Wooshing down to Warwick.

A bit of a shock to the system as we had to be up with the lark to start down the Hatton Locks with our lock buddies for the day. I was two minutes late, but luckily they waited for us.

First lock of the day, a little dull but no wind and not too cool.

 On the way down with the target in sight, St. Mary's Church in Warwick.

Quite a good impression of the locks near the bottom of the 21 locks.

The original narrow locks of the Warwick and Birmingham Canal are now used as the bye washes. The canal opened in 1799. I was interested to see this date on one of the lock frames 1895. On another there was the date of 1915 so there was much modernisation and renewal even before the 1930's/

The old narrow lock can be seen still with it's lock entrance boarding steps on the left. We did the 21 Hatton Locks in 2.5 hrs. We stopped for water before doing the 2 Cape or Warwick Locks.

Just by our mooring near Bridge 49 are this family of swans and their 8 cygnets.

On the way into Warwick we came across two magpie chicks. They obviously didn't/couldn't fly so we shooed them into the shrubbery. I don't think I have seen magpie chicks and was vaguely surprised that they had almost the same plumage as the adult at such a young age.

Half of the church of St. Mary's was destroyed by the great fire of Warwick in 1694. The church and tower were rebuilt. The tower was to be over the church but when they got to roof level the tower started to settle so they were advised to build it over the road and form a portico.

Last time we came to Warwick the tower was closed so we decided we should try this time. The small door is the entrance to the 166 steps up. A young lad showed us in and forgot to turn the light on! We went on for a little as we thought the light may come in. I had to back down in the end and find the switch.

Helen having a breather on the way up to the roof.

Warwick racecourse is close to the town centre. It is a shame that there is no meeting this weekend as Helen loves the GeeGees.

From the top of the tower you actually look down on the castle.

It has recently been the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Jutland so I thought I would include this flag as it had actually been flying on HMS Princess Royal and was badly damaged. The flag was that of her Flag Captain, who became Admiral Sir Walter Cowan and it followed him on all his commands.

There is an exhibition in the church at the moment where you can see a first edition of the King James Bible that was published in 1611 and a copy of Shakespeare First Folio that was first published in 1623. Of the 750 copies printed 274 still exist. Most of those are in America and I think that there are about 9 in the UK. I was surprised at how crisp the printing and picture were in both publications after all this time. I had expected a slight blurring of the ink into the paper with the old techniques but it was beautiful, if what somewhat underwhelming on the whole as it just looked like 'an old book'!

One of the highlight of the church is the Beauchamp Chapel that was built between 1442 and 1460. It is magnificent and no expense was spared. This is just the carving around the stained glass window of St. Catherine and an angel. By the way the fire stopped just short of this chapel so it survived.

This is just an effigy of one of the deceased relatives as a mourner on the tomb of Earl Richard Beauchamp, 13th Earl of Warwick, whose tomb it is.

This is the gilded effigy of the Earl dressed in armour with his head resting on his helmet with the swan on the top. He has his hands in pray but open as he expects to see God above the altar or looking at the Virgin Mary on a ceiling boss.

This is the foot rest of Ambrose Dudley 3rd of Warwick

The tree main tombs can be seen here. The caged been the newest of Richard 13th Earl, the nearest is Ambrose Dudley 3rd Earl of Warwick and behind the grill is that of Robert Dudley and his wife 1st Earl of Leicester.

The Dean's Chapel is just off the Beauchamp Chapel and has beautiful carvings and ceilings. The altar cloth was from the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. We are off back into town tomorrow for a guided walk and a bit of shopping. Sorry about having  to down load all the pictures but I couldn't decide which to leave out.