Foxton

Well I got it wrong again, the river is the actual boundary and we were in Newton Harcourt last night. This morning we walked to the garden centre in Westow crossing the river to get there. One of the reasons for the visit was to see their model village,

it really could do with a little love, maybe when the summer arrives  I think CRT may have to contract to maintain the canal running through it, wit all the boats high and dry.

A bonus was the lovely Deli they have on site selling freshly made Turkish products. Don’t look at the sweet counter, you will get fat just thinking about them.
We finally set off a little after 1130, the nice dry towpaths of yesterday now puddles and mud. Some of the trees on the offside look like this, I have seen it many times before but don’t know the cause.

At Lock 20 there is quite a bit of land beside the lock and it has made me wonder what Bridge House Barns has planned, tea rooms maybe with outside seating? who knows. You can just see the lock bollard on the right of the picture.

I expected to see some progress with the tent erecting, but no change, just a wooden base and two doors standing in splendid isolation.

Although no boats had gone up the locks since we came down yesterday the levels were all over the place but non completely empty. The weather remained quite misty with very high humidity  so working lock felt much warmer than it actually was and once back on the boat I felt quite chilly. I don’t have a clue what these tiny flowers were out along

the tow path. It wasn’t long before Saddington Tunnel came into view, another clean run through with no oncoming traffic.

The wood carver was still moored between the tunnel and Debdale Marina, The other trip I posted a photo of a carved horse head he had done sitting on the back of his boat. Just look how delicate this mouse is that he is working on at the moment.We carried on almost to the bottom of the Foxton Flight before mooring for the night.

Today’s Journey

6½ miles, 5 locks in 3½ hours

Norton Harcourt

Not soon after untying we were approaching Saddington Tunnel. It still has the old black warning notices, not the bright CRT blue ones, maybe its because its in a SSSI or something.

By the mouth of the tunnel there are a set of steps cut into the embankment, I am not sure if they are new handrails or old ones fallen over, I mean a set of stair like this need a double steel handrail.

The tunnel it’s self is well known for its bat population, its a reasonably dry, warm tunnel and a couple of bat boxes have been erected in the tunnel where the roof profile changes.

 

I am not sure if this is also some type of bat refuge against the tunnel wall or if its just covering something.

When we emerged from the tunnel we had lots of like white fluff on the roof, the drips we did get were full of minerals and dried quite white.
We were now into wide lock country and a majority of them were against us and needed filling.
The were erecting a large tent at Bridge House Barn as we passed, well they had the floor down and the two doors standing, it will be interesting to see what its like tomorrow.

Spring is definitely here and today I saw my first Cowslip of the season, lots of daffodils and the snowdrops are gone,

Westow has a pretty looking church, I understand its on a pilgrim route and there are several footpaths that lead to it.

Just past here the railway gets very close to the canal, so we thought we would find somewhere a little further away to moor for the night.

We carried on down through Newton Top Lock and Spinney Lock before winding just below Wain Bridge. A swan has started to build her nest between the two locks and there is a notice on the lock beam not to let the swans pass as they are different territories, Maybe they don’t know swans can fly or even walk round the lock if the mode takes them.

Just above Newton Top Lock on the off side is an interesting looking building called Four Seasons, I wonder what sort of discussions they had with the planning department to build what looks like a series of pilled up boxes.

The third mooring up from the lock is slightly further from the railway line and actually has some rings, well one ring and the remains of a couple of others, we hadn’t been moored long when a boat came down the canal and tucked in behind us.
By the way, now its raining. but we are tied up in the dry.

Today’s Journey

 

5¼ miles with 9 locks in 3¾ hours.

Saddington

We set off a few minutes after ten and made our way to the top of Foxton Locks. When we arrived there were 3 boats ahead of us waiting to go down and the first of two coming up about to leave the top lock, so it was 11o’clock before we entered the top lock. I do wonder if this character was modelled on Mick, any one know what happened to Mick and Chrystal?

We made our way down the flight alone which is not a problem for us and we are more than happy to work like that. It was a little hazy looking out but that soon lifted.

There were three Volockies working the flight today which was just as well as two of the boats were single handers,including the one coming up who we passed mid flight.

Once we cleared the locks we turned left and made our way passed Debdale Marina, where thankfully the offside overhanging trees have been trimmed back.

The length of canal from the marina to the tunnel is an SSSI so vert little weed cutting takes place, I really should.t want to meet a wide beam boat on this bend, half the width of the canal is reeds.

We carried on to just beyond the winding hole after the aqueduct, this is the last mooring spot before Saddington Tunnel.

Today’s Journey

4½ miles 10 locks in 3 hours

Lubenham

Last night we ate at the Wharf, 2 nice meals and a good choice of beer.
For some reason we woke early today so were off at 9-30 ish. One boat had left the marina and had gone to moor down the very end, we didn’t see another boat moving until after lunch when we were moored up, so a quiet day.Welford lock must have very small gate paddles, the lack of speed with witch the lock emptied and how easy they were to draw. I did have to stop and take a small amount of weed off the prop. Its safe to say the water is still cold even if air temperature today got to 20°C+.
At Welford Junction we went straight ahead towards Foxton Locks. There have been a couple more big trees down along here since we were here in January, this is the remains of the one that stopped us. A few roundels of wood waiting there to be picked up by someone with an axe.

Nice clean run through the tunnel with no one around and back out into the sunshine. I rather liked the exhaust cover on this boat, I think it was the previous owner giving us big waves out of the window. Yes its a Hola hoop hanging in the hedge.

