Pumpkins, a Sloping Church and the View from the Motte

Tuesday 4th June 2019 in Rugby.
A bright morning, although the forecast showed rain later.
We set off across the fields to the mediaeval village of Brinklow. There is much evidence of  the old "ridge and furrow" strip farming system in these parts.

The little café, Pumpkins, was open! Hurrah! We've been on a number of occasions - they have had an internal make-over and the inside looks very smart (and modern). For the first time, we met Christos, the charming owner. He is a Greek Cypriot and has had the café for eight years.

We treated ourselves to the Big Breakfast - and very good it was too, with our coffees included in the price.

Much fortified, we set off back through this lovely village with its unusual church, built on a slope so that, inside and out, the east end is 12ft higher than the west end. That must make for a sense of vertigo during services!

One of Brinklow's claims to fame is the remains of the "motte and bailey" castle built by the Normans to guard the strategic Fosse Way, which runs through the village and today forms its High Street.

Unusually, there is a very large double bailey, with an outer and inner sections.

The ruins are locally known as the "Tump". The motte is only about 40ft high yet commands panoramic views of the surrounding countryside. You can see for miles in every direction.

We couldn't help marvelling at the sheer manpower needed to dig the moat and ditches and raise the mound by hand, probably with enforced local labour. Bet it didn't take them years to get planning permission, though!

The sun came out as we walked back towards MM.

We set off south, towards Rugby. The original Oxford Canal was designed by James Brindley as a winding "contour" canal that was completed in 1790. By the 1820s its long and winding path was looking old fashioned and inefficient and was facing competition from the Grand Union so, a modernisation programme was begun by the engineers Cubitt and Vignoles, who created embankments and cuttings that shortened the 36 miles of canal north of Braunston by no less than 14 miles. As a result, there are many junctions and short spurs left of the old canal, many of them spanned by these graceful cast iron bridges made by the Horsley Iron Works in the 1820s. These shortenings must have been a huge relief to the working boat people, to whom time was money as they were paid by the load.

Newbold tunnel is only 250yds long. M, who normally likes to walk over the top, stayed on board as there is no clear path over this tunnel because, quite unusually, it has a towpath and so there was no need for a path to walk the horses over the top.

The moorings in Rugby are predictably much in demand, being only a short walk from two large shopping centres. We were lucky and found the last remaining space as we arrived, although later there was a lot of coming and going with, at one point, six boats in a row queuing to get past the moored boats. The rain arrived eventually, but luckily we were in the shops for the worst of it.

Given the proximity of the shops and a big, busy road, these moorings by the park are surprisingly quiet and M was astonished to hear the amount of birdsong at 4:00am!
Today: 5 miles, 0 locks and 1.8 hours.
Trip: 61 miles, 22 locks and 26.3 hours.