Kingswood Junction Thu 10 July 2014

Last night we were miles from a pub so it was dinner onboard. The trains proved a bit noisy as after about 10pm the goods trains thundered straight through, before that they waited to be passed by the passenger trains.

Setting off at our normal 10 am ish start we headed off towards Shrewley Tunnel. This proved to be a very wet tunnel even if it is only 433 yards long. The tunnel profile is quite a high brick arch with quite a bit of head room. It also has square side tunnels running off which I assume are for drainage to relieve water pressure on the roof. One can be seen just on the left of this picture.

We were soon back out in the sunshine, not far beyond the tunnel at Shrewley Common someone has been working on this pair of old boats for many, but progress is very slow.

Just before Rowington Hill bridge there is a brick shed on the off side. High on the wall there is a small opening with a pair of rollers mounted on the outside, I wonder if anyone has any idea what they were for?

The water point at Rowington has been changed to a stainless steel unit and is operation at long last, the first time I have ever seen it working. Further along we passed a CaRT maintenance boat and laying on the roof was a long handled scoop which is used to clean the silt from along the cill and behind lock gates. The local IWA branch have made a very good job of  restoring the finger sign at Kingswood Junction and it seems they had an official unveiling this week.We moored for lunch just beyond the junction on the 48 hr moorings, it seems that these mooring were donated to BW by Richard Bourke, as they are on the towing path I take it this means that he paid to have the rings installed.  Since we have been here the Waterways Chaplin has had a walk down the moorings and had a chat with us. This organisation does a lot of good helping boaters with their problems especially those who fall on hard times, they can be reached at workplace.ministry@stalbans.anglican.org