Friday August 10th

And that's it, folks, for 2012.

It is unlikely we'll do any more cruising this year - apart from the odd few days to Stoke Buene & back if we can fit it in!

We've had a mixed bag this year. Our exoeriences with the weather - wet, wet and soaked - are well documented. There have been highlights, however:

Liverpool - what a wonderful city and waterfront, all enjoyed from our central dockside seat.

Manchester - another wonderful city. Getting the bunting up for the Queen's Jubilee, and dodging the rain.

The Rochdale Canal - superlative scenery and Todmorden and Hebden Bridge are thoroughly delightful towns. Shame about the weather.......

The Huddersfield Narrow - a visit frustratingly cut short just as we ewre getting to the best bits - but we liked what we saw and enjoyed our 2 days in Stalybridge. Good hairdressers!

Bugsworth Basin - a few good days amidst the general wall to wall grot. Lovely surroundings for a family reunion.

The Wedgwood factory - always a good day out, and a wonderful restaurant.


Downsides:

Weather, Rochdale, weather, Rochdale, weather, Rochdale - you get the picture.

Now its back to the home routine. Get the boat cleaned, paintwork touched up, ropes sorted out for winter, chaneg the washign machine......

More family history research, and research for the book our friend Jenny Copeland and I are preparing on the men of Weedon who died in the Great War.

Visits to family, Yorkshire and a holiday in the Italian Dolomites.....

I hope you have enjoyed our wanderings and my meanderings and that I haven't upset too many people! I also hope you'll join Elaine and myself on our nest journey in 2013.

Thursday August 9th - Braunston Top Lock - High House Wharf

And so to home. After a cracking start we had a long haul down Buckby locks before cruising the last section through Dodford and Weedon to High House in glorious sunshine. Ironic, really, we’ve been crying out for summer weather since I don’t know when and we finally get it on our last day!

Entering Braunston Tunnel

A cracking start – through the tunnel in a shade under 20 minutes without meeting another boat and at top of Buckby within the hour from leaving Braunston Top Lock. Here we were delighted to see ‘The Antidote’ make preparations to untie and so we had company down the locks.

It was a slow old journey though. There was a pair of boats immediately ahead of us with a single boat (crewed by a single handed chappie in front of them. And then behind us came another single boat – the Bromley Youth Trust boat with about 12 strapping teenage boys on board.

By lock 2, the pair in front had decided to split up, so the single handed chap had company, and we decided to let the Bromley boat go ahead of us to pair up with the now single boat. So instead of single, pair, pair, single, we now had three pairs. How’s that for efficiency!

It was slow work with almost every lock having to be filled. There were few boats on the move in an uphill direction – just one pair and a single.

Because of the slow progress we had now been caught up by the Bywater Hotel Boats that we had passed a couple of days ago at Newbold and again this morning below Buckby Top Lock. The addition of their lock wheelers added more of a sense of urgency into the proceedings. While we waited for locks to fill/empty, we caught up on old times and exchanged tales of derring-do from our shared Rochdale experiences!

Eventually we reached the bottom lock and exited onto the Blisworth pound that will take us home. I exchanged a few words with Alison Clipstone at Whilton Marina as we passed – she and Ian are out shortly on ‘Whistler’.

It was then a straightforward cruise to High House in glorious sunshine, and it was this that, despite the lines of moored boats, made it a really enjoyable late morning’s journey.

And then, past Stowe Hill and the caravan field we saw the little mooring basin and the bows of ‘Roding’ and ‘Papagena’ ahead of us and we finally brought the 2012 meanderings to an end. We pulled up to the wharf side in front of the two other boats and tied up.

Mooing at High House Wharf

At just over 940 lock miles, this has been our shortest annual amount since 2007 (the floods year) when we hardly cruised at all. Still, we have plenty of things lined up to do.

We have family visits to fit in, a short break in Yorkshire (to walk the remaining part of the Huddersfield Narrow Canal so we can get pictures of the bits we didn’t do for the IWA talk I’m doing in November), a holiday in Italy in October, research for a book I’m preparing with Jenny Copeland on the men of Weedon who died in the Great War, and………….

And then we’ll have to start thinking about next year’s meanderings!

Wednesday August 8th, Prison Field Moorings, Barby - Top Lock, Braunston

Another grey misty and mizzly morning and the wet weather gear went on straight away. When will this miserable weather finally cease? According to the forecast it will be nice tomorrow – when we get home!

The length from the Prison Field moorings opposite Barby Hill to Braunston is unremarkable in many ways, but still has interest to show. It is curiously remote with just one minor road crossing in the three miles to Braunston Turn and the first A45 bridge. And yet, a major prison and borstal lurk just beyond the towpath hedge where we moored up last night, and the A45 pursues a parallel course about half a mile or so beyond.

