Through Braunston for the second time and north to Hillmorton

 This is the second instalment in our endeavours to get the blog up to date. Tonight (Saturday 12th September) we are at Hillmorton on the edge of Rugby and this is the story of how we got here from Cosgrove where at theend of last post.

This is Soloman's Bridge at Cosgrove which is unique among canal bridges in style and was built in 1800, soon after the canal was finished. No-one seems to know why such a pretty structure was chosen.

The fields north of Cosgrove were surrounded by a fallow strip and here the strip has been planted with sunflowers. The view is reminiscent of northern France.

About six miles north of Cosgrove we came to the bottom of the seven locks up to Stoke Bruerne. We moored at the top on Tuesday (8th September). Here we are waiting in the penultimate lock for the top lock to be emptied and the descending boats to come out so that we can go in. We are locking with a boat called Chelonian and owners Dave and Arran. It's always best to share the wide locks if you can: the whole exercise becomes easier.

And here we are coming out of the top lock. Stoke Bruerne is a real canal village with lots of interest. On the right is the old working boat, Sculptor, that does trips. We moored here and explored on foot up to the Blisworth Tunnel, which is barely half a mile from the top lock, and across fields to Shutlanger.

This is the south portal of Blisworth Tunnel, the third longest canal tunnel in the UK at about a mile and three quarters. Fortunately it is wide enough for two narrowboats to pass each other. Though it might look as if the lady in the light blue jeans is going to throw her child in the canal or jump in with him, she didn't!

Stoke Bruerne has many thatched properties like these around the village green. It also has a couple of pubs, an indian restaurant and an ice cream seller. What more could you want?

On Wednesday morning we set off through Blisworth Tunnel. We had a late start because Ian was servicing the engine. The village of Blisworth is on the north side of the tunnel. We hadn't visited the village before and, as we needed some gin to make more sloe gin, we moored for a while and walked in. The picture is of Blisworth Mill. It really looks as if we are back in the north!

Blisworth was a delight with many thatched cottages, a church, a pub and even a small shop which we patronised. The honey coloured stone in this part of Northamptonshire makes all the buildings blend well together and is very attractive. Some buildings were even built with horizontal stripes of this stone and a lighter coloured one.

Someone in Blisworth has been having fun with this litter bin by the canal. It shows a narrowboat coming out of the tunnel.

As we came back to the canal from the village this boat went past. It is called 'Leo no 2' and is a sister ship to ours, being also built by Mick Wilson. Though it carries the name of Kathryn Doddington she has now sold it to new owners. Strangely we had met Kathryn the previous day in Stoke Bruerne.

Not far beyond Blisworth we came to Gayton Junction where a branch of the canal descends 17 narrow locks to Northampton where boats can join the River Nene to Peterborough and the sea. The sign shows that we are now 77 miles from Brentford with only 16 and a half miles left to reach Braunston. We didn't go down the locks to Northampton this time and in fact discovered later that one of the pounds close to Northampton had been drained by unscrupulous miscreants and the canal branch was closed that day while staff worked to restore the water levels.

On Wednesday we moored near Nether Heyford and had a good walk into that village and across fields to Bugbrooke featured in this photo. You can see here the lovely honey coloured stone again. It looks even better in the sunshine. We called at the Baker's Arms and enjoyed tea in the garden.

On the way back to Leo we looked at Bugbrooke Church and admired the gargoyles especially this rather devillish fellow.

On Thursday we passed through Weedon. We have stopped here before and there is much of interest. The canal crosses an aqueduct over the River Nene which is very small here and there is an old army ordnance depot supplied by a canal branch. This was built in the Napoleonic wars and the buildings and canal branch remain, albeit the railway has cut off its water link to the main canal. A few miles further north we came to the Buckby locks. The bottom lock (of seven) is shown in the photo where we are following a Black Prince hire boat we shared the locks with. They had done five hire trips and Paul was a very competent helmsman so there were no awkward moments with novice boaters.

We moored overnight on Thursday in the long pound below the top lock and spent the afternoon catching up with jobs - clearing out, cleaning and painting the gas locker at the front of the boat. As a result of the grit blasting we had done during the winter the locker had filled up with ball bearings which had rusted in situ making quite an unsightly mess. Ian had been putting off the day of sorting this out, chiefly because some contortions are required to get sufficient of his upper body into the tiny hole to reach the furthest parts of the locker. Partly because we had to leave the gas cylinders out of the locker and so no cooking was possible, we ate a meal at the New Inn above the next lock - the first time we have eaten out indoors since the Covid problems started.

This picture was taken on Friday morning. First thing: more jobs - changing the oil in the engine and the oil and fuel filters. See, it is not all fun and games this boating lark! Once that was done we went up the final lock at Buckby and this picture shows Norton Junction which is within a few hundred yards of the top lock. At this point we had come full circle, having passed through this junction last on 17 July. Just beyond the house on the right the Leicester Arm leads north to Leicester and the Trent and it was from that direction we had come in July. To the left of the willow tree is the continuation of the Grand Union through Braunston Tunnel and into Braunston.

