Messing about in Boats
The slalom was the first artificial whitewater course in the country. It has a dual purpose: as a training run for enthusiasts, and to control flooding. Fibreglass boulders create the whitewater, and its maximum drop is 1.7 metres.
Long before railway and roads were built, people and goods travelled the river in all kinds of craft, especially local fen lighters. Designed to navigate shallow water, fen lighters could float empty on 2 feet of water, then dropped more than an inch for every ton they carried, to a maximum cargo of 25 tons, drawing 3”6’ of water.
These horse-drawn barges measured around 46 x 11 feet (14 by 3.4 metres) and typically worked in trains of up to 5 boats strapped together, one boy guiding the horse, a couple of men tending the boats.
It was a tough life, walking up to 20 miles a day along muddy banks in all weathers. The river crews survived on salted meats and supped beer at the boatmen’s riverside pubs – a pint for a boy, a quart for a man.