Content on the Coventry.

 The sun was shining as we surfaced from a good nights sleep. A couple of boats passed between 0700 and 0830, but we were off about  0945. Mind you Helen walked to the post office to buy stamps. What ever happened to the 'penny post', £6 for 8 2nd Class stamps!! I stopped at the water point at the junction and by the time we were full up she was back. We set of straight away.

I was drawn to turning hard a st'bd at the junction and heading to Birmingham. Tolson's Mill is looking finished as does the Methodist Chapel, both of which have been converted to flats, £150,000 at the mill and £190,00 at the chapel.

We didn't go hard a st'bd but ticked round to port as we are on a mission and continued up the Coventry Canal. The moorings along here look quiet and plenty of morning sun at least I'm not sure why we haven't ever stopped here.

When ever I pass this pill box, and others around the system, I think of those guys that spent many days and nights sat here. It is easy to think of them as the bumbling men of BBC's Dad's Army, but in 1940 it must have been quite something thinking that you may have to face the all conquering Germany Army and Luftwaffe following an invasion. It must have been a very anxious time for everybody. The nation was coloured for a generation or two after WWII. I know as a kid the 'War' figured heavily in our games, our comics and our films etc.

We had no delays at Glascote, which is unusual it seems. We managed to swap with boats at both locks to save having to close gates.

Glascote Basin is not like a 'normal' marina as it seems there is absolutely no room and things would have to be moved about to get out. Alvecote Marina has the narrowest pontoons I have seen and it looks like only a few of them have electricity laid on. Mind you it must have the densest ratio of working boats too.

Another look back was had as we passed Alvecote Priory. There is little there now, and most people will not go and seek it out. I think back to when it was in its heyday and even when it was an agricultural College. 

This picture from the Pictorial Times of 1844 shows that there was much more of the building erect then. Not sure why I am feeling like this but it seems that everything returns to dust. Don't worry, Helen has hidden all the sharp knives.

This is the old Pooley Hall Colliery Load wharf. Nice secluded moorings next to the Pooley Visitor Centre.

The island was only created by 1921, as in this map extract. Twenty years before there had only been the southern arm of it. Mind you the mine had grown a lot too. The mine finally closed in 1965.

The sunken boat at Grendon Wharf is slowly being recovered by nature. It reminds me of those barges a few years ago the C&RT had on the system that were full of trees? The tree is growing out of the very middle of the cabin!

Helen sets to at the first lock of the Atherstone flight. It has been very quiet really on the canal today, but the few boats we have met, most of them have been at bridge holes and with me giving way. The weather is so nice after all the grey we have been having I really don't mind.

We moored up after Lock 6 and I set to to replace the locker tops/seating at the stern. They have done pretty well but are just flaking off at the edges now and are unsightly.

I got some thinner deck board so it was a little lighter and we are trying making the area a little wider near the doors as it will be more room for a cushion at the back and to be able to site with a better posture. I thought that with the over hang once you sat on it, it would tip up. So far it hasn't done so, but I have a plan if we need to counteract that. I have sealed the end curs so hopefully the board will last the 11 years at least of the old one. It is my usual amateur workmanship but eminently serviceable job.

After tidying up we walked into Atherstone and sat out in a very sunny square and had a couple of pints from the Angel pun before calling in at Aldi's and then home once again. A good day all round.