The Coventry Canal and so much more!

 We have now come down the Coventry Canal  and joined the Trent and Mersey as our boating season draws to a close for this year. The last posting took us to Hillmorton Locks on the North Oxford Canal and this will bring us up to date.

On Sunday (13th September) we reached Rugby. The canal crosses a couple of aqueducts over roads as well as crossing the River Avon. In the photo we are crossing one aqueduct and in the distance you can see a bridge rising over the Rugby Arm which is the home of Willow Wren cruisers.

After shopping at a big Tesco (easily reached from bridge 58) we carried on to Newbold where the photo shows Leo entering the 250 yard tunnel which has towpaths on both sides.

This is Hungerfield Bridge after which is a nice open place to moor. But we had decided to explore Brinklow so we carried on a short way to be closer to that village. After lunch, Ian installed the new tunnel lamp we had bought at Braunston and then proceeded to drop the screwdriver into the canal. So it was out with the magnet and, after almost giving up following many attempts, finally brought up the screwdriver.

Next to the village of Brinklow lie the remains of a Norman castle. There are no walls standing but the earth ramparts are still impressive. In this photo you can see the Motte. Just imagine the men required to shift the earth to construct such a structure.

A footpath led into the castle and we crossed the outer bailey before climbing the motte which is high enough to give excellent views across the valley.

Brinklow has some lovely old cottages in the main street and there are even remains of a canal arm branching off the main canal to serve the village.

On Monday we came to Stretton Stop shown in this photo. The boatyard here is home to Rose Narrowboats, a hire firm. There is a swing bridge here (the white bar we're heading for in the photo) but, as we approached, a chap from the boatyard swung it for us. What service! When we came through here last year, the narrow space between moored boats and the swing bridge combined to create a real bottleneck, but this time we were the only boat moving and it was easy.

Crossing under (or occasionally over) motorways is always a mark of progress. Here we are about to go under the M6 as we approach the end of the North Oxford Canal.

The chimney of the pump house is a well known landmark at Hawkesbury Junction where the North Oxford meets the Coventry Canal. There are usually lots of boats passing through here and we certainly met a few on Monday .

Here we are in the stop lock that precedes the junction. Once down this lock which has a fall of only a foot or so, we needed to turn 90 degrees right under the bridge you can see and then 90 degrees right again at a T junction with Coventry to the left and Nuneaton to the right. We turned right and right again and then reversed down onto the services to empty the toilet and rubbish. A tricky manoeuvre but fortunately there was no wind to make life even more difficult.

This gives a better idea of the chaos that can reign here. The green boat has come through the stop lock and is now heading onto the Coventry Canal under the bridge. The boat in the distance is waiting to go into the stop lock, there is another boat already in the stop lock, and the blue boat called "Providence 1901" is waiting for its turn, having come off the Coventry Canal. There can be even more boats in this small space.

Here is the sign at Hawkesbury Junction. The arm to the left leads into a basin in the city of Coventry (five and a half miles). This is a dead end, though useful for visiting the city. Rugby is where we've come from and Atherstone is where we are going.

Here is a close up of the engine house for the pump which used to bring water up from a well to feed the canal.

After servicing the boat, emptying rubbish and toilet and filling the water tank, we set off north on the Coventry Canal. It is only a few miles to Marston Junction shown here. Under the bridge is the start of the Ashby Canal which runs for 22 miles without any locks towards Ashby de la Zouch. But we cruised up there last year so this time we carried on past the junction and soon moored for Monday night.

On Tuesday we carried on through Nuneaton where some well kept gardens front onto the canal - not so sure about this one though.Hartshill Yard was built to service the canal and still does so to this day. CRT workboats are here and all sorts of equipment for repairing the canal. On Tuesday we moored a mile or so beyond Hartshill and spent the afternoon climbing up above the canal into Hartshill Hayes Country Park. Much of the land round here used to be collieries and spoil tips but has now recovered and the views from the top at around 600 feet above sea level were excellent.

On Wednesday it was just a couple of miles to the top of the Atherstone Locks. The picture shows Leo just going into the first of the 11 locks which take the canal down into the valley of the River Anker. The Anker flows into the Tame which in turn flows into the Trent and their valleys are followed by the canals.

Here is a view looking back up the locks taken from the third lock down.

And here is Leo in lock 8. The Atherstone Locks are a delight. 7 foot wide locks for a 6 foot 10 inch wide boat - it's what Leo is designed for. Somehow the boat glides in without touching the sides!

Coming into Polesworth where we moored on Wednesday evening we passed these alpacas. We had seen more  alpacas near Hartshilll the previous day where was a business which combined boat building and repairing with keeping alpacas. You could even stop on the canal to buy their wool.

