The rough and the smooth.

We started off early today as the rain was due after lunch. It was 0800 when we cast off. We were only going for five minutes until I stopped at the bridge to get the paper. There was nothing moving other than a few joggers and it was still and warm making the next couple of hours of lock free chugging a delight.

The route was largely overhung by big trees and as there was no wind there were some good reflections in the water.

The canal and tow path were very clean, and the water was clear. It changed a little after Yardley Road Bridge but it was still not as bad as I have seen in suburban areas.

We soon were at Camp Hill Sanitary Station and I must say it is one of the best kept on the system I have come across. I expect that this is largely due to the fewer numbers of boats that pass here. The sun was still shining when we got there and Macy cat took advantage of the shade of the solar panels whilst we did the needful before heading down the six locks.

Just as we were coming to the top lock a single-hander was coming up so we had high hopes that all would be with us on the way down. After helping him through his last lock we set off. I found that most of the locks required partial filling though due to the leaking bottom gates. This is Holy Trinity Church Camp Hill which now seems to be an oasis in a desert of industry and roads. It was built in  1823 and also featured in a court case when the in 1880 the incumbent went against his Bishop and started introducing 'popish' ways into the services of the Church of England. He refused to attend his trial but got the maximum penalty under the Public Worship Regulation Act anyway, imprisonment and dismissal from the Parish. It ceased use as a church in 1971 and became a refuge for the homeless and I must say there are several of them living under bridges in the area at the moment. It was up for sale for £3million last year if you are interested.

Helen powering round the turn heading for our fourth lock down.

We got to the bottom lock and the weather was still holding for us. Each of the top gates had individually marked steel parts. The still must be magnificent quality as the letters are still crisp after over 100 years. 6CH 1894. (Lock 6 Camp Hill 1894). I wonder why they went to the expense of casting them with individual lettering as I would think that they are all the same size. Although the dates did seem to spread over two or three years. Bordesley Junction must be one of the least impressive junctions on the system as it is hemmed in by tall factories and is graffiti covered. Mind you it must have been very busy even into the 1960's as the traffic would have been very busy with horse drawn day boats taking city rubbish to Small Heath where the incinerator is now, or energy recovery facility as they are now called.

In past times this was a Fellows Morton and Clayton warehouse. It is called the Bond and has been nicely tided up with it's undercover arm and meeting rooms etc. The only thing missing, from the canal at least, is anything canal related!

On the right is the Fyffes banana shed next to the sop lock that is called Warwick Bar. the more famous Worcester Bar at Gas Street is not nearly as impressive. The tallest building in the distance is another FMC ltd warehouse that was built in the 1930's after the upgrade of the Grand Union with a rounded wall where it lead round into a small arm. You can just get a hit of it in this photo. The Bond warehouse is just past it.

Wouldn't you just know it as soon as we were through Warwick bar and turning on to the Digbeth Branch we meet only the second boat of the day. We managed to make no contact and were soon on our way. This is the boat passing through Warwick Bar.

On passing through Curzon Street Tunnel, where there were no lights at all we were soon at the start of the Ashted Locks. There seems to be have been an aweful lot of building here since our last passing. Most of the buildings seem to be for Birmingham University and there still seems much more to come. The east end of the town centre is having a lot of money spending on it and this is part of it. If and when the HS2 to Birmingham gets built Curzon Street Station will be the terminus in Birmingham.

With two locks to do the rain had started to ooze down. It wasn't really enough to put any wet weather gear on so we just carried on through Ashted Tunnel to our final lock. Helen sheltering from the rain until the lock is prepared for her.

We didn't go much further than the winding hole and moored up on the 48hr spaces near Lister Street Bridge. By now it had started bucketing down so we were glad to get inside and into dry gear. It has already stopped by the time I am writing this. It took us 105mins to do the 12 locks and around 1.7miles so we feel we did well.

No locks but smallpoxs!

