Orchids and a Cheeky Duck.

 Tuesday & Wednesday 10th & 11th June in Braunston.

There are three locks on this stretch of the North Oxford at Hillmorton. These locks are "paired" with two narrow locks side by side; they were constructed like this to speed up the heavy working boat traffic along this canal. This is the approach to the bottom lock where there are normally volunteers to help you through.

In between the bottom pair of locks there are orchids growing. A few years ago, M remarked to the volunteer lock keepers how rare the orchids are and now they are protected with a notice to keep off! They are the Early Purple variety.

The first view of Braunston is always the disinctive church spire in the distance that tells you that you are getting close.

Braunston is where the North Oxford, the South Oxford and the Grand Union canals all meet at this triangular island with its iconic pair of cast iron bridges.

We loved this cheeky fellow sitting in somebody's hatch and quite unconcerned as we cruised past.

 We moored up outside Braunston Marina . MM is booked into the Marina tomorrow morning as we need to go home for a few days; however, the car is still at King's Orchard Marina where we left it last week. So, R had to take an hour long bus ride into Rugby where he walked a mile to the station and caught a train to Lichfield and then a taxi to King's Orchard Marina so that he could drive the car back to Braunston ready for tomorrow. Phew!

We were both rewarded by a beautiful sunset. 

Wednesday morning, we had been looking forward to breakfast on the famous floating "Gongoozlers' Rest" cafe but were horrified to discover that it only opens Thursday til Sunday! Shame!!

Next morning, we moved MM into the Marina where she had a lovely open mooring with a great view. Sadly, we won't be here to enjoy it as we left to drive straight home.

 We expect to be back on MM on the 15th or 16th.

Today: 11 miles, 3 locks and 4.0 hours.

Trip: 75 miles, 25 locks and 33.5 hours. 

Water Voles and Unfriendly Neighbours.

 Monday 9th June 2025 in Rugby.

 Sutton Stop was one of the main locations for working boats that waited here to be given instructions to pick up coal from one of the many local collieries to take back to London. The Greyhoud Pub was then the centre of life and it still is one of the most welcoming pubs on the Cut. This is where the North Oxford Canal joins the Coventry Canal and the 180 deg turn is one of the more challenging ones on the network.

There is a six inch deep stop lock here to prevent the Coventry Canal from stealing the Oxford Canal Water, evidence of the fierce rivalry between canal companies. Originally, when the two canals met they ran alongside each other for over a mile because they couldn't agree where to join!

Next to the stop lock is the former lock keeper's cottage with its beautifully kept classic cottage garden.

This part of the North Oxford is a haven for Water Voles and special habitats have been created all along the canal. R was even lucky enough to see one.

Antsy has a strip of houses that run alongside the canal but the locals really don't want you to moor where you might be able to see into their houses. So, large notices forbid mooring along this whole stretch. It is extremely unusual to see this.

 Finally, we arrived in Rugby and were lucky enough to find our favourite mooring by the small park under a willow tree.

 The day was topped off with a visit to the very large M&S in the nearby retail centre for a snack and a "Few Bits".

 Today: 15 miles, 1 lock and 5.9 hours.

Trip: 64 miles, 22 locks and 29.5 hours.

From Clarkson to Boudicca.

 Sunday 8th June 2025 in Marston Jabbett.

Having just watched an episode of "Clarkson's Farm", we decided that this must be one of Jeremy's efforts at sowing a straight line.

Most of the locks on this section of the canal have side ponds that were once used to save water. Now they are all overgrown and this one had a beautiful mass of Valerian growing in it.

At the top of Atherton's flight of locks is this derelict hat factory once owned by "Wilson & Stafford"; it closed in 1999. Atherstone was once famous for producing a huge variety of hats, in particular "Pith Helmets" exported all around the world. Every time we pass this way, the building has deteriorated more. 

