Ella Repainted Autumn 2026 - Week 6

 Monday 5th October - Hawkesbury Junction

Today we have decided to have a rest day and do a bit of cleaning on the outside of the boat and go for a walk.  A very pleasant walk along the canal and across to the Newdigate Arm which used to lead to a colliery of the same name, then down the other side of the canal past the site of Griffiths Boatyard.  Active from the late 19th century into the early 20th century, John Griffiths operated a massive canal carrying fleet that at one point reached roughly 100 boats. The business included a farm, a boatyard, a blacksmith setup, and the nearby New Inn pub at Bedworth Hill. We finished our walk with lunch in the garden of the Greyhound Inn - very pleasant.

Tuesday 6th October - Hawkesbury Junction to Kent Road Bridge 69

So, an early start this morning, stopping to fill up with water before tackling the 180 degree turn onto the North Oxford Canal.  Dave took this photo from the stop lock allowing access to the Oxford Canal.

Starting the turn under the cast iron bridge made at the Britannia Foundry in Derby…

…and completing the turn ready to go through the stop lock.  The stop lock on the Oxford Canal isolates the water levels of the two original canal companies, Coventry and Oxford, with the Oxford being a few inches higher.

We then continued cruising all the way to below Hillmorton with a brief stop at Rugby to do a shopping top up.

15 miles, 1 lock, 1 swing bridge, 1 tunnel, 5hrs 36mins

Wednesday 7th October - Kent Road Bridge

A wet day forecast so a quiet day on the boat.  A walk into Hillmorton looking for a Post Office and another walk later in the afternoon after the rain had stopped, to Hillmorton Locks.  These are a flight of three duplicated locks carrying the canal up past the Oxford Canal Company’s former workshops. 

Sunset from our mooring.

Thursday 8th October - Kent Road Bridge to Flecknoe Bridge 103

We arrived at the bottom of Hillmorton Locks and joined a queue to go up the locks.  They didnt open until 10 o’clock and by the time we were moving up the locks it was quite busy.

Each lock was supplied with large, cast-iron gates, as opposed to the more usual timber gates. Lock 2 retains the now rare cast-iron gates which imbue it with special interest and is therefore designated as a Grade II Listed.

The locks were designed to act as mutual side ponds, with a paddle between the locks enabling water to be transferred from one chamber to that adjacent, thereby saving water. Although no longer operational the winding gear can still be seen between the locks today.

Passing Barby Moorings where we moored for a year a while back and the alpaca are still in residence.

Approaching Braunston and you can see the church spire standing proud above the tree line.

Here we are turning right under the first of the two iron cast bridges.  These are similar to the one at Hawkesbury Junction but these were made at Horsley Iron Works.  Soon after this photo was taken a boat approached the bridge from Braunston and raced through ahead of me.  It was quite comical!

We found our favourite mooring by the green shed and moored up for the evening.  We took the opportunity to touch up the paint work on the blacking and the black paint. 

10 miles, 3 locks, 4hrs 54mins

Friday 9th October - Flecknoe Bridge 103

The weather forecast for today was wet and windy so we decided to stay another day and went for a walk to Flecknoe and back along the canal.

Saturday 10th October - Flecknoe Bridge 103 to Nelson’s Wharf

A slightly breezy day but nothing too daunting, so we set out from our mooring and headed down to Calcutt Locks.  They are on restricted opening hours - 9am to 2pm - and by the time we got there it was very quiet with one boat that had just come up which meant the locks were all in our favour! 

Heading towards Nelson’s Wharf with the glamping pods in the distance.  Just before this picture was taken I had to reverse away from these reeds as there was a boat coming through and it was impossible to see round them.  Unfortunately the wind took the boat and I ended up straddled across the canal.  By the time I’d sorted out the boat there was another boat coming through but i managed to stay straight this time!

A lovely welcome notice on our mooring!  How good is that?

Ella on her new mooring, we are still on the canal with a view of boats going past and a large green area beside the boat which Toby loves.

5.25 miles, 3 locks, 2hrs 18mins

Sunday 11th October - Nelson’s Wharf Home Mooring

Today we touched up the blacking and the black paint on the side of the boat, washed down the side of the boat and tidied up the roof.  We are still waiting for the side panel to be delivered by Parcelforce, but they don’t seem to be able to find Nelson’s Wharf so we are in a bit of a quandary about what to do.  We also took a walk along the disused railway track to the top of the Stockton Locks and called in at the Boat Inn on our way back.

We shall be returning home to Worcester tomorrow or Tuesday depending on the side panel but this has been a lovely 6 weeks and we are already thinking about what our next adventure will be.

Ella Repainted Autumn Cruise - Week 5

 Monday 28th September - Great Haywood Junction

A few nights ago it was the Harvest Moon and this morning the moon was still clearly visible at 7 o’clock in the morning, beautiful!

Toby sitting patiently on the towpath waiting to go for a walk around Shugborough.  He knows that once we get over the Essex bridge he can get down to the river and go for a swim and chase sticks in the water.

An amazing cloud formation, we thought it looked like a paw print.

We walked through the estate to the Tower of the Winds.  The tower was originally surrounded by water, being situated at the end of an ornamental lake, and was linked to the land by two bridges. The ground floor windows were inserted in 1803 when Samuel Wyatt converted the building into an ornamental dairy for Lady Anson.

Bright stained glass windows inside the tower, it also has slate work surfaces and alabaster lined walls.

