London Calling Week 17 - Turners Green to Wootton Wawen

Monday 23rd September - Turners Green to Lowsonford

A much pleasanter day after a day of rain yesterday.  The plants are enjoying the rainfall and these violas are looking very good at the moment.  Dave took the boat on to the water point and we filled up with water before continuing on to Kingswood Junction.

Toby and I walked on to the junction, this is the view of the junction taken from the arm that connects the Grand Union Canal to the Stratford Canal.

I love these bridges that occur on the Stratford Canal, they are split down the middle to allow for the horse rope to pass through rather than undoing the rope. Today many of the splits have been filled in, but they still look wonderful. 

NBElla hovering and waiting to get into position to enter the next lock, the conditions were perfect, dry, light winds and warm in the sunshine with very few boats moving in either direction.

3 miles, 9 locks, 3 hrs 12 mins cruising time.

Tuesday 24th September - Lowsonford

After heavy rain overnight and more rain forecast for the day, we decided to have a quiet day in Lowsonford.  

Wednesday 25th September - Lowsonford to Wootton Wawen

A very much better day today weather wise and we made an early start on our cruise to Wootton Wawen.  A cheery wave from Dave as he works the lock.

The bridge after the lock still has the split through the middle where the rope attached to the horse could be passed through without untethering the horse.

This is a little bridge over a road, quite interesting as the towpath is part of the iron trough that carries the canal, you walk below the level of the water.  We moored at Wootton Wawen and walked down to Yew Tree Farm Shopping Village which has a favourite clothes shop and a good farm shop.

4 miles, 8 locks, 3 hrs 18 mins cruising time.

Thursday 26th September - Wootton Wawen to Stratford-upon-Avon

A bright and early start as we have a lot of locks to descend today.  We are approaching the Anglo Welsh hire base, but it seems all quiet at the moment.

This is the end of the Edstone Aqueduct.  The aqueduct was built in the early 1800's and spans a road and the Alcester Railway (now the Great Western Railway) via a 250 yard cast iron trough sitting atop 13 brick piers, which vary in height from eight to eleven metres.  The towpath runs along the right side and forms part of the baseplate of the trough.  It is the longest aqueduct in England.

As we came into Stratford we met a Canal and River Trust volunteer called Peter.  He is the lead volunteer for the West Midlands and can sometimes be sen at the Diglis Locks in Worcester.  This was just after there had been a huge downpour and everything was soaked!

The final low bridge before Bancroft Basin where we shall moor for the next few days.

This shows just how low these bridges have been, as we cleared the bridge we passed a line of school children who were very excited to see a boat emerge as they walked by.

7 miles, 17 locks, 5 hrs 24 mins.

Friday 27th September - Stratford-upon-Avon

Today we spent the day on the boat and exploring Stratford.  A walk through the town found many of these buildings, this is a town house c1500, recorded as an inn since 1655-61 and now The Falcon Hotel.

This shop is open all year round, The Nutcracker Christmas Shop sells everything you could possibly want to do with Christmas, the shopkeeper was from Crieff in Scotland where they have a Christmas Village.

Saturday 28th September - Stratford to Wootton Wawen

Today is nbElla's 4th birthday, she was launched 4 years ago at Rode Heath on a beautiful sunny day, thank you for 4 marvellous years!

An early start this morning, leaving Stratford in brilliant sunshine, hoping to get to our mooring before the rain sets in.  A the moment it is calm, sunny and very pleasant.  Some of the moorings in the Basin were occupied by hire boats that had been left as the company had gone bust, such a shame.

Paul was a Canal and River Trust employee who works along this stretch of the canal, today he was having to solve a number of problems, stuck gates, low water in pounds, boats stuck in locks and jammed paddles.  We were grateful for all the help he was able to give us, thanks Paul!

NbHarry Hudson had been abandoned in Stratford as the hirers found it all too difficult, she is 70ft with two bathrooms and the hirers were two elderly Americans who had never been on a narrowboat before.  

