Peterborough - home from home

Above: Pboro City Hall

This wasnt in the script - in fact, so many things that happened over the weekend weren't in the script, but I am waiting for other people to help explain to me how it was that i found myself sleeping on a chair in Paul's flat on Saturday morning! But at 10am on Saturday morning Kim rang up and asked if I wanted to go to Peterborough for the day - after all, it would be wrong to come all this way and not see it! We had internet maps, coke, pringles, and enough music to entertain us in case we got lost.. so off we went to Pboro.

Peterborough has a population of over 74,000, it's about 150km north east of Toronto, and you get there via the 401 and 115, passing through Whitby, Darlington and Newcastle as you go. Eastern English theme? Maybe - after all, if you keep driving an hour or two, you'll eventually find yourself in Kingston and Hull. Someone was probably homesick all those years ago!

So what to tell you about Peterborough? Well, it is famous for its liftlocks, which is the subject of today's factoid/tidbit. Other than that?.. Well the following bits of trivia were brought to my attention:

Peterborough in July 2004 suffered huge flooding which you can have a look at on this link. http://www.daneagleton.com/20040715/ .. given Pboro (UK)'s position in the fens, which stand as the lowest point of the UK, that is something we share in common. Our last floods were Easter 1998.

I went to Pboro wearing my POSH football shirt. Hoping to get some empathy somewhere! Pboro, Ontario, doesnt have a 'football team'. However it does apparently have the No1 ranked OHL hockey team at the moment (equivalent of championship or league one level), so I got myself a souvenir top to add to my collection. The name of the team? The (hugely imaginative) Peterborough Petes.

The locks are on a 386km long waterway which includes 36 conventional locks, two flight locks, two hydraulic lift locks and a marine railway. The name of the waterway? Trent Severn. Anyone else think this copying is going too far?!

Pboro was formed early in the 19th century as a lumber town, it is a railroad and industrial centre. It is also famous for its canoe building industry and is the home to the Canadian Canoe Museum. Its UK counterpart is a railroad, sugar town and passport office.

Bryan Adams, that great Canadian who spent 16 weeks at No 1 in the UK charts back in 1991 ish, is playing live in Peterborough, Ontario on 9th December. My birthday. Wow. Scribbles would be excited! I am not certain that Bryan Adams is aware of a Pboro in the UK!

Worth a visit? If you are in to lift locks or canoeing, definitely. An OHL follower? Maybe. And if you are from Pboro of course. Not to mention if you are a fan of ageing Canadian rock stars!

A view of the main Peterborough high street.

The famous lift locks

And from another angle.

But here's a confession. I had no idea what a lift lock looks like, and so it transpires, neither did Kim! Does this matter? Apparently not, since, as you can see, we managed to have a look at them, take some pictures and do a spot of basic research (for the blog as well as to increase the random bits of trivia that fill both our heads - sorry Kim!) But, given that I am not beyond self ridicule here, here is what we thought were the lift locks when we first arrived in Peterborough...

Very dense? Probably! But, with some nice late fall colours showing off in the background, not a complete waste of two pictures!