Where is the River Ux?
For both my readers I would like to explain that Cowroast almost certainly originates from the days when cattle drovers would stop outside a major town to bring their stock up to condition before taking them i to market. Hence the COW REST was corrupted easily into its present form.
The Tring Summit of the Grand Union Canal has always been dogged by water supply problems hence the reservoirs around Tring and the Wendover Arm which served as an important water feed.s On the southern descent to Uxbridge there are rivers everywhere. First the Bulborne flows in and out on the way down to Boxmoor. At Two Waters the Gade joins in and just by Batchworth locks at *Ricky the Chess comes steaming in. From here on they unite to form the Colne and just as we reach Denham the Misbourne adds its pennyworth. However none of these rivers give any clue to where the River Ux (as in Uxbridge) is, was, or has been. I am afraid there is more corruption to report. This time the origin is Saxon - the Wuxen apparently bridged the River Colne here and that's why I can't find the River Ux.
Another event which should be appended to the Official History of Uxbridge is that we overstayed the 24 hour mooring limit and received our first parking ticket.
*Apparently Ricky is not widely understood as the diminutive of Rickmansworth

Whilst you were away......
Before attending Marcus and Olga's wedding we spent a couple of days in Panama where they also have a canal. Vessels on this canal are somewhat larger than those on the GU. However they do have one concern in common. The Grand Junction Canal which linked London to the Oxford canal was built with 14' wide locks to accommodate boats capable of carrying 70tons. This was not adopted by the Coventry, Oxford ant Trent & Mersey canals with which it linked and so was unsuccessful in this quest. In Panama they have found that locks 1000' long and 110' wide are too small for the latest ships and so they are building additional larger locks and widening the canal cutting. As the canal operates round the clock and there is always a queue this seems to be a guaranteed success.



From our hotel bedroom
we had a glorious view of the ships
waiting to enter the
Mirraflores Locks at the
Pacific end of the canal