Here nbElla passed a boat going down the flight of locks.  Unfortunately the pound below this lock was very low and the boat got stuck in the lock and had to wait for Paul to help them out.  After all the locks we thought we would moor at Wilmcote, but the sun was still shining so we decided to continue on to Wootton Wawen.

This is us going over Edstone Aqueduct, this photo best shows how I felt as we began our crossing, the boat hides the iron trough and there is a weird sensation that you are flying through mid air.  We have been over the Welsh Aqueduct, longer and higher but I don't remember getting the same sensation.

Looking over the side at the road below, there really is nothing to stop anything falling off!

7 miles, 17 locks, 6 hrs 12 mins cruising time.

Sunday 29th September - Wootton Wawen

Spent a quiet morning on board and then met up with Anne and Steve to celebrate Ella's 4th birthday.  Anne and Steve were there when Ella went in the water and have joined us each year to mark the date.  Tomorrow we continue cruising heading towards Birmingham.

London Calling Week 16 - Cropredy to Turner's Green

Monday 16th September - Cropredy to Wormleighton

We left Cropredy and made our way up through the lock and on to this lock which had a shed selling fenders, windlasses etc beside it.  However, it was closed at the time we went past.

Further along was this splendid wooden hull of an old boat looking as though it was undergoing restoration.

This lift bridge marks the county boundary between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, once again the bridge is left open.

This bridge is on the summit of the Oxford Canal, it is called Wedding Bridge, the boat moored beneath it is one of the share boats that moors at Overwater Marina, our previous home Marina.

Once we were moored we went for a walk into Wormleighton, collecting blackberries as we went.  The brambles are heavily ladened this year and we have enjoyed stewed blackberries over ice cream several times.  This was the moon shining as brightly as possible last night over the boat.

9 miles, 9 locks, 4 hrs 54 mins cruising time.

Tuesday 17th September - The Summit to Napton-on-the-Hill

Early morning on the summit, the sun rising turning everything orange in its glow.  By the end of the day yesterday, the moorings were mostly taken and the peace and calm was enjoyed by everyone.

Leaving the summit, the water reflected the bright blue sky, the abundance of blackberries in the hedgerows, the shrill call of the buzzards overhead, the muted bleating of the nearby sheep, we vowed to visit again and share in this wonderful scene.

However, further down the canal we passed the scars being made on the landscape of the preparations for the building and arrival of the HS2, huge lorries carried vast quantities of hardcore and deposited it in ever growing mounds, what will happen to this if the whole project is cancelled?

I found this rather amusing, Dave said it was a glamping tent with an adjacent hot tub, in the middle of a field beside the canal.  Any takers?  85 - 100 pounds a night for the privilege!

I remember seeing this boat last time we came this way.  It is completely landlocked and sits in a boat shaped pond of water.  It has gone upmarket since last time with solar panels and it's own washing line!

As we began the descent of the Napton Locks we found the water buffalo in the fields on the opposite side of the canal.  They are on a small family farm which has been farming water buffalo for around 15 years. They supply a range of products including ice cream, buffalo burgers and sausages handmade on the farm.  There are approximately 140 cows with around 100 young stock.

We met Charlotte and Jolyon at Napton Cidery, cider making was a hobby for them until 2015,and from pressing a simple 2000 litres in 2015, they now press over 45,000 litres; all sourced from small orchards across the UK to support sustainable British farming.  

Later in the afternoon we walked up the hill to the windmill.  Napton Windmill is a red brick tower mill built about 1835. It had a dome cap, windows , acorn finial, three pairs of stones and originally had two common and two spring sails.  Around 1900 it ceased to be worked with sails and was converted to steam, which powered it until about 1909.  The mill lay derelict until about 1972 when it was restored, converted into a house and fitted with four patent sails. In January 1976 two of the sails blew off in a gale and were later restored.

6.5 miles, 5 locks, 3 hrs 18 mins cruising time.

