Bye Bye to the Basin and Hello Hawkesbury.

 There was some heavy rain in the night, but otherwise it was pretty quiet. We got ready to leave at the normal time and then reversed out of the short arm and spun round in the wide bit under the gaze of James Brindley. Her gave me 5 out of 5!

As you can probably see it was drizzling a little as we left the basin.

The bridge at the entrance to the basin was deliberately very small with no towpath so as to be able to control access. It was shot over night. We stopped for water just the other side of the bridge, and on the none tow path side used to be another wharf, the stone edging still in place.

This map extract from 1937 has the water point by the main road bottom right, with the wharf on the opposite bank that dealt mainly in coal it seems. You can see that there is a short arm heads down to a timber yard/sawmill.

On the left of this picture was the Dailmer Motor Works of the map extract. A licence was given to build Daimler cars and this site was the first factory to build cars in England. The first car came off the line in 1897. A little later the Great Horselerss Carriage Co. was also on site. Much later the Coventry Climax Co. who built engines were on the site and it is them that filled the arm in.

On the left was the first power station in Coventry that opened in 1894. Is electricity was in its infancy the power company supplied 5 different voltages as nothing was standardised. On the right of the picture was the site of the Coventry Corp. Refuse Compactor, but is now a nice open estate of modern housing.

The chimney is the power source for a weaving/textile factory that stretched back away from the camera

You can just see a mooring ring in the concrete of what was a wharf serving Courtauld's Artificial Silk factory.

On the tow path side is this building from the late 1920's that was built as offices for the Courtauld factory. Fedex were using it the first time we came this way I seem to remember but it has been to planning to refurbish as offices and also once for change of use to apartments. It seems that the office idea has won at as there are no dividing walls to be seen.

A colourful spot at Prince William Henry Bridge, named after a pub that was off to the left, but now a builders yard.

Part of the old Courtauld's factory has been repurposed it seems.

The Stoke Heath basin is at the bottom right and the massive shed of the Cammel-Laird Ordnance Works is to the left. I was fascinated by the gun range running alongside the canal on the off side. They couldn't have possible tested the 15" guns here could they? It is where there are a few boats with permanent moorings.

This site was another Courtauld's factory, this time producing Acetate for yarns, the 'cotton' type stuff that was in a cigarette filter and the plastic for spectacle frames. It is all housing now, but the signs for the outlets still survive.

Next come the sight of the massive Coventry Corporation Gas Works that would have provided work for many narrow boats I'm sure. It was actually in this area that the first sod was cut in the construction of the Coventry Canal in 1768.

This concrete bench at Longford looks inviting but wont be that comfortable after a while.

As you approach the junction you go under this bridge with the birds that used to be a mineral railway that served the Wyken Alexandra and Wyken Old Pit mines as well as the Longford Power station.

I'm not too sure what this bridge was, just an accommodation bridge it looks like, but the walls facing the canal seem to have become detached from the corners and looks like it may soon topple into the canal, on both sides.

We had a day of drizzle and dull weather, and then once clear of Hawkesbury there was heavy rain with thunder and lightening, all very impressive. Once that had cleared the sun came out and it was a nice day. I waited for a boat to come through Newbold Tunnel and then another started through so I went through too. It is two way so no problem. We got to the Brownsover moorings and went on a little before mooring as there are still rings to tie to. We went in to Dunhelm for some stuff and then to Tesco's for milk and a few extras. We decided to head to the Harvesters for tea too. All in all a varied and enjoyable day, all round.