Narrow Boat Afloat

Aboard the narrowboat Dover, master carpenter Alan Herd leaves Gas Street basin in Birmingham and travels towards Knowle in the West Midlands.

Alan visits the Coventry Cycle Museum and has the privilege of meeting Fred Rice, the steerer of Dover in the 1940s.

Alan meets Tim Higton of Warwickshire Fly Boat Company in Stockton, Warwickshire, plus Roger Ewin shows him how to tie a Turks head knot.

Dover is taken on the working-boat parade at the Historic Narrow Boat Rally at Braunston, and Alan speaks to old boaters Laura Carter and Joan Carne.

Alan fulfils a childhood dream when he gets to sit in a Spitfire, plus he takes on the Blisworth Tunnel- the third longest tunnel in the country.

Alan Herd takes a look round the popular canal village of Stoke Bruerne and finds an interesting pedestrian tunnel in Cosgrove.

John Blunn shares his old boating memories, plus Alan passes Cheddington, the spot where one of the infamous Great Train Robberies took place.

Alan and Dover reach the Tring Summit, the highest point along the Grand Union Canal, plus Alan stops off at Frogmore Paper Mill, near Apsley.

Bryan Nicoll guides Alan through the ornamental Cassiobury Park area and Alan goes through the deepest lock on the Grand Union - Denham Deep Lock.

It's full steam ahead as Alan gets to see the biggest working steam engine, plus Dover reaches Bulls Bridge, where she was based 55 years ago.