By Rich Harpham FRGS and Ashley Kenlock
Bio
Richard Harpham, FRGS, is a human powered adventurer, coach and inspirational speaker who has completed over 11,000 miles of expeditions by kayak, canoe, SUP and bike www.richadventure.com
Richard runs the award winning Canoe Trail watersports and adventure business with his wife Ashley. Thanks to BAM Clothing, Paramo, Valley Sea Kayaks, Palm Equipment and SilverBirch Canoes for sharing the dream. www.canoetrail.co.uk
Paddling history
Paddling in all its forms offers a window to green and blue spaces and a chance to equalize the balance in our lives, ‘Lilly dipping’ on rivers, lakes and the sea. It also provides those incredible moments of ‘time travel’ and timeless moments through the sense of ‘living history’. For me, it is the idea of touching a bannister or handrail on a sternwheeler on the Yukon River and contemplating who had previously shared that same experience, a connection through time.
The SS Evelyn Norcom, to which I refer, operated as one of over 200 paddle steamers just after the gold rush. I first embraced ‘living history’ when training as a commercial diver at Plymouth University back in the day; we dived plenty of wrecks and also passed our Nautical Archaeology qualifications spending time recording artefacts as part of the Maltese Archaeological Project. Diving on wrecks, you felt the Marie Celeste sense of time, having stood still at a particular moment as if pause had been pressed, cocooned forever.
Thousands of years
I also love that kayaks (or qayaqs as the Inuits called them) and canoes are traditional craft dating back thousands of years. The Peterborough Canoe Museum in Ontario, one for your bucket list, has craft dating back to almost 4000BC and brilliant examples of aboriginal craft and paddles. Each paddle stroke we take has been developed and shared over thousands of years, an incredible legacy we have built as a species. The latest paddling revolution of SUP is also believed to trace back several thousand years to island peoples.
Traditional or ‘trad skills’ in canoe particularly link back to the traders in Canada and the North. They used lining and tracking, poling, rafting, sailing and portaging to move up and down rivers to reach trading posts and pioneering communities. On our wilderness expeditions such as the North Seal River, Manitoba and Temagami, we have used these skills on white water and through lakes and rapids to travel safely and efficiently. In general, our jeopardy levels are lower with modern equipment and extraction if things do go pear-shaped.
Like most waterways, closer to home, our own River Great Ouse was a conveyor belt of trade, travel, and everyday life. If you look closely, the river tells a story of nature and anthropogenic changes and development twisting and meandering through the centuries. I love the opportunity to make those connections to our ancestors whilst paddling our quiet backwaters.
Entrepreneurs and engineers
In the 1600s, an Act of Parliament allowed ‘adventurers’ who implemented drainage schemes to recover their investment through the reclaimed land. This attracted entrepreneurs and engineers to tackle flooding and drainage schemes to control the waters. At one stage, there were over 32 mills on the Bedford stretch of the river providing water power to mill crops into flour, locks and sluices to allow travel and trade. The rivers were dredged, altered, and wood harvested to fuel the hungry stoves and boilers of the cargo barges.
Victorian Embankment
Beyond this, aqueducts, coffer dams, pumps and other mechanical inventions served the developers. Bedford’s stunning Victorian Embankment was created as a tree-lined river diversion; it allowed the Victorians, pioneers of the great outdoors, to promenade taking on the season. Consider this, the Doomsday Book (1086) recorded two water mills at Great Barford, 7-8 miles downstream, one worth 22s and the other 7s and 80 eels, the currency of the fens.
For me, some of the personal favourites on our river of interesting facts and connections are links to famous historical figures. For example, John Smeaton, known as the father of civil engineering, built the bridge and lock system at Cardington outside Bedford and the Eddystone lighthouse between 1756 and 1759. He also designed London Bridge foundations, Forth and Clyde Canal (1768-1777) and harbours galore.
John Bunyan
Bedford’s famous father, John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrims Progress, had many connections to the river. He was baptized in its calm waters in 1650 (the blue plaque is visible at Duckmill, now called the Etienne Stott White Water Arena after his London 2012 Gold Medal). Later, he was imprisoned in the town prison, located on the main town bridge over the river. ( A stone marks this spot on the bridge).
Incredible then to hear of a further random broader connection to Terry Waite (the envoy from Arch Bishop of Canterbury), imprisoned in Lebanon in 1991 for five years. In prison, the only thing he received was a postcard of the Pilgrims Progress stained glass window in Bedford. Go figure!
Britain as a whole offers a paddling mecca with plenty of waterways to explore with deep and rich paddling history. Hopefully, you have tapped into this mindset to upgrade your paddling trips. A great place to start expanding your connections to the landscape and history is to access maps and research a little of the trip before the wheels are rolling. A quick Google search will lead provide some clues for your inner detective to follow.
Maps offer another source of detail examining features, points of interest and places names. Historic cities and towns are an easy starting location to cut your teeth on. Some of the incredible places I have paddled have included: Kennet and Avon Canal, River Thames, Avon at Warwick, Ironbridge, Scapa Flow, Loch Ness, Beauly Gorge, and Loch Maree, to name a few. We have listed a few to act as a source of inspiration for your time-travelling adventures.
