Boat Race, Great Ouse, Cambridgeshire
- Thread starter Bald Rick
- Start date
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
In 1944, the Boat race was also run on the Gt Ouse.But the other way from Littleport to Adelaide, because Churchill wanted to lift the Counrty and London was still too dangerous to run it there. The road on the eastern bank of the river was still a muddy track (drove) then and it was a very wet day that the race was run. There were however loads of spectators that day! Many on horseback.
DeeGee
Member
- Location
- North East Wales
Taking a well deserved hour off from watching ‘Asian Babes’ then Balders?
Chopsy Varmint
Member
View from the Queen Adelaide end of the bank, back at the end of October last year. The plaque is in the footpath on top of the bank.
Daniel
Member
- Location
- Mildenhall, Suffolk
The race finished about a mile from one of our fields.
The covid Nazis were threatening fines of £200 if you wandered up there to watch it.
The covid Nazis were threatening fines of £200 if you wandered up there to watch it.
Hindsight
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Ah, the fens has its own romantic beauty. I would say not flat at all. Many a hill 1 to 2 metres high - Roddons, silt 'hills' which are the relic of post glacial riverbeds. They meander across the fens - though I believe less marked in that area south of Ely, though that is a part of the fens I am not familiar with.
Daniel
Member
- Location
- Mildenhall, Suffolk
No, there are roddons near Littleport, we farm several fields of them, the fields go from black fen to clay to silt to clay to black fen in 80 yards, nightmare!
Hindsight
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Ah, wasn't sure if still black. As I am from the Middle Level south of the Ouse might as well be continental europe to me!!
- Location
- Moreton-in-Marsh, Glos
Slightly off topic, I wonder if any of you chaps who “don’t like to be out of sight of Ely Cathedral” knew my Mother’s cousin Flanders Hopkin from Dairy Farm, Adelaide?
Son of Harold Hopkin and nephew of my Grandfather Stanley Hopkin (who bred Hopkin’s Fenlander celery), Flanders died last Autumn aged 90 something. Outliving every Hopkin male so far by approx 30 years!
I always remember Flanders as a Spraying Contractor, right back from the 1960’s, using high clearance David Brown’s with Chafer sprayers, often fitted with saddle tanks.
The fact that he lived so long makes me wonder if the horrible early mixtures of chemicals and acids he used on all sorts of veg in the Fens, actually prolonged his life.
I do quite a lot of spraying too. So I’m hoping my analogy is correct!
Son of Harold Hopkin and nephew of my Grandfather Stanley Hopkin (who bred Hopkin’s Fenlander celery), Flanders died last Autumn aged 90 something. Outliving every Hopkin male so far by approx 30 years!
I always remember Flanders as a Spraying Contractor, right back from the 1960’s, using high clearance David Brown’s with Chafer sprayers, often fitted with saddle tanks.
The fact that he lived so long makes me wonder if the horrible early mixtures of chemicals and acids he used on all sorts of veg in the Fens, actually prolonged his life.
I do quite a lot of spraying too. So I’m hoping my analogy is correct!
When you open your bedroom window and look straight at Snowdon, then yes the Fens are flat .... and a tad drab too unless you're in to dykes
simon-0116
Member
- Location
- Sheffield
Wasn't it famouse for a massive night club tall tree in 90'sIsn‘t Yarm a posh place oop north?
WGAF! about the boat race
It was had a few nights in it
Exfarmer
Member
- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
But as a friend of mine said , he opens his curtains every morning to the sight of Ely Cathedral a few miles away, who would want to spoil that. I was admittedly trying to sell him some trees at the time.
TheTallGuy
Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire
Eh, I'll have you know that we have our own mountain rescue team around these parts
http://www.pidleymountainrescue.org.uk/
A lot of us natives, sorry indigenous people, get nosebleeds if the get more than a few feet above sea level.
As for dykes... I thought that was one of your "specialist" subjects...
Nearly
Member
- Location
- North of York
It burnt down and now it's a housing estate.
Hindsight
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I would get Vertigo if I looked out on Snowdon!! And to a Fenman a dyke (ditch kind!) is an inverted hedge, full of wildlife if not mown every year - bit like a hedge really! Best wishes,
yes could do with living up say crocodiles piranhas a water jump a few weirs maybe even longer oars so they can knock each other out of the boats
Eh, I'll have you know that we have our own mountain rescue team around these parts
http://www.pidleymountainrescue.org.uk/
A lot of us natives, sorry indigenous people, get nosebleeds if the get more than a few feet above sea level.
As for dykes... I thought that was one of your "specialist" subjects...
Do you still use stiff poles for dyke jumping?
TheTallGuy
Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire
You don't want too stiff a pole when jumping dykes, as you tend to get a bit sore if you do it a lot.