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A winter’s night on the canal, starless and wind gnawed. A snug cabin with a warm stove. A hot drink in a favourite mug (and a biscuit or two). A cosy chair waiting for you. It’s just the perfect kind of night to curl up and listen to some accounts about life on the canals in winters past, when the ice was 2ft 6in deep.

Journal entry:

14th February, Friday

"Steel-grey half-light.
Rooks swing round the naked oaks.
The daily clamour of heading for home;
Roosting time.

Their exuberant crow song
And sense of life
Fill me with a nameless emotion.

It's something about
A longing for home."

Episode Information:

The two readings featured in this episode are:

‘The Great Frost of 1895’ by Monica Bennett and ‘Day of the ‘Iceberg’ by Ron Whatley. They both can be found in Up the Cut: An anthology of inland waterways edited by Ivan E Broadhead, published in 1994 by Alan Sutton Publishing.

With special thanks to our lock-wheelersfor supporting this podcast.

Kevin B.
Fleur and David Mcloughlin
Lois Raphael
Sami Walbury
Tania Yorgey
Andrea Hansen
Chris Hinds
David Dirom
Chris and Alan on NB Land of Green Ginger
Captain Arlo
Rebecca Russell
Allison on the narrowboat Mukka
Derek and Pauline Watts
Anna V.
Orange Cookie
Mary Keane.
Tony Rutherford.
Arabella Holzapfel.
Rory with MJ and Kayla.
Narrowboat Precious Jet.
Linda Reynolds Burkins.
Richard Noble.
Carol Ferguson.
Tracie Thomas
Mark and Tricia Stowe
Madeleine Smith

General Details

The intro and the outro music is ‘Crying Cello’ by Oleksii_Kalyna (2024) licensed for free-use by Pixabay (189988).

Narrowboat engine recorded by 'James2nd' on the River Weaver, Cheshire. Uploaded to Freesound.org on 23rd June 2018. Creative Commons Licence.

Piano and keyboard interludes composed and performed by Helen Ingram.

All other audio recorded on site.

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I would love to hear from you. You can email me at nighttimeonstillwaters@gmail.com or drop me a line by going to the nowspod website and using either the contact form or, if you prefer, record your message by clicking on the microphone icon.

For more information about Nighttime on Still Waters

You can find more information and photographs about the podcasts and life aboard the Erica on our website at noswpod.com.