It hasn't rained but I got soaked!

 Only one boat passed us going the same way before we left our overnight mooring. It actually made up 50% of all the moving boats we saw today. (Oh there was a day boat from the Lyons Yard too.) 

Just round the corner from ourt mooring was this reminder that there are only 153 days until Christmas.

Not much further  on was Bridge 22 with the winding hole just to the left before it. In Pearson's guide it says that there was a wharf here that was linked to a limestone quarry by a tramway. I can find no evidence of this on maps dated as far back as 1886, but there was a wharf with a weighbridge and there was another wharf just through the bridge on the towpath side next to Rotherham's Oak Farm

We saw several heron's today all of which stood stock still as we passed except this one as he knew I had the camera ready. We also  saw a kingfisher dash off ahead of us several times, but not so as to be able to get a picture.

We stopped at Wedge's Bakery by bridge 20 and Helen came back with a bag full of goodies. A fruit cake, some cobs, packets of scratchings and a Danish pastry and an Eccles cake. The bakery has been on this site since 1850 and do savouries and sandwiches too. Well worth a stop if passing.

The north Stratford Canal is very largely in shallow cuttings that are lined very very venerable trees. This does not support many mooring spots in the sun, but will be very welcome on a red hot day as providing some shade. Not so much fun in the rain me thinks.

Helen tells me it was 2016 that we were last this way and I remember that there was a couple who had taken on restoring this house. What a shame their dreams were not fulfilled. It has a nice little courtyard with outbuildings and is a real do'er up'er. I think the wall near the towpath is only being kept erect by the ivy.

A little further on was the long line of boats moored at the Earlswood Motorboat Club. They have a lovely clubhouse and shop. The wooden bridge is the feeder to the three canal reservoirs, Engine Pool, Terry's Pool and Windmill Pool. At the end of the arm was a pumping station and it was kept in coal via the canal until the 1936. It is elongated moorings for the boat club now. It must be interesting being moored at the top end as it is a long way to reverse in or out to moor up as there is no winding spot. Right opposite the entrance was a brick works in 1886 but goner 20 years later.

We have seen several ducks with second broods of ducklings along this stretch.

Dickens Heath is a new community that was dreamed up by the Solihull Council as a way to build 850 homes. The plan was passed in 1995 and the first building took place in 1997. By the canal this development seems to be out of place. I'm sure I remember the cascade working the first time we came this way. The community was built to have all the amenities and the housing reflects all types of accommodation and it is said there is a great community spirit here. There were loads walking the towpath, young and quite old. Nordic pole walkers seemed to be out in force today.

Just before we arrived at Shirley Drawbridge a dayboat came round the corner. We just about missed each other but I had to had to pass down her port side. Helen likes these bridges where it is just a key and a button that does everything for you. Very quick as well.

We stopped to top up the tank of water at Warstock and then carried on towards the King's Norton Junction but decided to moor up opposite the long line of moored boats at Lyons Yard, where there was a gap. On the way there was once again shallow cuttings and trees that give the canal an air of mystery. It seems that Frank Lyons set up the yard in the early 1980's.

Where we are moored is quite shallow so the boat didn't want to go too close as we came in. Normally Helen jumps off with the centre line but she missed the optimum time and rather than have to mess about trying to get close again I took the rope and with my long legs strode over to the bank, and straight into the cut! I went right under the filthy water but was soon out and tying up. It took four or five rinses to get much of the mud out of the clothes. A literal christening as I have never been under before.

Once we had lunch I did a few jobs like fixing new fire extinguishers and vent covers, and then made some now props for the solar panels. Before tea we walked up the tow path to the next bridge to get to a Lidl that was right by the canal as we needed some milk and odds and sods.

Nineteen Narrow Locks now.

We slept well, as predicted, but woke feeling fine. It was dull to wake up and there was a bit of mist about. About 0830 it started to spit a little but had stopped by the time we got underway after only one boat passed us. 

