On Thursday 23rd October we set off from Thorne to complete our ‘delivery’ of grain to Doncaster. We first had to negotiate Thorne lock, which, because it is Sheffield size, meant we had to lock the cog boat through separately.
We also had to negotiate the lowest bridge on this canal.
The wind was not suitable for sailing and unfortunately the towpath above Thorne was very overgrown and unsuitable for towing. However there were some good views, even if the earth movers creating this particular hill had just disappeared over the horizon.
We passed through Stainforth, where ‘Daybreak’s skipper Harry Brackenbury lived and where she was often moored outside his house.
We also passed under Stainforth Bridge, which appears on many old photographs of keels.
We stopped overnight at Barnby Dun and in the morning we were met by Brian Holt, who lives there and joined us for rest of the trip to Doncaster.
Once there we moored up at the top end of the visitors’ moorings, which was close to the site of Hanley’s Mill where ‘Daybreak’ would have delivered her cargo of grain.
While in Doncaster we had a few visitors who had heard that we were in town. The local paper published an article about our visit, which was picked up by the National Historic Ship’s website. We had a visit from a press photographer who was very taken with the ship and I took her out in the cog boat to get some pictures.