Catching President and Kildare on their way to London

Over the last month, boats have been travelling to London for the upcoming Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.

Three weeks ago I was enjoying a relaxed Sunday morning inside Granny Buttons at Streethay when a whistle  tooted very loudly as a boat went past.

I knew immediately it was the steam narrowboat President towing Kildare, just like the chimes of Greensleeves tell you that ice cream is outside.

I rushed outside in a t-shirt, only to find a hailstorm starting.

Once I'd got back inside to put on a jacket , the boats had passed. I had to run a quarter-mile to catch up, and missed a chance for a decent photo. All I could catch was this snap of it passing under a railway bridge - although the steerer thoughtfully let off more steam when he saw my camera raised.

The Kildare crew were dressed for the part of the hailstorm and looked resigned but tolerant.

Just a couple of days later the pair were at Polesworth when press photographer Rod Kirkpatrick of F-Stop Press caught up with them and followed them up the Atherstone flight.

He enjoyed better weather, and the result was an excellent spread of seven photos in the Daily Mail showing President & Kildare set against the golden fields of rape.

Click here to see President & Kildare in all their glory on the Mail Online. 

I've never seen such good photos of President!  Leastways, none of such high quality all assembled together.

Incidentally, I know it's not fashionable to approve of the Daily Mail, but these days its website is truly an excellent publisher of good photojournalism, giving photographers the chance to showcase their work. 

It also gives a handy summary of each story in 'stacked headlines' like newspapers of old.

But that's just still photography. What about movie, what about video?

Assorted TV news programs gave them brief coverage on the way down to London. But if you want to see a nice clip of President passing through Berkhamsted, try Dee TV's "President chugs to Canalway Cavalcade".

(Click the picture above to view on the DeeTV website.)

DeeTV is a new local internet TV venture for the Berkhamsted area set up by veteran waterways supporter Lindy Foster-Weinreb and her family.

Lindy alerted us via an email that said:

Here is a film of President on her way to Cavalcade - feel free to use it on your web site or pass it on!

I assumed that meant we were invited to embed it, but after some time struggling I found that I couldn't.  It turned out that what she really mean to say was "Feel free to give us  a mention on your website."

Turns out they won't allow embedding, because the priority of the young business is to get advertising hits rather than to get the video viewed. 

To be fair, when I nagged Lindy and her daughter about this, they very kindly supplied me with a personalised embed code "just for you", but I couldn't get it to work.  Let me know if it works for you.

 

Still, it's a very nice little video, conveying a lot about President and Kildare in its 3:30mins - definitely one for canal fans.

DeeTV has different channels (see 'You Choose') for different subjects, and an 'In Your Area' section.  There's no 'Canal' category yet - I hope they add one and I look forward to more canal news from 'Berko'.

President & Kildare made it down to London in time for the Little Venice Cavalcade last weekend, and presumably for the rehearsal yesterday for the Thames Diamond Jubilee pageant, but I haven't heard about that yet.

Comments

[Doug Bostrom]

Is it just my imagination, or does President have a much deeper draft than typical modern narrowboats?

[Doug Bostrom]

Just dropped by to grab your email address so as to pry into why no updates for so long but-- lo!-- you're back! Hooray!

Periodic NB charter enthusiasts in Seattle very much appreciate the opportunity to vicariously crank paddles via Granny Buttons.

[Linda Ex Nb Paws 4 Thought]

Welcome back - missed my canal blog fix!

[Richard]

Good to have you back! where have you been

Richard
NB Pendle Warter