At Turners green, just after passing the goats we were met with this colourful sight just before the Tom O' the Woods pub. Nobody was on the water point so we stopped and topped up before heading off to Kingswood Junction.

There was a very slight delay as we waited for a boat to wind in the entrance to the cut and headed towards the Stratford Canal.

To the left is the way to Stratford that misses out two locks and was blocked up but restored in 1996. It started to spit again as I was waiting for the lock to empty. Not enough to get wet though. 

The little cottage on the island formed by the two canals and cut through looks pretty from here.

As we cleared the lock a boat rising up from the next door lock, coming from Stratford took the next lock so I waited here and was able to dump the rubbish whilst waiting.

Looking back from Lock 19 towards the junction I was struck by the 'spiders web'  foot bridge that is not how they would do it today.

The reconstruction of this lock 15 left it two foot shorter than the others on the canal. That means it must be only 68' long as the maximum is said to be 70'.

We were following the boat up until Lock 14 where they stopped for lunch. We couldn't see anything ahead but all the locks seemed to be full. Are they all badly leaking as we had several downward boats?

The Startford Upon Avon Canal Society mile posts are not over fancy but do the job.

The blue engineering bricks on the coping of a lock were imprinted with W. Bennitt, Oldbury. It seems that he was an iron and coal master following in his family footsteps as they had created the blast furnaces in Oldbury around 1780. William was born in 1800. It seems that he started the brickworks next to the iron works around 1850 and produced these bricks between around 1850 and 1865, as after that he joined with another man and the stamp became different. He was declared bankrupt in 1866.

Looking down from lock 8 to lock 14 reveals that this is a pretty flight of locks.

Lock 7 has this pretty cottage and a lovely split bridge that still had the horse rope roller still in place. It must have been a skillful place to boat as the pounds between locks here are short and with a 70' boat meeting another would be interesting, especially ones like this that are on a curve too. I wonder what the rule was?

We swapped over at the bottom, at lock 14 with Helen taking the helm and enjoying the different challenge of narrow locks.

After the locks the fun isn't over as there are two lift bridges close by. Not electric but windlass powered Helen dealt with them efficiently.

A little further on, after Bridge 25 was this little arm that serviced a coal wharf, with the Wharf pub next to it.

We didn't go much further before mooring up as it started to spit again and we were hungry. After a cheese and onion cob I got some jobs done before tea. Things like filling the stern glad greaser, sweeping out the gutter round the engine hole and cutting and laying some new rubber matting at the stern.

Hot heading up Hatton.

 We got underway before 0930 and nobody passed us before heading off towards the Cape Locks. It had rained most of the night but stopped conveniently by about 0830.

Seagull art just after we left as part of the graffiti trail.

As we were leaving Leamington, passing the station, there was what is a green corridor through the built up area. I wonder if anybody has actually done any research on what animals move from place to place along the canals as I way maybe to access different breeding groups that could be isolated by the loss of habitat. (After reading that back it sounds a bit 'weird' but I'm sure you know what I mean.

We didn't go far before having a quick stop at Lidl for a top up of stuff, and a quick dash to Homebase nearby.

As we crossed the Birmingham to London railway line there was a long line of multicoloured containers going past. It is obvious this is the route used for freight to keep them off the passenger routes as we saw loads of freight heading up the Hatton Incline.

There was somebody moored on the water point and lock landing at the foot of the Cape Locks, and there was a slight delay as a very tired 73 year old came out of the last lock with help from Helen. Our first lock. I hope I look better than he does when we get to the top! I wonder if it is age 73 when you start telling everybody your age when you meet them?

We entered the bottom of the Hatton flight at 1210 and this Fillipina was chatting to her Mum on the phone and basically giving her a blow by blow account of what was going on and filming it all. She lives in Carlisle and travels worldwide with her British husband. I didn't ask what they were doing here mind.