The line of the old Great Central Railway, criminally axed by Beeching – the Government now want to recreate much of the line on a slightly different route at huge cost and negligible benefit – also follows the canal line to Braunston.

Old ridge and furrow patterns remain in the fields of pasture that come down to the canal’s edge (and fortunately we are on a length not blessed with trees so we can see our surroundings better); evidence of how long these fields have been used for grazing.

Apart from a single cottage, Willoughby Wharf is the only sign of habitation in the entire length. Here the old cottages have been tastefully modernised and now form highly desirable residences.

The canal winds extravagantly, but with the tall and distinctive spire of Braunston Church high up on its ridge comes into view for the first time. It is a splendid landmark for miles around.

A solitary signal post remains forlornly in the fields; a poignant reminder of the former Great Central main line extension to Marylebone Station, it’s signal gantry leaning at a drunken angle. I wonder if there are ghostly echoes on still winter nights of the “The Master Cutler” tearing its way along the track to Sheffield?

Braunston was a lot quieter than we have known it. There was just a short line of boats tied up before the first A45 bridge and just two on the length beyond to the Turn. As always a gaggle of ex-working boats were clustered around the Turn – Victoria (Associated Canal Carriers), Renfrew (GUCC) and Betelgeuse (also GUCC) were all in evidence.

Beyond Butchers Bridge, there were also spaces to be had, but we pressed on to the lock. Elaine’s first reaction was that some silly so & so had left the bottom gates open. But then she realised that there was a boat already in the lock and that they had been waiting for another boat to share with.

And so, we shared the ascent to the summit with Steve & Annie on “Billy Buoy” who moor at Birstall on the Leicester Section and were on their way back round to their mooring. We had a great run up the locks, meeting a few boats making the descent.

At the top we parted company with Steve & Annie and moved onto the moorings beyond the top lock and tied up for the day.

Mooring above Braunston Top Lock

Tuesday August 7th, Brinklow - Prison Field moorings, Barby

Not far from home now – another couple of days and we’ll be back tying up in the familiar surroundings at High House. Today was another slog basically through the outskirts and periphery of Rugby. Not the most inspiring day.

Neither was the weather at all inspiring. Grey, misty and damp as a heavy mizzle fell from leaden skies. August? More like November today.

Having crept past the long line of moored boats at the popular Brinklow moorings we were soon continuing the theme of yesterday with long straights and old arms creeping off in various places, now slumbering away with their memories when they were the main line of the canal. A couple have developed new uses as access to marinas.

A long straight leads to Newbold Tunnel, the start of the built up area (although for a long time, only on the one side). The tunnel was a result of the rebuilding of the canal in the 1820’s and mirrors some of the BCN later tunnels such as Coseley and Netherton with twin towpaths (only one in use) and being wide enough for boats to pass.

Newbold Tunnel

The disused towpath continues to play host to a garish green & purple light show although, after a few years of operation, quite a number of bulbs are not working and the light show is but a pale shadow of its former self. No doubt having had the good idea and set it up, whoever was responsible for maintenance has given up.

A long line of boats takes us through Newbold and its two side by side pubs. A deep dark cutting spanned by a succession of bridges then brings to another old arm (used for moorings and by a boatyard) before the canal springs out over two aqueducts, the first over a road the second over the River Swift.

The best moorings for shopping in Rugby are limited to either side of Bridge 58; a nearby Tesco’s being the usual destination. The town centre is a good mile or so away. Neither of the moorings is particularly good. It is impossible to get close to the side at the ones before the bridge whilst the towpath ones opposite are on a sharp blind bend. Opposite are better ones, but boats have suffered antisocial behaviour there.

From Newbold, we had been stuck behind a boat that alternated its speed from slowish to tickover and the length from Rugby to Hillmorton was painful at times. To our delight, however, they pulled in for water just before the locks enabling us to get past.

Hillmorton Top Lock on our outward journey

We had a great run up the locks being able to go straight into the first two locks, and the top lock was only half full. We also met boats going down so it was really quite plain sailing.

The weather had cleared up to a certain extent, but once past Hillmorton and free of Rugby’s last tentacles, the drizzle started up again in earnest.

The Barby straight is dull and monotonous at the best of times, not helped by a long line of moored boats. In weather such as this, it was even more depressing.

Bridge 79, near Barby

We had been expecting a delay of sorts at Bridges 79 & 80 which have been in a semi-ruinous state for some years after boat and vehicle damage. They had been left by BW to moulder away and you almost felt as if you took your life in your hands every time you went under the bridges in case the decks finally collapsed.

A few weeks ago, however, C&RT announced repairs would start immediately with contractors undertaking the re-piling work and, surprisingly, the volunteer Waterways Recovery Group would then repair the structures. Is this the first major sign of the new reliance C&RT are placing on volunteer input? We hope so.

