A trip through 'The Glory Hole'

Tuesday 24th June 2014
I wanted to take Lyra down through The Glory Hole, just for the trip. This morning looked as good a time as any so we untied and set off through Brayford Pool.
We then enter the River Witham, under a road bridge which replaced an earlier swing bridge. Apparently the bridge had a dedicated keeper, but it was causing a lot of traffic jams so the road was raised and the bridge taken out.

 Round the corner was get the first view of The Glory Hole. I believe it was once known as The Murder Hole.

 Above the hole is a cafe. Under here there is lovely fan vaulting

 This steel sculpture is called Empowerment and spans the river at a riverside shopping area.

 As can be imagined the swans around here are generously fed, which makes for lots of them. Collective nouns for swans (with thanks to Google): a gaggle, a gargle, a herd, a bank, a whiteness, a bevy, and strangest of all, an eyrar. Take your choice.

 The trip through the riverside shopping area is interesting, and there is mooring here. However, the prime spots were all taken as we came through, so decided to stop in the same place that we did 8 years ago on a stretch of mooring just the other side of the bridge in the picture below.
It seems as though some H&S jobsworth in the council has been "at it". The gate from these moorings has been locked with a chain and non C&RT lock. I rang C&RT to ask why and was told that it wasn't their doing, but the council's as they thought the gate was too close to the road. What a load of rubbish! Like I said an H&S jobsworth!
Rant over.

 We did actually get a mooring where we wanted because while we were down near the lock winding, one of the boats cast off, so we gladly took the spot.

Here's another picture of the sculpture from a better side.

Later in the day we decided to head off back to our powered mooring in Brayford Pool. We hadn't been tied up for more that 10 minutes when the heavens opened and it poured down. What a stroke of luck that was, deciding to move when we did.

On a down beat note, it looks as if the house purchase may well fall through. The two solicitors dealing with it can't seem to agree on the difference between planing permission, and consent to build. It seems as if there's a standoff and we're getting fed up.