Thursday 4th October 2018 at Napton Bottom Lock.
Like many canals, the Oxford has had water supply problems this summer due to the hot, dry weather. We set off to Claydon Bottom Lock, only to find it locked and a queue of two boats in front of us waiting for it to open. Eventually, at 10:00 the C&RT man unlocked the lock and, after waiting for the other two boats to go through, we left the lock at about 11:15. The pound was very low, at least a foot below normal, so MM was scraping the bottom at times.
What a delight to see this traditional "tug" in the old British Waterways livery; and such a nice chap to talk to.
We carried on through the next four locks on to the summit pound, which ironically had plenty of water depth. The summit pound is ten miles long although only half that distance as the crow flies because the Oxford is a "Brindley Contour" canal that winds this way and that following the contour. It is a beautiful canal, almost like a river. This is Northamptonshire countryside at its best, truly lovely and very remote.
On the way, we passed a large field full of seemingly random lumps and bumps - quite different from the straight rows of mediaeval "Ridge and Furrow" fields.
It turned out to be the site of the mediaeval village of Wormleighton. In 1499, the 80 inhabitants were evicted by the local landowner so that he could graze sheep on the land. A aerial view shows up the layout of the site.
The large square in the centre is the site of a later fish pond but the central village street runs from the top corner of that pond to the canal top right, with house plots on either side of it. The square, top centre next to the canal, is the site of the original moated manor house, the canal uses two sides of the old moat.
One doesn't often see wigwams by the canal! Not sure if it was "glamping" or just a restful escape for the local farmer.
A real curiosity and a clever way of providing free mooring that the C&RT can't charge you for (the water level in the little arm was higher than the canal, so the C&RT could not claim that you were using their water!). Quite a list on it though - so clearly still not enough water!
Finally, we arrived at Napton top lock beside this very unusual trapezoidal building that used to be a warehouse but is now offices.
There was a C&RT volunteer on duty who warned us that the bottom lock (two miles and nine locks away) would be locked at 4:30, which was in just over one and a half hours. We set off, with M lock wheeling (setting the next lock ahead) while R did the lock that MM was in and closed the gates as he left. We did the two miles and eight locks and arrived at the bottom lock at 4:20 (that is an average of about six minutes per lock) only to find it already padlocked and no sign of any C&RT volunteers!
A tad frustrating as we could have made Braunston this evening but we decided that there are many worse places to moor for the night than in sight of Napton windmill!
So, we moored up on the lock mooring for the night and will have to wait for the C&RT to unlock the lock at 10:00am tomorrow morning.
Today: 13 miles, 13 locks and 6.5 hours.
Trip 343 miles, 227 locks and 226.7 hours.
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