Bridge 80, near Barby

Having said that, nothing much seems to have been done at either bridge. At both, cement filled sandbags have been placed at the abutments and at the first bridge an area has been prepared for a hard-standing. And that’s it.

We had been told boaters might expect delays of up to 2 hours because of the ongoing work, but the only sign of life was a couple of blokes sitting in the rain reading a newspaper and having a fag!

Just round the corner is one of our favourite moorings in this area and to our surprise, apart from one boat, it was empty! We quickly pulled in and called it a day. Needless to say the sun now decided to make an appearance.

Prison Field moorings, Barby

Monday August 6th, Hawkesbury Junction - Brinklow

The Northern Oxford Canal doesn’t rank particularly high on my list of enjoyable canals. It’s largely mundane, blighted in today’s length by motorways and has many long straight sections which, in the absence of any notable features make it rather monotonous.

Hawkesbury Junction apart, there isn’t much to take note of except to see how many Eddie Stobart lorries can be seen on the various motorway sections and watch the trains go by on the adjacent West Coast Main Line.

The Greyhound at Hawkesbury Junction

Hawkesbury has long been an iconic place in canal folklore, particularly during the days of coal boats waiting for orders at the office conveniently placed there. The presence of The Greyhound pub also added to its fame.

Today, the working boats have gone, Courtauld’s tip and the smoking chimneys of Coventry Power Station (or Longford Light as the boaters knew it) are but a memory.

Old Engine House at Hawkesbury

Having moved slowly past the long line of moored boats we edged through the narrows in the shadow of the old Engine House with its tall chimney looking rather out of place surrounded as it is now by modern housing.

Then, as the Coventry Canal heads off straight ahead for the town centre just over 5 miles away, we turn sharp left under the well-known junction bridge and sharp left again to head through the stop lock and onto the waters of the Oxford Canal.

Hawkesbury Junction

If this junction is thought awkward, it must have been worse when the two canals were first built as the separate companies could not agree on a junction and ran parallel to each other, separated only by a short strip of land, for over a mile to Longford where a similarly tight junction was made. Eventually slightly saner counsels succeeded in changing the junction to the present one at Hawkesbury.

Once through the stop lock and past the long line of moored boats on this side of the junction, we pass the site of the erstwhile power station, now a large sub-station with power lines and pylons approaching from all directions.

Further on, at Tusses Bridge, the old Elephant & Castle is still closed, boarded up and looking very forlorn. Whether it will ever reopen as a pub has to be doubtful in the present economic climate, and I can’t see anyone wanting it as a private house as the M6 roars overhead on a viaduct literally within a stone’s throw.

The Oxford Canal was an early canal, the Coventry – Banbury section opening in 1778. As such it was built as a contour canal, following the contours to avoid the necessary earthworks and heavy construction that would be needed to build embankments, cuttings & tunnels.

Whilst a heavily used route carrying coal from the South Warwickshire fields to London, its trade was affected when the Grand Junction Canal opened from Braunston to London. This offered a far more direct route to London and the coal trade used this in preference to the Braunston – Napton – Oxford – Thames route to London.

By the early C19th, the Oxford was already outdated and new schemes were being promoted to shorten the route from the coalfields to Braunston and thus by-pass the Oxford Canal entirely. At last the Oxford woke up and made significant improvements to the northern section to Braunston by cutting off many of the winding meanders by constructing long embankments & cuttings, resulting in today’s many long straight sections.

Entrance to the Wyken Arm

Once out of the Coventry’s outskirts you immediately come to the first of these straights as it passes through a landscape on one side of playing fields and scrubby horse pastures whilst on the other side the M6 roars alongside and runs parallel to the canal for a mile or so separated by just the towpath hedge. An old colliery loading arm – the Wyken Arm – heads away at an oblique angle under a rickety looking bridge to moorings right in the shadow of the motorway. These are the headquarters of the Coventry Cruising Club.

Soon after it moves away, the canal veers towards the village of Ansty where another motorway, the M69 roars overhead towards its imminent consummation with the M6.

Ansty does not show its best side to the canal; assuming it has one that is. After emerging from the motorway viaduct it heads out on an embankment which is liberally doused with “No Mooring” signs. This is just to stop dirty, lecherous boatmen peering in through the bedroom windows of the houses that line the canal which passes them at first floor level. As if we would……..

A narrow section always full with moored boats on a long drawn out curve takes us out of the village and into another section dating from the 1820 improvements. It first strides out on a long embankment before heading into Nettle Hill Cutting from which an excellent view can be had of the traffic tearing by overhead as the M6 crosses. For Elaine, this is a wonderful place to count Eddies – she got 8 today! Shame we were too far away for her to identify the names!

