Monday 26th October - Market Harborough to Foxton Top Lock.
Today we made the return journey to the Foxton Locks. First of all we went into Market Harborough Basin and turned the boat. Unfortunately it was a little windy and proved to be more difficult than we expected. By the time we had completed the turn a hire boat had moored on the services mooring so we decided not to stop and continued on our way.
We passed through the two moveable bridges and stopped to fill up with water and dispose of our rubbish at the junction. We then moved over to lock waiting mooring and waited for about an hour for two boats to come down the locks. We had a quick passage up the ten locks with no hold up this time and moored for the evening in the same place as on the way down.
5.75 miles, 10locks, 2 moveable bridges, 4 hours 54 minutes
Tuesday 27th October - Foxton Top Lock to Welford
The short stretch of canal known as the Welford Arm was one of the last canals to be built, completed in 1814. It was created as a feeder canal, drawing water from three reservoirs to feed water to the main Grand Union Canal. Seven lime kilns were built at the wharf, the largest such site along the Grand Union Canal. These are fascinating brick structures created to burn limestone to make lime. This was used in lime mortar as part of the construction industry and spread as fertiliser on the land. Evidence of the kilns is clearly visible opposite the wharf today and we know that at least some were in use as late as the 1930s. At one time there were seven pubs here including The Talbot Inn, known to the author Charles Dickens and named in his novel, Bleak House.
We walked down to the two reservoirs, Welford and Sulby, this is the dam that runs between the two reservoirs. The reservoirs were built to provide water to the summit of the Leicester Line of the Grand Union Canal.
Welford's Postman Pat was a much loved local landmark on the roadside of the High Street A5199 until he sadly rotted away and collapsed in early 2019. Carved out of an old tree, he and his cat Jess had been part of Welford since the 1990s. He has been replaced with a carving from hardwood and mounted on a concrete plinth.
8.75 miles, 1 lock, 3 hours 24 minutes
Wednesday 28th October - Welford to Yelvertoft Bridge 20
We made an early start from our mooring on the Welford Arm and cruised in fairly windy weather back up the arm, turned left at the junction and headed for Yelvertoft. We found a pleasant, very secluded quiet mooring before the visitor moorings and settled for the night.
We went for a walk along the canal to the village of Yelvertoft and found Squisito, an Italian butchers and deli shop on the High Street. The owners have rebuilt the Victorian butchers shop to house their delightful little shop. We found some delicious local cheeses and other Italian delicacies.
The visitor moorings and water point taken from the bridge into Yelvertoft. Unfortunately Toby had rolled in something nasty and we had to make use of the water point to scrub him down using a poo bag as a glove!!!
Our mooring for the night, field full of cows on one side and open farmland on the other, no other boat in sight although there were some further back through the bridge!
9.5 miles, 1 lock, 3 hours 30 minutes
Thursday 29th October - Yelvertoft
Due to poor weather conditions we are having a day resting in the boat! Fortunately the weather dried up in the afternoon and we went for a walk back along the canal to explore the village of Winwick.
Winwick is a tiny medieval village at the end of a series of no through roads. Our route down to the village was along a barely used metalled road, virtually hidden until you were on top of it.
A phone box which is still a phone box with a working telephone, can’t remember the last time we saw one of these!
Yelvertoft Marina is a fairly recent addition to the waterways here, still looks fairly new although it has a fair number of boats moored up. It has a separate entrance to the slipway and workshops further along the canal. We moored up again just outside Crick Marina and after lunch decided to walk back into Yelvertoft to visit Sequisito again as I wanted to stock up on the delicious chocolate they sold!
Walking back along the canal we had to go through a field of sheep, quite a lot of them and bizarrely enough they decided to chase after us, not quite the same as being chased by cows but still quite an unsettling sight, several hundred sheep flocking towards us and I wonder why? Does Toby look like one of them? Are they trying to rescue him from sheep stealers? We shall never know!
Saturday 31st October - Crick
Another wet and windy day so we decided to stay where we were. Once the rain had eased up later in the afternoon we went for a walk through the Millennium Wood, quite a young wood but lovely to wander through.
We walked on as far as Crick Wharf with a view to putting on water and disposing of rubbish. The Moorings was a busy canalside restaurant which was always packed during the Crick Boat show, today it is abandoned and closed down, looking very sad. The building behind looks almost derelict, although the moorings look very nice, small and quiet rural moorings.
Today we have learnt that England is going back into a National Lockdown on Thursday, we have spent a while looking at our options and have decided that we should curtail our cruise and head back to Worcester to comply with the rules. Plans to visit the Ashby Canal and the Birmingham and Fazeley canal will be shelved for another day.
Sunday 1st November - Crick to Norton Junction
Today we set off and stopped at Crick Wharf for water and rubbish disposal, but it was very windy and we had trouble keeping the boat in to the side!
We cruised on to the Watford Locks and began the descent behind another boat.
Once we were in the locks it was fine, but getting into the first lock was a little hairy! Going down the locks was quite relaxing!
Getting down the staircase was easy compared to leaving the bottom lock and crossing this pound, the wind was really strong and it was hard work to get the boat straight enough to get into the lock!
Adrian was our volunteer lock keeper, he had dropped his car keys on the staircase and was looking for them as he helped us down the locks. Fortunately Dave found them on the ground and handed them back to Adrian.
We continued to the end of the Leicester Line and turned right onto the Grand Union against the wind and moored up where we moored on the way out. We went for a walk across the fields and back along the fields, muddy and very windy!
5 miles, 7 locks, 3 hours 6 minutes.
Thank you -- and yes, we are also hurrying back "home", to Droitwich. We did not go that far north this time like you did, our trip was Birmingham, Fazeley, Coventry, Ashby and now back the same way. Took some time, helped by the 10-day long closure of the Atherstone Locks on the Coventry Canal (vandalism... :-( All the best and maybe we'll cross on the way south! Dimitrios & Carine
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