Wandering past the Wharves.

 We were late getting off this morning as we went up the road for a lovely cooked breakfast up the road at the Old Bakery Cafe in Atherstone. We then had a look around the Charity shops and I bought a few things in a hardware store. 

Boats were coming regularly and we slipped in to go up the next lock. However we just stopped beyond it to top up with water and then let them past. The services at the top of the locks can be very busy and thing top is nice and handy. It was pretty slow mind, but we were just topping up.

By Bridge 36 there are wharves either side of the bridge. The one nearest the camera was first and is on the 1886 OS map being served by a plateway from the Raspberry Knob Quarry in the hills above. Just this side of the road bridge is a narrow metal bridge that later, by 1901, carried the plateway onward to a siding on the London and Northwestern Railway near Mancetter. The wharf through the bridge is much more modern and seems to have been taken over by Rothen.

There were four wharves that were connected to the quarries above Hartshill by plateways, and provided much work for road stone for canal boats. This is the one just through Bridge 30.

This the one just past Bridge 29 and opposite the Anchor pub moorings.

At the other end of the wharf above is the rail bridge that carried the narrow gauge railway over the canal to a siding on the main line railway before WWI. Although the little railway did not seem to pass under the bridge the wharf did extend and hence the arch for access.

The 'telewag' pole (as we used to call them, and perhaps others too) is still hanging on in there. I always wonder why this one was left?

The Tuttle Hill Moorings were at one time another quarry Wharf.

I think the closest bridge is a modern one but the furthest one was to carry a narrow gauge over the canal to the mainline and then loop back across again. I think they are making a real effort to tidy up the canal through Nuneaton, and it was good to see more boats moored up to take advantage of the proximity of the town.

Boot Wharf has been cleaned up and lots of new housing in place of the jumble of boats and brambles of before. However it is still a chicane to get through. The wharf appears to have been built to service a set of lime kilns that were redundant by 1886.

This is where the Griff Arm Left the main canal but I was more taken by the MASSIVE warehouse that has been built alongside the old route. Rhenus Logistics have built 2 massive places on the site. The first was the baby at 21,000 sq. ft. This one has dwarfed it at 771,000 sq.ft. The 64 acre site is full of solar panels, air source heat pumps, green walls and electric car charging points. The office section is a massive glass box. Great views of the canal whilst you work. Rhenus are warehousing, transport and supply chain solutions for many varied industries. I think this must be the largest building I've seen. However on the site by the canal there was a lovely old lonely tree in a field that I always photographed, but it has gone. This larger shed has been almost finished in 12 months!

Marston Junction came and went with nobody popping in or out and the fendering on opposite bank to the entrance still seems intact.

Charity Dock was the next point of interest. The tableaux are not what the once were but the dry dock made me look to see what may have been there before.

Believe it or not the Dock is named after the Bedworth Charity Colliery. This in turn was named after the landowner of where the shaft was sunk, the Rev. Nicholas Charity. The shaft was dug in 1830 and a plateway laid to the wharf . (The colliery is on the extreme left and the dock on the extreme right. Later on the Brick and Tile works were opened and a tramway added to get products to the mainline railway and the canal wharf. The mine closed in 1924 but the Brick works continued and the tramway remained in place up to WWII but succumbed after that. It looks like the basin was built over soon after, possibly to form a dry dock.

I reversed to wait for a couple of boats just past Boot Wharf and collected this. We pulled over and it was soon free. It looks almost brand new. I think this is the fourth one of these we have collected round our prop over the years. Once tied up, a little past Charity Dock, the sun was still out so we sat on the wide towpath and I spliced a new rope into it. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.