The main railway line has paralleled us since the embankment and stays with us until we move away, temporarily, after Stretton Stop. Here, an old loop, cut off in the improvements has remained partly in water and is used by a couple of boatyards and for moorings. An insignificant looking swing bridge has to be shoved out of the way as you crawl through the former gauging narrows. We were at least able to keep it open as there was a boat coming towards us who would close it after they went through.

Beyond the stop, another long embankment (known as Brinklow Arches) strides out across a small valley with a graceful towpath bridge rising over the former Brinklow Arm.

Now we were nearing our hoped-for mooring site at Brinklow. Emerging from the wooded cutting all we could see was a long line of boats with hardly any spare room at all. Fortunately, however, there was just enough room for us to get in and tie up.

Sunday August 5th, Atherstone - Hawkesbury Junction

How often is this the case? You start cruising and it’s cold, grey, overcast, drizzly and pretty horrible. In fact it feels more like April or October than early August. Three and a half hours later you tie up and then the sun decides to come out.

Why can’t we have a day that starts, remains and ends sunny and warm with no grey skies, downpours or drizzle and wondering how many layers you need to put on.

Even though the length from Atherstone to Nuneaton is one of my favourites, on a grey dank morning like today, even the views across the Anker valley to what are presumably the hills of Charnwood Forest seemed dull and uninspiring.

Mount Jud

South of Atherstone we enter former stone quarrying country. The signs are all around us in the form of old quarry railway bridges, old loading wharves, massive spoil heaps now given names like Mount Jud (after Judkin's Quarry) and bits of old quarry works – overhead conveyor belts and the remains of old pumps, pipes and water retaining bays. It’s all rather grubby.

Hartshill Maintenace Yard in better days

Hartshill Maintenance Yard is now deserted by Canal & River Trust/BW. “To Let” signs have appeared on some of the buildings, but with weeds growing apace, it all looks rather sad, tatty and unloved which is a crying shame on such an iconic group of buildings.

And then we come to Nuneaton. I usually try to be upbeat about the places we travel through (Rochdale excepted). I like to learn about the landscapes that helped form it, its history and the industrial archaeology you can witness at first hand on the canals.

Old canal warehouse at Boot Wharf, Nuneaton

But I have to try very hard to say anything positive about Nuneaton. The town centre is over a mile from the canal which makes it an unpopular stopping place for boaters who want supplies – Rugby & Atherstone are much better placed. You pass through an endless suburban landscape of housing estates with next to no industry (although there is a nice restored canal warehosue at Boot Wharf). It has a reputation (probably undeserved) for anti-social behaviour towards boaters.

And yet it possesses two wonderful attributes that you can feast your eye on, particularly at this time of year. I mean of course its back gardens and allotments.

The former are a constant source of interest. How over the top have the owners gone? Are they traditional, low maintenance or have the Ground Force team gone wild? It is also pleasing to note that over the last 10-15 years how few back gardens show the utter contempt some people had not just for their gardens, but also their canal frontage. Most back gardens today don’t fence the canal off, but make a real feature of their waterfront.

And as for the allotments! Nuneaton has a massive area of canalside allotments which, given the very few vacant plots we could see, are evidently very popular.

When we passed this way in early April, the plots were just being prepared after the winter hiatus. Lots of bare earth was in the process of being dug over. Now, they are in full production with every vegetable under the sun being grown. A large number of people were down on their own plots beavering away (or just comparing marrows over the proverbial and imaginary garden fence).

Lovely!

Once clear of yet more back gardens, Nuneaton and its satellite of Chilvers Coton reluctantly give way to a short outbreak of countryside before Bedworth appears. We have also moved from stone quarrying back to coal mining as Bedworth was very firmly a mining town. Fortunately, the canal bypasses the town with just a few council houses close to the canal before the scrap/junk heap that is Charity Wharf comes into view, just after the junction with the delightfully rural Ashby Canal.

I like boatyards. Most have a pleasant workaday atmosphere to them without much thought being given to tidiness or order. However, Charity Wharf (which advertises a dry dock it would probably take a month to get into after you had cleared the boats and junk out of the way) takes boatyard chic to an almost Olympic level. Huge piles of scrap and junk litter the place (and not just on land – some of the boats have clearly seen better days). What the neighbours think of it all (it is surrounded by housing) I shudder to think.

Once past the eyesore, school playing fields take over (a pleasant mooring spot, but probably not on a weekend in the school holidays) and then a long and deep cutting hide the canal from the main section of the town’s built up area.

Three former arms lead off between Nuneaton and Bedworth. The first – the Griff Arm – was a very narrow channel under a seemingly impossibly low bridge (unloaded boats had to remove their cratch to get under) that led to Griff Colliery. Some nearby ponds at Griff Hollows gave Georg Eliot the inspiration for “Mill on the Floss”.