A little further south is the once Roman town of Mancetter, that is reputed to be the site of Boudicca's final defeat by the Romans in AD 59 or 60. The claim that 80,000 locals died, compared to 400 Romans is likely to be the victor exagerating for effect. Either way, it marked the end of the revolt against the Roman occupiers.

 Today: 10 miles, 11 locks and 5.6 hours.

Trip: 49 miles,21 locks and 23.6 hours.

Ooops, We Went Missing!

 Saturday 7th June 2025 in Bradley Green.

 Well! Our apologies, as we are so very far behind with this diary! Our excuse is that various (lovely) things have called us home three successive weekends in June. It is actually the 28th as we write this and, so far, we have spent 14 days on the boat and 14 days at home, plus a number of days going to retrieve the car from one location and drive it to the next. Anyway, enough excuses, back to the 7th June....

At Tamworth, the Trent & Mersey Canal passes the junction with the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. A splendid former warehouse still presides over the junction. We did go that way once, but not this time.

 

 We were amused to see this WWII pillbox at the end of the aqueduct over the Tame River in Tamworth. A reminder that rivers and canals were once "lines of resistance" in the event of a German invasion. 

 

 Glascote Locks are known to boaters as "Piggy Bank Locks" because they are slow to fill but quick to empty. A chap called Paul used to live in this lockside cottage and rather eccentrically collected bricks with different makers' names in the "frog". He once invited M to view his collection, which was certainly an original chat-up line! M laughed (but did go to see the bricks)!

At Alvecote Marina we saw "Capricorn", formerly a working boat used by the "Idle Women" in WWII. We also saw her last year at Aston Lock, our last lock on our 2024 Summer Cruise, when we heard her more recent history from her current owner.

Polesworth was once a massive coal mine in the "Dark Satanic Mills" era. It is now a huge nature reserve, densely wooded and a haven for wildlife. The mines may have gone but all the paths are still made of coal dust.

On the very top of a huge spoil heap in the middle of the nature reserve is this golden monolith. In cross section it is in the shape of Birch leaves, stacked one on top of the other; it represents all the Prehistoric Birch trees that lived on this site and created the coal that was mined here.

R standing next to the monolith gives a good idea of its scale.

The view from the top of the spoil heap is spectacular as it is the highest point for miles around.

 We have occasionally seen rowing boats used in gardens as planters, but this is taking that idea to extremes. Over the years, this ex-working boat has gradually become more and more luxuriant until it is now a garden unto itself. M decided it is an Ent!

Our mooring for the night was very quiet.

That evening, there was a very red sunset that even made the national news. Apparently it was caused by smoke from Canadian wild files. In reality, it was much redder than it appears in the photograph.

 Today: 10 miles, 2 locks and 4.2 hours.

Trip: 39 miles,10 locks and 18.0 hours.

Back on MM Again.

 Friday 6th June 2025 at Hopwas.

 Back to MM again via the "Brew Box" for a coffee/breakfast stop at Aynho Wharf. We always receive such a warm welcome from Sarah at the wharf. And the bacon sandwiches are second to none!

 

 Todays cruising after we left Kings Orchard Marina was lovely and the weather was kind. Although the sky was very dramatic, no rain fell on us! 

 

 At Whittington we passed the stone that marks the point where the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal officially connects with the Coventry Canal. The Biringham & Fazeley company built the canal north from Fazeley to this point when the Coventry Company ran out of money. The Grand Trunk Company built the section from Whittington up to Fradley, which the Coventry Company eventally bought from them so there was an isolated bit of Coventry Canal north of this point.

We always wnted to moor across the join and say that we were on two canals simultaniously - but we never have! 

 

We passed through Hopwas Hays Wood, which is a military firing range and so off limits to civilians. We have never heard any firing but the birdsong was always outstandingly beautiful and very varied. 

At Hopwas, we moored up just past the "Tame Otter" pub, which is so named because it is on the River Tame.

 

Every year M makes up two troughs of geraniums and lobelia and this year was no different. However, the result this year has been disappointing as the geraniums have refused, so far, to produce any flowers at all! M says the lobelia will have gone over long before the geraniums have bloomed!

