Many Meetings Looking Brand new!

 Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th October 2021 in Banbury.

Rather than ending up with the Touran in the wrong place, we decided to leave the car at home and take the train back to Banbury, then get a taxi to Aynho Wharf. We arrived early afternoon and were overwhelmed by what we found. Simon and Matt had done an absolutely brilliant job and MM looked like she was brand new. We both got quite emotional when we saw her looking so beautiful. For once, M was lost for words!

As MM was moored just outside the workshop and in the shade of other boats, it was difficult to get a good side-on photograph. We hardly dared set foot on her as she looked so pristine.

The only answer was to repair to the Brew Box for a coffee and bacon butty to celebrate.

The ladies had decorated the Brew Box ready for Hallowe'en with wonderful carved pumpkins and painted paper cups.

M walked round to the other side of the canal to photograph MM's bow but the sun was too low to get a good picture.

We decided to stay the night and leave early next morning. 

Aynho used to have its own railway station just a few yards from the wharf. Sadly, it closed in 1964 but the station building still survives as a private house, although the platforms have all gone. It's a pity that trains no longer call here, so we had to go on to Banbury.

On Tuesday morning, R had to reverse MM to the service bay so that we could fill up with diesel and water. Very nerve racking to back her between other moored boats without touching anything.

MM looked so good and R didn't want to scratch her lovely new paint!

We had left Guy on board looking out of the window to supervise the work. We were amused to hear that Tasha, who helps Simon out in the workshop, was quite spooked to see Guy peering out of the window at her. Simon thought that this was great fun and kept moving Guy around the boat so that he was looking at Tasha from a different window each day! 

After a final visit to the Brew Box and saying a huge thank you to Simon and Matt, we left to start our trip back to MM's winter mooring in Stone, some 106 miles and 50 locks away.

The first lock is the diamond shaped Aynho Weir Lock, a difficult lock but which was negotiated very carefully without a scratch.

 

A few miles up the canal is the "Pig Place", which has a farm shop and sells bacon and ham. Having had a few bacon butties recently, M agrees with this sentiment.

 

We arrived in Banbury to find the moorings in the centre very crowded with moored boats and there were construction workers cutting stone facing blocks and making massive amounts of dust (and noise) literally feet away from the moorings. So we moored just past "Tom Rolt Bridge" alongside a pleasant park while we went to Waitrose for provisions.

As we have mentioned before, Banbury has cut the old attractive town centre off from the canal by building the huge Castle Quay shopping centre with a blank wall facing the canal. The shopping centre also straddles Tooley's historic boatyard, the oldest working boat yard on the canal system. It was at Tooley's that Tom Rolt had his narrowboat "Cressy" converted into a floating home in 1939 and it was from here that he set off with his wife Angela on his epic journey that was immortalised in his book "Narrowboat", a major factor in the preservation of the canal network. Perhaps in a fit of conscience, the local council named this bridge for Tom Rolt, although it would be hard to find a less suitable memorial to a man who rejoiced in the traditional structures around the canal.

Today: 6 miles, 5 locks and 4.6 hours.

Trip: 493miles, 274 locks and 252.1 hours