The second – the Arbury Branch – led to Sir Roger Newdigate’s home, Arbury Hall. Here there was a network of canals in an almost domestic form, but with one branch that led to coal shafts on the estate.

The third, the Newdigate Arm, heralds the exit from Bedworth and the approach to Hawkesbury Junction. Like the Griff Arm, it was a colliery loading arm.

All three are now long gone, but the reed dominated entrances are still visible.

We are now moored on the long line of moorings that announce the iconic Hawkesbury Junction. We will leave the delights of its narrows, its 180° turn under the roving bridge and the 6” stop lock until tomorrow. For now, we’ll enjoy the sunshine.

Saturday August 4th, Alvecote Basin - Atherstone

It’s our wedding anniversary today. 33 years and still she puts up with me!

We were undecided just how far to travel today. The forecast was pretty awful with heavy rain and thunderstorms expected. Certainly the start of the day was on the gloomy side and we had a short shower soon after we started. The initial thought was to make it through the first two locks of the Atherstone flight and take it from there depending on what the weather was doing.

Alvecote Basin & Marina had the usual handful of ex-working boats. We saw ‘Starling’, Avocet’ ‘Fazeley’ and the bows of an ex FMC boat were peeping through the basin bridge.

When we reached Glascote yesterday, we entered the former North Warwickshire coalfield. Evidence of the legacy from the mines is all around us in the section to Polesworth. The land on both sides of the canal has fallen away through subsidence and the former scars from coal mining have been covered in a generous coat of greenery with silver birch dominating. Narrows denote the crossing of former colliery lines to link up with the nearby main line and the soil, where it appears, has a grey cinder like consistency.

Under the M42 viaduct is the former loading lay-by for Pooley Hall Colliery, now nicely converted to a permanent mooring for a few boats.

Polesworth is bookended by a couple of monuments. The first appears on the offside and is a memorial to a former chapel suppressed by Henry VIII in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Just after the battlemented towers of Pooley Hall itself peer over the tall screen of trees that tend to hide the best views of what is reputed to be the oldest continuously inhabited house in Warwickshire. It was the home of the great American soul singer Edwin Starr who sadly died recently.

Elaine got off at the first of the three bridges at Polesworth to go and get the newspaper whilst I crawled round to the third bridge to pull in and wait for her. This manoeuvre safely completed we set off on the length to Bradley Green which, once past the sewage farm and railway bridge is one of our favourites. Indeed we soon passed one of our usual moorings just below Bridge 50.

It is along this section that the second memorial bookend for Polesworth appears. This one is a monument commemorating the men of Pooley Hall Colliery who died in the Great War .

Grendon Wharf also had its usual complement of ex-working boats with ‘Northolt’ and ‘Jaguar’ in evidence with another one in the drydock having its signwriting redone.

We pulled into the sanitary station at Bradley Green and emptied both loos, filled up with water and get rid of the rubbish. Sadly this meant that we were now fourth in the queue of boats going up the locks.

By now the forecast of heavy rain and thunder seemed to be a flight of fancy as we had blue sky and lovely warm sunshine, so we decided to press on up the flight and make the most of the fine weather.

It was a slow slog up the flight, not just because of the boats ahead, but because of the so slow filling locks of the Coventry Canal. It makes watching paint dry seem positively sprint like!

Lock 5 with old A5 bridge, Atherstone

As we got to the “thick” of the flight toward the top things slowed down considerably for a while. At one point three boats (with us as the third) were pulled in to the side in three successive pounds to allow a single handed boat to come down. He must have thought it was Christmas!

Eventually we neared the top. The forecast now lived up to its original prediction and dark, menacing clouds moved in overhead. Typically as Elaine brought the boat into the top lock, the heavens opened. It poured down. Stair rods again – it brought back wonderful memories of Manchester, Walsden and Hebden Bridge. Will this weather ever improve and give us a proper summer?

Needless to say we were through the lock as quickly as we possibly could and moved under the main road bridge to the moorings and fortunately found a suitable space straight away.

The rain slowly petered out, but has returned several times (in concert with suitable thundery sound effects) throughout the afternoon.

Friday, August 3rd, Fradley Junction - Alvecote Basin

Why is it that on straight bits of canal you don’t meet any other boats, but when you get to narrow sections with moored boats and overhanging trees or bridgeholes on blind bends you meet the canal equivalent of the rush hour on the M25?

That’s what we had today. In spades!

It all started so promisingly when we set off from Fradley Junction on a lovely sunny morning.  The new industrial development on the old airfield at Fradley is thankfully hidden by a thick screen of trees. I wonder what the figure of a headless figure in a flying jacket that apparently haunts the old wartime airbase makes of it all.

