Last night we decided to go for a walk to see the end of the canal. Past the winding hole is the sanitary station and a bridge to cross to the Ashby Canal Association shop.
The bridge is the current head of navigation of the Ashby Canal. The porta cabin has a jumble sale in it and the shed has the canal stuff.
A few hundred metres further is the actual head of navigation. As you can see it is in water with a tow path. The next stage can be seen to be not too far off completion and it is quite encouraging to see that it extends as far as the white building at top left. They have difficulties ahead of dropping that canal beneath a dual carriageway and also probably an aqueduct over Measham High Street!
The morning dawned with a little bit of mist. It doesn't get light much before 0700 now so there is a real feeling of autumn approaching now. The boat ahead of us left before 0800.
The sun rose and started to burn off the mist. I managed to grab a quick photo of it behind the trees.
We set off back towards Shakerstone. This is the north portal of the Sanerstone tunnel. I wonder what was going to be in the square for an inscription. It doesn't look like there is any carving and there are no holes to hold a plaque that has gone missing.
The dock leaves among the bull rushes add a very vivid splash of colour to the banks at the moment. The Hawthron seems to be going over too, and I could swear that the willow we passed to do has started to change colour in the last couple of days.
We moored up opposite the motte and bailey and then walked to Snarestone Station on the Battlefield Line. It was a lovely old place with a nice tea room. Helen found some books in their bric a brac shop and we spent a while in their 'museum' that is a heap of railway stuff but not really labelled. There was an obvious railway nerd there and as he was speaking to me I asked what had been perplexing us. In our Pearson's Guide it says that the line from Stoke Golding to Hinkley was built when the Midland and the London and North Western Railways but it was never used. The bridges and embankments etc are there and I wanted to know whether they laid a track at all. The bloke didn't even know that there was a line!
As we were at the station the train arrived. The same one as before but facing the right way this time. It is the 'Cumbria' that was built in 1954 in Leeds and was used by the Government weapons factories etc for ten years until moving to the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway and was called Cumbria. She has been lent to many other societies. It is painted in the colours of the Furnace Railway.
We went round the village after the Station and somehow found our selves at the Rising Sun for a pint. It looked to be doing a roaring trade for Sunday Lunch. Once we got back to the boat we decided to set off again to get a few more miles in as it is supposed to be wet tomorrow.
The roses are looking heavily laden with hips and they also add some good colour to the hedges. We carried on to the moorings near Stoke Golding and Dadlington Wharf. Once moored I started to do the chores that needed doing before a day or two of rain before sitting back and enjoying lighting the fire.
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