On our way back over the Essex bridge we stood to watch the local fire brigade doing some water rescue training in the river.  Later in the afternoon we walked down to the Post Office to collect a parcel delivered from Amazon - very convenient!

Tuesday 29th September - Great Haywood to Rugeley

On Tuesday we continued our journey to Rugeley, moored up and went for a walk into the town. We passed a derelict church, the remains of the original St Augustine’s church, which became the parish church in the 12th century. These remains have come to be known as the Old Chancel.  To the east of the chancel is the unusual tomb of two sisters – Elizabeth Cuting, who died in 1695, and Emma Hollinhurst, who died in 1696. On its top are carved effigies of two figures, each tied at the top and bottom in a shroud. These curious effigies are behind a local legend that the sisters were buried alive in sacks by Oliver Cromwell – despite Cromwell having died earlier, in 1658.  The true story of the tomb is connected to a Parliamentary Act of 17 years earlier, which required corpses to be buried in wool. These ladies, among others, preferred to be buried in linen, and defied the Act, as the burial register shows.  Defiance would have resulted in a fine.

On the other side of the road is the new church where the victims of ‘Palmer the Poisoner’ are buried.  Palmer was  a local doctor who got into massive debt through gambling and took to killing off members of his family to get his hands on the money from insurance policies.  A lovely lady told us all this history as she walked past with her dog and informed us ‘it all happens in Rugeley!’

4.5miles, 2 locks, 2hrs 8mins

Wednesday 30th September - Rugeley to Fradley Junction

The Armitage Tunnel is a very early canal tunnel built at Armitage in 1770, though this no longer exists as a tunnel. The roof was removed after subsidence damage caused by local coal mining.

Passing once again Bromley Wharf moorings where nbMinuet used to be moored when we had shares in her.  It is now used by Burton Boat Company focusing on repair and maintenance of narrowboats.

We moored for the evening at the top of the locks heading down to Fradley Junction, there are some lovely visitor moorings just before the locks.  One drawback was the lack of any WiFi signal, but we had a lovely evening playing games, reading, crocheting and chatting.  We had a lovely walk through Fradley Pond nature reserve.

Some of the wildlife on the walk…Heron

Squirrel…

Goose.

7.25 miles, 1 lock, 3hrs 6mins

Thursday 1st October - Fradley Junction to Hopwas

Another sunny day and a pleasant cruise through to Hopwas.  The woods as you approach Hopwas are used by the military as a firing range and today the access gates were padlocked and we could hear gunshots in the distance.

So we chose to go in a different direction for our walk and set out to follow a footpath that would give us a circular walk around the village.  Unfortunately Toby was attacked by a dog which appeared out of nowhere, and was called off by the owner although we didn't see the owner.  We quickly realised that Toby had been bitten and was bleeding, so we returned to the boat where we cleaned him up and sterilised the wound.  A very scary incident!  Toby seemed fine, I think Dave and I were more shaken up than he was.

8.25 miles, 2 locks, 3hrs 48mins

Friday 2nd October - Hopwas to Meadow Lane Bridge 50

A brief update on Toby, he has slept well overnight and is eating and drinking as usual.  The wound has stopped bleeding and is drying up nicely, so fingers crossed all will be well.

Today’s cruise took us past Alvecote Priory, a small Benedictine priory founded in 1159 by William Burdet, it later became a cell of Great Malvern Priory. Alvecote Priory appears to have regularly housed only four monks and their servants.  You can just see the ruins through the trees.

Fazeley Junction and there are now four birds painted on the wall, organised by New Urban Era, the hope is that the canal will begin to attract real birds to the area.

Our overnight mooring about 40 minutes away from the Atherstone locks, nice and peaceful with a glorious sunset.

10 miles, 2 locks, 4hrs 6mins

Saturday 3rd October - Meadow Lane Bridge 50 to Mancetter Bridge 36

The Atherstone Locks are due to open at 10 o’clock this morning so we set off at 9am and stopped at the services to get rid of rubbish and fill up with water.  

We then moved onto the foot of the locks and joined a queue of 4 boats ahead of us already starting to move on up through the locks.  A glorious sunny day so no hardship to stand in the warm sunshine and wait our turn.

The long pounds between the 3 sets of 2 locks were very low and it was essential to stay in the middle of the canal so you didn’t get grounded.  This boat has just come out of the lock and is struggling to get off the side of the canal.

A short pound between 2 locks and this lady found it quite difficult to manoeuvre her boat so that I could get through the bridge.  Once we got to the top 5 locks there were volunteer lock keepers to help us through, the pounds between the locks were still very low and the boat ahead of us got stuck in the middle of the canal.  So it was a case of letting more water down from the top, a long and tiring day but we were relieved to have got through safely.

We found a lovely mooring out in the countryside, with a view of fields and sheep from the open hatch. Time to stop and rest for the evening.

4.5 miles, 11 locks, 5hrs 18mins

Sunday 4th October - Mancetter Bridge 36 to Hawkesbury Junction

Another lovely day, cold overnight but dry and sunny for cruising.  Just a very pretty photo showing how still everything is with a perfect reflection of the bridge in the water.

We pulled over at Bridge 21 in Nuneaton for a quick shop - we were out of bread and that is never a good state of affairs!

Cruising along here became so much easier, the canal seemed deeper, the engine was running sweeter, and we were able to make good headway.  This is the turning onto the Ashby Canal which we are going to pass by today and head on down to Hawkesbury Junction.

We stopped at the first available space and moored up for the rest of the day.

10 miles, 0 locks, 3hrs 36mins