Celtic Fringe Crafts

31st July - been a bit remiss in keeping you up to date with our whereabouts lately! Sorry but finishing the butty workshop area and travelling (along with all that entails) has meant long hard days, plus working, so time has been a bit short.

Anyway, we are on the Leicester section of the Grand Union canal, heading towards the River Soar and then the Trent and Mersey canal. We will be at the IWA Festival of water in Burton-on-Trent at the end of August and before that somewhere near Alrewas. At the moment we are below King's Lock on the first of the Soar sections through Leicester.

28th June - yippee! The Buthy is now stretched and back in the water...moored next to Celtic Fringe. At long last...here's to the first day of the rest of our lives! Pics are or will be on fb until I can get to the PC to upload them here...!

23rd April - we've moved! Admittedly not very far, but we are now on the North Oxford, between bridges 90 & 89, (still Braunston, you understand - stuff to do in the next week or two) andheading towards Alvecote...

2nd April - we are now moored at Braunston, between the marina entrance, next to the Gongoozlers, and the ladder bridge. We may be open for hats tomorrow...

26th March - we are moored on the Grand Union canal, between bridges 19 & 20, near Stockton. We will be here for a few days... 4 locks, 7 miles and 3 hours. Canal was very busy between Braunston Turn & Wigrams! Weather amazing - again!

24th March - now moored just above the bottom lock at Braunston (again)...7 hours, including an hour at Crick & half an hour at Norton junction for water, 12 locks, 2 tunnels and 11 miles!

22nd March - now moored a smidgen N of bridge 21 (which is not on Google maps), near Yelvertoft. Work to do and good internet!

21st March - happy second 'living on our boat' anniversary to us! Today weare moored at Welford, the highest point on the whole of the Grand Union Canal! Pub not serving food tonight but we have found (i.e. bought) some tempura prawns, so we'll just have to make do...

19th March - 6 1/2 miles, 5 locks and a tunnel. Now moored at the bottom of Foxton locks.

17th March - 1 lock and 1 mile and we are now moored at Kilby Wharf in the sun!

16th March - 11 locks and 7 miles, most of it in the pouring rain! Now moored between Tythorn lock & Bumblebee lock. Will travel through Bumblebee lock, past Kilby Bridge to the winding hole tomorrow morning and moor somewhere around Kilby Bridge tomorrow night.

15th March - we are now moored between bridges 68 & 69 on the Leicester Line and heading towards Leicester!

13th March - we are now moored at Market Harborough, on the towpath outside the basin. Six and a half miles and Foxton Locks (2staircases of 5 each), 3 hours.

12th March - we are now at the top of Foxton Locks - didn't go down the Welford Arm today as we need to get to Market Harborough & Wigston in the next few days. Might try and get down it on our way back down the Leicester Line...

11th March - 6 and a bit miles, 7 locks (Watford) and a tunnel (Crick)! Now moored between bridges 19 & 20 on the GU Leicester Line. Heading to the Welford Arm tomorrow, then Foxton Locks and Market Harborough over the next couple of days... Dry start but moored up in rain! Oh well, we had 2 or 3 days of dry weather with some sun so can't complain!

8th March - Happy International Women's Day! We are now heading up the Leicester section of the Grand Union and have moored just S of bridge 2. We will likely be here for a couple of days because the internet is good and there is work which requires it! It was sunny yesterday, and today up until about an hour ago (i.e. 3.30pm)... New hats - see Hats under Tactile Textiles.

7th March - now moored between bridges 6 & 7 to the east of Braunston tunnel, but only til tomorrow when we will move onto the Leicester line. Will keep you posted!

3rd March - Moved from The Folly at Napton to just above the bottom lock at Braunston today, in case you need to find us!

We have a small amount of stock for sale on board Celtic Fringe - alas, we've no room for very much but can access otherstock given a bit of warning!

24th January - The Buthy is now out of the water and, presumably in the workshop; perhaps even being chopped...eeek! The extra 26' goes in between the bow doors and the upstand forward of the well deck.

20th January 2022 - update (photos below)

Celtic Fringe has now been signwritten, had a proper swan's neck installed (although it still needs to be painted!) and has new, manilla, fenders fore and aft! That was all done at Braunston: signwriting - Will Hewitt at Braunston Bottom Lock; swan's neck - Roger at Braunston Bottom Lock; and fenders - Tradline at Braunston Wharf. The signwriting and swan's neck were done after the launch and the fenders were done later, in December, which necessitated a trip from Wigrams to Braunston - overnight of course! - and back.

We had already taken Celtic Fringe from the launch pad (as it were) to the bottom lock (around ½ mile) and then, once the work was done a few days later, brought her to Wigrams.

The next trip was to take The Buthy to Tim Carter at Weedon for stretching: from a wee 31' butty to a fully grown 57' butty. So, back to Braunston once more, although this time, after an overnight stop, we continued up the locks, through the tunnel, along to Long Buckby, down Buckby Locks and then on to Weedon (2 days' cruising in total), where we stayed the night before returning the way we had come over the next two days. It was a good trip and we can't wait to get out there...!