Out into the Country.

 We arose to another fine day and we were off by 09:30 after a great night too.

We were soon at Curdworth tunnel that was full of hanging spider houses for spiderets.

At the top lock we started down at a good pace.

We soon came to a much slower pace as by lock 3 we had caught up with a very slow boat heading down.

I really like Curdworth Locks as they are well maintained and they have 'stuff' to see as you wend your way down hill. The boat ahead told us that they were being held up by a single hander ahead. It seemed to me that they were going very slowly so as not to catch him up and have to assist him through the locks!

The HS2 has not really encroached on the canal as they seem to have been busy bridging the M6 next door. I am assuming that it will start soon.

By the time we got to Lock 7 we could see that the boat ahead had gone ahead of the single hander. It turns out that the single hander was 'Granny Buttons'. We knew he had passed us yesterday evening. Once we caught up with him and had a good chat we heard that his gear box cable had broken and so he could not go astern and had to man haul much of the time. He was headed to the Dog and Doublet pub to await the engineer. It was a pleasure to chat with him before heading down after helping him tie up.

We stopped for water at Bodymoor Heath bridge and got rid of our rubbish too. We then continued towards the bottom lock.

It is a lovely spot at the bottom moorings with the water park next door. It is a shame the swing bridge has been left to decline, but then C&RT have no money for more important matters it is understandable. Sitting at the bottom was the boat from ahead having lunch and a cup of tea.

The Drayton Footbridge has shrubs growing out of it at the moment and the photo view is somewhat spoiled by the moored boats.

This mill was built in 1886 for William Tolson to manufacture narrow fabrics that were used by the upholstery trade. The Tolson's were very active in Fazeley and in 1894 they combined the company's of Tolson and Sons and William Tolson into one company William Tolson Ltd. Richard and William Tolson were to be managing directors of the new company for 7 years at £500 a year. The new company were involved as bleachers, dyers, finishers and polishers, wool staplers, cotton spinners, general smallware manufacturers, manufacturers of tapes, laces, webbing, bindings, ribbons etc. showing the importance of Fazeley and the area to this trade.

The Junction House was looking splendid in the sun as we turned right heading for Galscote.

By the time we had got to Galscote locks and waited for a boat to go up and one to go down the boat from the Curdworth Lock had caught us up. He was very good at shouting instructions at us about how to work a lock without moving a muscle. I bet he is popular on a flight!

We moored up just after the locks and went for a walk into town and had our tea out and a couple of pints in the sun. All in all a lovely day on the cut.