The North Stratford Canal

 Having turned onto the Stratford Canal at King's Norton we travelled south going down the Lapworth Locks to reach a junction where a short link canal joins the Stratford to the Grand Union. This is the story of our few days on the Stratford:

Soon after making the turn onto the Stratford we came through this strange contraption. The Stratford used to be kept one inch lower than the Biirmingham level and this guillotine lock used to take boats down the extra inch. This was to prevent the Birmingham canal company's water from leaking into the Stratford canal. Nowadays both canals are maintained at the same level so we just motored through the open guillotine gates.

Soon we came to Brandwood Tunnel which is only 350 yards long. The bas relief over the entrance is a representation of William Shakespeare, presumably because this canal leads to his home town.

The Stratford has quite a few lift bridges. This one is called the Shirley Drawbridge. It is electric but some of the ones further on are lifted manually with a windlass.

It has been a bit chilly lately so we have got round to lighting the fire which makes life on Leo so much pleasanter.

Our friends Maurice and Sue came to visit us on Saturday. Sue is working one of the paddles on the first lock in the Lapworth flight and it looks as if Helen is paying close attention. Maurice is standing at the downstream end of the lock.

Maurice and Sue took us to Packwood House which has some wonderful topiary using yew trees.

And this is the house itself built in 1570.

On Sunday we set off down the rest of the Lapworth Locks. This is a rare recording of Ian working the locks! The picture also shows that duckweed carpeted many of the lock pounds down this flight. We came down 2 locks on Saturday and followed this with 17 on Sunday making 19 narrow locks in all, probably the last of our narrow locks this boating season.

The pound between locks 13 and 14 has a canal shop and cafe. We've never previously visited the cafe because it is impossible to moor the boat in that pound.

But this year we found a mooring one lock lower down and walked back to sample the fare at the cafe. The cakes were excellent and were made by Catherine the proprietor who told us she had been there 38 years! Well worth stopping.

Further down the flight we passed first a motor and then a butty shown here. Together these two form linked hotel boats and the  guests were helping the two boats through the locks, though it was the staff who were man-hauling the butty.

Below lock 19 is Kingswood Junction. This is an unusual junction with parallel locks. Lock 20 to the left leads to the link to the Grand Unioni Canal while lock 21 to the right takes boats straight on towards Stratford a further 35 locks down to the River Avon. As the picture shows we are going towards the Grand Union.

Here is the view looking back below lock 20 which you can see to the right. A channel to the left links directly to the Stratford Canal below lock 21. The cottage in the picture, originally a lock house, is on an island surrounded by canals on all sides.

This cottage beside the Stratford Canal is typical of the canal. The barrel shaped roof features on many of the lock houses on the Stratford.

 So now we are on the Grand Union Canal heading back for a few more days to our winter mooring as we conclude the boating season for this year. We will do one more posting when we get there and then publish a summary of the year, so keep looking.