We had a lazy start this morning as we weren't going very far at all. It was already very warm by 0800 though. We were just moving a little over 2 miles to Catherine de Barnes so just soaked up the quiet of the canal. We have seen very few other boats for the last few days. We did meet the two day boats from Copt Heath Wharf on the start of a very warm day for them.

The short stretch of the canal that we covered today was surprisingly rural and the trees were particularly nice. The tow path bank is largely concrete edged that was done when the canal was enlarged in 1930's.

There were a few fishermen out today. I managed to get in one's good books as his float had come adrfift and I was able to push it back towards him so he could pick it up in his keep net. He should get better with his knot tying I reckon. We were also passed by some high speed kayaks zooming towards Knowle. It is surprising how much of a wash they cause.

This is the view towards Catherine de Barnes from our moorings. We stopped a little short of the visitor moorings to be further away from the busy road and as we had a good view for the solar panels. By now it was very muggy and over 30C. There is a canoe club near the visitor moorings and they had many trips out on the canal. A very nice day for it too.

We went for a walk to post a letter and there is a little Spar near to the bridge. The road is very busy though so care should be used when crossing. Once we were back Helen got her chair and book out and I went for a walk to pick some blackberries. I have an idea to make some blackberry squash.

We have had a couple of very short sharp showers and a rumble of thunder but it hasn't cooled down at all. When we were in the 'village' I noticed that there were posters for things happening in Catney. It seems that the locals call Catherine de Barnes Catney! I can see why I suppose. The name Catherine de Barnes is supposed to derive from the lord who was given the land after the Norman Conquest, one Ketelberne! How ever there wasn't much of anything in this place until the building of the Canal.

Mind you they do have the distinction of the last known person to die of smallpox dying here. In 1907 an isolation hospital was built to house those from the area that contacted smallpox, typhoid and diphtheria. It was opened in 1910 and consisted of a main block with one bed wards and several bungalows that housed ten staff and 16 patients. In 1950's it was converted to a maternity hospital. When a new maternity hospital was opened at Solihull hospital it was designated as UK's National Isolation hospital and from 1966 was kept on permanent standby. For over ten years the hospital was on one hours notice to house infected patients. It was permanently manned by only two sisters. Everybody coming on to the site had to take full precautions. Janet Parker was the last known victim of smallpox and after she died the room was sealed for 5 years. Her Father was the second last person to die in the hospital but that was of a heart attack whilst visiting her. No post-mortum was carried out due to the fear of contagion. Once small pox had been eradicated and other diseases where less prevalent the cost of keeping it open where prohibitive. In 1985 there were plans to burn it down to ensure that all was safe. However after fumigation the site was sold in 1987 and this year you can get a 5 bed detached bungalow on the site for £700,000!

Isolation Hospital, Catherine de Barnes.

Bits and bobs.

We haven't had much sun today but it has been nice and warm. Helen made one of her superb lemon drizzle cakes and whilst she was doing that I got looking through my note books. I have made a note of every pub I have been to and every pint that I have had. I know it sounds a little anal but it is for a reason, honestly! It seems that since April 1st I have been to 70 pubs and drunk 100 pints of bitter. This is 100 pints in 142 days so works out at 0.7 pints a day! That doesn't sound very good does it. But then when I think that even if you count 0.7 pints as two units that means I have had 1.4 units a day. The recommendation is for men to have no more that 3 to 4 units a day so I have been within tolerances and as it hasn't been every day, or in serious binge periods I feel that I have been entitled to say I have enjoyed the variety of beers around the country.

After lunch we walked back into Knowle via a different route to buy some food stuffs and a couple of articles that we had seen at a Charity shop. The maize isn't fully ripe yet but it is still much taller than  Helen.

When we got back I had a cup of tea and set to work sorting out the engine hole. This is the stuff from the shelf that used to house the batteries. I have enough oil for the next oil change which is imminent plus some empty containers to put the waste oil in. I have a few too many of the later so I can make a little more room by donating them to the recycling.