Cambridge Backs
Paddling the Backs at Cambridge is one of my all-time favourite paddles. Before you venture through the sandy coloured bridges, temples of academic excellence and dodge the punts heaving with enthusiastic tourists, make sure you hold a British Canoeing Membership, which is the only accepted licence on the private water. Venturing through the city and down to the Orchard Tea Rooms near Grantchester is a perfect paddling day.
The Orchard Tea Rooms was the spiritual home of many famous poets, including Rupert Brooke, Virginia Woolf, Maynard Keynes (economist), and Alan Turing (Mathematician). Brookes tragically killed in WW1 in the famously wrote, “If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England.”
Maunsell Forts on the Thames
Sea kayaking to the WWII Maunsell Forts on the River Thames is no small undertaking with over 20 miles of paddling there and back. Part of our London defences against air raids with bofors guns and early warning systems must have been terrifying for the crew stationed there. These iconic steel structures slowly decaying in a cloak of red and brown flaking metal, looking like a scene from any decent sci-fi movie. Just touching the support legs of these 18m tripods and staring upwards from the jiggling waves to see the gantries and walkways was a real treat, especially after hours of paddling. The forts also served as home to pirate radio stations more recently and remain a chilling monument.
Loch Maree
Loch Maree is a picture-postcard destination to paddle flanked by imposing angry-looking mountains despite its remote wilderness location in Wester Ross in the North of Scotland. It is a real gem and the fourth largest freshwater loch in Scotland, boasting five larger islands and 60 smaller ones and a spooky sunken forest at one end. Its history is incredible, with the chapel’s remains believed to be the 8th-century hermitage of Saint Mael Ruba, burial ground with a money tree and ancient spring.
During the middle ages, the island of Eilean Ghrùididh on Loch Maree was a centre for the MacBeaths; an investigation of the island in 1965 found a fortified area measuring 44 by 36 metres with walls one-metre thick and two metres high, with a 1.8 metre deep dungeon in the southeast corner. Loch Maree was popular with royalty, with Queen Victoria visiting in 1877, followed by the naming of the waterfall nearby as Victoria Falls and now conveniently accessible from the more recently named Route 500. Loch Maree is a SSSI and home to lots of wildlife, including the Black-Throated Diver.
Ironbridge Gorge
Ironbridge on the River Severn is one of those places that always bring a smile to my face. I have canoed it many different times, including a memorable night paddle on a 24-hour training mission and also in spate when it truly ripped through. Ironbridge Gorge is a UNESCO world heritage site showcasing the heartbeat of the industrial revolution. There are fantastic museums, one of the best Youth Hostel sites in the country and plenty of yummy places to eat.
Further downstream are the Jackfield Rapids offering a chance for a play on the bubbly stuff as well as brilliant water holes with picturesque riverside pubs. Further downstream at old ferry boat locations or chain bridges are the Boat Inn and the Coalport Bridge.
Kennet and Avon Canal
The Kennet and Avon Canal winds 87 miles through the incredible countryside of Wiltshire and classic English countryside. It was constructed between 1794 and 1810, joining two river navigations of the River Avon near Bristol and the River Kennet at Newbury before flowing into the River Thames.
A few years ago, we worked for the Canal and River Trust at Caen Hill flight of locks operating a ‘come and try it’ session to get people paddling. It is incredible to think of how difficult it would be today with mechanical equipment to excavate such structures, never mind in the 1800s by hand. The Kennet and Avon Canal is forever etched in my mind with the infamous 125-mile Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Race with its 77 intense portages and eerie tunnel sections.
History overseas
Many of my bigger adventures overseas have followed historic trading routes and trails, including the Yukon River, the Eerie Canal, and London to Marrakech by bike and kayak. For me ensuring my journeys remain iconic, authentic and connected with what has gone before is essential. For example, I originally sea kayaked from Vancouver to Glacier Bay, Alaska and subsequently canoed Whitehorse to Circle Alaska and filled in the missing bit from Juneau to Skagway to Whitehorse via the Chilkoot Trail.
This made an unbroken trail of 2,000 miles that many Gold Rush Stampeders would have followed. All along the way were markers of industry, toil and life at the limit through history. Similarly, London to Marrakech involved sea kayaking around Fort Boyard in France built by Napoleon and later a watery prison (and popular TV Show) and then sea kayaking from Gibraltar to Ceuta fortress, which uniquely links the Med and the Atlantic via its moat.
Your next steps
So that’s it, gather your camera, leather-bound notebook and fedora and start exploring. A little bit of research and local planning is a rewarding investment in your paddling trip experiences. Be a detective, ask a local, and keep an eye on date stones and castings on bridges, signage, names and points of interest on maps. It is a great ‘I- spy’ type activity for families and kids as well.
Lockdown increased people’s knowledge of what lies on their doorstep. We would love to hear more examples of your paddling history to share some secret locations and hidden history. Historical locations such as castles, bridges and other locations offer such an inviting place to paddle; check out Warwick, Eilean Donan and Bodiam Castles for the most incredible backdrops.
Make sure you check out any hazards and plan your trip around the conditions and weather. Cities such as Oxford (Cherwell), Canterbury (Great Stour) and York (Ouse) have plenty to see as well. We don’t want to spoil the reveal like all good magic tricks, so take some time to plan a historic paddle for yourselves.
Stay safe and happy trails.