Polesworth is a strange village which doesn't really seem to have a centre but it does have some lovely old buildings as shown here.

The Abbey Gatehouse in the middle of this photo dates from the 13th century and the Abbey Church itself goes back to the 10th century. The River Anker flows through the village and the canal makes a circuit of the village up above the river.

From Polesworth on Thursday we came through Tamworth and to the top of the two Glascote Locks. The picture here is the view looking back from the second lock but to get here was not straightforward. We arrived at the top lock and found some boaters standing by the lock who told us they were unable to close the top gate. So it was impossible to empty the lock to allow them to come up from below. We opened the gate and brought Leo in while giving a strong squirt with the propellor to try to shift the obstruction. No luck but we did finally shift it by levering with the boat pole.

When the lock was empty it became obvious what was causing the problem. This is a plastic gas main connector piece which has been squashed into an oval shape by the water pressure behind the gate. We had managed to lever it onto the cill and thus enabled the gate to close. No, we didn't chuck it back in the canal, we've now disposed of it properly.

Once down the locks,we crossed the River Tame on an aqueduct.

Very soon we came to Fazeley Junction shown here. To the left is the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal which leads towards Birmingham. To the right is the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal leading north which was where we went.

Here is the sign at the junction. We had come from Coventry and were heading towards Fradley. You might think we had now finished with the Coventry Canal but there is a strange history to this section of canal. The Coventry Canal was promoted in 1768 to link Coventry with the Trent and Mersey Canal and was part of the 'Grand Cross' designed to link the four rivers - Severn, Mersey, Trent and Thames. It was a slow process and the canal did not reach Fazeley until 1790. By then the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal had been built along some of the intended line of the Coventry to the village of Whittington from where the Grand Trunk Canal ran north to Fradley to meet the Trent and Mersey Canal. The section from Whittington to Fradley was later bought back by the Coventry Canal so there are now two sections of the Coventry separated by a bit of the Birmingham and Fazeley. Does this matter now that we don't pay for use of separate canals? Not really, but you can still find signs of the history. The bridges on then Coventry Canal are numbered but those on the B&F have names but no numbers. So bridge 77 on the Coventry is separated from bridge 78 by 5 miles of bridges with names.

We moored on Thursday at Hopwas and had lunch outside in the garden at the Red Lion which borders the canal. Afterwards, we walked up above the canal and had a look at Hopwas Church shown here. Unfortunately it was closed but it is an interesting brick built church with clear signs of the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement so probably dates from the late 19th or early 20th century.

Here is the River Tame at Hopwas. It is a significant tributary of the Trent.

On Friday we passed Huddlesford Junction where the Lichfield Canal used to go left to link up with the Wyrley and Essington Canal to the north of Birmingham. The start of this canal shown on the signpost as leading to "Ogley Junction" is now used for mooring.

And so yesterday (Friday 18th) we arrived at Fradley Junction which really does mark the end of the Coventry Canal. Ahead in the picture is the Swan pub and the canal to right and left is the Trent and Mersey. Left leads to Stoke on Trent and right leads to Burton on Trent and Nottingham. We turned right.

There are five locks at Fradley and the junction with the Coventry is in the middle of these. Here Leo is waiting to go into Junction Lock, the third from the bottom of the flight. We moored in Fradley which is a mecca for canal folk, tourists and also motorcyclists. We were pleased to meet up with friends Jim and Jenn from a narrowboat called Dire Straits. We first met them on the Leeds and Liverpool canal last year and we also saw them earlier this year at Oxford. It was good to meet and share our experiences.

Today (Saturday 19th) we have come down 7 locks on the Trent and Mersey and are moored tonight at Barton Turn. In this picture we are going through Bagnall Lock on the edge of Alrewas. Alrewas is a pretty village which we have often visited but this time we went straight through.

On the east side of Alrewas a lock lets boats down onto a section of the River Trent. This can be dangerous when the river is in flood but there were no such problems today. In the picture above we are passing another boat on the river.

And in this photo we are about to go left off the river and back on the canal while the river water flows past the big black floaty things (note the nautical terminology) and over a weir to the right.

Barton Turn where we are moored apparently got its name from being the turn off the Roman road - Ryknild Street - towards the neighbouring village of Barton under Needwood. We walked into the village this afternoon to buy a few things. An area of parkland here seems to belong to the huge Barton Turns Marina which is turning itself into a shopping destination.

The next few days will see us completing our boating for this year as we wend our way towards Nottingham where Leo will stay during the winter.