to the present layout of roads obliterates the lock entirely!
The one time that I ran uphill of the river, instead of downhill, I was struck by the remoteness of the counry.
Left there was a Breckland's art from scrublands and right was the flood plain to Tuddenham Heath.
The way from Tuddenham Mill was barred, the levels of the water were down on what they were
in the old days, and levels in the mill stream had to be maintained by a weir!
I was hindered because the levels were down. I was rowing, the mast and sail were left on the bank.
I only went a little way, about three miles I think. I was disheartened! The only way to sail was down river!
As I moved to Cambridge, I brought the Merry Miller down by road. I was in the near from the Railway Station but I had a car! The boat fitted, just...
I often had a crew. The favourite site for training crews was downstream opposite Chesterton at
the common.
I remember the Lambert Twins. Although they were the weight of two, they very soon got the hang
of crewing the boat alone leaving me sitting on the bank!
A few weeks into the new year, end of March I think it was, we were going to assemble the Merry Miller
at the lock when we discovered that the river was too turbulent. We packed up again and turned to
the Lodes. We picked one of them, and commenced to sail with the wind blowing from broadside
on and the sun shining brightly over the protective fen banks. We had an attack of Sunburn!