Brinklow

The day started lovely and sunny and we decided to stay another day on this mooring. After getting sorted we set of for a bit of a walk into the nearest village of Brinklow. The Fosse Way runs close to the village and a Norman Motte and Bailey Castle was built to guard it after the conquest. The mound is still there along with the inner and outer courts and a moat. I haven't really seen one so complete. (No structures though of course!). http://www.brinklowvillage.co.uk/download/history/Castle.pdf

View back to the canal from going up to the castle. You can just see our red boat. You can see the medieval ridge and furrow in the sheep's field.

Primroses in the church yard.

We walked up the road to see if we could see where the original loop of the canal came through the canal. It is still there but not really in water and not accessible. The village is built along the Fosse Way and has a very varied styles of houses. 

Brinklow High Street.

Helen deciding where to go.

From the village we followed footpaths of the Coventry Way and Centenary Way back to the towpath of the Oxford Canal. The bridge above was on the route. In the end we did about 5 miles and enjoyed the sit down and lunch when we got back. In the afternoon I bit the bullet and went down the engine hole to see where the water was leaking from. It isn't very user friendly, and certainly not someone of my size. I found a loose connection on the off take for the heating. I then bailed out the water and then found that the stern gland bolts were loose. It is very difficult to get in there to do anything at all.

The heating is under the deck to the top right and the batteries are under the deck to the bottom left.

With me inserted in the hole you can see that there isn't a lot of room to do anything at all. I can not really check the batteries as there is no clearance to the deck and I can't move them out really. I am going to have to address that as I need to regularly check the batteries and top them up with water. I am also considering training up Helen to do the job as she is more the right size!