The initial tranquillity of the surroundings is soon overtaken by the raucous roar of the racetrack otherwise known as the A38 dual carriageway. The road, which follows the route of the Roman’s Ryknield Street first roars overhead and then parallel to the canal as it approaches Streethay Wharf. How the inhabitants of the cottages and mobile homes that lie by the canal bridge cope with the constant noise is a wonder.

Mind you, it didn’t seem to affect one chap in a mobile home who erupted out of his home, clad in nothing more than his paisley dressing gown and gave us the campest greeting we’ve ever experienced!

Junction House at Huddlesford Junction

Streethay Wharf was remarkably quiet as we passed it, but I suppose most people were still getting up. It had only just gone 8.00. Moored boats affected the length from here to Whittington with one boat moored underneath the West Coast Main Line railway bridge at Huddlesford.

Passing the old junction with the former Wyrley & Essington line to Ogley and the BCN (hopefully on its way to being restored at some stage in the future) we set off for Whittington without any idea of the chaos that awaited us.

There is a long straight section with piled banking that has been a popular mooring place in the past. However, the overhanging tree growth on the off-side has narrowed the channel significantly and when, as happened now for us, boats converge from opposite directions it calls for some deft handling if nudges and knocks are to be avoided.

We had seen the trouble the boat in front of us was having passing an oncoming boat and so pulled in to a convenient space to let the oncoming boat pass. We then pulled out and just as we were passing the first moored boat, another boat appeared coming towards us. This time we kept going and managed to avoid going aground and collide with the oncoming boat as he managed to avoid us and the moored boats.

We were just about to breathe a sigh of relief as we reached the last moored boat, situated just before Whittington Bridge and the right angled bend immediately after when a boat came roaring round the corner with no idea of what he might meet. By this time our bow was in the bridge-hole and I was dam*ed if I was going to reverse back into the narrow channel behind.

He had slammed his brakes on and managed to more or less stop, but not before colliding with the towpath wall. We managed to pass each other in the bridge-hole itself – not normally recommended on a narrow canal as the bridges aren’t usually wide enough to admit two boats. Whittington Bridge is, however (and thankfully) a fairly modern rebuild and just takes two boats side by side.

Now we breathed that sigh of relief as we turned the corner and left Whittington behind us.

The polytunnels that always adorn the next length were all out protecting crops this time as we passed. We couldn’t see what was being grown in them, but adjacent to the tunnels was a large acreage of asparagus now waving its tall fronds in the breeze as it grows on after the short cutting season.

From here to Hopwas was remarkably quiet given the mayhem we had already experienced and we passed through the narrow section in the village without difficulty. Mind you, we had to stop twice at bridgeholes between Hopwas and Fazeley to allow boats to come through. They were both that situation where you’re not sure whether you would get to the bridge first or whether the other boat would. Knowing we can reverse, stop and mawmble pretty well, we normally take the line of least resistance and stop.

Fazeley Junction looking towards Birmingham

Elaine got off at Fazeley to walk ahead to get a paper while I crawled past all the moored boats. Although we have never stopped there, I quite like Fazeley. It is a former small industrial town with two seemingly out of place textile mills alongside the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal that meets the Coventry Canal in the shadow of the former A5 road bridge. The place has long since been by-passed.

Junction House at Fazeley Junction

New/old development at Fazeley

The junction is graced by a lovely old canal house, faced on the opposite bank by a redevelopment that is not only starting to blend in with the surroundings but has also incorporated an old warehouse as part of the development.

Past the junction I pulled in for a couple of minutes to allow Elaine to return, and then we set off across the Tame Aqueduct for the two locks at Glascote. There seemed to be a lot more boats than normal at the Tamworth Boat Club’s base at Kettlebrook Basin, but it turned out they were getting ready for a big weekend party for their 50^th anniversary. Good for them!

We had a reasonable run up the locks, just having to wait for a boat to go up before us. Then it was a case of ploughing on through the endless suburbs of Tamworth. Glascote and Amington seem to go for ever through a long line of brick bridges. It is interesting, however, to admire the efforts most people have taken to make the canal a feature of their back gardens!

Finally, once past the built up area and out onto a high embankment we decided to call it a day (particularly as the black clouds were gathering) and we tied up in a new place for us, just before Alvecote Basin & Marina. We have often seen moored boats there and thought we would give it a try. After one aborted attempt due to depth, we managed to get alongside in a good deep mooring.



Mooring at Alvecote basin

Thursday August 2nd, Great Haywood - Fradley Junction

A day of two halves. One, serene, peaceful and quiet, the other typified by a constant stream of boats coming toward us (meeting them usually on blind bends or in narrow sections) and absolute chaos at the last three locks of the day.