Today: 5 Miles, 0 Locks and 2.3 Hours.

Trip: 29 Miles, 8 Locks and 13.8 Hours.

A Paint Restorer that Really Works!

 Monday 2nd June 2025 at Kings Orchard Marina.

 A beautiful morning dawned. Wood End Lock is one of our favourites but it is now blighted by nearby HS2 works. We had hoped that the cancellation of the northern section of HS2 would mean that the blight would go away but sadly that is not the case as the line will still go through here to join up with the main line further north. Such wanton destruction of beautiful countryside. 

 

 The line will cut through all this lovely ancient woodland.

 

 Fradley Junction was as "picture postcard" as ever and, after turning on to the Coventry Canal, we moored up for breakfast. 

 

 As a reward for our very early start, we walked back along the T&M to the "Laughing Duck Café". It is four years since we were here last and now they only do take-away food, although you can still sit outside to eat.  So we had breakfast sandwiches of the doorstep variety! Jolly good they were, too!

  

 R then worked off some of those calories by trying out the new "Finesse It! paint restorer on the name panel, washing down that side of the boat and then polishing the name panel.

 

The result exceeded all our expectations. The "Finesse It" together with the polish brought back the colour of the panel and the lustre and shine. It almost looked as it the panel had been repainted. The cream colour in the name panel was clearly deeper than the other untreated sections. Now to do the rest of the boat ....!

 We continued on to Kings Orchard and moored up outside the Marina.

  

 In the past, we have walked from here to the Trent Valley railway station on a footpath across a pretty potato field next to a small private airstrip and field of horses. All that has gone. Instead there is a wide, half excavated cutting for HS2.

Tomorrow, we will put MM into Kings Orchard Marina and go home for three days. To do that R has to take the train back to Stone to get the car and drive it back to King's Orchard. So, R set off to see if the footpath still exists across the HS2 works.

 

 Luckily, the path still exists, but now tightly hemmed in by tall fences with notices declaring that the land on the other side of the fence "...belongs to HS2, No Trespassng". On the other side of the half made cutting, on a hill overlooking the devastation, is a beautiful old traditional farm house and farm yard; sadly, with no land left to farm.

The following morning, all went to plan except for the fact that the heavens opened and R got thoroughly soaked on the one mile or so walk to the station!

We shall be back on Friday.

Today: 5 Miles, 3 Locks and 2.7 Hours.

Trip: 24 Miles, 8 Locks and 11.5 Hours.

Canalside for Breakfast and Mullin's Cake for Tea.

Sunday 1st June 2025 at Wood End Lock.

 White Rabbits!. And a bright start to the month of June.

Our first Lock was Weston Lock, always a nice one to do, then Hoo Mill Lock (interesting name!) and on to Great Haywood, which was busy and we were lucky to find a mooring close to the junction. The sky looks threatening here but yet again, it brightened up.

Breakfast at the Canalside Café in Great Haywood was a "must" and a suitable reward for our early start.

Thus far we had seen very few boats moving, although lots moored up. Surprisingly, there was a queue of boats waiting to go through Colwich Lock so we had  to wait our turn.

Alonside the canal, there were very many Yellow Flag Iris in full bloom, a sure sign of early summer.

Ravenshaw Wood, on our right, was a mass of Rhododendrons in flower. They are very colourful but can be very invasive as confirmed by the fact that the wood was full of them as far as the eye could see.

We moored up just before Wood End Lock, the first of the Fradley Junction Locks and one of our favourites. Sadly its beauty is threatened by the proximily of HS2 works and the pretty Lock Cottage was fenced off and boarded up - what a travesty!

Our reward was to polish off the last of Mullin's of Dorking's excellent Date and Walnut cake - many thanks to Susan and Basil. It was delicious!

In the evening, the sunset was spectacular.

 

Today: 14 Miles, 4 Locks and 6.2 Hours.

Trip: 19 Miles, 5 Locks and 8.8 Hours.