Gongoozlers

You'll find them all along the Inland Waterways, at almost every lock on the canals.

Here are some:

Here are some more:

Some of these, as you can probably tell, were in the middle of a football match.

Here are some more:

Most of those pictured are children, but it isn't limited to children, most definitely not:

And they are all looking at this kind of thing:

which is a group of people taking a boat through a lock.

And all the spectators are known as gongoozlers, and what they are doing is gongoozling.

If you've never heard the word before you'll think I'm making it up, but I'm not: a gongoozler is someone who enjoys watching people and boats travelling up and down the canals.

In case you don't know, canals in the United Kingdom are interspersed with locks, where the water flows in or out to help the boat to go up or down a hill. It's always interesting to be in a boat going through a lock as the water rushes in or out: and it's also interesting to watch.

Wikipedia thinks that the term gongoozler comes from the Lincolnshire dialect gawn and gooze, both meaning to stare or to gape. But who knows? It's a great word - - and, actually, it's a relaxing and fun thing to do if you don't have the added pleasure of actually being on a boat.

These photos were taken in the summer of 2006 on my birthday narrowboat trip - the best day of that year, thanks to all involved - and hence some of the people on the boat or the bank may possibly be known to me. In fact, one of them, with long hair and a bandana, may perhaps be married to my daughter.

Shall I just mention winding-holes? A narrowboat is well, narrow, six feet ten inches - and can be seventy feet long. So it's hard to turn it round, and you have to do that in a specially wide place on the canals called a winding-hole. Which - you'd think - would be pronounced winding, as in a winding lane, or winding wool. But it isn't: it's pronounced winding, as in the wind that blows, and I don't know why.