Wednesday 18th September - Napton-on-the-Hill to Long Itchington

Another glorious sunny morning, we left our mooring and pulled over below the locks to fill up with water and empty the rubbish.  We then continued to the end of the Oxford Canal for us, before turning left onto the Grand Union Canal and wide locks again.

We successfully negotiated the turn at Napton Junction and set off for the first of the wide locks.

Here we met nbBilly, skippered by Clare and Pete, and we discovered that they are from Worcester and their boat is moored in Diglis Basin on the same side as we are!  NbBilly dates back to 1895 and has been restored to a high level, a lot of the work being done by Clare herself.

Leaving a wide lock together, nbBilly weighs twice as much as nbElla with a much bigger engine, and it was great to be able to share all the wide locks with this handsome boat.

We moored up for the night at Long Itchington and took a walk into the village to have an explore.  We found this modern war memorial and discovered that Long Itchington lost 4% of its male population during World War One and it has finally unveiled a memorial to its fallen soldiers.  The village raised nearly £40,000 for the memorial, which features 54 bronze leaves to represent the villagers who died.

6.5 miles, 17 locks, 6 hrs 12 mins cruising time.

Thursday 19th September - Long Itchington to Radford

We woke to another gorgeous sunny day, left our mooring and continued on our way towards Radford Semele.  We were travelling with nbBilly, so that we could share the wide locks as we came to them.

The Bascote Locks are a set of wide staircase locks, one leads directly into the other, the procedure for operating these locks is slightly different, but once you have worked it out, everything goes like clockwork.

Here we had come out of the staircase locks and were heading for the next, that lock had two boats coming up so we parted to allow them to come up through the middle.  So proud of the way the boat handles in these locks.

Those two boats entered the staircase locks and unfortunately hadn't worked out how to operate them and ended up with a vast amount of water spilling through both locks, over the gates and into the pound below, quite scary to see, but more worrying, is the displacement of the water leaving the pound above the locks very short of water.

We moored for the night near the village of Radford Semele and found a lovely mooring in the sunshine, where we were able to sit out and enjoy the afternoon warmth.  The sunset was stunning with a perfect view from the boat.

4.5 miles, 10 locks, 3 hrs 12 mins cruising time.

Friday 20th September - Radford to Warwick, Cape of Good Hope

Today we travel from here to Warwick with a stop in Leamington Spa for some shopping.  This is the same photo as last night, early morning showing the start of another fine day.

Toby and I walked from our mooring into Leamington Spa, but Toby needs to make sure that Dave and the boat are keeping up, hence the refusal to walk ahead until the boat is level with us.

Leamington Spa is a Regency town with wide boulevards, stunning architecture and very pretty gardens along the River Leam.

Hundreds of thousands of young people around the world took to the streets today to protest against government inaction on the climate crisis, including this demonstration in Leamington which we passed on our way back to the boat.  We then continued on our way into Warwick and moored up for the evening at the Cape of Good Hope.

4.75 miles, 2 locks, 2 hrs 30 mins cruising time.

Saturday 21st September - Warwick to Turners Green

Today we are ready to tackle the Hatton Locks climbing up out of Warwick. The Hatton Lock Flight raises (or drops) the Grand Union Canal 146.5ft - these locks were originally built as narrow or single locks but were modernised in the 1930s into full width locks.

We had joined up with nbBilly again and we worked our way up the 21 locks in 3.5 hours.  It was an absolute delight to share the locks with the boat and crew, and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.  To celebrate our successful cruise, Dave supplied homemade cakes from the cafe at the top lock, well deserved by all!

We continued on to the Tom O' the Wood moorings where we decided to spend the night.  On the way we passed these two wooden hull boats looking in a very poor state.  They both have index numbers - 41790 and 41789 - but I can't find out any information about them.

7 miles, 21 locks, 5 hrs 12 mins cruising time.

Sunday 22nd September - Tom O' Woods, Turners Green

Today we have the first rain for several days so we have decided to stay put and have a rest day.  It also means we can watch the England / Tonga rugby match live!