Happy Birthday, "Many Meetings"!

Thursday 10th October, 2013 at Hawkesbury Junction.
"Many Meetings" is two years old today! What a fabulous two years it has been, what fun we've had and what joy she has brought us!
A bright sunrise and clear blue sky heralded her birthday.

After breakfast, M decided to do a wash, so MM's birthday portrait includes the washing on her washing line!

We decided to walk into Brinklow village to see a local landmark. It is the site of a Norman "motte and bailey" castle, known affectionately by the locals as "The Tump".

On the way, we walked across a very clear example of the mediaeval "ridge and furrow" field system. The ridges can still clearly be seen.

The "Tump" is reputed to be one of the finest examples of such a castle still remaining, although the buildings and fortifications have, of course, long since vanished. An information board showed how it must have looked. It is thought that the timber structures may have been pre-fabricated in Normandy before the invasion. The Normans built many such structures along Fosse Way to secure their control over England in the period after the invasion.

Despite the cold wind, we climbed to the top of the "Tump" and were rewarded with panoramic views of the Warwickshire countryside with the "inner" and "outer" bailies clear in the foreground.

Close to the "Tump" is the parish church of St. John the Baptist, dating from the thirteenth century. It is remarkable in that, when it was built, instead of flattening the ground, they built it on the existing slope of the hillside - so the altar is 12ft above the bottom of the nave!
The interior was truly beautiful and again, we were glad we had taken the trouble to go in.

The village itself is charming with its wide, tree-lined main street, which is actually part of the old Fosse Way. The Romans would have marched through here 2,000 years ago! Much more recently (only 200 years ago), the canal once meandered its way through the village and the original course can still be seen in places.

In the 1820's the canal was straightened to shorten it and now the canal flows "straight" past, half a mile to the east.
A visit to "Pumpkins", the village delicatessen and coffee shop, was mandatory and we received a friendly welcome. The shop also specialises in wedding cakes made of - would you believe - cheese! It sounds bizarre but they looked delicious and one of the other customers said that her daughter had one at her wedding and it was wonderful!

We are planning to go into the centre of Coventry tomorrow, so the afternoon was spent cruising up to Hawkesbury Junction, where the North Oxford Canal meets the Coventry Canal. The junction is just six miles from the centre of Coventry. When the two canal were originally built, there were arguments about how they should join, so they used to run side by side, just a few feet apart, for over a mile! At the current junction, the Coventry is on the left and the North Oxford is on the right.

The hedgerows are lovely at the moment and we keep seeing Bryony hanging like a beautiful necklace of rubies with its heart-shaped leaves. You can only see it this time of the year, for the rest of the year it hides away, waiting for autumn.

Today: 8 miles, 0 locks and 4.3 hours.
Trip: 524 miles, 332 locks and 422.4 hours.

Since MM was launched on 10th October, 2011 she has travelled 1,119 miles, we have done 814 locks together and 923.9 engine hours!