Monday 7 October 2024

Newbold to Stoke on Trent. North Oxford Canal. Coventry Canal. Trent and Mersey Canal.

When we got back from our camping trip Legend was exactly as we left it at Newbold and just as wet, but it was too late to light the fire, so we had a bit of supper then an early night.

The next morning there was more rain forecast, but - as the saying goes - there’s no such thing as bad weather, just inadequate clothing, so we wrapped up and carried on to the end of the North Oxford at Hawkesbury Junction.



Also know as Sutton Stop this is where the Oxford and Coventry canals meet. There’s a stop lock with a barely perceivable drop of about six inches; a hangover from the days when the canals were owned by separate companies. Back then water was an essential and valuable asset, so stop locks were used between canals to stop it flowing from one to the other. These days they’re just something to confuse newbies and hire boaters. Hawkesbury is also where boatwomen used to stay to have babies. A midwife lived in one of the cottages and the butty boat would be left moored up at the junction while the boatman continued the run with the motor.

Once through the stop lock we did a 180 turn under the bridge onto the Coventry canal heading for Fradley junction and the Trent and Mersey. We stopped at the top of the Atherstone flight and had a quick run ashore for supplies before lighting the fire for the first time since March.

We were onward again the next morning in much better weather and down the flight by ten o’clock.






Dave carried on to Glascote where we joined the queue to go down. He pulled Legend up to wait by the side of a beautiful old spoon dredger that was moored outside Glascote marina and tried to imagine a day in the life of the navvies who’s job it was to operate it. We really have no idea what hard work is.

A BCN spoon Dredger at Glascote.

One of the hand operated "Spoons". Originally there would have been three of these. 

At the end of the Coventry canal we turned left at Fradley Junction onto the Trent and Mersey looking for somewhere to moor. 


There were several ten foot “git gaps” between boats, but nowhere long enough for us. We went up the first two locks and round the bend to a lovely solitary bit of Armco below Woodend lock where we were treated to a beautiful evening sky while we ate our dinner.

Climbing Fradley locks.




Finaly pulling in to moor at Woodend lock after a hard, wet day.

It was dry the next morning so we had another early kick off, stopping at Rugely to post a parcel and have a quick whiz round a Morrison’s that we’re sure wasn’t there the last time we came this way.

At Great Haywood we pulled in to Anglo Welch for some diesel.

Great Haywood Junction.

We had more than enough to get us to Stoke, and beyond if necessary, but Dave gets twitchy if the tank goes below fifty litres, even though that is more diesel than we physically fit in the car!

The afternoon got wetter and harder as we went on.




At Weston lock, along with Nb Dream Too, we got a big clump of weeds wrapped round the prop. Dave had to take a trip down the weed hatch just to get us out of the lock. We also discovered that we’d packed our Nicholson guides for the canals above Great Haywood and they were now buried somewhere in the van. We do have a couple of excellent live mapping apps on our phones, but they just make life harder when it’s chucking it down.

We moored up below Star lock in Stone, feeling a bit cold and damp, but with a hot fire, a hot shower and a hot dinner, we soon felt a whole lot better.

When we’d set off from Thrupp, we’d expected to get up to Stoke by the beginning of October, so we were really pleased with ourselves to be on the last leg on the the 26th of September despite the hideous weather. On the other hand we were also becoming more and more concerned about how we were going to get our van out of a waterlogged field by the side of a rising Thames, so emotions were running high while we climbed up through Stone, Meaford and Etruria locks the next morning and finally got to Stoke Boats at Longport Wharf.














 Stoke Boats at Longport Wharf. Legend's home for the next few weeks.

However, the staff in the boatyard were really nice and helpful. Russ, the owner, was away that week and would be back on Monday, so nothing was going to happen until at least then. At first that made us think that we’d not needed to put in such long days, but on reflection we felt better for getting there early without any problems, especially as there had been an unexpected lock beam collapse which had closed the canal just below Great Haywood only a week previously. Thankfully it had been quickly fixed with a steel splint, but it had made us very aware of how easily we could have been brought to a sudden and indefinite stop. Getting there early took a big weight off our shoulders and was worth all the long days at the tiller.

The next day it was lovely to have a lie-in and then go for a walk to Burslem and Hanley, have an oatcake for breakfast, pick up Dave’s new nail gun from Machine Mart (they don’t have Machine Mart in Ireland) and have a nice coffee. Later on that day Dave got two trains back to Rugby to retrieve the car. He very nearly missed his connection at Stafford, but the guard held off flag waving and whistle blowing while he hurtled down the stairs and onto the second train. The rest of the trip went like clockwork and he arrived back at the boat yard with the car in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Monday 30 September 2024

Cropredy to Newbold on Avon. South Oxford Canal. Grand Union Canal. North Oxford Canal.

While we were in Ireland, for various reasons, we decided to get the work on Legend done at Stoke Boats. We messaged Russ at the boat yard, who said to get over there as quick as we could so that he could get us out of the water and see what needed doing. So as soon as we got back it was full-on boating up the South Oxford, the North Oxford, the Coventry and the Trent and Mersey.

We’d done our usual Birmingham airport parking hack, i.e. on the side of the road in Marston Green, so after a late flight, a twenty minute walk back to the car and a quick whizz round a 24hr Tesco, it was midnight by the time we got back to Legend. Good to be home though.

Despite the late night and the chilly morning, we were up and away early, heading up the Cropredy locks towards Napton in the beautiful Autumnal sunshine.