After the first lock I took over on the windlass. Helen was clearly enjoying threading 'Holderness' into the locks with one gate. All the locks on the first half of the flight were empty when we got to them. There was no sign of anybody heading up at all.

We met the occasional boat/boats coming down which worked fine as I could leave gates etc.

By the time we got to half way the locks were pretty full or certainly needed a good empty which slowed us down a bit.

The second half have the locks closer together so I could head up and prepare the locks for Helen before returning and letting her out of the lower lock. There was plenty of water coming down. Two voluntary lock keepers passed on the way back up towards the top and didn't lift a paddle for me at even one lock. I take this to mean that they weren't boat owners as surely they would have done if they had been up and down a flight of locks themselves. Nothing could be seen moving in either direction.

Helen was always ready to have a chat with the many walkers as she rose up the locks. Three or four locks from the top there was a boat sat in a lock. I wondered if they were having a break and would drop down when they saw us coming, or they were waiting for somebody. It turns out that they were waiting for another boat coming down, to share. They asked if I was willing to wait, but as they were not insight I knew it wouldn't be the 10 minutes they claimed. I said they could drop down with the lock and it would be ready for the following boat when I had worked up the lock. They chose to back out and the husband wasn't happy. Not sure why though. It was nearly 40 minuets by the time I could have got in the lock if we had waited!

Nearly there now. We cleared the top lock at 1515, a creditable 3 hours and 5 minutes! We moored up at the water point to top up and Helen went down to the lock cafe for a welcome icecream. I felt like I needed it. I will sleep well tonight I think.

Once full of water we headed off and through Shrewley Tunnel. The drips and more were quite welcome today to cool me off.

The canal seems to be very quiet and I managed to get the bridge photo on a beautiful afternoon.

We moored up between Bridge 60 and 61 and had a bit of a rest before getting on with the chores a bit later. More locks tomorrow to add to our 43 wide locks in three days. I suppose this is fun though, right?

Down we go!

Well we are back on the boat. after a full Sunday of grandchildren and cousins birthday party we set off down south for the boat. It too three hours but no real problems, just mile upon mile of 40 mph speed limits supposedly for installing extra emergency bays. There were signs stating 'we also work nights' there was absolutely no sign of it at all. On top of that these are supposed to be 'SMART' motorways! Surely they could alter the speed limits by just typing in a different number when nobody is working.

 

It was a full moon when we arrived at 2245 and it didn't take us long to unload the car. Although it was pointed out to me that I had left certain things in the garage, which is hardly surprising really as I didn't know they were there! Communications need to improve I feel.

After turning out for the marina we could see that a hire boat was just leaving the bottom Calcutt lock. Great help at the Stockton Locks.

It turns out it was a family from St. Helen's on an Ashby Boat. They had 4 crew so we sped down the locks. Unfortunately they stopped for lunch at the Blue Lias and we were on our own again.

The Cuttle Inn was part of the wharf that also had warehouse to the right and a weighing machine that was part of the set-up when put up for auction in 1844.

Opposite the Cuttle In is the Two Boats. It doesn't seem that this was a pun until between the wars, and certainly looks like to cottage knocked through into one. We stopped for water at Bascote Wharf. We thought that it would only take a minute as we both felt sure that we had filled up when we left the boat last time, but we hadn't. It didn't take very long but longer than we were expecting.

As we approached the top of the Bascote staircase we could see a boat shambling down. They stopped to share after the staircase and we shared with them all the way to Radford Bottom Lock. They seemed to be busy at the HS2 works. I couldn't work out what the very deep pit was for that was to south of the canal. It was very close to the water. I wondered if it was to put a pillar in to carry the track over the canal?

There were four aboard the share boat we were with. It seems that none wanted to cross the lock gates so it meant a bit of too'ing and fro'ing as were were told to go first. It was much quicker than being on our own none the less and so we kept going to Leamington. The others were quite happy to come with us too.