 Helen demanded that we had a TV this year so that she could watch the occasional 'can't miss' programmes. One of those is the 'Bake Off' so I have been erecting the equipment each Wednesday for a few weeks now. I have used an extending pole with a simple aerial on top. The aerial connection one here is at the front of the boat. At the base I thread the pole through a traffic cone that I rescued from the cut and the base also sits snugly in the circular holes of the rubber mat on the fore deck.

I didn't want to drill holes in the hull or any where else if I could help it. So I came up with this idea. A section of scaffolding board, the metal bound end, with a slot cut out of it and a bar across to stop the pole coming out. Then the board is clamped to the deck head edge by two clamps from Wilco. The hole only takes five minutes to put up and take down so I am well pleased that it works well.

Knowle Locks.

A lovely quiet night was had, and not a light could be seen from where we were moored. Other than two day boats from Copt Heath Wharf we have only seen two moving boats today. We didn't have to go very far before we arrived at the delightful Knowle Locks. We stopped at the bottom to top up with water and wait for somebody to go up with. The bottom locks were our way so when we saw a boat coming down we thought we may as well go up on our own as they would fill the lock anyway.

There are five locks at Knowle. This is the pound between No.47 and 48. You can also see the ridge that the locks must climb up. The locks raise the canal 42 foot to a cutting in the top of the ridge. 

This is the lock before the top one. Helen is helping out by opening the paddle a little more as I am setting the top lock.

The original single lock can be seen to the left and is now the spill weir. The pounds between the locks are expanded to allow for the double locks. 

The Knowle Locks are well maintained and are open with a good view so making them a pleasure to work. The only problem is that some of the gates swing open on their own.

At the top of the locks is Steven Goldsborough's yard and it wasn't much further before we moored up with a nice view to both sides. We also had a vivid yellow house to see too.

We walked into the village of Knowle and I saw this on a terrace of houses. I had never seen one like this with the countries that that Queen Victoria had dominion over.

The church of St John the Baptist, St Lawrence and St Anne was built in 1402. Walter Cook was a wealthy man and had the church built to save the parishioners having to travel 6 miles and cross the river Blythe,

There is some intricate brick work on this Victoria terrace.

On the way back to the boat we saw Grimshaw hall through the trees. It was built around 1560 and was named after the family that lived there for 150 years until about 1765. It is Grade 1 listed and is a fine example of Elizabethan domestic architecture. It has an E plan with the two end wings extending forwards 6 feet and the double porch at the front similarly. Around 2000 the contents were sold by Christes and the house sold for £2.4 million. In 2003 it was sold again for £1.8 million.

Lock free length.

We got going in sunshine at about 0930 we were soon  approaching Shrewley Tunnel.

Despite the tunnel being two way working I hung about until the boat coming the other way cleared before heading through. At first it seemed nice and dry but approaching the other end there were 'streams' coming from the side of the tunnel. I was able to avoid most of them by weaving about the canal though.

As there is no tow path through the tunnel the boat horses were taken over the top and across the main street of the village of Shrewley. There is an unusual horse tunnel to access the towpath after the tunnel and can be seen to the right in the photograph above.

 Despite the M40 and the railway line being close the trees  cut out most of the noise. The colours of the foliage is now almost in the autumn mode when the vivid greens give way to the fuller darker greens. This stretch was very pleasant to cruise through.

There is an embankment as you approach Rowington with great views and nice wide towpath. We will definitively mark it down for a future stop over.

This old building ahs been here a while as can be seen by the wave in the ridge beams. I love the different roof levels and tiles.

We stopped for water at Turner's Green and we were tempted to moor up and see what the Tom O' The Woods pub was like but we resisted and carried onwards.

We passed Kingswood Junction and were quite pleased that we were continuing on the lock free Grand Union rather than the down on to the Stratford Canal. That will be another another time.

After the junction we tried to moor up on the straight but the old piling was difficult to get anywhere near as it was all shoaled up very badly. We got stuck for a few minutes on one attempt and had to resort to the pole to get us free again. We continued up the cut until we spotted a place where there was a gap in the trees for a view and some solar. We hadn't log been moored up when it started to rain softly. Impeccable timing one again.