Shugborough Hall across the meadows

It all started so well. Blue sky, sunshine, the delights of the Trent Valley meandering along below the wooded heights of Cannock Chase; what more could you ask for?

Haywood and Colwich Locks were worked without seeing any boats at all. This was unusual as we normally get stuck in queues here. It was slow going, however, the world and his wife seemed to have tied up either side of Haywood Lock; we were lucky to get a mooring near the junction yesterday!

Crossing Brindley Bank Aqueduct

The Trent is crossed on Brindley Bank Aqueduct and Rugeley and its suburbs dominate the landscape for the next 5 miles or so. Rugeley is not the most attractive town, although it does provide ample moorings close to the town centre. It has two main claims to fame – or rather notoriety, both of which are commemorated on special British Waterways' signs.

Grave of Christina Collins in Rugeley Cemetery

In June 1839 the raped and battered body of Christina Collins was found in the canal at Brindley Bank Aqueduct. She had been travelling on a narrow boat from Liverpool to join her husband in London. Her body was carried up the steps that lead up from the aqueduct to the nearby road and these are still known as “The Bloody Steps”. Three of the four boatmen were charged with her murder and two were hanged at Stafford Gaol. The story got a rewrite when Colin Dexter wrote the Morse story “The Wench is Dead” around it.

A few years later, in 1855, a Rugeley doctor, William Palmer was found guilty of poisoning an acquaintance and was also suspected of doing the same to his wife and brother (and possibly his children). An Act of Parliament had to be passed to enable the trial to be held at the Old Bailey as it was felt a fair jury could not be found in Staffordshire! Palmer was also publicly hanged at Stafford Gaol in 1856.

After all that, it is almost a relief to leave the place! Having said that we have moored in Rugeley before and shopped there quite often.

Whilst the approach to the town from the north is quite pleasant with long back gardens on one side and the river’s water meadows on the other, the exit to the south is tedious. It runs through a mixture of old and newish housing mixed up with odd bits of old industrial buildings and then runs into a long industrial area built up on the site of the old Brereton Colliery, all overshadowed by the cooling towers and chimney of Rugeley Power Station.

As we finally passed out of Rugeley proper, under a low bridge on a very sharp bend we had to slam the brakes on quickly (go into reverse) as a boat was moving very slowly from the moorings on one side to the water point on the other.

Plum Pudding narrows & tunnel

Then, Elaine got off to walk ahead to Armitage or Plum Pudding Tunnel to check it was clear. It has a long narrow section before the tunnel (itself just a single boat’s width) before the canal curves round at the far end. You can’t see what’s coming, so a crew member disembarking and walking on ahead is really useful. Fortunately I could see one boat already in the tunnel, and Elaine was able to signal that all was clear.

The next mile or so through Armitage is characterised by more narrow sections. This is caused by a belt of hard rock that the canal had to cut through at Plum Pudding Tunnel, and the engineers just did enough to get cut two boats’ width in a few other places.

By now we had started to meet a succession of boats coming towards us and naturally we met them at these narrower sections. Fortunately, we were able to pass them all without undue difficulty.

Plenty of loos at Armitage

The economy may be going through hard times, but the Armitage Shanks works at Armitage seem to be going full belt if the numbers of completed toilets and cisterns stacked up on pallets are anything to go by. You won’t be flushing water down the pan if you invest in this company (if you excuse the pun).

Armitage melds seamlessly into Handsacre and finally you emerge in open countryside again with the last of Rugeley’s satellites behind us. And it gets amazingly remote with just 4 bridges in the next three miles or so to Fradley Junction. Lichfield, Rugeley and Walsall may only be a hop, skip and a jump away, but you could be forgiven for thinking you were miles from anywhere as you journey through the bosky delights of Ravenshaw Wood.

And then, back to earth with a bump as we approached Wood End Lock. A gaggle of boats suddenly appeared in front of us, all waiting for the lock. We hadn’t seen another boat heading our way at all. Now we knew why. They were all here waiting for us! We ended up being fifth in the queue.

Thankfully there was probably an equal number waiting the other side so with one up, one down, we didn’t have to wait too long. Needless to say the blue sky had disappeared and the rain made its first appearance of the day whilst we waited.

One of the boats had warned us that the area around the 5 locks that span either side of Fradley Junction was unmitigated chaos with boats hanging around waiting for their turn to move up or down, boats wanting to turn into or out of the Coventry Canal and one boat broken down in the middle of all this.

Having said that, we were evidently going the right way as we swapped places with boats coming the other way in the first two locks and happily sailed past the boats queuing for the third lock on the far side of the junction as we calmly swung round into the Coventry Canal, and manoeuvred through the swing bridge. We quickly managed to find a straight bit of banking and tied up in time for a later than usual lunch.

