Denver . . . But Not As We Know It

Leaving Denver you head down Ten Mile Bank, which rather speaks for itself. The Great Ouse is a natural river but after the worst floods ever recorded, in nineteen forty seven, the Great Ouse Protection Scheme undertook a vast range of works, over a decade, which included artificially widening and deepening the Great Ouse back to Ely and connecting it to the Relief Channel via a sluice. As a result the landscape didn't seem to have changed all that much. A long stretch, through completely flat, open country, hidden behind the high banks.

Not Much Change. Bleak, Flat, High Banked But Very, Very Wide.

The biggest differences to The Middle Levels were the width of the channel, which feels vast and an increase in the speed limit, to a dizzying seven miles per hour.

The weather had turned slightly against us yesterday, with steadily rising winds and some rain while we waited at Salters Lode. It rained heavily overnight and a strong wind remained a key feature. We had a few very light showers and dodged one heavier one over lunch, then the sun came through for the afternoon, though the wind remained. Ten miles on we moored up opposite Littleport at about two-thirty.

We went for a stroll around the town in the afternoon. Crossing the bridge, Victoria Street is a long and tedious straight road up into the town from the river. Our overriding impression, as we walked up it and arrived at the Co-op store in the centre, was of a really strange combination of architecture and styles all mixed in together, with no strong theme of date or purpose; just one or two houses thrown up in odd spaces, here or there, with no apparent control. Some were clearly early twentieth century, some very recent and there were examples of everything in between.

The Co-op stands on the site of the Globe Inn, the flashpoint for the Littleport Riots. In May 1816, starving and disgruntled at the rising price of bread, fifty-six residents of the town met at The Globe Inn to discuss their situation. Inevitably, they had a drink while they talked, although it is unclear how they had money for ale but not for bread. Fuelled by drink they took to the streets and their numbers swelled as they sought out wealthier townsfolk, intimidated and robbed them and ransacked their houses. They ignored the vicar's attempt to read the riot act, forcing him to gather his family and flee to Ely. The next day, having loaded an eight foot punt gun onto a stolen wagon, they had a day out in Ely, drinking and terrorising the populace before returning to Littleport. Some say this is still a normal Saturday night out in the Fens.

On the third day a troop of Dragoons arrived and eventually put down the riot, which fizzled out when one of the rioters attacked a trooper, attempted to flee and was shot in the head. Eighty two people were committed for trial and twenty four, including one woman, sentenced to death. Only five were eventually executed, the rest having their sentences commuted to transportation or imprisonment.

Memorial To One Of The Founders Of Harley Davidson's Dad.

Further up, across the High Street, we came across this memorial to William Harley. You might think that, for this sculpture to be installed, this would be the man who founded Harley Davidson motor cycles but the connection is a little more tenuous. William Harley left Littleport, with his wife, in eighteen fifty nine, at the age of twenty-four and emigrated to Milwaukee. Twenty years later he had a son, William S. Harley, who later went on to found the famous motor cycle company with a childhood friend, Arthur Davidson. Still, Littleport takes its fame where it can find it. They have done a splendid job of cheering up this building, which looks like a decommissioned public convenience.

Cheerful Building Of Indeterminate Function

If you want to see what it looked like before, check out Google Street View from 2016.

Right opposite the mooring in Littleport was the Swan On The River. You guessed it, it overlooks the river. Despite the wind, we enjoyed a pint there in the sun and reviewed our situation. Our specific plans had really only gone as far as making the crossing to Denver. Our experience of the services available from the EA was that they were unreliable. On the way down from Denver we had seen several of the EA mooring sites that were roped off as being unfit for use. At the Denver Complex, itself, all the services we were relying on there were out of commission and we had also found a notice from July, that had never been rescinded, advising that Ely services were closed for repair. Our conclusion was that we needed to do a lot more research to make sure we knew what was and wasn't available where.

Saturday morning, then, was spent entirely on posting questions to local forums asking for updates and phoning everyone who was listed as offering what we would need. We were able to check if they did, indeed, have that service and would be happy for us to use it. I think we were rather lucky that every one of the places we called did answer, eventually and most confirmed that they could help us. We also got confirmation that Ely services were open again and had been in full use the day before. Based on these results we planned our route forward for quite a number of days.

While doing all this the wind continued to blow across the fens, which led to a cruiser bashing into us as it tried to pull in and moor in front of us. At the end of the day a plastic yoghurt pot wasn't going to do too much damage to eighteen tonnes of steel but I went out to see if I could help him by taking a line and he was really struggling to get it into the bank against the wind.