The rain came down but stopped about 0900 and we weren't ready to set off until after 0930 anyway so we have kept dry today. However it was windy and cool when the sun went in.
Canada geese coming into land on the cut from their over night roosts.
Once again we passed all the ridge and furrow fields in the area north and south of Braunston. I had a closer look and realised that they ridges that the furrows are all placed north/south or east/west. The distance between crest s of ridges is about 30 foot. It seems that the medieval open field system followed the contours of the land they were on. The ridges are called selions and it was the ploughing of them each year that created the classic ridge and furrow pattern. A family was nominated a strip in varois fields. In this way it meant they all had an equal chance of good and poor land. As I suspected I am pretty sure that this is a Victorian scheme to increase the amount of pasture by increasing the surface are of the land. Funnily enough there are a few places in the UK where the open field system is still practised, one of which is in Braunton, North Devon.
A surviving concrete signal gantry from the old Great Central Railway. It was the last trunk rail route to be built and opened in 1897. One of the ambitions of the company was to link the north of England with Europe through a Channel Tunnel. It closed in 1966. There was talk of reopening the route in private hands to carry freight to and from the Channel Tunnel that did get built.
We stopped at Hillmorton Canal Shop to get a gas bottle and top up with diesel at 76p a litre. This is where we got our compost toilet from. I was told that he had just had a delivery of about 20 different toilets that would all be sold with in a couple of weeks. It seems that they are really taking off. However he did say that for every Airhead, like we have he is selling roughly two Seperetta Vila toilets. They seem to be roughly the same price now. We were soon off again and at the top of Hill Morton Locks. There was plenty of traffic up and down. The guys replacing one of the pair of gates on one of the top locks said they will be finished soon so that you will be able to work both pairs of locks.
Helen enjoying her time on the tiller, and with six layers on she didn't feel the cold.
It wasn't much later before we were at the visitor moorings by Tesco at Rugby. We had our lunch and made a trip into Tesco to fill the larder for the next few days. We were thinking of staying there overnight but decided to press on as the weather was so nice.
Just as we approached the Arm that houses Willow Wren's yard and where Land and Water are dredging, I spotted these wooden bull rushes in the off side vegetation. The dredging had stopped for the day so we weren't delayed at all.
After the three Hillmorton Locks there are no ,ocks until the stop lock at Hawkesbury Junction which in the end of the Oxford Canal and where it meets the Coventry Canal. This section of canal was completed by 1774. It was a contour canal with a very windy aspect. In the 1820's many of the bends were taken out as engineering improvements meant that cuttings and embankments could be constructed. This left many loops that were redundant and cross over bridges were built of the old cut. They were bought from the Horseley Iron Works in Tipton and makes you think you are back on the Birmingham Canals.
Old arm navigable for a very short distance. This is the loop that was replaced by the Newbold Tunnel, 250 yds. long.
We were soon out in to the countryside and it was a lovely evening to be out on the canal. We moored up across the field from Brinklow with a line of boats. The stove was soon lit and Macy was off for a walk before we had the ropes round the pins. It was good to be breaking new ground for the year as we have got past Rugby at last.
Bridge 35 in an evening light.
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