Mooring at Fradley

Wednesday August 1st, Stone - Great Haywood

That black cloud that followed us religiously from Manchester to Sowerby Bridge and back, to Uppermill and then to Marple had seemed to have found us again. Yesterday was wet. Very wet, and last night wasn’t much better.

So, when we moved off this morning it was with leggings and boots on, although we decided not to put on the (un)waterproof wet weather coats. It was at least not raining.

And, fortunately, it remained dry until after we tied up which, given the grey scudding clouds that constantly overhead, was a miracle. That round yellow thingie in the sky made a couple of half-hearted tried to appear, but evidently gave up and went back to bed.

Aston Lock - cottage complete with 2 Mercs!

Once past the outlying residential (and highly desirable) suburbs of Stone, we had a short, quiet cruise to Aston Lock, the midway point between Shardlow and Preston Brook. Below the lock and under away again, we tore our thoughts away from the delights of Aston Marina’s wonderful farm shop. Perhaps a visit by car is called for some time in the autumn?

We enjoy the canal between Stone and Great Haywood enormously. It is nothing spectacular and there isn’t much to actually look at, but it just very quiet, peaceful, seemingly remote and pleasant in an understated English countryside sort of way.

Low ridges patrol both sides of the canal, but some way off. The River Trent runs almost parallel to the south and the few villages tend to be some way clear of the river, presumably to avoid any flooding.

The pseudo Jacobean towers of Sandon Hall, the seat of the Earls of Harrowby, peer through the trees on the ridge to the north as we approached Sandon Lock. Here we caught up another boat also heading our way and had to wait for them to descend before we could enter.

Although the main railway line and the A51 road run close to the canal on the northern bank, they don’t spoil the journey which remains tranquil and enjoyable.

My, it was busy though. We had passed many boats that we had seen pass us at Stone yesterday, and many more were heading towards the town. I still can’t get my head round how busy it is. We’re usually somewhere a bit quieter (like the BCN), and we’re not used to being in a summer holiday crowd.

Weston Lock

This was particularly so at Weston Lock where another boat in front of us (just pulled off the Weston village moorings) made a right pig’s ear of his approach to the lock, ending up across the cut with his bows in the opposite bank. Mind you there was a bit if a breeze blowing and he was on a curve……..

A boat had just exited the lock heading for Stone, so it seemed reasonable to assume that the boat in front would go into the lock – indeed his wife was already off and in sight of the lock, armed with her windlass.

However, the crew of ‘Hawkwood’ had other ideas. They were heading towards Stone and the lock worker evidently didn’t believe in making sure there was nothing coming before turning the lock round and emptying it. Had he done so, he would have seen two boats approaching and a lock worker.

So we all had a bit of a wait for them to ascend before everything sorted itself out.

After our friends in front had gone down, there was a boat waiting to come up, then we went down helped by someone off another boat waiting to come up. See what I mean about it being busy. After a couple of months on the Leeds & Liverpool, Rochdale and Huddersfield Narrow, we’re used to going all day without seeing another boat – moored or otherwise!

Shirleywich sounds like a character in a children’s TV series. It is in fact a tiny hamlet on the A51. The suffix, ‘wich’ denotes salt extraction (as in Middlewich, Nantwich and Northwich), and the nearby village of Salt reinforces the theory that salt was once a cottage industry round here. The whole length of the offside from Weston almost to Great Haywood is a designated nature reserve, one of the only examples of an inland salt marsh in the country.

Eventually we reached Hoo Mill Lock where again we waited for a boat to come up before we could enter (with another one waiting below). From here it was  only a short but slow journey to Great Haywood past the long line of moored boats.

Mooring at Great Haywood

We wanted to use the Elsan point here to empty the loo but, as usual, there was no room to pull in. So we carried on past the junction which, as usual, seemed full of boats coming out form the Staffs and Worcs Canal, going into the Staffs & Worcs, making for the sanitary station and boats like us, just trying to make a beeline for the moorings beyond the junction where there was ample space to our surprise for us to pull in.

One couple tied up just beyond the junction bridge were sitting on their stern deck and admitted to enjoying the spectacle of boats moving every which way and usually making a pigs’ ear out of it. “It’s better than the TV” they said!

I carried the loo back to the boatyard Elsan point which now costs £1 a time. There is a notice on the door that states that it is no longer a BW facility, but belongs to the boatyard – hence the charge. I hadn’t realised this and had come without any money and, still recovering from lugging the loo all that way, I asked the nice lady in the office if I could return with the £1 later. Thankfully she agreed.

Apparently it has been the boatyard’s responsibility for 4 years or so and the notice has been up that long. In all honesty, I have never noticed it before. Hey Ho!