Just the other side of the tunnel we reached Braunston top lock, the first of six that took us down to the village. Braunston is pretty much the centre of the canal network in England with routes going north and south, east and west.

Because of its central position Braunston is always busy and Friday was no exception as this picture shows. We had barely left the bottom lock than the way forward was completely blocked by a pair of boats, breasted up side by side, coming towards us through the little space that was left between hire boats moored on the left and boatyard boats on the right. As always on the waterways patience was required and all was sorted out in a few minutes and on we went.

Moorings through Braunston were all full and so we pressed on. The fine twin bridges in the picture are over two arms of the combined Oxford and Grand Union Canals heading left towards Birmingham and Oxford. We had gone that way in July, but our way on Friday lay to the right which is the North Oxford Canal towards Rugby and Coventry.

Finally on Friday we moored just outside the hustle of Braunston on a nice country mooring as shown in this photo. Behind the boat you can just see the spire of Braunston Church.

While we were moored at Buckby we had visited a canalside shop and decided to buy two beautifully painted plant troughs. The flowers are a bit sad now but the trough looks great. The troughs are made by a chap called Frank who lives near Hillmorton and painted by the shopkeeper, Tracy. They should look good next year when both are planted up.

This was taken at night from our moorings about a mile away of the spire of Braunston Church. It seemed to float above the trees.

And here is the view in the morning.

The countryside north of Braunston is delightfully rural with extensive views of low hills from the canal. A few miles on we came to Hillmorton and this is a view of Hillmorton Wharf with an attractive group of buildings.

We then came down the three Hillmorton Locks and are now moored at the bottom of the locks. Hillmorton locks are unusual in having three pairs of narrow locks. The locks were doubled in the 1840s to speed traffic through what was then a bottleneck. Here Leo is coming towards the top lock with Helen winding up the paddles to fill it.

Here you can see the two locks side by side. Leo on the right is going down, the other boat is going up.

And here we are coming to the bottom pair of locks.

Once we were moored below the locks we walked back up and had lunch at the canalside cafe, sitting outside this time. This arm of the canal between locks 2 and 3 is now used by a boatyard but was built for coal to be unloaded to power steam pumps which pumped water back up the lock flight.

Interestingly the paired locks at Hillmorton had paddles connecting across between them. This meant that each lock could act as a side pound to its paired lock. So a boat going down would donate its water into the opposite lock to raise a boat going up. Once the levels were the same (at the half way point), the interconnecting paddles were closed and the locks operated normally. This saved half a lock of water for each pair of boats. Pretty cunning these Victorians.

So that's about it and has brought us up to date. From here our way lies north towards Coventry and then on towards Nottingham where our travels for this year will come to an end for the winter. Already the leaves are falling: it's been a short boating season. We've had a lovely day today and to cap it off our friends John and Ali on Triskaideka came past this afternoon heading up the locks. It was good to see them again and to have a brief catch up with Ali on the towpath and John on Triskaideka alongside Leo.

Up the Grand Union to Cosgrove

 Well, it's been quite a while since we updated our blog. I have quite a fund of excuses ready - no signal for 2 nights, hosting visitors and doing bits of the engine service for starters. But here we are and my aim is to do two updates in fairly quick succession, the first one tonight. We are actually now near the top  of the Buckby Lock flight but this update will take us to Cosgrove which we reached on Monday (7th September), starting from Aylesbury.

Above is the view of the basin at Aylesbury. We had moored overnight on the pontoons to the right and the large white buildings to the left are part of the Buckinghamshire University.

And here we are leaving Aylesbury on Tuesday 1 September about to pass under a rather pleasing footbridge before coming to terms with the 16 narrow locks which lead up to the main line of the Grand Union Canal.

Soon we entered a part of the canal where there is barely a channel wide enough for Leo among the reeds which grown in from each side. This is three locks up from the town.

And here we are approaching Bridge 10 on this stretch. Coming through the narrow channel we were herding a couple of swans seen in this picture. We slowes down so as not to harass them too much until the channel widened out to allow us to pass them.

No, this is not the Aylesbury Arm. We moored on Tuesday evening pretty much where we'd been on Sunday, just below Black Jack's lock and four locks from the top. We went for a walk from here and found ourselves walking along a part of the Wendover Arm beyond where we'd moored a few days before. This section is undergoing restoration and may one day be opened to navigation.

There are extensive views from the Wendover Arm towpath and this is Mentmore Castle taken with a long zoom. Unfortunately it is not open to visitors. It was built by the Rothschild family.

Our walk led us back past several of the Tring reservoirs. These were built to supply the canal with water to the summit level of this part of the Grand Union. Every boat over the summit uses 200,000 gallons of water - unless you share with a friend and reduce this by half.

