Sutton Stop to Dadlington

Thus 5 Nov 09
Last night we had another first class meal in the Greyhound, It was very good when we went earlier this year as well, much better than when I have visited in the past, the menu is quite extensive and the food we had and saw was well cooked.
The plan today was to start a bit earlier before the rain started, I just untied the bows when it started tipping it down, so I tied up again and went back inside until 10 30 am when it decided to stop. At the lock there was a "posse"of police persons at the small police station by the lock. We saw about 10 including the Community Officers let alone those inside.  Today the  police were having a  awareness day, as it seemed that the little police station is 100 years old today. It has not always been a police station, BW only leased it to the Police 3 years ago and it is working days, it was an office that "Issued Orders" to boaters for the transport of coal from the Warwickshire coal pits. 
We were given a bag of goodies by a lady in civilian clothes, not sure if she was police or BW as they were both there, in the bag were leaflets on boat security and safety, also a pen that shows up under ultraviolet  light for marking personal belongings.  I did suggest that the toe rags of Coventry would be having a field day with half the force at the lock. I don't see much point of the pens, you can only see it in ultraviolet light, so the tea-leaf taking it wouldn't know its marked and take it anyway and if you wanted to sell your camera etc. no shop would buy it as it has a post code marked with a pen that says its stolen. We did a 180 turn under the bridge onto the Coventry canal and headed towards the Ashby, or entry into the Ashby was not as clean as it might have been as a boat came out just as we approached the bridge on the main line so we didn't see him until we came through the bridge and he was right where we wanted to be to turn in. I thought the Ashby would be peaceful, but we met 7 boats in the first five miles, the busiest canal we have been on this week. We wanted to stop at Stoke Golding to have a look round the village, the last time we went there was with Diana's mother when we had Water Witch. The 48 hr visitor moorings looked pretty full but there was a space about 65 foot long right on the bend where people were feeding the ducks. I eased Harnser in and we moored with just the bow and the stern touching the bank, I had to shoo the last duck out from between the bank and the boat before we secured each end. Just before we moored up I passed a green boat with no name, the chap said I read your blog, you said you were coming, it was n.b.Pickles No.2
We spent an hour wandering up to and around the village which boasts 3 pubs. The church has a very strange roof line, during the second world war the church tower was demolished as it was in the flight path of Lindley Aerodrome, all the stones were numbered and it was rebuilt after the war. The original roof line is still visible on the tower even thought the roof is now much shorter . As well as the church they have 3 chapels and a church school. The village has grown up to completely surround one of the farms, I hope the home owners enjoy the rural aroma that hangs over the area.
When we returned to the boat I counted 83 ducks in the cut just by the boat, some of them were having afternoon tea on the weed growing on Harnser's hull just below the water line. We considered for a few moments what it would be like when they came back for breakfast, just before day break and decided that maybe it would be advisable to move on now and not in the morning. We only did about another mile to moor to the piling just beyond Dadlington Wharf at about 4 30 pm.