Apparently everyone else had the same idea and by the time we got to the Claydon flight - where a couple of volunteer lockies were keeping a tally board -  we were the eighth boat going up.


As we carried on we began meeting more and more boats going the other way as well. The impending rain that was forecast for the rest of the week probably had a lot to do with it, but we couldn’t remember the last time we’d seen so many moving boats in one day. It was all very sociable though, lots of chatting at the locks with happy hirers and summer cruisers on their way home. We’re going to miss this.


Busy boats at Fenny Compton.

The new HS2 bridge at the top of the South Oxford.

With all the movement, the summit was really shallow and slow going, so it was a relief to get to Marston Doles without getting stuck. We’d planned to moor up at the top, but as it was so shallow we thought it would be prudent to drop down a couple of the Napton locks before stopping.

Napton Holt, two locks down the flight.

Lovely views and a great sunset.

Another bright and early start the next morning got us quickly down the remaining Napton locks and onto the services at the bottom.


The water buffalo at Napton. the heard is so much bigger than last time we were there.




Napton's iconic windmill

We were soon through Braunston...


...and onto the North Oxford heading for Hillmorton where we’d arranged for Lindsay and Paul to come over for dinner that evening. They have a mooring near Rugby, so we’d never be any closer and it would possibly be the last chance they’d have to say goodbye to Legend. It was a fabulous evening, Ann-Marie’s home-made pies went down particularly well, and we had a really good catch up with two of our longest standing boaty friends.

Dave was up and cracking the whip again in the morning and we were soon down the Hillmorton flight.

Hillmorton Locks reputed to be the busiest on the network.



We were only going through Rugby to Newbold, but we had a busy day planned, so it was really frustrating to find ourselves stuck behind an old chap going so slowly that Dave had to keep knocking Legend out of gear because even on tick-over we were catching him up.

Busy through Rugby

Sooooo sloooow!

He was fully aware of us behind him, but made no effort to allow us to go past, and it's very bad etiquette to pass someone without being waved on. Luckily there was a mooring space just before the pub in Newbold so we pulled over while Matey-boy crawled off towards the tunnel. Dave rushed off to the bus stop to go and get the car from Cropredy, then had to run back for the car keys, then missed the bus and had to wait for an hour for the next one. While he was gone Ann-Marie started packing as much stuff as we could live without into boxes and bags ready to go into the car as soon as he got back. We were going camping for the weekend, first for one night at Steve and Annemarie’s in Sutton Courtnay, where we’d blagged a night in one of their tents, and then two nights in West Wittering, near Chichester, where we were joining the Pompey Puddleducks 2cv club for their annual camp. Our van was at Sutton Courtnay so we were swapping more of our possessions for our camping gear while we were there. Ann-Marie ran out of boxes before she ran out of stuff, but she still did an amazing job emptying out under the bed and thinning out everywhere else. When Dave got back he parked in the pub car park and we began carting everything down the tow path. We did really well, and had the car stuffed and were on the road by about 4pm. We arrived at Camping by the River just in time for dinner with out mates, followed by an evening in the wood fired hot tub and a night in a proper bed in Dottie. 


After a hard few stressful days, being pampered like that was just exactly what we needed. We’re so lucky to have such amazing friends!

On Friday morning we swapped most of what we’d brought with us in the car for our camping kit then had breakfast with Steve and Annemarie before carrying on south to Wick’s farm in the sunshine. We got the tent up and spent the afternoon catching up with Karen & Andrew, along with lots of our old friends, and just chillin’ in the sunshine. That evening we joined everyone else for the famous Big Buffet, followed by an early-ish night.


We nearly cried off parkrun in the morning, but had a word with ourselves and went over to Bognor Regis for what is becoming our annual south coast run.


We both got PBs there, and Ann-Marie was only 30 seconds off her all time PB, so very chuffed with ourselves.


From there we went to Bosham, where the club convoy was headed. We got there just in time to see them arrive, then went to a café for brunch.


After a walk round the harbour we went back to the café with Fran & Sean for coffee and cake.

Would you drive past this sign and park there?

Beautiful Bosham harbour.


Some very helpful young men waded in and pushed it out just after this.

Back on site there were Christmas themed games, a fancy dress competition and then later on more food on the BYO barbecue.

Santa and his reindeer (AKA Elaine & Steve and their grandkids) in the fancy dress.

Karen, Fran & Ann-Marie. BFF.

That was followed by prize giving and a raffle where we won an electric car polisher, a folding step and a pinny! All in all it was a pretty terrific day.

It rained overnight, so on Sunday morning we packed everything up, but left the tent for as long as possible in the hope that it would dry out. Luck was on our side and we just managed to get it down and packed away dry before it rained again in the afternoon. After lots of goodbyes we drove over to Karen’s for a brew, where we met up with Mum & Dad who came over to see us before we went left. On the way home we had a quick stop back at Steve & Annemarie’s and put all our camping gear back in the van. After all the rain over the weekend the lane down to the field was really muddy and slippy, but we got in and out OK and were back on board Legend by about nine-thirty. We still had a fair way to go to Stoke on Trent, four long boating days at the very least, so once again we were straight to bed with the electric blanket and an alarm set for dawn.    

Newbold to Stoke on Trent. North Oxford Canal. Coventry Canal. Trent and Mersey Canal.

When we got back from our camping trip Legend was exactly as we left it at Newbold and just as wet, but it was too late to light the fire, s...