Here is the view from close to our mooring on Tuesday night showing Black Jack's lock just above us. It is a pretty spot and very quiet, though we were sharing with several other boats.

On Wednesday we carried on up the last few locks to the main line. The last two locks form a staircase which is a rare sight on the Grand Union. In the picture you can see Leo in the bottom lock of the two that form a staircase.

Back on the main line we turned left (north) and soon passed this delightful cottage at Marsworth.

Another rarity on the Grand Union is a swing bridge. This one is at Pitstone, having come down a couple more Marswoth Locks. No locks or special dodges to this swing bridge - just get off and push it as Helen is demonstrating.

Along this part of the canal, now beyond the Chilterns, we looked back and periodically saw the white lion carved into the chalk hills near Dunstable. It seems to have gone a bit brown in places and looks as though it needs cleaning up.

On Wednesday we moored near Slapton and this picture was taken the following morning having come down Slapton Lock. At several locks along this part of the Grand Union you can see evidence of an extra lock built alongside the original one. You can just make out in this picture from below the lock where there was a narrow lock next to the wide one to allow more traffic to pass along this busy canal.

A little further on at Church Lock the bridge shows where there was a narrow lock beside the wide one.

Grove Lock is a delightful spot with a pub alongside the lock. The pub has these fine and very appropriate supports for its hanging baskets.

We moored on Thursday on the edge of Linslade and Leighton Buzzard. The two towns are on either side of the canal. We walked to Old Linslade Church and tramped part of the Greensand Ridge Walk. In the evening we enjoyed this superb sunset.

On Friday we came to the edge of Milton Keynes. First we had to descend the Soulbury Three Locks shown here with some sort of building works going on. The white building is a pub by the middle lock. We arrived at the top to find a boat going our way already at the botttom  of the top lock. Peter on Silver Scott was kind enough to wait for us in the middle lock and we then shared the rest of the locks that day. We moored in Fenny Stratford.

A little way up the towpath from our mooring we found this milepost which looks much older than the many cast iron posts showing distances to Braunston. This one tells us that we are now 55 miles from the Thames.

On Saturday we cycled to Bletchley Park where the German Enigma codes and other cyphers were broken during World War Two. The picture is of the mansion but the many huts in the grounds were also open with exhibitions about the code breaking work during the war. We found it fascinating but also confusing. Though they have done their best to open during the Covid difficulties, crowds tended to build up in places so there were displays that we skipped and that probably did not help our understanding of how the code breaking actually worked.

On Sunday we had an arrangement to meet our daughter Lucy plus wife Becca and of course our wonderful grandson, Nathan at Campbell Park a few miles up the canal. Here we are looking back to Fenny Stratford Lock. Fenny Stratford was never intended to have a lock, the 15 miles from Cosgrove to Stoke Hammond was originally built to be all on the same level. However the northern section leaked badly so they put in an extra lock to drop the level of the northern section. So Fenny Stratford lock only has a difference in level of one foot. But it still takes quite a while to fill and empty and has the additional complication of having a swing bridge across the middle of the lock!

We were lucky at Campbell Park to find a mooring and enjoyed our day with the grown up children and grandson. The labyrinth in the park proved to be a great success with the adults running round and Nathan doing his best to follow the paths. The picture above was taken on the following day when we cruised round the rest of Milton Keynes and back out into open country. It takes a while to get past Milton Keynes as the canal makes its way up the eastern edge and then along the north, crossing this aqueduct over a new road at Grafton Street.

This fun train mural is as the canal passes Wolverton, the last of the Milton Keynes 'villages'.

Just past Wolverton the canal swings northward again and crosses the River Great Ouse on this iron aqueduct. Like the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct near Llangollen the water is held in an iron trough on supports over the river.

It is not so far down as the Llangollen version but still intimidating with no wall or railings on the left hand side. Before the aqueduct was built boats had to go down an additional set of locks to river level and then climb more locks back up to the canal level. It must have been quite a bottleneck.

We moored on Monday evening above Cosgrove Lock soon after crossing the Great Ouse. Cosgrove is a pretty village and just below our mooring is this horse tunnel underneath the canal. Originally the stables were one side of the canal and the towpath was on the other side, so this was the means of getting the horses across the canal. The tunnel now forms a useful link for villagers trying to reach the Barley Mow on the other side.

From Cosgrove we had a good walk not only through the village but across fields to Castlethorpe where grassy ramparts show the outlines of a large castle still guarded by this soldier. No masonry is visible but the outlines of the ramparts give an idea of just how large it was. The other notable sight around Cosgrove is a canal branch which goes west for a short distance above the lock. Now used for mooring boats this once went a dozen miles or more with a couple of locks all the way to Buckingham.

So we hope this was interesting as part one of our travels into the East Midlands. Part two will follow shortly, but not this evening.