Brink seems to have been a busy artist on the Leamington Graffiti trail.

This used to the the Eagle Iron Foundry where they used to make stoves. It started out much smaller near the railway line, but extended massively just before WWII taking over a wharf  a bit further west. It was John Flavel who set up a stove factory here in 1803 and started making his 'Leamingtron Kitchener Stove' here. It was a revolution as it kept the food away from the actual fire and was quickly taken up. Successive sons took over and a stove was displayed at the Great Exhibition in 1851. It was installed in palaces and great houses and went on to one of the best boosts to family life. In 2002 the factory was modernised as was the products and was Rangemaster until it became part of the AGA business. Much of it now looks derelict!

We moored up just past the factory before bridge 40 and by some student accommodation, which we thought to be more than likely empty at the time of year. After a lovely warm day, and speeding down the locks (we had planned to do about 5 hours and ended up doing over 6), we decided to go for a drink before tea. There is a little micro pub just by the bridge. Not really a pub so much as a bar with no real ale, but some craft beers on. That would do very nicely so a couple of pints to re-hydrate and back for tea.

A very good first day. Fingers crossed for the next few days to be similar.

Flue By.

 We had a quiet night pulled into Braunston marina but got up earlier than normal in case they were banging on the roof for us to get started. As it happened nothing started until about 09:00. I went to the office and they allocated us a working berth, but before I headed down the end of the arm the Monday move about when boats were brought out of the dry dock and new ones slotted in and others came in for work and at the canopy makers too. It was soon sorted and we headed to the end and moored up.

We were in to replace the collar at the top of our stove. The official name is the spigot. I had gone under a bridge with the chimney up 18 months or so ago and it had just caught. Seemingly this had transmitted the movement down through the flue to the top of the stove and cracked the spigot. I never normally travel with the chimney up, stove lit or not, but I can't recall why I had done that day.

It had never leaked gas as we have two CO detectors and a 'canary in a cage', Macy the Cat, as she is close to the deck so would be prone to the case, if there were any. I hasten to add we didn't use her as a CO tester, and I'm not too sure whether CO sinks or rises, it doesn't seem clear so we have our detectors one high and one low!

However we are due our Boat Safety Certificate renewing this year and I'm sure we wouldn't pass with it as it was. Time to get sorted.

They were soon aboard and freeing up the chimney flue from the roof. There was plenty of heat proof mastic and ribbon to remove, but soon accomplished.

Freeing the spigot from the stove top was a little more difficult but once again accomplished. You can easily see the crack in the 'collar'

Helen retired from the boat to a bench to carry on with her crocheting as the sun was shining.

The marina is getting a complete repaint at the moment ready for the Heritage Boat show in a couple of weekends. The dock area always looks well groomed and everybody is very friendly too.

The repair was soon done and looks pretty good. I wonder when I will get round to testing it.

All sealed in and a coat of stove black to finish it all off. I didn't have to 'sell our pig', but nothing is cheap on the waterways is it. Very efficiently done and nicely tided up though.

We were on our way after paying the bill by 12:30, and after waiting for somebody winding in the entrance we headed off. The Gongoozler's Rest had a few takers and the sun was shining as we passed the stop house.

We found a mooring close to Bridge 7 and as it was nice I decided to sort the 'tunnel rash' on the st'bd cabin top that we had caught in Husband Bosworth Tunnel a month or so ago. It had been sanded back, treated and then now has a couple of coats of primer on it. I fine sanded it back and then painted it and rolled it over to get a better finish. I never know what to do for the best buy I think rather than trying to blend it in to old paint, with the colour never matching, I have started to just do defined patches.

By making the touch ups more obvious I hope to achieve the idea that the alterations and repairs become part of the story of the boat as in Japanese Sashiko and Boro type repairs. Of course the weather clouded over and there was a little drizzle!

I didn't get the opportunity to get the port side polished. That pleasure will have to wait until, our next visit.