Monday 3 September 2012 Northamption

Last nights mooring just above Barton lock was fine, The bank is much better than it looks in this photo. By the time we were about this morning K2 had left, well we are not the earliest of starters at 10 AM. It was a really busy day on the river, we met two boats in total and one came passed while we were moored up.
AS we locked up White Mills lock, which also looks a good possibility for mooring two low loaders crossed the tail bridge with excavators on the trailers. I did wonder what the weight load limit of the bridge is.
The lock has rather an interesting feature which looks like a large spring set into a recess in the wall, there is one each side just above the bottom gate, above them is a metal band which is infilled with wood.

The next stretch of river sweeps round in a gentle S and is quite featureless, so to show the line of navigation when the river is in flood posts have been set into the banks to show the line. They wouldn’t be of use today as the navigation would be closed before the water got that high.
At Cogenhoe the EA were in evidence painting the edge of the lock. Just above the lock use to be very good moorings but now the bank supports a series of No Mooring signs threatening prosecution.
As we passed Billing Marina we decided to go in for a look round, it must be an evil place to get into if the river has bit of a run on, turning right across the face of the bridge. There are moorings behind the Billing Mill which would suite cruisers but they would be bad news for Narrowboats rubbing on the cabin side, but it may be possible to moor to the bank just beyond the one to the right. The marina has visitor moorings but we were considering mooring to use the pub so I think I will ring them to see if its OK to overnight there. Billing Aquadrome has some interesting looking little buildings, I will have to try and find out what they are, maybe they are two berth log cabins?
Beside Clifford Hill Lock there is a large stone and information board. The board states that the inscription on the stone says “Honorable Spencer Compton Esq. Member of Parliament for the Town of Northampton for the Encouragement of Trade and Navigation Gave this Lock”. We carried on to The Wash, the horses on the approach to the emergency sluice were making the best of the EA information board.
Crossing the wash the water was quite weedy but it wasn’t long before we were heading through the sluice at the other end.
We were now back in the land of the chevron gated locks which you can leave open when you leave, this meant they were both against us. Rush Mill lock has concrete pieces sticking out just in front of the bottom gates, it also has a small recess just above the water level of the empty lock at the back of the gate recess, it looks to have something with a pin through it but I couldn’t make out what, unfortunately the photograph is not very clear.

Just after Rush Mill Lock there are a couple of sunken boats on the mooring but there is also a nice Ships Lifeboat conversion which is in need of some TLC.
The next stop was the EA moorings at Midsummer Meadow but there were two boats there already, luckily for us the front one was K2 so we are breasted to them for the night.