Cosgrove Canal Festival

Cosgrove Canal Festival

July 2018

Cosgrove represents one of three canal festivals we like to attend on the Grand Union and as such you will  usually find us in the Milton Keynes area at this time of year.

Cosgrove kicks off the trio (the others being Linslade and Blisworth) and is run by the Buckingham Canal Society. They use it to raise money and profile for the restoration of the arm which leaves the Grand Union just above Cosgrove Lock.

The Jam Butty in action at Cosgrove

In some ways this is my favourite of the three, as it is all quite small and homespun, is a nice way. There is no big event associated with it and the canal traders are the main attraction. If you look at the village you are left wondering exactly where the customers come from, and in the answer probably lies in the huge static caravan park which can be found at the foot of the canal embankment. I did a spot of googling and it appears to be owned by Whilton Marine, but I stand to be corrected on this point.

The weekend event is massively popular and most visitors seem to walk from the village to the aqueduct and back again, which means that they pass us twice and when they say they will pick preserves up on the way back, they probably will.

This year we stopped making cordials due to a lack of 240v preventing the essential pasteurisation stage of the process. Instead we have started selling duck food at 50p a bag which is proving very popular. In the end we achieved sales slightly over last years figure which delighted us.

It was also a weekend when we were able to catch up with our friends Adam and Adrian (Briar Rose) although in relays rather than together. Adam was working on the Saturday night keeping the Radio 2 universe up to date with the facts, so we were entertained by Adrian who cooked us Bobotie,  a lovely South African dish we had never had before. As it was a hot evening we ate on the towpath sipping more than a bit of Prosecco and chilled wine. This meal was planned for Friday evening but was delayed because of heavy rain - you know - the wet stuff  which used to fall from the sky.

Wand'ring Bark crossing the Iron Trunk Aqueduct at Cosgrove.

Sunday saw Adam arrive on the London train and, in due course, Adrian leave to be at work on Monday morning. Adam spent the evening with us and we had a scratch meal of our combined bits and bobs which was very reminiscent of an evening we spent with them at Upton on Severn. That was another occasion when my blog was way out of date and they thought we were back up the River Avon. Sunday also saw us motor south to wind (turn round) beyond the aqueduct. As we returned Adam nipped through one of the aqueduct access tunnels and got a picture of us cruising above him.

For some reason I didn't get my camera out during the weekend so the photos in this post are from Adam's blog (used with his kind permission).