I have spent the afternoon doing a bit of scheduling for the next couple of months to see where we will be for trips home on the train. I am fortunate as where we have ended up does provide a signal for the television tonight. I would definitely been in bad books if we couldn't get the 'Bake off' for Helen.

Hiking for hazelnuts.

As it was the last day with no rain for a few days and we are full of water we decided to do a load of washing. After that was finished and hung up we went for a walk to the Hatton Country World 'attraction'. It was only about half a mile so we were soon there.

It was busy with loads of kids at a little bit of a petting zoo type thing and an adventure world with lots of things for kids to do. That meant they they were largely confined to play areas so the small shopping area was free for adults to root around. It was obviously a disused farm yard with the buildings converted. It was quite a nice way to spend an hour or two as there were some different things to look at. Helen found a nice top and she also managed to find three Christmas presents too. 

They have a few walks round the Hatton Estate and one took us over the fields toward Hatton Top Lock. On the way we got a better view of the former Asylum from yesterday's blog.

The field boundaries had been planted up with hedges that were a foragers dream really. There were plenty of brambles and apples and there were plenty of sloes and rose hips for later in the year. I was attracted though by the many hazel or cobb nuts that were growing. I have seen plenty this year and a had decided to have another go at harvesting them this year.

The ones on our walk were largely quite plump and were starting to go brown. The trouble is if you leave them until they are fully ripe they disappear when the squirrels etc get their teeth into them.

I picked this many in a large punnet and looked up a recipe for hazelnut butter and homemade Nutella spread and thought that would be a good project.

The large punnet full, once shelled, revealed this amount of nuts, seen in the same punnet. Despite their not being very much I will try to make a small batch of butter to see how it goes. I could then pick lots more if it goes well. They are in the oven toasting at the moment. I hope the toasting will give them a little more flavour as they seem a little tasteless at the moment.

It is a nice mooring just here as the railway line is behind several hedges and in a slight cutting. The roar of the M40 can just be made out but is not invasive at the moment. Mind you when we move on tomorrow it may well be. This is the view from our table at the moment.

Heading up Hatton.

We set off soon after 0930 hoping that somebody else would turn up whilst we were taking on water at the bottom of the Cape or Warwick Locks and they did. A family on a hire boat kindly waited a few minutes for us whilst we finished off the water.

The secong of the two locks by the Cape of Good Hope pub.

Before the start of the Hatton Locks the Saltisford Arm goes away. This was actually the end of the Warwick and Birmingham Canal that ended closer to the centre of Warwick than today. Latert the Warwick and Napton Canal arrived and joined up isolating the last part of the earlier canal. It is now used for moorings and has an active community down there.

As we arrived at the first of the 21 Hatton Locks we lost our partner to a share boat that had just about to start upwards. However as we had to wait for them to leave the locks we were joined by another boat who turned out to be good lock buddies. Our first partners heading of without us.

There are a fair few still ahead of us.

The helmsmen had now decided to pair up rather than have to throw ropes up to the lock side and things go quickly. However we often have to wait a little to allow the ones ahead to clear the locks so we can reset them. I was able to pick a pound or two of brambles whilst standing around.

We did meet a few boats coming down which needed a bit of shuffling about. This makes the process look like the Red Arrows have been involved with a star burst.

Near the top in a side pound is this sculpture of a dragonfly

Near the top now with St Mary's Church, Warwick, in the distance.

Helen is all smiles now as there are only three locks to do. In the distance is the Asylum opened in 1852 and known as Central Hospital. At it's peak there were 370 acres of land round the Hospital that were farmed by the 'inmates' and they provided all their own food. A tuberculosis hospital was built on the site too. The farms were sold off in 1973 and the hospital was closed in 1995. Some of the buildings were knocked down and a housing estate built. The Grade 1 buildings were converted to apartments.

We got to the top in just under three hours and as the weather has been just right, not too hot or sunny, and no wind or rain, it was a pleasure to do them with our lock partners who knew what to do. We didn't go much further, just cleared the cuttings to get a bit of daylight.