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!
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| Lock 5 with old A5 bridge, Atherstone |
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.
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