A very nicely lit bridge with railings and not parapet walls for a change

I must admit I did like the name of this boat, it made me smile last time I saw it as well. Obviously a boat is a cure for everything.

The towpath looks open between bridges 58 and 59 as the fencing has been dragged right away from under the arches and is just laying on the grass. There is also a men at work sign, but no men. We moored for the night about 100 yards past bridge 59.

Today’s Journey

8¼ miles with 1 lock in 3 hours.

   

Welford

Yesterday I posted about the living mileposts where a steel plaque was erected and a tree planted, some readers were not sure what i was talking about as they only saw a photo of a tree, so today a couple of better shots .

 

This was carried out by the Old Union Canal Society on the Leicester line. I will try and find No.1.

It was a little after 10 when we set of on a very bright sunny morning and by lunchtime the temperature had topped15°C. This part of the world has the neatest manure heaps I have ever come across. Maybe its the ideal size/shape for drying out to spread.

About a mile from where we moored in the Downtown Medieval Village viewing area.  Except there is very little to see other than a nicely laid hedge so that you can see over top of it, I expect it may have been a bit different a few centuries ago.

Just before Welford Junction the towpath has subsided badly and the level of the edge has been built up with sandbags to shop the canal flowing over the towpath.

At the junction we turned right onto the Welford Arm and soon passed under this wooden footbridge, no steep beams hidden in this one.

And on up to the lock, my word it was slow to empty, a bit like the water tap at the end of the arm, that took about 20 minutes for quarter of a tank. Just below the lock this is all that remains of the old lift bridge and it has been replaced with a fixed bridge over the tail of the lock.

Once we were threw the lock, it seem to fill faster than it emptied we continued on to the head of navigation, where we winded, filled with water and retraced our journey to just downstream of the winding hole to moor for the night.

Today’s Journey

5 miles with one lock in 2½ hours including tap time

Stamford upon Avon

Firstly an apology, last night we moored by Welton Haven Marina not Welton Field as I said.

Last time we came this way I mentioned the living mile posts, this is a better shot of the one by the marina entrance. I wish I could remember who was responsible for them all and when they were all planted.
We set off slightly earlier as we were heading up the Watford staircase locks and you can easily wait well over an hour there, but we timed in just right, a boat that had passed earlier was just entering the bottom lock and the Volockie said we could follow them. When we got to the top there were three boats waiting to come down and we met another two before we reached the tunnel. So a 10am. start and we would still have been there at mid day.
We met two boats in the tunnel as well as catching up with the boat ahead half way through, it was very lucky I saw him as the first boat coming towards us had a LED headlight so forward vision was difficult. We did the second half of the tunnel on tick over and almost as soon as we left the tunnel the boat ahead pulled over, so I don’t know if he had a problem of some sorts.
The land by Edwards at Crick is now all fenced off, including the narrowboat on the hard. The water point etc. are still accessible.

The sunken boat by the winding hole just beyond Crick is still there , I has a CRT ticket on it and an oil boom around the submerged outboard engine. Spring is really doing its best  and this willow at Yelvertoft is all out in leaf. The photo was taken under the bridge because of the sunshine, remember that  from last year. Our target was for north of the A14 with a view to mooring in Welford tomorrow night. Another good sign of spring coming was the bushes all in blossom on the off side a short way before we moored up.

You may find the names of the places we moor a bit strange but as we tend to moor in the middle of nowhere I look for the nearest settlement on the OS map and use that. tonight its just north of bridge 32.

Today’s Journey

 

11¼miles 7 locks in 4¾hours

Welton Haven Marina entrance

We set off at 10 am, the first stop was only 50 yards away on the offside where we stopped for water, whilst there I nipped into Midland Chandlers to pick up some new light for the galley. By the time we left thee were two more boats wanting water. We carried straight on at the junction heading for Braunston Locks. On the way we passed the entrance to Braunston marina, the bridge across the entrance is still covered with sacking, the visible bit at the extreme end looks untouched, I hope the rest looks better when its finally unveiled.

As we approached the bottom lock the gate opened, I didn’t expect to see Volockies about this early in the season, even better a boat had just left lock 2 with a second Volockie so the gates on that one were open for us as well. Almost up the The Admiral Nelson someone has built a bird table on top of a fence post.

From here most of the locks had started to refill and then as were were about to leave lock 5 I saw a boat enter lock 6, so that was another one ready for us. There were also 2 CRT employees doing something to the top paddle so they closed a gate for us. We pushed on and into the tunnel where I was soon aware of a boat coming towards us with an LED headlight pointing straight ahead. They are horrible things because they are completely unfocused so even if they are aimed up and to the right there si still a lot of scatter to dazzle you. I must say the tunnel was surprisingly dry. By Welton Lane Bridge a lot of trees have been cleared and a new set of stairs are being installed on the far side.

Just before Norton Junction back to the next bridge all the towpath hedge has been laid, I would imagine it was the land owner and not CRT who carried out this work. Hopefully it will look good in a couple of years time. At the junction we turned left, its quite a tight turn and made our way passed all the moored boat, this was a winter mooring but the signs have all gone now, but not all of the boats. We planned to moor just past Welton Haven marina, I hope that’s the right name as there are two marinas owned by the same company less than a mile apart, anyway when we got there, there was already a boat on the short length of piling, so we reversed back, passed the marina, through the bridge, passed two moored boats and moored to the piling there for the night. Tomorrow its up the stair case and another tunnel.

Today’s Journey

8¾ miles 6 locks in 3½ hours